Sugar Pulling (Level 1) class at Sweet Artist Academy

Sugar rose

When life gets busy, I usually fall back on my old favourite recipes. As a result, I haven’t tried any new recipes at home recently. I will have to make sure I rectify that soon as I enjoy trying new recipes.

In the meantime though, I did take a day off work to attend a sugar pulling (level 1) class at Sweet Artist Academy. Sugar work like this isn’t something most of us get a chance to see very often, let alone try. But I have been intrigued by the idea of giving it a try ever since I discovered Sweet Artist Academy early this year. After three baking/patisserie classes I decided to give it a go. I have to admit that although I was looking forward to the class, I was a bit worried that I might not be able to do it. It is very technical, however all three of us in the class were able to make some amazing centrepieces. And we were all home bakers, not a professional amongst us (besides our excellent teacher Patrick that is)! You do need some specialised equipment for this (such as the heat lamps), so it isn’t something I can currently try at home. But I’m really glad I gave it a go and some components at least I will try again to decorate cakes/desserts. It is hot work though between the heat lamp and the very warm sugar and, even with gloves,  my fingers did get a bit red.

set up for the day

In this class, working with isomalt (which is a bit more forgiving than regular sugar), we learnt how to prepare the isomalt for sugar work by adding some water and bringing it up to the required temperature. This was then split into several batches, with some poured straight into heart moulds and coloured, and the rest divided for use straight away (which we coloured pink/red) or later on (coloured green, red and left as it was for white). Click here to read more

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More cooking classes at Sweet Artist Academy – Small Cakes 2 and Assorted Pastries

croissants and briochedanishes boxIndividual cakes 2

After such a successful and enjoyable first class with Patrick Vuaillat at Sweet Artist Academy in June I couldn’t resist enrolling in a couple more classes once my musical had finished (to read more about my first class and some background on the Academy, click here).

First up was Individual Cakes – 2. My first class at Sweet Artist Academy was the individual cakes class, however Patrick has since introduced new recipes in the class (the summer range) and after seeing photos of the new cakes, I was hooked. There was no repetition of what we were taught in the first class, everything was new and I learnt a lot of new recipes/techniques.

The individual cakes class is the most technical cooking class Patrick runs. You make a number of separate components for the cakes in the morning, and then finish the components and assemble the cakes in the afternoon. Although a technical class, it is achievable for home bakers (we had one complete beginner in our class). Patrick provides great support and help throughout; making sure everyone has completed each step before moving onto the next one. The cakes you go home with at the end of the day are amazing. I was certainly ready for a nap by the time I got home though!  Click here for more

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Eggs with chorizo, beans and tomatoes

Eggs with tomato and chorizo

I often find that at the end of a busy weekend, often involving cooking/baking,  rehearsals and all the household chores that need to be done, I just want something simply like egg and chips or similar for dinner. This is a great dish for those nights. It is really simple and quick to make, but has heaps of flavour and with the addition of the beans is very filling. It would also be great for breakfast/brunch as well.

Using chorizo is a great “cheat” to get a heap of flavour without having to add spices to it. These recipes often have capsicum in them, however I don’t actually like capsicum so I have left it out, but you could add it in with the chorizo if you wanted to use it.

Chick here for the recipe

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Jamie Oliver’s Meatballs Alla Norma

 

Meatballs alla normaI just realised it has been a month since my last post! Where has the time gone? In my defence, when I haven’t been at work for most of the last month I’ve either been at rehearsal, travelling to rehearsal, working on my songs and lines or trying to recover from rehearsals for the local musical I am currently involved with that opens in a week and a half. It is the most challenging role I have played in my 15 years of involvement in community theatre and it has taken up a lot of my spare time. It is just as well Jerome is currently visiting his family in France as I haven’t been home much.

Before Jerome left for his trip, I was looking through one of my books by Jamie Oliver, Save with Jamie and his Meatballs alla Norma recipe caught my eye for three reasons:

  • it was quite stormy that night so I wanted to cook something warm and comforting;
  • I had never actually cooked with polenta before; and
  • I don’t cook a lot of eggplant and was looking for different recipes to use it in.

I have to admit that I didn’t really like this recipe. I found that there were too many fennel seeds in it for me (I don’t really like aniseed flavours), however Jerome really liked it so it wasn’t a failure. It was just that the aniseed flavours dominated a bit too much for me. The recipe also uses three different pans so it makes a bit of washing up. If I made it again I would make and cook the meatballs first, then reuse the same pan to make the sauce to save on a bit of washing up.

 

Continue reading “Jamie Oliver’s Meatballs Alla Norma” →

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Individual Small Cakes Class – Sweet Artist Academy

Individual cakes class

I am very glad that it is a long weekend here in Western Australia. Some weekends are just so full of activities that I often feel like I need an extra day to just be at home, do all the chores around the house and recover from my weekend. This weekend has certainly been like that, although it has been very enjoyable.

In addition to a rehearsal on Sunday for a local musical I will be playing a lead role in that will be on in July, on Saturday I attended an all day class at the Sweet Artist Academy – Patisserie Training Centre in Joondalup Western Australia. It was my first time at Sweet Artist Academy, and I will certainly be going back again.

The Sweet Artist Academy is run by Patrick Vuaillat with a number of one day courses available on weekdays or weekends including chocolate work, sugar work, pastries, cakes, bread, cake decorating, macarons and even more. Patrick, originally from France and with over 35 years in the pastry industry, started an apprenticeship in pastry at the age of 15 and has worked as a pastry chef all over the world before falling in love with Perth and starting his on patisserie which he ran for 16 years before setting up the Sweet Artist Academy. Loving baking and patisserie as I do, I was thrilled to find someone with so much experience offering classes in Perth and was really looking forward to my class. Click here for more

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Happy Mother’s Day – Hot Chocolate Spoons

Hot choc spoons

Happy (Australian) Mother’s Day! Just a very quick post as I have been baking most of the weekend so that I can spoil my Mum with high tea this afternoon, and I have to leave soon to get to my parent’s house.

My Mum has her birthday, Mother’s Day and wedding anniversary within the same week and I always try to make it special for her. Hopefully she will enjoy all my baked treats (I’ll update this post with links to what I have baked later…my Mum reads my blog and I don’t want to spoil the surprise).

However, these are not part of the high tea today. I actually made these for my Mum for Easter, however they make a great edible gift any time of the year and are great for chocoholics. It is more of an idea than a recipe. As such I haven’t given quantities, you can make as few or as many as you like based on the size of your moulds and the amount of chocolate you use. I first saw these in a magazine last year and have seen them in quite a few since then (too many to reference). I haven’t used them myself yet to make hot chocolate; however Mum has said they work really well, with the chocolate melting into the hot milk to make hot chocolate perfectly. So next time you are in search of a gift, why not give these a go?

Click here for the recipe

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