dessert – Page 3 – A True Love of Mine

Messina Milk Bar at the Spectrum Now Festival

I hate waiting in lines. Most often if I turn up somewhere and there is a big line I just turn around and go somewhere else, even if it’s something i’ve been waiting to try. So when it was cold and rainy on Friday afternoon, I figured that it would be the perfect time to take a wander around the Spectrum Now festival currently set up in the Domain. I had had my heart set on sampling some of the nostalgic ice cream chocolate bars at the Messina Milk Bar since seeing them on instagram earlier this week. With ominously dark clouds overhead our quest was rewarded with a mostly empty Domain and no lines at any of the food stalls.

Afternoon Tea at the Park Hyatt

I’m pretty sure that there can be no arguments that high tea really is the best.

If you find yourself disagreeing with me, I refer you to the picture above. When else can you gorge on scones with lashings of jam and cream followed by petite desserts and artfully constructed finger sandwiches. When else can you pretend to really be from high society and sip fragrant tea with your pinkie in the air? Ok, so I don’t quite do that but I do love a good cup of tea. And scones. And cakes. And (some) sandwiches. So in January this year, to mark the end of the holidays, mum and I went to sample the afternoon tea of the Sydney Park Hyatt.

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

I love the smell of cake batter in the morning…

so when i’m off to a picnic and bringing a plate, cupcakes are my weapon of choice.

This time I wasn’t content to go with my old faithful mini vanilla cupcakes and vanilla icing. I was itching to try something new and, as is well documented on this blog, I have lemons on the brain. I had just been on a day trip to the Southern Highlands where I picked up another jar of Lemon Curd and needed to use it stat.

So I made these.
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes.
Bam.

Summer Loving: Lime syrup cake with blackberries

One of the greatest things about summer is all the lovely fresh fruit. Since getting hitched and grocery shopping together (regularly) for the first time, we have been trying out different grocers. One of my favourites so far is Norton St Grocer and this is where we found these luscious blackberries. They looked so glossy, plump and juicy that I thought they were begging to be made into a cake. Of course, one of my favourite cakes came to mind and I figured i’d pop them into a lime syrup cake. That way, if I screwed them up somehow, at least I knew i’d like the cake in the end.