Tag Archives: bloghop

Spring is here! Hurrah!

*Happy dance*

Spring has arrived not a moment too soon in Australia. I love the possibilities of this season, the all-day feeling that something good is just around the corner.

What am I saying? All sorts of good stuff is happening right now! Here’s my list of what’s making me happy at the moment.

1) Sweet Adventures feeling saucy bloghop

I love our monthly, Sweet Adventures’ dessert-themed bloghops. They’re a wonderful way to meet new food bloggers and collect all sorts of interesting new recipes. So if you blog and cook, you really should join us for September’s hop, Feeling Saucy. You could make a self-saucing pudding, a sticky date pudding with caramel sauce, a chocolate sauce to accompany vanilla ice cream or a berry pudding with berry sauce – we encourage you to be as creative as possible! Check out all the details over at The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader, our hostess for this month.

2) Guest posting for JJ at 84th & 3rd

Isn’t it amazing that I can be in two places at once? Right now I’m here but I’m also guest posting for the lovely JJ at 84th & 3rd. Spooky, huh?  So head on over to JJ’s fabulous blog and check out my Delicious Power Crackles recipe (pictured above). JJ’s having the adventure of a lifetime around America at the moment but I’m sure she’d love to hear from you, too.

3) Goodies from the Adelaide Beauty Conference

On Saturday 1st September I was honoured to be part of a panel discussion on blogging at the Adelaide Beauty Conference. I had a great time comparing notes with the other panellists, Celeste and Melissa, and meeting a great bunch of local beauty bloggers. At the end of the day I left with four (!) goody bags containing over 30 products to try from some savvy Australian beauty companies. I’m currently using the awesome Instant Length Transplant Lengthening Kit from Mirenesse and it is indeed so much more than a mascara. I’m also loving A’kins’ Cellular Radiance Serum, Natio’s Colour Creme Gloss in Happy (how appropriate!), Sukin’s antioxidant eye cream and Kuu Konjac’s Pure Sponge.

4) Amazing almonds

I usually blog about my work projects on my portfolio site but I just had to share this one with you here. After all, it was The Hungry Australian that led directly to my new gig with the Australian Almond Board. I’m happy to let you know that I’ve been contracted by them to create a new recipe site showcasing almonds. It’s a tremendous opportunity and I’m excited to be working with them over the next 10 months on this project.

5) Opportunity International’s Food for Thought campaign in October

I’ve blogged before about the Food for Thought SA dinner happening soon at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre to raise funds for Opportunity International. What I didn’t know was that in October you can also hold your own event to raise funds and awareness for people living in poverty. Check out the details here.

6) The return of Almost Bourdain

Almost Bourdain, an incredible Sydney food blog authored by the talented Ellie is back! I was a big fan of Almost Bourdain when I started blogging and was sad and puzzled when she stopped blogging a year ago without an explanation. So I was delighted to learn today that Ellie is now back and sharing her recipes again. If you don’t know her blog go check it out right now.

7) Hanging with bloggers

Next month I’ll be heading to Melbourne for the ProBlogger Conference – if you’re going be sure to say hi. I’m excited about spending two days hearing from some fantastic speakers and getting to know bloggers from all over Australia.

8) The Hungry Australian takes a trip

I love, love, love to travel and it looks like I might be heading overseas next month on a food/art/fashion famil. It’s an incredibly exciting destination and somewhere I’ve never been before – I’ll let you know more as arrangements are confirmed.

Have a great September!

Christina xx

Ever since I started cooking with quinces a few weeks ago I’ve been dreaming up ways to enjoy this magnificent fruit.

So when Sweet Adventures‘ Sweet As Pie bloghop rolled around, I decided quinces had to be the star ingredient. But what type of pie would I make?

After a couple of false starts I settled on this Quince Meringue Pie, a kind of mish-mash of my Free-Form Apple Tart and my Mini Lemon Meringue Pies, using slow-roasted quinces.

Yes, roasting the quinces takes some hours. I’m not going to lie; this is not a dessert that can be made on the spur of the moment. But good things come to those who wait so think of this pie as the culinary equivalent of your perfect partner – chances are, it won’t be the first person you fall for.

Continue reading →

There’s something about a layered dessert that speaks of thoughtfulness. It’s an indication that someone’s made an effort to make you feel special.

There are so many different layered desserts, too, such as trifle (check out the Mini Apricot Trifles with Cardamon and Pistachios above), baklava, cheesecake, ice cream or yoghurt sundae, layered Asian jelly, multi-layered cake or a layered ice cream dessert.

So I am chuffed that this month’s Sweet Adventures dessert-themed bloghop, is Layer Upon Layer, hosted by the lovely KC from The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader.

Continue reading →

There are times when a little restraint is called for. After all, too much of a good thing can get you into all kinds of trouble.

Happily, this is not one of those times. For too much of a very good thing – in this case, chocolate – is what this Sweet Adventures Death by Chocolate bloghop is all about.

Sweet Adventures is a group of Australian food bloggers – myself,  84th & 3rd, The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader, Delicieux, and Dining With a Stud – who host a monthly, dessert-themed blog hop.

Our inaugural event, The Great Australian Pavlova Blog Hop, attracted 34 entries in November 2011, while our second event, the Festive Favourites Blog Hop, attracted 38 entries last month. Click on the above links to drool over all the entries.

It was my turn to host this month and as I scanned our lengthy list of theme ideas I realised there was one glaring omission: Death by Chocolate.

Why Death by Chocolate? Well, if you’re going to indulge in chocolate you might as well go all out, right? There’s no point in the single square of chocolate, the lone chocolate truffle, the tiny chocolate brownie, the mini chocolate biscuit or the slender piece of chocolate cake. Worst still, are diet versions: I’d rather go without than eat some kind of ‘lite’ chocolate abomination.

So for my Death by Chocolate entry, I wanted complete chocolate decadence. I wanted creamy pillows of velvety chocolate-ness. I wanted a dessert that would have me swooning over its richness.

I trialled a multi-layered chocolate cake, which fell well short of expectations, before deciding to make a classic chocolate mousse instead.

I’ve always been a pushover for chocolate mousse made with top quality chocolate. I love its intense chocolate flavour, silky texture and the way it melts away into sublime nothingness in your mouth. It’s an incredibly sexy dessert and perfect for a romantic supper but you could also serve it in shot glasses for a cocktail party or hen’s night.

This chocolate mousse is made with standard pantry ingredients, and in under 20 minutes, but tastes like a dessert that you’d enjoy in a fine dining establishment (with the addition of a few ‘dirt’ crumbs and flowers sprinkled artistically around the plate, natch).

Is chocolate mousse a dessert to die for? No, it’s better than that: it’s a dessert to live for.

INGREDIENTS

350 grams top quality chocolate (I used a mixture of dark and white this time but would ordinarily use only dark)
175 grams unsalted butter
7 large, room-temperature, free-range eggs, separated
100 grams raw caster sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt

METHOD

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler and then let it cool down off the stove.

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until thick and creamy, like home-made mayonnaise. Stir in the vanilla and salt and then the cooled chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites in another large bowl until soft peaks form. Add one spoonful of egg whites to the chocolate mixture and briskly stir it in – this lightens it – before gently folding the rest of the egg whites in. Try not to bash all the air out of the egg whites.

Use a ladle to pour the mixture into glasses and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours or until required.

Remove from the fridge 10 minutes before serving and decorate with raspberries – their beautiful red tones are the perfect visual contrast while their tartness cuts through the richness of the mousse.

Makes 10 glasses.

Don’t forget to scroll to the end of this post to check out all the delicious
Death by Chocolate entries

*************************************************************

Sweet Adventures Blog Hop: Death by Chocolate

If you blog about food we’d love you to join this hop. Simply follow the steps below and join the fun!

1. Publish your Death by Chocolate post on your blog sometime between 16th January 2012 (9am Sydney time [AEST]) and 23rd January ( 11:59pm Sydney time [AEST]). Entries are linked in order of submission so try to get your entry in on or as close to the 16th as possible. Only new posts featuring chocolate are eligible.
2. Click here for the Link Code. Copy the code and add it to the bottom of your Death by Chocolate post (you will need to do this in HTML view). Adding the code will create the thumbnail gallery of all the other entries and let visitors hop from other blogs to your blog and vice versa. If you are on wordpress.com (i.e. not self hosted) the list will not show on your blog so please create a text link back to this post instead.
3. Grab the SABH Death by Chocolate badge and add it to your post. Just right click on the image, ‘save as’, upload to your site and add it to your Death by Chocolate post. Link the badge or a line of text to this page so that others can view the instructions on how to join.
4. Click here to Enter the Hop. This is the really important bit! The badge and thumbnail list are on your post so make sure to enter the hop so that you appear in the list. For question 1: add the URL of your Death by Chocolate Post, not your homepage. For question 2: for caption/title add the name of your dessert. For question 3: for ‘your name’ please enter your blog name. For question 4: your entry is automatically submitted when you click ‘crop’.
5. Your linked post WILL NOT appear straight away in the blog hop thumbnail list. To combat spam this is a moderated hop. Your post will be visible in the list after approval.
6. Hop around to all the other entries in the blog hop, sharing the comment love.
7. If you are on Twitter use the #SABH to tell the world about your Death by Chocolate post. Follow us @SweetAdvBlogHop for new hop announcements and general deliciousness.

If you aren’t sure how to do something please leave a comment or get in touch.

***************************************************************