yummy stuff I've made lately

I have a friend who has a son that is allergic to nuts among other things. So when I invited her over for coffee last week,  I just knew I had to help her get her peanut butter fix! They avoid buying the stuff. So I settled on a chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter cream icing... She loved them.

Chocolate Guiness Cake with cream cheese icing. One candle for each decade...yes someone is getting old!

It was Hubbys birthday this weekend...well he wasn't in the country on his actual birthday....so we celebrated a day late. I made him a Chocolate Guinness cake with a cream cheese frosting. I have made this cake once before...but had iced it with a chocolate Ganache...I think I liked it better with the Chocolate Ganache. BUT the cream cheese icing on its own was to die for. It had a tub of thickened cream in it so it wasn't so cream cheesy. Sooo yummo. The recipe is from Nigella Lawson. The white icing is supposed to make it look like the froth on a Guinness. Great idea for a cake if your man enjoys the odd beer. Its a very MAN cake.

For his birthday I thought we would construct our own pizzas. We had 8 adults so I rolled out dough bases that were big enough for one person (A dinner plate size), chopped up all the topping and let people make their own pizzas. I had a vege platter, a meat platter and a cheese platter for peoples creativity to run wild. I cooked them individually in a pizza oven appliance. The whole process took a lot longer but it was kinda fun. 

Paisley Jades Creation

And Lastly...for dinner last night I had a hankering for a bit of mums cooking...and when you are a grown up and have moved out of home you have to give it ago yourself! I felt like some of her bean curry. I'm not much of a fan of plain old boiled beans, but bean curry is so good. Taking a vege and add a few curry spices to change the flavour up a bit make all the difference. So tasty. And taking the time to roll out some roti (the Indian flat bread) which my kids absolutely love, really gives it a real authentic Indian feel. A taste of home. According to hubby though it was not as good as my mums...ah well... I thought it was pretty close ;)

xx Jks*