Melbourne Adventures: part one.

Hello all and happy Wednesday,

I am kicking off todays post with part one of my Melbourne Adventures from my weekend away. A large portion of both posts will be predominantly photographs, however I will explain snippets of our experiences and outings as I go.
*I will give credit to my Sister for taking some of these photographs that I have included and the rest are my own. 

Melbourne City. 

Waiting patiently at the gate ready for take off. 

The following (4) images are from Queen Victoria Market. 

 Beautiful flowers - sadly I could not buy any due to the short amount of time we were visiting. 

Melbourne Architecture!

Melbourne's Yarra River Skyline. 

Gorgeous views - this day was particularly warm and sunny! 

A visit to the ultimate department store Myer! There Christmas stock was incredible as well as the 6+ levels of continuous products. 

For lunch we visited Grill'd Healthy Burgers, which some of the most delicious tasting burgers I have personally tried. I also fell in love with the interiors and design of the restaurant. 

I tried the Tuscan Delight Burger, which was filled with a  grilled chicken breast, roasted peppers, basil pesto, tasty cheese, salad & herbed mayo - absolutely delicious! 

I actually stumbled upon this Cupcake shop called Little Cupcakes that is so perfect it makes me fall in love with it every time. (Is that even possible with a bakery?) I came across it at night (apologies for the quality of the images) so there were no cupcakes being baked and ready to taste, and sadly I did not have time to go back, but thats ok because I follow a number of their social media accounts to stay updated with daily inspiration of cupcakes and business possibilities. 

I hope that you have enjoyed an insight into the first part of my Melbourne adventures and remember to stay tuned for the second part tomorrow. Follow any of my social media links to see what I am doing on a daily basis! 

M x 

Lemon Curd Cupcakes.

Hello … 

  

Whilst I am sat squished on a plane traveling to Melbourne for the weekend I thought I would make the most of my time and try to write as many upcoming posts as I can. Firstly let me say that I completely forgot that seats on internal flights were extremely close together and quite intrusive in your personal space, but seeing as the fight is only an hour long I think I can handle it.

I can happily say that I have graduated from high school and I cannot wait for new adventures to begin. I will defiantly be back into the swing of baking, which is exciting as I am excited to start experimenting and learning new techniques ready to share and document.

I am a enormous lover of cupcakes, and I find the construction of the cake to the filling and frosting to be three extremely adaptable components, which allows the range of flavours to be wild and wacky. I would say one of my top five dreams would be to manage my very own bakery, but as that is a mile from now, in the meantime I hope to trial new flavours and develop a potential menu that I can someday use.

Today I am sharing with you a delicious Lemon Curd Cupcake that is divine, soft and has a burst of tanginess from the lemon zest and curd centre.

This style of cake is perfect for gathering in the spring and summer that can be shared with family and friends or could be packaged nicely as a sweet gift.

This Vanilla Cupcake recipe by Martha Stewart is one of my favourites, however I am still hunting for the perfect recipe that is light, soft and ideally well risen and flat to the top of the cupcake case. Yes my list of expectations is quite high however someday I will perfect it. A classic lemon curd recipe can be found anywhere on the Internet or can be simply bought from the supermarket either way is perfectly fine for this scrumptious cupcake. However, if you would like to have a go at marking your own try this one from Not Quite Nigella and see what you think. Then add you favourite buttercream recipe to the top of the cake and voila you have a lemon curd cupcake. Now feel free to add a yellow fondant daisy or a spoonful of lemon curd for extra presentation and taste. 

I hope you have enjoyed this sweet cupcake post and stay tuned for my Melbourne posts over the next couple of days. 

M x 

Banana, Coconut & Mixed Berry Bread.

Good morning you beautiful rays of sunshine, how are you? I finally have a moment to sit and write a blog post, which is fabulous although I do enjoy my Christmas Casual position at the moment as it is my first time in retail and I can safely say out loud that I love it! However whilst it has been crazy town the past week, my posts have been lacking slightly - which is why I will be updating you later on in this very post. 

Firstly though, who loves banana bread? I know I do. A thick slice of bread toasted and lathered in butter is absolute perfection. However I have decided to step up the classic banana bread recipe and add in succulent mixed berries and sweet coconut to the mix - therefore in my eyes this mix of ingredients has made a whole new level of scrumptious banana bread creations. 

 Banana bread is typically a cake mix shaped into a loaf pan, which has formed the name of bread/loaf. Whilst bread is in the title there are no technical methods of adding yeast and making sure to separate it from the salt and all of that jazz. You can literally make it in the one bowl, which is perfect when it comes to washing up! 

Banana, Coconut & Mixed Berry Bread 
Ingredients: 
3 ripe bananas, mashed well
2 eggs, lightly beaten
150g plain flour
100g desiccated coconut
1 cup mixed berries
180g cater sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method:
1. Preheat an oven to 180-degrees (gas 4). Grease and line the base and sides of a 21x11cm loaf tin.
2. Put the mashed bananas into a large bowl and mix in the eggs; it is quicker if you use electric beaters.
3. One by one add in the dry ingredients; flour, coconut, sugar, salt, bicarbonate powder - until just combined.
4. Gently mixed in the mixed berries. It is important to do this stage softly so that the entire mixture does not turn pink. A slight ripple effect needs to be created.
5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer is inserted and comes out clean. If the top starts to brown cover with foil for the remaining cooking time.
6. Remove the bread from the oven once cooked and cool in the tin for 5 minutes, before turning onto a wired rack.
7. Cut into slices and serve the banana bread warm or at room temperature.

Compared to a traditional banana bread that is toasted and layered with butter, this particular style of bread only needs to be warmed due to the moisture from the berries. Therefore you do not need any extra condiments, otherwise just heat and serve straightaway.

It is light, soft and is packed full of flavour from the powering bananas to the sweet and subtle coconut, and the burst of mixed berries. It is fantastic for morning or afternoon tea as well as a snack throughout the day. I would love for you all to give it a try and if any of you have a favourite banana bread recipe then please comment it down below because I would love to make some more! 

As for my little update … as you may know from reading my last couple of posts, I will be hopefully (*fingers crossed) completing Blogmas this year, which is posting on my blog everyday up until Christmas. I will be sharing with you heaps of recipes, plus a few DIY's and gift ideas along the way. So I have been organising (pretty much making a list) of everything that I want to share as well as starting to create little bits so that I don't have to worry about everything last minute. 

I am travelling to Melbourne on Friday and will be gone for four days! I will hopefully be able to share my travelling diaries with you all as soon as I get back and I will keep you updated on those, as I go, but my first one should be posted late Monday evening or Tuesday morning. I will hopefully be writing them as I go, so I can keep up to date with them, however I am unsure of what the Internet connection will be like so I will most likely post them as soon as I am back - as I also want to spend the time relaxing, exploring, shopping and celebrating 13 years of school. 

There should be some exciting posts coming over the next fews weeks and months so please stay tuned to find out more. Please follow any of my social media links in the side bar to stay updated with my whereabouts. 

Have a wonderful day and I will speak to you very soon! 

M x