I'll have my apple tea cake and eat it too

I've never done the foodie blog before, but this apple tea cake is the most amazing thing you'll ever taste.

150g salted butter, chopped
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
1& 1/2 cup self raising flour
185g (3/4 cup) vanilla-flavour yoghurt
1 granny smith, peeled, cored and thinly sliced.
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a deep 20cm round cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Beat 130g of the butter and 3/4 cup of the sugar with electric beaters until light and creamy.

Gradually add the egg, beating well after each addition until combined. Add the vanilla essence. Fold in the flour, then the yoghurt and stir until smooth. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.

Arrange the apple slices evenly over the mixture in a circular patter starting in the centre. Sprinkle with cinnamon and the remaining sugar. Melt the remaining butter, then drizzle over the top.

Bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake. Leave in the tin for 30 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool. If desired, combine a little extra cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the apple.

And that's all there is to it! I've never had it stuff up. And my secret ingredient is salted butter! Makes it taste 10 million times better!

Idee Fixe(s): Beetroot! In juice and cake :)

My fabulous new vintage maxi dress

Mad Men - I want to sit around all day and drink, smoke and wear pretty dresses!

melbourne festival

The Melbourne festival kicked off on Friday night with a bit of aerial theatre!

K@osmos combines rock music, acrobatics and special effects to create quite an interesting show.

While we agreed that the music could have been better in its execution, it did its part in capturing the mood of the aerial choreography. It was quite a visual treat and I would describe the acrobatics as a ball of white well choreographed tentacles!

Another act that appealed to Sam and I was the Carnival of Mysteries!

I have recently finished watching a great HBO show called Carnivale which is sent in the 1930s during the depression and involves a travelling carnival. I highly recommend! HBO do some really interesting shows. The travelling carnival in the show is basically a freak show which leads me to Carnival of Mysteries.

When you go to this show your entry ticket is exchanged for Carnival cash and allows you to taste the carnival's delights. I hope I get a chance to make it along! Go to http://www.melbournefestival.com.au/ for more details :)

"Run away to the Carnival, where circus stars and sideshow queens, poets and daredevils, painters, playwrights, aerialists and food artistes concoct a heady mix of unforgettable entertainment under a handmade starry night".

dreamin' in broome

Idee fixe(s): Sunsets
Warm nights
Mango beer
Seafood

hipstamatic melbourne

auction rooms

One flat white, one flat white...or do I hear 2? Will you give me a cappucino with those 2 flat whites? No? Going, going, gone!

I've now been living in North Melbourne for nearly 3 months but haven't done a single review on one of its cafes! North Melbourne is a lovely suburb. Pretty, close to the city, walking distance to Carlton and Royal Park, but I'd been told it was a bit of a dead spot when it comes to restaurants and watering holes. I nearly believed this too until I stumbled upon Auction Rooms!

Auction Rooms, housed in the old WB Ellis auction house in Errol Street probably has one of the best fit outs in Melbourne. Amazing decor, plenty of atmoshpere and full of character.

The breakfast menu (which is amazing) and the great atmosphere make up for the somewhat lacklustre coffee (always a bit of the luke warm side).

Auction Rooms - 103-107 Errol Street North Melbourne. If you don't get a coffee this place gets a big tick :)

Idee fixe(s): Edith Piaf
Dutch cocoa with chai spices
Weather forecasts that say "Sunny - Max of 18"

sugardough

When I was living in Brunswick I passed Sugardough too many times on the tram, wanting to make a trip inside but never finding the time! I can't believe I never made it sooner.

Cakes piled high on old-school plates, retro furniture, doilies! Cinnamon and ricotta croissant? Mini cherry clafoutis? Can't decide, get them both! That's what we did :) I'll be getting their raisins escargot next time. This place looks like it could take on my favourite cafe of all time in Brisbane (Choquettes) in the pastisserie stakes. I'll be making a trip back very soon.

Big tick for Sugardough - 163 Lygon Street, Brunswick East.

Idee fixe(s): Saturday morning yoga
Wild tea cosies
Kiwifruit, strawberry and mint fruit salads

such is life

On a rainy, windy winter night, a group of young students (and student teachers) braved one of Melbourne's most haunted buildings, the Old Melbourne Gaol, to witness a one man show by candlelight!

It was pretty spooky, and very cold (as we were soaked from the rain) but being able to explore Old Melbourne Gaol in such an intimate setting made it well worth it.

The show is called the Hangman's Night Tour, and the actor (depicting Michael Gateley - Melbourne's most prolific and brutal hangman) takes you on a dramatic tour of the gaol.

If you're ever in Melbourne looking for touristy things to do, I highly recommend.

Potraits of the gaol!

new york new york

In the back streets of Richmond, the ground floor of a spartan group of flats is a most unusual place to find a cafe. And as it's such a funky little cafe, I bet that's how the locals like it :)

New York Tomato is on the corner of New and York streets in Richmond and does an amazing brekkie. My friend Dave lives on York street and had mentioned it a few times to me so I thought I'd check it out. I haven't heard the best reviews about New York Tomato's coffee so decided to make the healthy choice (after spending the previous hour and half at yoga) and go with a freshly sqeezed apple, carrot and ginger juice.

The drinks were good, the food was great, the atmosphere was funky and the man that served us was flirty. Big tick for New York Tomato!

Food testers and general good lookers, Zoe and Jules.

My Idee Fixe(s): ginger
funny men at the footy
the end of winter
hair scarves

bartok and baking

So Doreen and I came up with this great idea to play all 44 Bartok duets in 44 days!

As this was never going to happen we decided late night shepherd's pie and a selection of Bartok would be easier to pull off! Ha! We'll most definately have to have a phase 2 of this project as we found out:

1. we aren't very good pastry chefs
2. we cannot count to save ourselves (we'll get you next time mückntanz, next time!)
3. BUT we can make an unlumpy custard :)

We also thought we could win a masterchef competition by wrapping whole plums in pastry. Genius!! But it just looked like a plum dim sim. Doreen quickly pointed out that it was just a sloppy danish...

I wanted to film all our foodie disasters and keep a record of our Bartok project. The only thing that was captured was my incompetency using a camera...



To be continued...

you gotta love this city II

north south east west

I've decided Rathdowne Street is one of my new favs; a bit quieter and more laid back than Lygon street.

Doreen took me here a few months ago (when it was still warm) but I went back yesterday to grab something to eat at North now the weather is cold and the menu has changed!

North is a cute little cafe snuggled in at the north end of Rathdowne Street with quite simple decor but a really yummy menu. They even fill up dog bowls for customers' equally thirsty pooches!

Last time I was here I had a summer bowl of musli with berry compote and labna (which I found out was yoghurt/cheese). I must be in a bowl food breakfast mood when I come here because this time I got winter porridge with apple, cinnamon and walnut. It was pretty spesh.

Tick for North (and Rathdowne street in general!)

Idee fixe(s): Baking!
Banana bread
Apple tea cake
Raspberry jam coconut slice :)

peko peko

In Japan 'peko peko' is the sound a stomach makes when it's hungry.

Doreen and I did a Japanese restaurant crawl along Smith Street the other night. Before I arrived at 'Peko peko' my stomach was doing a 'peko peko'. Luckily it has a menu to match your appetite. Small, medium and big food! Doreen and I opted for the big food of course. Subsequently our 'peko peko' stopped :)

After 'Peko peko' we went off in search for green tea ice-cream and ended up at Wabi Sabi Salon.
What a gorgeous little restaurant! You'll have to scroll through my pics for confirmation of this. My 2 favourite parts of the night were taking off my shoes to sit in the little secret lovers alcove and going to the toilet...

Smith Street! Home of Japanese food.

Doreen being her fabulous self!

The amazing toilet that had Japanese music pumping and a picture of smoking cats. I needn't explain further why this was a highlight.

Green tea, red bean and black sesame ice-cream

The secret lovers alcove!

sexy as socks on a rooster

To sock or not to sock, that is the question.

I am absolutely loving socks and heels at the moment!! Unfortunately it's a bit cold at the moment in Melbourne to really rock the sock, but in spring I'm going to give it a shot.

Peep toe heels and socks. Big tick.