Lindt & Le Creuset

My mom and I got to attend the Lindt and Le Creuset “perfect pairing” demonstration at Silwood kitchen this week. I studied there last year and will take any opportunity to be back there.

These are two of our most favorite things. I am a cotton, chiffon pink, soleil and cool mint lover, while my mom prefers classic cherry red and carribean blue. On the lindt side, I am a firm believer in 85% lindt, as well as a good ‘ol faithful red lindor ball. My mom on the other hand loves the white chocolate lindor balls with a great passion.

These were added into our goodie bags, The lime flavor is new and Im excited to try it, I do prefer the flavored chocolates with little pieces in them, like the “Touch of sea salt”

We also recieved recipe cards with the recipes demonstrated to us. All the recipes are specially designed to use a 100g Lindt bar and are portioned out to fit perfectly in certain Le Creuset items (a perfect excuse to expand your collection)

I even got to see my friend, Fudge at Silwood. He was friendly and as handsome as ever.

We had a glorious tea break where we were served “The Grasshopper” a mint infused hot chocolate, along with various treats provided by Silwood as well as some chocolates.

I had a salted caramel cheesecake, and a beautiful little vanilla tea cake.

We were shown how to make this chocolate tart as well as a chocolate fondant, and the mint hot chocolate.

We all got beautiful golden boxes as well as a goodie bag to take home with us

The morning ended off with us being served an incredible chocolate fondant, served with a white chocolate lindor ball in the centre. It was a liquid chocolate delight.

We each received a mini fluted pie dish with our own chocolate tart inside the golden gift boxes. Mine was a gorgeous Soleil yellow dish, and my mom received an elegant white Cotton on.

We both thoroughly enjoyed the morning and I would highly recommend signing up for the Le Creuset newsletter to hear about these incredible customer events.

Love Q

Four & Twenty Cafe

There are few things I love more than a good breakfast/ brunch spot. Four & Twenty has been on my list for a long time, and I was in the area recently and decided to pop in with Dylan. I loved it, had an amazing brunch, bought one of all the cakes to take home, went back about a week later and did the same thing, but brought my mom along too.

The two owners actually studied at Silwood too, and the attention to detail in everything here warms my heart.

mmm homemade lemonade. This is a big must.

as “posey”as this photo looks, this is a genuine candid photo of my Dylan

Avo Sumptuous breakfast- Ciabatta, smashed avo, caramelized onion, danish feta, poached egg and a balsamic drizzle.

Caramel popcorn eclair !! this one went home to my mom who loves eclairs

This pink beauty went home to my sister, The lemon curd centre is incredible.

If you’re in the area, I would highly recommend stopping by, they can get quite busy, but you can leave your number and have a wander through the park across the road while you wait for a table. You can get more details or see the menu here

Love Quartz

Afternoon Tea | Catch-up Post

Hello lovelies, It feels like forever since Ive blogged. It doesn’t look that way to you since I do write some of my posts in advance and have them queued up for times like this. I thought I needed to take some time out and just have a catch-up chat here, I started college just a few days ago, and after a year’s break, it has been tricky to get into the swing of things.

However, I think I’m finally getting the hang of these 6am wake-ups. I’m studying patisserie this year, I only go in 3 or 2 days a week depending on the week, and then the rest of my week is spent at home perfecting the things I’ve learnt.

So far this has taught me the importance of putting loads of time and effort into the things I make, sounds silly but the extra little bit of love does go a long way. I’m also enjoying getting to present my things in unique and beautiful ways, its equally important to make sure you make things that taste and look beautiful, we eat with our eyes too…

Here are some of the photo’s from my first baking practical. I’ve made fresh pink lemonade, scones, jam, breakfast muffins as well as some flapjacks. I will be posting some step-by-step recipes here soon, so look out for those.

P.S if you look really closely you can see my little brother in the background, he loves having photo’s taken of himself and he’s also been loving these “tea parties” we keep having.
 Love Quartz

Fruity Strawberry Smoothie

 One handful of frozen or fresh strawberries

blueberries

ice

water

lemon juice

raspberries

poppy seed

blend and enjoy!

 

Jar- Consol glass jar, metal lid replaced with a perspex circle, with a straw hole cut into it

Purchased at a farmer’s market, but I am sure you could make this yourself

Vegan Burger Patties

“Patties” is such a weird word, who thought that one up??

This is my own recipe for vegan burgers. Ive combined a few recipes I found in cookbooks or online, and tweaked it until I was happy with it.

I decided to put this recipe into pictures, let me know if you like it this way? If not, the text version is below.

1x tin butter beans

1x tin brown lentils

a handful of pine nuts or cashews

1/4 cup cooked rice

one finely grated potato

a sachet of tomato paste

a sprinkle of salt and pepper

Mix the whole lot together, sprinkle some flour into the mix and shape the mix into little balls and then flatten out into burger patty shapes, then wrap them individually in clingfilm and freeze.

They can freeze for months and when you want one, take it out, defrost it and fry it like a normal burger. I usually serve mine on a roll with rocket, cherry tomatoes and avo slices.

ENJOY THIS ONE! its one of my favourites and I always have these in my freezer

Love Quartz

Weekend Bunny | A furry visitor

Meet Elliot, Elliot is a dwarf bunny and he came to visit me from Thursday to Sunday evening. This fur-ball hopped straight into our hearts and he was a little joy to have in the house. He loved attention and being held. Here are some of the photo’s we took over the weekend, including him getting stuck inside our laundry basket and eating some flowers. He is a house bunny, so he uses a litter box and sleeps in his own little bed. He was so sweet and I do miss his furry little nose.

I hope you enjoyed this bunny post, maybe it could cheer you up on a grey day?

Love Quartz

Lemon Mint Smoothie

Here’s the recipe for a smoothie I make the most, It’s quick, easy and tastes lovely. Perfect for the summertime when you need something refreshing.
 – Juice of one fresh lemon

– A cup full of ice

– 3/4 cup of water

– 2 to 3 tablespoons of sugar

– 5 fresh mint leaves

blend and enjoy!

I use a NutriBullet for all my smoothies, but any blender will work just as well, make sure you check if your blender can have ice in it, if not then crush the ice up by hand rather. Ive ruined many blenders in the past by trying to crush ice in them…

I hope you enjoy this just as much as I do, please let me know if you want more smoothie recipes like this

Love Quartz xx

Macaroon’s | Berry coulis and vanilla pod flavour

 Macaroon’s aren’t THAT difficult to make, sure the first couple times are a bit tricky, but once you get the hang of things, they’re easy peasy.   What you’ll need:

230g icing sugar, just less than a cup full  

130g ground almonds/ almond flour (I use my Nutribullet’s milling attachment to grind the raw almond’s to a flour-like consistency, but you can grind the almonds by hand, or just buy almond flour)

130g egg whites, the egg whites from 4 large eggs 

60g granulated sugar (the kind you have in your tea) 60g is around 4 tablespoons full 

*I decided to include Vanilla in my batch, this is optional

 

 

  -Whisk two of the egg whites with the granulated sugar, until its thick, like shaving cream -Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, I like to sift it twice, just to make extra sure.

-Add the two remaining egg whites on top of the dry mix, do not mix them together

-Add the whisked egg white mixture on top, and fold the mix together slowly.

*this would be the time to add in the vanilla, or food colouring if you prefer. I think macaroon’s look best in pastel colours, so don’t add too much colouring. You also don’t want to be adding too much additional liquid to the mixture.  

 

-Pipe the mixture into equal blobs on baking paper, or you can use a silicone macaroon sheet like I did. Leave the mixture to “air dry” for 15mins and then tap the baking tin on the counter lightly to remove air bubbles.

 -You can then pop the macaroon’s into the oven at 150’C, for around 20 mins, or until they look and feel done.                          -You then need something to stick the two halves of the macaroon’s together. I had some berry coulis left over from my granola, so I used that, thickened up a bit with icing sugar, but you could use anything here; jam, chocolate ganache, Nutella, icing mix, cream, whatever your heart desires really…

The finished macaroon’s out of the oven. Let them cool completely before peeling them off the silicone sheet or baking paper. 

    

-Now you can pair similar sized ones together, and stick them together with whatever you have chosen as the filling. I used stencils and some edible glitter to make pretty patterns on the tops of mine, you could dust them with icing sugar or just leave them as is, again this is up to you. 

 

Macaroons are pretty and yummy too, a perfect little tea time treat. I hope you enjoy making these and that this recipe was easy to follow

Happy baking, Love Quartz xx

Breakfast of champions | Fruity Baked Granola

 I haven’t always been a big fan of breakfast, I used to avoid breakfasts or try my best to skip them. My excuse was that breakfast always made me feel a bit sick and I didn’t like starting my day that way, further down the line, Ive now discovered I’m lactose intolerant so that was what made me feel sick. 

I am now a firm believer of breakfast, breakfast is the very first thing of my day, and I try to make it a lovely time each morning. 

 

 This is my most favourite breakfast, a baked granola, topped with fresh fruits (here I used strawberries and banana) and nuts, dried cranberries, goji berries and coconut flakes. To make this particular one extra special I added dark chocolate chips to the mix too. 

This is a vegan breakfast, but you could add milk or yoghurt to this if you wanted to, I do sometimes add a little splash of almond or rice milk. 

 

Thank you for reading 

Quartz x