Christmas Gift Guide (for Foodies) 2022

Whether you are looking for presents for others, or are just looking for something a bit different for yourself, I hope you find some gift giving ideas below.

These picks are mostly aimed at the food lovers in your life, however I have also added a gift idea that does some good (outside of bringing your recipient joy), that will help others in need. I know this time of year can feel like its all about spending and buying things, but really it can also be about helping others and giving thoughtful gifts to those you love.

1. I have bought a few of these tea towels by artist Whitney Spicer and Bespoke Letterpress, I think they would be a lovely gift for any foodie. They are available from both Bespoke Letterpress and Whitney Spicer.

2. I also have my eye on many a thing in Marley and Lockyer’s online store which is filled with beautiful handmade ceramics. They would be a great gift for anyone who loves handmade things and kitchen pieces in particular.

3. In terms of cookbooks I recently bought a copy of Knead Peace and I think it would make a great gift. A portion of the price of the book goes to help a charity assisting people in Ukraine, and the based on the contributors to the book, I think the recipes will be good! 

   For those who like Christmas baking specifically Advent by Anja Dunk is an excellent choice. I have also heard great things about First, Cream the Butter and Sugar by Emilia Jackson when it comes to cookbooks about baking specifically, so that could be a good one for the bakers in your life.

   I have Salamati by Hamed Allahyari and Dani Valent on my wish list, and I think Mabu Mabu by Nornie Bero would make a great gift and should have a place in every Australian kitchen.

4. For other gifts, I thought buying a gift subscription to a Substack newsletter or Patreon would be a great idea (maybe the new magazine subscription of our increasingly online world?). In terms of food related subscriptions, I really enjoy the paid Substack newsletters from Something to Eat and Something to Read, The Jewish Table and Emiko Davies’ Newsletter. 

5. For edible gifts nothing can go past a jar of delicious savoury spread Tumami by Alice or any brand of crema di pistacchio for a really indulgent treat. For the chocolate lover I would recommend the drinking chocolates from Grounded Pleasures - there’s no risk of them melting in transit and they can be enjoyed all year round! 

6. Finally, for a gift with an impact I would recommend the empowering gifts from Australia for UNHCR. You can purchase gifts that give assistance to refugees around the world with things such as clean water, vaccinations, shelter, thermal blankets, school supplies and much more. There are a variety of options and price points and you can nominate a gift recipient to be notified of your gift to them via email or you can chose to print out a pdf card for them yourself.

Vanilla Sprinkle Melting Moments

I was inspired to make these simple vanilla sprinkle melting moments after eating some delicious biscuits made by The Flour Millers Wife. Em of The Flour Millers Wife is based in Manildra NSW and bakes delicious biscuits that are sold in a few stores across the Central West of NSW. 

I have been following Em on Instagram for a little while, and always thought the biscuits she makes look so good. I managed to find some when I was in Orange recently and they tasted as good as they looked! 

I especially enjoyed Em’s Sprinkle Yo-Yos, which are what gave me the inspiration to make these melting moments. I’m not sure exactly what the difference between melting moments and yo-yos are, or even if there is much of a difference. But since I have adapted my original melting moment recipe to make these, I haven’t altered the name. 

Biscuits by The Flour Millers Wife I bought in Orange - Two packets of honey jumbles, white chocolate and cranberry biscuits and the Sprinkle Yo-Yo Biscuits.

My version are very different from Em’s which are much smaller and have a softer crumblier style biscuit, but I think that’s the joy of finding inspiration in what other people bake. It’s not about replicating it exactly, but using it as inspiration to create a new recipe. 

And this way I can enjoy my own melting moments, and still look forward to having some of The Flour Miller’s Wife’s creation next time I am in the Central West! Thank you for the inspiration Em! And keep any eye out for her biscuits if you are around Orange, Molong or Carcoar - and in the mean time, have a go at the recipe below!

Vanilla Sprinkle Melting Moments

Ingredients:                                       

300g unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g icing sugar/mixture

420g plain flour

50g custard powder

Ingredients for the filling:

80g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar/mixture

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Sprinkles/100s and 1000s, to decorate

Method: 

Preheat oven to 145 degrees Celsius, and line three large baking trays with baking paper. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and vanillas until creamy.

Add the flour and custard powder to the creamed butter, and mix on the lowest speed until a dough forms. 

Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the prepared trays (you should end up with 40-44 individual dough balls/biscuits) leaving a little space in between each (they won’t spread much when baking). Then lightly press down each ball with the back of a fork so they flatten out a little. Dip your fork in flour if it is sticking to the dough.

Bake for 25 minutes. They will be cooked when the undersides of the biscuits are lightly golden. To ensure a even bake, rotate the baking trays in the oven around half way through. 

Allow to cool on their trays.

Once the biscuits have cooled make the filling by beating all the ingredients except the sprinkles in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment or by using a hand held mixer. Mix until light and fluffy and everything is well combined. 

Pair up the cooked biscuits, and turn one from each pair over so the underside is facing up. Spread or pipe the filling on to the underside of one biscuit in each biscuit pair, then gently sandwich the paired biscuits together. 

Pour some sprinkles into a bowl and dip the edges of each sandwiched biscuit into it, pushing the sprinkles into the sides of the filling.

Leave the biscuits for half an hour or so for the filling to firm up a bit (you can do this in the fridge in warmer weather). Biscuits will store well in an airtight container for a few days. 

Makes 40-44 individual biscuits and 20-22 sandwiched biscuits. 

A Collection of Plates and Cups aka Photography Props

As you can see in the images above and below, my photography props have formed a serious collection. 

Some things came from my Grandma’s kitchen, and others I have accumulated over the years both second hand and new.

I have been lucky to find many very creative makers whilst searching for props, and I thought I’d share a few here. 

Whether you are into food photography or not, most of these suggestions are just lovely things to have or use in your home, or give as a really thoughtful gift.

1. Easy portable backgrounds from Capture by Lucy - This is the only photography specific suggestion! These photography backgrounds from the UK are the best I’ve used, and the last really well (I’m still using the first two I bought in 2017!). They are a great investment if you want a variety of backgrounds to use in your photography.

2. LouiseM Studio - I came across Louise’s work as she is the ceramicist who makes the butter keepers for Pepe Saya. Louise makes many lovely things, and I particularly like her use of colour. I recently bought a few plates from her - dinner plates that are actually the perfect size to serve a cake on - and I am getting a lot of use out if them.

3. Daisie Mae - I have been following Meg on Instagram for a while, and recently she opened her online store selling her handmade cushions and lampshades and also some really fun cups and vases. I have two of the pastel cup and saucer sets, and I think they’d be lovely as a daily tea cup and not just a photography prop!

4. Bridget Bodenham - Bridget probably needs little introduction, she’s been making her ceramics for a while now and if you’ve ever been to a Finders Keepers Market you might have seen her wares there. I really like the individuality of Bridget’s work, but also how every piece is also very functional if you were going to use it day to day.

5. Bec Fing Designs - I’ve mentioned Bec before I think, but I will again as I really like her bright colourful designs. Bec produces table linen and tea towels from her own hand painted designs, and the tea towels in particular I have found useful for a pop of colourful fabric in my photos.

Let Them Eat Cake - A Marie Antoinette Inspired Layer Cake

Let them eat cake, is a phrase we all associate with Marie Antoinette, despite the fact that she probably never actually said it.

The phrase and the opulence that can also be associated with the French Royal family which Marie Antoinette married into, has inspired many an artist, film maker and cake decorator over the years. 

This history and opulence was in part the inspiration for this cake, which I recently developed for The Healthy Baker. The brief was that the cake must have pink icing, and use flowers to decorate. 

While maybe not as opulent as some ‘let them eat cake’ inspired cakes, I think this cake presents well but is also quite easy to achieve. 

You will see that the buttercream icing is not perfectly smooth, this is not only as I felt it unnecessary as the whole cake will be covered with decoration, but it also avoided the cake having too thick a layer of buttercream. Since the cake is filled with passionfruit curd, that is where the cake is getting a lot of its flavour, and too much buttercream may detract from that. 

Too make the cake even easier I used bought passionfruit curd, and in terms of the decoration I can assure you that very little skill is involved when it comes to placing the flowers (both fresh and freeze dried) all over the cake! I also used some edible gold leaf which was easy to buy online from Woolworths.

You can find the recipe via The Healthy Baker’s website - it would make a great celebration cake or just a fun weekend baking project!

Recipe development projects like this one, are my favourite part of my job. Creating a recipe with businesses products means I get to think of new ideas, be creative and also try new things. I also get to eat the cake after, which is a pretty good job perk if you ask me!

If you have a product you’d love me to create some recipes with, just contact me and we can chat about what your business needs. Recipes for your website or blog are great ways to show your customers how to use your products, and the images are great for social media and other marketing content too!

Click here to find out a little bit more about working with me.

Recent Cookbooks Worth Chatting About - October 2022

I’ve added a few new cookbooks to my shelves recently and I thought I would share my initial thoughts about them with you.

There are so many new cookbook releases at the moment, it’s hard to keep up! And I think it’s always nice to hear what others thought of cookbooks and recipes. I know it helps me decide whether I actually want to purchase them or give them a go. 

If you like me, love cookbooks I recommend following a few accounts on Instagram (in addition to mine!) - @shipshapeeatworthy, @coffeecanelescookbooks & @lambsearsandhoney - which in addition to my thoughts below (and more cookbook chat here on the blog), should provide lots of cookbook reviews and recommendations to help inspire your cookbook collection or live vicariously through someone else’s!

1. From Scratch by Fiona Weir Walmsley - I like the sheer breadth of recipes in this book. If you want to make something from scratch (e.g. red wine vinegar, harissa or ghee) you’ll probably find it in here. I am really liking the look of the baking chapter, it’s not filled with the same old recipes, yet somehow covers the classics as well. I’m not loving the writing in this book so much, however and as long as the recipes have been well tested and work, I think this book will probably be worth it for the recipes alone.

2. Off to The Market by Alice Oehr - This is actually a children’s book not a cookbook. It’s a sweet story about shopping at the markets and of course the illustrations by Alice are excellent. I think it would make a great gift for any young child in your life.

3. Pasta Grannies Comfort Cooking by Vicky Bennison - This second instalment of the Pasta Grannies books is as heart warming as the first. The photography also stands out in this book, as while the recipes are the focus the human element of this project is also captured in a lovely way too. This book still has pasta recipes but also a few other bit and pieces like rice dishes and pizza recipes. I’ve already earmarked The Butterfly Pasta with Peas and Sausage from Romagna (page 116) to make ASAP.

4. The Joy of Better Cooking by Alice Zaslavsly - Released just last week, this book is just trademark joyful Alice. With its focus on creating more confidence in the kitchen, I wasn’t sure this book would hold recipes that I would actually want to make, I was worried they might be a little basic or simple. I am happy to say I was really wrong to worry about that, as there is not a boring or basic recipe in sight! There are lots of detailed explanations about substituting ingredients and things like that, which I think would be helpful for any level of cook. Definitely a book for everyone!

5. Around The Table by Julia Busittil Nishimura - When I heard Insta buddy Amy (@amy_minichiello_) say this book was Julia’s best yet a few weeks ago I knew this book was actually worth checking out. I had held off purchasing this one as I haven’t loved Julia’s second book and wasn’t enthralled with her first either. After ordering a copy on online, I started with the Spaghetti alla puttanesca (page 130), which with a combination of anchovies, garlic, olives and capers would never be short on flavour. I will have to try a few more recipes to really gauge how much I like this book, but it’s been a good start!

Have you added any cookbooks to your collection recently? Let me know in the comments below.

Links to books on Booktopia removed 15/07/2024.

New Additions to my Cookbook Shelves

Separate to the new release cookbooks I have been most looking forward to in 2022 (you can find part one and part two of those lists here), there have been a few additional titles that have been excellent additions to my cookbook shelf. 

Some of these books are fairly recent, while others have been out for a little while. All have been added to my shelves in late 2021/early 2022 and I have found all of them extremely interesting. This list is a pretty mixed bag in terms of the types of cookbooks that make up this list, however they all have the common link of telling excellent stories and having a slightly educational element as well. 

1. Mabu Mabu by Nornie Bero - I had never heard of Nornie’s Melbourne based restaurant of the same name, however it is now on my list of places to eat at whenever I next go to Melbourne. In this book Nornie shares her Torres Strait heritage and upbringing with us so openly and how where she grew up influenced her cooking. I particularly liked the section called ‘The Native Pantry’ where Nornie itemises many Indigenous ingredients and explains how and when to use them. This is definitely a cookbook for every Australian kitchen. 

2. Oats in the North Wheat from the South by Regula Ysewijn - This book is subtitled ‘ The History of British Baking, Savoury and Sweet’ and it really lives up to that. Regula is from Belgium, however became enamoured with Great Britain at a young age. She has thoroughly researched the recipes in this book, and given them modern adaptations when needed. This book really preserves the baking history of Great Britain in a wonderful way. 

3. Too Good to Passover by Jennifer Felicia Abadi - This is another book that has been meticulously researched. Jennifer spent years interviewing people from the Sephardic Jewish diaspora from Africa, Asia and Europe about their Passover customs and recipes. This book is self published which is why the price is quite high, however if you have a keen interest in Jewish food and recipes this book is well worth the investment.

4. Venetian Republic by Nino Zoccali - In this book, Nino explores the food of the former Venetian Republic which existed between the 8th and 18th centuries. The food is influenced much by the sea, and the territories outside of modern day Venice that were part of the Republic over it’s life. These territories included part of Croatia and some Greek Islands, so the recipes in this book are quite diverse. Nino has divided the book into the regions of the Republic and has given much background on the region and the history as well. 

5. Pardiz by Manuela Darling-Gansser - This book was completely unexpected to me as I didn’t realise the author wasn’t from Iran (the setting of this book), but actually from Switzerland. Manuela’s family moved there in the 1950s, and this experience gives quite a different perspective on the Persian recipes in this book. The family history around Manuela’s time living in Iran is immensely interesting and the mix of food photography, on location images and family photos makes the book even more interesting and inviting.

Links to books on Booktopia removed 15/07/2024.