When Mr Firehouse came home last week and said he wanted something “super chocolately”, I consulted my Pinterest treasure trove of “sweet treats” desserts I would get to one day and found this. It’s originally a Donna Hay recipe and who doesn’t love Aussie Donna? This week we also bought a deep freeze, to try…
Sweet Potato Soup with Capsicum and Spicy Sausage
While I was pregnant with young Master C, I took a trip to Australia and spent some quality time with family and friends. During this holiday I took the chance to catch up with the lovely teachers I completed my MTeach qualification with. We decided to meet in Surry Hills at a lovely cafe. I,…
Sticky-Date Puddings
A few years ago, while I was still actively caking I decided that the world needed a sticky date cupcake. It was easy, I basically baked the mix instead of steaming it and turned the butterscotch sauce into a buttercream. Then I tasted it and I couldn’t stop. I think I had it for dinner…
Mini Baked Cheesecakes (Gluten Free)
I want to talk a little less about the cheesecake here and more about the gorgeous cake stand that my girlfriends got me for my birthday. Isn’t it darling? It sits on our buffet and generally looks beautiful but today it was put to real use! I’m strictly in the baked cheesecake family when it…
Nelum Ala (Lotus Root)
I was listening to a show on NPR here (national public radio, kinda like the ABC if you’re in Australia) where the Asian American author of novel Soy Sauce for Beginners, Kirsten Chen, bonded with the Indian American newsreader over their being tied to two different cultures. Here were two educated, well respected women who…
Vanilla Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream
I suspect Mr Firehouse was duped. You see, a few weeks ago he came to me and asked for some salted caramel cupcakes for the following week. I agreed of course, this wasn’t an unusual request. When I asked why, he commented that a colleague was adamant that salted caramel could not work as a…
Salted Caramel Sauce
When I first arrived in the States and was looking for something to do, I joined a volunteer group that worked in schools during Summer and helped out teachers. This was pretty soon after we’d moved here. Everything was just new and we were just learning how to speak American. During a lesson about…
Potato and Leek Baddum (Stir-fried potato and leek)
Leeks are like eggs I find. Oftentimes required in recipes only in part. “Use white part only” is a phrase that I hear a lot more than “Use green part only”. What happens to all those spare green parts then? I usually chop them off, pop them in a bag and watch them sit in…
Potato and Leek Soup
This is one of the first dishes I ever learned to make. While on holiday in Sri Lanka my sister and I can home to my father’s family home in Sri Lanka to spend the night. My uncle, who had been a chef before becoming ill and subsequently paralysed in his 20’s had gathered on…
Lankan Butter Cake
Have you ever heard of a cake smash? If you have a little tyke, you probably would have. It’s a uniquely American, though now a much more ubiquitous concept, of presenting a child with a cake on his/her birthday that can be smashed to their hearts content. The more mess, the better. Owing to…
akkis kitchen 