Nuffnang Christmas Party

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to the Nuffnang Christmas Party being held at the Bavarian Beer Cafe in Sydney.  The theme for the night was Blue Hawaii - dress was optional.  This was the Christmas get together for all the Sydney bloggers - a chance to finally meet the faces behind all the names that we see each day.  There were some familiar faces that I recognised from the last event Chocolate Suze,  Simon,  Jacq, and several others (sorry I will add your links later - forgive me I have alzheimers!!!)  Some knew each other and all was good, but for some of us this is all still really new - and you sit there nervously explaining what it is that you blog about.

I tried to be adventuresome - got into the theme - wore a blue dress (wasn't Hawaiian but it did have flowers on it!) - wore a couple of leis around my neck, and carried a blow up palm tree!!  Yes, we did  did get quite a few sideways glances on the train (me and my BFF).  Must say though we got the most as we stood waiting out in George Street for Miss Insatiable Munchies to arrive!  Even got an offer of a visit to a deserted island!! Me personally -  I would have preferred the Desserted Island - but that's just a food blogger for you!!

We arrive at the Bavarian Beer Cafe - not too many Hawaiian decked out people there - oh well, I am not going to be perturbed I'm here to have a good time - and good time we did have.  I met some lovely new people - I am sorry but I didn't get blog addresses - it was quite noisy and I figured I would pick up addresses later as others posted them (yes I know very slack!!)

We had some great food......

....tried some Ladies Beers - served in a champagne glass - beer laced with lovely sweet concoctions (I had passionfruit) - very good, but there was lychee, cherry, and I think mango.  Very interesting.

....But the best part of the night was that I won "best dressed" - they liked the fact that I went to the effort to bring along the palm tree!!  For my efforts I won an ipod shuffle - THANK YOU NUFFNANG!!!  - and yes, we did take that blow up palm tree back on the train with us - all the way home!!  "The Darlings" are quite impressed that their dear old Mum actually won a prize - and now they are fighting over who can have the palm tree!!

So albiet a little early - but Happy Christmas to all you Nuffnang Bloggers out there!!!  See you at the next event!!

Lemon Yoghurt Syrup Cake

It seems I am not the only person who takes to baking when the weather turns inclement.  Several of my readers apparently did the same thing when Sydney's Spring weather turned sour last weekend.

On Monday while I was at the gym we got to  talking while doing the "plank" (as you do) about what we had eaten/made over the weekend - hey, you gotta do something to get your mind off the world of pain you are in while holding that "plank" for 2 minutes!!

As it turned out my gym buddy had made a Lemon Yoghurt Syrup cake that she had found the recipe for recently in the  Sydney Morning Herald.

As I trawled the internet this week looking for inspiration - what should I find on the Cuisine website - but this self same cake.  It must be fate - surely this is a sign that I must make this cake.

As luck would have it one of my good friends turned 50 this week - now I had a reason to make a cake (like I really needed one!!) I would make this cake for her and take it along to tennis to share will all our friends (have you noticed how all of us food bloggers love to cook, then have to find some way of distributing the food around, so that we don't actually eat it all ourselves!!!)

Lemon Yoghurt Syrup Cake
Printed in Sydney Morning Herald 20/10/10
Chef: Caroline Velik

125g butter, softened
250g (1 cup) castor sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup greek yoghurt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
zest of 2 lemons
3tbs lemon juice
400g (2 cups) self raising flour
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda

Syrup
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup water
4tbs lemon juice
2 lemons, finely sliced

Preheat oven to 180C.

Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time and continue to mix until combined.  Add yoghurt, vanilla, lemon zest and juice and mix.  Add flour and bi-carb soda and gently fold through.

Put mixture in cake tin and smooth surface.  The mixture will be quite firm.  Bake for 45 minutes, or until cake is cooked through.

Meanwhile, make syrup.  Combine sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat to dissolve the sugar.  Add lemon slices and simmer for 10 minutes, to soften the lemon.  Set aside.

When cake is cooked, remove from the oven and poke all over with a bamboo skewer, to make lots of small holes.

Slowly pour the lemon syrup over the hot cake until all absorbed.

Place the lemon slices decoratively over the top.

Allow to cool, then remove from the tin.


I would have taken a photo of the lovely moist inside - but I thought it was a tad rude to take a "cut" cake - and it was so popular that there was none left!!!

This would make a lovely dessert cake - it is not overly sweet - but serve it with some vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream and you have a winner!!  It reminded me a lot of the lemon delicious pudding my mum used to make - lovely and moist in the middle with all the syrup!

Not sure if the tennis actually achieved anything today as the cake piled back on whatever I was hoping to burn up!  Oh well back to the gym for another recipe swap tomorrow!!

So Dear Readers what do you talk about when you are out exercising - is it food?????