Welcome to 2016!

Happy 2016! How has January been for you? We started very differently this year. Took a longish break to visit family in Australia, which was incredible. A great way to see in the New Year...hot, sunny and surrounded by amazing food. Australia has some really exciting restaurants and food destinations...fabulous produce...and influences from near-neighbours in the Far East as well as so much that is grown in the vast country itself. I always leave feeling inspired and excited to get back to the Sugar Moon kitchen for some experimentation!

One of our brilliant wholesale customers, the Egg House Butchery likes to be surprised from time to time...so we introduced this Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies to them recently and it's flying off the shelves. Full of roasted peanuts, with a peanut butter and dark chocolate chip swirl to finish, it's one that I have to bake and get OUT of the kitchen as the temptation is so great!

If you love this combination, then you can find it there currently...but for how long?! Another surprise flavour may replace it before too much time has passed....

While you are visiting this really special shop in Haddenham, pick up some of the free-range meats on offer too. I bought this beautiful spare-rib joint for a family lunch last week...

and everybody raved about it. Ricky and his team make their own amazing sausages too...with guest flavours including the really popular MyMate version (guess what they contain?!) A highly recommended 'proper' butcher...some of the guys even sport handlebar moustaches (although sadly not straw boaters yet...I wouldn't put it past them soon though!)

Another of our wholesale customers is the independent and hugely popular ice-cream/waffle & crepe land of dreams that is The Works. They make all their Italian-style ice cream on-site, as well as the waffles and crepes (sweet and savoury) of course. Their sundaes have to be seen to be believed...my 7 year old nephew's eyes were literally popping when he saw his! They are launching a new Brunch menu in early February, and Sugar Moon has developed a couple of cakes to add to their list..the first is a Sour Cream Espresso Cake...

It has a swirl of espresso & cinnamon sugar running through it....

...and is finished with chocolate espresso beans....

Just the smell wafting through our kitchen is addictive!

As for the other cake, watch this space for the recipe in the next blog post.....

Over the NewYear period, while the kitchen was closed, we took the opportunity to update our beautiful Sugar Moon website . You'll find that it's now been redesigned to be completely compatible with your phone and tablet, making ordering a much better experience. You can also now choose a guaranteed delivery date....although we still retain our non-guaranteed free postage option as well. And there will be some exciting new additions throughout the year as well.

 Don't forget that Valentine's Day is creeping up on us now too...and Sugar Moon Brownies are the perfect way to say 'I love you'...either to someone else, or to yourself!

Thanks for visiting Sugar Moon !

Cooking with Mother....or Aunty!

When I was in Australia recently, one of the things I enjoyed most was cooking with - and for - my niece and nephews. They really enjoyed choosing the dishes and became quite adventurous (they are 9, 8 & 4) although they are currently going through a vegetable hatred phase (except for tomatoes, potatoes & raw carrots with the odd avocado thrown in!)

This was an adapted verson of the Surprise Tatin from Yotam Ottolenghi's wonderful book, Plenty. It had a puff pastry base with layered sliced potato, tomato & feta cheese....

Absolutely gorgeous! Another favourite, of course, is pizza. There's something magical to children, I think, in having an individually created dish to themselves and it's so easy. In the Queensland summer heat, the dough for the base rose like a beautiful balloon!

Of course, they got to choose their own toppings. My oldest nephew loves mushrooms, mozzarella & black olives....his sister preferred her fresh, homegrown basil instead of the mushrooms...and the little one just wanted 'cheese & tomato please'!

 And of course there were treats too. Like big batches of chocolate chip cookies...

that I made into ice-cream sandwiches when it was very hot & they'd been very good! I wrapped them in greaseproof paper parcels to store in the freezer....irresistible!

And on the last Sunday we spent together, I set up a 'cupcake competition' for the 2 oldest children. I was scrupulously fair about it! They each had two vanilla cakes, one in a yellow case & one in a green...and they were set on identical plates. I made up some plain buttercream icing and left them with food colours & various sprinkle & sparkles. The brief was to make either the most beautiful or the craziest cupcake...

The one in the top of the picture was judged the most beautiful...a pale pink glittery butterfly on a pastel green background...

 and the one in the foreground below was the craziest...I loved the dribbles of green on the cranberries especially!

Happily for all of us (!) each child won a different category...and picked up a little prize as well as eating their own creations!

It can be so frustrating when children won't eat something that's been lovingly prepared for them. But it helps a lot when they choose and help create the meal themselves. And I know from experience that most of the faddishness disappears in time...my sisters and I were terrible when we were young. Nowadays we will eat just about anything!

Hoping you have a wonderful weekend xo

mmmmm Melbourne

I arrived home from Australia yesterday with plenty to think about and lots of new inspiration & enthusiasm for baking. My suitcase was so crammed with jars of spices, muffin papers, tubs of lemon myrtle leaves, friand cups and mini loaf tins that I actually had to leave some clothes behind at my sister's house!

I was stopped by the x-ray machine operator at Sydney Airport on Wednesday afternoon. They were concerned by the jars of 'unidentified powder' in my hand luggage...so I removed the offending Jordanian Za'atar and once they'd checked the contents we had a discussion about it and I ended up giving them a recipe for a chicken & preserved lemon dish....we parted friends!

Last weekend, Esther and I flew down to Melbourne for a long weekend. Neither of us had been there before and it was as wonderful as we'd hoped. I didn't really get to experience any restaurants (I'll save that for my next trip with Paul) but Saturday morning was spent at the awesome Prahran Market a short walk from our hotel...

a huge hangar-like building housing the most amazing variety of food stalls...every cuisine under the sun seemed to be represented...plus cheese, fresh pastas, fruits & vegetables, nuts, spices, sweets, chocolates, pastries....a chinese stall captured our attention for a good half hour, the myriad unfamiliar ingredients were mesmerising....I was only sorry that I couldn't buy any of the superb produce as it was so tempting to imagine inventing & cooking all sorts of new dishes. I'll post more about Prahran soon when I've trawled properly through my copious photographs.
Within the market area, there were also world-class coffee shops such as Market Lane

with it's menu of world coffees to choose from, all freshly roasted, ground to order and smelling so gorgeous...it was almost impossible to choose. But my old favourite, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe won - introduced to me years ago by that master Coffee Man, Charlie Massey at Hill & Valley Coffee.

It was smooth, deep and superb with a fat, crusty almond croissant as we rested our weary feet....bliss!

Also within the market complex was Essential Ingredient. I just love food stores like this - similar to New York's Dean & Deluca....

Essential carries a huge and beautifully presented range of everything foodie...from french copper pans of every size to miniature pastry brushes (yes, I bought 5...) and from imported silver dragees to preserved hibiscus flowers, this store was like a temple to cookery. Often vastly overpriced too...but I forgave it because of it's sheer beauty & size. There is also a cookery school on the first floor, offering myriad courses and special days dedicated to specific techniques and ingredients. Our very own

Yotam Ottolenghi featured there earlier this year, and the very best Australian & world chefs regularly make appearances. Definitely somewhere to visit if you're ever in Melbourne.

We only really scratched the surface of this diverse, vibrant city last week. There's so very much more to see and I know that I'll be back. I miss it already.....have a great weekend!

Delicious Down Under.....

On Wednesday I'm once again making the epic trip across the world to see my beloved sister and her family in Australia...to be honest, I can hardly wait!

I'm baking every minute of the day at the moment in order to fulfil my customers' cake needs while I'm away, and it's hard work. I have to leave shortly to make 40 trays of brownies before we meet friends for lunch (I'm leaving Paul behind, so want to make time for him too!) I will be so pleased to finally get on the plane, get some magazines out, plan my movie-watching schedule and relax for 23 hours...uncontactable & in a bubble of lost hours...

I thought I'd muse on what I'm most looking forward to, foodwise, when I get there . Australia is a fabulous foodie heaven, full of amazing fresh produce and fresh flavours...there's so much to enjoy!

a 'long black' coffee at The Coffee Club on Mooloolaba Beach front is a must in the morning....

perhaps a raspberry friand (or two).....

fish and chips on the beach with my niece and nephews the night before my birthday (a family tradition!)

and lots of new discoveries too....I love the asian foods there and Esther and I are going for a long weekend to Melbourne (a first for both of us) where, knowing us, noodles will feature heavily.

It's going to be fantastic.

Anyone else heading towards or in 'Australia Fair' & visiting Sydney (and who doesn't want to visit Sydney?) should try and drop in on the month long

Sydney Food Festival. There are events all through October, but next weekend (9-10) will be extra special with demonstrations by many amazing international chefs including our own Marcus Wareing, Rick Stein and...my very favourite....Yotam Ottolenghi. It should be fantastic and I'm only sorry that my trip doesn't allow me to be there.

I'll talk to you soon, from 12,500 miles away.....have a great week xo