Four Friends Giveaway Winners Announced!

Hey All,

Thank you for taking part in the Four Friends Giveaway Dining Experience!

Now it is time to announce the winners!

Congratulations to 

Helen (Grab Your Fork) & Brooner!!

Please email me at passionatemae [at] gmail [dot] com your details - your name, email and tell me when would you like to have your giveaway :)

Four Friends Cafe Opens everyday from Monday to Saturday only

Monday to Friday 7.00am - 5.00pm 

Saturday 9.00am to 5.00pm

Located at 5/29 Holtermann Street

Crows Nest, NSW 2065

Don't forget to bring a friend along to share this experience.

You have until the 31st January 2014 to claim your giveaway! 

Happy Christmas and thanks for entering! I hope you will continue to read my blog for more happenings! 

Thanks to Katze from Four Friends cafe for sponsoring this giveaway to my dear readers! :)

Happy Saturday! :)

My Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas is around the corner...

If you're still thinking of what to get someone, why don't you make something instead?

I have chosen a couple of gift ideas that you could make, and it is quite easy!

1. Peanut Butter Bon-bons

2. Red Velvet Cupcakes

3. Peanut Butter Oreos Cheese Cupcakes

4. Blueberry & Strawberry Jam

There are more ideas if you are thinking of making it for a party!

1. Stained Glass Jelly

2. Nutella Cake (Torta Alla Gianduia)

3. Summery Mango Kisses

Happy Gifting! :)

Four Friends + A Giveaway!

Last month, my husband and I were invited to taste some chocolate treats at Four Friends Café. 

It is certainly interesting to know how the name of the cafe came about...

How cute is that macaron's board!

At a closer look, we noticed that they claimed that their chocolates are all handmade, were all organic and did not contain any artificial colours or flavours! That made us even more curious and excited to try them. 

Surprisingly, we've not heard of this place before even though we often go to the area in Crows Nest.

The day we were there, there was a birthday celebration, and it was packed!

So we took our time to check out the store and look at the goodies she had on display!

There were so many truffles to choose from! 

 There were also plenty of teas to choose from too! Look at that, and you can mix and match your tea if you like. Not all the teas are displayed, so if you don't find the one you're looking for, just ask! But I don't think you would have any problem in finding something you want to have, you'll probably have trouble choosing 1 to taste! :) 

So after choosing our drinks, we chose our drinks - we went with Mocha (Pablo & Rusty), Hot chocolate (shaved chocolate with hot milk) and a tea (sorry, I can't remember what I ordered), we went upstairs to wait on the cosy sofas while they prepared our orders.

Katze, came up and brought us these! Seriously, so many truffles, delicious! I ate more than I usually would. My favourite truffle has got to be the Caramelised Almond Clusters. It is different to the ones I've eaten before, it has the right amount of caramelisation to it.

How cute is the Robot!

Then she came with more! The chocolate cake...omg! the chocolate ganache in the middle was just so smooth, it wasn't grainy at all! Those little tarts, lemon and pear flavours, was really good, the fragrance from the pear, has the right balance of sweetness.

Then the drinks came....

We finished almost all of these...and it was just the both of us...

Katze Ting, the owner was there to show us around. She shared with us her story on how Four Friends started. The whole experience was just great, Katze's passion to deliver great food, just shows in her food. 

You can feel the love that has been put into it. 

You can read more about her and her café here. 

Thank you again for sharing your delicious treats with us, Katze!

As we had such a great experience, we would like to share the love by giving 2 lucky readers a chance to dine at Four Friends Café courtesy of Four Friends. Each winner can bring a friend to share this experience with.

Each winner will get a dessert plate for 2 people worth $40.

 This dining experience is valid until the 31st Jan 2014.

[pic from Four Friends FB]

To get a chance to dine at Four Friends Café, please leave a comment below, telling me what would you indulge in during this holiday season and follow me on my Instagram - Passionatemae & Facebook page - Passionatemae if you have not.

Winners will be chosen at random.

Giveaway closes on the 20th December 2013 11.59pm (Sydney time). Winners will be announced the next day. If you're the lucky winner, please email me your details, more info will be up when the announcement goes out.

Giveaway is now CLOSED! Thank you for taking part in this giveaway.

Good luck and Merry Christmas! :)

How to make your very own Blueberry & Strawberry Jam?

It's so so simple to make your own jam!I can't believe I've not been making it more! I've tried making jam once below in the beginning stages of learning to bake, but I overboiled the jam, and it became so sticky and hard, and everytime I had to heat it up a little to use it. Though the taste is good.

I love strawberry jam, I have it almost on everything when I'm having toast, scones, making jam thumbprints and so on.

So the other day, I was shopping for groceries, and I couldn't help but buy some of the blueberries and strawberries to make myself some jam!

I found this recipe online (beantownbaker), but I feel that it needs some slight tweaking.

Wanna try making your own? Check out the recipe below!

All you need are (makes 1 jar):
3/4 cups of sugar
1 small lemon juice & zest
2 1/2 cups of strawberries, quartered (I just put the fruits in a cup and it makes 3 cups in total)
1/2 cups of blueberries (I just put the fruits in a cup and it makes 3 cups in total)

All you need to do are:
1) Put all the sugar, lemon zest, juice in a saucepan and boil over low heat, stirring it until the sugar dissolves.

 

2) Once the sugar has dissolved, add in the fruits and continue to cook until almost all of the fruits boils down. Stirring occasionally.

 

 

3) It takes a little of practice to know when the mixture is ready, if it looks thick like honey texture, it should be good. The mixture will look like it is too runny, but it will set once it cools down.

 

4) Pour into a clean jar and keep it in the fridge once it cools down!

 

 

Happy Jamming! :)

 

 

How to use a double boiler for your raw eggs and sugar?

Just the other day, I was making Tiramisu, usually I prefer not to have raw eggs in my recipe, so I generally put it over a double boiler. This helps to dissolve my sugar too in the recipe. It helps the mixture from being grainy.

All you need...is a pot and another bowl to put on top of the pot. You can use a metal bowl or a Pyrex bowl like I did.

Have some water on slow boil in the pot, once that's ready, put your bowl of egg yolks and sugar on top of the pot. Make sure to beat it continuously, you don't want to cook the egg.

In my Tiramisu recipe, I make sure that my egg yolks and sugar comes to a ribbon stage. Check out the video, it is just a short clip to show you what it looks like.

 

I used this Tiramisu recipe on my blog, it is an old post, so please forgive some poor photos. I omitted the egg whites this time. Will refresh the recipe when I get the chance :)

 

Hope this helps!

 

Enjoy! :)