Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

Recipe

Lamingtons

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Happy Australia Day! I hope your all soaking up the sun either at the beach or in your backyard. For todays post I went with an iconic Australian cake, the world famous Lamington. Now for those of you that don’t no what an earth a Lamington is, its a little sponge cake covered in a chocolate icing then dipped in coconut. It is said to be named after a man called Lord Lamington, who was the governor of Queensland. There are many speculations as to who created it and why but I for one am glad they did.

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Oreo Brownies

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Look at this little baby, this cute Little Box Brownie was kindly given to me from my Dads next door neighbour, this Brownie would have to be one of the cutest I have seen.
For those of you that don’t know, the Brownie was produce by Eastman Kodak in the 1900’s, the camera made photography accessible to the millions, before the Brownie photography was expensive and this little camera brought about the accessibility that we have today. People where able to have there own camera and capture their own family moments, it really revolutionised photography.
I have a couple Brownie Cameras in storage, well they really belong to my brother. But the do say possession in nine tenths the law, and he hasn’t had them for about 15 years so surly there mine? Well I haven’t been able to locate there exact position so when this was kindly donated to me I of course had to shoot it with some delicious Chocolate Brownies. So finally I have be able to pair the two reasons this blog is called Little Box Brownie, Brownie the Camera and Brownie the Sweets, combining my two loves both photography and baking into one name.

Passion Fruit Tart

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Happy New Year! I hope your year has begun wonderfully. At the beginning of each New Year I take a look at my Yearly Horoscope, just to see what destiny has install for me. Last year was meant to be my year, the year of the Virgo, everything was suppose to happen last year. When I look back at it, it wasn’t, in fact the start of the year began very poorly indeed. I had to put loyal and dear friend of 18 years to sleep, my beloved Miss Kitty. Then I had a car accident and crashed my car into another car, my first car accident ever. I have been driving for 10 years, so really it didn’t begin well at all. Then the rest of the year was pretty ordinary. So I am quite sure the astrologists got it really wrong. This year again they speak of another wonderful year, though not so marvelous as last.
 So this brings me to the question, do you believe in destiny? Do you really believe that there is some laid out plan for each and everyone of us? or Do you think we make our own path in life? The world is such and amazing and complex place and that’s just the world, what about the universe. Each and everyone of us are only a speck of dust on the timeline of the world. Really we are not that significant in the big scheme of things. Are we just dropped here to paved our own yellow brick road or do we merely follow it?

In this next recipe the passion fruit was  mean’t for a pavlova, however destiny had other ideas and they ended up in a passion fruit tart.

Passion Fruit Tart
Author: Sophia Purvis
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • PASTRY
  • 150g butter
  • 1 2/3 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • FILLING
  • 4 passion fruits
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 300ml thickened cream
Instructions
  1. Cube the butter then place in a food processor with the flour and sugar, pulse until it resembles find breadcrumbs. Then add the egg and pulse until a dough forms. Remove and press the mixture into a 35×13 cm tart tin and place refrigerator for an hour.
  2. Pre heat the oven to 160C
  3. Blind bake for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven.
  4. To make the filling place the passion fruit pulp, sugar, eggs and cream into a bowl and beat to combine, pour the mixture into the tart case and place back in the oven for 40 minutes or until cooked
  5. Serve with some whipped cream and passion fruit pulp

 

Gingerbread House

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I decided I would attempt to make a gingerbread house, I made one many years ago when I was very young, I was about 7 I think, and it was a bit of a disaster. The whole thing pretty much collapsed as soon as I made it. The icing I used was just icing sugar and water which naturally didn’t hold it together – you have to use some decent mortar. So now with years of baking behind me and a degree in Architecture I decided it was time to attempt a little gingerbread house again. So here she is, built strong with a royal icing. I have decorated it with m&m’s, lots of sour straps for the roof and shutters, white chocolate for the ground, some heated sugar for the windows, and some green butter cream icing for the trees, but feel free to use what ever takes your fancy.
I hope you all have a great day tomorrow.
Happy baking xxx
Sophia

Gingerbread House
Author: Sophia Purvis
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • COOKIE BASE
  • 200g butter
  • 4 cups plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 cup golden syrup
  • 2 eggs
  • ROYAL ICING
  • 3 egg whites
  • 4 cups of icing sugar
Instructions
  1. To make a gingerbread house I first cut a template out with some cardboard to make sure it all fitted together, it also makes it easier to cut the gingerbread out as you have a guide.
  2. Place the butter, flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
  3. Add the golden syrup and the eggs and pulse until a dough forms. Place the mixture in some cling-film and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
  4. Pre heat the oven to 180C
  5. Roll the gingerbread out on a floured surface and use the template to cut it out. Place the pieces on a baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking trays before icing.
  6. To make the icing, whisk the egg whites in and electric beater until stiff then slowly add the sugar while still whisking.
  7. Use a piping bag to pipe the icing on to the gingerbread, you may need to use a glass/cup to keep the gingerbread house together as the icing dried. Decorate with lots of candy and treats.