A little bit about homemade subway cookies

I love subway cookies!
The M&M ones are the best and I made my own at home. Going to share them with my action group.. :D


ps. If they're microwaved for 15sec, they'll taste more like legit subway cookies :p

Subway Cookies

225gr butter, softened
2 cups brown sugar
6 Tbsp white sugar
2 eggs
4 tsp vanilla essence
3 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 bag (200 gr) M&Ms

1. Beat butter and both sugars until soft
2. Add egg, one at a time, beating well after each addition
3. Add vanilla essence and continue beating until well mixed
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, soda and salt with a fork
5. Combine with butter mixture and mix with a spatula until just combined
6. Roll into balls and add M&Ms before flattening
7. Bake at 150C for 17 minutes and cool on tray for about 15 minutes

Makes 30 cookies

all the red ones for jt...


And to conclude,
I went to The Shelf, a fairly new cafe on High street. It is so pretty and has been recommended to me so many times, I'll do a blogpost on it when I go there next to try their waffles :D

Look at their hot chocolate! For $5.50 is was pretty special...
Hot steamed milk with a chocolate stick to stir and melt and a mini jug of chocolate syrup for the sweet tooth :D
Very satisfied.

Signed,
Elisa

A little bit about cheesecake brownies

Who loves brownies? Who loves cheesecake? This one's for you!

I have a Studentlife conference reunion tomorrow and a group of girls are baking a lil some'in ;)

Although I can't join them, I thought I'd make some brownies to bring along...

I used Cadbury baking chocolate, but I think it would be nicer with eating chocolate; Whittaker's dark ghana, for example.

Okay, confession: I incorrectly read the recipe I was following- I thought I was supposed to melt chocolate and butter together, but it was actually just the chocolate to be melted, so I had to quickly reinvent the own recipe, altering the method and quantity... It turned out great in the end!

The cheesecake mixture: cream cheese, egg, caster sugar and vanilla.

Pour in brownie mix then cheesecake mix. Dollop remaining brownie mix over top

And marble with a toothpick

 

Half an hour later, you have cheesecake brownies!!

Cheesecake Brownies

Brownies:

200g block of dark chocolate

200g unsalted butter

1 cup caster sugar

3 eggs

1 cup plain flour

Cheesecake mixture:

250g cream cheese

¼ cup caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

1.       Over a low heat, melt butter and chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon.

2.       Remove from heat and cool. Meanwhile, make the cheesecake mixture: Beat all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

3.       In a separate bowl, beat caster sugar and eggs until combined.

4.       Fold in flour and pour in the melted chocolate mixture. Stir until smooth.

5.       In a lined tin, pour in brownie mixture, reserving about half a cup.

6.       Pour in cheesecake mixture over top.

7.       With the half cup of brownie mix, dollop over the top and make marble pattern using a toothpick.

8.       Bake at 180C for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

9.       Cool in tin then cut into squares.

Om nom noms <3

And to conclude,

LOOK AT MY NEW MIRROR!!
It flips around and it's so great to put on my desk when I need to do my makeup, I can just flip it when I'm studying so I don't distract myself!

Signed,
Elisa

A little bit about salted caramel macarons by ADRIANO ZUMBO

Note: I made these from a packet mix!

sorry I know some of you are fasting! :/ kia kaha

A while ago I made passionfruit macarons. Click the link for my previous macaron blog post!

I made these the same way:
beating meringue mix with water until stiff, mixing well with almond meal and piping onto baking paper that has circles traced on the back for easy guidelines.

My favorite part is piping them on the tray.

Baking for 15 minutes, until the 'feet' has set

Some have cracks... but not as bad as my last batch!

Some 'feet' have erupted :/ So I ate them as samples.

As you can see, not all of them turn out perfect. No problem though, they taste just as nice!

Pipe the salted caramel filling on and sandwich gently.

They look legit, yeah?

These came out better than the passionfruit ones I made a while back.
They turned out more perfect and I prefer them as they're not too sweet :)

I ate three when I tried them.

And a whole lunchbox full for my happy friends this week!


And to conclude,
I bought (and got given!) Giapo vouchers from grabone which I treated jt with :)

Some of the ice creams we tried...

 tiramisu and hazelnut

 pistachio and hokey pokey bacon!

 salted caramel (our favorite) and kiwifruit.

One more week til Semester 2 begins! I will be baking more this coming week :)

Signed
Elisa

A little bit about Sydney: in pictures

I went to Sydney!!

Mum and I went on a 5 day holiday, here are (heaps of) photos of our trip...

The architecture

 The view from the Paramatta - Circular Quay ferry

Unfortunately I did not have time to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art

Harbour bridge and Opera House

What the roof of the Opera House is made of! Tiles

The design of the Opera House

On the ferry I overheard someone saying a scene from Great Gatsby was filmed here, so I took a picture. Gonna watch it next week

The houses overlooking the harbour

The shopping

On the first day, we went to Birkenhead Point, which is like Dressmart, but 3 storeys full :)

a black and gold sequin peplum cardigan and lilac blouse from Laura Ashley

Headband from Alannah Hill. i love headbands !

And high top Chuck Taylors!


The food

There are so many Indonesians in Sydney! In Auckland it's pretty rare to hear my native language but over there, I had to be careful in shops in case the shop assistant was Indonesian :p

In Kingsford, the streets are lined with Indo restaurants (there is only one in Auckland that I know of and that is in a food court). Our first meal was Indo food

Really nice wonton soup noodle in Paramatta, which my mum tried to remake tonight but did not succeed as well

Lindt Chocolate Cafe!!
My mum had promised me to take me there ever since it first opened and there was a massive line out the door. The hype has died down now thankfully.

Individual pieces of chocolate

Man it was expensive! One of those places you'll only go to once or twice in your life- and only if someone else is paying :p

I had this absolutely divine mocha macchiato, with a piece of Lindt chocolate melting on top

Lindt sharing platter 'for two'. We shared it between 6 of us and it was really really filling...
Macarons, chocolate, brownies, waffles, strawberries with cream and vanilla ice cream.

Next to the coffee machine, there are two taps of continually flowing dark and milk chocolate!

For dinner:
Pancakes on the Rocks!

In Auckland the only place with a line out the door is the Auckland City Mission :p But it's pretty common in Sydney to be waiting in line for half hour (on a good day) to be seated. But worth it.

Rib eye steak

Beef nachos

and my spinach and feta crepes. So good!!!

For dessert:

Baskin Robbins please come to New Zealand!! I used to have this all the time in Indo, so when I got to Sydney I was like, YES PLEASE! I always have mint chocolate chip- my favorite flavour

Another chocolate cafe, Guylians this time:

the waitress was feeding these colorful birds and I was like, what the?! what are those birds??

look at that dessert selection!

the iconic praline seahorse

I had a macchiato which came with a praline seahorse. Swim horsey swim.

Ice cream selection: pistachio, hazelnut, strawberries and cream, chocolate

iced mocha- it was so big! with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and topping of cream and Guylians chocolate flaskes

For lunch: pear and gorgonzola toasted sandwhich at a cafe. Delicious

Laduree

I met up with my friend Rachel, whom I met through Studentlife and she is now doing her post-grad at UNSW. We had macarons and delicious food and talked about girly things like boys, love, marriage and not getting fat.

 

After purchasing praline and strawberry marshmallow macarons, we went upstairs to the fanciest foodcourt I've ever seen

They had gelato, cakes, chocolates, drinks...

We chose a tiramisu cake and nutella coffee drink to share :)

Happy Lab! It's a candy store that sells jelly beans in test tubes!! Pomegranate, candy floss and butterscotch



The last meal we had was a Thai restaurant in Kingsford

Delicious beef fried  rice and bbq beef

Tofu salad

The most delicious crispy chicken ever.

And for dessert: MARTABAK!

I love martabak! In essence, it is an Indonesian 'pancake'. This one is chocolate peanut flavor :)

The animals

I went to KOALA PARK!! I was pretty excited to touch koalas and kangaroos!

this is a swamp wallaby!

"This is a red neck wallaby... Mum it's not jumping."

dingoes! more closely related to wolves than dogs. I would like one.

I stroked a koala!!! LIFE MADE COMPLETE

these two koalas were super cute, just cuddling each other, not moving for at least an hour.

Koalas actually just sit on trees and sleep.
They sleep for 19 hours a day and only move to eat. They feed almost solely on eucalyptus leaves.

Koala poop and pee.

CAN I TAKE YOU HOME?!

Did you know... newborn koalas are 2cm big!

Video of me touching a kangaroo for the first time:

"Hello... can I touch it? Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
actually touching it with my hand this time, not prod its tail with my foot :p

I was watching the kangaroos jump for a while. So amazingly created! Look at its long foot. However, when they leap they only use the front part of their foot to land on.

Watch the video to see how kangaroos jump.

Sheep being sheared! Before and after :p

Fairy penguins :3 so cute. Not really, they smell like fish. Unlike kangaroos and koalas <3 <3

Video of emus:

"Emus are ugly. God made peacocks pretty but emus ugly... Why is that?"

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

HIghtlight!

Just to show you some of my favorites..

Obama

Lizzy

Justin Bieber!

My uncle, Jackie Chan

Leonardo DiCaprio... <3

Angie and Brad

And to conclude,

I had so much fun at Studentlife 'Up & Go' North Island conference!! Amazing, learnt heaps. See you Aucklanders at the reunion!

Signed,

Elisa