A feast of love! ❤️

Our dear friends renewed their vows today after many years of being in love. It was a beautiful ceremony accompanied by a beautiful feast!

Great ideas here for how to create a visually appetising and stunning buffet for any occasion.

A feast of love to love!
Delightful desserts
Succulent Sushi platter
Finger sandwiches and mini cup cakes
Layers and layers of delicious temptation
Cheese, fruit and sweets

Easy Whole orange (rind and all) and mint cake

This easy whole orange cake (rind and all) recipe is perfect for lazy bakers like me!

Easy whole orange and mint cake

You just boil a couple of whole oranges for a long time, then chop and process them in a food processor, along with 4 other ingredients and pop in the oven for an hour or so!

Place a flat bowl or plate on top of the oranges to keep them submerged.

I was too lazy to swop out the water too many times, so I just boiled the oranges for half an hour, with a flat bowl placed on top, to keep the oranges submerged. Then I did it once more for another half an hour. This process removes the bitterness from the rind so is important, but doesn’t require much attention or effort.

Slice the oranges and allow to completely cool

I love using a food processor to make this cake, as it really is a one bowl cake with little washing up and no fussing. Definitely a very easy cake to make!

Whizz the cooled chopped oranges until a smoothish purée forms
Easy whole orange and mint cake

Turned out my fan forced oven is probably a bit hotter than others so next time I’d probably heat it to 150 degrees Celsius and cook it for about an hour an ten minutes so it doesn’t get as dark on top. Mind you it still tasted great the way it turned out!

The resulting moist cake full of orange flavours and a slight hint of mint is delicious! I made this and took it to work today and it disappeared in a jiffy. Orders for more have already been placed.

Moist whole orange and mint cake

I used this great recipe from Recipe Tin Eats but added a small handful of very finely diced up fresh mint leaves to the batter right at the end to add the minty zest. Totally optional though.

Thanks Recipe Tin Eats for the very easy and delicious recipe!

Delicious #Koi desserts

We were spoilt with these beautiful artisan desserts at a lovely Sunday lunch we went to yesterday.

One of the other guests thoughtfully went to Koi Dessert Bar in Chippendale, Sydney to pick up these delicious treats that were perfectly complimented with a divine fruit platter. The Basqu cheesecakes were my favourite.

Desserts from Koi
Scrumptious summer fruit platter

A perfect ending to a long, lazy Sunday lunch…or anytime.

Koi Dessert Bar also has in-house dessert degustation menus and experiences that look amazing too.

Happy New Year #2022 #NY2022 #cheesecake

Happy new year from Sydney and thank you all for following and supporting freespiritfood.net since I started my blog so many years ago.

Mini baked cheesecake with hints of ginger

How the world has changed in the last two years? Rather than being able to travel the world, or even go to restaurants and places in Australia, I have been relying on my foodie memories and experiences to inspire my cooking at home.

I hope you have enjoyed my attempts to try new recipes and create different dishes. As with the rest of life, some ideas have worked better than others!

To finish the year for desert tonight I created these mini baked cheesecakes, made in a muffin tin, with a ginger biscuit base and shavings of uncrystallised ginger on top. Made in just 3 hours from start to finish, they have been given a tick of approval by our family.

I will post the full recipe but wanted to share a small foodie experience with you from the last day of 2021!!

Jimmy Buffett might say “there’s a little bit of fruitcake in all of us”, but I prefer “a little bit of this cheesecake”!! 😀

#Christmas #pavlova

In my book, the best pavlova has a crispy, crunchy outer and a pillowy soft marshmallows centre.

Our Christmas Pavlova this year ticked all those boxes and more with delicious ripe mango, berries, juicy passionfruit, and a topping made of sweet whipped cream and marscapone .

Absolutely delicious, thank you Ashley!

Christmas Pavlova 2021
Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside:Christmas Pavlova

Walnut Banana Loaf #coconutflour

This is a very more-some banana loaf with a crunchy maple syrup walnut crust.

Banana walnut coconut flour cake with walnut crust

Organic Coconut Flour is a delicious, low carbohydrate, high-fibre, grain-free alternative to wheat flour. It is made from fresh organic coconut flesh. This cake also uses the natural sugar of maple syrup rather than sugar. So you can enjoy it almost guilt free!

It just involves a bit of hand whisking and mixing so is fuss-free and doesn’t require beaters or mixers.

Prep time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup and another 2 tablespoons for walnut crust
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1tsp vanilla essence
  • 2 large or 3 smaller overripe bananas mashed
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1.5 cups coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup desiccated coconut
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (1/2 for cake mixture and 1/2 for crust)
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
  • 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
  • Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius

2. Coat a loaf pan (22cm long) with oil, then line with baking powder. The oil sticks the paper to the pan.

3. In one large bowl whisk eggs, oil and maple syrup until well combined.

4. In another bowl mash bananas with vanilla essence. then add to egg mixture and mix well.

5. In a third large bowl, mix together dry ingredients: coconut flour, desiccated coconut, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder, salt, 1;2 the chopped walnuts, baking soda and baking powder.

6.Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour egg mixture into the centre, mix well until combined. It will have the consistency of a thick dough almost.

7. In another bowl mix the rest of the walnuts (about half a cup) with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder and 2 tablespoons or so of maple syrup.

8. Put the cake mixture into the loaf tin and then spread walnuts over the top, pressing the walnut mixture firmly into the top.

9. Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

10. Allow to cool then remove from pan, slice and enjoy!