This is another amazing marzipan based treat. You find these sweets in the medieval mountain top town of Erice, in Sicily, a town that is renowned for its almond based sweets. Since discovering Maria Grammatico’s recipe book, I have been making all her amazing sweets, one after the other. If you follow this blog, you…
CHOCOLATE AND RASPBERRY MINI CUPCAKES
I have only recently discovered the “world of cupcakes”. I had never eaten one before moving to Australia and I had not made any up until a month ago when I made my Triple Salted Caramel Cupcakes for the first time. Victoria adores cupcakes: she cannot resist them! Whenever she sees them at a party,…
VICTORIA’S 4TH BIRTHDAY
As many of you know, these last few days have been quite hectic for me as I have been organising my eldest daughter’s birthday. Victoria turned 4 on July 16th and we had a nice and quite family day. We hid her birthday presents and she had fun finding them and opening them. She loved…
TRIPLE SALTED CARAMEL CUPCAKES AND THE GIVEAWAY WINNER
I must admit it: I am officially in love with salted caramel! I have discovered only recently and now it is on the top of my “sweet treats” list! As always when I like something, I have to find a recipe to make it at home so that I can have it whenever I feel…
ADRIANO ZUMBO – MACARONS REVIEW
A couple of weeks ago I started a section on reviews. If you have missed the first review of the series, make sure to check it out as it was about some of the best pizza in Sydney at Caffe’ Moretti. Today I am changing topic: no pizza, no Italian food at all. Since I…
QUINCE JELLY MACARONS AND MY FIRST GIVEAWAY
After making cotognata I had some left over “quince water” in which I had cooked the quinces… that liquid makes some fantastic quince jelly! But I did not want to eat the jelly by itself… I wanted to make something unique to celebrate a special occasion, but more on that later. What’s more special than…
DOUBLE NUTELLA KULFI WITH TOASTED HAZELNUTS – MY GUEST POST OVER AT FLAVOUR FIESTA
When Divya asked me to write a guest post for her beautiful blog Flavour Fiesta I was so honoured and excited! She has an amazing site… please check it out!!! It is a feast both for your tastebuds and for your eyes. She is a very talented foodie and her recipes are mouthwatering. Not only,…
COTOGNATA – SICILIAN QUINCE PASTE
This is another one of my family’s recipes. It is a traditional sweet of many Italian regions (especially in the south) and when my parents were kids, it used to be among the most awaited gifts that Sicilian children would get for “all souls day”. You can find out more about the traditions of “all…
CHOCOLATE COVERED MARZIPAN RUM BALLS – MY GUEST POST OVER AT SANDRA’S EASY COOKING
A few days ago I got an email from Sandra of Sandra’s Easy Cooking asking me if I would write a guest post for her fantastic blog. Would I?? Of course I would! I felt so flattered and honored to be asked by one of my favorite foodies to be a guest over at her…
THYME SCENTED LEMON COOKIES
The other day I had some fresh thyme left in my kitchen and I was trying to figure out how to use it… the only thing I knew was that I wanted to make something sweet with it as I am always intrigued by the use of herbs in sweets. I surfed the web for…
PINEAPPLE LAYERED DESSERT
This is a very easy dessert and you can make it in a matter of a few minutes. It is so easy to make that I made it for my husband’s birthday, the day before our second daughter was born (yes… they were born on 2 consecutive days!). You can make your own custard or…
STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM IN PUFF PASTRY CASES
When I was a child I didn’t like sweets made with puff pastry: they would crumble so easily leaving my hands dirty and sticky. Traditionally, Italians do not use puff pastry for sweets very often… I remember eating lots of it in France though. Well, I have grown up and the times when I did…
MACARONS WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE AND MINT GANACHE
I must admit I had never attempted to make macarons before! Yes… you got that right! I have always been intimidated by how “precise” you need to be. Besides, I am not a “baker”. Mind you, I do bake occasionally (and I am doing more so lately), but I tend to use the stove more…
ROSE CHEESECAKE
Lately I have really felt like eating cheesecake. I had some cream cheese in the fridge, but I didn’t feel like making a fruit cheesecake. While looking in the pantry I saw a bottle of rose syrup that we bought from the Indian grocery store. We all love this syrup and we drink it diluted…
GENOVESI ERICINE – MY FIRST GUEST POST
I have recently been invited by the charming Jill to write a guest post for her beautiful site, Mad About Macarons… She has just created a section on her site to publish recipes that require egg yolks. The reason is simple: the more egg yolks you use, the more egg whites you are going to…
BEIJINHOS DE COCO – COCONUT KISSES
This is not an Italian recipe. It is a Brazilian coconut sweet usually served during birthday parties. Clint ate this at work as one of his ex colleagues was Brazilian and brought it to share with all the co-workers… and as always when my husband likes some food, he asks me to replicate it. I…
CHOCOLATE AND COCONUT TARTELETTES
Last year I was looking for a good chocolate tart recipe and I came across this Rich Chocolate Coconut Tart. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to try it even though the shell worried me… it looked so hard to make and so delicate. Instead it was really easy to make, so…
ONLINE BAKE SALE FOR JAPAN – MANU’S MENU SNEAK PEEK
As many of you already know, Manu’s Menu will take part to the Online Bake Sale for Japan organised by Sabrina at The Tomato Tart. More than 90 food bloggers around the world have come together to support the initiative. Each of us will bake one or more goodies that will be put up for…
MARZIPAN – MARTORANA
This is a traditional Sicilian sweet made with almond meal. When my parents were kids, children in Sicily would get presents for “all souls day”. The dead people of the family were seen as “friendly ghosts” who would come back home on the night of “i morti” (“the dead”) to gift the new generations with…
PANNA COTTA “TRICOLORE”
This is the last dish of the menu that I have created to celebrate the 150 years of the Unification of Italy. When I decided to make a theme menu for the occasion, this dish was the first I pictured in my mind. I knew I wanted to make a layered sweet to represent the…
MANGO LASSI
This is definitely not an Italian recipe!! Lassi is a yogurt based Indian drink that can be savory or, like in this case, sweet. I had never drunk lassi before meeting my husband; actually I have to admit that I knew very little about Indian food before. He introduced me to many new ingredients and…
CHIACCHIERE
This is a very special time of the year for all Italian children: it is “Carnevale”. It is the time to dress up as a princess or a super hero and go around town to play tricks on people or throw coriandoli (round shaped paper confetti) in the air. There are many famous Carnevali in…
