Engage your senses - Thank you!

Hey guys!

I just wanted to thank everyone who showed up at the event on Tuesday. It was really great!

We were able to successfully complete our assignment and collect a great amount of feedback.

I read it all during this week and value very much your opinion, and I will definitely take them into consideration for our next event!

I would also like to thank the support from everyone at MnM Institute and Michelle Smalley for making our beautiful logo and branding!

For those who couldn't make it, don't be sad, there will be a next time for sure! =D

Here's a little taste of how the event was.

In our stand, we had three different flavours of cupcakes:

- Dee Original - Chocolate Truffle
- Dee Jaffas - Orange with chocolate
- Dee Everyone - Chocolate Gluten free with fruit jam filling

And we also had the traditional Brazilian sweets:

- Brigadeiro - Chocolate balls
- Beijinho - Coconut balls
- Cajuzinho - Peanut brigadeiro

It was a great experience and I've learnt a lot. I hope you all had fun and enjoyed it.

If you have any suggestions of flavours and sweets you would like to see on our next event, I would love to hear it! Just leave a comment here on the blog or even in our Facebook page!

Until next time!!

Thank you.

Cheers.

Engage your senses!

Hi everyone!

Great news! We are having our first display here in Sydney!

This will be part of my Project Management class and I would love to see you there.

In this event we will present a few of our products alongside other great businesses.

Our stand is called "Engage your senses" and it's our goal to offer you the ultimate sensory experience.

Through the presentation of beautiful letterpress print work, incredibly tasty cupcakes and the possibility of amazing deals and savings we hope to present our individual ideas combined in one cohesive display.

This is an event you shouldn't miss!

Just pop up at the MnM Institute and you will be amazed at everyone's work.

See you soon!

When: Tuesday - 29th of July 2014 - from 11 am to 3 pm.
Where: MnM Institute
Level 4 - 39 Liverpool st, Sydney

Cheers,
Dee.

Banana Cake - Recipe

Hey everyone!

It's been while, ayeh?

However, I come bearing recipes. :D

A couple of weeks ago I started a temp job in a Childcare Centre where I get to prepare meals from scratch for the children.

It's a good challenge, I have to be aware of intolerances and allergies, prepare things in large quantities and on a timely manner - but other than that I get to have fun with the recipes.

My first experience baking for them was a wholemeal banana cake.

I started my prep as always, getting all the ingredients sorted before starting, and as I was doing that, I realised that we didn't have some of the ingredients of the recipe. Time for some improv.

I gathered the stuff we had and I had some fun with it. It worked out great, everyone loved it!

For me, this is what it's all about! :D

Now I want to share it with all of you.
Enjoy. ;)

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 1/2 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cup of rice bran oil
1 cup of wholemeal flour
2 cups of plain flour
3 tsp of cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 cup of milk
2 tsp of honey
4 riped bananas - mashed

Prep:

Pre-heat oven to 180°c.
In a bowl, mix the plain and wholemeal flour, baking soda and cream of tartar.
In a cup mix the milk and honey.
Mash the bananas on a plate and reserve.

(These are my standard steps for all the recipes I make. It makes the cake fluffy).

Using a mixer, beat the eggs for about 2 minutes.
Add the oil and mix it for another minute. Add the sugar and leave it beating for one more minute.

Add to the egg/oil/sugar mixture half of the bananas, beat for 30 seconds and add the rest for another 30 seconds.
Add half of the flour mix to the mixer and beat until well combined, add the milk-honey and finally the rest of the flour.
Grease and flour one large or two small tins and spread the mix evenly.
Take it to the oven for about 40 min or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Frosting:

1 lemon
3 tbsp of butter or Nutelex
1 3/4 cups of icing sugar.

Beat butter until soft and add the rest of the ingredients.

And that's it! Wait until it's cold, place the frosting and be happy. :D

Hope you've all enjoyed it.

Cheers,
Dee.

Presentation day...

Hi everyone.

I hope you are all having a great week.

I am having a blast! My week started in a very exciting way, it was presentation week at my college and we had to present our business ideas to our classmates!

I reckon it’s quite normal to feel nervous about speaking in public, especially when you don’t know how they will react to your idea. So yeah, I was a little nervous, however, I had a plan.

The night before, I baked a few cupcakes to bring to my presentation, because, well, what better way to showcase a food business than bringing some samples? So that’s what I did, I prepared a few batches of chocolate truffle cupcakes and off I went.  Much to my surprise, when I arrived at school, I was nervous not because I had to speak in front of everyone, it was about the anticipation. I wanted to tell them about my business, I wanted them to be as excited as I was.

I later on understood that when you have to tell people about something that’s yours, something you know better than anyone, it is quite easy. It’s not about explaining yourself to people; it is about showing them your passion and making them feel like they are a part of it.

Presentation was done, time to hand out some samples!!

The best part is always watching from a distance and seeing the expression on peoples’ faces when they try something you made. It’s very rewarding. When they like it, of course – and they did.

I am very thankful for the opportunity to learn more about myself and about my business – how to make sense of all my ideas and put them in action. On that note, I'd like to thank everyone from MnM Institute for their support.

It's going to be a very exciting journey and I hope you join me!

Cheers.

Own it!

Hi Everyone.

Sorry for disappearing. I've finally started my Management course and will be able to learn how to start my business.

It's very interesting! Yesterday we had our first class, we talked about how we have to get a better understanding of ourselves and what our goals are.

In today's class we had to identify what triggered stress in our lives so we could either "own it" and deal with it or get rid of it; later on, we had to think about what we do to let the stress go. And this is where this message starts. For me, music is very liberating. It doesn't have to be a calm song, rock is more of my thing and I bring this to my cooking.

I love baking with music on. It makes it much more exciting!!

But as you all may know, music is not my only liberating thing. Cooking also helps me to get over a stressful day.

And I don't believe you have to make everything from scratch, it is possible to get a cake, muffin, pancake mix and give it your little touch.

Last weekend we had a little barbecue to celebrate my sister's birthday, and of course, we had to have cake!

Since it was a lunch barbie we didn't have much time and I needed to make a gluten/lactose free cake, so I bought the mix and prepared it with a few little touches.

First I prepared it differently; instead of following their instructions I followed my own. I started by using a hand mixer to beat the eggs until fluffy. Afterwards, I added a little bit of vanilla and the amount of oil instructed; added half of the cake mix and, to finalize it, I added the water and the rest of the mix - I thought it would be a good idea to put in liquids-powder-liquids-powder. After everything was blended, I followed the baking instructions.

For the filling and frosting, I made a chocolate mousse. I had to make it gluten free and try to reduce as much as possible the amount of lactose I'd use, so I used dark chocolate and lactose-free thickened cream.

Now, to make the cake more delicious and moist, after it was baked and a little bit cooler - before adding the filling -  I cut it in half and made a mix of lactose-free milk and a little bit of brandy to delicately moisten the inside of the cake.

And that’s it! A small change can make a big difference!

You don’t have to create a recipe from scratch to own it. You can add your own talent and creativity to any step of the process. You just have to practice and add something that you believe can make the recipe pop! With time, knowledge and practice, you’ll be able to develop and set free the creativity within you.

Remember, you can always make things a little bit more special just by putting your heart and passion in it.

Yummy!

Hope you have enjoyed it.

Cheers,

Dee.

Happy Easter!!

I don't know about you guys, but I love these holidays - and it's not just for the chocolate!

But for someone like me who enjoys preparing a little something for their dear ones, why not prepare them some homemade Easter eggs?

It's pretty great! You can customize it the way you and your family want!

Before my return to Aussie land I prepared to my family a few Dark Chocolate Truffle - with a little cherry magic - Easter Eggs, unfortunately I didn't get to take any pictures, but gladly I could find some examples for you all!

I'm here to give you some ideas on how to surprise your family and friends. Let's see some ideas of fillings for your chocolates!

"Beijinho"

Marshmallow

Brownie

Eat-with-a-spoon Easter Eggs

Isn't this great?! I love making chocolate like these!

What do you reckon? Have you ever tried a Easter Egg with a delicious filling?

Hope you have a great Easter!

Cheers,

Dee.

Pictures:

http://mdemulher.abril.com.br/blogs/anamaria-receitas/2012/04/03/especial-de-pascoa-receitas-de-ovos-recheados/

http://artesanato.culturamix.com/curiosidades/como-fazer-ovos-artesanais

The First Event - My Sister's Wedding

After a lot of work, our first event was a success! Everyone loved the Dessert Table and that made me very happy.

I've learnt a lot over these past few days, I had help from my beautiful family and friends and everyone shared their thoughts and advice.

Since this was my first time preparing sweets for a wedding and in a large quantity, I had to research a lot about it and test the recipes, over and over again.

I learned that, in the end, it is likely that you will end up changing your menu and your technique/recipe.

This happened to me. At first I had planned to make a little cake called "bem-casados" - which means "well wed" - usually given as a gift to the guests. I tested recipe after recipe, trying to get the right texture. I tried five times before getting it right. I then realised that we were giving the guests a different gift and considering the way I wanted to display them (not wrapped, just like little macarons), the weather (it was very hot), the decoration and the time required to finish all of them, I decided to go in a different direction.

Another thing I learned was that, if you are catering alongside another business, things do not always turn out the way you had expected. For example, I had asked the decorater and the catering people not to display mousse at the table, it was supposed to stay in the fridge and then be served with the cake.

They did not follow my instructions, which could have caused the mousse to melt and lose its flavour. This could easily have hurt my image. Since I was part of the bridal party, I couldn't supervise the serving of the mousse. They looked pretty at the table, however they could have been ruined.

Luckly my mousse was well chilled and very firm and so it was fine.

This is something we need to be aware of, because if you are not in charge of the whole process, others may not follow your instructions and this can hurt your business.

Thankfully everything worked out fine and everyone was very happy. I was very grateful to receive their feedback!

I still don't have the official photos, but here are few examples of my sweets:

- Passion fruit and Lime mousse

- Liqueur and Chocolate truffle bonbons, and
- Brazilian nut brigadeiros.

Thank you all for your support!

Here's to a great beginning!

Cheers,

Dee.