How To Make A Puppy Cake

If you'd like squeals of delight from your little animal-lover on on their birthday, make a puppy cake, just like the two cute puppies that I made for my daughter's 6th birthday! These cakes are inspired by the dog cakes from Breadtop bakeries, but I decided to make them myself using my own flavours (and much more within my budget!). Read on for all the tips and tricks...

Adam Liaw Asian Cookery School masterclass + Win a cooking class

We've got a well-used wok in our kitchen, a steamer I have used only once, and all the right condiments for Asian cooking; but I find myself falling back onto the staples - fried rice, stirfry, and sometimes wonton soup. Lucky, then, that my cooking inspiration has been given a big boost with a private masterclass with Adam Liaw at the gorgeous Williams-Sonoma Sydney Cooking School kitchen at Bondi Junction.

Ten of us eagerly absorbed every word, then were put to work creating Steamed Ginger Chicken, Rice Paper Rolls and Nuoc Cham from Adam's new book Asian Cookery School. So fun! Read on for photos and your chance to win a spot at a masterclass with Adam Liaw to experience for yourself.

The place-settings were gorgeous, with calligraphy by Anastasia (The Articulate), sitting on denim napkins.

Bondville Charity Auction: pretty your kitchen with Australian design

This one's for you, Mum. Pretty up your kitchen with these gorgeous goodies up for auction in the Bondville Charity Auction. All proceeds go to the Children's Cancer Institute Australia and most items offer free shipping! I love the Dandi 8-seater tablecloth and matching napkins, valued at $205.95. Add a little silver and you've got your Christmas table setting sorted, and then use it again and again throughout the year.

• 8 seater tablecloth from Dandi: RRP: $109.95
• 8 x Napkins from Dandi: RRP: $96.00
• Girt By Sea tea towel from Yardage Design: RRP: $22.00
• Nana Huchy They Got Married tea towel from Steph Bond-Hutkin: RRP: $24.50
• Nana Huchy Mother and child aprons from Steph Bond-Hutkin: RRP: $66.30
• Nana Huchy oven mit and pot holder from Steph Bond-Hutkin: RRP: $22.30
• Thea & Sami linen tea towel from Princes Pier: RRP: $25.00
• Vintage tea cup candle from Just Like Martha: RRP: $25.00

BID NOW!

10 ways to amp up hot chocolate - mmmmm

I had the best time putting together this article for eBay's Mum's Business website - 10 Luxurious Ways With Hot Chocolate. I used the good stuff - Belgian Callebaut dark chocolate (thanks Dad), and went to town on amazing toppings and flavourings using items you probably already have in your pantry (I did!).

Head over to Mum's Business for the full article and super-easy recipes for: basic hot chocolate, white hot chocolate, malted hot chocolate, turkish hot chocolate, honeycomb hot chocolate, flake hot chocolate, aztec hot chocolate, chai hot chocolate, hazelnut hot chocolate, salted caramel hot chocolate, and gingerbread hot chocolate. You know you want to!

Images: Steph Bond-Hutkin | Bondville

Sweet Paul kids e-mag knocks my socks off

Far out. How GOOD is Sweet Paul and his amazing online and print magazines. The latest kids issue is chock-full of great party and entertaining ideas, as well as fun DIY activities to do with kids and lots of design inspiration. With just a quick flick through, I spotted our very own Craft Schmaft hot air balloons (seen here on Bondville too!), and now-world-renowned Tutu du Monde in a fashion editorial. Go Aussie kids design! Head over to Sweet Paul to view all 144 glorious pages now.

Image: Sweet Paul

The first of the flannel flowers, whale rock and a sponge cake

What a gorgeous weekend; I hope you had a fantastic time. A big happy birthday to my Dad who turned 70 yesterday - we can't wait to have a family celebration in two weeks.

Yesterday some friends came over for a hike in the Lane Cove National Park behind our house. We made it to Whale Rock (can you see the face?), and we found the first of the wild flannel flowers (I got a bit over-excited), and lots of raucous nesting cockatoos. Then home for a BBQ and my first attempt at a sponge cake for our friend's birthday. Here are some happy snaps...

We also spent a lovely morning on Saturday at the Hawkesbury Harvest Farmers and Fine Food Markets at the Castle Hill Showgrounds on Saturday. It's a great market (not too big, not too small) with a lovely atmosphere and of course lots of fresh produce. We picked up some beautiful spelt bread loaves, fresh yoghurt, antipasto mix, and some greens. Although the highlight was probably bumping into a dog show, also at the showgrounds. It was a real life Best In Show! Brilliant! These people are serious about their dogs; and their dogs' hairspray. 

Did you get out and about? I've been sharing lots of pics on Instagram (sbond) and Twitter. If you'd like to follow along, let me know you are a reader. I'd love to find out more about you too.

Images: Steph Bond-Hutkin | Bondville

Easy Easter goodies to bake with kids (and my first macarons)

If you are looking for some easy baking activities to do with the kidlets over Easter, I've put together an article for eBay's Mum's Business that might be just for you. The girls and I made all these goodies together - they are all simple and great to keep them busy over the long weekend.

There are some cute bunny cupcakes to make with things you might have around the house:

(take out the toothpicks before serving to the kids, of course).

Or some super-easy mini chick cupcakes:

And how about some Rocky Road for Dad:

Chocolate muesli bunny tails:

And my piece de resistance! My first macarons:

To make it super-easy to make with kids, I used the Donna Hay macaron packaged mix with a few adjustments:
1. add 2 drops of yellow and 1 drop of red food colouring to the egg mix to make peach-coloured macarons
2. swap out the dark chocolate for white chocolate to make light-coloured ganache to sandwich between your macaron shells

Have you tried making macarons yet?

Head over to Mum's Business to read the whole article. And have a super Easter and Passover weekend!

Images: Steph Bond-Hutkin

Cookie Swap 2011

I received my very special kitchen-based Christmas present a little early this year; which is lucky, as I have been a baking fiend this month! Apart from a bake swap with friends (chocolate oat balls, rocky road, Mexican chocolate cake), and a Chocolate Truffle Layer Cake for a Kris Kringle party with some girlfriends, I also participated in my first Cookie Swap. I was matched up with three other bloggers and we posted off a batch of cookies to each other. 

The first to arrive were these amazing white chocolate-drizzled pistachio and cranberry biscotti from Yasmeen from Wandering Spice. They went in a flash.

Next was a fragrant and beautifully presented pencil tin full of cantuccini from Sherilynn (formerly of Tees2Knees fame!), now writing about eating well at Whole Promise.

And then these melt-in-the-mouth biscuits from my buddy Amanda at Easy Peasy Organic.

So the pressure was on as you can see. I thought I was being pretty clever making these stained-glass Christmas decoration cookies from the Australian Women's Weekly cupcakes and cookies book (that Amanda had actually gifted to me). Each cookie has a little hole with baker's twine threaded through for easy hanging. I wrote the ingredients on the back of these gorgeous holiday printable tags from Creature Comforts (that I have used for everything this year!). But boy were those cookies hard work. And I'm not sure how many survived my triple bubble-wrapping and eager handling at Australia Post. 

 So when I ran out of stained-glass window cookies, I decided to mix things up a little by making a batch of lovely melting moments (actually, YoYo cookies from Frankie's Afternoon Tea book). Much more robust than the decoration cookies - must note for next time.

I also popped together some little pressies for clients and the lovely preschool teachers, and this is my favourite packaging. The pillow box is an amazing printable from Oh the lovely things. I love that the dotted fold lines look like embroidered stitching.

So that's my baking for the holiday season done. Are you just getting started? I'd love your recommendations for your favourite holiday cookies/baking ideas.

Images: Steph Bond-Hutkin

Low-Guilt Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

Low-guilt muffins! I wanted to make a moderately healthy muffin/cupcake with my girls and with my stash of Belgian Callebaut chocolate, and a bag of frozen raspberries in the freezer (for our morning porridge) I went hunting.

Well, I found this great Chocolate Cherry Muffin recipe over at Passionate About Baking (amended from this recipe at Cooking During Stolen Moments), and started experimenting. I've made these muffins six times now and they are always great. The recipe is super-easy (my 3.5 year old makes them with my supervision), requires no sifting, no beating, no butter, only one egg, and includes wholemeal flour.

My changes:

I replace the 1/2 cup dried cherries with 1/2 cup of frozen raspberries.

I reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup.

I increase the cooking time to 25 minutes.

I have taken out the cocoa (also successful), and used only wholemeal flour (grainy on the tongue - not so successful).

I bet this recipe would also be great with fresh cherries, frozen mixed berries, white chocolate, nuts, etc. Let me know if you try it!

(PS: hemp screen-printed placemat by Blossom Creations)

Image: Steph Bond Hutkin

Donna Hay macaron packet mix

Well, Masterchef helped a lot, but it seems that macarons really have hit the bigtime. Check out my post about macarons back here in 2008 when I thought they might take over from cupcakes. I still think they are a bit less accessible than a cupcake (hence my prediction of the whoopie pie here!), but they are enjoying the spotlight nonetheless.

Donna Hay was super-clever to be the first to bring out a macaron packaged mix to help those of who are intimidated by Adriano Zumbo to take the leap. Have you tried it yet? Clare from mondocherry did an amazing job. As did the product tester at taste.com.au.

I might try adding a few drops of raspberry juice for my big girl's birthday party in September (yes the planning has begun!). Will keep you posted...

You can find Almond Macaron with Chocolate Filling packet mix by Donna Hay in the Donna Hay online store, the Donna Hay General Store in Sydney, as well as various supermarkets.

Image: Donna Hay

Sara's Party Perfect

I was so thrilled that my daughter's first birthday cake was featured on beautiful party blog Sara's Party Perfect. Sara is a former art director for Martha Stewart, so to say I am honoured is an understatement! See her post, "First Birthday Cakes".

Australia Day Pavlovas

I hope you all had a fantastic Australia Day holiday, wherever you are. We celebrated with friends at the beach in the morning and then Mr Bondville cooked up a storm with prawns, asparagus, chicken and corn on the BBQ in the afternoon, followed by my red, white and blue Aussie Day pavlovas. Cute huh!

Image: Steph Bond

Hip Products: Rice Cube

Spotted on the Sunshine Coast recently, I thought these Rice Cube contraptions were a novel example of Australian design and ingenuity. Developed by Ross Patten in Peregian Beach, QLD (initially as a clever tool to use on MasterChef!), these plastic jigsaw pieces are designed to mould rice, or other foodstuffs into a nifty cube shape.

If you've got fussy kids (and don't we all), this might be a fun way to get them involved in food preparation. I imagine a wall of rice cubes might be more enticing than a lumpy mound! And for the advanced cooks among us, you could create amazing sushi. Ross even makes risotto, polenta and felafel cubes. And if all else fails, they might end up in the Plahdoh box. Fun!

The Rice Cube is Australian designed and made using recyclable food safe materials. You can find Rice Cubes in the online store.

Images: Rice Cube

Hip Products: bbqcanvas Stylish BBQ Covers

The focus here at Bondville is on Australian design but I just couldn't resist sharing with you this GENIUS design from across the pond. Based in NZ, the guys at bbqcanvas® have created fantastic covers for your BBQ.

Stylish and practical, I know these beauties are going to sell like hotcakes (at a great price point). The covers come in four designs and three sizes (M, L, XL) and make the most of a tight weave, piped seams and velcro bindings to ward off the elements.

bbqcanvas® co-designer Arjan van Woensel sounds like a bit of a hoot too: “The bbqcanvas has already cornered a niche market in New Zealand, where it’s transforming boring covered barbeques into an attraction rather than some sort of outdoor style crime". And I love the tongue-in-cheek sheep design.

You can find bbqcanvas® covers on the Australian bbqcanvas® website.

Images: bbqcanvas®

Alischa's Husband's Banana Bread

We've had heaps of bananas in our house recently so I have been looking for good recipes to use them all up. This banana bread recipe from Alischa's husband is super-yummy and easy to make too. It's quite sweet with more than 1 cup of sugar to 1 banana, but very moist and I especially love the crunchy almond and brown sugar topping. You can find the recipe here. I swapped out 1/3 of the sour cream for thick yoghurt, and used self-raising flour instead of flour + baking powder (only because I had run out of plain flour). Cooking time was 1.5 hours for me. Yum!

Image: Steph Bond-Hutkin