Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Here is a recipe from my book  Party Food for Girls , I haven't made it in a while, but I needed a sugar hit, and I just felt like baking... it happens! Vanilla Cupcakes Ingredients 120 g butter 3 eggs 130 g sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste 200 g self-rising flour 60 ml milk Italian butter icing for the topping (recipe on page…) Fresh or sugar flowers to decorate (optional) Makes 12 cupcakes Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a 12-muffin tray with cupcakes paper cups. Melt the butter in a jug, either in the microwave or in the oven (while the oven is warming up for the cupcakes). Place the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk, using an electric beater, until the mixture looks light and pale yellow in colour. Slowly add the melted butter and the vanilla essence or paste. Keep beating at a low speed now; add half of the flour followed by half of the milk. Add the rest of the flour and milk and keep beating making sure that t...

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My daughter is making sugar roses. This was videoed by the Western Leader newspaper when they came over to our kitchen for an interview about our book, Party Food for Girls . I think that we need to make a better video where you can actually see the fingers 'working' and shaping the rose petals! And just the fingers (I wasn't even supposed to be in the video myself, I would have smiled more, if I knew!!); what do you think?

photo by Shaun Cato-Symonds Another extract from the book Party Food for Girls : Teapot biscuits! For the recipe and step by step decoration instructions please click  here  and scroll down.  In the post by NZ King of book blogs  Graham Beattie, you can also find photo of the book launch and his article entitled  ‘New Holland’s youngest author launches her first book, ‘Party Food for Girls Extracted from the book Party Food for Girls , photos by Shaun Cato-Symonds, recipe and styling by Alessandra Zecchini and Arantxa Zecchini Dowling. Decorated by Arantxa.

Photo by Shaun Cato-Symonds Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini  © This is our Chocolate Truffle Cupcake, extracted from the book Party Food for Girls . Please click  here  to find the article on Yahoo Lifestyle, with the  link  for this recipe (chocolate ganache included). The book is available on Amazon .

Meet us in Christchurch, at Mercato , for some tastings from our new book Party Food for Girls .  All the recipes in the book are suitable for vegetarians.

Since chickpea flour can be mixed with just water and it will still bind like eggs do it is perfect for vegan recipes. For my Vegan fritters I used another overlooked green from my garden: carrot leaves. I always end up planting carrots to close, and fail to thin them when I should (I just don't have the heart to do it...) so I had to pick up a few little ones to let their sisters grow in peace. Baby carrots are great anyway, but what a waste throwing out all those pretty leaves! Then I read on the blog  Galline 2nd Life  (a blog that I enjoy a lot!) a recipe for a  frittata with carrot leaves . Carrot leaf fritters  I washed and roughly chopped the carrot leaves, made a batter with chickpea flour, water, salt and pepper, added a chopped red onion, and fried my fritters. In the end I topped them with some smoked paprika and a few sesame seeds. Good hot or cold. Natural face mask and exfoliant I discovered that chickpea flour can be ...

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Click here to read Part 6 of the Writing a Cookbook series.

To read more about writing your own cookbook, part 4 (Sing that Contract!) is here and p art 5 (Writing and Living) is here.

Part 3 on how to write a cookbook, click here

More advice for those who wish to write a cookbook. Click here

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The Big Book of Sweet Treats New Holland Publishers Ltd has just released this new collection of 130 sweet treats, which includes some of my recipes. A photograph accompanies each recipe and there is a useful introduction on how to get you started, covering basic equipment and ingredients to make biscuits, cakes, pancakes, ice creams and a whole lot more. The Big Book of Sweet Treats is suitable for keen cooks or bakers looking for new ideas, and it is available in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and other countries. Also (while I am here promoting I may as well go the full length!), if you live in New Zealand and Australia please look out for the latest issue of Dish Magazine with my article about the Balsamic Vinegars of Modena. Have a good week-end!