Stanthorpe's sweetest for a Friday

If I was to imagine my favourite holiday, it would be somewhere cool so I could rug up and possible have a fire going in the evening. Somewhere with delicious food and plenty of wine. And somewhere I feel like I can learn something and experience the diversity and excitement of the area. Last weekend I got to do just that!

For those not familiar with the Granite Belt, do yourself a favour and get acquainted! It is a sumptuous region in south east Queensland where the temperature is just right to grow and produce grapes for wine (especially red wine, my favourite) and an amazing variety of fresh produce. Last week I was spoilt to a few days away in Stanthorpe. Living so close to the Granite Belt and all the fresh, amazing food it offers, I wonder why I don't go more often (it's only 2.5hrs from Brisbane). I was really taken by all the fresh food, but even more so the almost unlimited number of wineries and cellar doors. It really is my heaven! Funnily, I bought more port than I did wine, however I did sample a lot of wine.

This post is dedicated to my weekend away and features some of the lovely things I bought.

German stylin' for a Friday

This week at work we wrapped up the Hamburg Season, which consisted of a collection of performances by the Hamburg Opera, Orchestra and Ballet. The team have been working on this project for about 8 months and put their blood, sweat and many tears into it. As I lead a different project earlier in the year, I didn't have much to do on Hamburg, so felt it was my duty to offer them some praise in the form of cake!

I did a quick Google for Greman cakes and found one, which use to be a bakery favourite of mine that I never knew had it's origins from Germany, and also found a few recipes for the classic Black Forest Cake. I decided the team deserved both cakes, so I made both in my own style.

Christmas surprise cupcakes for the office

Today is my last day of work for the year. It's been a pretty big year starting with the floods that hit Brisbane, the manic clean-up, a new boss, two changes in job title, as well as lots of laughter, a few fights, tears and craziness. So how do we cap it off? With cupcakes of course. 

To say thanks to my workmates for putting up with me, I made some special Christmas surprise cupcakes. The surprise, my Christmas Cherry Jam from the weekend. The jam provides a tantalising sweetness to the cupcakes, perfectly offsetting the buttery icing. ENJOY and THANKS!

A very jammy Christmas

I think I have already mentioned my plans to bake for as many gifts as I can this year. With a week until Christmas, I really have to get moving.

We are doing a type of Secret Santa this year with my husband's family. This post is kinda breaking the surprise (if he or the family reads this post), but one of my people is my Grandfather-in-law. He's a vegetarian and quite hard to buy for (don't worry, was not planning on getting him a chunk of meat, just thought I'd throw that piece of trivia in there). Last year I made him some chocolate sauces and they were a winner. So this year I decided to try jam. At the markets yesterday there were boxes of delicious looking cherries. I hate maraschino cherries or anything cherry flavoured, but I love a juicy, fresh cherry. They are perfectly in season at Christmas, so by default, are the traditional Christmas fruit. So when deciding on a jam flavour, how could I pass up cherry?