Just felt like farm animals

Recovering from my electric hand mixer malfunction yesterday, I purchased a brand new mixer...and a couple of other things I didn't really need. Walking into a store to buy cooking utensils and equipment can be hazardous to my monthly budget! This particular homeware store is my favourite, they have the most attractive looking bakeware in the prettiest range of colours ( my sweet pastel pink set of baking tools and baby blue measuring cups are from them).

I cant wait to use these adorable cutters!

A new red apron! ( my old pink one is unattractively grey and in desperate need of a good wash!)










A very useful little shot glass for measuring quantities. (only $ 1.50)



Despite being on an extremely tight schedule this week (due to exams and assignments all in the same week!), I could not resist test driving my new tools! I baked chocolate cookies and iced them to look like farm animals. I know...you must be thinking to yourself, farm animals???...I was browsing through a recipe book for ideas and saw a cupcake with a little pink piggy shaped out of fondant on top, so I thought I would try recreating it on a cookie; but with piped buttercream (my housemates and I cant stand the taste of fondant). The first few minutes involved me being frustrated with struggling to shape the pigs, it was fairly difficult to pipe out pigs from a piping bag, but I eventually got the hang of it.(tip: one big round oval...smooth the surface out, pipe one smaller oval on top and finish with ears which were pipe with a double pressure squeeze). The sheep ( i know they probably don't really look like sheep, but it was what i was aiming for) were made with piped chocolate fudge frosting. The cookies were baked in 2 batches and unfortunately my piggies and flowers came out of the oven a little late and they were overdone. They taste like crunchy cookies *sob*.. but the sheep cookies have a good chewy texture and in the middle they are rich and soft. (maybe soft cookies are just my preference)
I made a quick brunch for my housemates and I early this morning as I would be busy with Uni work all afternoon. It's something I make quite often, and everyone seems to think its good. I call it Turkish bread pizza. Its easy to find Turkish bread here in Sydney and they seem like the perfect base for a quickie pizza. I usually top it with whatever I like or just possible-pizza-toppings I have in the fridge. Today I scattered on top, prosciutto, turkey ham, capsicum, onions, garlic, tomato base pasta sauce, capers, birds eye chilies, fresh oregano and mozzarella. Tip: brush the corners of the bread with a light smear of olive oil to give it a nice crisp finish in the oven.