YUM: ice-cream sandwiches

YUM.YUM.YUM.

back in the day when i could eat real ice-cream, maxibons were one of my favourite ice-creams. the chewy biscuit and ice-cream. just yum!

i'd been researching ice cream sandwiches and finally decided to take a leap and give them a go. well, they did not disappoint! they were amazing. 

because i needed them to be gluten and dairy free, i adapted this recipe and i made my own ice cream too. 

THE RECIPE:

If you don't have an ice-cream maker, you will need to make this part a day ahead. Either way, make sure you put a tray to make the ice-cream in or the ice-cream bowl in the freezer at least 24 hrs beforehand.

ice-cream:

this recipe is an egg based custard ice-cream, but if you're running short on time, this is a great egg free ice-cream base (but makes a heap, so i'd probably quarter the recipe, and i'd use lactose free milk as the single cream and lactose free cream for the double cream).

150ml lactose free cream

150ml milk (rice, almond, lactose free)

a spoonful of vanilla paste

3 egg yolks

80g caster sugar

Place the cream and milk in a pan and bring to just before boiling point with the vanilla. Set aside and let cool for about 10 minutes. Put your egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale and creamy. Mix in the milk mixture and return to a clean pan. Heat over a low heat stirring pretty much constantly until it's a custardy consistency and coats the back of the spoon (if you swipe your finger across the back of the spoon, it should leave a clear trail).  Transfer this back into a bowl or jug and get some gladwrap. Place the gladwrap over it, so the gladwrap touches the entire surface of the custard mixture - make sure no air or bubbles are on the top - this stops a skin forming. Set this aside either in the fridge for a few hours or if you're impatient like me in the freezer for an hour or so - just be sure to keep stirring it to let out the heat. 

Now you can either pop it in your ice-cream maker and follow the instructions, or alternatively, pour it into your tin which has been in the freezer (i like to line it with gladwrap) and beat with a fork every half an hour or so, replacing it back in the freezer in between with the gladwrap cover again touching the surface on top. This can take up to 4 hours. It's a process! You may like to pop it in the blender to break up more of the ice particles and then refreeze again - depends how particular you are :)

cake/cookie part:

adapted from this recipe

1 1/3 cups plain flour (gf)

1/3 cup + half of a 1/4 cup of cocoa powder

1/2 cup and a good tblspoon butter, softened (nuttlex)

1/2 cup white sugar

pinch of salt

1 egg yolk

vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. 

Beat the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat. Sift the flour and cocoa onto a plate/bowl and add this a bit at a time while mixing until well combined. 

Line a baking tray with baking paper and lightly spray with oil. spread the batter onto the tray quite thinly. it doesn't raise much, so however thick it is will roughly be how thick the biscuit part is. cook this is the oven until baked and firm to the touch. about 10 minutes. 

remove from the tray + cool on a rack. i popped mine in the freezer to cool because again, i'm impatient. 

assemble:

cut the chocolate base in half and spread the slightly softened ice-cream onto it and spread a thick layer towards the edges. pop the other chocolate base on top and wrap in glad wrap tightly. place in the freezer until hardened again and slice into 6 or so pieces. you can now either leave them like this, or dip the edges in 100s and 1000s, or chocolate flakes - it's up to you. i wrapped my individual sandwiches in gladwrap and popped them back in the freezer, ready to pull out as i wanted one. 

you could use this basic recipe and make so many combinations. here are some combo's i'd like to try:

• banana + almond icecream | choc bikkie
• vanilla + 100s 1000s | choc bikkie
•  chocolate icecream | peanut butter biscuit
• vanilla icecream + a swipe of nutella | choc bikkie/vanilla bikkie

for those who can eat real ice-cream, i'd definitely skip the making the ice-cream stage and buy a tub of ice-cream and spread it over the base. for those who can't, it's worth all the steps!

enjoy. 

tara louise. 

Read more...

The food must have been amazing...

Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (Barcelona, Spain)

I saw this pin on pinterest this morning and added it to my 'i need to go there' board.

I can't believe we went to barcelona and didn't make it to this church.

we are crazy.

i know, it's like going to rome and not seeing the colloseum.

but hey, the food was so good!

we had planned to go and this was the one thing i wanted to see, but we became side tracked by the amazing food (cod fish balls - the best i've ever eaten! and lovely fresh juices to be more precise) and failed to see much of Barcelona.

We only saw what was in between each amazing restaurant, bar, cafe or market.

Next time hey!

tara louise.  

Read more...

what i wore to work...

the past couple of weeks, i've apparently been running on a few key looks:

as you can probably see, i tend to find one thing that works and keep going with it!

i might recreate some of these looks again this week. 

i'm needing outfits that require layers - it's freezing when i go to work, cold inside the office and hot outside by 1pm, then freezing by the time i get home. it's like living in melbourne. ridiculous.

i do like the weather at this time of year though. cool some days and deliciously and suprisingly hot the next. 

can you also tell i'm steering away from the professional sultry modely looks most bloggers take when showcasing their wardrobes. i'm heading towards lots of pouting, silly looks and funny posing.

makes for a more interesting shot i think. hahaha. 

makes me feel less like a dork too - i'm no model so won't try to be!

enough said.

tara louise. 

Read more...

my week in photos

it's a double edition this week. 

as i mentioned i was super busy and was getting sick last weekend, so nothing much happened on the blog front. 

last week, i bought these fancy glittery shoes. we went to hard rock cafe for dinner and i had my fave cocktail there - a pickled tink. it was mothers day last sunday. i bought mum some of the same shoes as in the first pic but leopard print ones - she has a thing for leopard print. mum, dad, myself and gramps met my aunt, uncle and cousin up at southbank for lunch and we'd had brekky with our friends. i had monday off sick with a cold and painted my nails with a very subtle geo print. i continued for the rest of the week to rattle around with a huge amount of vitamins inside me. i organised my desk space at work - i need everything out in plain view so i don't forget anything. i'm going to a masquerade ball next weekend, so have been trying on masks - i'm loving this cat one! we went to the surf club - currumbin - for my brother in laws birthday last night; i asked my husband for a straw in my ginger beer and this is what he came back with. i made a delicious smoothie for brekky this morning. i've also been crafting and making things today. 

this week was a long tough one. i was exhausted yesterday after it. i've been sick, husbands been sick, i've had interviews and doctor appointments for both of us by the truck load. fun and games! i've been in a bit of a funk all week. 

i'm hoping next week will be less of a right off and i'll get more done! 

i'm in a creative buzz at the moment, so would love to not waste a minute of it.

hope you've had a lovely week and an even better one next week. 

tara louise. 

Read more...

2012 A/W collection

A super dooper quick post before I rush off to work this morning.

I really want to share my inspiration mood board thingy for my collection this Autumn/Winter for tara louise designs. .  I'm loving how unwintery it is - i'm clearly not ready for the colder months am i!? and well, when that's the case, why not brighten up cold wintery days with neons, pom poms, polka dots and geo prints.

bring on winter i say! 

bring it on.

tara louise. 

Read more...

snot blocked.

it's been unwillingly quiet on the blog front this past week.

here's all the excuses under the sun as to why this has been the case:

• life's been busy.
• i've got a cold + feel crappy - hence the snot block title :)
• life's been busy
• full time work gets in the way of the fun things (like blogging) - although i'm writing this post while at work now. naughty i know!
• we had a chocka block weekend with mothers day.
• i have a few appointments i'm getting prepared for this week.
• i've just been feeling rather overwhelmed by life in general.

so there's all my excuses as to why it's been a quiet week on the blog. i had full intentions on it being less quiet, but what will be will be!

here's a pretty picture for you to accompany my post of excuses:

let me sleep world!

tara louise.

Read more...

YUM: Peanut Butter Cups

When I saw this recipe on pinterest (where else!?) I just had to give it a  go. I love Reece's peanut butter cups, but haven't been able to eat them since I could no longer eat chocolate. These are so much better though! They are amazing!!

Here is the recipe:

Grab 2 blocks of dairy/lactose free chocolate (big w has a yummy one! or use lindt 70% cocoa). 

Break it up into nice tiny pieces.

Melt it in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. 

When it's melted, mix in a tablespoon of coconut oil - if you don't have that, a bit of copha or butter should do the trick.

Pop some patty pan cases in a muffin tray (this recipe makes about 8-10 treats).

I spray the patty pans with a bit of oil - it stops the paper sticking to the chocolate.

Take a spoonful (about 1 tablespoon or so) of melted chocolate and pop it into the bottom of the patty pan and then twirl it in your hands to spread the chocolate around on the bottom and up the sides a bit.

When you've done this to all of them pop it in the freezer for about 10mins. 

Get a big spoonful of peanut butter and a tablespoon of icing sugar.

Mix together in a bowl (it should be way less sticky than before) and shove it in the freezer too.

After the 10mins, or when the chocolate has hardened, take the chocolate bottoms and peanut butter mix out of the freezer. 

Pop a small spoonful of the peanut butter on the chocolate bottom and i spread it out a bit over the base.

How much peanut butter you put in depends on what you prefer with a chocolate - peanut butter ratio.

Once you've done that to all of them, cover them all with the rest of the chocolate.

It should cover the tops and meet the sides of the chocolate bottoms you did before.

And then if you fancy it, pop a bit of sea salt on the top.  

Man, it tastes so good!

The original recipe was for peanut butter and jam cups, but i'm not the biggest fan of jam with peanut butter, so i stuck to the original!

And you know you've enjoyed something when it's all over your face!

I sent this pic to my husband on my way back to work from lunch one day...

(he'd been laughing at me the night before because I had chocolate all over my face)

I leave these in the freezer until I've eaten them all - which, let's be honest, takes no time at all.

I prefer to leave them out of the freezer about 10 mins before i eat it, as I quite like all my teeth firmly in my mouth at the moment. 

i hope you enjoy these as much as i do. i think it's time to make another batch in fact!

tara louise. 

Read more...

DIY: Fabric Tape

i've had this tutorial in the pipeline for, well ages. so here it is! 

i have a huge love affair with mt tape and saw some fabric tape in a shop once and realised i could quite easily make it myself. and in the pretty fabrics i liked. it's so simple.

Here are a few ways of using your new fabric tape - and I know some of it is mt tape, but you have to use your imagine and do the same ideas with fabric tape. 

one | two | three | four | five | six | seven

The rest really is left up to you + your creativity. 

tara louise.

Read more...

my week in photos...

this week i made a pretty mini cake for a friend (i may have mentioned this one last week : / ). i made ice cream sandwiches. i giggled at my nephews little bum crack - hehehe. husband bought me a watch to match his own - his and hers watches! i did some exit condition reports at work + got quite overwhelmed during the week and was ready to bite someone's head off. I had the handmade market. i got flowers from the farmers market. i wore my yellow hightops today and i have just popped down the beach to marvel at the "super moon". my photos turned out like day light almost -  the moon is rather bright! 

how's your week been? i hope you have an even better one next week!

bye bye.

tara louise. 

Read more...

This little piggy went to market...

it's market day tomorrow. 

if you live on the gold coast we'd love to meet you at our little market on the beachfront.

all uniquely handmade treats by our stallholders. 

here are a couple of shots from our april market:

we hope the weather stays fine and we hope you can join us!

if you would like to apply for a stall at the june market, please email us at

thehandmademarket@hotmail.com

tara louise. 

Read more...

What I wore to work...

It's been a little while since I have put up a what i wore to work post, so i have a few shots to share with you:


(and as you can see it was still warm when i started taking them!)

on high rotation are my black t-bar flats from amsterdam, my new browny taupy coloured dress from next and well anything else i got overseas! 

i'm pulling out the winter clothes + coats now and trying to work them in different ways to last year. 

tara louise. 

Read more...

1 million acts of kindness

Do you watch The Project on channel 10? If so you'll know what I'm harping on about. If not, then I shall explain.  Last night they did a feature on an organisation called 1Million Acts of Kindness. It's all about sharing the love and helping others out - making you feel good and the person/people you've helped out great too. I jumped onto their website and really want to take on their 8 week challenge. It's a free challenge which starts mid-May and they give you daily examples of how to be kind, such as letting someone in front of you when you're in a queue. I'm thinking of creating a team and basically want to know if you would like to be extra nice with me for 8 weeks. I think this is such a lovely idea and I'm keen to get moving on it.


I watched this video last night on the website and it's so cool. It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and i seriously want to do this (i'm running the Gold Coast 10km marathon - wonder if they'd do this for me!! haha).



So are you into making people feel all warm and fuzzy? 


Would you like to make someone's day shine a bit brighter? 


If so, please head on over to my facebook page and show your interest by commenting on the post about this. 


tara louise.


PS. They also have a pinterest page.

Read more...