Melbourne Christmas: Myer windows, Gingerbread village, Lego tree etc

We went to the city earlier this week to see the Christmas decorations.  Read on to see the fun festive sights of Melbourne.  Above is the Lego Christmas tree in Federation Square.  I love the Aussie touches of Santa with a surfboard and the koala up the tree.

Of course there are lots of Christmas trees in the city.  We walked along Swanston Street to City Square where we ate dinner from Lord of the Fries (on Swanston Street).

It was too late to see Santa but there was a fun photo board and fantastic yarn bombing on the trees.

Over Collins Street, The Melbourne Town Hall is wrapped up like a present.  Sylvia had fun with her reindeer antlers and a giant wooden solder.

To the side of the Town Hall is a Gingerbread Village.  We visited a couple of years ago.  It was slightly different but pretty similar.  Amazing to view even having seeing it before. 

The St Kilda beach is a new addition to the exhibition.  We were a bit concerned about the swimmer in the bottom right of the photos!  Shark alert?

The attention to detail is incredible.  I love all the little shops and the people out and about enjoying themselves in the gingerbread village.

The exhibition includes some Melbourne icons such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground (above) and the Arts Centre Spire.

The most impressive Melbourne icon is Luna Park.  I love all the little folk riding the scenic railway.

Next stop was iconic Melbourne department store, Myers.  My dad and my sister worked there years ago and it was a place we often shopped as kids.  And at Christmas we always went to see the wonders of the window displays.  They often had fairy tales but in recent years have been less impressive as they seem to have been promoting books rather than creating magic.

This year was undoubtedly one of the best Myer Christmas windows I have seen and if you haven't been there and you can then I highly recommend you go, preferably in the evening when the queues aren't keeping you there an hour.

The 2016 Myer Christmas window display follows the story in a book called Little Dog and the Christmas Wish by Corinne Fenton.  However for the 60th anniversary of the Christmas windows, the display has little people wearing gorgeous 1950s fashions and Melbourne icons.  I only took my phone so the photos are not great quality.

This window really delighted me.  It is a vignette of a crowd viewing the Myer Christmas windows in 1956.  This scene then turns around to reveal the mechanical workings of the old fashioned windows display.

A typical Melbourne streetscape with trams, brollies and what I guess is an FJ Holden. 

Then into the Block Arcade.  It is one of my favourite places in the city with its gorgeous mosaic floor and graceful arches.

And the grand dame of The Block Arcade would have to be the Hopetoun Tea Rooms.  Most times I pass it there is a queue.  I am not one for queues but I often pass by slowly to enjoy the cake display and promise myself that I will go there soon.  It is many years since I visited. 

Flinders Street Station is another favourite Melbourne icon.  Meeting under the clocks is a Melbourne tradition.   Some years back, the railways tried to digitise the train times at this entrance.  There was such an outcry that they backed down and kept the clock faces we all know and love.

I think this Myer Christmas windows is successful because it beautifully combines 1950s Melbourne and the magic of Christmas.  If I have time I will be back to see these windows displays again.

Then we went up to the 6th floor "giftorium" where Sylvia visited Santa.  Again we were there about 6.30 and there were no queues.  I really like Myers' retro aesthetic this year (see the above elevator doors).  Unfortunately it seems that someone forgot to tell the music department and I couldn't wait to leave because of the loud techno version of Christmas carols.

Here are a few other Christmas pictures from another city trip for present shopping.  I have a soft spot for Le Creuset so I was pleased to see they had a lovely festive display including gingerbread houses.  After decorating a few gingerbread houses I spent some time checking out how they did theirs.

I hope you are enjoying the delights of the festive season.  We've got lots going on here.  I've sung carols at a Christmas party, we decorated our tree and Sylvia dressed as Santa for her end of year party today.  She finishes school on Friday when E has his end of year work party.  And then Saturday threatens to be 39 C which has thrown our weekend plans into disarray and made me despair at finding our air conditioner is not working!  We are glad we fitted in a trip to the city this week before the school holiday craziness hits next week.

If you are after Christmas recipes, check out my Christmas menu ideas and my Christmas gift ideas posts.

Small gingerbread houses with vegan royal icing (aquafaba)

Christmas is a time of giving.  It is not just about gifts for family and friends.  This Christmas I have also given time, cash donations, baking, singing, and, not least of all, gingerbread houses for fundraising raffles at a community run organisation.  It was only two years ago that I made my first gingerbread house.  So it is with pride and amazement that I tell you that this Christmas I have made four small gingerbread houses.

A few people have said it must have taken time.  I have blithely replied that it has taken a few years off my life.  Yet I don't want to live forever and am happy to donate those years for the satisfaction of having made the gingerbread houses.  After all, giving them away is probably good for my health when you look at the sweet stuff for the houses.  (Actually not all of the above sweetness went to the gingerbread houses.)

I only made three gingerbread houses for the raffle prizes.  The fourth gingerbread house was for us.  So the first three were made while Sylvia was either at school or asleep and I could focus.  By the time I had made the first three I had learnt a lot.  Which meant making the fourth should have been easy.  However decorating with Sylvia required patience and compromise.

I decided to make the gingerbread I made for the previous gingerbread house.  I know it held together and it tasted really good too.  I wanted a few small gingerbread houses rather than just one big one.  I found a template at BBC Good Food.

Four small houses was more work than one but more learning too.  In the above photo you can see the sticks from trimming the risen baked gingerbread to fit the template.  I trimmed them when they had cooled just enough for me to hold the template over them without burning my hand.  I read somewhere that it is best to overbake than underbake the gingerbread, the less rise the better and not too thick because that makes it heavy to hold up.

I wonder if I would have made these gingerbread houses if not for the wonder of aquafaba.  I had considered making a vegan royal icing for my last gingerbread house bit it was too challenging.  Now that I have had a few goes at beating aquafaba and sugar, I was more confident to try it this way.

I tried just substituting aquafaba for eggwhites and it was too runny (see top left picture above) so I added more icing sugar and some cream of tartar and it was stiff enough (see top right photo).  It was brilliant for decorating the houses with fine lines and dots.  (I still had a sore hard from all the icing.)  It was great for gluing the houses together.  And it hardened up as royal icing should so that it keeps a long time.

However when I tried to pipe snowy edges around the roof it drooped in a way that I am not sure the egg white royal icing did.  I wondered if it made a difference that I did the roof trimmings after keeping the royal icing in the fridge overnight and piped the decorations when the icing was fresh.  More experiments are required.  (As if I make gingerbread houses every day!)

I had the same worries that I had last time about the houses collapsing.  Yet they were pretty good, particularly as they were quite small.  The only problem was one wall had a crack in it.  I did a little bit of structural engineering with a candy cane glued behind it on the inside and it seemed to hold together.  I was pleased to find small silver cake boards in a $2 shop that cost me $1 each.

I used a medium nozzle in piping the joins between the walls and rooves.  This how-to-assemble-a-gingerbread-house video was useful in getting my head around how to put everything together.  I found that the rooves in the template a bit too small and were better when I added a bit of length in the fourth house.

I had decided to use candy canes along the joins of the walls and the top of the roof.  In my last house the liquorice I used where the walls met was not straight and the marshmallow on top was pretty horrid tasting.

I found myself in the supermarket chatting to staff about how to break candy canes and whether it was simple or needed a particular technique.  We decided Professor Google would know.  But after searching online, I found it was usually just a matter of chopping firmly with a good knife.  Occasionally they shattered but usually were a clean break.

Also above you will notice that I used the chopping board to wipe all those little bits of icing that get everywhere when piping.

Before decorating the houses, I looked around and scribbled ideas and then just did it.  It was a bit of trial and error.  I really liked the little love heart decorations on the roof.  I piped round tiles on the roof and stuck the hearts where the joins where.  I think I would try doing a more ordered front path with green lining the outside and red inside next time.  Sylvia added footprints to the snow.

And then they were done.  It took me three days.  Wednesday I made the dough before tea while Sylvia played with a friend and baked the pieces in the evening.  Thursday I piped decoration during the day and put together the walls in the evening with help from E.  Friday morning I put on the rooves and Friday night I made more royal icing (this time was more icing sugar all added at once - it was too thick and had to be thinned out) to coat the yard around the house with snow.

On Saturday morning I photographed the houses, wrapped them in cellophane and took them in for the raffle.  And then on Sunday we started making a gingerbread house all over again, as I had promised Sylvia.  This time we took it a bit slower.

I really love including Sylvia in baking but gingerbread houses require a lot of patience and precision that kids don't have.  Firstly I agreed to let her have a go at piping icing on the gingerbread.  She managed to pipe with such gusto that the piping nozzle flew out of the piping bag and splodged icing everywhere.  Which meant more icing on the rooves than I had planned.

We both had a go at drawing plans and arranging lollies on the gingerbread to develop a design.  It didn't quite work as planned.  I agreed to try lining the rooves with m and m's.  Sylvia was keen to do it but then thought it fine to threw a handful of lollies higgledy piggledy. 

So I managed to get some good piping done around and above the door but the piping on the back was pretty random.  Sylvia did the design for the short walls.  I was happy enough with my piping decorations but it was much harder with a 6 year old about.  Honestly, it took long enough without a 6 year old above.

One of the differences with the last house was that I made two batches of gingerbread for the first three houses with barely a scrap of dough over.  I used another batch for the fourth house with enough to make gingerbread men and snowman/  It amused me that I piped outlines around them and yet Sylvia had one with the icing facing the house.  I suggested the wee man turn around but Sylvia said he was looking at the house.  What can you do in the face of 6 year old logic!

So this is the gingerbread house we have at home.  I am planning on taking it down to my parents' house for Christmas. Sylvia is already impatient to eat it.  I am enjoying a little time to admire it.

I am sending this gingerbread house to Lucy and Lauren for Fabulous Foodie Fridays, to Karen (and Janie) for Tea Time Treats, and to Mandy (and Kirsty) for Cook Blog Share.

For more Christmas recipes at Green Gourmet Giraffe check out my Christmas menu ideas and my Christmas gift ideas.

Small Gingerbread Houses

Two batches of this gingerbread dough to make 3 houses (ie the same amount that the recipe uses to make one house.)  Make houses as per instructions but use below measurements for small houses and the vegan royal icing for an egg free icing.  If you want a completely vegan gingerbread house there are lots of vegan gingerbread recipes such as the ones at Vegan Dad or Two Green Peas.

Templates 
from BBC Good Food or use these measurements:

• Side wall: 10cm wide x 5 cm high
• End walls: a 10cm wide x 5cm high rectangle with a 9cm high pitch for the roof (ie the wall is 14cm high in total)
• Roof pieces: 11cm high x 12cm wide

Vegan royal icing
Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe and Geeky Cakes

3/4 cup aquafaba (I used the water off 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas)
1 tbsp cream of tartar
1100g icing sugar

Beat aquafaba until quite frothy.  Gradually beat in sugar and cream of tartar until you have a stiff mixture that holds its shape but can be stirred.  Keep covered with clingfilm while not using and keeps in the fridge in airtight container overnight but I think it might lose a little of its firmness.

NOTES: 

I tried making another batch of royal icing with 4 tbsp aquafaba, 1 tsp cream of tartar and 400g icing sugar.  It was too stiff and not good for my cheap beaters.  It probably would have worked better if I hadn't dumped all the sugar on the aquafaba at once but it was so stiff it was like modelling clay. 

In 2018 I made more vegan royal icing for three gingerbread houses - 1 cup aqua faba made up with almost 1.5kg icing sugar, I also made a batch with 1/2 cup of aqua faba, 2 tbsp cream of tartar and 6 and 3/4 cups of icing sugar or 854g.

On the Stereo:
Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Volume VI: Christmas

Dreena's smoky sweet potato black bean salad

On the weekend I went out for dinner, leaving E and Sylvia to fend for themselves.  Our pantry offered little help.  The next supermarket visit found me buying boxes of curry, tins of baked beans and a jar of pasta sauce.  'Tis the season for convenience food, it seems.  Yes, we have had a few less home cooked meals than usual this week.  So I was really pleased with this Smoky Sweet Potato and Black Bean Salad from Dreena Burton.

It was full of lovely flavours and textures and made a satisfying meal.  I cooked my sweet potato for quite some time and it was really soft.  So soft, in fact, that it made the salad almost a spread.  Great on a sandwich.  Not so good the next day when the sweet potato got a little watery.  Dreena calls it a clean eating salad.  Exactly what is needed in this season of excess.
 
I am sending this to Jac's Meatless Mondays.

More legume salads on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Energising buckwheat salad (gf, v)
Lentil salad with haloumi and asparagus (gf)
Mock tuna (chickpea) salad (gf, v)
'Morroccan' chickpea barley salad (v)
Smoky potato, bean and corn salad (gf, v)
Strawberry and smoky chickpea salad (gf, v)
Taco salad with creamy dressing (gf)

Smoky sweet potato and black bean salad
Adapted from Let Them Eat Vegan (reproduced in Plant Powered Kitchen)
serves 4-6

2 medium baked sweet potato, peeled and cubed 
2 cups cooked black beans
1/2 cup kidney beans (or more black beans)
1 large red or yellow bell pepper, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
I large handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 small handful chives, finely sliced
juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp cider vinegar (or more lime juice)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sriracha or other hot sauce
1/2 tsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp allspice
freshly ground black pepper

Mix everything together.  I found this was best served on the day I made it as it was a bit mushy the next day.

On the Stereo:
Never Loved Elvis: The Wonder Stuff

Vegan nutella with coconut condensed milk

So it seems that the end of year festive craziness has hit me with a resounding wallop!  Hence my slow posting of late.  Since my last post a few days ago, I have been baking gingerbread houses, had our end of year book club celebrations, made grubs for a cake stall, Sylvia had gymnastics display day, we attended a carol service and the house is desperately in need of a good clean.  So I bring you a simple vegan nutella recipe today that would make a good present or just be on hand for some stress relief!

I made this sauce really because I wanted a recipe to feature some coconut condensed milk that I bought.  I liked the condensed milk.  It was a different sort of creamy to the regular one.  But pleasing all the same!  Despite loving the "nutella" spread, I thought it more like a good ganache rather than nutella.  I think the problem is that regular nutella is made with very little nuts and lots of milkiness.  And who wants that sort of spread. 

I suspect a more milky spread might make my blender happier.  I blended the nuts, condensed milk and chocolate into a thick mixture.  Suddenly my blender stopped.  It wasn't overheated.  I had fixed a keyboard that didn't work a few days before by turning it off and turning it on again but this didn't help the blender.  So I put in a support ticket with Froothie and they told me there was an override switch on the bottom of the blender.  Oh!

However by the time I had fixed the blender the nutella was in a jar and a tub.  It was thick like fudge once it set and needed milk to be spreadable.  Next time I would add the milk after the nuts had become butter or even with the nuts.  If I had a better food processor I might use that instead or I think I could just mix the nut butter with chocolate and condensed milk.  I found that if I heated up the nutella it was easy to add milk and make it a warm sauce for pancakes. 

But before thinning down the nutella I spread some on white chocolate and raspberry biscuits to make great sandwich cookies.  Sadly the biscuits went too quickly to make many sandwiches.  The nutella also went rather quickly.  We loved it on a plain rice cake.  I liked the idea of packaging it as a gift but I can't give any information about how long it lasted as I didn't like to count the days it took us to plough through it.

I am sending this nutella to We Should Cocoa hosted by Munchies and Munchkins this month, to Cindy for Gluten Free Fridays, and to Lucy and Lauren for Fabulous Foodie Fridays.

Recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe to feature this nutella/sauce:
Chocolate pancakes with berries and chocolate sauce
Nutella blondies
Nutella fudge (gf,v)
Nutella rice bubble slice
Strawberry sushi with chocolate sauce (gf, v)
Zucchini brownie with smoked walnuts (v)

Vegan "Nutella" with coconut condensed milk
Adapted from The Eccentric Cook

200g roasted hazelnuts
400ml coconut condensed milk
200g dark chocolate (70%)
1/2 cup milk or more

Blend hazelnuts to make a butter.  It can take some time.  Add in remaining ingredients to make it smooth and spreadable.  Bear in mind that the melted chocolate will thicken as it cools so make it more runny than you want it.  If it is too thick when it cools, warm it up and stir in more milk.

VARIATIONS: 
No milk will make it into a fudge if you keep it in the fridge.  More milk will make it into a luscious sauce.  It can also be used to frost cakes. 

NOTES:
If you don't have a powerful blender, you could do it in a good food processor (mine is pretty hopeless at such things) or you could buy hazelnut butter and mix the rest of the ingredients by hand.  To make this vegan you should check the chocolate, condensed milk and milk is vegan.  I used soy milk.  If you cannot find coconut condensed milk you could simmer milk and sugar together until you have the right consistency.

On the stereo:
White Christmas: Bing Crosby

In My Kitchen - December 2015

It is hard to believe it is December already and the year is almost over!  Say it isn't so!  November was a month of vegan socialising and aquafaba experiments.  I can't imagine that December will be much less crazy.  Already I am struggling to keep up with all the end of year events.  Right now I am trying to make 3 small gingerbread houses for a raffle and finish my book for book group before the weekend.  So I will keep it brief.

We are still making pancakes on weekends and when we are out of bananas we make Isa's pancakes and have fun with a squeezy bottle.

Celia's overnight sourdough bread is another regular in our kitchen.  This one was made on a hot day when I put it in the sun to help it rise faster so I could bake it in the evening and I think it probably had a little too much sunshine.

My sister-in-law was selling tubs of cookie dough for a fundraiser.  I didn't realise how big they were and ordered two.   That's a lot of cookie dough to get through.

We've tried making the white choc chip and raspberry biscuits from our cookie dough stash.  They were really great - soft and chewy.  I found them quite sweet and look forward to the triple choc cookies.

Sylvia missed her cousins' birthday party but they were kind enough to keep her a lolly bag.  Most of them are still high in the cupboard and might never come down now Christmas is upon us.

Last year for Sylvia's first year of school I posted about a year of lunchboxes.  This year she took up with a lunchbox (Nudie) that was very hard to photograph.  It has finally broken so I took a photo of her lunch the other day.  It tells much about her life.  She is into Kaiser rolls (I put cheese and vegemite in them and she usually takes out the vegemite.  Someone gave her the tomato and cheese puffs which she loved instead of the usual soy snacks.  She is really into cherry tomatoes just now and I am delighted it is stone fruit season but Sylvia is not into eating the fruit from her lunchbox.

I feel a lot less organised as the school year races to an end.  But then we have had too many lost hats, reader bags, library bags, glasses and lunchbox tubs this year.  I have sewed up her school dresses where the belt are pulled at and put her into a second pair of school shoes I bought cheaply before she outgrows them.  Oops I said I was going to keep this brief!

We bought popping candy.  It is fun and messy.  I tried it in cookies but it was more successful on top of ice cream on top of pancakes.

I have been drinking lots of tea.  E is the chief tea maker and I love a cuppa when Sylvia is in bed and I can relax.  I enjoyed the berries tea but am unsure about these new Twinings flavours.  I prefer a plain peppermint or liquorice.

Pizza with vegan mozzarella at vegan potluck picnic.  I loved it so much but none came home.  Luckily I had another pizza at home!

We have been tempted by Christmas goodies at the shops.  It is the time of year when grociers have Christmas images and kids ramp up the pester power!  The reindeer was a little something to cheer Sylvia up after going to the dentist.  We have enjoyed making jokes "is it going to rain dear?" which are quite reasonable with our crazy hot and cold weather.

Lastly here are some baby cherry tomatoes.  I am diligently watering them (mostly) and hope they don't frizzle on a horrid hot day like another tomato plant a few years back.  They are a sign of hope in the garden and a reminder that the festive season here is one of summer's bounty.

I am sending this post to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for her In My Kitchen event.  Head over to join in (by 10th of each month) and/or check out what is happening in other bloggers' kitchens.  It is a special In My Kitchen even this month because Celia after five years of bringing together the In My Kitchen community with generosity and cheer, has passed the baton to Maureen of The Orgasmic Chef.  I thank Celia for her work and her large heart and I wish Maureen warm wishes in taking over.