Nov 03 2011
Canderel Blogger Cook-off
I was fortunate enough to be invited last minute to the Canderel Cook Off by the awesome Natasha last night. I got to hang out with 5 other super-cool bloggers (Angie, Tanya, Jenty, Alida and Roxy) as well as some of the Canderel and Livewired team. We were hosted by “Salon De Culinaire” in Fourways, which is incidentally, right next to one of my favourite baking supplies shop Kadies Bakery Supplies.
Lovely bunch of Brunettes (photo from Natasha's Blog)
Canderel has a new range out called Canderel Yellow, and one of the products is a sweetener that can be used for baking! What this means is, you are now able to create yummy baked and cooked goods with a whole lot less calories, that are a bit more diabetic friendly too.
We all drew knives to see who would be paired off together, and I picked the Dessert knife, and was paired with Tanya from “Dear Max”
The meal we were to cook, consisted of 3 courses, starters being a Tomato Tart (which Angie and Jenty had to prepare), mains of a duck breast with a plum sauce (Alida and Roxy) and Red Velvet cupcakes for Dessert.
I have attempted Red Velvet cupcakes once before – they failed dismally – more of a pink colour, and not so tasty. The ones we made at the Canderel Cook off, had the most awesome red colour – and the cupcake part didn’t taste too bad – I think its the cream cheese icing that’s threw me off. So I’m still on a quest for a mouth watering red velvet cupcake recipe, or at least a cream cheese icing recipe, that’s more icing flavour than cheese flavour 
We decorated the cupcakes with fresh cherries and blueberries.
We decorated the cupcakes with fresh cherries and blueberries.
The amazing cupcake baking team (Photo from Natasha's blog)
*Random Fact* – Blueberries are GREEN in the middle. I have eaten tons of these little berries and have never noticed that. Mainly because they are always popped whole into my mouth.
The tomato tart was my favourite dish of the evening, and the addition of feta cheese to the recipe, made it even more delicious. I mean who can resist pastry and cheese!!
The plum sauce, which was made with the Canderel Yellow, was mouth-watering, and made a delicious pairing with the duck breast (Something I have never cooked with before)
If you are looking for the recipes for these dishes – head on over to the I heart Canderel blog, where all the nommieness can be found.
We received goodie bags at the end of the evening, filled with assorted Canderel Yellow goodies, so expect some recipes using them soon.
Thanks for the invite Tash – I had an amazing evening!
NomNomNom
Hmm, we have different ideas about the icing… I found it too sweet. I like the tanginess of cream cheese icing
ha ha – I think its the cheese getting to me – i always associate it with savoury things.
I’ll find my ideal icing one day 
[...] bloggers that attended were Simply Delicious, Lucky Pony, Nom Nom Cupcake, The Real Jenty, Dear Max and City Girl [...]