Food Bloggers' Banquet

Food Bloggers' Banquet
Monday 12th November, from 7pm
Veg Out Community Gardens St Kilda (map)
cnr Shakespeare Grove & Chaucer Street (behind Acland St, near Luna Park)

Photo (obviously taken prior to water restrictions) courtesy of the Veg Out website

It was really nice* to meet so many of Melbourne's food bloggers face-to-face last night at the banquet that Ed organised! (* My mother read over my blog entries for the first time last week and told me that she liked parts of it, but that I use the word "nice" too often. Thanks Mum.)

Lots of other bloggers have already written up the banquet so I won't thrash it all out again, but will say that I had a lovely evening: everyone was very friendly, and I enjoyed meeting new people with similar culinary/gastronomic interests. Thanks to everyone for bringing such delicious food!

The best way for those of you who'd like to see all the fabulous dishes that we ate (many of them cooked in the on-site pizza oven!) is to check out the banquet photos on flickr. I felt guilty that my contribution (coconut and lime syrup muffins) was much less fancy than a lot of the other dishes on offer, but it was very very easy to prepare the night before and then pack in a plastic container for a full day in the office.

Here's the recipe:

2 and a half cups self-raising flour
1 cup (90 g) desiccated coconut
1 cup caster sugar
Finely grated rind from 2 limes
1 cup buttermilk
125 g melted butter
2 eggs

Lime syrup:
Half cup caster sugar
Quarter cup water
Juice from 2 limes

Make the muffins by combining the dry ingredients in a bowl, then stirring in the combined wet ingredients (having lightly beaten the eggs). Spoon mixture into muffin tray then bake in a moderately hot oven for just under 20 minutes.

While the muffins are baking, make the lime syrup by combining the syrup ingredients in a small saucepan and stirring over heat (without boiling) until the liquid thickens slightly (about two minutes after the sugar has dissolved). When the muffins are ready, get them out of the muffin tray and bunched up close together on a wire rack. Place an oven tray under the wire rack. While the muffins are still hot, drizzle the hot lime syrup over the muffins, catching the surplus syrup in the oven tray. Drain the surplus syrup back into the saucepan and repeat the process until all the syrup has been absorbed into the muffins, then allow to cool... but best eaten when still a little warm! :)