To quote Sara, from Belly Rumbles “If you go down to the woods today you’re in for a big surprise….” “Today is the day that Sydney Food Bloggers have their picnic.”
More than 80 food bloggers descended on Centennial Park for the Annual Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Picnic. As you can imagine there were camera’s blazing, delectable dishes everywhere and lots of smiling friendly people ready to meet the anonymous writers behind the blogs they follow.
Personally I had only met 1 of the 80+ attendees previously, so there were going to be a lot of new faces for me.
On twitter I noted a little pre event stress as participants baked and prepared for the event. As one blogger commented, “Today is not the day to try out a new recipe.”
I went safety first, as I was cooking in a strange kitchen. I chose to make the David Lebovits Chocolate Dulce de Leche Brownie that I have previously written about. Recipe Here. It is delicious, quick and easy, and doesn’t need a lot of ingredients. ( I’m travelling at the moment.)
This story could get very long so I am going to just do the highlights of the day for me. Firstly I am in awe of the “Pop Up Cocktail Bar.” The whole concept and execution was perfect! I will be stealing this idea for future home parties.
Simon, “The Heart of Food“ There were three cocktails on offer with all the garnishes pre prepare. I tried them all; purely for research purposes and they were delicious. My favourite was the Orange Stohl.
Now for the food highlights starting with the cute factor:
I loved this cute little piggy, I am really sorry but I don’t know who brought it. Believe me, although it was cute it was not “too cute to eat.” It was demolished and inside was the lightest sponge cake ever, filled with strawberries and pink butter cream YUM!
Next for the cute stakes was there adorable turkeys made from oreo biscuits. What a great idea …
…and who could go past these gorgeous festive Gingerbread Men
I also thought this was a very clever idea for a rolled sponge. I loved the strawberry Santa’s Well done!
Savoury highlights for me were:
The homemade cheese platter made by Nic from “Nic Cooks” was so good! The Camembert was oozingly stinky and delicious and the Cranberry studded Edam would be perfect for Christmas.
The Thai Chicken in Crispy Wontons Wrappers were so flavoursome and delicious, I couldn’t stop at one! Thank you Sophie from “The Sticky and Sweet”
The layered cob from Vivian at Vx Dollface was magic. It had layers of roast beef, Brie, Sundried tomato, Mozzerella, sweet potato, truffle oil, delicious! I am waiting for her to post this recipe!!
I also loved the rice paper rolls, I tried the Pork & Prawn as well as the egg & tofu, delicious thank you Angie from Angie Eats N Cooks.
The last amazing savoury dish that I tried were the croquettes, I am totally in love. There were two flavours, a seafood mornay and a beef and potato, my favourite was the beef. I am not sure who made these delectable morsel but please let me know in the comments so I can get the recipe from you!
Now onto my pick of the most delicious sweet treats.
(Disclaimer… I was running out of belly space and didn’t try everything)
Salted Caramel Macrons from Flic from “Flick Your Food” were the best I have had, the filling was particularly amazing.
Cute little Mini Rhubarb Meringue Tarts from Muppy! Yummy! The buttery short pastry and sweet meringue with the delicious festive red rhubarb curd filling was awesome.
I also loved the cute little Milko lollies, the flavour was amazing just like the commercial version only a million times better.
There were so many other amazing desserts that I just didn’t get around to trying.
More Macarons…
…and one more serve of macarons…
Here is a picture of one of my dessert plates 😉
Sara from Belly Rumbles had the awesome idea of baking cookies for take home packs. Thanks Sara, my picnic belly is settling down now so I am planning to get stuck into these today 🙂
So what do food bloggers do when they have photographed and eaten their fill? It seems Secret Santa is in order… but not your regular secret Santa, this is an evil twist on a lovely concept.
Everyone brought a present for the secret Santa pile and was given a number 1 – 90. The number represents the order you are able to choose your present.
When your number is called you can chose to take a present from the middle or steal one of the already opened presents off someone. When it was my turn I chose to steal some cute plates.
These were later stolen from me so I stole a Pizza stone. In another round this was stolen so I was again faced with the choice of stealing or choosing a present from the pile.
I chose to steal a canon lens mug which I had in my hands (briefly) until it was stolen from JBJose. Some of the “nicer” bloggers choose to just open the presents from the pile. It was a fun twist on the regular secret Santa.
I have to say a huge thank you to Helen from “Grab Your Fork” and Suze from “Chocolate Suze” for organising the event. It was a huge success! I am so pleased to have met such a wonderful group of people. I now have so many more blogs to follow.
If you were at the Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Picnic I would love to link to your story about the day! Please follow the linky tool below. I can’t wait to to read everyone’s stories 🙂 (Still sorting out linky tool 🙁 come back in a couple of hours 🙂