2012 Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic

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.

Sydney Food Bloggers
Anonymous Sydney Food Bloggers

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.”

Chocolate Brownie
Chocolate Dulce de Leche Brownie

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.)

Pop Up Bar
Simon’s Pop Up Bar

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 Pop Up Bar
Mixing the Cocktails

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!

Piggy Cake
Cute Pink Piggy Cake

Next for the cute stakes was there adorable turkeys made from oreo biscuits. What a great idea …

Christmas Oreos
Christmas Turkeys made from Oreo’s

…and who could go past these gorgeous festive Gingerbread Men

Gingerbread
Cute Little Gingerbread Men

I also thought this was a very clever idea for a rolled sponge. I loved the strawberry Santa’s Well done!

Syd Food Bloggers Cake
Syd Food Bloggers Rolled Sponge

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.

Homemade Cheese
Homemade Cheese Platter

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”

Thai Chicken in Crispy Wontons
Thai Chicken in Crispy Wontons

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!!

Rice Paper Rolls
Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls

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.

Croquettes
Beef & Potato Croquettes

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)
 
Caramel Salted Macarons
Caramel Salted Macarons

Salted Caramel Macrons from Flic from “Flick Your Food” were the best I have had, the filling was particularly amazing.

Rubarb Tarts
Mini Rubarb Meringue Tarts

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.

Milko Lollies
Homemade Milko Lollies w Red Velvet Cookies

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.

Macarons
Perfect Macarons

More Macarons…

Chocolate Macarons
Chocolate Macarons

…and one more serve of macarons…

Macarons
Baroque Macarons

Here is a picture of one of my dessert plates 😉

Sweets Plate
My Dessert Plate

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 🙂

Take Home Packs
Take Home Christmas Cookies

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.

Secret Santa
Secret Santa Pile

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.

Secret Santa
Helen giving out Secret Santa Numbers

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.

Plates
I stole these plates in “Evil Secret Santa”

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.

Talking Cookie Jar
I also stole this talking Cookie Jar!

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.

Chocolate Suze
Thank you Chocolate Suze

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.

Food Bloggers Picnic
The Faces behind the Blogs

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 🙂

Leave a comment