Upstairs Brunch Event Trial #3 - Pancake heaven...

It’s been a busy weekend for Brunch & Co!  Firstly, we had a request from our lovely, but slightly wacky friend Faith for cupcakes for her new goddaughter’s first month party. I happily obliged by baking 50 Madagascar vanilla bean cupcakes with a baby pink snow meringue icing, topped with perfect, fresh cherries (yes, the cherry season seems to still be going strong – lucky us).  

Happy first month Mila & congratulations again to Emily & Marcus!!

We also held our third trial brunch event today with 7 more foodie friends.  We had a great day catching up with everybody and bouncing around more ideas about our venture.  One of our lovely guests prompted some thinking about what “brunch” actually means.  For me, coming from Melbourne where weekend brunches are the norm, the reason why I love brunch so much is as much about the food (I LOVE eggs) as it is the chance to slow down & take some time to either catch up with friends and family or the weekend newspapers over a good meal.  No rushing, no pretension, just good, homemade, tasty food surrounded by special people.  I hope we can provide the right ambiance and setting to enable our guests to experience what brunch is all about.... as well as of course, serve up some fantastic food!

For today's event, I must admit I wasn’t as organized as I should have been hence I completely forgot about the poached cherries that I had bottled a few weeks ago and planned to serve with our pancake starter… Anyway, we ended up with fluffy American style pancakes served with options of poached apples with cinnamon & star anise, sauté banana slices with butter & brown sugar, and finally, grilled bacon with maple syrup.  I used my trusted Betty Crocker Favorite Pancake recipe that my family has used ever since I was little.  We often had pancakes on the weekends and these fluffy numbers are the best pancakes ever.  In my slightly dis-organised state, I also forgot to take more photos - including one of the banana walnut muffins, topped with a cinnamon sugar that we had.  They were pretty yummy!  I did however manage to grab a picture of a last mouthful of pancake, covered in poached apples and maple syrup!

For our main course, we had baked eggs with smoked salmon, spinach, Camembert & Parmesan cheese served with whole grain toast soldiers.  

This was followed by a rather long comfort break where I took the opportunity to bake some freshly made croissants (my second attempt, much improved from my first go – possibly due to my new super duper rolling pin which I am able to fill with chilled water which helps to keep the pastry cold).  Count those 81 flaky layers!

I also whipped up some meringue frosting for these freshly baked red velvet cupcakes, topped with heart shaped marshmallows.  These decadent treats were served up with freshly brewed Illy coffee & Gryphon teas.

So there you go, all the crockery & glasses are washed, polished and stacked away ready for the official launch of Brunch & Co next month.  I will be publishing the date for the big day, the menu & how to grab yourself a seat at our upstairs private dining table in the next couple of days.  Hope you’ll come and join us!