The Accommodation

The invitation included an overnight stay at The Mansion Hotel, located behind the Mansion itself, in a separate wing originally built by the Catholic Church as a seminary.  We arrived on the Saturday afternoon, to be greeted by this lovely chocolate platter in our room.

Welcome platter of chocolates and strawberries

Far from its austere origins, the room was compact but very comfortable, complete with modern furnishings and luxurious bedding and pillows.

The super-comfy bed

The clever architects managed to fit a whole (comfortable!) bathroom, in what essentially looked like a large cupboard from the outside.  Very nice!

The cleverly designed bathroom

The bathroom

Cute!

Most of the hotel has free Wi-Fi (so good - I wish more hotels provided this!), but our room happened to be just out of range of the signal - boo!  Happily though, an Internet cable was provided in the room, so I could access the internet for free on my laptop.  However, there was no time for going online yet... as I had to get to the Afternoon Tea!  (Fret not, gentle readers, I did make use of the free Internet - I completed and published this post later that night, hehe.)


The Vintage Afternoon Tea

I met Patty from Q Strategies and Michelle in the lobby, and we made our way through the Mansion to the balcony, where we were greeted with glasses of sparkling wine and the strains of classical music from a string duo.

Sparkling wine and tea cup

Chamber music duo

From the description on the event website, I had expected it to be a stand-up affair, with canapes and sweet treats being served in various rooms of the Mansion.

"Enjoy sparkling wine and cucumber sandwiches amongst the beautiful manicured gardens, perhaps even a game of croquet or badminton. Wander through to the magnificent historic Mansion where you can sip tea and graze on delectable treats in the lavish dining room, ball room and private sitting areas."

However, it turned out to be an altogether more sedate experience, with guests sitting down on the balcony to enjoy traditional afternoon tea treats.  We were lucky to have beautiful clear blue skies, and the hotel even provided umbrellas for those who wanted to shade themselves from the strong sun.

The Vintage Afternoon Tea Event

We drank T2 Melbourne Breakfast tea - one of my favourites! - in pretty china teacups, poured from lovely clear teapots.


Now, let's have a closer look at the treats on the cake stand!  It would have been great if they'd included little menu cards - the event description had said: "chefs will take cues for the menu from old Werribee Mansion cooks’ and housekeepers' records of the 1870s", and I would have loved a bit of background on any historical culinary influences.  (Food dork alert!)


I worked strategically, starting with savouries and working my way up the cake stand.

Savouries

On the savoury plate were three kinds of sandwiches: smoked salmon, egg, and chicken.  (There were two of each sandwich; I ate one before I took this picture!)  Whilst all the fillings were great, the bread had unfortunately dried out a little.  (I wonder if bread stales faster in the heat?)  The warm offerings were mini quiches, chive muffins, and miniature beef pies.

Like the hilarious Miranda, I don't ordinarily like savoury muffins, but these were actually delicious - very moist, and with a nice flavour from the chives.  The mini beef pies were high quality but bought in - the same ones are served by the corporate catering at my old work, and I've had them before at the Kaffeehaus Vienna pop-up cafe in the NGV.

The items on the second plate were all fabulous.  There were light lemony madeleines, moist apple frangipane tartlets, pink macarons generously filled with soft buttercream, and the most delicious lamingtons, made with pieces of chocolate sponge cake, dipped in ganache and dessicated coconut.

Petits Fours

Each cake stand had both plain and sultana scones, as well as a quenelle of gorgeously thick clotted cream.  Jam wasn't provided on the table, but was brought out quickly when requested.

Scones

Jams and teapot

The scones were so good!  They were crusty on the outside with soft, fluffy middles.  I slathered mine thickly with cream and raspberry jam - wonderful!

Although this event was a once-off for the MFWF, I've been told that The Mansion is planning to launch a recurring high tea soon.  I'm not sure of exact dates, inclusions or prices - check their website for up-to-date info - but to give an indication of price, this event was priced at $90 per person, with each three-tiered cake stand being shared by two people.

Lovely view of the perfectly manicured gardens and parterre from the balcony

The afternoon tea finished a bit earlier than expected, which gave us time to enjoy the beautiful grounds in the sunshine.


The Grounds

The Mansion on the left, the Cafe in the centre, the Hotel on the right

We had a quick stroll through the mansion itself - visiting the Cheong Fatt Tze mansion in Penang has awakened my interest in history - and I loved seeing the exhibitions of old clothing, historical artefacts and the recreated bedrooms and living rooms, giving an indication of what life was like back in the 1800's.

The view from my hotel room was the back side of this statue!

I particularly enjoyed the Rose Garden, with over five thousand roses and the most incredible frangrance.

The gazebo in the centre of the Rose Garden, set up for a wedding

Bee!

A few of my favourite roses

Breakfast

The next morning, we went downstairs for a buffet breakfast - on offer were juices, toast, cereals, pastries, fruit, and hot breakfast items.


As you can see, I went for a big savoury breakfast: the hash brown (again, bought in but high quality) was particularly impressive, very crispy. You'll see I didn't have any toast - smart girls avoid bread at buffets!


Lazy Pedal Package

And as if that weren't enough indulgence for the weekend, a Lazy Pedal package was also included in our stay.  As part of this package, guests are given a picnic hamper and the use of bicycles to explore the gardens of Werribee Park.

Pretty bicycle

I can't actually ride a bike (embarrassing!), so we just walked with our picnic hamper and found a nice spot on the lawn behind the hotel.

The picnic hamper itself was a red insulated bag, and whilst it was perfectly serviceable and practical, I must say it looked a bit incongruous against the beautiful historic buildings!

Picnic hamper

Inside our picnic hamper were sandwiches (chicken with curried avocado, and tuna), some salami and ham, cheeses, lavosh and quince paste.  For sweets, there were cut up pieces of fresh fruit, as well as some of the same petits fours that were served at the afternoon tea.  Again, a little menu card would have been great.


For some reason, there weren't any cutlery or napkins in the hamper - this made it a bit tricky to eat the cheese and quince paste!  When we picked up the hamper from reception, we were told that everything was included, so hadn't thought to ask for anything extra, and by the time we'd found our picnic spot and set ourselves up, it was too much effort to go all the way back to reception.  Oh well!

We also hadn't been told that drinks weren't included, which was a bit of a shame - I would have been happy to purchase a bottle of wine or sparkling water at the bar next to reception if I'd been made aware of this!

Mmm... petits fours

We took some photos of the insides, so you can see how yummy they were!  I loved the short, crumbly pastry on the apple frangipane tart, and the ganache-coated moist chocolate lamington was a deluxe version of what can often be a dry disappointment!  The macaron, whilst having a rather prominent flowery flavour (I'm pretty sure it was musk), had a fantastic texture: the shells were very lightly crisp on the outside and soft within, and the buttercream was smooth and creamy.

Fluffy chive-flavoured ricotta gnocchi, crisped up in herbed burnt butter, swathed in a rich veal ragu and topped with crispy fried sage and rosemary leaves.  Could anything be more comforting?  I think not!  I actually made this dish back in February (as mentioned in my Unblogged Files: February post), but I've been waiting for a suitably cold day to share it with you all.  I think we all can agree today is cold enough!  This dinner was inspired by the deeply fabulous lunch of braised rabbit with bacon and gnocchi fried in brown butter that Gill Radford cooked for us whilst in the Barossa.

Stew

The stew I chose was Jamie Oliver's "The Best Stew", from the Pasta chapter in Cook with Jamie.  (Recipe here).  I've made it a few times before, and I love how the use of white wine (as opposed to red) stops the stew from getting too intensely heavy.  It's great stuff.

I've included the full gnocchi recipe at the bottom of this post.  It's based on Donna Hay's "cheat's ricotta gnocchi" - she seems to have published variations of this recipe a number of times, in her books and magazines, and I've also linked to one of her versions below.  I adapted her recipe by adding chives to the ricotta dough and - importantly - frying the cooked gnocchi in burnt butter.  (Burnt butter makes everything better.)

I love how simple these gnocchi are to make.  I've previously failed at making potato dumplings, and have sad memories of them disintegrating in the boiling water - boo!  But these ricotta gnocchi are a total cinch!  All you gotta do is stir the ingredients together...

Ricotta gnocchi dough

...roll the dough into a long log...

Ricotta gnocchi dough - Rolled out

... and slice them into little pieces.  The dough is a dream to work with - as you can see, I didn't flour the board too heavily, but it was really easy to roll out and slice up, and didn't seem to stick together at all.

Ricotta gnocchi dough, sliced up

They puff up a little once cooked.  They only take a couple of minutes in boiling water, and are done as soon as they float to the surface!  If you're not going the burnt-butter route, you could actually eat the gnocchi as soon as they're boiled, perhaps with a simple tomato sauce.  However, I just love the crispy edges!  To minimise potential splattering, I let them steam dry in a single layer before frying them.

Another tip I gleaned from Gill Radford was to fry sage and rosemary until crispy - it's so delicious and such a fabulous garnish!  I fried them in the burnt butter, to infuse it with herby flavour before frying the gnocchi.

And here are the gnocchi, in the pan, becoming crunchy and absorbing the gorgeous rosemary and sage scents.

More crispy goodness...

This recipe is very decadent, yes, but super delicious.  Enjoy!

Herbaceous Burnt Butter Ricotta Gnocchi
Adapted from Donna Hay's Cheat's ricotta, spinach and mint gnocchi

Ingredients
500g fresh ricotta
40g grated Parmesan
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp finely chopped chives
80g butter
12 sage leaves
2 rosemary sprigs, picked

Method
Place the ricotta, parmesan, eggs, flour and chives in a bowl, season well with salt and pepper, and mix to combine.  Turn mixture onto a floured surface, and roll into four 30cm logs.  Slice into 2cm pieces.  Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.  Cook the pieces in batches, for 2-3 minutes until they float to the surface.  Drain with a slotted spoon and set aside on a tray in a single layer to steam dry.  (The recipe can be prepared in advance to this point).

When you are ready to eat, melt the butter in a wide non-stick frypan and add the sage and rosemary leaves.  Cook until the butter is brown and the leaves are crispy.  Set the leaves aside.  Fry the gnocchi in batches until golden brown and heated through.

Serve the gnocchi with crispy herbs and any remaining burnt butter on top as a dish by themselves, or as an accompaniment to a lovely rich stew.

Serves 4

I made these Mexican wedding cakes when I wanted a something small and sweet to go with coffee at a dinner party, but didn't want to go all out with a proper dessert.  Made with ground nuts - pecans, walnuts or hazelnuts are traditional - and lots of butter, these are crumbly little shortbread biscuits, heavily dusted in icing sugar, much like my beloved Vanillekipferl.

I first found a recipe for Mexican wedding cakes in Belinda Jeffrey's Mix and Bake, which she herself got from her Auntie Beryl.  However, whilst researching the recipe online, I realised, that like many traditional recipes, there are hundreds of versions out there, all of which are pretty much the same.  Lord knows who 'invented' the recipe, or who owns the original copyright, if such a thing is at all possible!

I took elements from a few different recipes to get my recipe, below, based on what I thought would work well.  I also adapted the traditional biscuit to make the most of some gorgeous hazelnuts I'd been given by Wendy at Fare Enough in Euroa.  (See my blogpost, here.) They were so fresh, slightly sweet and very hazelnutty, and I wanted to show off and intensify their inherent hazelnuttiness as much as I could.

Toasted hazelnuts

Creamed butter and sugar

Dry ingredients (including ground toasted hazelnuts) being added to the butter

And - here's where I diverge from tradition - I included one whole hazelnut in each biscuit, for an extra crunchy surprise!  (This idea came from baker extraordinaire Duncan, who made fab hazelnut shortbreads to bring to a party I hosted a couple of years ago).

Biscuit dough

Stick that hazelnut in...

And roll it up to encase the hazelnut!

Using a scant teaspoon of dough for each hazelnut, I ended up with 69 (heh) biscuits in total.  Obviously the number of biscuits you get would change depending on how generous you are with the dough.

Mexican Wedding Surprises
Sarah's version of a classic recipe

70g whole hazelnuts
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup icing sugar
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
250g unsalted butter
Approx. extra 70 whole hazelnuts
Approx. 2 cups more icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Place the 70g hazelnuts on a baking tray in a single layer, and roast for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown and fragrant.  Allow to cool slightly, loosely wrapped in a clean tea towel.  Rub vigorously to remove as much of the papery skin as you can.  (Don't get too worked up about it, a few flecks of brown won't harm the finished product).

Place the roasted and denuded hazelnuts, flour, salt and cinnamon into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the double blade, and process until the hazelnuts are finely ground.  Set aside.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Gently stir in the hazelnut and flour mixture with a wooden spoon until combined.  (Stop as soon as there are no more lumps of flour remaining - if you overwork the dough, the resulting biscuits will be tough, and you want these to be crumbly and short!)

Take a scant teaspoonful of the mixture, press a whole hazelnut into it, and roll the dough to encase the hazelnut.  Place on a lined cookie tray, leaving a little room for spreading.  Repeat with the remaining dough.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown at the edges.  Dredge the biscuits thickly with icing sugar and allow to cool slightly before digging in.

Makes 69