Blog hopping is my favourite waste of time lately and I especially love seeing what all those creative baking-types are up. I recently stumbled across the oh-so-pretty eat sweet blog and swooned when I saw her jersey caramel chocolate cupcakes. I knew I had to make them so it was off to the shops for a bag of these delicious, so very sweet lollies. I made my cakes vanilla, rather than the original chocolate, although I reckon choc and caramel is always a winning combination.
I want to be Donna Hay when I grow up. I love her recipes, her style, her gorgeous boutique in Sydney – everything. If the woman made Donna Hay label toilet paper I would buy it. Her ‘Modern Classics Book 2’ is on high rotation in my kitchen and like all of her recipes they never let you down. Continue reading
Queen Victoria’s memory lives on in this light-as-air concoction which is dressed with a simple dusting of icing sugar. It may not be trendy but it is divine: not overly sweet but just sweet enough. Like biting into a cloud… Continue reading
This fabulous baked custard tart was one of those recipes I stumbled across and just *knew* it would be in my baking future. It comes courtesy of the No Pinning Allowed blog, who named it Belgian Flan, a much more alluring name. If you want to see the original it is here: http://nopinningallowed.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/recipe-belgian-flan/ Continue reading
My love of choc chips in baked goods is well known so when I came across recipe for a chocolate cake with choc chips I was sold. I found the recipe on the allrecipes.co.uk site but the original didn’t specify how much milk so I had to guesstimate. I think I guessed correctly! This isn’t a fancy cake but I bet it will be gratefully received by your guests. Continue reading
Oh my, this is good. It isn’t often you can quote Homer Simpson in baking but his line in relation to his Flaming Homer cocktail, ‘fire made it good’, can definitely be applied here.
First step: vanilla cupcakes. I’ve been making these babies, courtesy of Australia Women’s Weekly’s ‘Quick Mix Cakes’ book, for yonks. They are one bowl, delicious, fail-proof and never last long! They are hardy enough to withstand being made by little helpers, too. I’ve tweaked the recipe.
As usual I dress my cupcakes with Donna Hay’s dark chocolate glaze which I have blogged about previously.
But here’s the trick: make the cupcakes, allow to cool completely before dressing with the choc glaze. Stud with mini marshmallows. Then, place under the grill [broiler] for a few seconds. Keep an eye on them cause the marshmallow will melt quickly. Eat. And eat and eat. Oh, baby…
CUPCAKES:
GATHER:
125g diced butter at room temperature
good splash vanilla
½ cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups self raising flour
½ cup milk
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 170C and line 2x 12 hole patty pans with liners.
Place everything in the bowl of electric mixer and blend until all combined and smooth.
Place in party pans and bake until golden 17-ish minutes.
Cool on wire racks.
Meanwhile, make the glaze:
Melt 150g best quality dark chocolate with ½ cup pouring cream in a small pan over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Stand for 20 minutes to thicken.
Spread thickly on cold cakes and immediately add mini marshmallows.
Place under a preheated grill until the marshmallows melt and bubble.
When I saw the post for iced VoVo tarts by the wonderfully named Frocks & Frou Frou blog I knew I would be making it sooner rather than later. Iced VoVos are an iconic Australian biscuit made by Arnotts: a shortbready biscuit base topped with raspberry jam, marshmallow & dessicated coconut. So sweet. So yum. So want one now…
Lilli from Frocks & Frou Frou made everything from scratch. I didn’t [except the strawberry jam which I had the fridge] but I imagine the homemade pastry would have added to the taste.
She also made the marshmallow topping from scratch but I was just too lazy. One day I will try her full recipe as her tarts looked so cute. If you want to check it out here it is: http://frocksandfroufrou.com/2012/04/iced-iced-vovo/
These are tiny but super, doper sweet. I could manage just one but my sugar junkie Miss 4 loved them as did her little friends. So maybe try these for a kid’s party – they will love them. Continue reading
How great are muffins? They take no time to make, are versatile and can even survive being made by Misses 4 and 6 and still taste great. I had a couple of over-ripe bananas sitting in the fruit bowl so turning them into muffins was the order of the day. I tweaked several different muffin recipes from various sources but reduced the amount of sugar as I find most recipes far too sweet.
I decorated these with a few peanut butter chips but they are very yummy without. Continue reading
I do love a choc chip. Often the introduction of choc chips to a recipe takes it from blah to wow, can I have more? As much as I love choc chip biscuits I find it tedious to be rolling/flattening/baking tray after tray. So when I stumbled across a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars by the wonderful Two Peas and Their Pod I knew at once I’d be baking it. It all the boxes I was after. Choc chips. Vanilla. Crunchy. Kid-makeable. Continue reading
I adore Donna Hay. I love her magazine, her homewares, her style, her gorgeous store, everything. I’ve been lucky enough to meet her a few times and begged her for a job [no luck there, unfortunately]. I have every edition of her magazines and the vast majority of her cookbooks. All get a workout in my kitchen and her recipes are versatile, simple and usually no fuss.
For my mum’s birthday recently she decreed a ‘no gifts’ policy. The exception was anything home made. With this in mind I set about making her some gingerbread bickies. Mum adores gingerbread and I knew she’d love these.
The recipe is from Donna Hay Magazine issue 6. I use it every year to make gingerbread men at Christmas and it always turns out beautifully.
I dressed the biscuits up with dark chocolate glaze, another Donna Hay recipe, this time from the Simple Essentials – Chocolate book.
GATHER:
125g softened diced butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup golden syrup
2 ½ cups self-raising flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 190C, line two baking trays with baking paper.
Place butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer and beat until light and creamy then add golden syrup.
Add sifted flour, ginger and bicarb soda and stir to combine.
Knead lighty on a floured benchtop to form a smooth dough.
Roll dough between two sheets of non-stick paper until 5mm thick. Use cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
Bake for 8 or so minutes/until golden.
Cool on trays.
When totally cold decorate with choc glaze.
CHOCOLATE GLAZE:
Melt 150g best quality dark chocolate with ½ cup pouring cream in a small pan over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Stand for 20 minutes to thicken. Then dunk the biscuits in the melted, gooey mix. Yum.
I keep a container of this in the fridge as it can be used to top a big cake, cupcakes, sandwich biscuits together, heated to pour over ice cream or eaten by the spoonful.
the hungry mum 