Chocolate ginger cupcakes with rich chocolate glaze

16 Apr

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This recipe is from a book called [take a deep breath] Green & Black’s Organic Ultimate Chocolate Recipes The New Collection. The recipe is ‘the Hummingbird Bakery’s ginger chocolate cupcakes’ and I made these for my mum at Easter, who adores choc ginger. 

GATHER:

100g plain flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

140g caster sugar

20g cocoa powder, sifted

40g butter at room temperature

100mL full at milk

1 egg

1 heaped teaspoon powdered ginger 

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 170C and line cupcake pan with wrappers. I used a muffin pan and made larger sized cakes.

In an electric mixer combine butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, ginger and cocoa until all mixed together.

Combine milk and egg in a jug, whisk and add to the mixture in two lots. Mix until everything is combined.

Fill wrappers two thirds full and bake for 15-ish mins [for small sized cupcakes] to 20-ish [muffin size].

Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

The book had a choc/ginger icing combination but I used my go to, fool-proof Donna Hay chocolate glaze recipe: mix 1/2 cup of cream with 150g dark chocolate in a small pan. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat; allow to stand 10 mins until thickened. Pour over a well chiled ckae and tap to remove air bubbles. I usually have a container of this in the fridge and use it for ice cream topping [a few seconds in the microwave makes it gooey and warm], icing for cakes and slices, and eaten by the spoonful…  it is good just to have on hand…

I decorated mine with little edible silver balls because they are pretty. Ginger crystals would have been the logical decoration. 

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Easy home-baked strawberry muffins

14 Apr

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The Hungry Mum family is meeting some friends in the morning for a beachside breakfast BBQ. We thought this mild autumn weather in Sydney would be a perfect time to catchup out of doors. Knowing how ravenous kids can be I baked some strawberry muffins for them to munch on while our breakfast poper is cooking. This recipe, from bestrecipes.com.au, was originally titled ‘Kim’s Moist Muffins.’ It is super easy and failsafe and versatile – everything you want in a muffin receipe [or any recipe, really]. If I knew how to link the site I would but I’m not that talented…

I had three punnets of strawberries in the fridge so I added some of those plus a handful of blueberries that were hanging around. I rounded that out with a pinch of allspice, which is my go to ingredient for all things baked. Kim herself suggested white choc & raspberry but almost anything can be used: mashed banana/sultanas/grated apple…

GATHER:

220g sifted self raising flour

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

3/4 cup of milk [or buttermik if you have it]

1/4 cup vegetable oil [not olive oil as it is too strong-tasting]

150g added flavours [eg strawberries]

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 170C and line a muffin tin with wrappers.

Place flour and sugar in a large bowl, stir with a wooden spoon.

In a jug place egg, oil and milk, whisk. Add to flour mix and stir until just mixed [do not over mix]

Add in flavours then pour into muffin pans.

Bake 15-20 mins / until golden.

These are fab warm but also can be frozen in a ziplock bag when completely cool.

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Nigella Lawson easy salted caramel sauce

10 Apr

This recipe is The Bomb. It is quick, requires a handful of ingredients, will rock your world and impress everyone who is lucky enough to sample even a drop of it. This sauce requires real, lux salt, not the nasty table salt that you can buy in massive pantry packs. Nigella has shown us again why she is the queen of all things decadent and divine with this recipe. Serve this with vanilla ice cream for a show stopper dessert. Add the salt in increments & taste as you go.

With thanks to Anna Warr [http://www.facebook.com/AnnaWarrPhotography] for her delish snaps.

GATHER:

50g brown sugar

50g caster sugar

50mL golden syrup

125mL double cream

75g  unsalted butter, cubed

half to one-and-a-half teaspoons best quality salt [I use pink Murray River salt]

LET’S GET TO IT:

Melt butter, sugars and syrup in a small heavy pan and simmer for two to three minutes. Swirl, don’t stir, occasionally.

Slowly pour in cream and half a teaspoon of the salt and stir before tasting. Add a little more salt at a time if you desire.

Pour into serving jug and watch your guests drool.

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Easy Easter biscuit [cookie] pops

4 Apr

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Being Australian we call small, sweet baked morsels biscuits. From my extensive blog reading I see that Americans call these items cookies. Let’s chalk it up to cultural differences.

In any case Misses 4 & 6 helped make umpteen of these sprinkle-covered biscuits for their little friends for Easter. It is the recipe I posted on my blog titled Child’s play: super simple sprinkle biscuits even a 4-year-old can make.

All you ned to do is gently push a paddlepop stick into the biscuit prior to baking. Ta da! A bickie on a stick – and as everyone knows, sticks make food taste better.

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Simple double chocolate biscuits [ugly but delicious]

2 Apr

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There is no getting away from the fact that these biscuits are not what you call pretty. They aren’t even plain – they are lock-them-away-in-the-tower unattractive and they aren’t the type of sweet treat you’d see in upmarket eateries. But, if you squint or close your eyes as you take a bite you will understand that they are everything that a biscuit should be: sweet, chocolate-y, satisfying. So let’s remember that old cliche of looks not being important, shall we? This recipe is from Australian Good Taste but as usual, I tweaked it…

GATHER:

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup caster sugar

150g cubed butter, at room temperature

1 3/4 cup self raising flour

1 egg

150g good chocolate [they use chopped up choc, I grabbed buttons and they worked fine]

2 tablespoons sifted cocoa powder

Dash best vanilla extract [if you only have vanilla essence – skip it! That stuff is evil and a poor imitation].

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 170C and line two large trays with baking powder.

Place both sugars, vanilla and butter in bowl of electric mixer and beat until creamy and changed colour.

Beat in the egg until combined then add flour and cocoa. Keep beating until everything is combined.

Stir in chocolate using a spoon.

Shape into golf ball size blobs and gently flatten.

Bake 12-ish minutes [you may need a fw more minutes depending on your oven].

Cool on wire racks.

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Easy individual warm chocolate pavlovas

31 Mar

At the the risk of alienating myself from, well, everyone, I am not a fan of pavlova. I find it too sweet and it is my least fav dessert. Sadly for me but luckily for the rest of the country, it is a staple at barbecues and parties everywhere. I’ve been known to make pavs when we’re having a do and it is always pounced upon before every other sweet.

This choc version of the aforementioned sweet is designed to be served warm with a chocolate custard sauce. I made the sauce but it didn’t make it into the photo as it is, well, super ugly. It serves 4. The recipe comes from my bible, The Australian Women’s Weekly ‘Bake’, a behemoth of a book that never lets me down. And thanks to photographer Anna Warr [www.facebook.com/AnnaWarrPhotography] for these lovely photos. Aren’t they great?

ImageGATHER:

2 egg whites at room temperature

1 1/3 cups icing sugar [sifted]

1/3 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon cocoa powder [sifted]

LET’S DO IT:

Preheat oven to 180C and line a large oven tray with baking powder.

Beat egg whites, icing sugar and water in bowl of electric mixer for about 10 minutes or until firm peaks form. Fold in cocoa.

Drop four equal amounts of mix onto tray leaving considerable space between each.

Bake 25-ish minutes or until firm to the touch. Serve immediately with ice cream and dusted with extra cocoa.

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When good holidays go bad or why I’m off food

28 Mar

The Hungry Mum is, for the first time in a very long time, not hungry. A nasty bout of gastro has put paid to the idea of food, cooking or even – gasp – baking. So far Miss 4 and 6 have been spared the bug but this thing is so contagious that I’m on constant gastro alert. Nothing more substational than dry crackers has passed my lips in four days and for me to not even by thinking about food is honestly a first.

To make matters worse the gastro hit while I was in Brisbane, catching up with a girlfriend. Child-less, husband-less, footloose and fancy free. This reunion was 7 years in the making and highly anticipated by both of us. Holed up in a swanky hotel when you are hit by a ‘both ends’ bug in the middle of the night while your friend is also struck down by said bug is unfun. We saw each other at our very worst and couldn’t do much about it. In a hotel room with a shared bathroom there is nowhere to hide. In years to come we will laugh about this. So I’m told…

I was meant to be on an early morning flight home the next day but there was *no* way that was going to happen. Cue 6am incoherent phone calls to the front desk to extend my stay [and send more toilet paper, please] and to the airline to re-arrange my flight. All the while running to the loo. Calling The Hungry Dad and then doing the frantic school drop off/pick up shuffle with mother-in-law and lift home from Sydney airport request to my mum. My lovely friend, despite being sick herself, insisted on caring for me and driving back and forth to the hotel to drop off water, crackers and Gatorade. Bless. 

Hopefully I’ll get my food mojo back soon. In the meantime I’m down to my goal weight, an event that caused the Hungry Dad to remark that I should market my getaway/weight loss regime to mums everywhere. Any takers?

Fast golden caramel bundt cake

27 Mar

This blog should rightly be called The Hungry Mum Who Bakes Quick & Easy Cakes. Yes I’m hungry and yes, I’m impatient, dammit! I want cake and I want it now. Often the baking urge arrives right in the middle of cactus hour or trying to put the kids to bed so I need a no-fuss recipe that can be bunged into the oven.

This caramel cake recipe, courtesy of the kitchen goddess at the Australian Women’s Weekly & their book ‘Quick Mix Cakes’, is so quick and simple. Baking it in a bundt tin & dusting with copious amounts  of icing sugar makes it look fancy with all the faffing around of icing.

These beautiful photos were taken by Anna Warr [annawarr.com], a photographer who has an eye for detail & patience by the kilo…

GATHER:

185g softened butter, cubed

1/2 soft brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup golden syrup

3/4 cup milk

LET’S DO IT:

Grease a Bundt tin, ensuring you get into all the crevices.

Preheat oven to 170C.

Place all ingredients into a bowl of electric mixer and mix on low speed until everything is combined.

Increase speed to medium and beat until there are no lumps and the colour has changed.

Dollop mixture into pan and using a spatula, gently smoosh batter up the sides so it reaches into all the crevices of your pan.

Bake 40-ish mins/until a skewer comes out clean. You may need to cook a little longer depending on your oven.

Cool in pan 10 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.

When cold dust with icing sugar.

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Breakfast in Brisbane

24 Mar

A child-free weekend in Brisbane to catch up with a girlfriend required an early morning flight. Actually, considering that it was pitch black when I left home, it seems more accurate to call it a pre-crack of dawn flight. After arriving at such an ungodly hour the first thing to do was seek out breakfast, which was at a teeny cafe called Nest. Sourdough toast + avocado + strong coffee = bliss. Viva BrisVegas.

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Easy peasy egg-free coconut and lime mini loaves [perfect for kids to cook]

17 Mar

This recipe is, as Miss 4 would say, easy peasy lemon squeezy. The original recipe, which I’ve tweaked, is from my primary school’s fundraising cookbook, along with taste sensations such as fish finger kebabs and prunes & bacon [subtitled, and I kid you not, ‘a delicious combination] from *many* moons ago. Fear not, this cake is super yum and so super easy that kids can make it without much help. The original makes a very small loaf but I decided to use my mini pan this time & the results were great. It made 4 mini loaves which is ideal if you don’t want to be a guts and eat all the cake  are just having one friend over for a cuppa.

This is such a versatile recipe: it can de doubled and if you don’t like lime use orange or lemon zest. Or omit the zest and just add mixed spice or vanilla.

And what about these amazing photos by Anna Warr? Don’t they make you want to lick the screen? Or is that just me? Check out more of her amazing work at annawarr.com.

GATHER:

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup coconut [dessicated]

1/4 cup caster sugar

slightly more than 1/2 cup milk

zest from 2 small or one large lime

LET’S DO IT:

Preheat oven to 170C and grease 4 holes from a mini loaf tin.

Place everything in bowl and stir until combined. It will be a stiff batter.

Pour into 4 holes, bake 20-25ish minutes/until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool five minutes before removing to a wire rack.

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