Tag Archives: cooking

Chocolate peppermint squares

1 Dec

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I admit: chocolate peppermint is my least favourite flavour combo. I know, I know – I can hear your howls of protests from here. This unorthodox position has lead to at least two people questioning the fact that we could possibly be friends. On the plus side, I am the best person to share a box of choc with, as I will insist that you have the peppermint filling. No really – it is all yours…

These squares, or slice as we Antipodeans call it, are chock full of pepperminty pleasure. You can, of course, adjust the mintiness by adding more or less flavouring. Continue reading →

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Spicy chocolate cookies / biscuits

3 Nov

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I have a dilemma: in Australia we call round, sweet treats served with tea biscuits, or bickies. In America, where many of you lovely people are visiting from, they are called cookies, and biscuits are what we call scones. Sigh. The English language is fraught with dialect difficulties.  Continue reading →

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Passionfruit bars

1 Oct

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Nothing says fresh and zingy like passionfruit. Those who know me know that I have a dislike of fruit bordering on the pathological but for some reason I do enjoy passionfruit in baked goods. Misses 6 and 8 are my opposite – they adore fresh fruit, but actively dislike passionfruit in baked goods. Sigh. Continue reading →

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Rum baked donuts / doughnuts with booze

20 Aug

rum-donutIMG_7364 Continue reading →

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Chocolate peanut butter cake 

17 Jun

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I have written before about how lucky I am to receive copious of amounts of cookbooks to review in my day job as a journalist. It seems every blogger and his dog has a book these days and some tomes are waaaay better than others. Putting my professional impartiality to one side for a moment I must confess that the books I enjoy reviewing the most are those published by the venerable Australian Women’s Weekly. I have been using their books for decades, as have my mum and nana. Their recipes always work and recently their books have undergone a stylish transformation. Continue reading →

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Donna Hay easy chocolate and caramel tart for dessert

15 May

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This is the ultimate after diner treat for those who live by the credo that there’s no such thing as too sweet.

I love Donna Hay, I love her recipes and I especially love her dessert and baked recipes. They are doable and punch way above their weight in terms of effort versus result. Continue reading →

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Gingerbread whoopie pies from scratch

29 Apr

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You guys, I bought a whoopie pie pan! I swore I wouldn’t coz my baking paraphernalia has taken over the kitchen. When we visited San Fran last year we went to my mecca – the three-storey Williams-Sonoma kitchenware store. I went twice in two days and lugged soooo much stuff back to Sydney [via Hawaii – my poor suitcases] but decided against buying the whoopie pie pan. Continue reading →

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Donna Hay blueberry and lemon cake

11 Feb

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Oh Donna, let me the count the ways in which your baking recipes make my heart flutter… Actually, that would take far too long because Ms Hay’s cakes, tarts and muffin recipes always work. Devotees would note that I am Donna hay’s biggest cheerleader and this super simple recipe is yet another winner. Continue reading →

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Iced Vo Vo Cake for Australia Day

24 Jan

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If you’re reading this in the northern hemisphere the title of this post may seem nonsensical. Australia readers [and maybe New Zealanders] will get it: this cake pays homage to a biscuit that many of us grew up with. Made by Arnotts it is plain vanilla bickie with puffy pink marshmallow topping and a river of raspberry jam down the centre. The whole creation is then sprinkled with desiccated coconut. Sickly? A bit. To children of a certain generation they were the ultimate in lunchbox treats.

With Australia Day looming Miss8 and I decided to do a riff on this old fav, using cake instead of cookie, as the base. Continue reading →

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How to make yogurt and berry fruit pops

8 Jan

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This weather is driving me crazy! Last year was officially the hottest on record for Australia and one can only assume it is going to get hotter. For a creature the colour of milk, such as myself, this is not good. My skin says I should be living in Scandinavia but here I am, Sydney born and bred.

We have had a reprieve for the past few days but it will soon be hot again. This is cold comfort for my friends in the northern hemisphere currently experiencing snow, storms and freezing temperatures. Stay safe everyone.

In the meantime, here is a super easy treat, perfect for long hot summer days. Misses 6 & 8 made these pops themselves and couldn’t wait to try them. Two thumbs up 🙂 Continue reading →

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