Halloween Cupcakes

Since it’s Halloween this weekend I broke out the goodies Karyn bought me back from America and made some cupcakes using a devilishly good Betty Crocker ‘Devil’s Cake Mix’. Thank you for the treats Karyn – hope you enjoyed your cupcake!

Cheese and Ham Scones

 
To make you will need:

3 cups of plain flour
6 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
75g butter cut into small cubes
1 - 1 ½ cups milk
1 cup grated cheese (of your choice - edam and tasty work well)
1 handful of cut up shaved ham

Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl, cut in butter until the mixture in the bowl resembles bread crumbs.  Add the milk and vigorously mix with a knife until dough is soft.  Add the cheese and ham and mix with the knife.  Use your hands to knead dough a few times (can be done in the bowl but I find it easier to do on a flour dusted bench top).  At this stage you can chose to place the dough on a flour dusted oven tray, mould the dough into a round shape and cut into wedges like the picture above or alternatively cut into 8-12 square pieces.  If you are cutting the mix into pieces leave a 2cm space between them on the tray.  Bake at 220˚C for 10-15 minutes or until an inserted skewer can be removed cleanly.

 
Enjoy!

More chocolate…

Flowers this time.  These were made using another of the $1 ice cube trays I got from IKEA.  I also have a starfish one – won’t post pictures of that though as I realise these are not the most exciting things to read about.  Hopefully I will attempt some proper baking in the weekend.  Ciao.

Chocolate Fish

I had left over chocolate melts, so I made these chocolate fish using a rubber ice tray I got from Ikea (for a whole 99 cents), while in Aussie.  I also had some left over mini marshmallows so some of my fish have a little surprise in the middle :)

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes 10 – 12

2 cups flour
⅓ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
⅓ cup sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
⅔ cup milk
2 eggs
125g butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups large chocolate chips or chunks (I used a mix of broken Nestlé buttons and chocolate drops)

In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugars, baking powder and the salt.
In a separate bowl mix together the milk, eggs, butter and vanilla.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk mixture.  Stir to combine, then fold in the chocolate chips.
Spoon the batter into prepared muffin pans and bake at 200˚C for 15 – 20 minutes.

*If you want, when you add the chocolate, add in ½ cup of pecans.

 
I iced the muffins using Betty Crocker milk chocolate frosting.  The papers are from Karyn!  And, yes, I know I said I was going to watch what I eat, but oh well.

We received presents :)

Karyn, one of the awesome people that Courtenay and I work with, went to America in the holidays.  And she brought us back gifts!

Courtenay got a heap of Halloween themed stuff; cupcake cases, goodie bags and… striped icing.  I got some baking cups (one set looks like flowers) and some cake cutters.  I’ve already put the purple cases to use – a post about that at a later date :P

Thanks Karyn, you’re the best!

p.s. Karyn has a cute sewing blog.  I suggest you check it out.

Before we left Melbourne…

We managed to squeeze in a little more chocolate.  I made Simon go to the Lindt cafe with me.  This is what happened…

We got free samples of this delicious cake upon being seated. 

Then my hot chocolate arrived.  It came as a wee jug of melted chocolate and a jug of frothed milk so I could mix it myself.  

My hot chocolate was accompanied by Simon’s chocolate milkshake.  Mmmmm mm.

Next came our food.  Simon ordered a chocolate lava cake and I had the chocolate lovers waffle.  Yes, that is another little jug of melted chocolate.

I poured the little jug of melted chocolate on my waffle.  I was a tiny bit embarrassed by the heart attack that sat upon my plate.  The waiter came over and asked if I would like some more chocolate.

This is the end result – dishes that looked like a chocolate tornado had swept across the table and chocolate food baby stomachs.  Now, I know what I ordered was really piggy, so I would like to add that Simon did eat some of it.  I couldn’t manage on my own.  Also, I apologise for the photography – we left our cameras at home and had to use a phone.  We are back in New Zealand now, the holiday is over.  I will be watching what I eat and getting back into exercising :(

More Morsels from Melbourne

We returned!  I had to go back to Little Cupcakes today because Simon had a surprise lined up for me apparently.  So, we went, we ordered more cupcakes (yes, what torture) and then someone was touching my shoulder.  I turned around to be greeted by my friend Anjana who had popped down from Brisbane for a visit!  Awesome surprise – thank you guys!

And, just because I think the Raspberry white chocolate cupcake is one of the yummiest of Little Cupcakes very amazing cupcakes, here is another photo, with it in the foreground :)

After this special treat, Simon and I later lined up and had ourselves high tea at the Hopetoun Tea Rooms.

I think I have put on a couple of kg’s in the week I have been in Melbourne.  We have been at cafes and restaurants for pretty much every meal.  We’ve also been nibbling on truffles from the chocolate places around town too.  However, I was really excited when last night, while we were at the Mary Poppins stage show, Simon came back to our seats during the intermission and informed me that the magnum ice creams were sold out, but he had found these tubs of ice cream instead.

Ben and Jerry’s!  I was more than fine with there being no magnums.  I, for some unknown reason, have been on the Ben and Jerry’s website before and ever since I visited it I have wanted to try some.  Yum!