Father’s Day Baking Ideas

This Sunday is Father’s Day, it has caught me a little off guard this year as it seemed very early in the month and I was sure that like Mother’s Day that it was the second Sunday of the month! If you have made the same mistake and don’t have time to hit the shops then you might find some of these ideas handy and what Dad wouldn’t love a gift that was made by his darling child…

1. Savoury Food. Dad’s seem to love savoury stuff, I guess it’s more ‘blokey’ and sustaining than cupcake – not that there’s anything wrong with a cupcake, especially if you can add bacon to that cupcake!

Pictured above: Kumara and Bacon Savoury Slice, Ham, Cheese and Broccoli Quiche, Pumpkin Feta Muffins, Mini Vegetable Frittatas, Potato, Bacon and Cheese Frittata.

2. Bake Dad a batch of biscuits, make him a cuppa and take him the Sunday papers.

Pictured above: Afghan Biscuits, Cowboy Cookies, Anzac Biscuits, One Dough – Hundreds of Biscuits.

3. Make Dad some special bread as part of a Father’s Day brunch.

Pictured above: Beer Bread, Spinach Feta Plait, Cinnamon Pull Apart Loaf.

4. Bake him a cake and help him eat it!

Pictured above: Sour Cream Lemon Cake, Carrot Cake, Spiced Apple Cake, Banana Cake, Red Velvet Cake.

And if none of these cakes take your fancy, why not try out the chocolate beer cake I made for Father’s Day last year or check out the recipe index there is plenty more inspiration there.

Happy Father’s Day to all you wonderful Father’s! Mel and I also want to wish our own Dad’s a Happy Father’s Day xox

Lunchbox Bakes – Roasted Rosemary, Lemon + Garlic Chickpeas

These crunchy chickpeas make a great lunchbox snack, nibbles for when you have guests, or even wrapped up nicely as a gift.  The key to getting a good crunch on the chickpeas is to leave them to dry after draining them out of the can.  The first time I tried making these they were soft and chewy because I only patted them dry with a paper towel.  My second attempt were beautifully crunchy; I left them outside in the winter sun for about an hour until I could see them changing colour a bit. 

Something random I found when making these (which might be painfully obvious to everyone else) is that chickpeas actually do look like chickens.  Once you’ve taken the skin off them you’ll notice they have a little beak.  If you hold one so this points to the right, you’ll be looking at the ‘chicken’s’ profile.  They have cute puffy wings.

2 tablespoons olive oil
zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 cans chickpeas
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (or 2 tablespoons dried)

Drain and rinse the cans of chickpeas.  Remove the skins from the chickpeas, then spread on a baking tray or in a roasting dish, and leave to dry.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Roast the chickpeas for 20 minutes.
Remove the chickpeas from the oven and coat with the oil.  Mix the garlic powder, lemon zest and rosemary together.  Mix this through the chickpeas.
Roast the chickpeas for a further 20 – 40 minutes until you are happy with the ‘crunch’ of your chickpeas.
Remove from the oven.  Once cool, store in an airtight container.

For more delicious lunch ideas and information on how you can take part in Lunchbox Bakes, check out our Lunchbox Bakes page.

*Glass jar with label and ‘enjoy’ tag c/o Wink.

Spiced Chocolate Dessert Cake

Max and I had a lovely but very busy weekend up in Auckland, visiting Shane who is working up there while I stay in New Plymouth selling our house as we are re-locating (yup, again). We also had the bonus of catching up with some of family and having a family dinner with two of my three sisters at Mum’s house. This cake is what I whipped up for our dessert and YAY(!!) if you are gluten free as this is one you can all enjoy too!

Ingredients:
100 grams dark chocolate
100 grams butter, chopped into pieces
75 grams almond meal
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 heaped teaspoon masala spice
1 teaspoon coffee powder
1 tablespoon hot water
3 eggs, whites and yolks separated

Method:
Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. Pre heat oven to 160°C fan bake.
In a double boiler melt chocolate and butter and stir occasionally to combine.
In a large bowl place almond meal, sugar, masala and stir to combine. In the centre drop in coffee and hot water.
Add chocolate mixture to almond meal mixture and stir to combine.
Add in egg yolks one at a time.
Beat egg whites into soft peaks with an electric mixer and fold through chocolate mix.
Bake in your pre-heated oven for 45 minutes. Remove and place on a wire rack until cooled and then place in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours before serving (can be made a day ahead).
Serve with berry sauce and cream.

Chocolate + Vanilla Marshmallows

These are a little tricky to make, but only because you have to use glucose syrup and that stuff is super sticky!  You also need a candy thermometer.  I made chocolate and vanilla marshmallows; the recipe below makes one batch of your chosen flavour. 

My Vanilla Marshmallows turned out the best.  They were light and fluffy, and oh so dainty.  While mixing the chocolate ones I got excited about an email I received and decided to call Courtenay to share the news.  I turned the mixer off because it was a bit too loud while I was on the phone and when I get back to mixing the chocolate batch the mix had gone a bit thick and I forgot how long they still had left to be mixed.  So, I’m not sure if I over or under mixed them, but they had trouble holding their shape.  They tasted good, they just didn’t look appealing.

Icing sugar, for dusting tin
4 teaspoons powdered gelatin
1 ½ cups sugar
100ml glucose syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted (if making chocolate marshmallows)
Extra icing sugar and cocoa powder for dusting

Grease a 20 x 20cm tin.  Dust the inside of the tin with icing sugar (combined with a little bit of cocoa powder if making chocolate marshmallows), coating the the tin thoroughly.  Set aside.

Place the gelatine in a mixing bowl with 80ml of water.  Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

Add the sugar, glucose syrup, and 80ml water to a small saucepan.  Stir over a medium heat until the sugar and syrup has dissolved.  Bring to boil until it reaches 125°C on a candy thermometer.  Remove from the heat.

With mixer on medium speed, carefully stream the hot syrup into the gelatin.  Once the mixture has become pale / white and increased slightly in volume, increase the speed to high  and add vanilla.  Continue to mix for 8 minutes.  Be careful not to over mix as this can result in a tough marshmallow (well, tough for a marshmallow).

If you are making chocolate marshmallows, add the cocoa powder to the mixture and when incorporated, turn mixer back up to high speed and mix for a few more seconds.

Pour into prepared tin and smooth out with spatula (hot water will stop this from sticking).  Cover with cling film and put in the fridge to set, preferably overnight.

Dust a bench with icing sugar (mixed with a little bit of cocoa powder if making chocolate marshmallows) and turn the marshmallow mixture out.  Transfer onto a chopping board and cut into squares (I used a hot wet knife).  Place some icing sugar (mixed cocoa powder if needed) in medium bowl.  Put the marshmallow squares into the bowl and coat the sides with the icing sugar.  Shake off the excess icing sugar.  Store in airtight container.

Hidden Treasure Muffins

Ahoy matey!  I thought these Hidden Treasure Muffins would be a bit of fun for kids, or those young at heart.  When I was younger I used to save all the gummy lollies until the end of my bowl when I had Goody Goody Gum Drops ice cream.  It was kinda fun seeing how many you’d get (and a bit of a competition between my brother and I).  I had an idea to do something similar with muffins.  Inside, these muffins have jelly beans and gummy lollies or, what I like to think of as ‘hidden treasure’.  How many of hidden ‘gems’ can you find? 

2 cups self raising flour
½ teaspoons cinnamon
¾ cup sugar
300g sour cream
1 egg
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 bananas, mashed
⅔ cup jelly beans
12 jube / gummy lollies

Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Grease or line 12 muffin tin holes.
Place the flour, cinnamon, and sugar in a bowl and mix.
Put the sour cream, egg, oil and mashed banana in another bowl and mix together.  Add to the dry ingredients, along with the jelly beans, and stir to combine.
Spoon the mixture evenly between the prepared muffin tins until they are half full.  Place a gummy lolly on top of the batter in each tin, then cover with the remaining mixture.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Aye, shiver me timbers! They look jolly good!

Cowboy Cookies

While the origin of the name of these cookies isn’t exactly clear, they are certainly packed with enough goodness and energy to sustain a cowboy in the wild west! I love the name, in fact I made them because of their name, as we are now on the downhill slide to Max’s second birthday (still 6 months away) which will be… You guessed it – cowboy themed! There are loads of variations of these cookies floating around the net, some have walnuts instead of pecans, others have coconut, some more modern takes use M&M’s which I used as I think they are a bit of fun, especially when making them for kids. The best bit is these are super simple to make and taste delicious!

Ingredients:
1½ cups of flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup cooking oats
¾ cup M&M’s
½  cup milk chocolate drops
½  cup dark chocolate drops
½ cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup white sugar
½  cup pecans, chopped
1 slightly beaten egg
125 grams butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract/paste

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180°C.
Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix.
Make a well in the middle of your dry ingredients and add your wet ingredients. Use a large wooden spoon to combine, you may even need to use your hands.
Use a small ice cream scoop to create evenly sized balls of dough (roughly 3cm) and place on baking paper spaced 4-5cm apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes in your pre-heated oven.
Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

Here’s my little cowboy, at 18 months, enjoying a cookie.

If you make these cookies, especially if you have a play with the recipe, let us know how you got on by leaving us a comment here on the blog or on facebook, we love to hear from you x

Sabato ‘Valhrona Chocolate’ Giveaway Winners!

Three lucky readers have won themselves an awesome Valrhona Chocolate pack courtesy of Sabato…

And they are the people who left comment numbers 124, 33 and 71.  So, from my counting the prizes are going to Dana GH, Beverly Lowe and Shelly Munro!  Congratulations!

We had heaps of fun reading everyone’s ideas about what they would make if they were the lucky recipients.  Thank you to everyone who took part and entered.

We would like to send a huge thank you to Sabato for donating the prize packs.  Without their support there wouldn’t have been a giveaway.  Show them your thanks by giving them a ‘like’ on Facebook for us!

Sabato ‘Valrhona Chocolate’ Giveaway!

Here’s something all our sweet toothed fans are going to love! 
The lovely people at Sabato have given us three Valrhona Chocolate packs like the one picture above, to give away.
Each pack (valued at over $45) contains some recipe cards, Valrhona chocolate pearls, Valrhona chocolate feves and Valrhona cocoa powder.
To be in to win one of the packs, leave us a comment below (click where it says ‘comments’ next to the ‘posted by’ information) telling us something you would make if you were a lucky recipient. 
Winners will be announced on our Facebook page and our blog site, so check back so see if you are a winner.  If you don’t mind, leave us your email address to make it easier for us to contact you if you are a winner.
The competition closes 5pm Sunday 19th August – that’s tomorrow so get in quick!
Check out the Sabato website for recipe ideas or visit them on Facebook.
Open to New Zealand residents only.  Winners will be chosen at random and contacted once the competition closes.  If we have not been able to contact a winner by 5pm Monday 20th, their prize will be re-drawn.

Ombre Cake

I’ve been waiting for a reason to make one of these for a while now. Some of you may remember that when wee Max turned six months old I held a little celebration. Well, time certainly flies as he was 18 months old last Friday, so I thought why not bake a special cake to celebrate! It is easier than it looks and tastes yummy. I used a basic yellow cake recipe and divided into thirds to colour. This was a mini cake so I halved the below mixture and used three mini cake tins. The ingredients listed below will give you enough mixture to create a three tier 20cm cake.

Ingredients:
200 grams of butter, softened
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
3 cups of self-rising flour, sifted
1 cup of milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
blue (or a colour of your choice) food colouring – I used gel

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease your cake tins.
Using your electric or stand mixer beat butter until it is light and fluffy.
Cream together the sugar and the butter for about 5 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add flour and milk, alternating between the two, beginning and ending with the flour ensuring that everything is combined.
This is the trickiest bit and can be done 2 ways. You can either divide your mixture between 3 bowls before adding colour, to ensure that each layer is perfectly even or if you are lazy and want to save on dishes like me you can “eye ball” it and remove a third of the mixture and put it in your first pan. Add food colouring gradually until you get a colour you are happy with (a light blue, or pink or purple) and remove another third and place in pan. Add some more colouring to your final third, ensuring it is darker than your second layer and place in greased pan.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until cooked, you will know the cake is ready when you can remove a skewer cleanly from the centre.
Cool on wire racks and once cool you can level and frost with butter cream.


In terms of frosting you can take creative license, I tried my hand at a ‘petal frosting’ technique and used the same colours on the outside of the cake, I followed this tutorial, it isn’t perfect but I was pretty happy with it for a first go . These cakes look just as cool covered a solid colour on the outside like a plain white vanilla buttercream, which makes the surprise on the inside even greater!

Buttercream:
200 grams butter, softened
4-5 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla paste/extract
3-4 teaspoons warm water

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add once cup of icing sugar and vanilla, mix until combined. Continue to add icing sugar alternating with tablespoons of warm water until you have a consistency you are happy with – add more water for a looser mix, less for a thicker mix.
*** The water can be substituted for milk but it is best to use room temperature milk as addling cold milk can split your mixture.

Lunchbox Bakes – Individual Bacon + Egg pies – 2 Ways!

Individual bacon and egg pies are a perfect lunch box treat.  They are simple to make and super delish.  This post has two recipes: one for a classic bacon and egg pie, and another for curried bacon and egg pies; a twist on the traditional. 
I wanted to try making a curried egg pie as curried eggs remind me of Primary School.  I remember my Mum making me a plate of curried eggs to take for a shared lunch.  I was really embarrassed, they looked gross, I was sure I would get made fun of and they wouldn’t be eaten.  I also remember that everyone loved them and I had an empty plate to take home to my Mum.  I think I felt pretty silly as I had made such a fuss in the morning about how terrible it was that I was being made to take curried eggs.  Mum knows best huh?
Both pie varieties are yummy.  The recipes make 6 individual pies, or you can make them as one large pie if you prefer.  For a large pie, I would egg wash any visible pastry and give it longer in the oven.  Courtenay has shared her recipe for a family sized bacon and egg pie on the blog before, which is really moreish, and I recommend you try that out too!

Classic Bacon and Egg Pies:

2 sheets flaky pastry
12 rashers middle bacon, rind removed
1 tomato cut into 6 wedges or 6 cherry tomatoes cut in half
12 eggs
¼ cup cream
70g ricotta cheese
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Grease a 6 hole Texas muffin tin.
Cut the pastry into 6 squares.  Ease the pastry squares into the muffin tray, extending the pastry 1cm above the tops of the holes.
Line each pastry case with two rashers of bacon.  Place a wedge of tomato (or a cut cherry tomato) in each pie case and season with the salt and pepper.
Break 6 eggs into a bowl and whisk in the cream and ricotta cheese.
Break the remaining eggs carefully into the prepared muffin tins.  Pour over the egg and cream mixture, so the cases are nearly full.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the you can press down on the tops of the pies and no liquid seeps out.

*These pies are quite nice served with a little bit of pesto.

Curried Egg and Bacon Pies:

1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 sheets flaky pastry
12 rashers middle bacon, rind removed
1 tomato cut into 6 wedges or 6 cherry tomatoes cut in half
12 eggs
¼ cup cream
70g ricotta cheese
1 ½ teaspoons curry powder
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease a 6 hole Texas muffin tin.
In a frying pan, toast the cumin seeds over a medium heat for 1 – 2 minutes, shaking the pan every 30 seconds to prevent burning.  Set aside.
Cut the pastry into 6 squares. Ease the pastry squares into the muffin tray, extending the pastry 1cm above the tops of the holes.
Line each pastry case with two rashers of bacon. Place a wedge of tomato (or a cut cherry tomato) in each pie case and season with the salt and pepper.
Break 6 eggs into a bowl and whisk in the cream, ricotta cheese and curry powder.
Break the remaining eggs carefully into the prepared muffin tins. Pour over the egg and cream mixture, so the cases are nearly full.  Sprinkle the cumin seeds over the top of the pies.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the you can press down on the tops of the pies and no liquid seeps out.

*A spicy chutney is the perfect accompaniment for these pies.

Find out more about Lunchbox Bakes and how you can be involved, on our Lunchbox Bakes Page!

Chocolate Chip + Macadamia Cookies

I’m enjoying making biscuits at the moment.  Recipes like the one below, which don’t need any time in the fridge, are quick and easy to make.  Although, sometimes that isn’t such a good thing.  Why?  Well, I forget they don’t take as long to bake as muffins and usually end up slightly burning a tray!  However, this recipe yields enough that a few burnt biscuits won’t be an issue.

Makes approximately 32.

180g unsalted butter, chopped
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
⅔ cup white chocolate bits
⅔ cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 160°C.  Line 3 oven trays with baking paper.
Put the butter and sugar in a bowl of an electric mixer and beat until creamy.  Add in the egg and beat until combined.  Transfer to a large bowl (if needed).
Sift in the cocoa, baking soda and half of the flour over the mixture and stir until combined.  Add the remaining flour, chocolate bits and macadamia nuts.  Stir until combined.
Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and put onto trays 5 cm apart.  Bake for 12 –15 minutes or until crinkly on top.
Allow to cool on the trays.  Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

Cheesecake Mousse

This is a quick and easy dessert to prepare as a treat but is impressive enough to serve to dinner guests. You can prepare it in advance or whip it up when the mood strikes and eat straight away.

Ingredients:
250 grams cream cheese, softened
150 ml cream, softly whipped
2 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ cup icing sugar
10 round wine biscuits or similar
berry or passionfruit sauce to top

Method:
Place your biscuits in a snap lock bag and beat with a rolling pin to break them up. Divide the crumbs between 4 serving glasses. (If you are feeling fancy and want to make it a little more like a ‘real’ cheesecake you could melt a little butter and mix with the crumbs.)
Place cream cheese in the bowl of your mixer and beat using a whisk attachment for 2-3 minutes.
Add lemon juice and sift in icing sugar and mix until combined.
Add half the cream and continue to mix until combined. Fold in the remaining cream.
Place the cream cheese mixture in a piping bag and pipe into the centre of each of your serving glasses.
* If preparing in advance I twist the top of my piping bag and place in in a tall glass and refrigerate until needed. Removing it 5 or so minutes before I want to pipe the mix out.
Top each serve with a sauce of your choice.

Easy peasy! Even though it is so simple I think it actually looks a little more sophisticated and special than a slice of cheesecake with the bonus that it is much easier to make. Enjoy x

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I was after something a little bit different to my ‘easy peasy chocolate cake’ (which is fab, I just wanted something a little richer) to try with some chocolate cream cheese frosting after Shane’s Aunty V mentioned it to me a few weeks back. I hadn’t had chocolate cream cheese icing since I was quite young - occasionally Mum used to top her banana cakes with it. I’d seen a few Chocolate Buttermilk cakes on Pinterest and decided to give one a go. It is fabulously moist and even though it uses a little bit of coffee (which I detest) it still tastes fab!

Now the ingredients below will make you two 20cm cakes that you can sandwich together, however, you may notice that pictures are of a single layered cake… I’m going to be honest, I had a bit of a baking fail! I ran out of cooking spray to grease my tins and I did not do a good enough job of greasing the second tin the ‘old fashioned way’ and no matter how much tapping I did there was no way that baby was coming out. The cake still works perfectly well as a single layer cake, in fact it is actually quite rich so you could halve the recipe if you wished.

Ingredients:
Cake:
3 cups flour
2 ½ cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup canola oil
1 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs
1 cup of hot instant coffee (I put 1 teaspoon of Moccona coffe to one cup boiling water and left it to cool for a couple of minutes)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
200 grams cream cheese, softened
100 grams unsalted butter, softened
½ cup icing sugar
¼ cup cocoa
2-5 tablespoons milk (depending on how soft your creamed mix you will need more or less milk to loosen your frosting).

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C, grease x2 20cm round cake tins.
Place flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder into the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl). Using your paddle attachment (or an electric mixer), mix on low to combine.
Keeping the mixer on low , add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, then your eggs one at a time.
Add hot coffee in a thin stream, try to pour it down the side of the bowl. And mix until you have a smooth mixture.
Divide into pans and bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs.
Once cooked remove your cakes from the oven and place on racks to cool for 15-20 minutes before removing from tins. Cool completely before frosting.
To make your chocolate cream cheese frosting you need to cream your butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, sift in icing sugar and one or two tablespoons of milk. Sift in cocoa and beat until it is well combined, if you are finding the consistency to thick keep gradually adding milk until it reaches a consistency you are happy with.
Place half the frosting on the top of the bottom layer of your cake and the other half on top.

Jelly Slice

This slice is easy to make and doesn’t actually require any baking, just a whole lot of leaving things to chill in the fridge.  Easy.  This slice would be great for kids parties; I used blackcurrant jelly but you could always use a green or blue jelly for a bit of colour and fun.

Ingredients:
200g butter, melted
250g plain biscuits, crushed
3 teaspoons gelatine, plus 2 teaspoons extra extra
½ cup boiling water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
395g can condensed milk
1 packet jelly crystals

Method:
Grease and line a 21cm x 36cm tin with baking paper.  Combine the butter and the biscuits.  Press the mixture firmly into the prepared tin and then refrigerate.
Dissolve the gelatine in the boiling water.  In a medium bowl, add the lemon juice, condensed milk and gelatine mix.  Mix until well combined.  Pour over the biscuit base and then refrigerate for one hour or until set.
Make the jelly as per the packet instructions, adding in the extra gelatine.  Set aside to cool.  Once cooled, pour the jelly over the condensed milk mixture and refrigerate for one hour or until set.  Cut into squares with a warm knife to serve.

Auckland Food Show 2012

Annabelle White cooking demonstration in the Electrolux Theatre

I had a great day yesterday at the Auckland Food Show.  I went with Simon’s Mum (Michelle, who blogs over at The Jamjar) and Brother (David) and we had heaps of fun watching cooking demonstrations, attending a High Tea ‘master class’, and perusing all the stalls.

David buying a Whoopie Pie (photo courtesy of Michelle)

Nici Wickes cooking demonstration in the Electrolux Theatre

Me with Annabelle White

We started off our day in the Electrolux Theatre where we watched a cooking demonstrations by Annabelle White and Nici Wickes.  We were shown how to cook the perfect roast chicken and use it in three different meals.  Nici demonstrated how to make a beautiful Tagine and a delicious banana, custard and meringue dessert – I know it was delicious because David had a go at making it :)

Our High Tea treats at our Masterclass

Our High Tea Masterclass beverages

Annabelle White at the High Tea Masterclass

After the cooking demonstrations in the theatre we headed off to a High Tea Masterclass.  This was run by Annabelle White.  While we were shown how to make some dainty high tea nibbles we were treated to wine, tea and a selection of high tea treats (including mini cupcakes courtesy of Little and Friday). 

Whoopie Pies (photo courtesy of Michelle)

The egg stand (photo courtesy of Michelle)

Atomic Coffee (photo courtesy of Michelle)

Once the class had ended and we had collected our goodie bags, we set off to check out the stalls at the food show.  Michelle bought some honey, David bought some beer and I bought some beautiful products from St Andrews Limes.

The Lewis Road Creamery Stand

Overall we had heaps of fun.  The Food Show runs in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch so if you are able to, I would recommend heading along to the one nearest you.  One of the best things about the Auckland show is the cooking demonstrations in the Theatre.  They are free to attend and showcase the talents of some awesome chefs.  The Masterclasses are worth going to as well – definitely worth the money.  If you want more information about The Food Show, you can head on over to their website or you can check out my posts on the the 2011 and 2010 events.

Me with Nici Wickes

Gluten Free Chocolate Pecan Brownies

I got to catch up with Kim (a friend Mel and I made while we completed our teaching diplomas) last week as she now resides in New Plymouth too.  She also has the most gorgeous baby boy!  Kim’s gluten free so I got to try my hand at making a “GF” treat.  These were delicious, probably the best brownies I’ve ever made!

Ingredients:
120g butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup caster sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla paste (or extract)
3 large eggs
¾ cup gluten free flour
½ cup gluten free cocoa powder
½ teaspoon gluten free baking powder
⅓ cup pecans, chopped
½ cup dark chocolate drops

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C, line a square 20x20cm baking tin with baking paper.
Mix butter (I used the delicious butter sent to us from Lewis Road Creamery), sugars and vanilla until combined.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Sift in cocoa, flour, baking powder and mix until just combined.
Stir through pecans and chocolate drops.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until just cooked. Remove from oven and cool for a further 10 minutes in the baking time before removing the brownie to cool completely on a wire rack.
Cut into pieces and dust with icing sugar to serve.