Baking Makes Things Better

Choctastic Cookies

2012-02-09T16:09:00.001+13:00

If you follow us on facebook you will know that these are the first things I baked in my new home. They were delicious and I am so glad that we finally have the internet so that I can share them with you all. I actually made the recipe up myself after looking at several types of similar biscuits on the net.

Ingredients:
150g dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
1 cup flour
4 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
125g butter,softened
⅓ brown sugar
⅓ white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg, cold from the fridge
350g milk chocolate drops

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line your oven trays with baking paper.
Melt the 150g dark chocolate either in the microwave or in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.
Put the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt into a bowl.
Cream the butter and sugars in another bowl. Add the melted chocolate and mix until combined.
Beat in the vanilla essence and cold egg, and then mix in the dry ingredients. Finally stir in the chocolate drops.
Scoop out 16 equal balls, using an ice cream scoop helps to keep the size consistent and place on your lined baking sheet about 5cm apart. Don’t flatten them.
Cook for 15 minutes, testing with a skewer to make sure it comes out semi-clean and not wet with batter. If you hit a chocolate drop, try again.
Leave to cool slightly on the baking tray for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to harden as they cool.

These were divine warm but just as scrummy once fully cool for a good few days after they were made. If you are a chocoholic just like me you need to give this recipe a try!

Chocolate Cake Pops

2012-02-07T20:56:00.001+13:00

In January I had both Matthew’s (Andie’s son) and Max’s first birthday parties to attend so I decided to give making cake pops a try. This is a very simple ‘how-to’ for making them, I am in no way an expert and will gladly leave that title to Bakerella!

Basically to make cake pops you need to make a cake. Then you smash the cake and mix it with an icing-like substance. Then you roll it into balls, chill them, then pop in some sticks and dip in chocolate :P

You can use the chocolate cake recipe that I have given below or any other of your choosing – a packet mix is fine. I got my pop sticks from Milly’s – they sell long Wilton brand sticks and they also stock their own brand of shorter sticks, which is what I used as they were half the price.

Chocolate Cake:
110g self raising flour
40g cocoa powder
200g caster sugar
80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing Mix:
80g unsalted butter
125g icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cream

Other:
375g Chocolate, melted, to cover the cake balls
30 (approx) lollipop sticks

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 22 cm round cake tin with baking paper. Sift the flour and cocoa together in a large bowl. Combine the sugar and 125ml boiling water in the top of a double boiler over a medium heat and stir until dissolved. Add the butter and chocolate and stir until smooth. Cool slightly.
Combine the egg and vanilla extract then add to the flour mixture and mix well. Add the chocolate mixture and mix to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.

Finely crumb the chocolate cake into a large bowl. Place the butter, icing sugar and cocoa in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 1-2 minutes or until light and creamy. Add the cream and mix well. Add to the cake crumbs and mix well (the mixture should stick together when squeezed).
Line two baking trays with baking paper. Roll the mixture into small balls, about the same size as a truffle. Place on the trays and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Carefully insert a stick into each cake ball and dip into the melted chocolate, swirling off the excess.

For Matthew’s party I coated the cake pop with white chocolate and then drizzled dark chocolate over the top as Andie had decided on a ‘Cookies and Cream’ theme. For Max’s party I used red and light blue candy melts by Wilton (a little tip – mixing vegetable oil with the candy melts makes the consistency a lot better to work with, add a little a time while melting them until you have a consistency you are happy with) and topped them with sprinkles.

Chelsea NZ's Hottest Home Baker Season 3

2012-02-07T11:16:00.000+13:00

Just in case any of you out there are interested, the casting call has gone out for contestants wanting to take part in Chelsea NZ's Hottest Home Baker Season 3. You can read more about it and apply here.

Max’s Robots and Rockets 1st Birthday Party

2012-02-05T13:45:00.001+13:00

That’s Max, 2 weeks off officially tuning 1, hanging out with his little friend Molly (the gorgeous daughter of Jess, the talent behind Rosy Cakes) during his party last weekend.

I thought now that we (FINALLY!) have internet I would share some pics from the party with you as well as some hints/tips for anyone planning a kids party in the near future.

I had a very clear vision of what I wanted Max’s party to be (you guys saw my inspiration collages…), most importantly I wanted it to be a chance to gather with family and friends to celebrate the 1st year of my baby boy’s life but since I decided to theme it I really wanted to follow it through in the form of decorations, food, plates and napkins, right down to Max’s robot t-shirt – which of course all had to be in the same colour pallet. However, this was easier said than done and I may have over extended myself a little! We moved cities less than a week earlier then I had to go back up to Auckland to use a kitchen I was unfamiliar with, before transporting everything across the other side of town for the actual party. I also only had a 30 minute set up allowed before the party because of the rental period on our venue.

There were some minor disasters like my blue and red macarons (which more looked pink and green) that never even made it to the oven because they spread so much during the setting process! Everything else got there in the end after help from Shane who did so many little things as well as cutting out all the robot faces for the shortbread cookies – I think he did an awesome job! Melissa made some awesome cake pops and delicious meatballs and my Mum calmed me down mid-macaron meltdown and did a bunch of savoury items and delish profiteroles. I was also helped by Wendy who cut out all the coloured stars for decorations, made up some yummy cheese and cracker platters and spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen at the party getting the savouries into the oven and cutting up cake. My Dad also spent hours entertaining Max so I could get stuff done. Thank you guys! I also have to thank Jess for making Max’s robot cake topper for me.

Max’s Cake

Food from the sweet treats table

Savoury table, Sweet Treats table and Drinks table with goody bags

Decorations

Because of time constraints I have no new recipes to share with you, although I am sure Mel will let you all in on a cakepops ‘how to’ soon. The robot cookies are shortbread which I flooded with ‘Queen’ royal icing (so easy to use!) and placed the faces and stars (which I sprinkled with edible glitter/shimmer) made of coloured fondant on top. I made red velvet and vanilla cupcakes and the cake was 3 chocolate cakes layered with vanilla buttercream icing and covered in fondant.

In terms of party planning advice, I would recommend that you pick a theme/colour scheme a couple of months ahead of time if possible, hunt for ideas on the internet and start collecting bits and pieces as you come across them (I got my robot cups, plates and napkins months in advance at the $2 Shop of all places – bargain, and I found the little red and blue wooden robots in Whitcoulls). Give yourself plenty of time, write a to do list and tick things off as you go, delegate jobs (if you can), make decorations in advance, and bake things like cookies a couple of days before the party and put them in an airtight container. On the day have a crew of people who will help you set up and then tidy up and get someone to take lots of photos for you (thanks Mel and Imogen!) because you will probably be too busy with guests to do it. If it’s a kids party have plenty of kid friendly food – think fruit platters, cheerios, sausage rolls. Also if you are having a party over lunch and there are going to be Dad’s there make sure you have plenty of savouries (mini pies, sandwiches).

In terms of planning my party I spent ages looking on this site (LOVE!) for inspiration and ideas and got the majority of my decorations from this great NZ site ‘Poppyseed’, as well as using the awesome pictures our friend Andie took of Max’s cake smash.

Jones the Grocer

2012-02-03T18:27:00.001+13:00

Jones the Grocer is an Australian gourmet food chain which also has a store and café in New Market, Auckland. I only recently discovered it, but liked it so much I went there twice during my holidays.

Jones the Grocer stocks an awesome range of specialty foods. There is a special deli section and shelves brimming with items such as pasta, sauces, cordials, teas, chocolates – well yeah, there is heaps of stuff that I want to try (especially the black and white bow tie pasta, that looked super cool)! They also sell cute kitchenware like cups and saucers and old-fashioned milk bottles.

The café has a delicious range of food to choose from in the counter cabinet and there is a menu to pick from too. One things you must try is their iced chocolates – they taste amazing and come in funky little glass bottles.

If you are unable to visit their Auckland store, their website is pretty cool too - each month they stick up a new recipe. At the time of writing this the recipe is for Earl Grey Tea infused chocolate truffles.

Jones the Grocer
143 Carlton Gore Road, Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand
P: +64 9 5229161
F: +64 9 5232664
E: newmarket@jonesthegrocer.com
www.jonesthegrocer.com

Lunchbox Bakes – Mini Vegetable Frittatas

2012-02-01T17:58:00.001+13:00

Simon and I have been enjoying these Vegetable Frittatas as one of our lunchbox snacks this week. They are a great way to get kids eating more vegetables and eating healthy. I find the Frittatas super tasty and I have been looking forward to my morning tea when I can eat my one for the day :)

Remember if you make something that is suitable for lunches, you can also take part in Lunchbox Bakes. It would be great to see what everyone else has been creating. Information about the event can be found on the Lunchbox Bakes page.

Makes 12 cupcake sized frittatas

4 spring onions, sliced into thin rounds
3 medium courgettes, chopped into 1cm pieces
1 medium red pepper, finely chopped (peppers kinda scare me, so I used about 6 mild piquanté peppers which come in a jar by Peppadew)
125g cheese, cut into 1cm cubes (I used Mainland’s ‘Egmont’ cheese)
8 large eggs
125ml cream
freshly ground black pepper
a good pinch of dried oregano

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 12 hole muffin tray well, or use a flexible muffin mould.
Fry the onions, courgettes, red pepper and oregano together in a medium frying pan for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are a light golden brown.
Leave the vegetables to cool for 5 minutes then stir in the tomatoes and cheese.
Break the eggs into a bowl. Add the cream and a small amount of pepper then whisk together.
Spoon the vegetable and cheese mixture into the muffin tray holes. Pour the egg mixture over the top.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until puffed, golden and set. Leave to cool for 5 minutes then gently run a round bladed knife around the outside of each muffin hole and lift the frittatas out. The frittatas can be eaten hot or cold.

The Pah Café

2012-01-31T19:30:00.001+13:00

Located inside Monte Cecilia Park is this beautiful building, The Pah Homestead. Gorgeous huh? This building is actually not very far from where I currently live; Simon and I discovered it on our way home one day when I asked if we could head up the driveway for Monte Cecilia Park to take a look.

Here’s a bit of history about the building for you… the place was built between 1877 and 1879 for Auckland businessman, James Williamson as his ‘gentleman’s residence’. After he died in 1888, the homestead was leased to the Anglican church and was used as a school. In 1913, the Sisters of Mercy and The Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Henry Cleary purchased the homestead.

I took Courtenay here for brunch one day and she had actually been here before when she was younger as her school used it for retreats. In 2002 the Auckland Council purchased the homestead and began an extensive restoration. The building was opened to the public in August of 2010 and now houses an art gallery and café. The café offers a pretty standard menu with nothing out of the ordinary, but does have quite a delicious looking selection of goodies in their cabinet.

If the weather is nice when you visit, take full advantage of the sun and sit out on the large wrap-around veranda out the back. The homestead has some great views of Auckland and is surrounded by beautiful park grounds (apparently over 15 ha in fact). It is the perfect setting to enjoy the cafés tea and scones.

The Homestead can also be hired as a venue for functions such as conferences, meetings and weddings. You can see more pictures and find out more information about the park and homestead on the Auckland Council’s website and check out the café’s menu on The Pah café’s website.

The Pah Café
72 Hillsborough Road, Hillsborough, Auckland, New Zealand
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 10am-3pm, Saturday 10am-5pm
www.pahcafe.co.nz

Time To Party

2012-01-26T21:36:00.001+13:00

Max is turning 1! This is an updated picture of him smashing his 11 month cake, I snapped it on my phone at a cake smash photo shoot we did with Andie who has guest blogged on here before. Of course we are throwing a party to celebrate, it is also doubling as a leaving party since our family has relocated to Taranaki (from Auckland) as of a week ago – which means a trip up to Auckland, the first of many to come I am sure.

I started looking for ideas for Maxie’s party when he was about 5 months old and and decided on a robots and rockets theme to match the bedroom theme we picked before he was born, after settling on the theme I created this little inspiration board…

I have had lots of fun coming up with decorating ideas and planning lots of yummy food. Since we don’t have a house in Auckland to have the party in we have hired a venue at the botanical gardens, I will only have half an hour set up time so I have to have all my decorations ready to go and the food has to look and taste delicious but easy to transport. Below are my two updated inspiration boards and a sneak peek at some of the goodies I have collected!

I will be sure to share all the yummy goodies with you after the party and I am sure I will be testing out my new kitchen once we are properly settled in our new home, I’m having serious baking withdrawals!

Lunchbox Bakes – Berry and Oat Muffins

2012-01-25T09:34:00.001+13:00

These muffins are pretty tasty and they are easy to whip up. I find them quite filling too. They are suitable to freeze for later as well. Lets get started…

Makes 8.

1 ½ cups self raising flour
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 cup rolled oats
¾ cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon or lime rind
1 cup mixed berries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line 8 holes of a 12-hole muffin pan with paper cases.

Combine the flour, sugar and oats in a large bowl. Combine the milk, egg, oil and rind in a separate bowl. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the berries, leaving a few out to decorate the tops of the muffins.

Divide the mixture into the muffin cases. Place the remaining berries on the top. If you want to be extra fancy you could sprinkle some coffee sugar over the tops or decorate each muffin with a banana chip – I had both to try but forgot! Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the muffin comes out cleanly. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool.

So that is my first recipe for Lunchbox Bakes, a new feature that I introduced to you yesterday. Remember you can take part too and get a link to your blog up on our next Lunchbox Bakes post. If you are interested, there are more details on the Lunchbox Bakes page :)
If you make one of the recipes from our blog, leave a comment on the post or take a pic and post it up on our facebook page!

New Feature – Lunchbox Bakes!

2012-01-24T21:57:00.001+13:00

I’m starting up a new feature on our blog (conveniently just in time for the start of the school year too!) called ‘Lunchbox Bakes’.

Basically each fortnight (or weekly if I can manage it) I am going to post up a recipe of something I have made to take to work as part of my lunch for the week.

Why? Well, I want to eat healthier but I do want to keep up my baking. I’m aiming to make some stuff with less sugar and chocolate than most of the recipes I have posted up on here, but hopefully they will be yummy enough that buying something from the cafe will not be a temptation. I also like the idea that since I’ve cooked it, I’ll know what is in it unlike some of the offerings at the supermarket.

You can join in too! If you have a blog and have made something appropriate for lunch, share your blog post with us. Grab the Lunchbox Bakes badge (see the buttons page) or logo and put this and/or a link back to our homepage on your post if you want to participate. Then send us an email (bmtbblog@gmail.com) that includes the names of: you, your recipe, your blog and a link to your blog post. I’ve made a page for this new feature, which you can access through our menu bar if you need to check back on the details.

I’ve already baked my first lunchbox treat, so I’ll share that with you tomorrow. Each time I put up a new Lunchbox Bakes post after that, I will include a list of of people who have emailed in and linked up for the feature :)

In other news, Courtenay and her little family have moved down to New Plymouth and seem to be settling in well from the few pics she has managed to post up on facebook. She is still waiting for her internet to be connected up, but once it is she will be back and posting. It’s Max’s first birthday party this weekend (exciting!) so no doubt there will be some mouth watering recipes from the event making their way onto the blog in the coming weeks!

So, that’s the latest. Get involved in Lunchbox Bakes and send us an email with your details to get your link posted on our site!

Shaky Isles

2012-01-21T13:25:00.000+13:00

I can’t believe we haven’t written about Shaky Isles before - I go here quite a bit and love it. I’ve also introduced Courtenay to it, who likes it too.

There are two Shaky Isles cafés; one in Britomart and the original in Kingsland. Shaky Isles in Kingsland is small and intimate (the pics in the post were taken at Shaky Isles Kingsland), while the one in Britomart is a larger, more loft-like space. However, both places share the same great decor of exposed brick and plaster, quirky lighting and cute cartoon pictures dotted around the place. Both also have open wireless networks.

The menu is great – the food is reasonably priced and offers something a little different to other places. On my recent visit I had the Brioche Bene with kransky (their kransky are yum!) and my friend had one of their Bruschetta meals.

Their hot chocolates and mochas come with a Whittakers sante bar and are always served with a pretty vintage teaspoon. Shaky Isles also make delicious milkshakes – quite often you can look around the place and see someone with a ‘World’s longest drink’ cup on pretty much every table.

The Kingsland branch can get quite packed on weekend, but that is only because everyone knows Shaky Isles is a great place for a coffee and a bite to eat :)

Shaky Isles Kingsland
492 New North Road, Kingsland, Auckland
Ph: 09 815 3591

Shaky Isles Britomart
22 Customs Street East, Britomart, Auckland
Ph: 09 377 9310

E: info@shakyisles.co.nz
www.shakyisles.co.nz

White Chocolate Tart

2012-01-18T09:24:00.001+13:00

Last night I hosted a catch up for the girls I met and made friends with while I worked in retail during my Uni years. It was so much fun; I don’t think we have all been in the same room for about 4-5 years. Dinner was just pizza so I decided to make us something a bit more special for dessert. This White Chocolate Tart went down a real treat :)

The tart is actually really simple to make. I made my pastry from scratch, but if you buy some pre-made pastry or a ready-made shell, making the tart would probably take only 10 minutes!

You will need:
1 quantity of short crust pastry (I used this recipe that I have previously posted up)
300g white chocolate (I used a mix of Whittakers white choc and Nestlé choc melts)
50g crème fraîche
100g soft butter
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Your choice of decoration

Prepare and bake your short crust pastry then allow to cool (I followed this recipe).

Chop the chocolate and melt in a bowl over the top of a pan of hot water. Heat the crème fraîche for 10 seconds in the microwave then add to the chocolate. Stir to combine. Gradually add and stir in the soft butter. Pour the mixture into the pastry shell, spread smoothly and chill.

I decorated my tart with lots of berries. I purchased a bag of frozen berries from the supermarket, defrosted them and mixed them with icing sugar to taste (fresh ones were way to expensive). You could decorate it with just few berries and some raspberry sauce, or shards of dark chocolate would look quite fancy.

Waterfront Café and Bar

2012-01-16T21:09:00.001+13:00

My only plan for my summer holidays has been sleep ins and café lunches. So far, so good!

Apparently our Auckland weather is going to finally sort itself out and we’re about to get the Summer sun we have been waiting for. Waterfront is the perfect café to head along to for lunch and a drink while soaking up the sun. Sit out on the deck out the back and watch the coming and goings of the boats nearby.

I chose to come here for lunch the other day with my friend Michelle because they have a good selection of offerings on their menu and it is in the Entertainment book, which gives you a voucher entitling you to some $$ off your meal. Also, I hadn’t been there for a while. I had the Smoked Chicken Panini and like all the other plates I saw at neighbouring tables, there was a massive amount of food! The service was good, but someone could have come back to check if we wanted more drinks.

Waterfront is also a restaurant and a bar, so it’s pretty much always open. Brunch, lunch, dinner, dessert, drinks and dancing – I’ve done the lot here.
If you are looking for somewhere to unwind pop on in; it’s not fine dining but it is a nice place in the Viaduct with a good atmosphere and setting :)

Waterfront Café and Bar
Maritime Museum, Viaduct Basin, Auckland, New Zealand
Ph: 09 359 9914
E: info@thewaterfrontcafe.co.nz

Plum Jam

2012-01-13T18:10:00.000+13:00

For the past year, Simon and I have been unsure about a couple of the trees that are in our garden; we couldn’t figure out what variety of fruit tree they were. Turns out they were a couple of different types of plums. So, the other day I picked all the ripe fruit and I made jam.
It turns out making Plum Jam is really easy – you don’t need anything fancy because as my research has told me, Plums have a lot of natural Pectin in them. That’s the stuff that helps the jam to set, which means you don’t need to add anything.

Our lovely trees gave me 2.7 kg of fruit before I cut them up to remove the stones.
You will need:
Equal weight of plums and sugar (at least 1.5kg – just reduce the amount of water if you have less)
A little bit of water (about ⅔ cup)

Chop up the plums, removing the stones and put into a large pot with a heavy base. Add a little bit of water (I put in about ½ a cup for all my plums).

Bring the pot up to a boil and simmer uncovered for an hour, stirring occasionally. The liquid should be reduced by ⅔ and the fruit should be soft.
Put a small plate into the freezer to make it cold for testing the jam later.
Add the sugar into the simmering fruit. I would start with a small amount of sugar and taste the jam before adding more (I used about 1kg of sugar to my 2.7ish kgs of fruit because I found it sweet enough). Stir until it is completely dissolved.Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to a rapid boil while stirring. Boil for 10 minutes.

Remove the plate from the freezer and place a blob of the mixture on to it. Once the mixture has cooled a little, run your finger through it; if the mixture stays separated it is ready to be put into jars. If the mixture comes back together, boil it for a few more minutes before testing again. Once the mixture is ready, remove from the heat and pour into sterilised jam jars (I used some from the supermarket that have the lids that pop in when they have sealed. There’s heaps of info about how to sterilise them on the internet.)

I found this You Tube video really helpful and recommend it if you are going to give making Plum Jam a go.
Once opened the jars of jam will last for about 8 weeks.

Chocolate and Caramel Mousse Cake

2012-01-09T15:22:00.001+13:00

This delicious creation was another Christmas day treat! It is perfect to take along to summer BBQ’s as a dessert plate. This is another recipe that I have had in a folder that I have been meaning to try for a year+ and again I wish I had tried it earlier, it is very easy but you need to have a bit of time on your hands as there is a bit of a wait between steps.

Ingredients:
125g plain biscuit crumbs (I used ‘Round Wines’)
75g butter, melted
1½ teaspoons gelatin
1 tablespoon hot water
380g tin of caramel condensed milk
¾ cup cream
1 cup dark chocolate melts
2 teaspoons gelatin
2 tablespoons hot water
1 cup cream, softly whipped

Method:
Line a 20cm round spring-form tin with wax baking paper (base and sides).
Combine the biscuit crumbs and butter and press mixture into the lined base of tin. Place in the fridge to chill.
In a bowl dissolve the first measure of gelatin in the hot water and when smooth stir through the caramel. Evenly spread the caramel mix over the base and return to fridge.
Pour ¾ cup cream into a pan and heat until it is nearly boiling. Remove from the heat and stir through your dark chocolate melts until they are dissolved and the mix is smooth. Set aside to cool.
Dissolve the second measure of gelatin in the water and stir it into the chocolate cream. Chill until thickened but not set, about 15 minutes.
Fold the softly whipped cream through the chocolate cream and spread the mousse over the caramel base. Chill for a minimum of 3-4 hours before serving, it can also be made a day ahead.

You can garnish the cake with summer berries, chocolate lattices or some white chocolate curls/shavings like me.

Tip: If I had been at home on Christmas day I would have grabbed a spoon and run it under hot water (then dried it) so I could use the back of it to smooth off the rough edge where I had removed the wax paper.

This will probably be my last recipe for a wee while I am sad to say, we move out of our house next Friday and will be staying with family for a little while before the big move to New Plymouth. We also have Max’s birthday party the weekend after our move – which I am super excited about, so I may find some time in amongst the chaos to give all of you lovely readers a sneak peek at what we have planned.

Inspiration: Neenish Tarts

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000+13:00

One thing I want to attempt to make before my school holidays are up and I have to go back to work are some Neenish Tarts.

I love them but I haven’t eaten one in a super long time. My Mum is a creature of habit and does her grocery shopping on Wednesday night each week. When I lived at home it used to mean that we would have something easy that night for dinner, usually burgers (while she was out we would actually have a bet on what we thought the meal would be). She also used to bring home a slice or something sweet for us to have after dinner and I think that is how I was introduced to Neenish Tarts.

They look quite fiddly and time consuming which is a bit off putting. However, now that I’ve declared that I want to make them hopefully I will feel obliged to follow though and actually do it :)

The Library Café

2012-01-05T12:55:00.001+13:00

Simon likes this place – he goes here and has a coffee when he wants a place to study. We’ve been to The Library Café a few times for brunch / lunch too. We came here just the other day (since the weather has been so miserable in Auckland lately, a nice hot breakfast indoors sounded perfect) so I’ve decided to share it with you.

The café is inside a gorgeous old building and has won the Metro award for the Best Café in Onehunga for 2008, 2009 and 2010. There is plenty of seating and you can also hire the venue for weddings or private functions. There are two areas to the café, one is a large dinning room and the other is a smaller ‘reading lounge’ which has a wall of bookcases packed with titles for you to peruse. Simon and I usually head in here and grab ourselves a board game to play; this time it was scrabble.

On this visit Simon had a Mango Smoothie and Bacon Eggs Benedict while I had a Hot Chocolate and built my meal from their side dishes – you can’t see it in the photo below as they are hiding under the eggs, but I has some pretty yummy hash browns on that plate. The service was quick, friendly and efficient too :)

The Library Café pride themselves on using as much certified organic, free-range, sustainable and locally grown or manufactured products as possible. Vegan and gluten free options are clearly labelled on their menu and their cabinet food looks delicious too. They are also Gold Greenbizcheck certified as they choose their suppliers based on their environmental policies, fair trade and sustainability practises. The Library Café also try to use environmentally friendly products in the cafe from their packaging to the soap used in the bathroom.

Head along to The Library Café’s website for more background information, menus and opening hours. If you join their mailing list every now and then you get sent an update which usually has vouchers attached giving you discounts or special offers at the cafe :)

The Library Café
55 Princes St, Onehunga, Auckland, New Zealand
Ph: 09 636 7292
Fax: 09 636 7293
E: info@librarycafe.co.nz
www.librarycafe.co.nz

Crispy Choc Peanut Truffles

2012-01-01T17:45:00.001+13:00

I made these delicious little treats for Christmas day, it is one of the (many) recipes I have ripped out of a magazine (God only knows which one it was and how long ago it was now) and put in a folder that sits on shelf in my kitchen waiting for me to try it out. I am very sorry that it has taken me so long to get around to making them and encourage you to try them out as soon as you get a chance.

Ingredients:
200g dark chocolate
¼ cup smooth peanut butter
½ cup cream
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
¾ cup unsalted peanuts (crushed)
¾ cup rice bubbles
350g milk chocolate (chopped or use melts/buttons)

Method:
Place dark chocolate, peanut butter, cream and vanilla in a large heatproof bowl. Sit bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted and smooth. Remove and cool slightly before refrigerating until mix is firm.
Combine nut and rice bubbles in a medium bowl.
Roll heaped teaspoons of the chocolate mixture into balls and roll in the peanut/rice mix pressing lightly so that the coating stays. Once this step is complete place on to a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate until firm.

Place milk chocolate in a heatproof bowl and sit it over a pan of simmering water, stir until chocolate has melted and remove from heat.
Using two forks, dip truffles one and a time ensuring that they receive and even coat and that you drain off any excess. Return to the lined tray and refrigerate until set.

These are best served with fruit such as strawberries. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Me with my truffles on Xmas day in the cute apron Mum gave me as a gift!

Sour Cream and Chives Chicken Pot Pies

2011-12-28T12:12:00.000+13:00

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year!
Simon and I received a few boxes of chocolates for Christmas so the thought of baking something sweet makes me feel a little ill at the moment; I’m already eating too much sugar. So, here is something a little different for you if you’re feeling like me and need a little break from the sweet treats. These Chicken pies are delish – they are super tasty and look pretty special in their individual ramekins. They are quick and easy to whip up so I’ve made them a few times for dinner already :)

Serves 2

200g cooked chicken, chopped
¼ cup sour cream
75g grated cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chopped chives
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 sheet store bought puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Combine the chicken, sour cream, cheese, chives, salt and pepper.
Cut two circle shapes out of the pastry to cover the top of two 1 cup capacity ramekins. Divide the mixture between the ramekins and top with the pastry circles. Brush the pastry with the egg and bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden brown.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes and An Update

2011-12-20T15:14:00.001+13:00

I am feeling a bit time poor at the moment (I will explain more at the end of this post) but wanted to get into the kitchen to whip something Christmassy up so these were the perfect solution. I had seen variations around and thought they were cute and seemed simple enough. For the cupcake I used my tried and true ‘Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake’ batter and placed it into 16 brown cupcake papers – which look like the base of a tree and baked at 180°C for about 15 minutes (or until they can be lightly touched and spring back).

While they cooked and then cooled I used fondant icing to make the little stars to go on top. To do this cut a piece of fondant off the block it comes in and warm it between your hands, once it has reached a workable consistency you can add a few drops of yellow food colouring (you could also use pre-coloured fondant or leave it white and dust it with edible glitter) and kneed it through so the colour is uniform. To cut the stars you need to dust you work surface and your rolling pin with cornflour, roll your fondant out to about 0.5cm thick and cut your stars, placing them on non-stick wax paper to harden so that they can be stuck on top of your trees. These could be made in advance and placed in an air-tight container.

Once your cupcakes have cooled ice them with a buttercream frosting, you could do plain vanilla or something a little more festive and use a peppermint flavor. To do this you will need:

150 grams butter (softened)
2 - 2½ cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or ½ teaspoon peppermint essence)
A few drops of green food colouring

Cream the butter until it is pale in colour then sift in your first cup of icing sugar as well as adding 1 tablespoon hot water and your essence, beat until combined and then sift in your remaining 1 –1½ cups of icing sugar until you get the desired consistency and add your colouring. Place your frosting in a piping bag and use a Wilton 1M tip or similar to frost each cupcake so it resembles a tree.

To decorate place coloured chocolate drops or the little edible silver balls so that they resemble decorations around the tree and top each cupcake with a star.

Enjoy giving these and lots of our other fantastic recipes a go! Feel free to share what you have been up to by leaving comments here, Facebook, or email us – we love hearing from you. I really want to find the time to give the Candy Cane Cookies Mel posted yesterday a try.

Also while I am here I will give you a brief update on what is happening with me – Shane and I have sold our house and are moving to New Plymouth in February 2012 (I will elaborate on this in the new year), we have to be out of our house late January so I will be very busy packing, trying to catch up with our gorgeous friends and family as well as caring for Maxie - who is also having a big 1st birthday extravaganza before we leave, that I am organising on top of everything else! All of this doesn’t leave a whole heap of time for baking and blogging but I promise to do my best to share anything that I get time to bake.

Before I sign off I thought I would share with you an updated pic of Max – he is 10.5 months now (can you believe it? I can’t!).

So from me and my family to you and all of yours, Merry Christmas! Have wonderful days with your loved ones xx

Candy Cane Cookies

2011-12-19T18:08:00.001+13:00

These cute little swirled cookies with candy cane topping are made from a delicious peppermint shortbread. They are quick and easy to whip up and the recipe makes about 35.

250g butter, softened
½ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon peppermint essence
¼ teaspoon salt
2 ¾ cups flour
4 drops red food colouring
4 peppermint candy canes, crushed

Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy. Beat in the peppermint essence and salt. Turn the mixer to a low speed and slowly add in the flour. Beat to form a dough.
Remove half the mixture and set aside. Add the food colouring to the remaining dough and mix until a uniform colour. Roll each dough mixture into 30 x 20 cm rectangles on top of pieces of plastic cling wrap. Place the uncoloured dough rectangle on top of the red coloured dough rectangle and remove the cling wrap from the top.
Cut off any uneven edges, then roll the rectangle into a log using the remaining cling film to help you. Wrap the log in the cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes until firm.
Heat oven to 180°C. Cut the log into 5mm thick rounds and place onto baking trays lined with baking paper. Scatter the crushed candy canes over the top and bake for 10 – 12 minutes. Remove cookies from the oven and place in a wire rack to cool.

This recipe has been entered in the ‘Jingle all the Way’ event hosted by Edible Entertainment.

And has been sent to Tickling Palates for their Baked Goodies event.

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Santa Hats

2011-12-15T09:48:00.001+13:00

Don’t these look cute? I saw a picture of something similar to these the other week that were made from what looked like chocolate brownie that had been cut into circular shapes before being topped with the strawberries – too much fuss for me! I decided to create mine using mini chocolate cupcakes instead. The cupcake recipe I’ve used is delicious – it has a nice fudgy taste and goes so super well with the frosting and strawberries. They are super easy to make and I think I’m going to have to re-use this recipe again :)
I’ve put the recipe for the mini muffins first, followed by the frosting and decoration recipe so you don’t get confused with a long list of ingredients.

Makes about 36

Mini Chocolate Muffins:
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoon instant coffee powder (optional)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk (low fat is ok)
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 36 mini muffin cups with paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa power, instant coffee powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and vinegar. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.
Distribute batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each about ¾ full.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and Decoration:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt

36 strawberries, leaves removed

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on high until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually add the sugar, then the vanilla and salt, and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Pipe the frosting mixture into a circle on the top of each mini muffin. Place a strawberry in the centre of each frosting circle. Pipe a small ball of frosting onto the top of each strawberry as the pom-pom for the Santa hat.

This recipe has been shared as part of Sweet New Zealand.
This month’s event is being hosted by Bron Marshall :)

And has been sent to Tickling Palates for their Baked Goodies event.

How to make Lemon Curd

2011-12-14T11:32:00.001+13:00

A little while ago Courtenay posted up a recipe for Lemon Meringue Cupcakes and coincidentally my flatmate Ashley (who has previously contributed the Tropical Muffin recipe to our blog) had made some too!

Ashley’s (pictured in this post) were slightly different from Courtenay’s as they were popped them under the grill for a few seconds to brown the tops. She also made the lemon curd to go in the middle and has passed the recipe on to me, so I thought I would share it with you all :)

You will need:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
⅔ cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 minute. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.
In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth (the curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts). Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 minutes. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 75°C on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil.
Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

Thank you Ashley for the recipe and photos.

Sand Art Brownies – Recipe Card Download and How To Guide

2011-12-08T14:00:00.000+13:00

I’ve made up a another jar of Sand Art Brownies to give as a Secret Santa gift and thought I would share a printable version of the instructions to accompany the ingredients jar for you to download and use. I’ve included a few different fonts for you to choose from. You could simply cut out the set of instructions that you like the look of and put them inside a greeting card, or I have included a little bit of a guide on how I made my simple recipe card below if you want to do something similar.

Sand Art Brownie Instructions

How I made my Recipe Instruction card:
-I printed off the instructions, cut them out, then glued them onto a piece of card; allowing enough room around the instructions for the width of the ribbon I wanted to use.

-Next I glued on the two pieces of ribbon (just cheap stuff from Spotlight) down the sides of the instructions. Then I got my contrasting ribbon which I measured and cut to fit between the two side pieces of ribbon.

-I glued on the top and bottom pieces of ribbon. Once the glue (I used PVA) was dry I used the ribbon as a guide and cut off the excess card.

Easy Peasy!

I’m sure there are many other ideas that you can come up with for making the Instruction Cards. I haven’t tried it before, but I reckon printing the recipe then stitching a border around the outside with a sewing machine would look super cute and sophisticated. Or, if you are putting together jars of Sand Art Brownies with children, you could decorate the instructions using potato stamps!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Friands

2011-12-07T09:57:00.001+13:00

I had been wanting to try my hand at making friands for a long time but had never tried one before so was kind of put off by the not knowing how they should turn out. However, this obstacle was removed a couple of weeks ago when my Step-Mum bought out a batch when visiting – they were so yummy that I had to give them a go myself and I was very pleased with the results.

They were beautifully golden on the outside but fluffy yet still moist in the middle. Everyone at my house on Saturday found them incredibly morish, between Shane, Max, two of my sisters and I, we managed to polish off the batch!

Ingredients
½ cup plain flour
1½ cups icing sugar
1 cup almond meal
6 egg whites, beaten lightly
150 grams melted butter, cooled
80 grams white chocolate finely chopped
1-2 dozen raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C fan-forced. Lightly grease 12 friand molds or if you are like me and wanting to try your hand you can use a regular sized muffin tin.
Sift the flour and icing sugar into large mixing bowl. Stir in almond meal, egg whites and melted butter until combined (this can also be done in your electric mixer using the paddle attachment on a low speed). Add the white chocolate and mix again to ensure even distribution through your mixture.
Divide mixture among prepared pans (approximately ¼ cup mixture into each one). Top each one with 1 or 2 raspberries.
Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked through and golden (when a skewer is inserted into centre, it should come out clean).
Once baked leave them in the tin for 5-10 minutes to cool and then remove and place on a wire rack to cool for a further 15 or so minutes before dusting with icing sugar and serving.
*** I found I had enough mix left over to make a further 12 mini friands in a mini muffin tin – these only needed about 8 minutes in the oven and I popped them in while my full size batch were cooling.

With the summery flavor of the raspberries and festive red and white colour combo these would be a lovely addition to any Christmas function you have coming up but of course they can be enjoyed all year round. Enjoy!

Christmas Baking Ideas

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000+13:00

No doubt you will see some more Christmas themed baking up here before the 25th, but I thought I would write up a summary of the recipes we have previously shared incase you are already in the mood!

It’s always nice to put the time and effort in and make something as a gift for someone else. Baking is also a great gift idea for kids teachers too! Courtenay used to always put together packages of shortbread for our colleagues at work, which went down a treat!

For a twist on traditional shortbread, I quite like this recipe which includes pecans. It tastes delicious.

Courtenay has also tried making Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread :)

If you want to make biscuits but aren’t keen on Shortbread you could always make some cookies and decorate them in Christmas colours, like the ones pictured above – this recipe yields quite a few biscuits.

Or, give baking some Cranberry and White Chocolate Biscuits a try. They look quite festive with their flecks of red and white. One of our readers has suggested swapping the pecans with pistachios to add in some green!

Something else that would make an awesome gift are these Mini Chocolate Christmas Puddings. They are marshmallows covered in chocolate, which are super yummy and easy to make. Also, I think they look super cute! Courtenay made something similar using my Mint Chocolate Truffle recipe (which would also make an awesome gift without the jazzing up). Yum!

You could always make some fudge (try my caramel fudge – super easy; no sugar thermometers or fancy ingredients needed) or coconut ice (pictured above with the Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread) too. Wrap it up in some festive coloured cellophane finished with a bow.

Red Velvet is the perfect colour for this season – make some cupcakes, a cake or whoopie pies.

Speaking of whoopie pies, try decorating the Double Chocolate ones that I’ve put on the blog to suit the season – add white icing to the top with red and green sprinkles to make them look like mince pies or roll the sides of them around in crushed candy canes.

And, if you want to give some baking as gifts but don’t have the time, put together some beautiful jars of Sand Art Brownies ready for someone else to make!

Keep checking back for more Christmas recipes. In the mean time, I hope this post gives you some ideas and inspiration. Merry Christmas!

Miss Melicious Cupcake Boutique

2011-12-02T20:47:00.001+13:00

The Miss Melicious Cupcake boutique opened this week, you can find her and her delicious goodies in Te Atatu, Auckland. She has the most delicious and innovative range of cupcakes on offer so it might be a good idea to check out her website and familiarise yourself with some of her creations before you visit. The boutique shop is pinkilicious and has gorgeous accents like the chandeliers (even in the bathroom!), cool artwork and retro serviette holders as well as room inside and out to sit and enjoy cupcakes and tea. I was lucky enough to pick up four fantastic flavors while Shane, Max and I were out exploring this afternoon, they were strawberry, choc berry, peanut butter and toffee pop! All scrumptious, moist and with the perfect ratio of cupcake to icing.

So if you are in Auckland and are after a delicious treat go and check out Miss Melicious. Once you do I’m sure you will be a fan, just like me – and you all know that if you are a fan you should do the polite thing and ‘like’ her on facebook to help spread the word, remember you to ‘like’ us as well while you are there, if you haven’t already!

Miss Melicious
80 Gunner Drive, Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland
P: 027 635 637
E: mel@missmelicious.com
http://www.missmelicious.com/

Step Right Up! Circus Circus Café

2011-11-30T12:52:00.001+13:00

I thought I better give this café a mention on the blog as it is my favourite place to go for a late night hot chocolate and sweet treat. Simon and I often come here for a coffee and some time out to catch up or read a book. If I can't think of anywhere new I want to try, Circus Circus is where we head. I love all the fairy lights which adds the ambience making the place feel nice and cosy inside. The old circus posters about the place and the gold and red paint job are pretty cool too.

I love pretty much everything in their front cabinet - the chocolate cake is delicious, there is usually a yummy caramel and nut slice and everything looks really appealing. It is really hard to choose what to get. However, my favourite indulgence lately has been the Blackberry Creme Brulee. It is sooo good.

Last night we had dinner there too, as they have a voucher in the Entertainment Book that gives you a complimentary meal when you purchase one and we had nothing ready for dinner (going to Circus Circus was a bit more appealing than getting take-out pizza). Circus Circus has received the Entertainment Book award for the 'Best Family Restaurant' for the past three years. I had the Pork Belly and Simon had the Salmon. Both meals were delish.

So yeah, if you are home one night with nothing to do I recommend popping into Mt Eden for a visit to Circus Circus. Order one of their large bowls of hot chocolate and pick something yum to eat from the cabinet :)

Circus Circus
447 Mt Eden Road, Auckland, New Zealand
Ph: 09623 3833

E: circuscafe@xtra.co.nz

www.circuscircus.co.nz
Open 6.30am - 11pm, 7 days

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

2011-11-28T17:30:00.000+13:00

These would look pretty and festive on the table for Christmas or would make a cute gift for your loved one on Valentines Day. I didn’t have reason for making them though, I just wanted to try them :)

Makes 8.

Whoopie Pies:
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons red food colouring

Cream Cheese Filing:
190g Cream Cheese
40g unsalted butter
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
65g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 190°C. Lightly grease a Whoopie Pie tin or line a baking tray with baking paper. In medium bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In large mixing bowl beat butter on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in brown sugar until light and fluffy and then beat in the egg and vanilla. Next beat in the flour and buttermilk, alternating between the two ingredients. Stir in the food colouring.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared Whoopie Pie tin or drop heaped tablespoons of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about one inch apart.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the tops are set. Cool completely on the baking sheets on a rack. Remove cooled cookies from baking sheets.

To make the cream cheese filling:
Place the cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on a medium – high speed for 2 –3 minutes or until combined and smooth. Reduce the speed and add in the icing sugar and beat until combined. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe onto back of ½ the cookies. Sandwich with the remaining cookies.

This recipe has been shared as part of Sweet New Zealand.
This month’s event is being hosted by Mari over @ Toast :)

Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies with Pecans

2011-11-22T22:57:00.001+13:00

At coffee group today my lovely friend Cara made us all some delicious cookies that had white chocolate, pecans and cranberries in them, there is something about these ingredients that screamed Christmas to me! They were so good that I couldn’t even wait for her to send me the recipe so I could get a batch in the oven, so I googled them and found this recipe but I had to adapt it a little bit to include pecans, I also found it a little wet for a cookie dough so sifted in a little more flour and rolled oats. You can find my adapted recipe below.
Ingredients:1 cup plain flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup firmly packed brown sugar
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 cup rolled oats
¼ cup chopped pecans
100g dried cranberries
130g white chocolate chips
125g butter, melted and cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method:Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with wax baking paper.
Place dry ingredients into a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer. Add butter, egg and vanilla. Stir/mix (on slow to medium) until well combined. Shape small tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on baking trays approximately 5cm apart.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, swapping trays halfway during cooking, or until edges are lightly browned.
Turn biscuits onto a wire rack to cool.

Photo from taste.com.au

The recipe is perfect to place in a jar for a pretty and delicious Christmas gift as you can see from the above photo, just like the Sand Art Brownies Melissa posted the other day. To do this you will need a 1L jar and to sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Spoon the flour mixture into a 1L capacity glass jar. Top with brown sugar, then caster sugar. Top with oats, then cranberries, then chocolate chips and pecans. Seal jar and wrap with a ribbon along with a card instructing the recipient about what the wet ingredients are and the method to combine and bake.

P.S. Melissa was right, I go nuts for Christmas! My tree usually goes up in November but it won’t this year as we are selling our house. I am also more excited for Christmas than any other year I can remember as I have Max to fuss over and he is old enough to at least enjoy ripping all the paper off his presents!

Mini Feta and Tomato Muffins with Salami and Pesto

2011-11-20T21:53:00.001+13:00

Simon did our grocery shopping this week. Yes, that was nice of him I suppose, but we ended up with nothing for our morning teas and lunches. I’ve come to the rescue and made us these mini muffins :)
These make a cute snack and are pretty healthy as you don’t have any sugar or butter. They are also a good finger food idea if you are having a party.

Makes 36

2 cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon chilli powder
⅓ cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped (I like the Delmaine tomatoes that are in water rather than oil)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
150g crumbed feta cheese
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large eggs, beaten
100g salami
⅓ cup basil pesto

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease 3 12-hole mini muffin pans.
Place the flour, baking powder, salt, chilli powder, tomatoes and both cheeses into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the milk, oil and eggs into the bowl and mix until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans and bake for 15 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.
Cut each muffin in half and fill with a piece of salami and a smear of pesto. Top each muffin with a small dollop of pesto if desired.

* If you don’t like tomatoes these can be omitted.
** If you like onion, add one small one, diced.
*** If you don’t like spicy food or are making these for small children you might want to omit the chilli powder.

Sand Art Brownies

2011-11-16T22:23:00.001+13:00

Psst… I’m already getting excited for Christmas. It’s my first time that I have my own home to decorate and I really want to do it right now – except it is only November and Simon looks at me at any mention of Christmas and just shakes his head (which is why my excitement for Christmas is a secret because I’m sure most people would agree with him). However, I didn’t think he would say ‘no’ to baking. I think I am going to channel my eagerness into some Christmas-ey baking which might seem way to early for most of you, but it does mean that when Christmas does arrive you should have a few cute recipes on here to choose from when you are feeling festive (Courtenay also goes crazy for Christmas so you will probably see recipes from her too).

This jar of brownie ingredients looks really beautiful and would make an awesome Christmas gift. I’ve tried baking as gifts for people in the past and it is actually stressful – late nights baking enough stuff and repeating batches of biscuits as one always gets burnt! This idea takes the fuss out of it all; simply put the ingredients in a jar, tie it with a pretty ribbon and write up a recipe card. It also means the recipient can bake the brownies when they feel like it instead of worrying about the baking you’ve given them going to waste because they already have heaps of food about for Christmas.

Now, if you aren’t in a Christmas mood at all you should still give these brownies a go as they are darn delicious!

Makes 16 pieces

1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
⅓ cup cocoa
½ cup white sugar
½ cup dark chocolate bits
½ cup white chocolate bits
¾ cup walnut pieces
125g butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

In a 1 – 1.25 litre glass jar, place a layer of ingredients in this order: flour, salt, baking powder, brown sugar, cocoa, white sugar, dark chocolate, (then milk chocolate if you’re a chocolate fiend like me), white chocolate and finish with the walnut pieces.

Seal the lid and decorate with a ribbon and card that has the following instructions:

To Make:
Heat oven to 180°C. Line a 20cm square pan with baking paper. Pour the contents of the jar into a bowl and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and pour in 125g melted butter, 2 beaten eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence. Mix until smooth. Pour the mixture into the lined pan and bake for 30 minutes until firm. Cool in the pan and cut into 16 pieces.

You can download a printable version of the recipe card instructions and view a quick ‘How To’ guide on how to make a card like the one included in this post here.

Update…

2011-11-14T22:17:00.001+13:00

Sorry, I didn’t do any baking over the weekend. However, I have spent a bit of time adding new pages to our blog. Let me run you through the new additions :)

There is now a banner at the top of the page which has links to the other pages available through our blog. I have updated the ‘About Us’ page and added some new places to the ‘Worth a Visit’ page.

There is now a ‘Recipe Index’ page, like what you would find at the back of a recipe book which lists all the recipes that we have on our blog. Just click on the recipe you are after and you will be taken to it!

I have also added a ‘Weights and Measurements’ page. If you like to work using measurements, weights or temperatures from a different system to what we have mentioned in our posts you can convert them using the guides on this page.

Last thing, I have moved our blog buttons onto their own page. Please free to take one and spread the love by displaying it on your blog.

I hope you find the new changes useful. If you would like to see anything else or want to give some feedback please write us a comment.

-Mel xx.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

2011-11-13T23:16:00.001+13:00

I went to the first of this year’s Christmas gatherings today, my coffee group arranged a catch up for the families from our ante-natal class to get together before it all gets too hectic with kids 1st birthday parties, husband’s work functions and family Christmas’. In true Kiwi fashion we all took along a plate. My contribution was a gluten free chocolate cake (as one of the Mum’s in my coffee group has a severe gluten allergy). I was a bit nervous about it having never done any gluten free cooking before but it turned out well and was the most moist chocolate packed creation I have ever made!

Ingredients:
Cake:
170 grams dark chocolate (broken into squares or chopped)
115 grams butter
¾ cup white sugar
3 large eggs
½ cup cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Glaze:
80 grams chocolate (broken into squares or chopped)
25 grams butter
1½ tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon honey
¼ teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Spray a 7” round spring-form cake tin with cooking spray, line the bottom with wax paper and spray the top of the wax paper as well.
Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir until chocolate and butter are melted and smooth.
Add sugar and salt, reduce heat to low. Cook while stirring for about one minute, until sugar starts to dissolve.
Remove pan from heat. Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and whisk. The mixture should look smooth and glossy.
Sift cocoa into mixture. Whisk until the cake batter is smooth.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes. The centre of the cake should be just firm to the touch, but be careful to not over bake the cake or it will be dry.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
Invert the cake on a plate.

To prepare the glaze, melt chopped chocolate and butter in a saucepan. When melted and smooth, remove the pan from heat.
Add milk, honey and vanilla and stir until smooth and glossy.
Let the glaze cool for about 5 minutes before pouring it on the cake.
Pour all of the glaze in the middle of the cake. Use a silicone or rubber spatula to spread the glaze evenly over the cake, allowing the glaze to evenly run down the sides of the cake.

Max with his 1st Christmas present from Secret Santa! I included the pic as I am going to claim this as Maxie’s 9 month cake. Cheeky I know, but I am super busy trying to sell my house and planning a big move out of Auckland!

Savoury Scones V2.0

2011-11-09T13:51:00.001+13:00

I love a good savoury scone but sometimes scones can be a bit too heavy. One of my friends Stacey kindly shared her recipe for light, no fail, quick scones with me, she thinks it originates from Kiwi baking legend Alison Holst. Where ever it comes from it is good and I thought I should share it with you. Scones are one of those versatile recipes where you can chop and change what you add to them, I added cheese and ham to mine but you could leave them plain and have them with jam and cream, add dates or whatever you feel like. Below is the basic recipe.

Ingredients:
50g butter
¾ cup milk
2 cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon salt

Method:
Preheat your oven to 210°C and line a baking tray with wax baking paper.
Melt butter, add milk to it and set aside.
Measure flour in bowl, add salt and fluff it up a bit with a fork then once your oven has reached 210°C, add butter/milk mix as well as cheese and ham (½ cup of each) – or whatever other ingredients you desire to flour and fold to combine.
It makes a slightly wet mix but once you spread it out, quick knead to shape with extra flour it is fine.
At this point you can cut the scones to your desired size and shape, I used a circular cookie cutter to cut mine out and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Cashew Pesto and Parmesan Muffins

2011-11-06T17:13:00.001+13:00

These are a scrummy quick and easy muffin to whip up for a weekend brunch/lunch (would be very easy to freeze and pop into lunch boxes during the week) or if you find out you will be receiving visitors on short notice. I had some pesto in the fridge that I had picked up after reading about the Italian cooking demonstration Melissa went to on Friday night and thought I should put it to use and make something for two of my sisters who were coming to visit for lunch (along with some Black Forest Brownie)

Ingredients:
50g butter, melted
¾ cup milk
2 cups self-raising flour
2 eggs
3 tablespoons chunky pesto with cashews
¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
¼ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a muffin tray
Melt butter and mix with the milk.
Place flour, parmesan, salt and pepper into a medium bowl. Dot the pesto evenly throughout the flour mix to ensure even distribution before making a slight well in the centre and add the eggs and pour in the milk and butter mixture.
Fold the ingredients together, cutting the mixture rather than stirring it.
Once well combined, portion the mixture into greased muffin tray and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes (makes 12 standard muffins).
Remove and cool on baking rack.
*** If you can’t get your hands on cashew pesto you could use 2 tablespoons of pesto and 1-2 tablespoons on diced up cashews.

Buon Appetito!

Next Door for Lunch

2011-11-05T16:25:00.001+13:00

Simon and I went to Next Door café for lunch today. He had driven past it a few times and thought the decor would appeal to me even though the only thing he could tell me about it was that it had pastel mint green walls! The decor is pretty cool though – maiden hair ferns, tea pots with cosies, record covers displayed as art and mis-matched light shades were just some of the cute touches about the place. I especially loved the vintage teaspoon collection displayed on one of the walls where it was surrounded by doilies.

However, I should probably talk about the food. Our meals were delicious. Next Door has breakfast / brunch offerings but we chose from their lunch menu. I had the Pork Belly and Simon had the Duck Leg (I wouldn’t let him get Pork Belly because I wanted to try something else :P ) The Pork Belly just melted in your mouth. It came with watermelon, peanuts and sprouts which I thought seemed an odd combination but they actually complimented each other really well. The Duck leg came with a red Thai curry sauce and rice. My hot chocolate and Simon’s coffee were good too.

Next Door is quite a big café – there’s an outdoor area (which wasn’t in use as the weather in Auckland today couldn’t decide if it wanted to be sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy or a mixture of things) and a more formal room with a large table for bigger groups (which looked like you may be able to hire out).

Simon got himself a citrus tart as a parting treat. The cakes and slices at the counter and in their cabinet looked beautiful but I was too full to try any. Perhaps we’ll make another visit soon so I can :)

Next Door Café
589 Mt Eden Road, Mt Eden, Auckland City
Ph: 09 638 9676

Buon Gusto! Italia Cooking Demonstration with Jo Seagar

2011-11-04T22:35:00.000+13:00

I got to met Jo Seagar!

So, this evening I went to a Jo Seagar cooking demonstration at the Nosh store on Dominon Road held as part of their ‘Good Food Recipe Series’. O.M.G. It was pretty damn AWESOME! I had a front row seat, we got to taste all the lovely food that was made, I got her BEAUTIFUL new cook book and… she said I was gorgeous and she wanted to keep me as her daughter! LOVE! Yes, I am gushing about the experience, but I am so super glad I went. The very nice ladies that sat either side of me were totally rapt they attended too; one was being treated for her birthday and the other had driven up all the way from Hamilton! She said it was well worth the trip :)

I remember watching Jo Seagar on our television years ago; I think hers was was one of the first cooking series I ever really watched because truth be told I don’t find cooking shows that interesting. I still don’t watch many cooking shows – Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver sometimes, Masterchef Australia more often but that is about it. Jo Seagar was just as lovely in real life tonight as she was when I was younger and she was whipping up cakes on the television screen in our living room.

She shared stories about her trips to Italy and told us how her cookbook ‘Italia’ came about. Each year she ventures over there taking about 15 people with her as a fundraiser for Hospice. They stay in Umbria for about three weeks and immerse themselves into the language and culture and learn how to cook. It sounds like a pretty unforgettable trip to make but sadly slightly (well, quite a bit) out of my price range. But, perhaps with specially chosen music, beautiful wine and some recipes from her book I could fool myself into thinking I was there, yes?

Now, sorry if the photographs in this post aren’t the best – the ones below were taken on my lap with my ‘needs-to-be-retired’ camera and the lighting wasn’t the best. Since everyone was slightly older than me, looking very sophisticated and didn’t have cameras out I felt a little shy about getting snap happy and didn’t take many photos of Jo Seagar herself. However, this is what Jo made for us from her book:

Parmesan Crackers with Fennel and Cumin Seeds (middle of pic), Fried Crumbed Olives (left), Piccolo Peppers Stuffed with Bocconcini and wrapped in Bacon (right)

These were all little nibble type things and I can’t wait to make them myself. All of them were super tasty but I think I liked the peppers the best.
She also made a Fennel, Celery and Blood Orange Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing which was really delicious delicious but I didn’t get a photo of it.

Gnocchi with Creamy Gorgonzola Sauce

Lime and Black Pepper Ice Cream

This ice cream was AMAZING! Pepper in Ice cream? Well it worked! That’s what all the black specks are. Surprisingly delicious!

One thing Jo Seagar said that I thought was pretty cool was that she believes recipes are like kisses; they shouldn’t be kept to yourself they should be shared and given away. Isn’t that gorgeous? Can someone please send me to her Cook School in Canterbury for a day?!

Check out Jo Seagar’s website to purchase a copy of one of her books, buy other cookware, find new recipes and info about her Cook School.

Banana Pudding with Caramel Sauce –made in a rice cooker!

2011-11-03T22:15:00.001+13:00

This is yum! The caramel sauce is addictive; I was such a piggy that I licked the leftover off the plate! I was interested in this recipe as it is made in the rice cooker and the only thing I have tried making in the rice cooker before apart from rice has been a risotto, not exactly adventurous. You do need to check the rice cooker every now and then to ensure it is on the right setting as specified in the recipe.

Banana Pudding:
30g butter, melted, plus 60g extra
2 tablespoons brown sugar, plus ⅓ cup extra
1 small banana sliced, plus 2 extra, mashed
1 egg, lightly whisked
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup self raising flour

Caramel Sauce:
300ml cream
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
80g butter

Grease and line the base of a rice cooker bowl with baking paper. Drizzle the 30g of melted butter over the paper in the base of the bowl and sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of brown sugar evenly over the top. Layer the sliced banana on top of the sugar and set aside.
Combine the extra melted butter, extra brown sugar, egg, cinnamon, extra mashed banana and milk in a medium bowl. Sift in the flour and fold it into the banana mixture gently. Spoon the mixture over the bananas in the prepared rice cooker bowl.
Carefully level the top and cover. Press the rice cooker to ‘cook’ and cook for 5 minutes. Switch the cooker to ‘warm’ and stand for 10 minutes. Put the rice cooker back on to ‘cook’ and cook for a further 3 minutes. Switch it back to ‘warm’ and stand for 10 minutes. Do not remove the lid during this process. Repeat the process twice more or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out cleanly.
Turn the pudding onto a serving plate. Remove and discard the baking paper.

To make the caramel sauce:
Wipe the rice cooker bowl clean. Add the cream, sugar and butter to the bowl and stir well. Press ‘cook’ and bring to the boil. Cook and stir for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves and the mixture has thickened slightly. Transfer the sauce to a heatproof jug.

To serve, drizzle slices of the pudding with the caramel sauce and plate with ice cream or whipped cream.

Rosy Cakes

2011-11-01T14:30:00.001+13:00

My lovely friend Jess has started her own cake making/decorating venture from home. She started playing around with decorating cakes as a bit of fun after having her daughter Molly earlier this year and realised (with a lot of convincing from friends and family) that she has a real talent.

Jess is still refining her art but as you can see she has a real flair for what she does. If you have a party coming up and are based in Auckland Jess may be able to help you out with a cake, cupcakes and simply gorgeous cookies, if you are further a field and haven't been able to find the cake topper you are after Jess can do those too. Click here to see the Rosy Cakes facebook page which also has contact details and remember to hit 'like' so you can keep up to date with her latest creations, remember you can also find us on facebook (if you haven't already) here.

Halloween Ghost Cupcakes

2011-11-01T14:09:00.001+13:00

I just whipped these up quickly as I know I promised you something last week but I have been incredibly busy with a trip down to New Plymouth and a teething baby, so they are nothing exciting but they are cute! It is a basic chocolate cupcake made using this recipe with a purple buttercream icing and a little meringue ghost topper. To make the ghosts I whipped up a meringue mixture popped it in a piping bag and piped my ghosts on to wax baking paper before baking them like normal meringues.

The Little Larder

2011-10-27T22:50:00.000+13:00

“Cool, calm and collected. TLL is infused with a down-to-earth charm. Using local produce, made with love and offering the best all-day breakfast, fresh smoothies and great coffee.”
-The Good Guide: The best of Fortitude Valley & Surrounds 2011 Booklet

Photo taken from thethousands.com.au as I didn’t get a photo of the place!

While up in Brisbane Simon and I headed to The Little Larder for brunch as Simon had been here before and was keen to return. We were lucky as we waltzed up and grabbed the last seats available. This cafe gets so busy that they actually take bookings on the weekend and as soon as we were seated newcomers were having to wait 10 – 15 minutes for a table. They did wait though, so that has to be a sign of just how loved The Little Larder really is.

The service here is fast, friendly and helpful. I had their Pesto Scrambled Eggs which was pretty damn tasty and really quite filling. Simon ordered the Baked Beans and a mocha. I indulged myself in two glasses of different fresh fruit juices; man they were delicious and so very refreshing on what was a super hot day. I wish more cafes in Auckland would make fresh fruit juices.

So, if you are in Brisbane I would recommend popping in here for a bite. You might want to book in advance though to avoid waiting in a queue for a table because this place does get that popular.

The Little Larder
76 Moray Street, New Farm 4005, Brisbane
Ph: 07 3358 2024
Open 6am – 4pm daily

Max Brenner – A Chocolate Lover’s Heaven

2011-10-25T17:50:00.000+13:00

Simon and I have recently been on a trip to Australia to visit my grandparents who live on the Gold Coast. We were so disappointed at the lack of good cafes and restaurants; nothing really popped out at us. The place is definitely more about getting tourists when they aren't lounging on the beach to spend their money at the theme parks or on souvenirs - everywhere you go photos are taken of you which cost $20 a pop to purchase!

However, we still had a great time and we discovered Max Brenner which is an Israeli Chocolate Shop chain. The fist branch we saw was in the Robina Town Shopping Centre but we had just eaten! So, we vowed to come back one night for dessert; how could we not after seeing two massive vats of melted chocolate with pipes running straight to the counter? We found another Max Brenner in Southbank while we were up in Brisbane but when it is midday and super sunny a hot chocolate isn't what you're after. We went back later at night and the place was packed - queues out the door. We would try our luck back on the Gold Coast.

We ended up going back to the Robina branch one night, it was super busy but we were kinda expecting that after seeing the line at the Southbank store so we sucked it up and waited. This was horrible because it meant more delicious treats kept catching my eye - I swear I changed my mind about my order at least a dozen times. I ended up getting one of their fudge brownies which comes heated and drizzled in melted chocolate and one of their hot chocolates that comes in a hug mug – it is designed for a chocolate drinking ceremony and so called is the perfect shape to cup and warm your hands with. Simon ordered some kind of strawberry shake which came in a cute 'Alice Cup' and some pancakes.

If I could visit this place again I think next on my 'to try' list would be the Chocolate Fondue or one of the Chocolate Molten Cake Pots. Max Brenner has stores in all the major Australian cities as well as in America, the Philippines, Singapore and Israel. Check out their website for locations and to take a look at their tempting menu.

As well as being a cafe, you can buy chocolate products here - truffles, gift boxes, the specialty mugs they use in store and so on. Simon bought me some of their powdered hot chocolate mix to make me hot chocolates at home :)

Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man
Check out their website for store locations and opening hours.

Mere Bear’s Black Forest Brownie

2011-10-23T20:49:00.001+13:00

I got this recipe from my sister Meredith, aka ‘Mere Bear’ – I thought with it’s dark colour and ‘Black Forest’ as the special ingredient it would be the perfect treat to enjoy while we watch the ALL BLACKS who are playing in the World Cup final, kicking off in about an hours time!

Ingredients:
200 grams butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
1 cup cocoa (sifted to remove lumps)
3 eggs
½ cup standard white flour
200 gram block of ‘Black Forest’ chocolate cut thinly – almost grated looking

Method:
Preheat your oven to 150°C and grease and line a 20x20cm square baking tin.
Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar then add the cocoa and continue to beat for 3-5 minutes until creamy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir in flour and fold gently before adding the finely cut chocolate.
Transfer mixture to a greased and lined 20cm square baking tin.
Bake at 150°C for 1 hour or until the surface of the brownie appears cracked. The centre should appear almost uncooked.
Cool in the tin.
Cut into squares. Just before serving, dust with icing sugar.

The brownie is decadently rich and delicious! You can taste the jelly bits from the chocolate throughout the brownie giving it a unique taste. Fingers crossed that the AB’s win the cup tonight and you can all give these a go as celebratory baking.

GO THE ALL BLACKS!

Inspiration: Halloween Treats

2011-10-21T08:38:00.001+13:00

Halloween is coming up in 10 days – a good excuse to bake up some sweet treats. Halloween has only started to be recognised in New Zealand over more recent years (there is something a little weird about about sending your kids out to ask strangers for candy), will you be celebrating it this year?

I just loved some of the images google spat out for me when I was looking for inspiration so had to share some of my favorites, the Nightmare Before Christmas cake is amazing, the flooded cookies make me think about trying to master that skill again and I recognised the cake pops straight away as Bakerella’s work, you can find out more about them here. I have actually made some little spider cupcakes before you can check them out here and last years Halloween baking can be found here.

I am really liking the little meringue ghosts and am tempted to give that a go but we will see. Be sure to check back after Halloween to see what I whipped up and if you want to share your creations why don’t you get in touch through our facebook page.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Berry Buttercream

2011-10-15T19:04:00.001+13:00

This recipe also came from the latest issue of Foodtown magazine (Oct/Nov 2011) – I would recommend getting your hands on a copy, it is packed full of awesome cake recipes (which I plan on working my way through) as well as lots of other meal recipes and ideas.

Ingredients:
100 grams butter (softened)
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs (beaten)
1 cup plain flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup cocoa
½ cup sour cream

Berry Buttercream
150 grams butter (softened)
2 cups Chelsea pink berry icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons hot water
Berry lollies to decorate

Method:
Preheat your oven to 170°C (fan bake). Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.
In a large electric mixing bowl , beat together the butter, brown sugar and eggs for 2-3 minutes until creamy.
Sift the flour, baking soda and cocoa into the wet mix, folding the two together lightly before adding the sour cream. Beat the mix for 2-3 minutes until smooth and fluffy.
Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until the cupcakes are puffed up and spongy to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
To make the buttercream, beat butter until smooth and pale. Gradually add the berry icing sugar half a cup at a time with enough hot water to keep the mixture creamy, beating the mix well between each addition.
** I found the the berry icing wasn’t as “pink” as I expected it would be, because of the pale yellow colour of the butter it was more peach than pink so I added a small drop of pink food colouring – I tested the icing sugar by adding water to it and rest assured it was a lovely pink colour.

When the cupcakes have cooled completely pipe or spoon on butter cream and top with a berry lolly.

I think mine resembled what was in the magazine pretty well, but you can judge for yourself by taking a look at the photo below. The cupcakes themselves were very nice. Give them a go and enjoy!

Cheese and Chive Muffins

2011-10-12T15:03:00.001+13:00

I whipped these up for morning tea with Melissa this morning, it is a very quick and easy recipe from ‘The Muffin Bible’.

Ingredients:
1 egg (beaten)
¾ cup water
1 cup self raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups grated cheese
1 tablespoon fresh chives
coarse sea salt (optional)

Method:
Preheat your oven to 190°C. Spray one muffin pan with oil (or line with muffin cases).
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together until combined.
Spoon into well greased muffin pan and sprinkle with the sea salt.
Bake at 190°C for 15 minutes.

There you go – quick easy and yummy!

Decadent Chocolate Celebration Cake with Swiss Buttercream

2011-10-10T21:51:00.001+13:00

The picture above is of a recipe featured in the current issue of ‘Foodtown’ magazine. Upon seeing it I instantly fell in love and had to make it! I had the perfect excuse as it was time to make a cake to celebrate Max’s ‘eight month birthday’. I envisioned a cake just like the one in the magazine except with duck egg blue frosting and a cute mint green teddy bear sitting on top instead of a rose. However, it didn’t quite work out as I had planned; the frosting was fantastic (albeit a little too sweet/buttery for my palette), the colouring on the other hand was more green than blue (and yes I definitely used blue colouring but as I wanted a soft blue I didn’t use enough) and the cake tasted fantastic but was a wee bit of a disaster – with a collapsed middle :-(

I think I know why that happened and can give you pointers on how to avoid it. For starters the recipe calls for you to divide your cake batter into three 15cm round cake tins or one 22cm tin, which is what I did. I would recommend taking the 15cm option as I found using the 22cm tin meant the cake was becoming overcooked on the top and sides. It also rose a little too high and started to collapse and although my skewer removed cleanly after the recommended cooking time it was a little fudgey in the middle. This resulted in a two layer cake as opposed to three after levelling it off because of it collapsing. If I decide to make this again I will get my hands on some 15cm tins. If you want to use a 22cm tin I would drop the oven temperature by 10°C and cook the cake for 70 minutes.

Ingredients:
Cake:
spray oil
cocoa for dusting
60 grams of 70% dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup hot water
1 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ cups cocoa
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 ¼ cups caster sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
¾ cup butter milk

Swiss Buttercream:
1 ½ cups caster sugar
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
300 grams butter (soft but not runny)
colouring and decorations of your choice

Method:
Preheat your oven to 160°C. Line and spray the bases of three 15cm tins (or one 22cm tin with baking paper. Spray with oil and dust with cocoa, tapping off the excess.
Place the chocolate and hot water into a bowl and stir until the chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a separate bowl and set aside.
Place eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on a medium-high speed for 3-4 minutes until pale and thick. Gradually add in the sugar, oil and vanilla essence. Beat well. Add the buttermilk and beat until combined.
Fold in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate and gently fold together, be careful not to over mix.
Place batter into the prepared tin/s. Bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes (or until your skewer removes cleanly) – the recipe recommends baking a 22cm cake for an hour (see my notes in the introduction to this recipe). Once cooked, set aside to cool in tins.

To make the buttercream, place the sugar and egg whites into a heatproof bowl and place it over a pan of simmering water (do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water). Stir continuously until the sugar is dissolved, about five minutes.
Remove the bowl from the heat and place the egg white mixture into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on a medium-high speed until the mixture is cool, thick and glossy white. Add vanilla essence.
Gradually add the butter, mixing well after each addition until it has been absorbed into the egg white mixture. Add a few drops of colouring and mix until combined. The buttercream should have a whipped cream consistency of whipped cream.

To assemble, cut each cake into three layers. Spread or pipe the buttercream between each layer and top of your cakes with decorations of your choice.

The cake batter, my collapsed disaster, the meringue base for the frosting, cake done, teddy bear topper.

My favourite part of the cake was actually the teddy bear topper. I used this video tutorial to learn, although I made my teddy a little bigger.

And for those who are interested – here is an updated picture of my little monkey, enjoying the spring weather with his Mumma!

Banana Crumble Muffins

2011-10-08T11:26:00.001+13:00

These are a step up from basic banana muffins as they have this delicious crunchy cinnamon topping :)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
¾ cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
⅓ cup butter, melted
⅓ cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 190°C. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or a tray line with muffin papers.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until just combined. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles a coarse crumb. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Donna Hay ipad App

2011-10-06T08:55:00.003+13:00

I received an email yesterday informing me that the Donna Hag Magazine app is now available for the ipad. I installed it this morning and had a quick play around - it's pretty cool. Through the app you can download their 10th Birthday edition for free and I quite like the features it has.

One thing I quite like is that you can view the recipes in 'cook mode'. This breaks the recipe down into parts and only displays a segment on the screen. The cool thing about this is that it also has a little list of the ingredients you need for the step being displayed. I reckon this is pretty cool as I quite often use the ipad to display recipes on when I am cooking, but if you are quite far down the recipe you have to scroll back up to see the ingredients and quantities which can get quite annoying.

Another feature that sets it apart from the print magazine is that some recipes have videos. In my quick look this morning before work I found that instead of reading through the Macron recipe in the magazine you could simply watch Donna Hay make them and talk you through how it is done. I reckon this is pretty awesome as it gives you more of an insight into things such as how you want your mixture to look at each step of the recipe. For example, in the Macron video she tells you that you need to whisk your eggs to beyond stiff peaks and then shows you what this looks like.

So, if I can pry the ipad away from Simon on our plane flight to Aussie (as he will want to watch movies) I have my in-flight reading and viewing sorted. Unfortunately I'm probably not going to be able to explore future issues using this app as we have been borrowing (or, you could say we took it and then keep accidentally on purpose 'forgetting' to return it) the ipad from Simon's grandparents and they are expecting it back once we return from our holiday :(

Baking a difference for Blind Week

2011-10-04T12:26:00.000+13:00

Blind Week 2011:

Blind Week runs from Tuesday 25 October until Monday 31 October this year.
The funds raised will enable the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB) to continue providing essential blindness services to its members.
Only one-third of their operating budget comes from government sources, so public support is vital.
To find out how to get involved in fundraising for Blind Week call 0800 120 BLIND or visit blindweek.org.nz. To make a donation please call 0800 DONATE.

The Bake a Difference Campaign:

This year the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind are launching a nationwide fundraising event called “Bake a Difference for Blind Week” in which they are asking New Zealanders to organise their own baking-based fundraisers for Blind Week.
Why? Baking is a classic fundraiser that has proved time and again to be successful.
They want as many people as possible to Bake a Difference by baking delicious goodies and offering these to others for a donation.
You could bake for friends and family, a community group, club, or coffee group you attend, or perhaps for your workplace, church or school.
For more information or to register visit blindweek.org.nz or call 0800 120 BLIND.

Some info about RNZFB:

The RNZFB is New Zealand’s main provider of sight loss services to blind and partially sighted people.
They have more than 11,500 blind and partially sighted members nationwide.
Each year nearly 1,100 New Zealanders who have become blind or experienced serious sight loss register as RNZFB members.
They equip their members with the adaptive skills, technology and resources they need to overcome the barriers they face to participating fully in society and leading independent lives.

Rabbit Hole Café

2011-10-03T22:06:00.000+13:00

Man it feels good to have time to blog again! I’ve been so busy making our school yearbook that I have turned into an anti-social recluse at home and have only been on my computer for work. Boring! Simon treated me to brunch on Saturday morning to give me a bit of a break and I chose to go to the Rabbit Hole café as I have had it on my list of ‘must try’ places for quite a while. I like being able to tick things off my lists :)

Located in Herne Bay, this little café takes its decor inspiration from ‘Alice in Wonderland’. There’s lots of mismatched chairs and the place makers are playing cards. Simon and I popped ourselves down in these velvet throne-like chairs near the window seated around a cute chess board table. On a sunny day (it was stink weather in Auckland on Saturday) I reckon it would be pretty blissful to sit out on their deck and if you have little kids with you they have quite a selection of toys out there to keep them entertained.

I built my own breakfast and had scrambled eggs with a side of kumara rosti and haloumi. It was delicious and my accompanying hot chocolate was rich and flavourful. Simon had the Salmon eggs benedict which I avoided as I don’t like salmon :P
Our food came out quickly and with a touch of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ whimsy in the form of mismatched vintage plates.

There looked to be a good selection of little sweet treats up at the counter too. I didn’t go investigate though as my meal was more than enough and the place was pretty chocka.

I really enjoyed my visit to The Rabbit Hole and would stop by again. If you want even more of a treat for yourself you could stop for a bite here, then head up the road to Icing on the Cake and get a cupcake for dessert :)

Rabbit Hole Café
203 Jervois Road, Herne Bay, Auckland
Ph: 09 360 0755

Warriors Grand Final Baking

2011-10-02T23:33:00.001+13:00

League ball cookies, Jersey cake, Max – future Warrior (as delicious as any baking), Warrior cupcakes

Today was an exciting day in our household - the NRL Grand Final day always is – but this year it was very special because the Warriors were playing for the second time since since the club formed in 1995 (their first grand final was in 2002 and I was there!). We had triple the reasons to be excited this year as all three Warriors sides were playing (the Vulcans and the Under 20’s as well as the first grade side), while the Vulcans and Senior team lost the Under 20’s won back to back titles. To celebrate I baked some of these biscuits in the shape of league balls and made this chocolate cake (making one and a half times the mixture) to make the jersey cake and cupcakes.

You could use these for any sports party by changing the colours to those of the team you support – might be a fun idea for a Rugby World Cup Party

11 for 2011 – the best year in Warrior club history. For a birthday cake you could put the age of the birthday boy or girl.

The cupcake picks are really easy to make, find an image you like and print, use folded over cello tape to stick a tooth pick in the middle of the back of your image and then add a matching image on the backside.

The jersey was a really simple shape to make, I cut it free hand and just used a star tip to pipe on coloured buttercream frosting, I used the same buttercream frosting on the cupcakes. To get the swirled two tone effect on the cupcakes I placed the two colours side by side in my piping bag.

Even though I didn’t get the result I wanted from the game I had great fun and hopefully have given you some fun ideas for a sports party – or maybe a Rugby World Cup party in the coming weeks!

Chocolate Coconut Slice

2011-09-28T14:18:00.001+13:00

I made this to take along to my Nana’s party along with the lemon meringue cupcakes. It is nice and quick to make and super easy!

Ingredients:
Base
1 cup of self raising flour
125 grams of melted butter
¾ cup of desiccated coconut
½ cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa

Topping
½ cup icing sugar
40 grams butter
1 tablespoon of cocoa
1-2 tablespoon/s hot water
Coconut to decorate

Method:
Line a slice tin (mine is 24x18cm from Briscoes) with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
In a bowl mix flour, coconut, sugar and cocoa and combine with the melted butter to make the base, then press firmly into the lined slice tin.
Bake for 10 minutes, remove from the oven to cool.
Mix together the butter, cocoa, icing sugar and water to make the topping mixture. Once combined and spread over the base and add a dusting of coconut to decorate.
Refrigerate until set and cut into squares.

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

2011-09-24T18:54:00.001+12:00

I have been dying to try and make this meringue topping for cupcakes after sampling the lovely Meredith’s weeks ago but I have been waiting for a special occasion – my Nana’s 85th birthday party was the perfect occasion. Now I have to apologise – the above photo does not do the topping justice, I was in a rush to get to the party and the topping had been on the cupcake for about two minutes before I bit into it to take a picture so it didn’t get time to set. However, it doesn’t matter because the cupcakes were absolutely delicious and a hit with everyone.

Ingredients:
90g softened butter
90g softened cream cheese
The rind of 1 large lemon (minimum of 2 teaspoons)
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
⅔ cup caster sugar
2 eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup self-raising flour

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 160°C. Line a 12 cupcake pan, with cupcake papers.
Beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth, then beat in lemon rind/juice, sugar and eggs until you have a nice creamy mixture.
Sift the flours. Add the flour gradually to the cheese mixture and beat on a low speed, until just combined.
Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases and bake for 20 minutes until firm to touch. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

I used my ¼ teaspoon measure to scoop out the centre of the cupcake and I filled the hole with ‘Barker’s Lemon Curd’ or, you could make your own lemon curd.

Meringue Topping:
2 egg whites
150g caster sugar

Whisk egg whites and caster sugar in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water for approximately 5 minutes (until sugar has dissolved - when you rub some of the mixture between your fingertips it won't feel grainy). Move bowl to mixer, using whisk attachment mix until stiff peaks form and the mixture thick and glossy.

All packed up and ready to go

I doubled the recipe for both the cupcakes and the topping to take 24 along with me. I definitely recommend giving these a go – you will thank me, I promise. Oh and if you were wondering about the cute cupcake casings they are ‘Mrs Roger’s Baking Cups’ from Living and Giving.

Happy Birthday Nana! xox

Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce

2011-09-21T21:12:00.002+12:00

1 ¾ cups dates, coarsely chopped
1 ½ cups boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
90g butter, softened
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups self raising flour
⅓ cup walnuts
⅓ cup pecans

Caramel Sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
300ml cream
100g butter, cubed

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 22cm round cake tin, line the base and sides with baking paper.
Combine the dates and boiling water in a heatproof bowl. Stir in the soda and then stand for 5 minutes.
Blend or process the date mixture with butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs and flour; blend or process until just combined.
Spread the mixture into the prepared tin and sprinkle evenly with the nuts. Bake for 1 hour or until cooked when tested. Stand the cake for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Caramel Sauce:
Combine the ingredients in a medium saucepan. Stir over a low – medium heat, without boiling, until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer whilst stirring the liquid for 3 minutes.
Brush the surface of the hot cake with ¼ cup of the caramel sauce. Serve with the remaining sauce.

*This pudding can be frozen for up to three months.

Sour Cream Lemon Cake

2011-09-20T19:52:00.001+12:00

This is delicious and moist and I loved the fact that I didn’t have to ice it so it made it nice and quick.

110 grams butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
The rind of one large lemon
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
120 grams sour cream

Glaze:
Juice of one large lemon
1 Tablespoon hot water
¼ cup sugar (with an additional teaspoon or two for dusting)

Cream butter and sugar. Then beat in eggs and lemon rind.
Sift flour and baking powder. Fold in flour mix in three lots alternating with sour cream.
Mix until smooth and pour into a well greased tin (I also lined the base of mine with waxed baking paper).
Bake in an oven that has been pre-heated to 160°C for 35-40 minutes.
To make the glaze, juice your lemon (make sure you get as much juice out as possible) and add the tablespoon of hot water (it will help dissolve the sugar), add the ¼ cup sugar to the juice a teaspoon at a time, stirring after each addition.
Once the cake is cooked remove from the oven, leave your cake in the tin for 5 minutes before pouring on glaze and dust with a teaspoon or two of sugar for decoration. To help the glaze seep through the cake I used a skewer to pierce the cake all over.
Remove from tin when cool. You can eat it by itself or alternatively with some fresh cream or natural yoghurt.

Auckland Taste of New Zealand Festival

2011-09-19T23:46:00.001+12:00

New Zealand’s biggest ever culinary festival will be running in Victoria Park, Auckland 19-22 October. It offers visitors a chance to taste incredible cuisine from some of New Zealand’s best restaurants, discover gourmet products and meet award winning chefs, including Rick Stein, Gary Rhodes, Annabel Langbein and Josh Emett. If you are keen to head along you can find more information about the event and tickets here.

Carrot Cake

2011-09-19T18:28:00.002+12:00

I asked my Mum if she would make Simon a carrot cake for his birthday and he ended up with a big square carrot cake that he (mainly he) and our flat mates wolfed down in no time. I asked mum to make one as I remember her baking the most beautiful carrot cakes when I was a kid, but I stopped eating them and have never made one. Why? Haha, well… I don’t really like carrots and as I got older I stopped eating carrot cake because I knew it was chocka full of carrots and I now can’t bring myself to eat it, even though I remember it being delicious. I just scoop off and eat the cream cheese icing when Simon orders a piece when we go out for hot chocolate!

1 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup plain flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups raw sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 cups finely grated carrots
1 cup cooking oil
3 eggs, beaten

Icing:
25g butter
50g cream cheese
1 cup sifted icing sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped nuts

Sift and mix the dry ingredients. Add oil and stir well.
Stir in the beaten eggs, then add the carrots. Mix thoroughly.
Grease the sides of a 10 inch square cake tin and line the bottom with greased paper.
Bake at 180°C for 1 hour.
For the icing, beat together all of the ingredients, spread of over the cake once it has cooled. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the top.

This recipe comes from my Mum’s well-used handwritten cookbook.

Pizza and Mozzarella making!

2011-09-18T23:35:00.005+12:00

On Thursday 15th September, Simon, David (Simon’s brother) and I headed out to Muriwai for one of The Gourmet Gannet’s Pizza and Mozzarella making culinary workshops. Simon and I had been out before for an English Pork Pie making class and were pretty excited to be going back. We had heaps of fun and it was surprisingly easy.

Allison taught us to make pizza dough from scratch, without measuring the ingredients and to mix everything by hand. This was great because it means we can now make pizza dough with whatever quantity of flour we like (as I did tonight to use up our leftover mozzarella) and we know what consistency we want to get it to. I’ve made a little video which you can watch at the bottom of this post which outlines the process :)

While the pizza dough was proving (growing in size) we made our mozzarella. This looked pretty gross while we were splitting the curds and whey of the milk, but was fun once we had it to the stage where you stretch it out and make your balls of cheese. Once we had finished making the cheese it was time to get our dough into shape for the base, topped with sauce and our cheese and put into the oven to bake. When the pizzas were ready we gave them a quick sprinkle with basil, salt, pepper and some olive oil then cut them up and enjoyed the fruits of our labour along with the delicious red wine that Alison opened for Simon’s birthday.

We had left over cheese to take home and because I was a bit over the top with my flour estimate, I had enough dough to take home and make some more pizzas the next day :)

If you are interested in making your own cheese you can get a kit from a company called ‘Mad Millie’ which has everything you need to make mozzarella, ricotta and mascarpone. I’ve got myself a kit and think I might give making ricotta a try next.

And, if you want to go to a cooking class head along to The Gourmet Gannet website to book one. While you’re at it check out Alison’s awesome blog ‘Pease Pudding’ too.

Little Hummingbird Cakes

2011-09-16T22:15:00.000+12:00

So, I’m not too happy with how these look. I found icing them really hard and they ended up looking childish rather than the sophisticated wonder I envisioned them to become. I was thinking the icing would resemble silky smooth white chocolate spun artistically around the cakes. Hmm, not quite the case aye Melissa? It might have been because it was quite cold when I made them; maybe the icing would have spread better at a warmer temperature. However, I do like the way they taste so I thought I would still share the recipe with you. The pecan and pineapple bits through the cake are moreish. If I make these again I think I will just ice them like normal cupcakes.

Makes 24.

3 ¾ cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup caster sugar
2 ripe bananas
½ cup sunflower oil
2 eggs, beaten
150g pecans, chopped
440g can crushed pineapple, drained
6 tablespoons chopped toasted pecans, to decorate

For the lemon cream:
115g butter, softened
3 ¾ icing sugar
2 tablespoons whipping cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease two 12 hole muffin pans.
Sift the flour and cinnamon into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar.
Put the bananas in a bowl and mash well with a fork. Add the bananas to the dry ingredients with the eggs, oil, pecans and pineapple. Stir until the mixture is just combined. Spoon the mixture into the muffin pans.
Bake in the oven for 30 – 35 minutes, until golden brown and risen. Leave in the pan to cool for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks. Leave to cool completely.

To make the lemon cream, put the butter in a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until creamy. Gradually beat in the icing sugar, then beat in the cream, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Beat well until light and fluffy.
Invert the muffins and spread with the lemon cream. Sprinkle a few chopped pecans over the top of the muffins to decorate.

Blueberry and Courgette Loaf

2011-09-12T18:33:00.001+12:00

We made this loaf in the weekend and man it was yum! I’ve been busy making some cushion covers for a buyer through my felt. shop and haven’t done any baking lately, but really wanted to try out this recipe because I couldn’t imagine what courgettes and blueberries would taste like together, it sounds disgusting. However, the loaf was delicious – sweet and moist and eaten up pretty quickly! And, I suppose it kinda counts towards your 5+ a day of fruit and veg - did you know the courgette is actually a fruit? Personally I couldn’t really taste the courgette but you see flecks of green through the loaf which looked quite pretty with the purple blue colour of the blueberries.

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 175°C. Lightly grease 2 loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared loaf pans.
Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the centre of a loaf comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes in the pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Rugby Fever Hits Baking

2011-09-11T15:32:00.001+12:00

The Rugby World Cup kicked off in New Zealand on Friday and it seems most of the country has caught rugby fever! Max turned 7 months old yesterday so as promised here is his (rugby themed) cake. I really need need to fork out for some gel colourings if I am going to use fondant for things in the future as your standard liquid food colouring from the supermarket only creates pastel type colours.

It is quite difficult to get pictures of Max with the cakes at the moment (unless I hold him and his grabby little hands), so here is a picture of him taken right before we left for a trip to the Auckland viaduct (with approximately 200,000 other people) to celebrate the opening of the tournament.

Unfortunately there is no new recipe to share today – it is just an ‘Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake’ hiding under there. But I should have something new for you in the next week.

New Product Alert!

2011-09-09T17:17:00.001+12:00

Our flatmate Nick works at the Chelsea Sugar Factory and every month they have a ‘product of the month’ that he gets to bring home. This month he came home with their new Lemon flavoured Icing Sugar. Ashley, his awesome wife and the genius behind the Tropical Muffins posted on here last month, made some cupcakes and gave the icing sugar a go. Apparently you just mix it with water and you have delicious lemony icing – easy peasy! I’ve eaten a couple of the cupcakes today and there’s still a few left, taunting me because I didn’t make them which means I can’t be a piggy and gobble them all up. I think I need to talk Nick into getting us the Berry flavour to try…

Snickerdoodle Cookies

2011-09-07T17:12:00.005+12:00

Cute name huh! I have been wanting to try these out for a while but kind of forgot about them until I made Mere’s Blondies, which can be topped with a snickerdoodle coating. I found a really easy recipe here on ‘Joy of Baking’ which includes video instructions.

Ingredients:
Cookies:
2 ¾ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Coating:
⅓ cup granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Method:
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until smooth (about 2 to 3 minutes).
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough. If the dough is soft, cover and refrigerate until firm (about one to two hours).
Preheat oven to 190°C and place rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Shape the dough into 2.5 cm round balls.

To coat:
In a large shallow bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
Roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar and place on the prepared pan, spacing about 5 cm apart. Then, using the bottom of a glass, gently flatten each cookie to about 1.5 cm thick.
Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes, or until they are light golden brown and firm around the edges. The centres of the cookies will still be a little soft. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

I thought that they tasted a bit like ‘Elsie’s Fingers’ – so they are yummy!
Enjoy!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

2011-08-31T21:18:00.001+12:00

These are easy and very, very yummy! I used this recipe as a base for the cupcake and filled the cases to about half way with the mix, and placed a teaspoon sized blob of cookie dough on top - I used this ‘Betty Crocker’ cookie mix.

The cookie part kind of sunk towards the bottom, I had envisioned it sitting up the top and cooking on the top and being semi raw on the inside but it still worked even though it sunk.

Yummo!!!

I frosted them with a vanilla butter cream and added a couple of tablespoons of the left over cookie dough to the mix (you can add to taste).
*NOTE: If I was doing this again I would remove choc drops or use a mix that has choc chips opposed to drops, as it was quite hard to pipe with such large bits blocking the nozzle.

Vanilla Buttercream:
125g butter
3-4 cups sifted icing sugar (depends on the consistency you are after)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons milk

Beat the butter until it is light and fluffy.
Add your first two cups of icing sugar, vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk and beat.
Continue to add icing sugar and milk until you get the right consistency.

While I was putting this together I was thinking about ‘Cookie Monster’ – I mean who loves cookies more than him! So I used the same cupcake and made these…

Nom, nom, nom!

To decorate the cookie monsters I topped them with vanilla buttercream, dipped them in blue sugar crystals, rolled fondant to shape the eyes and dotted them with a chocolate fudge pen. I used a chocolate chip cookie for the mouth. Not too bad for a first attempt and a very cute idea for kids.

Free New Zealand wide Farmers’ Market Cooking demonstrations

2011-08-30T20:05:00.001+12:00

Farmers' Markets New Zealand, in conjunction with the REAL New Zealand Festival, are running a national series of FREE Farmers' Market cooking and producer demonstrations. The aim is to highlight the very best of local Farmers' Market food, along with NZ's top chefs. New Zealand’s first ‘master chef’, Brett McGregor and Julie Biuso are just a couple of the chefs involved in this programme which is runs from September 4th to October 23rd.

Check out the schedule of events on the official website or have a look on facebook to find out what chef is going to be cooking near you.

Awesome idea huh? Go watch and become inspired by the chefs (there will be live video so you won’t miss anything), then everything you need to get creative in the kitchen is at the farmers’ market ready for you to take home :)

Chocolate Berry Cheesecake

2011-08-28T16:50:00.001+12:00

My mum made this Chocolate Berry Cheesecake the other day and bought around some slices for my flatmates and I. Love. The top of it is a little dented up from the tin foil she wrapped it up in, but that didn’t stop it tasting damn good.

I’ve got the recipe; it’s a pretty easy one as it uses a store brought pre-made filling :)

250 grams sweet plain chocolate biscuits
100 grams butter, melted
425 gram can boysenberries in syrup
500 gram pottle cheesecake filling (mum used the Tararua brand stuff)
2 teaspoons gelatin

Process the biscuits to fine crumbs in a food processor. Stir in the butter. Press into the base of a 23cm loose-bottom flan tin. Refrigerate until required.

Drain and reserve the juice from the boysenberries. Beat together the drained boysenberries and cheesecake mix until smooth. Spread into the prepared biscuit base. Refrigerate for one hour.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the reserved boysenberry juice and when it has been absorbed, warm in the microwave for 2 minutes on high and stir until dissolved. Cool. Pour over the chilled cheesecake and refrigerate for a further hour before serving.

Thanks for the cheesecake Mum!

Chocolate Beer Cake

2011-08-27T15:36:00.001+12:00

It is Father’s Day next Sunday (4 September) and after a bit a playing with a couple of different recipes I found on the net, I bring you the perfect ‘blokey’ cake to make for your Father, Husband or Partner to say “thanks for being a great Dad!” Apart from the fact that this cake uses two of most Dad’s favourite things to consume (beer and chocolate), it is absolutely delish and will be enjoyed by the whole family.

Ingredients:
1 cup of beer (I used some of Shane’s homebrewed beer – he is becoming quite the brew master, but I’d recommend using your Dad’s favourite)
120g butter
¾ cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
75g sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking soda

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180˚C, and grease a round bundt pan (You could use a normal pan, I’m sure it would be fine).
In a large bowl sift flour and baking soda together and set aside until needed.
Whisk the sour cream, eggs and vanilla together in a small bowl.
Pour one cup of beer into a large saucepan over medium heat.
Dice up the butter into chunks and drop them into the beer to allowing them to melt slowly while stirring occasionally.
Once butter is melted, whisk in the cocoa powder and white sugar until you have a rich, dark, chocolaty mixture. Add your egg, sour cream, vanilla mixture to the chocolate mixture and whisk together.
Combine the liquid with the flour and baking soda until mixed.
Pour into your greased bundt pan, and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Take the pan out of the oven and cool for about 15 minutes in the tin before turning it out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Check out how beautifully dark and chocolaty looking the cooling cake is!

Once cooled completely I recommend icing it with a cream cheese icing and decorating with some chocolate shavings.

Enjoy and ‘Happy Father’s Day’ to all the fantastic Dad’s out there, I hope you all have wonderful days with your children and grandchildren next week. I would like to wish Shane a very happy first Father’s Day – he is an amazing Dad and Max is extremely lucky. Also Happy Father’s Day to my Daddy – I love you.

Shane and Max

My Dad with Max

Celebrities In The Kitchen!

2011-08-18T21:58:00.001+12:00

Sylvia Park shopping center (in Auckland) and PlaceMakers are offering shoppers the chance to win a $10,000 PlaceMakers kitchen and $5,000 worth of Parmco appliances, as well as some other smaller kitchen related prizes. You can find out more by clicking here.

As part of the promotion a number of celebrity chefs/bakers will be running demonstrations in the PlaceMakers kitchen at Sylvia Park.

Dates and Times of Celebrities in the PlaceMakers Kitchen are as follows:

MARK TILSON - INTERNATIONAL CHEF FOR WAGAMAMA
Saturday 20 August and Sunday 21 August 2011
11.30am - 1.30pm - 3.30pm

ANNABEL LANGBEIN - THE FREE RANGE COOK
Saturday 27 August 2011
1.30pm to 3.30pm.

EMMA FREEMAN - NEW ZEALAND'S HOTTEST HOME BAKER, RUNNER UP
Sunday 28 August 2011
11.30am - 1.30pm - 3.30pm

BRETT MCGREGOR – WINNER NZ MASTER CHEF SEASON 1
Saturday 3 September 2011
11.30am - 1.30pm - 3.30pm

NADIA LIM – WINNER NZ MASTER CHEF SEASON 2
Sunday 4 September 2011
11.30am - 1.30pm - 3.30pm

Sylvia Park will upload all the celebrities recipes on a weekly basis, you can find the recipes here and have a go at cooking/baking them at home yourself.

So if you are in Auckland and are looking for something to do (for free!!!) over the next few weekends head along to Sylvia Park and check out the demonstrations and if you decide to shop up a storm you might even find yourself the winner of a new kitchen!

Cookie Dough Brownies

2011-08-17T15:52:00.001+12:00

A few weeks ago I saw a cookie dough inspired post on ‘Love From The Oven’, a blog I follow – it reminded me of these amazing but incredibly easy brownies my idol ‘Bakerella’ made a couple of years ago, I hadn’t attempted them as yet as we didn’t have some of her “cheat” ingredients here in New Zealand. Sure enough Bakerella’s brownies were featured further down the post so I went back and looked at the original and decided that I could definitely make them (by swapping out the ‘Hershey’s Brownie Mix’ with another Betty Crocker mix – I used ‘Triple Chocolate Fudge’) and so can you! They are super easy but sure to impress, all you need is:

Follow the instructions on the boxes, making the brownies first, pouring the mix into your tin or dish then placing blobs of the made up cookie mixture on top. If the cookie dough doesn’t sink into the mix just give it a gentle push down.

Pre cooking

Then place in the oven and bake according to the boxes instructions for temperature and about 30-35 minutes.

Baked Brownie (sorry about the photo quality – it was night time).

Now at this point you could allow your brownie to cool, cut it into slices and eat by itself or dusted with icing sugar. Me, I took a lead out of Bakerella’s book and covered mine with a chocolate ganache – the hardest part about doing this is waiting for the ganache to set!

Chocolate Ganache:
1 Cup Cream
50 grams Butter
120 grams Dark Cooking Chocolate (cut up roughly)

In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage. Pour over the chocolate.
Let stand about 30 seconds and stir until smooth.
Pour over brownies and let set before cutting (to help mine along I put the dish in the fridge to set).

Next time I make these I think I will try using ‘Natalie’s Brownie’ recipe, which I’m sure will only make them better! Give them a go and if you get around to making them using Natalie’s brownie recipe before me, let me know how they turned out by leaving a comment.

Thank you Bakerella and thank you Betty Crocker!
(You will all be thanking me too – once you give them a go)

It’s someone else's half birthday…

2011-08-15T08:00:00.000+12:00

Ours! Just like Max the other day, Baking Makes Things Better is celebrating a half birthday. We are one and a half! Yep, back in February 2010 I set up this blog, told Courtenay, made her my co-author and Baking Makes Things Better was born. I had the idea of writing a reflection kind of post a while back but I had missed our actual birthday in Feb – I was starting back at work for the year and Courtenay was just a little bit busy with having a baby. A lot has happened in a year and a half!

Awww, our old banner!

Anyways, I am pretty proud of what we have achieved with our blog during this time and what it has become. We’ve picked up a few new skills on the computer, experimented with our photography and tried loads of new recipes.

During our year and a half we tried baking things we have always wanted to attempt. Courtenay gave Red Velvet Cake and Macaroons a try and I experimented with making Lemon and Chocolate Tarts and Whoopie Pies.

Courtenay made many, many cupcakes in lot of different flavours – all decorated with beautiful icing.

And I developed a love for baking that involves lemon :)

We’ve also hosted a couple of High tea’s.

And Courtenay has started making a cake a month to hone her icing skills for Max’s first birthday cake!

I still love the first recipes that I posted about; I think Mint Chocolate Truffles are something I will always go back to making time and time again (and Courtenay still loves Red Velvet Cake). Although, the Chocolate Hazelnut Slice has become a bit of a rival…

One thing I think we have both enjoyed during this time is seeing the blog grow. We’ve had visitors from all over the world, we have gained new followers on blogger and facebook, and it is awesome reading all of your comments.

Your favourite posts have been anything to do with cupcakes, brownies, Oreos, Mars Bars and cheesecake! Or recipes that are a combo of these things!
Over our first year and a half some of our most viewed posts by you, our readers, have been…

Marshmallow Brownie Cupcakes

Mars Bar Cupcakes

Baileys and Mars Bar Cheesecake

Thank you for following our blog and we look forward to bringing you many more recipes!

Tropical Muffins

2011-08-14T17:35:00.008+12:00

Hello, I'm Melissa's flatmate, Ashley. Usually I benefit from Melissa's baking hobby, but last week the tables turned. I needed to use up a mango that was a ticking time bomb of ripeness. After searching online for "mango recipes", I found quite a few variations on muffins and decided to cobble one together. The results were great! They didn't stick around for very long. Here's the recipe I used, with my variations in brackets:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (thanks Melissa! I borrowed some from you :)
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
¾ cup vegetable oil (Holy crap that seems like a lot! You can replace some of the oil with applesauce. I didn't have any so I used all the oil. I also didn't have any plain vegetable oil so I used extra virgin olive oil. Me Gusta. If you were my mom, you might use mayonnaise, which sounds weird but is actually delicious in baked goods.)
1 tablespoon lime juice (I didn't have any so I used lemon juice instead)
2 cups diced ripe mango (my mango was very ripe, so I pureed it instead)
1 medium ripe banana, mashed (my mango only yielded 1 cup, so I used a large banana, and added enough orange juice to bring the total amount of fruit up to 2 liquid cups)
½ cup raisins (ew, gross. I omitted these)
½ cup chopped walnuts (my husband in allergic, so I replaced the walnuts with shredded coconut instead)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, combine the eggs, oil and lime (or lemon) juice; add to the dry ingredients just until moistened. Stir in the mango, banana, raisins (Yuck. Omit.) and nuts (substitute with coconut to avoid killing your allergic loved ones).

Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350˚F (175˚C) for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. If you're anything like my husband and you hate paper muffin liners with an irrational passion, you can do what I did, which is to grease the muffin pans first with butter, then coat them with shredded coconut instead of the typical flour. It results in a tasty and cute alternative. The recipe yielded about 20, but I wish I did them a bit bigger, so I would recommend condensing it into 18 cups max.

Enjoy!

Auckland’s Newest Dining District: Wynyard Quarter

2011-08-13T16:19:00.001+12:00

Part of North Wharf – Wynyard Quarter

Today Shane, Max and I took a family trip to Wynyard Quarter – an area of the waterfront in inner city Auckland, which has been redeveloped just in time for the upcoming Rugby World Cup. The area opened to the public last weekend and there are plenty of places to dine along North Wharf and Jellicoe Street, whether you felt like picking up a gelato and exploring the area or sitting down at a cafe for a bite, or perhaps something more substantial from one of the bistro’s, gastro-pubs, ethnic restaurants, or the Auckland Fish Market where you can pick up the kiwi classic fish n chips if that is more your thing. Whatever your tastes, I’m sure you will find it (if you would like to check what is on offer in advance of your trip you can find out here or here) .

Rushworth cafe (pictured centre) is where I will be heading on my next trip to sample their selection of home baking

Urban Turban had very funky decor

Sanford and Auckland Fish Market offer an array of delights for seafood lovers

Unfortunately, we were so busy looking around the area and checking everything out that by the time it came to walking back past the eateries it was bang on lunch time and everything absolutely packed so we decided it was best to pack Max (who was also due for lunch) in the car and head off. However, we will definitely be going back and I think it is a must see/do for visitors to Auckland and Aucklander’s alike.

Besides the food some of the other neat things Wynyard Quarter offers are tram rides that allow you to explore the sights and save your feet, a playground for the kids, a viewing bridge that offers great views of the marina, harbour and silo park (which will host markets, outdoor cinema and live entertainment over the summer months). You can even make your way from Wynyard Quarter to the Viaduct via a new bridge that links the two.

Viewing bridge – Silo Park

Playground – Silo Park

Functional sculpture – Silo Park

Tram

Walk to the Viaduct

So if you feel like a day out and don’t know what to do, I would recommend heading to Wynyard Quarter. If you do let us know what you thought and where you ate – it may help me to be more decisive next time.

Banana Biscotti

2011-08-12T15:33:00.001+12:00

I made this as a treat for the babies at Max’s 6 month birthday party, it went down an absolute treat and is able to be enjoyed by teething babies and anybody else that fancies a piece. If you're worried your baby may bite off a piece you could wrap the biscuit in muslin.

Ingredients:
½ cup ripe mashed banana
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 large egg yolk
2 (packed down) tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup self-raising flour (sifted)
pinch of salt
1-2 tablespoons water if necessary

Turn the oven on to 160˚C.
Mash the banana with a fork on a board, once mashed place it in a measuring cup to ensure you have the right amount – I found one small banana was about right, then put into a medium-sized bowl with the egg yolk, vanilla and brown sugar.
Sift in the flour and salt. Fold everything together until the flour is dampened, without over mixing, adding water if the mixture seems thicker than a muffin batter.
Line the long sides and bottom of a loaf tin with a strip of baking paper, then spoon in the mixture. Level its top with the back of a wet spoon.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until a skewer or toothpick comes out cleanly, then take your loaf from the oven, remove from the baking tin and cool on a rack. The loaf should be a pale colour, not golden brown.
Turn down the oven to 125˚C.
When the loaf is cool or cold, cut it into 5-10mm slices (depending on how thick you would like your pieces) with a sharp, serrated knife (they don't taste very good at this stage).
Lie the slices in one layer on a cooling rack or oven rack and bake them again at the lower temperature for 20 minutes, or until the slices are golden brown and crisp right through (you will need to take one from the oven and cool it before you can check that it is dry in the middle). Watch carefully, since the flavour is spoilt if the biscotti brown too much.

Store in airtight jars for up to two weeks, but, if your baby is anything like Max or the others we had around here it won’t last that long!

Max and his friend Kaitlin enjoying some biscotti together

Max’s 6 Month Cake!

2011-08-11T15:35:00.002+12:00

My little dude turned six months old yesterday! We had a little party with our coffee group friends to celebrate. It was lots of fun and a great excuse to make another fun cake. When I turned six months old my parents bought a birthday cake and cut it in half to celebrate, subsequently this was done when each of my little sisters turned six months old and was a tradition I thought I’d continue. I had seen this cake in ‘The Australian Women’s Weekly – Kids Birthday Cakes’ book (which by the way is a must have if you are a Mum!) and had actually made it for my nephew when he turned six months old (five years ago) and thought crescent moon = half moon = half cake = cute nursery shape = PERFECT! So instead of cutting a cake in half I basically decorated half a cake. However, I completely forgot to pick up some licorice for the eye and mouth decoration as well as the border that the book suggests using, so I ended up putting together some black icing and piping it on.

Although Max and his friends were a little young for cake the Mum’s enjoyed it on their behalves and I made a batch of banana biscotti for the kids to enjoy which went down a treat (recipe to follow).

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

2011-08-10T15:31:00.001+12:00

I made these by adapting the ‘Banana Cake’ recipe that I posted last year. They were delicious!

Ingredients:
150g butter (softened)
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 large ripe bananas (diced into small pieces)
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons hot milk
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ cup of chocolate chips

Icing:
50g butter
2 ½ – 3 cups icing sugar (sifted)
200g cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add bananas one at a time, again beating well after each addition.
Stir baking soda into hot milk and add to mixture.
Sift flour and baking powder into mixture and fold.
Pour in chocolate chips and gently stir through.
Place mixture into a cupcake papers (filling to just over half way) and bake at 180˚C for 15 minutes or until the cupcake springs back when lightly touched (or until you can insert and then remove a skewer cleanly).
Cool and ice with a cream cheese icing and decorate with extra chocolate chips.