Yesterday while I was perusing the titles at Mag Nation I came across ‘Sweet Treats’. It is a cute little book put together by the folks from frankie magazine (which is a bi-monthly mag that I usually buy, don’t cha know). It’s filled with sugary sweet recipes all beautifully presented and photographed on vintage fabric backgrounds. Adorable. So, of course I purchased it and I’m now excited to have a go at making all the delicious treats :)
I put this together for you Courtie because you keep saying you want to make them. Look at how cute they are! Pretty :)
Yus! I have been craving these biscuits for a while, so I finally got around to making a batch on Saturday :)
Makes 35 – 40.
300g butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 ½ cups plain flour
½ cup rice flour
70g pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
Cream the butter and caster sugar together with an electric beater, until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and beat again.
Sift the flours and gently fold into the mixture along with the pecans.
Lay two large pieces of plastic cling film onto the bench. Divide the mixture between the two. Form into log shapes approximately 20cm x 7cm. Wrap in the plastic film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 150˚C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
Slice the dough into 1cm thick slices and place on the lined baking trays.
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes until firm, but not coloured.
Nom nom nom!
I have been wanting to make a marble cake for months, but have put it off because I wasn’t sure how it would come out and I hate not getting things right. I finally gave it a go and it came out okay… the cake tasted good and was lovely and moist, the icing was probably some of the best I had ever made, BUT the ‘marbling’ left a lot to be desired aesthetically as you can see, so this might be a case of practice makes perfect.
250g butter, softened
1 ¼ cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 eggs
2 ¼ cups self-raising flour, sifted
¾ cup milk
2 tablespoons cocoa
3 drops red food colouring
1. Pre-heat your oven to 160˚C and grease a 22cm spring form cake tin.
2. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until creamy. Beat in the vanilla essence and eggs one at a time. Stir in sifted flour in two batches, alternating with the milk.
3. Divide the mixture into three bowls, beat cocoa into one and mix food colouring into another leaving the third lot plain.
4. Drop large spoonfuls into the greased cake tin, alternating between colours. Drag and swirl a blunt knife through the mixtures to create the marble effect (I think I over swirled so be careful here).
5. Bake for 1 hour or until you can remove a skewer cleanly. Cool in tin, remove and ice.
To make the icing you will need:
50g butter, softened
1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoons vanilla essence
3 tablespoons boiling water
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until pale and creamy.
Makes about 36.
For the biscuits:
170g butter
55g icing sugar
170g flour
55g cornflour (if you want to make ‘Yo-Yo’s’ instead, replace the cornflour with 55g custard powder)
½ teaspoon baking powder
For the filing:
30g butter (1 large tablespoon)
80g icing sugar (2 heaped tablespoons)
2 teaspoons boiling water
1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Bring the butter to room temperature. Sift together the icing sugar, flour, cornflour (or custard powder), and baking powder.
3. Cream the butter until it is light and fluffy, then mix in all the dry ingredients to make a firm dough.
4. Take teaspoonfuls of the mixture and roll into little balls. Place them on the baking tray and flatten with a fork dipped in water.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating after 10 minutes. Biscuits are cooked when they have spread a little, still very pale in colour, but are slightly browned on the bottom. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
6. To make the filing, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the boiling water. Pour this into the icing sugar and mix to form a smooth paste (we used slightly less water as we added food colouring to make the icing a purple colour).
7. Pair up the biscuits in matching sizes. Put about a teaspoonful on half of the biscuits. Put the partner biscuit on top of the icing and rotate slightly to encourage the filling to spread out to the edges.
Sorry this has taken me ages to get this up. This is the slice from our high tea. I think I grilled the top at little too long - it was more brown looking than the beautiful golden colour it should have been. Guess that's what you get when you are easily distracted, yapping away to Courtenay, instead of watching what you are doing.
Serves: 12 Ready in: 1 hour 40 minutes, plus cooling time
Base:
1 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa
¾ cup brown sugar
175g melted butter
Topping:
2 x 395g cans sweetened condensed milk
¼ cup golden syrup
125g melted butter
¾ cup caster sugar
1. Line a 24cm square tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl. Stir in brown sugar and butter until thoroughly combined. Press firmly into the tin and then bake for 30 minutes or until cooked.
3. Combine the sweetened condensed milk and golden syrup in a bowl, then stir in the melted butter.
4. Pour the mixture on top of the hot base and return to the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the caramel has set.
5. Cool in the baking tin on a wire rack, then put into the refrigerator until it has completely cooled.
6. Sprinkle evenly with caster sugar and place under the grill until the sugar dissolves and started to caramelise.
7. Refrigerate until set, then cut into pieces.
