Queen’s Birthday Weekend Baking Inspiration: High Tea

Who doesn't love a high tea?! Here at BMTB we think they are fab, if you are a long time reader you will know that we have thrown a few. Queen's birthday weekend is only days way and I think it is the perfect excuse to do some baking and round up a few friends to enjoy a traditional high tea.

To throw a great high tea you need to prepare a mix of savoury and sweet treats, bite sized and finger foods are best as they are tidy to eat. At our high tea picnic last year I made some delicious apple and pork sausage rolls, Mel made some little mince pies and feta and spinach pinwheels, of course petite sandwiches are also a must!

There are so many sweet treats on the blog suitable for high tea, some of our favourites are passionfruit and lemon tarts with white chocolate ganache, raspberry melting moments, strawberry champagne cupcakes are great for special occasions, mini bundt cakes, caramel brulee slice, tan slice and lemon cheesecake slice are all divine and of course you need scones with cream and jam - it wouldn't be high tea without them.

If you do host a high tea we'd love to hear about it and we love to see your pictures, our friends at Food TV would also love to see your high tea pictures, in fact if you share your pictures with them through their facebook page it will put you into the draw to win some great prizes as part of their 'We Want Your Food' competition, which starts any day now! So go on get baking and then sit down and enjoy a cuppa while you enjoy the spoils of your hard work.

Mini Chocolate Courgette and Raspberry Bundt Cakes with Raspberry Cream

Whew, what a long title.  I couldn’t think of what to call these though.  One suggestion when I took them into share at work was ‘5+ a day cakes’ because they are packed with courgettes, raspberry and walnuts.  However, don’t let that put you off making them – yes, they have healthy ingredients in them, but they are delicious and you would never be able to tell how much courgette has actually gone into them; you can’t really taste it.  I’ve had a couple of requests for the recipe from the few people who tried these cute little cakes, because they are seriously that good.

I made my cakes using a mini bundt tin, but you could use ordinary muffin tins.  Using my bundt tin, the recipe made 30 mini cakes.  I also served my cakes with Raspberry cream, but you could just serve them with a light dusting of icing sugar.

Ingredients:
Cakes:
¾ cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups grated courgette (about 6 courgettes)
1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
⅔ cup evaporated milk
2 cups frozen raspberries, thawed and excess liquid removed

Raspberry Cream:
2 tablespoons icing sugar
2 ½ teaspoons raspberry powder
300ml cream
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Prepare (grease or line) baking tins if necessary. 
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Mix in the courgette, walnuts and vanilla essence.
In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining dry ingredients.  Mix the dry ingredients into the courgette mixture in 3 lots, alternating with the evaporated milk.  Fold through the raspberries.  Spoon the mixture into the baking tins.  Bake for 12 – 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted can be removed cleanly.  Leave to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cool rack to cool completely.

To make the raspberry cream:
Beat together the cream, vanilla essence and icing sugar until you are happy with the consistency of the cream.  Add the raspberry powder and beat again, until just mixed through.

*I decorated my cakes by filling the hole left by the bundt tin with the raspberry cream, dusting with icing sugar, and sprinkling with chocolate crunch bits that I purchased from The Pretty Baker.  I purchased the mini bundt tin from Stevens.

Orange and Coconut Cake

Winter has been in full swing over the last week or so and I have been feeling a bit under the weather and craving a boost of vitamin c, this cake was the answer! It is light, moist, delicious and reminds me of summer.

Ingredients:
Cake
125g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
Finely grated zest of one orange
The juice of one orange (4-5 tablespoons)
125g sour cream
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup desiccated coconut

Glaze
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3-5 tablespoons hot water
1-11/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons orange juice

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm to square cake tin.
Cream together butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add orange zest and sour cream and mix until combined.
Fold in the flour and coconut.
Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes, until your cake is a light golden colour and you can insert a skewer and remove it cleanly.
Once cooked remove from the oven and cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning the cake out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Once cool, pour glaze onto the centre of the cake and use the back of a spoon to move it towards the edges.
To make the glaze place butter, 3 tablespoons of hot water, 1 cup of icing sugar and orange juice in a small bowl and stir to combine. To thicken your glaze add more icing sugar or to thin use a little more hot water.

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I have, I am sure this is one I will make again and again. This cake is good on its own but can be served with some thick vanilla yoghurt or cream on the side. Also, if you are like me and can’t wait to dig in this cake is amazing warm!

Raspberry and Vanilla Mini Muffins

These Raspberry and Vanilla Mini Muffins are so cute, and so yummy!  They are quick and easy to make and are a great little treat.

Makes 24.

1 ½ cups self raising flour
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 cup reduced fat vanilla yoghurt
80g reduced fat margarine or butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
½ cup frozen raspberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease two 12 hole mini muffin tins.
Mix the flour and sugar together in a large bowl.  Add the yoghurt, margarine, egg and vanilla to the flour and stir until combined.
Roughly chop the raspberries, and then fold through the mixture.
Fill the muffin holes with the mixture.  Bake for approximately 18 minutes or until the tops of the muffins are golden.  Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  If you like, dust with icing sugar before serving.

Surprise Cookies

These are another recipe inspired by Pinterest, I stumbled across them while looking for ideas for a cookie swap I am going to next month. From what I have read, the original idea came from domestic goddess Martha Stewart. They are a lovely soft cookie and once iced you have no idea about the treat hidden inside!

Ingredients:
Cookies
2 cups flour
½ cup cocoa
½ teaspoon baking soda
sprinkle of salt
115 grams butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12-14 large marshmallows, cut in half horizontally

Basic Chocolate Icing
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
¼ cup cocoa, sifted
25 grams butter, softened
4-6 tablespoons of hot water

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C and line x2 baking trays with wax baking paper. 
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add egg, milk, and vanilla, and beat until well combined.
Sift in flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, mix on low speed until combined.
Using a tablespoon or small ice cream scoop, drop dough onto your lined baking trays, about 5cm apart.
Bake until cookies begin to spread and become firm, 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove baking trays from the oven, and place a marshmallow, cut-side down, in the centre of each cookie, pressing down slightly.
Return to oven for 2 minutes so that the marshmallows begin to melt.
Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
To make the chocolate icing place butter in a medium sized bowl with the icing sugar and cocoa, add hot water and stir with a large spoon to combine.
Place about 1 tablespoon of chocolate icing on the centre of each cookie (over the marshmallow), spread it outward until marshmallow is covered.

These are easy, delicious and cute! If you wanted to do a gender reveal (and were having a baby girl or could locate/make blue marshmallows) and cakes aren’t your thing these would be a great alternative. Regardless of the reason for making them these special cookies masquerading as a run of the mill chocolate cookie are sure to impress!

PushPan Giveaway Winners

We have our three lucky winners!  Each winner will receive a PushPan pack with three different sized tins, valued at a total of $199.90 each.  The winners (chosen using the random.org number generator) are:

# 90 – Michelle Bird
# 207 – Rachelle Kershaw
# 135 – Samantha Minny

We need to hear from our winners by 5pm on Friday 17th May, or the prize will be re-drawn. 

Thank you to everyone who entered and a huge thank you to PushPan for the prize!  Check out their pinterest boards for plenty of inspiration for beautiful cakes you can make using their pans.

 

Easy Muesli Bars

With school having been back a week already (crazy how fast time goes), I thought I would share another muesli bar recipe.  These Easy Muesli Bars make a great addition to any lunchbox and the recipe makes quite a few, so hopefully you’ll have some for a few days at least!
You can throw whatever nuts and seeds you like into this recipe.  I lazily scooped pre-mixed nuts and seeds out of the bulk bin at the supermarket to use, but you could buy individual quantities of just your favourites.  I added in dried cranberries, but again, you could swap these for your fave dried fruit; apricots, banana chip pieces, sultanas…

2 ½ cups rolled oats
½ cup shredded coconut
2 cups mixed nuts, chopped
1 cup mixed seeds
¼ cup chia seeds
¼ cup chocolate chips, optional
1cup dried cranberries
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup honey
½ cup peanut butter
½ brown sugar*

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a 22 x 22 cm tin with baking paper.
In a large bowl, mix together the oats, coconut, nuts, seeds, chocolate chips and cranberries.
In a medium sized saucepan over a low heat, mix together the salt, cinnamon, vanilla, honey, peanut butter and sugar until smooth.
Pour the syrup mixture into the dry mixture and mix through until all the dry mixture has been coated by the syrup.
Press the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the top is golden.  Allow the muesli slab to cool in the tin before cutting into bars.  Store in an airtight container.

*I used Billington’s Light Muscovado Unrefinded Cane Sugar.  You can use normal brown sugar if you wish.

Baking Basics eBook!

We are so excited to announce that we have produced a Baking Basics eBook that is available for purchase.  The eBook covers some of the basics of baking biscuits, cupcakes and muffins, cakes and slices, what equipment you should have, troubleshooting guides for when things go wrong and 12 easy to follow recipes for those who are new to baking.

This is something we have been working on for a little now.  We are both really proud of the finished product and hope that you love it as much as we do.  Usually, you can purchase your copy here for $8, but, because we love you and want to thank you for the awesome support you show us we are offering a special introductory price of $5 for the next 48 hours!

We want to give a special thanks to go to our family and friends who proofread and gave us feedback on the eBook.  Also, thank you to Amanda from the Vintage Table who lent us some of the lovely pieces you will see our cakes displayed on in the book.  You should also all know that Mel did all the design work for the eBook - isn't she a clever cookie?!  Thank you, if it was left up to me it would have looked pretty boring!

So, want to get yourself a copy?  Or give one as a gift?  Click here to be taken over to our shop.

Chocolate Fudge Biscuit Slice

If you are after something simple, easy and full of chocolate goodness then this is the slice for you! It is so simple to whip up you could even have the kids make it as a Mother’s Day treat…

Ingredients:
Slice
100g butter
½ cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons cocoa
¼ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 packet of round wines, crushed

Chocolate Icing:
1 tablespoon butter, softened
2 tablespoons cocoa
1½ cups icing sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons hot water

Method:
Place saucepan on your stovetop and melt the butter on a medium heat.
Once your butter has almost melted add your sugar and stir until it has dissolved into the butter then remove from the heat and set aside to cool for about 10-15 minutes.
Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix well.
Add the cocoa and mix to ensure all the ingredients combine.
Stir through the crushed biscuits ensuring that they are coated in the chocolate fudge mix.
Press into your prepared slice tin and refrigerate until set (approx 3-4 hours).
Top with chocolate icing. To make the chocolate icing place butter in a medium sized bowl with the icing sugar and cocoa, add hot water and stir with a large spoon to combine.
To serve cut into squares and enjoy. Any left overs should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Profiline PushPan Giveaway!

 
We were so excited to log into Facebook last week to discover that we had hit the 5,000 fan mark! To celebrate this milestone we are having a giveaway.  Profiline PushPans have kindly given us three prize packs, each consisting of 2 x 20cm, 1 x 24cm and 1 x 26cm of their amazing PushPans (RRP $199.90 per pack) to giveaway as a thank you to our wonderful fans.  Yup, three prize packs worth $199.90!


So, what is a PushPan?  Well, they are loose based cake pans that are completely watertight and leak-proof, making baking cakes easier than ever. The Profiline PushPan is a baking innovation that seems too good to be true – until you try it; we’ve been trialling them and have baked the most perfect cakes in this pan, it is amazing!


An exciting world first, each pan has a uniquely integrated silicone seal on its loose base which guarantees that not a bit of cake mixture will make its way out of the pan.  And, since not a drop of water can get in they’re incredible for baking a cheesecake in a water bath, without the worry of fashioning a lining or wrapping your pan in foil first.


Advanced patented technology means you can push out any depth of cake with ease, releasing your creations for perfect presentation every time.  Just place the pan on a tall can from your cupboard then push down evenly to release the base. Perfect for your cakes, cheese cakes, quiches, pies - even ice cream desserts!

Check out the PushPan website to find out about your nearest stockists.  You should also check out their Pinterest page for some serious cake baking inspiration (and follow ours too!).

To enter the draw to win yourself a pack of three different sized tins, leave us a comment below (click where it says ‘comments’ next to the ‘posted by’ information) telling us what your favourite cake is.  Make sure you include your name and either leave your email address, like us on facebook or follow the blog so you can find out if you have won.

The giveaway closes 5pm Sunday 12 May 2013.  We will announce the winners on Monday 13 May on our blog and facebook.  The giveaway is open to New Zealand residents only.  The winners will be chosen at random and contacted once the competition closes.  If we have not been able to contact a winners by 5pm Friday 17 May, the prize will be re-drawn.