ANZAC Baking Ideas

Here in New Zealand it is ANZAC Day in a little over a week, on the 25th April.  ‘ANZAC’ stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps and the 25th of April is significant for us as it marks the landings at Gallipoli made during World War One.  On this day each year we acknowledge the sacrifice of all those who have died in warfare, and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served.

A baking tradition for the day is to make Anzac biscuits.  These biscuits are said to have been sent by wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation.  Why not make of batch?  Or, try out one of our ANZAC recipes that are a bit of a twist on the traditional biscuit.

ANZAC Biscuits

Gooey Caramel ANZAC Slice

ANZAC Muffins

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
- Laurence Binyon

Easter Nest Cupcakes

Aren’t these cute?! They are so easy to make and would make a lovely little gift for Easter (the cost of Easter eggs is crazy!) or an easy bit of themed baking to take into work or have on hand for unexpected visitors over the long weekend.

To make them I just used my Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake recipe and divided it between 20 cupcake papers. You could easily use Mel’s recipe for the Easter Chicken Cupcakes and just decorate your cupcakes differently so you have a bit of variety. To decorate I used a basic buttercream and added 2 tablespoons cocoa (you can add more or less and make it to your own tastes). I spread the frosting thinly over the top of each cupcake with a knife, piped a circle with a Wilton 2D tip so it looked like a nest, inside the nest I placed 3-4 mini eggs and a chick.

Buttercream and decoration:
125g butter softened
2 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
2-3 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Mini eggs (I used M&M’s speckled eggs) – you will need 3-4 eggs per cupcake.
Mini chicks

Cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar/cocoa alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with.

Are they good?! Max thought so, barely got through snapping photos before the baking thief struck.

Easter Blondies

When I tried Kinder Mini Eggs I wanted to create something to give you all an excuse to buy them (that is if you need an excuse…), these eggs combined with the deliciousness of Mere’s blondie are perfection! You could use other mini eggs but I really urge you to try the Kinder ones, I really don’t know what I’m going to do for a chocolate fix when Easter is over…

Ingredients:
115 grams butter
1 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup mini Easter eggs (x2 85gram bags of Kinder Mini Eggs)

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 20x20cm tin with baking paper.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.
Beat in salt, egg and vanilla extract until well combined.
Add in flour, baking powder and choc chips and stir until no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
Pour dough – it will be thick – into prepared baking dish and smooth it into an even layer.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until set and the edges are just very lightly browned.
Cool in the pan before slicing.

What are you thinking of baking for Easter? Mel and I still have a couple of cute and easy ideas to share with you. I think I will definitely be doing another batch of these!

Easter Chicken Cupcakes

While shopping the other day I spotted a pack of little yellow chickens made out of pipe cleaners at the supermarket – pretty tacky, but I bought them anyway.  They inspired me to make these ‘Easter Chicken’ cupcakes, which were really simple to whip up.  I love how the long sprinkles look like messy feathers.  If you are a bit of a fondant fan, you could whip up some little wings and feet for these guys too!
My friend Jarrah gave me the recipe for the chocolate cupcake that I used (I just added in some mini Easter eggs as a special treat); it’s a great recipe which doesn’t involve fussing around with melting butter or whisking eggs.  Thanks for sharing Jarrah!

Makes 12.

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 – 5 teaspoons cocoa
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup oil (sunflower or canola)
1 cup water
3 tablespoons vinegar (white or malt)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
12 mini caramel-filled Easter eggs

Buttercream and Decoration:
125g butter softened
2 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Yellow food colouring
Yellow sprinkles (I used nearly two 70g packs)
24 chocolate drops
4-6 orange jube lollies

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190°C.  Line a 12 hole muffin tin with baking cups. 
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl with a fork.  Add the oil to the dry ingredients, but don’t stir.
In a small bowl, mix together the water, vinegar and vanilla essence.  Pour into the dry ingredients and mix together thoroughly with a fork.
Fill the baking cups ¾ of the way full with the mixture.  Place a mini Easter egg into each muffin cup so that it is just covered by the cupcake mixture.   Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with. Add a few drops of the yellow food colouring and mix through.
Spread about a tablespoon of the butter cream on the tops of each cupcake.  Pour your sprinkles into a bowl and dip each cupcake in to cover the buttercream.
Dot the backs of the chocolate drops with buttercream and place two on each cupcake to be your chicken’s eyes.  Cut the orange jube lollies into triangles (you need 12 triangles), smear some butter cream on the back of each triangle, then place on the cupcakes to be the Chicken’s nose.

It’s A Party Y’all!

If you have been following our blog for a while you will know that I am big on parties, I love birthdays (Christmas, Easter – anything that calls for gatherings, decorations and food!) and having Max makes birthdays so much cooler. It wasn’t long after last year’s ‘Robots and Rockets’ party that we decided on a cowboy party for Max’s second birthday, I pinned up lots of cute ideas which helped me put the party together.

I decided on a red, blue and bright green colour scheme – these colours come out of the tee-pee we got Max for Christmas which was at the centre of our ‘campsite’ area and was surrounded by hay bales which helped to set the tone/look of the party. Other decorations included some balloons in our colour scheme with the addition of a cow print balloon with each bunch. I made two buntings, one to go along the railing of our deck out of red and blue bandanas and one made from an old coffee sack which I painted Max’s name onto and placed on the food table. I also made some cacti and directional signs made from old moving boxes and painted with test pots from our local paint shop.

In terms of food I made cowboy cookies, red velvet cupcakes (the cute gingham cupcake cases are from The Pretty Baker, which is also what was used to make the bunting on the cake – they have an amazing selection of things that will make your party that much more special) and smores pops, we put together fruit platters, made fairy bread shaped like cacti and Marmite sandwiches in the shape of cows. We served savouries in the form of cheerios, sausage rolls, chicken nuggets and wedges with sour cream and bacon. I served popcorn in cute recycled wood cones, they are from PopRoc Parties as are the crates. Drinks were all served out of mini milk bottles with stripped paper straws and wrapped with bakers twine.

The cake was a four layer easy peasy chocolate cake sandwiched together and covered with vanilla butter cream. I used black fondant to cut out splotches so it created a cow pattern and placed M&M’s around the base.

We decided on a pick n mix your own loot bag station it was fun for the adults and the kids and much more cost effective than buying little toys to thank each of the kids for coming.

For fun we set up a photo booth using a cheap white sheet and our clothes line, there was a shooting range where the kids used a water gun to shoot tin cans, a watering hole for paddling in and some home made hobby horses using this template.

Max seemed to have a great day which is the most important thing and I as happy with how everything turned out. Now I’m thinking about next year! What are your favourite themes for kids parties? Leave us a comment here or on facebook to let us know.

Halloween Spider Cupcakes

These are the last Halloween inspired treat for 2012, aren’t they cute?! In a creepy crawly kinda way… I think they would look great on a party table next to our Witches Hats, Meringue Bones and Sausage Mummies. You could always whip up one batch of cupcakes and decorate half as these spiders and the other half like Mel’s amazing Brain Cupcakes!

To make these creepy treats you will need:
Cupcakes
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoons cocoa
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup flour
1 egg
¼ cup milk
75g butter (melted)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
¼ cup boiling water

Basic chocolate icing
1 cup Chelsea rich chocolate icing sugar (you could use icing sugar and cocoa)
1 teaspoon softened butter
2 tablespoons boiling water

To decorate
chocolate hail for the body
24 m&m’s for eyes
licorice for the legs (straps work best but you can cut any licorice from the assortment box to work)

Method:
Pre- heat your oven to 180°C and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases.
Place all the cupcake ingredients in a bowl EXCEPT the water. Add water last - do not mix until it is added.
Beat well with a hand held mixer for about 2 minutes and once combined and smooth spoon evenly into your cupcake cases.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until you can remove a skewer cleanly from the centre of your cupcakes or they spring back when lightly touched.
Make your chocolate icing and using a knife apply liberally to each cupcake using a pallet knife (a butter knife if you don’t have a pallet knife will suffice).
Sprinkle chocolate hail over the ‘body’ of your spider and put matching m&m’s on the front for eyes.
Use a skewer to make three small holes in the sides (I know spiders have 8 legs but it looked a little crowded so I went for 6) of each cupcake to put your licorice straps in as legs.

Lunchbox Bakes - Halloween Sausage Mummies

These are super easy to make and make a delicious treat for the lunch box or as a snack.

12 precooked sausages (I used Smoked Cheese Kranskys)
2 sheets puff pastry
1 teaspoon mustard

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.  Cut the pastry into thin strips, about 5mm thick.  Wrap strips of the pastry around the sausages like a bandage (brush the strip with some ice cold water if it is not sticking very well).  If the strip is not long enough for the sausage, start using another piece.  Place on the prepared baking tray.
Bake 15 – 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden.  Use the mustard to dot eyes onto the sausages before serving.

For more lunchbox baking ideas check out our Lunchbox Bakes page.

Chocolate Witches Hats

I had a go at making Witches Hats as a Halloween treat.  They are pretty simple to make and the recipe will give you 15 little hats.  I used midnight cookies as a base (I’ve put the original recipe below which will make a few more cookies than you need) which worked perfectly as a delicious accompaniment to the cone of the hat.  Inside my hats I hid some candy corn lollies (found at Martha’s Backyard), but you can include whatever candy is your favourite. 
We took the finished Witches Hats around to share with Simon’s family and his nieces were pretty excited when they found the hidden lollies!

To make Chocolate Witches Hats you will need:
a batch of midnight cookies (see recipe below, or alternatively, you could try your fave store bought biscuits)
15 kid sized ice cream cones
375g milk or dark chocolate, melted
Bag of Pebbles of Mini M&M’s, to decorate
½ cup of your favourite candy, to hide inside the hats

Midnight Cookies:
125g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
125g flour
35g cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line several baking trays with baking paper.
Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.  Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking soda and beat until well mixed.
With dampened hands, roll teaspoon sized pieces of the dough into smooth balls.  Place on the baking sheets, spaced well apart.
Bake in the preheated oven for 10 – 12 minutes, or until set.  Leave to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

To make the Witches Hats:
Roll the cones in a bowl of the melted chocolate to coat the outsides.  Stand on a wire rack to allow the chocolate to set.  Dip your Pebbles of Mini M&M’s into the remaining melted chocolate and adhere to the chocolate cones.
In the centre of each cookie, place the candy you want to hide inside the hat. 
Dip the rim of an ice cream cone in the melted chocolate and put it onto one of the cookies, repeat the process.
As a finishing touch you could tie a thin ribbon around the ‘brim’ of each hat.