Recipe : Lemon Meringue Cup Cakes

I know I said that this week's posts were going to be all about the things I got up to during the last two weeks, but I simply HAD to show you this:


What is it? Well it's the afternoon tea I made for our Mother's Group get together this afternoon (I know... I really out did myself!)

For a while now I have been thinking about what type of cake to make Little Snicker for his first birthday. While there is still another 6 months until the actual event, I know that it will roll around quicker than anticipated - especially with Christmas thrown in there - so I want to make sure I am prepared.

Since I don't want to start out too big and I don't want to have a 'theme' for his birthday that he might want later in life, I have decided that I will bake cupcakes and pop them onto one of the many cup cake stands I have (seriously, one person should not own so many cupcake stands!).

It stands to reason that once deciding I would be baking cupcakes for his birthday, that I would want to make sure that one of the stands I have will actually hold the kind of cupcakes I want. Our Mother's Group get together provided the perfect opportunity for a trial run.

I had been eying off a recipe for Lemon Meringue Cupcakes for quite some time, so I decided it was time to give it a whirl. You can get the recipe here:

Hmmm.... check out the middle of this baby:


I was really pleased with the end result! The cake was not too dry and the lemon curd oozed out when it broke apart. Of course, it had to be served with a large spoonful of double cream!

Since I didn't know whether Lemon Meringue would be liked by all the ladies in the Mother's Group, I also decided to make some mini 'no bake chocolate patty pans' (which is essentially individual serves of Mars Bar slice):


Overall the afternoon tea was a success, but I was left with a couple of cupcakes at the end. I guess they'll be going in the bin....lol.... yeah, right!

Recipe: Dairy and Gluten Free Apple Crumble

Last week I was in need of a treat and since I don't eat dairy (because it doesn't agree with Little Snicker when the cow's milk protein reaches him via my milk) and I try not to eat gluten (because it 'binds' me up) I was a little stuck.

I took a look in the cupboard and found that I had an abundance of apples. So I decided to make my own dairy and gluten free apple crumble.


Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

10 apples (I used medium sized apples) stewed.
1/2 a cup of sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup of gluten free flour
3/4 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cup of gluten free oats
3/4 cup of coconut
2/3 cup of dairy free butter (I used Nuttelex)
A dash of vanilla essence

Method:

1. Place stewed apples into the bottom of a suitable dish.
2. Combine gluten free flour, brown sugar, gluten free rolled oats, coconut and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix.
3. Melt dairy free butter and add vanilla essence. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix well using a fork until it has a crumbly texture.
4. Spread crumble over the top of the stewed apple.
5. Bake the crumble at 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 30-40minutes, or until the topping is slightly browned.

While Matty got to enjoy his with cream, I had to miss out. The crumble was still pretty sensational though, and Matty said it tasted damn good for being dairy and gluten free!

Recipe : Dairy Free Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

Unfortunately Little Snicker displays reflux symptoms when ever I eat dairy (I breast feed). I was hoping that he would grow out of it by about 4 months, but last nights 'spew fest' confirmed that it's still a problem.

This morning I woke up feeling like something chocolatey, so I decided to make a dairy free chocolate self saucing pudding.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients (apparently it serves 6.. I'd say it serves 4 at a push lol)

For the Batter:

• 2 tspns of melted butter substitute (ie. Nuttelex), for greasing
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of self-raising flour
• 1 tbs of cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup of rice milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tbs of butter substitute, melted and cooled

For the sauce:

• 2/3 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 1/4 cups of boiling water

Method:

Preheat your oven to 170°C (fan forced).

Melt the 2 teaspoons of butter substitute and pour into the base of a oven proof dish measuring approximately 25cms wide and 10cms high. Use baking paper to grease the sides of the pan.


Place the brown sugar in a medium mixing bowl and add the sifted flour and cocoa powder. Stir to combine:

In a separate jug whisk together the rice milk, egg and butter substitute in a bowl and combine.

Add this mixture to the dry ingredients


and use a wooden spoon to mix until a smooth batter forms.


Pour the batter into the greased dish and use the back of a spoon to smooth the surface to help the pudding to rise evenly.

Next, make the sauce by combining the brown sugar and sifted cocoa powder in a bowl.

Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the chocolate batter in the dish.


Finally, pour the boiling water evenly over the brown sugar and cocoa powder mixture before baking in the oven for 45 minutes or until cooked (you can check this by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean the pudding is cooked). Once the pudding is cooked, remove it from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes so that the sauce thickens.

Your pudding is then ready to eat! Yum Yum. If only we could put cream on it!

Making Easter Eggs (and Butter Creme Recipe)!

Well as the title of this post suggests, I have been trying my hand at making Easter Eggs. In theory they shouldn't be hard to do, it is just finding the easiest way to make them that appears to be the challenge!

I picked up a mould when I was in Spotlight the other day that would enable me to make 4 small easter eggs at the same time. My plan is to fill the eggs with the butter cream recipe I have included at the end of the post.

As per usual, I did a fair bit of research before attempting to make the eggs and believed that the easiest way to do it would be similar to the suggestion on the taste.com.au website. Turns out I was wrong.

The method above said to grease your easter egg moulds, then put the melted chocolate into the mould and spread it with the back of a teaspoon. There were three problems with this method:

1. The greasing of the mould resulted in the chocolate sliding down the side of the mould, so they were only half full (I had to set the chocolate and then apply another layer where there was no chocolate so that I could get a full egg).
2. The eggs came out with a 'pitted' look (see the photo below).
3. The chocolate was waaay too thick as there was no control using the back of a teaspoon.
   

Here is a picture of the first lot of eggs I made (see how they aren't really smooth):

I decided that I would just make up my own way of making them since the web had failed me in this instance. I remembered back to when mum and I had made chocolates when I was younger. We had always painted the moulds with a paintbrush. So that is exactly what I did.

Here is a picture of how they turned out using that method (much better, hey):

Next I need to make up the butter creme recipe and and yes, that does say 1 kilogram of icing sugar lol... it's Easter people - the calories don't count!

Butter Creme Recipe:

Ingredients:

225gms of cream cheese, softened
120gms of butter, softened
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 kg of icing sugar

Method:

1. Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla togetheruntil well combined. Add icing sugar and mix in well.
2. Place the mixture into pre-made chocolate egg shells being careful not to overfill. Place in refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours.
3. Once set, join two easter egg halves together by painting melted chocolate around the edge of the two halves and pressing together carefully.

Now I just need to make around 30 eggs but I am not going to do that until closer to Easter. I guess that just means I will have to eat these 'trial' ones! I'll be sure to post a picture of all the eggs once they are done.

Recipe : Golden Oat Cookies

This morning I bounded out of bed at 6am, fed the little man and then got stuck into some baking.

I was originally going to bake some lactation cookies to help my milk supply, but with 500gms of butter, a tin of condensed milk and a packet of chocolate chips in the list of ingredients, I thought my bum might thank me if I made something else!

So I got out my most trusty recipe for Golden Oat Cookies (which I believe is just a fancy rip off name for Anzac biscuits lol).

Anyway, here is the recipe. It is so quick and easy and pretty cheap too:

Ingredients:
1 cup of Self Raising Flour
1 cup of oats
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of Bicarb Soda
100gms of Flora Light Margarine
5 tablespoons of golden syrup

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to160 degrees Celsius
   
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl
3. Melt margarine, mix together with Golden Syrup and then add to dry ingredients. Combine well.
4. Spray a baking tray with cooking spray or line with baking paper. Roll about 1 teaspoon of mixture into a ball and place on tray. Flatten dough with the back of a fork.
5. Place trays in the oven and bake until golden brown.

Here is a picture of the ones I baked this morning:

I'm hoping they'll last until afternoon tea time but I don't like my chances!

Recipe : Yo Yo's

Tomorrow I am having afternoon tea with two of my very good friends - I can't wait! Of course, this meant that I needed to bake a treat to take along with me so I decided on yo-yo's for the simple fact that they are easy to make and taste great!

Now, I am still on the hunt for the 'perfect' yo-yo recipe (if you think you have one, please let me know!) but so far this one has become a favourite at our Thursday craft night. Here is the recipe below:

You will need:
3/4 cups (190gms) butter
1/3 cup of icing sugar
1 cup of custard powder
1 cup of plain flour
1/2 tspn vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Cream the butter and icing sugar together.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to beat until the mixture turns from crumbs into more of a thick batter.
4. Roll pieces of the mixture into balls, place on a tray lined with baking paper and flatten with a fork.
5. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until lightly golden.
6. Once cooled, join two biscuits together with icing (I like to put a dash of lemon in my icing too!)

Tip: Did you know that you can freeze left over icing? This is great if, like me, you have trouble getting the consistency of your icing right and end up with too much. Just place the icing in an air tight container and freeze until you need it again. It doesn't take too long to thaw out either.

Here is a picture of my biscuits all ready for afternoon tea tomorrow!

Yum! I just need to try not to eat too many now!

Recipe : Cheat's Rocky Road Recipe

Let me share with you this recipe for the easiest rocky road you will ever make. The whole thing can be made in less than 10 minutes and it tastes YUM!

You will need:
3 or 4 packets of your favourite lollies (In this version I have used lolly banana's, fruit sticks, mini marshmallows and turkish delight) 750gms of milk chocolate

Method:
Break the milk chocolate into squares and place in a heatproof bowl over a water bath to melt. Make sure you remember to stir it regularly while completing the remaining steps, to ensure the chocolate doesn't burn.

Line a 18cm x 27cm (or similar sized) slice tray with baking paper. Chop your lollies up into smallish pieces and place half of the lollies in the bottom of the tray. It will look like you have WAY too many lollies, but just remember, you can NEVER have too many lollies!


Once the chocolate is melted, pour half of it into the tray with the lollies and give it a little stir around, then place your remaining lollies on top:

Top the tray up with the remaining chocolate and poke around a little with a wooden spoon until all of the lollies are covered in chocolate:

Place in the refrigerator and allow to set. Once set you will need to cut into bite sized pieces. If the pieces are too big it becomes too hard to eat, so make sure they are of a manageable size.

Hmmmm chocolatey goodness!

Christmas Baking - Part 2

Last Sunday I started my Christmas Baking as our Thursday night craft group decided they wanted to decorate gingerbread people as something to do for a bit of fun.

To get started, we firstly made up more royal icing than 5 people could ever hope to get through, using the recipe below:

Royal Icing

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
2 tspns of lemon juice
3 cups of icing sugar

Method:
Beat the egg whites and lemon until soft peaks form. Stir in icing sugar until combined well.

Easy peasy! You must remember, however to keep the icing covered or else it will spoil. We just laid a piece of gladwrap over the top of the icing (so the icing and the gladwrap were touching) to stop it from drying out.

I must say, that decorating the gingerbread was a LOT of fun and somehow between all of the coffee drunk and the giggles had, we actually managed to accomplish a fair amount.

Here is a picture of the gingerbread people Amber and Claire decorated:

And the ones decorated by Jess (check out the one clearly on drugs in the bottom row!):


And Kelly's lovely little creations (she was the winner of the 'best try' badge, although we thought she did a lovely job!):


And finally, the ones I did. Although they don't have any eyes yet because I didn't want their eyes to be out of proportion to their body and I was too lazy to mix up some brown icing. That's a job for tomorrow!:


By the time we finished, we had managed to cover the entire trestle table. Here is a picture of them all together, drying:


I have a feeling that this may become a yearly craft activity as everyone really got into the spirit of things and enjoyed themselves.

I am off to put together the gingerbread houses now, but something tells me it isn't going to be nearly as fun doing it by myself!

Christmas Baking - Part 1

I would have to say that the time of the year I find the most enjoyable is when the Christmas baking begins!

This year I started a little bit earlier than usual for a couple of reasons:

1. I actually had the energy to do it
2. It was cooler on the weekend than I expect it to be for the next couple of weekends
3. Our Thursday night craft group have plans of doing a 'communal' craft and decorating gingerbread people for the night this week.
   

I managed to bake a grand total of 60 gingerbread people, 25 gingerbread stars, 7 mini gingerbread houses and a plain cookie santa sleigh which will be 'pulled' by 9 biscuit reindeers. Not a bad effort if I may say so myself, but I did have to have a nap in the middle of baking it all! Here is a picture of the pile of biscuits:


The recipe I used will definitely be going into the Christmas Traditions Book (which I am going to be working on this week also). Here is a copy of the recipe I used:

Gingerbread

Ingredients
125gm of butter
100gm of brown sugar
1/2 cup of golden syrup
1 egg, separated
2 1/2 cups of plain flour
1 tbs of ground ginger

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and cover trays with baking paper.
2. Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy.
   
3. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined.
   
4. Stir in the flour and ginger.
   
5. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with gladwrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
6. Once rested, place the dough onto a sheet of baking paper and roll out until approximately 4mm thick. Cut out gingerbread people using a cutter and place on trays roughly 3cm apart.
7. Bake in the oven for 7 minutes or until brown (watch carefully as they burn VERY easily). Remove from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.
   

The recipe is particularly good as it does not produce a 'strong' gingerbread flavour so it is perfect for the kids!

I will post a photo later in the week of the iced gingerbread people!

Recipe : Honey Joys

Along with my other creative talents, I also bake. I actually bake quite a lot when I have ingredients on hand. I like the idea of Matty and I having nice, fresh, healthy and cheap snacks brought from home, rather than us spending money on processed junk from the work cafeteria.

Last night I had the urge to bake, but I also had a bit of a problem on my hands - I had no milk or eggs (which are two of the ingredients I would class as 'baking staples').

After a bit of a hunt through the pantry I found that I had about 1/2 a cup of SR flour, 1/4 of a cup of plain flour, some jam, some honey, a bit of sugar, a tub and a half of butter, 1/2 a loaf of bread, a couple of weetbix and 1/2 a box of cornflakes. Not really inspiring ingredients, but I was determined to make something out of what we had. *Note to self: You REALLY need to do some grocery shopping!*

First I considered making up a damper, but I've been having such horrific reflux after eating bread that I decided against that. Instead, I realised I had the ingredients for an infamous classic - the honey joy (or 'cornflake jewels' which is what Matty calls them).

While I did get a recipe from off the web, I altered it a little bit and came up with the following:

Ingredients:
2 tsbspn honey
1/3 cup sugar
90gms butter
4 cups cornflakes

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees
2. Place cornflakes into a large bowl
3. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the honey and sugar and stir continuously until sugar is dissolved (the mixture will start to boil and will go kind of 'fluffy')
4. Remove from mixture from the heat and pour immediately into the cornflakes. Combine well
5. Spoon mixture into patty pans and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Mmmmmmm.... sugary, honey goodness!