Anzac Biscuits

I feel like I had to post this recipe before the end of April, last Wednesday was Anzac Day so of course I made Anzac Biscuits. Anzac Biscuits were originally sent to Australian soldiers during World War I, due to them be egg free they didn't spoil and lasted the trip. Anzac biscuits make a great anytime cookie, it is pretty likely you have all the ingredients needed already in the pantry and they take hardly any time at all to make.

Anzac biscuit fans can be be divided into two teams, some go for hard crispy cookies while others prefer the soft chewy variety. I am happy with either way, its the oaty golden syrup flavour that I really enjoy, though this recipe makes flat chewy biscuits.

For the Anzac Biscuits (for the full recipe scroll to the end of the post)

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup pain flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
125 grams butter (chopped)
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarb soda

To make the Anzac biscuits- Line baking trays with baking paper an preheat oven to 170 degrees c.

Add the oats, flour, sugar and soda to a large bowl and mix together.

Stir the butter and golden syrup in a medium saucepan until melted.

Turn off the heat and add the bicarb soda and give it a little stir. The mixture will froth and expand, so make sure you use a big enough pan so it wont overflow.

Pour the butter and syrup mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients.

Mix until well combined.

Take tablespoons of the mixture and roll it into balls, place the balls of mixture onto the prepared pans and flatten slightly. Space the unbaked cookies about 5 cm apart on the trays as they will spread quite a bit.

Bake the Anzac biscuits for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown. Keep and eye on them toward the end they will brown quickly, I got distracted and ended up over cooking my first batch. Take the biscuits out of the oven and allow to cool completely on the baking trays.

Chewy Anzac Biscuits
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup pain flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
125 grams butter (chopped)
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarb soda

• Line baking trays with baking paper an preheat oven to 170 degrees c.
• Add the oats, flour, sugar and soda to a large bowl and mix together.
• Stir the butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan until melted. Turn off the heat and add the bicarb soda and give it a little stir, the mixture will bubble and froth.
• Pour the butter and syrup mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until all combined.
• Take tablespoons of the mixture and roll it into balls, place the balls of mixture onto the prepared pans and flatten slightly. Space the unbaked cookies about 5 cm apart as they will spread quite a bit.
• Bake the Anzac biscuits for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown. Remove biscuits from oven and allow to cool completely on the baking trays.

Lemon Lime White Chocolate Mudcake

I started this year with the best intentions, way back at the start of January I sat down with a calendar and wrote down all those 'must try one day recipes' floating around my head. I had this Lemon Lime White Chocolate Mud Cake written down for January thinking its flavours would make a yummy summer cake. I acutally made this cake a couple of weeks ago and learnt something, this is not just a summer cake its a cake I would happily anyday or everyday even.

It baked perfectly forming a nice domed shape top, with a super moist inside. The lemon and lime flavor in the cake was nice without being to strong, but the real winner is the ganache. I love white chocolate so really fell for the ganache, with the subtle coconut, lemon and lime flavours it was amazing!

For the Lemon Lime White Chocolate Mudcake 
(for full recipe scroll to end of the post)
250 grams butter
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons lime zest
180g white chocolate
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup self-raising flour
2 eggs lightly beaten

To make the Mudcake- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees c. Grease a round 20cm cake pan and line the base and sides woth baking paper, leaving a 2cm overhang at the top.

Add the butter, lemon, lime, chocolate, sugar and milk to a medium sized saucepan. Stir all the ingredients over a low heat until smooth. Transfer in a large mixing bowl and allow to cool.

Add the sifted flours and the eggs to the butter and chocolate mixture, stir until combined.

Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, until cake tests done. Allow the cake to cool in the pan.

While the cake is cooling make the coconut ganache.

Turn the cake out of the pan top side up, cover with the white chocolate coconut ganache.

For the Coconut White Chocolate Ganache
140ml can coconut cream
360 grams white chocolate
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lime zest

To make the Ganache- Finely chop the white chocolate, combine the chocolate, lemon and lime  in a medium bowl.

Pour the coconut cream into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until smooth.

Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for about half an hour. Stir the mixture occasionally until spreadable.
Spread over the cooled cake.

Enjoy!

Lemon Lime White Chocolate Mudcake 
(based on recipe from Womens Weekly, Cakes Biscuits and Slices)
250 grams butter
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons lime zest
180g white chocolate
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup self-raisin flour
2 eggs lightly beaten

To make the Mudcake

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees c. Grease a round 20cm cake pan and line the base and sides woth baking paper, leaving a 2cm overhang at the top.
• Add the butter, lemon, lime, chocolate, sugar and milk to a medium sized saucepan. Stir all the ingredients over a low heat until smooth. Transfer in a large mixing bowl and allow to cool.
• Add the sifted flours and the eggs to the butter and chocolate mixture, stir until combined.
• Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, until cake tests done. Allow the cake to cool in the pan.
• While the cake is cooling make the coconut ganache.
• Turn the cake out of the pan top side up, cover with the white chocolate coconut ganache.

Coconut White Chocolate Ganache
140ml can coconut cream
360 grams white chocolate
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lime zest

To make the Ganache

• Finely chop the white chocolate, combine the chocolate, lemon and lime  in a medium bowl.
• Pour the coconut cream into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until smooth.
• Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for about half an hour. Stir the mixture occasionally until spreadable.

Pastel Hydrangea Cake

A little bit of pretty to end the week! This cake was a request for a 60th Birthday, I was told the brithday girl loves all things vintage, especially in the colour blue. The theme was a great chance to use the hydrangea flower cutters I bought recently. Hydrangeas are some of my favorite flowers and they're both blue and vintagey so they fit perfectly.

Cute Easter Cakes

Happy Easter!! I hope you are all having a lovely break.

Rather than gifting people chocolate eggs and bunnies this year I made loved ones cute little cakes.
Oh no! Some sneaky bunnies have got into the carrot patch! The little critters are popping up everywhere stealing the carrots. I don't mind that the rabbits are pinching the carrots, everyone knows they swap them for chocolate. The two bunny cakes crack me up everyime I look at them. The little bunnies with their butts in the air made me giggle a lot as I put these cakes together .I do have tutorials for each of these cakes but I think I will save them for next year, I am sure you've all been baking, dipping, painting and decorating all weekend and today just want to sit down and eat chocolate. When you are ready to get back into the kitchen you might want to try out this recipe though. With two of the three cakes having cute little carrots on them I thought it would only be fitting to make yummy carrot cake for the centers. The recipe is one of my Mum's old favorites with a few of my own little tweaks. My Mum's version of carrot cake includes sultanas, but they are yucky so I left them out and added some pistachios and extra spices.For the Carrot Cake

185 grams butter (softened)

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

3 eggs

2 cups grated carrot (about 2 large carrots)

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup copped pistachios

3/4 cup self raising flour

3/4 cup plain flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

I doubled this recipe to make two six inch cakes and one 8 inch round cake.

To make the cake- preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and flour cake pans.

With an electric mixer beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add one egg at a time beating well after each addition, the mixture will lighten an increase in volume.Stir in the grated carrot and nuts.

Sift in the remaining flours and spices, stir until combined.Spoon the cake mixture into prepared pans and smooth over tops with a spatula. Bake the cakes for about one hour or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Remove the cakes form the oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.Frost the cake with your favorite orange cream cheese or buttercream frosting.

Hatching Egg Easter Cupcakes

I have always loved Easter! What's not to like? There are cute cuddly baby animals all over the place, pretty pastel colours and its a great excuse to eat silly amounts of chocolate. While its Autumn here in Australia the days definitely have a Spring feel, the end of Summer rains have made everything happy and green and the cooler days make me want to spend all my time outdoors. When I was little Mum would always spend the few days before Easter out in the gardens making sure the yard was perfect for our egg hunt on Sunday morning. My brother and I would spend Saturday night decorating our baskets with crepe paper, ribbons and fuzzy yellow chicks ready to fill with our chocolate egg loot. The fuzzy yellow chickens from my childhood have remained one of my favorite Easter decorations, I knew I had to use them to cutesy up some yummy cupcakes.

I don't really know what to say about these cupcakes, except that after I placed on the egg and chick toppers I stood back and laughed. They are just so ridiculously cute! And easy!! all you need are some hollow chocolate eggs and some baby chicks to make these adorable hatching cupcakes.

After debating about what kind of cupcake I'd like to make I went with the obvious choice. Chocolate cupcakes for the one day when there is no such thing as too much chocolate. I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe and teamed it with a pastel purple fluffy vanilla frosting, both are quick and simple and all the ingredients are usual pantry items.

For the Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 14)

1 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup Dark Cocoa Powder

3/4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup boiling water

10 medium hollow medium chocolate eggs

10 fuzzy chicks

fondant flowers

To make the cupcakes- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c. Line cupcake pans with cupcake papers.

In a large bowl add sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, whisk together. Add the eggs, milk, oil and the vanilla to the dry ingredients.

Beat the wet and dry ingredients together on medium speed for two minutes.

Mix in the boiling water on low speed until smooth. The mixture will be pretty thin.

Evenly divide the cake mixture between the prepared cupcake pans.

Bake the cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes, until they spring back when poked in the center. Place cupcakes on wire racks to cool.

To make the egg toppers- Unwrap 10 eggs, leave 4 of the eggs whole.

Using a hot knife cut zigzag holes in the top of 4 of the eggs, place a little chick inside each with its head poking out. Break the last 2 eggs into large and small pieces.

For the frosting-

125 grams unsalted butter (softened)

500 grams icing sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

purple colouring

To make the frosting- beat the butter on medium speed until very pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the icing sugar, milk, vanilla, salt and a couple of dots of colouring, beat on low until all the ingredients are incorporated. Increase the mixing speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes until the buttercream is smooth and fluffy.

Fit a piping bag with a large star tip and spoon in the buttercream. Pipe a swirl of frosting onto each of the cupcakes.

Stand the whole eggs and the chick filled eggs onto the tops of the cupcakes. Top the remaining cupcakes with a fuzzy chicken and press some broken egg pieces around the base. Add a few broken pieces around the bottoms of the hatching eggs also. Decorate each little cake with some fondant flowers.

Hot Cross Bun Cookies

I have been thinking about making some more hot cross buns but had a hard time coming up with a flavour I'd enjoy more than the Raspberry White Choc-Chip Hot Cross Buns from last year. Rather than making the same buns again I decided to take the idea in a different direction, Hot Cross Cookies. Studded with currants and full of yummy spices these cookies take the best parts of hot cross buns and turn them into a cute little treat you can dunk in your tea.

For the Cookies (makes 12)

65 grams butter (softened)

1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg

1/4 cup dried currants

1 cup self raising flour (sifted)

1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon milk

3 tablespoons Jam (I used mixed fruit because it was all I had)

To make the Cookies- Line cookie tray with baking paper and preheat oven to 160 degrees c.

Add the butter, sugar and egg together in a mixing bowl, beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

With a spoon or spatula stir in half of the currants, flour, spices and milk.

Mix in the second half of the dry ingredients and milk until well combined.

Scoop heaped teaspoons of cookie dough and roll into balls. Place the unbaked cookies on the prepared tray about two inches apart. Do not flatten.

Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes. While the cookies are baking place the jam in a small saucepan and warm until thin and smooth.

After removing the cookies from the oven brush with jam and allow to cool on the tray. While the cookies are cooling making the frosting for the crosses.

For the Frosting

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon of water

To make the frosting- mix the icing sugar, cinnamon and water in a small bowl until smooth.

Fill a squeezy bottle or fine tipped piping bag with the cinnamon frosting, pipe a cross on top of each cookie and allow to set.