butter hearts sugar

Heart Locket Cookies

2012-02-13T18:16:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day!!

Wishing you all and your sweeties (of the non cake and cookie variety) a lovely day.

Itty Bitty Bites

2012-02-09T05:51:00.000-08:00

I'd love to spend more time exploring some of the great little cafes that seem to be popping up all over Brisbane. For each one of those that has probably been around forever (I've just never noticed) there are two new cute little spots overloaded with delicious treats ready for the tasting . My problem is I always seem to notice fun looking places to try while in the middle of something else, I always say to myself I'll go there one day but mostly I forget. Lucky for me I can live vicariously through others.

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about a great new blog a friend has started, Itty Bitty Bites Brisbane. If you are visiting Brisbane or live here and are a 'one day' person like me check it out for great revues and beautiful photographs of local cafes. With the mini critics aged from almost one to five and a half there are some great places for children too, maybe if my dining companions were as cute I'd go out for cake and coffee more often.

Photos from Itty Bitty Bites

Valentines Ideas Revisited

2012-02-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

Whoa it's February already, Valentines day is only 10 days away. I like valentines day well enough, but what I really like is all the cute baked goodies that show up at this time of year. I'm a huge fan of pink and red together, which seems to be no-no any other time. With Valentines day so close I though I'd re-share some older ideas.

Heart Inside Valentines Cake

Valentines Cupcakes

Valentines Heart Cookies

Sanding Sugar Heart Cookies

Hot Air Balloon Cake and Cookies

2012-02-01T17:36:00.000-08:00

Happy First Birthday Loulou!!

For the balloon and basket I used my favorite chocolate cake and frosting recipe and covered it with fondant. It had been raining all week, so had a bit of trouble with the fondant and royal icing not drying properly and also getting photos but I'm happy with how it all turned out. Most importantly the birthday girl loved her chocolate cake!

Koala Cookie

2012-01-25T15:16:00.001-08:00

Happy Australia Day, have a cookie!!

Even if your not celebrating Australia Day a koala cookie will make you smile, I promise. How could anyone resist such a cute critter?

Lamington Cake

2012-01-24T23:09:00.000-08:00

The plan was I'd share this cake and say 'hey you should totally make this for your Australia Day barbecue' except it has been raining non stop since Sunday! So no barbecues but maybe you need something for your rainy movie day, a lamington inspired cake works for that too.

The cake itself is not really the kind of cake usually used to make lamingtons, but it is a really yummy alternative . I have been craving vanilla cake all week (my real reason for making this) and this cake didn't let me down, it was nice and fluffy with a strong vanilla flavour.

Just one little warning, icing the cake and covering it with coconut gets pretty messy. I had to press the coconut onto the sides to get an even coat, so glad I put paper down because coconut went everywhere!

For the Vanilla Cake

3/4 cup milk (full fat, room temp)

5 egg whites (room temp)

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

2 1/4 cups self raising flour

1/4 cup cornflour

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

170 grams butter (room temp)

To make the cake- Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans and preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

Set aside 1/2 cup of the milk.

In a medium bowl combine the remaining 1/4 cup of milk, egg whites, vanilla extract and paste and set aside.

Sift the flours, sugar and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the softened butter and the 1/4 cup of milk and mix on low to prevent flour going everywhere, as soon as the ingredients come together increase speed to medium and mix until smooth, about a minute and a half.

Add the egg and milk mixture one third at a time, beating on medium for about 20 seconds between each addition. The mixture should be smooth and fluffy.

Divide the cake mix between the two prepared pans and smooth over the tops.

Place the cakes in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes keeping an eye on them toward the end to make sure they don't over cook. Test the middle of the cake with a metal skewer, if it comes out clean the cake is ready.

Allow cakes to cool in pans for about 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely. Cool top side up.

For the Icing

2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut (approx.)

To make the icing- sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a heatproof bowl, add the melted butter and milk.

Stand the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stir until the icing is smooth and shiny. Once glossy remove from heat.

For the filling

300 mls Thickened cream

1 tablespoon icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

raspberry jam

To make the filling- Beat together cream, sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form.

Assembling the cake- Place one layer of cake flat side up onto a wire rack, place a tray or baking paper underneath to catch any drips. Spread 2/3 of the chocolate frosting over the top and sides of the cake. While the icing is still wet cover with coconut.

Place the second layer of cake on the wire rack flat side up and spread the chocolate icing around the sides only. Press on the remaining coconut while still wet.

Spread a layer of raspberry jam onto the top of the second cake layer.

Spread the whipped cream over the raspberry jam.

Gently place on the top cake layer.

(If you can resist) Place the cake in the refrigerator for a short while before cutting, giving the cream a little time to set.

Sanding Sugar Heart Cookies

2012-01-17T05:33:00.000-08:00

One of my aims this year is to better plan things in advance and be more prepared, I made myself a special baking calendar with all those dates I must remember plus a proper 'to bake' list for all the ideas I'm always forgetting. So that is why I'm sharing valentines cookies in January and not the day of or even later. This way you get a chance to try out a bunch of sweet treats and figure out which are worthy for your special someone or at least that's the story I'm sticking to.

I really love sanding sugar although I don't use it very often, probably because I enjoy how it looks sitting in the little jars on my sprinkle shelves, its so sparkly! If you dont want to spend forever decorating cookies and want a really easy quick way to pretty up some sugar cookies for Valentines day give sanding sugar a go.

Start by outlining the cookie hearts. Allow the royal icing to set hard.

Secondly flood the cookies with thinned royal icing, fill only one or two cookies at a time so they don't dry before you can add the sanding sugar.

While the cookie is still wet sprinkle over the sanding sugar. For this step I placed the cookie on a plate to catch the excess sugar and stop it ending up all over my floor. Tap off any extra sanding sugar and allow the icing to set.

Share and enjoy these shiny treats.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

2012-01-13T05:49:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of caramel slice, so lucky for me this was a request for someone else. Not one to say no to sweets, even I'd feel bad having to eat all this slice by myself .

I'm sure everyone knows chocolate caramel slice, it's one of those tradition recipes that most people have tried, well everyone except me. I have a vague recollection of attempting to make it when I was very young and everything going wrong. Thinking back on a younger me it was probably because I was super impatient.

This time the slice turned out beautifully, the base was nice and crumbly and the caramel was deliciously gooey but still kept its shape. The thin layer of chocolate over the top finished it off perfectly and calm collected present me finally won against the caramel slice.I think maybe next time i'll include some salt flakes somewhere for a salted caramel slice or perhaps a double thick layer of caramel to make it even more awesome.

For the Base

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

125 grams butter (melted)

For the Caramel

60 grams butter

395 gram can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons golden syrup

For the Topping

185 gram block dark eating chocolate

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

To make the base- preheat your oven to 180 degrees c. and line a 20 x 30cm tray with baking paper, making sure to cover the sides.

Add the flour, brown sugar, coconut into a medium bowl, pour in the melted butter and mix together.

Press the base mixture into the prepared pan and flatten firmly with a spatula. Bake the base for around 15 minutes, until it is lightly golden. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

While the base is baking prepare the filling.

To make the Caramel filling- add the condensed milk, butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan.

Stir over a low heat until the caramel is smooth and thickened. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.

To make the slice- Pour the cooled caramel over the base and return to the oven for around 15 minutes until the caramel has turned golden brown. Allow the slice to cool completely before spreading over the chocolate topping.

To make the chocolate topping- Break the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl, heat for 30 seconds at a time until chocolate is melted and smooth, stir in the vegetable oil.

Pour the chocolate mixture over the caramel and smooth out. Place the slice in the fridge and chill for about 30 minutes until set. Cut into squares with a dry warm knife.

Enjoy!!

Ginger Macadamia Shortbread

2012-01-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

My first post of 2012, happy first week of the new year! Before I kick things off for January there's just one last recipe to share from my Christmas baking, Ginger Macadamia Shortbread. I don't feel too bad about posting it late, its not like it screams Christmas (not that I'm saying that you cant eat cute reindeer cookies or cupcakes any time of year.)

I finally got to use the crystallized ginger that I got during a visit to the ginger factory last year. You can find crystallized ginger at the grocery store, but you don't get to hug giant gingerbread men while shopping.

I made this shortbread to give away as gifts, but somehow I managed to eat about half of it myself. Don't judge. The addition of the ginger and macadamia nuts made it oh so tasty. Although not all off it made it through, it was a great addition to my baked giftbags being so quick and simple to make.

For the Shortbread

100 grams macadamias

125 grams crystallized ginger

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup rice flour

1 tablespoon caster sugar extra

icing sugar for dusting

To make the shortbread- preaheat oven to 150 degrees c. and line at baking tray with baking paper. Spread the macadamia nuts over the tray and bake for 5-10 minutes until fragrant and lighty golden.

Cut the ginger and macadmia nuts into small pieces.

Beat the butter and sugar togerter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy

Add the flours, using a small knife cut the flour into the creamed butter and sugar.

Stir in the nuts and ginger.

Scoop the dough up and place on the sheet of baking paper. I used my flutted tart tin as a mold to get the perfect shape and egdes. Alternatively, press the dough out into a 20 cm circle and pinch around the edges.

Prick the dough all over with a fork and score into wedges using a knife. Sprinkle over the extra caster sugar and bake for about 35 minutes until firm and lightly golden.

Allow the shortbread to cool on the tray before cutting into wedges. To finish dust with some icing sugar.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-30T17:54:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!! I know I said I was taking a baking break but I just couldn't help myself. The lure of glitter was just too strong so I made some sparkly cookies.

My New Years Eve plans are currently a vague idea including some pina coladas and firework watching. Oh and these cookies, sounds perfect right!
I hope you all enjoy your New Years plans whatever they may be and I look forward to spending the new year with you. I can promise you tonnes of new cookies, cupcakes, cakes and sweets enough to make Honeydukes proud.

Christmas All Wrapped Up

2011-12-28T21:27:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to check in and say heya. Heya!!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday. I had a wonderful time with friends and family and of course enough food to make anyone not want to eat for another month. Miss kitty didn't miss out, Santa left her some sweet gifts and she loved playing with all the ribbons.

After a busy December of baking I'm having a little break this week, but here is a little summary of this years Christmas sweets and treats.

Mini Christmas Cookies

Gingerbread House Part One and Part Two
Letters to Santa Cookies
Mint Chocolate Rocky Road

DIY Gingerbread House Gift Boxes

Raspberry White Chocolate Rocky Road

Mini Christmas Cookies

2011-12-19T05:48:00.000-08:00

Have you written your letter to Santa yet? If yes, high fives! If no, what are you waiting for Christmas is less than a week away! If your Letter to Santa is running very late, maybe sending it in cookie form will sweeten the deal, because we all know Santa loves his cookies!

Maybe some cute mini cookies thrown in could help too.
I wish I had some better pictures of these tiny cookies because I'm so very happy with them. It might have something to do with the teensy size or perhaps the glitter but they are my favorite cookies yet.

I made more than 100 of these bite sized cookies to package up for Christmas gifts, I ended up with a blister from my squeezy bottles.

Have a lovely pre-Christmas week!

Gingerbread House (Part 2- Decorating and Building)

2011-12-15T15:13:00.000-08:00

Ok so here it is part two of the gingerbread house post, a quick how-to on being a builder.

For the Royal Icing

1 kg icing sugar

5 tablespoons meringue powder

1/2 cup water (approximately)

To make the Royal Icing- Beat the icing sugar, meringue powder and water with an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix for about 7 minutes on low speed until the icing is smooth. If the icing is a bit too thick add a little more water one teaspoon at a time. If it is too thin add a bit more icing sugar one tablespoon at a time, beat again until smooth.

I spent weeks looking for different kinds of candy to decorate my gingerbread house, but ended up not using any of it. Instead of covering my house with candy like I intended I kept things simple and pretty in pink, using only royal icing, pink candy canes and some sprinkles.
To pipe on the details onto the walls of the house I used a fine tipped squeezy bottle filled with royal icing. For the larger details on the roof I used a squeezy bottle but trimmed the end to give a larger opening.I added a bit of extra sparkle to the snow details on the roof, chimney and above the windows, sprinkling on white sugar while the royal icing was still wet.
To build the gingerbread house- Firstly find something big enough to build it on, I used my big white cake stand and it only just fit.

Starting with one of the wall pieces, pipe a line of royal icing along one edge and along the bottom of the gingerbread. Position the wall on the base. Use something square like a cake tin to hold it up while you prepare the next piece.

Pipe a line of icing along the bottom of the back wall piece of the house and adhere to the pre-iced edge of the side wall. Allow to set.

Attach the second side wall with a line of icing along the bottom and on the connecting edge and leave set. Once set pipe royal icing along the front edges of both of the walls and a line along the base where the front of the house will sit.
Press on the front of the house and allow the royal icing to set hard before attaching the roof.
Pipe royal icing along the top edge of one of the walls and the edges of the roof.
Press on one half of the roof and hold until stable, it wont take too long.
Repeat with the icing and the other side of the roof. Allow all of the royal icing to set.
Pipe a decorative line along each edge to hide the joins in the gingerbread. Lastly glue the chimney to the roof with a little more royal icing.
There were trees and people to go with the house, but it turned out a whole lot bigger than I imagined and they wouldn't fit and got eating in the process.

All eaten! Um nom nom.

Gingerbread House (Part One- Making and Baking)

2011-12-13T20:40:00.000-08:00

Guess what? My oven is back! Well actually it is a completely different one but it works so I'm super happy, just in time for some serious Christmas baking. I didn't waste any time testing it out with something I've been dying to make for ages, my very first gingerbread house. I love ginger bread and pretty gingerbread houses but have always been worried about building one myself. I was convinced it would fall down for sure. Turns out my house building skills aren't too bad, not only did it not collapse it looked pretty too.

Because this is a pretty large post I decided to divide it in two. This half for making the gingerbread and cutting and baking the pieces and the next post will have the decorating and the construction of the house.

The smell of the gingerbread while it was baking was so so amazing, pure Christmas!

Gingerbread House Walls Template

Gingerbread House Front and Back Template

Gingerbread House Roof Template

For the Gingerbread-

100 grams butter (chopped)

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup golden syrup

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

4 cups sifted plain flour

1 cup sifted self raising flour

2 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon bicarb (baking) soda

To make the gingerbread- add the butter, brown sugar and golden syrup into a small saucepan.

Stir over a low heat until all melted together and smooth. Once cool add sugar mixture and eggs into a large bowl.

Add the flours, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and baking soda to the wet ingredients.
Mix all together until well combined.
Give the dough a light knead and divide it into quarters. Flatten each portion of dough into a disk and wrap in cling-wrap. Chill the disks of dough in the fridge for at least one hour before rolling out. (I made my dough the night before and used it the next morning)
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c.

Roll the dough directly onto the baking paper you will bake the gingerbread pieces on. Working with one dough portion at a time roll out to 5mm thick.
Lay the template onto the rolled out dough and cut out using a large knife. Cut out two of each template, re-rolling the dough when needed.
Cut a door and a window out of the front gingerbread piece. I used a heart and rectangle cookie cutter.
Transfer the baking paper and gingerbread cutouts onto flat baking trays.
Bake the gingerbread pieces for about 12 minutes, until they are golden.
Repeat with all the pieces and allow to cool completely on cooling racks.
Come back tomorrow to see it all get put together.

Puppy Dog Cake

2011-12-12T03:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Stevie!

A Boo inspired chocolate mud cake, frosted with dark chocolate ganache and covered with fondant.

Mint-Chocolate Rocky Road

2011-12-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

Dear Girl at supermarket checkout, I just wanted to say a big fat sarcastic thanks a lot for coughing all over me the other day, that was really awesome of you, I've been sick all week!

While I haven't felt up to getting off the couch (or out of my pajamas) all week it did give me a chance to sort out all my photos and get some new posts organized.

My second rocky road experiment this year was another success, with three of the four ingredients containing mint it sure lives up to its name. If you a fan of mint and chocolate you should totally make this and eat it. Or you could gift it to someone you know who loves mint chocolate and they will probably give you a hug in return.

For the Rocky Road

150 grams mini mint slice cookies

200 grams white marshmallows

300 grams mint chip chocolate

200 grams mint leaves

To make the Rocky Road- Line a small brownie pan with non stick paper. Cut the marshmallows, mint slice and mint leaves in half.

Break the mint chip chocolate up into a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave the chocolate in short bursts until it is all melted, keep an eye on the chocolate and take care not to burn it.
Throw the mint leaves, marshmallows and mint slice cookie bits into a large bowl and give them a bit of a mix. Pour in the melted chocolate and stir until everthing is coated.
Pour the rocky road mixture into the prepared pan and smooth over with a spatula. Stick it in the fridge to set.
Once set cut the rocky road into squares and enjoy.

DIY Gingerbread House Gift Boxes

2011-12-02T21:26:00.000-08:00

You all know how much I love to bake and you know how much I love Christmas goodies, but do you know what makes me super happy? Getting to share all those sweets and treats with other people . To make the yummy gifts that bit more special I really wanted something cute to package them in. Way back in August I made some little birdhouse boxes for my Mum's birthday table, I remember thinking at the time they would make the cutest gingerbread houses.

Last year I went a bit crazy buying up a whole bunch of scrap-booking stuff I have hardly used, raiding those supplies I had everything I needed to make some cute little treat boxes.

You'll need-

Light brown card

Pink card

Blue card

Scissors

Wavy scissors

Double sided tape

Double sided sticky foam squares

Black felt tip pen

To make the treat boxes- Print out both templates (they should be A4 size) and cut out the shapes.

Gingerbread House Box Template

Gingerbread House Box Roof

(I've never tried doing PDFs before so please let me know if they don't work out)

Lay the box template on the brown card and trace around the edges.

Cut out around the outline.

Fold the box along the guidelines. Attach some double sided tape to the inside edges of the front and back of the box.

Stick the side tabs to the insides of the front and back of the box using the double sided tape.

Cut out the door and heart window and adhere to the front of the house with double sided tape. Cut out the little gingerbread man out of the excess brown card, stick him to the box using some double sided sticky foam squares.

Draw on the details on with a felt tip pen.

Lay the roof template on the pink or blue card and trace on the guidelines.

Using the line as a guide cut around the outside with your wavy scissors. Use regular straight scissors to cut out the little bits in the middle.

Fold along the fold lines and use some double sided tape to secure the roof together in the middle.

I forgot about the chimney so I'll just try to explain the best I can. Cut a 2cm by 6cm rectangle out of the left over brown card. Make a 2cm long cut in the middle of one side of the roof, push the chimney rectangle through the cut so about 2cm of it sits inside the roof. Cut up the middle of the chimney that sits inside the roof and fold in either direction. Fix inside the roof with double sided tape.

And you're done. Now make something yummy, fill up the treat box and finish with a ribbon.

Its December!!

2011-12-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

You know whats awesome about Christmas time? Pretty much everything. I love the baking, the eating, the decorating, the shopping, I love the holiday themed coffees at Starbucks, other than the heat December is a very good month.One of my favorite December past times is grabbing a peppermint mocha and wandering the shops browsing through the decorations. I love getting all my present shopping done early, smiling at the huge crowds of people frantically looking for last minute gifts and convincing myself that I really need some more glass baubles.

December 1st has one tradition for me, putting up the Christmas tree. Ever since I was little we've always put decorations up on December 1st, the tree usually came later as we had live trees and they wouldn't last the full month. Now that I have my own little fake tree it goes up with the rest of the decorations. So I put on Brian Setzer's Christmas album poured some ice cold eggnog and set boyfriend up with some fruit mince pies. I know I'll be finding glitter on myself for the next week but seeing my tree all shiny and pretty is totally worth it. Now I get to wrap presents! Yay!

White Chocolate and Raspberry Rocky Road

2011-11-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

Armed with only a microwave and an electric frying pan I've had to have a bit of a re-think on my Christmas baking plans. Lucky for me one of favorite holiday treats needs no oven at all. Making rocky road is a bit of a christmas tradition for me and the best part is all I need is a microwave, Its that easy.
I'm not sure what exactly it is that makes a rocky road a rocky road, as far as I can tell as long as there's chocolate, marshmallows, a jelly element and a crunchy element I'm on the right track. With those rules in mind I've decided to make up a bunch of rocky road combinations based on what I think will be yummy and do a little series of posts sharing the results.

Mum and Dad always use milk chocolate, other people I know swear using dark chocolate is real way rocky road, but me I love white chocolate, most days it is my favorite by far. Wanting to make a pretty rocky road I started with white chocolate and went with pink and red sweets, not only was it pretty it was darn delicous too. I think its the crunchy buttery bites of shortbread that make this the best rocky road ever! Try it I promise you wont be disappointed.

For the Rocky Road
100 grams mini marshmallows

180 grams shorbread fingers

180 grans berries and cream lollies

360 grams white chocolate

1/4 cup coconut

To make the Rocky Road- first up get your pan ready, line a 20x30cm brownie pan with baking paper and prepare the ingredients. Chop the raspberries and cream in half and the shortbread into small pieces. Break up the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave the chocolate on medium in 30 second bursts until it is melted and smooth, be careful not to burn the chocolate.
Mix the raspberries, marshmallows, shortbread and coconut together in a medium bowl.
Pour in the delicious melted white chocolate.
Mix all of the yumminess together.
Tip the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth out with a spatula. Cover and pop it into the fridge until it is set.

Chop the rocky road into pieces and try not to eat it all at once.

Itty Bitty Doughnuts

2011-11-22T15:02:00.000-08:00

Lets talk about how crazy I'm going not having an oven, we were waiting for a part for almost two months. On Friday I left for work excited that the repair man had got the part and would have the oven fixed while I was out. There were almost tears when I got home and not only was the oven still broken he found a problem with the cook top too. I dont know what I've done to be so unlucky this week, I also tripped on an escalator and hurt my knee pretty bad and then yesterday I squished my finger in a door. No accidents today so maybe things are looking up.
Not baking makes me sad and I needed cheering so I went out and bought a mini doughnut maker, or at least that's the excuse I'm using. It has nothing to do with me being amused by novelty kitchen appliances or because the doughnut maker makes the cutest tiny little doughnuts I have ever seen. Actually maybe those things did kind of push me towards it, plus it was only $12 how could I go wrong.

Using a recipe from the little manual that came with the doughnut maker, I made a whole bunch of yummy baby doughnuts. The the only downside is that you have to eat the doughnuts pretty soon after making them (although you may see that as a upside) I found the doughnuts tend to get a bit soggy if you leave them too long.

If you need some cheering make some baby doughnuts, cover them in Christmas sprinkles and eat them.

For the Doughnuts

2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk

To make the doughnuts- first of all preheat the doughnut maker and grease the doughnut holes with a little butter, careful not to burn yourself.

While the maker is heating prepare the batter. combine all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, add all the wet ingredients and mix until smooth.
Spoon the mixture into a piping bag, pipe about a teaspoon of batter into each doughnut hole.

Shut the doughnut maker and cook for about 3 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

Pop the doughnuts out with a fork or skewer and allow to cool, repeat with the remaining mixture. While the doughnuts are cooling make the frosting. (If you're too impatient to ice them rolling them in cinnamon sugar is just as yummy)

For the Frosting

2 cups icing sugar

1 teaspoon butter

2 tablespoons boiling water

green and pink colouring (a tiny dot at a time)

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Sprinkles

To make the Frosting- sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, stir in butter and enough water to make a smooth icing. (The consistancy should be similar to thickened cream.)

Divide the icing into 3 bowls, mix the cocoa powder into one bowl and the tiniest bit of pink and green colouring into each of the other two.

While working with icing set the bowl into a second bowl of hot water to stop it hardening. Dip the tops of the baby doughnuts into the frosting and allow the excess to dip off.

Place the coated doughnuts on a cooling rack, add some sprinkles and allow to set.

Eat them all up! Yum!

Barbie Doll Cake

2011-11-18T04:46:00.001-08:00

Barbie dolls are so much prettier now than the ones I had when I was young, I was never a big Barbie fan I was more of a Lego kid (still am) but I had a couple and they didn't look like this.
I have always wanted to make a dolly varden cake, I was so happy to be asked to make a barbie cake for a little girls fourth birthday. I'm not sure for which birthday but I remember Mum making one for me when I was little, it was just like the one in the Womans Weekly birthday cakes book, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
I went out and bought a new tin to make the skirt, I tracked down a dolly tin with a metal rod in the centre and the cake baked through perfectly. Being a fourth birthday I was asked to keep things simple, a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

I covered the entire skirt with light pink buttercream, which I allowed to dry before smoothing over with a icing smoother. To make the bodice, flowers and ruffles at the top and bottom on the skirt I used fondant. I absolutly love how it turned out and am very happy that the birthday girl loved it too.

I really wanted to share a tutorial for this cake but got so wrapped in making it and the leopard cake that I missed taking pictures of a bunch of important steps. I'm thinking maybe about making a Christmas themed one shortly, perhaps an angel, so hopefully I'll have step by step guide soon.

Pink and Leopard Print Birthday

2011-11-14T04:08:00.000-08:00

Happy 16 Birthday Phoebe!

I don't think I've ever left it so long between posts, over two weeks! I'm sorry it'll never happen again. I'm back now and have a bunch of things to share with you.

It seems my brain is having trouble putting sentences together today so mostly I'll let the pretty pretty pictures tell the story. I really wanted to do something special for boyfriend's sister for her 16th birthday, she shares my infatuation with all things pink and leopard print so the theme idea came easy.Each time I visited the shops in the last few weeks I've come home with more and more candy. I wanted everything to be pink, black and white so searched for candy to match. I ended up using pink and white marshmallows, chocolate babies, marshmallow ropes, liquorice, musks, cool mints and pink barbie chocolate coins.

Strawberry Oreos continued the pink and black theme.

The little pink pots were from Ikea and the jars were found at The Reject Shop. I made the tissue paper pompoms using instuctions from Martha Stewart.
I found the foil wrapped chocolate bars in Aldi and created new wrappers in pink and leopard print to match the theme.
I used my favourite vanilla recipe for the cupcakes, they were frosted in strawberry buttercream and covered in fondant to match the cake.

The cake itself was my favourite part of the whole table, I used my go to perfect chocolate cake with dreamy chocolate frosting and covered it with fondant. The cake and cupcakes were both hand painted with food colour gels and topped with fondant bows, I'm so happy with how they turned out. Phoebe didn't want to cut the cake because it was too pretty. It survived the party but we ate it the next day.

Happy Halloween Weekend

2011-10-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

The other day I was searching my cupboards digging out my Halloween decorations and decided I wanted to make up a little Halloween display. I had fun playing around with the bits and pieces, not for any real reason, expect maybe that it was a good excuse to buy candy corns.

Happy Hallo-weekend everyone!
If you haven't had enough Halloween baking I've included a little round-up, click on the links for how to's on each of these spooky sweets. Happy Halloween Baking!

Light-up Jack o'lantern Cookies

Poison (Candy) Apples
Doughnut Cookies

And one from last year Bride of Frankenstein Cookies

Have a great weekend!

Poison (Candy) Apples

2011-10-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

Look what I found, so excited! Those of you who read my Creme Egg Macarons post at Easter know how much I love creme eggs. I've never ever found these in Austalia before, its so awesome to get creme eggs twice a year, plus they look really cool in halloween colours and have pumpkins on them. Oh and they're slime green coloured inside! Head to Big W if you want some.

Now onto the Poison apples. I have been scared of toffee for a long time, a friend and I tried making toffees when I was little, we ended up with burnt toffee all over her kitchen and I've steered clear since. When I was asked to make toffee apples for a display a couple weeks ago I was a little worried, I finally made myself buy a candy thermometer to ease my fears and everything worked perfectly. I have made candy apples three times since, I cant get enough, I'm totally loving the whole crunchy toffee outside crispy apple inside bit.

I'm going to tell you a secret, Poison Apples are just black candy apples. I know toffee apples are pretty common at this time of year, I decided to make them a little different and more Halloweeny by colouring them black and using real sticks instead of popsticks. (My step-by-step pictures are of red candy apples).

For the Candy Apples

8 apples (this with vary depending on the apple size)

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon black liquid food colouring

A stick for each apple (washed and dried)

To make the Candy Apples- wash and dry the apples, push a stick into the top of each apple. Line two baking trays with non-stick paper.

Place the sugar and water into a heavy-based saucepan, cook over low heat, stirring until the sugar had dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved increase the heat to high and bring to a boil,

stir in the cream of tartar and the food colouring.

Reduce the heat to low and allow the toffee to simmer for about 20 minutes until it reaches hard crack stage (150 degrees c/ 300 degrees f). To test the toffee, drop a small amount into a glass of cold water, when you take it out it should not be sticky and should crack easily. Once the candy tests right remove it from the heat straight away.

Holding the pan on an angle, dip the apple into the toffee, turn the apple until it is totally coated.
Allow a little of the excess toffee to drip off and place onto the prepared trays. Continue with the rest of the apples. Allow the candy apples to set at room temperature.

They're best eaten the day they are made, Enjoy.

Light-up Jack-o-lantern Cookies

2011-10-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

I'm so happy I get to a little Halloween baking this year, I missed out while away on holidays last year. I made it up to myself by sampling all the tasty Halloween treats we came across on our travels, I still find myself day-dreaming about pumpkin cupcakes and fall harvest doughnuts. Halloween hasn't been a holiday widely celebrated in Australia, which is sad because its one of my favs. It seems things might be different this year though, the stores are full of creepy decorations and tasty themed treats and sweets.
Its very hard to find an orange pumpkin here at this time of year, unless your happy to pay ridiculous amounts for the ones the shops get in especially for Halloween. Not wanting to fork out $25 for a pumpkin I decided to make my Jack-o-lanterns out of sugar cookies instead. As kids we made stained glass cookies at Christmas, I thought the crushed candy cutouts would suit these pumpkin cookies perfectly. Barley sugars were a great colour for the pumpkin eyes and mouth and melted into a nice thin candy glass when they were baked. These cookies looked great as they were but the candle light behind made them extra awesome.

For the cookies

sugar cookie dough (I used this same recipe for the cookies and icing)

crushed see-through candy

orange and brown royal icing

black edible pen

Halloween themed sprinkles

To make the cookies- first roll out the cookie dough to around a 1/4 inch thick, cut out an even number of pumpkins and bases. I didn't have a pumpkin shaped cutter so instead I used my apple cutter and trimmed off the leaf. For the base cookie I used a fluted circle cuter.

Transfer the cookie cutouts onto a tray lined with baking powder. Using a small sharp knife cut out the pumpkin faces. Chill the cookies in the freezer for a few minutes until they are nice and firm. Preheat your oven while you wait.
Remove the cookies from the freezer. Fill the eye and mouth holes with the crushed candy and bake according to the sugar cookie recipe.
Outline and flood the pumpkins with royal icing. (Looking cute so far)
While the pumpkins are setting pipe a puddle outline on the cookie bases, set aside to dry.
Once the royal icing is completely set draw on the pumpkin details with an edible pen.
Pipe a thick line of icing in the middle of the base cookies to attatch the jack-o-lanterns.
Stand the pumpkin cookies on their bases, I used a cooling rack to keep them in place as they set. Once the icing is completely dry flood the bases with the brown royal icing and add some sprinkles.
To light up the pumpkins I used some thin black birthday candles cut in half. To get the candles to stand up press them into little balls of black fondant. Press the fondant onto the base cookies behind the pumpkins, not to close though or you'll end up with burnt cookies.

Light the candles and admire the glowing pretty pumpkins.

Red Riding Hood Cake

2011-10-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

I was almost jumpimg up and down excited when I recieved an email from Enchanted Empire a few weeks ago, asking if I could make a wedding cake and a few other goodies for a display at the Queensland Bridal Expo. I was very happy to be involved, even more so when I found out the theme, Red Riding Hood. It was lovely meeting Brooke and Shae from Enchanted Empire, after discussing the concept for the display and their ideas for the cake, I couldn't wait to help bring their vision to life. Head over to the Enchanted Empire blog to take a look at their amazing work and read all about the Expo experience.
I also made some macarons to match the theme colours and some shinny red candy apples. I managed to find the cutest miniture apples to use for rustic toffee apples and in the decorations on the cake.

I had so much fun styling this cake, with so many great bits and pieces to work with there was definitely no lack of inspiration. The Enchanted Empire girls had found a whole bunch of goodies to decorate with, I loved the colours of the dried flowers and maple leaves and the cinnamon sticks made my whole kitchen smell yummy.

This was my first time working with flowers, I am no florist (althought I've often thought it would be a fun job) but I had a great time with this and was really pleased with how it turned out. My bench and floor were so covered with twigs and leaves by the time I was done, no matter how much I clean I'm sure bits will keep turning up for a good while.
I really love the Red and Wolf cameos the girls added to the cake, how awesome do they look.
There were times this cake and I were not on friendly terms, particularly when trying to cover the tall layer with fondant, it took a number of attempts but I so happy when I finally got it. By the time I had finished decorating the cake I had fallen in love, I had a tough time giving it up.
Thanks again to Brooke and Shae from Enchanted Empire for letting me be involved and for using their amazing photos.

Malteser Cupcakes

2011-10-12T23:31:00.000-07:00

After a scary scary trip to the dentist a few weeks ago I spent the next few days eating only custard and drinking malt smoothies. Malt is something I usually only have in the occasional milkshake, so I was excited to have a whole tin with lots left over for some baking . As soon as I was able to eat normally again I put my malt powder to good use in some Maltester themed cupcakes (breaking my oven in the process).

I was pretty happy with how these cupcakes turned out, between the malt powder and the crushed maltesers in the mix they had the prefect level of malty goodness. For the cupcakes themselves I slightly modified my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe and toped them with a two tone swirl of chocolate and malt buttercreams.

For The Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup malt powder

180 grams softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup caster sugar

4 eggs

4 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup Maltesers (crushed)

To make the cupcakes- Preheat oven to 180°c, line cupcake trays with papers.

Sift flour and malt into a mixing bowl, add the butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, and milk.

Beat all the ingredients on low until combined, increase the speed to medium and beat until the mixture is pale (it will be pretty yellow from the malt). Gently fold in the crushed Maltesers.

Divide the mixture between the cupcake pans, filling each two thirds full. Bake for about 20 minutes until the cupcakes spring back when poked.

Leave the cakes in the pan for 5 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Wait untill the cupcakes are completely cool before icing.

For The Buttercream

100g butter (softened)
2 ½ cups icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup malt powder

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Crushed Maltesers

To make the icing- In a bowl beat butter until pale. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and malt and then the vanilla and milk. The buttercream should be light and fluffy. If too thin gradually add a little more icing sugar, if too thick add a little more milk.

Spoon a quarter of the buttercream into a second bowl and mix in the cocoa powder.

Fit a piping bag with a large star shaped tip. Spoon the plain malt icing into one side of the piping bag and fill the remaining half with the chocolate buttercream.

Pipe a swirl of icing onto each of the filled cupcakes. Sprinkle with some crushed Maltesters.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

Birthday silliness

2011-10-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I'm not showing you anything new today, but don't worry it will be coming soon. I've been doing too much baking and not enough blogging. Instead of a baking post I though I would share a silly story from my weekend.

It was my birthday on Saturday so I figured I'd be able to have a nice sleep in. It was not to be, at 6am a distressed looking boyfriend woke me up with a happy birthday and told me the cat had a bit of a mishap. Both he and the cat were covered in paint.

We had joked before about getting the cat to do a painting after seeing a book about kitties that paint, boyfriend thought it would make a fun birthday present. Boyfriend got some kitty safe paint and set out paper but our little cat had decided she wanted to lay in the paint instead of just making footprints.

It was the funniest birthday morning ever, I have a cute painting, a front step covered in colored pawprints and a cat with spots of red and yellow being as spazzy as always.

New recipes coming soon.

Cupcake Cake Toppers

2011-09-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

Not having an oven is making me sad. To cheer myself up I decided to do some making instead of baking and did up a little tutorial for some fondant cupcake toppers. I first made these little toppers for a set of cupcakes last month and fell in love, they are so super cute. As a last post for my September theme sweets made from sweets, I'm sharing a step by step guide on how to make these adorable little fondant cupcakes and a 2D version as well.

For the Cupcake Toppers

Ready made fondant

Colouring gels (I used brown, pink, blue, red, and skin tone)

Icing sugar for dusting

To make the 3D cupcakes-Shape the tops of the cupcakes. I used 1 teaspoon measuring spoon, it was the perfect size and shape. Brush the spoon with a little icing sugar before pressing in the the fondant to stop it sticking.
To make the icing on top of the cupcakes roll out a little coloured fondant to about 4mm thick. Using a 1cm blossom cutter cut out small flowers as you need them. Lightly roll the flower to flatten. Brush the cupcake top with a little water and press on the flower.

Brush the the flower with a tiny bit of water and cover with some sprinkles. Roll a little ball of red fondant and press onto the top for the cherry.

To make the cupcake bottoms, roll the fondant into a short cylinder. Pat down either end with flat spatula or smoother to make the top and bottom. Make the cupcake bases the same size as the cupcake tops.

Brush the base of the cupcake tops with a little water, press gently onto the cupcake bottoms. To finish of the cupcakes, press in the lines on the cupcake cases.
To make the 2D cupcakes-Roll out the each of the colours to about 4mm thick.

Cut out the cupcake shape from the main colour using a small cookie cutter.

Cut a small flower in the colour of the cupcake icing.

Using the bottom half of the cupcake cutter, cut out the cupcake bases from the brown fondant. Trim off the tops to form the cupcake case.

Cut a little red cherry with a tiny circle cutter.
Using the cupcake cookie cutter trim the flower to the same shape as the top to form the icing.

Brush the back of the cupcake bottom with a little water and press onto the whole cupcake.
Use a little water to attach the icing to the top of the cupcake, brush the icing with a bit more water and add the sprinkles.
To finish the cupcake attach the cherry with a light brush of water and draw in the cupcake paper lines.
I hope you love these as much as I do.

Icecream Cone Cupcake Stack

2011-09-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

My oven is broken! I know, terrible right. It is pretty sad, but having no hot water for the two days before the gas man could come and take a look at the oven were way worse. The good news, the gas hot water is back on so no more cold showers plus I can still use the cook top. The bad news, my oven is still broken so no baking for awhile. Luckily or unluckily (as these were some of the cupcakes I was baking when the oven broke) I did make a number of cupcakes to share with you.

Over the weekend we had our first really hot days of the spring, now all Ican think about is icecream. I though it fitting for the weather and my September theme, sweets made of sweets, to have a quick attempt at a cupcake icecream stack. I had been wanting to try this fantastic idea from MyCakeSchool for so long and had a few cupcakes left over from another project. Head over to MyCakeSchool for the easy to follow tutorial accompanied by beautiful pictures of how to make a cupcake icecream. I cant wait for an occasion to make this idea on a bigger scale, a icecream party would be fun.

Lollypop Cookies

2011-09-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post I was going to try to stick to a bit of a theme with my September posts, here is my second sweet made of sweets idea, Lollypop Cookies.

I don't really know what to say about these cookies except- how cute are they? These might be the coolest cookies I've ever made, they were so easy but I think they look awesome! I can't wait to make some for halloween, I think some in orange and black will be a great addition to a halloween dessert table.
To make the cookies- Prepare cookie dough. (I used my usual sugar cookie recipe)

Divide the dough into equal parts and knead a different colour into each. I used pink, yellow, and blue.

Take a small amount of each colour of dough (a bit over a heaped teaspoon) and press one on-top of the other.
Role the dough out to form a rope around 30cm long.
Twist each end of the rope in the opposite direction to make the swirling pattern.
Coil the rope of dough up into a tight coil.
Make the cookie to the size you like (they will spread a little while baking), trim off any excess and gently press the end to attach.
Place the cookies in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to firm up a little so they hold their shape as you gently push in the popsticks.
Bake the cookies according to the sugar cookie recipe. Allow them to cool on the baking trays.
Decorate with little bows and enjoy!

Doughnut Cookies

2011-09-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

Months ago I bought a cutter for making doughnuts, I've wanted to make them so many times since but haven't had the time to devote to them. I found the doughnut cutter earlier this week as I was attempting to sort out my ever growing cookie collection.

I decided to use it to make some cookie look-a-like doughnuts rather than fiddling around with dough making and raising times. In the end I didn't even use the cookie cutter as I wanted to make smaller puffy cookies, but will definitely use it to make some rolled cookies soon.

This one idea inspired me to make September a month of themed baking, sweets made of sweets. Hopefully most of this months post will be treats either inspired by or look-a-likes of other baked goodies, I'm thinking maybe some cookie lollipops, icecream cupcakes, and cookie pies as a few ideas.

Here is the first, cookie doughnuts. So so much faster than the real things but just as cute.

To make the Cookie Dough- prepare the cookie dough, I used this sugar cookie recipe.

For the Strawberry Glaze Icing

2 cups icing sugar

1 teaspoon butter

2 tablespoons boiling water

pink colouring (how much you like)

1/2 teaspoon strawberry flavouring

To make the Icing- sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, stir in butter, colouring and strawberry flavouring and enough water to make a smooth icing. (The consistancy should be similar to thickened cream.)

To make the Cookies- Roll tablespoons of dough into balls.

Slightly flatten the balls of dough and cut a circle out of the center (I used the smaller end of my large plain piping tip.)
Place the cut cookies on a lined baking tray, about 2 inches apart. Chill the tray of unbaked cookies in the freezer for 5 minutes to stop them spreading too much while baking.

Bake the cookies for around 18 minutes until slightly golden. Allow the cookies to cool on trays before icing. While the cookies are cooling prepare the glaze icing.
Dip the top of the cookie into the strawberry glaze, gently lift out and allow a little of the excess icing to drip off.
The glaze will settle to coat the top.
Sprinkle the doughnut cookies with some pretty sprinkles.
Place the cookies wire rack to allow any excess icing to drip off.
When the glaze is set, eat them up!

Chocolate Cake

2011-09-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

Are you look for a delicious, super easy chocolate cake? Yes? I've found it! I'm pretty sure this is the yummiest chocolate cake ever and its not just me saying that, everyone who has tried it has said the same thing.

The recipe is actually from the Hersey's website, its called the 'Perfectly Chocolate' Cake and they're not wrong. I don't have any Hersey's cocoa so used my regular dark cocoa with great results.

I've used this recipe a number of times now, for the cars cake and for some chocolate lamington cupcakes a while back, it has always turned out super moist and oh so chocolaty. I haven't even mentioned the most swoon worthy part, the icing, I did things a bit different from the original recipe but it was yummy. I don't know know how to describe it, its so smooth and creamy, it almost reminds me of chocolate mousse.

The cake is very simple and easy to make, basically just mixing all the wet ingredients into all the dry ingredients and putting it in the oven.

I think I've used all the words for awesome I know in this post, its yummy, perfect, moist, chocolaty, swoon worthy, delicious! Please try it.

For the Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dark Cocoa Powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

To make the cake- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c. Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake tins.

In a large bowl add sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, whisk together.

Add the eggs, milk, oil,water and the vanilla to the dry ingredients. Beat the wet and dry ingredients together on medium speed for two minutes.
Evenly divide the cake mixture between the prepared cake pans.
Bake the cakes for 30 to 35 minutes or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning them onto wire racks to cool completely.
While the cake is cooling prepare the icing.

For the Frosting

100 grams unsalted butter (softened)

3 cups icing sugar

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the frosting- In a medium bowl beat the butter until pale and fluffy. Beat in the cocoa powder and the vanilla extract. Add the icing sugar and milk in two parts, adding a little extra milk if the frosting is too dry, continue beating until the frosting is smooth, fluffy and delicious.

Spread the bottom half of the chocolate cake with frosting. Sandwich the second cake layer on top.
Cover the entire cake with generous swirls of the remaining icing.

Enjoy with a big glass of milk!

Birdhouse Cake

2011-08-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Mum!!

Actually my Mum's birthday was at the start of August so I'm a little late in posting this, ah well I'm doing it now.

Mum really likes birdhouses (and so do I) so I though it would make a fun theme for a mini dessert table. I wasn't able to spend the amount time I really would have liked to on this but I think it still turned out cute.

Mum requested her favorite kind of cake, orange and poppy seed so I used the same recipe as her Cake-Slice Cake last birthday. The recipe makes a beautiful moist cake with a good hit of orange flavour. Double the recipe made two round 8 inch cakes and six cupcakes.

The birdhouse on the top of the cake was made from a 50/50 mix of fondant and gum paste. I glued the fondant pieces together with royal icing, much like a gingrbread house.

I iced the cake with a pale yellow orange buttercream (which melted a bit in the car on the way there) and covered it with a sprinkle of pink fondant flowers.

Blue Heart Cake

2011-08-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

I've been so lucky to make so many cakes over the last month, this was the first. I was asked to do an engagement cake based on my valentines day heart inside cake. The couples invitations featured a big blue heart and they wanted to continue the theme in the cake. It took me some time to work out how to make a cake for 40, with each slice having a blue heart inside but I think it worked out great.

I ended up making three round cakes which were iced and stacked on top of each other using dowels and boards. The entire cake was then given a final coat of yummy white chocolate buttercream to hide the separate layers and topped with a big blue fondant heart. The outside of the cake looked pretty and simple and I was told everyone loved the hidden hearts inside.

Here is a little update with a peak at the inside of the cake. (Thanks Steph for the photos)

Passionfruit Cheesecake Slice

2011-08-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

I seem to have a never ending supply of passionfruit, for at least a few months the fruit bowl on my bench has not been without them. This last weekend I picked the last few off the vine outside my door and decided to make something yummy while there were still some left.

I really wanted to make passionfruit meringue tarts but had used up all the eggs making cakes so that didn't work out, but luckily for me I had everything needed for a chilled cheesecake. Yum!

I really loved how simple this recipe was, the only thing I'd change about it next time is the amount of gelatine. The cheesecake didn't set quite as firm as I would have liked, so I'd probably add another half or tablespoon of gelatine. It really is tasty though, the slightly tart swirls of passionfriut pulp were perfect with the sweet cheese filling.

Passionfruit Cheesecake Slice (from Good Taste Magazine)

For the Base
250 grams Butternut Snap Cookies
100 grams butter, melted
For the filling
2 tablespoons hot water
1 tablespoon gelatine powder
9 passionfruit (1/3 cup of passionfruit juice plus seeds)
500 grams cream cheese, at room temperature
250mls (1 cup) thickened cream
155 grams (3/4 cup) caster sugar

To make the base-Line a 16 x 26cm slab pan with non-stick baking paper.

Place the cookies in a clip lock bag and crush with a rolling pin (or use a food processor if you have one). In a small bowl mix the crushed cookies and until well combined.

Using a spatula spread and press the biscuit mixture firmly over the base of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

To make the filling- Sprinkle the gelatine over the hot water in a small heatproof bowl. Stand the bowl in a larger heatproof bowl or pan, fill the bowl/pan with boiling water until it reaches halfway up the side of the bowl. Stir until the gelatine dissolves, set the bowl aside to cool slightly.

Cut and scoop out the passionfriut, using a fine seive seperate the juice from the passionfruit pulp with the back of a spoon. Set the separated juice and seeds aside.

Add the soft cream cheese, cream and sugar in a large bowl, beat with an electric beater until smooth.

Beat in the passionfruit juice and the gelatine mixture.

Spread the cheese filling over the prepared cookie base, smooth with a spatula.

Spoon the reserved pulp over the cheesecake mixture (I dont love passionfruit seeds so only used a few tablespoons).

Swirl the passionfruit throught the top of the cheesecake using a flat blade knife.

Tap the slice tin on the benchtop a few times to smooth the mixture. Place the cheesecake in the fridge overnight to set. Cut into squares to serve.

Enjoy!

Jet Ski Cake

2011-08-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to share some pictures of the second cake I made last week. I was asked to make this cake as a gift, inspired by the giftee's love of his stand-up jet ski and heading out to the beach. I don't know anything about jet skis, it was news to me there are stand up and sit down models so you can imagine I found this cake challenging.

Despite some troubles modelling the ski and man, I am really happy with how the whole cake turned out. The inside was a super yummy chocolate mud cake (I had enough off cuts to snack on for a few days), I'll share the recipe soon.

Cars Cake

2011-07-31T05:40:00.000-07:00

I have never ever had a busier baking week, not even at Christmas time. After making 3 big cakes this week I have to admit I'm more than a little relieved its all done. I'll work backwards and share the last cake I made first, a birthday cake for my boss's son Jake.

Happy Fourth birthday Jake!

I've have not seen Cars so had a bit of trouble knowing exactly what to do with this cake, I did a little research and found lots of inspirational pictures.

I love how the little cartoony car characters turned out. Especially the little truck 'Mater' I think he's my favorite, he's so cute.

I have been a bad blogger lately, this is my first post in over a week and haven't had a chance to catch up on eveyone else's posting, but I'm working on it. I promise i'll have some more cake pictures and some new recipes to share soon.

Harry Potter and Holidays

2011-07-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

I'm so very excited about the final Harry Potter movie, I'm off to see it in the morning. I really wanted to make some Harry cupcakes after seeing fantastic little themed cakes all over the blog world this week but have been a little preoccupied. I didn't get a chance to make anything for the occasion but did have fun with this Harry Potter cake mix I picked up a little while ago. It was quick and easy and reminded me of every single birthday party I went to as a child, there were always cupcakes with edible images on top, mostly Mickey Mouse I think.

I have a pretty good excuse for not baking, I really do...

We've enjoyed the last week in a lake-house on Lake Weyba on the Sunshine Coast. It was such a pretty spot, right between the Noosa beaches and the hinterland.

I've been busy relaxing...

By the beach... even though it is the middle of winter it was a beautiful warm sunny day.

This wasn't us swimming but I was super jealous. I did get to play in the water but because it was cold there was a lot of squealing and no swimming.

By the lake... each lake-house had its own private little lakeside area.

In the mountains... The views from Montville were amazing and the town itself is the cutest place ever.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

2011-07-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a lot of luck making whoopie pies, my first two attempts making chocolate whoopies didn't go very well. The second batch were an absolute disaster, they weren't so much cakey cookies as they were miss-shaped chocolate puddles. Lucky for me and my whoopie pie making confidence these pumpkin ones turned out great.

I really love pumpkin baked goods and their yummy spiciness, they're so prefect for winter. The cake cookies are quite dense and packed with spices that pair perfectly with the slight earthy flavour of the pumpkin. The cream cheese filling is absolutely dreamy, the kind of frosting I'd happily sit down with a bowl and spoon. I'm sure I'll be making these again.

For the Whoopies (from Martha Stewart)

3 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cloves

2 cups brown sugar (firmly packed)

1 cup vegetable oil

3 cups pumpkin puree ( I used home made, allow to cool before using)

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the whoopies- preheat the oven to 180 degrees c. cover two baking trays with baking paper.

Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and cloves into a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl beat the butter and oil until combined, add the pumpkin and vanilla and mix well. Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating until they are thoroughly incorporated.

Sprinkle the sifted dry ingredients over the top of the pumpkin and mix until combined.

Spoon generous tablespoons of the mixture onto the baking trays about 3 cm apart (try to keep them similar size and shape so they match up when sandwiched).

Bake the whoopies for about 15 minutes or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Remove them from the oven and allow to cool completely on the baking trays.

Once the whoopies are cool, pipe the filling onto the bottoms of half of the cookies, sandwich with the remaining halves.

Now I skipped this next step and just tried one straight away, but I'd recommended leaving them to set in the refrigerator for a short while to stop the filling squooshing out the sides.

For the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

60 grams unsalted butter (softened)

250 grams cream cheese (softened)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3-4 cups icing sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat the butter and cream cheese until fluffy and smooth, mix in the vanilla.

Add the cinnamon and the icing sugar a cup at a time until smooth and spreadable. If the filling isn't thick enough add a little more icing sugar at a time to get the desired consistency.

Whoooopie!

Teapot Cookies

2011-07-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

I am a bit obsessed with tea cups and tea pots, I started collecting them but cant fit anymore into my little home. I have a tea themed cookie cutter set for some time now just waiting for an excuse to use them, I was very excited to get the chance.
I was asked to make these as take home thank you gifts for a baby shower. The shower was held at the Wishing Well Cafe, I haven't been there yet but it looks really cute, there are teapots everywhere and it has a pretty vintage vibe. I was told the mum-to-be loves all things pink and girly, so created a cookie set with that and the venue in mind.
I think I like the teapot cookies best.

They looked so cute all bagged up.

Skydive Cake

2011-07-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

I'm so behind in my posts, I made this cake in the middle of July for my Dads birthday. For his birthday this year my brother and I decided to get Dad a tandem skydive complete with a care package including a nappy (just in case) and an after jump drink. As a bit of a clue I made the cake to match, with a free falling fondant figure of my Dad on top.

It was my first time making a person from fondant, I think it turned out really well. I used florist wire to shape the fondant and hold it in place on the cake.

I love how the little face turned out, its so my Dad. Its cracks me up each time I look at it.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Triple Coconut Cheesecake

2011-06-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

This is one of those recipes that has always caught my eye when flicking through my cookbooks. As I'm all about coconut at the moment I finally got around to trying it and it didn't disappoint. The recipe uses coconut cookies in the base plus a triple hit of coconut in the filling with the toasted coconut, milk and coconut rum.

I haven't made many cheesecakes, actually I think this may be my third ever and my very first baked one . I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did, I made a few mistakes on the way. I had just put the cheesecake in the oven when I glanced back at the recipe and realized I had forgotten the cornflour. I quickly pulled the cheesecake out of the oven poured the filling back into the mixing bowl and whisked in the flour. It was a little messy but it seemed to work, the cheesecake set nicely and turned out yummy and creamy. The coconut flavour was definitely there but didn't overwhelm, underneath it still had that classic cheesecake taste.

Triple Coconut Cheesecake (From Women's Weekly, Cheesecakes)

For the base

90 grams coconut macaroons (not macarons)

125 grams plain sweet biscuits

125 grams butter (melted)

To make the base- Crush the biscuits until fine, add the butter and mix in till all combined. Press the mixture over the base and up the sides of a round springform tin (the recipe asks for a 26cm tin, I used a 20cm tin for a deeper cheesecake). Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the filling

250 grams cream cheese (softened)

1/2 cup caster sugar

300 grams sour cream

2 tablespoons malibu (I replaced with 1 teaspoon coconut flavouring)

280 mls coconut milk

1/2 cup desiccated coconut (lightly toasted)

1/4 cup cornflour

3 eggs

To make the filling- beat cheese, sugar, sour cream, coconut flavour (or Malibu), coconut milk, coconut and cornflour in a bowl until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beat until combined.

Remove the base from the fridge. Pour the filling mixture into the chilled base and bake for one hour.

Turn of the oven and allow the cheese cake to cool with the door ajar. (I was impatient and took it out too early, causing the middle to split)

Once the cheesecake has cooled, refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Spread over the chocolate topping.

For the topping

100 grams dark chocolate (finely chopped)

60 mls of cream ( the recipe uses 60 grams unsalted butter)

To make the topping- Place the chocolate in a small bowl. Place the cream in a small pan and bring to the boil. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate, stir until smooth. Allow the ganache to cool before spreading over the top of the cheesecake.

Carnival Cake

2011-06-21T16:17:00.001-07:00

I am super excited to share this cake with you! I got to make this cake a couple of weeks ago for a friend from work, his little boy was turning one and they were having a carnival themed birthday party. I loved the carnival theme, my mind was full of so many fun ideas i had a hard time working out which ones I wanted to use.

I think the little elephant is my favorite part, I was so happy with how it turned out I ended making a sea lion too.

I had a vague idea what I wanted the final cake to look like, but knew all the carnival bits and pieces I wanted to have on it. All the decorations were made from fondant, except for the poles which were paper straws. ( I am in love with paper straws!)

I'm still very new to fondant modeling, but was surprised at how easy it was to make a little elephant. After making the simple shapes, I allowed them to firm up a little before pressing them together with a tiny bit of water.

I wish I had a few more pictures of the building of the cake but after the initial icing things got a little too hectic.

After a very stressful car trip ( it took hours for my arms to stop feeling like jelly afterward) we dropped the cake at the party safe and sound. The party set up was amazing, it had all the great parts of a carnival, I especially loved the circus tent dessert table backdrop.

The cake was a big hit, especially the rainbow cake surprise in the middle.

Happy First Birthday Dash!!

How cute is he munching on his giant slice of cake! (Thanks Tory for the party pictures!)

Neapolitan Cupcakes

2011-06-17T00:14:00.000-07:00

We don't have much of a winter here, there's probably only a handful of days each year you can get away with comfortably wearing a coat. I really enjoy it when it does finally get cold , most of my favorite activities are winter activities, drinking heaps of hot chocolate, wearing funny looking fuzzy socks, eating and some more eating.

One other thing I really enjoy when things get cold is icecream, I love going out for icecream on a chilly night. Now eating a frozen treats in the cold probably isn't everyone's idea of fun, but in cupcake form anyone can enjoy this icecream classic all year round.

Neapolitan was one those ice-cream flavours that always lived in our fridge, my brother and I would eat through the chocolate and vanilla flavours and leave the bar of strawberry in the middle. That was then, this is now, not one little bit of these neapolitan cupcakes got left behind. They were yummy with a capital YUM. The marble cake turned out very pretty and the buttercream flavours were delicious weather eaten all together or one by one.

For the cupcakes

125 grams butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 1/4 self-raising flour

1/3 cup milk

pink food colouring

Strawberry flavouring

1 tablespoon cocoa

2 teaspoons milk, extra

To make the cupcakes- Preheat to 180 degrees c. and line one cupcake tray with papers.

Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Stir in half the sifted flour, followed by the milk, followed by the second half of the flour. Mix until combined.

Divde the mixture evenly into three bowls. Mix the cocoa and extra milk to form a paste, stir into one of the bowls of cake mix. Add a little pink food colour and strawberry flavouring to taste to the second bowl. Leave the third bowl of mixture plain.

Drop alternating spoons of coloured mixture into the cake pans, until all the mix is used.

Using a skewer or small knife, gently pull backward and forward through the mix to make the marble pattern.

Bake the cakes for 25 to 30 minutes, until a skewer poked into the centres comes out clean. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.

Spread the cooled cupcakes with the three colours of icing.

For the Buttercream

125 grams butter, softened

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Pink food colouring

Strawberry flavouring

1 tablespoon cocoa

2 teaspoons milk, extra

Vanilla extract

To make the buttercream- Beat the softened butter in a bowl until fluffy and very light in colour. Add the icing sugar and milk and continue beating until smooth.

Divide the buttercream evenly into three bowls, colour one bowl with pink food colouring adding a few drops of strawberry flavouring. Combine the cocoa and remaining milk, mix into the second bowl of icing . Leave the third bowl of frosting white, adding a little vanilla extract to taste.

Enjoy!

Passionfruit Cream Cupcakes

2011-06-13T03:38:00.000-07:00

This week I was given a big bag of passionfruit and another of lemons, as a thank you I sent back some cupcakes. I was thinking of making a passionfruit and lemon sponge cake, but sponges still scare me a little. Maybe I’ll be a bit braver and give it a try next weekend.

I don’t know what I want to do with the lemons yet, but the passionfruit made some very yummy filled cupcakes.

I tweaked my go to vanilla cupcake recipe to make fluffy and moist passionfruit butter cakes. The whipped cream was perfect paired with the slightly tart passionfruit filling.

For the Passionfruit Cupcakes (makes 18)

2 cups self raising flour

180 grams softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup caster sugar

4 eggs

¼ cup passion fruit (strained, seeds removed)

2 tablespoons milk

To make the cupcakes- Preheat oven to 180°c, line cupcake trays with papers.

Sift flour into a mixing bowl, add the butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, passion fruit and milk.

Beat all the ingredients on low until combined, increase the speed to medium and beat until the mixture is pale.

Divide the mixture between the pans, fill each one two thirds full. Bake for about 20 minutes until the cupcakes spring back when poked. While the cakes are baking prepare the cream and passionfruit filling.

Leave the cakes in the pan for 5 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool cut a deep triangular hole in the top of each cupcake, set aside the cut-out triangle.

Fill the holes with the passionfruit filling.

Using a large star piping tip, pipe a swirl of cream onto the top of each cupcake. Drizzle a little left over passionfruit filling over the top of the cream.

Place the reserved cake triangles gently on the centre of each cake, and dust with icing sugar.

For the Cream

300 mls thickened cream

1 tablespoon icing sugar

Place the cream and sugar into a bowl, beat until the cream holds it shape.

For the Passionfruit Filling

Pulp of 6 passionfruit (strained, seeds removed)

1 tablespoon passionfruit seeds

2 tablespoons caster sugar

1 tablespoons custard powder

2 tablespoons water

To make the filling- mix the custard powder and water in a small saucepan until smooth. Add the passion fruit pulp, seeds, and sugar and stir over a low heat until thickened.

Transfer the mixture into a bowl and allow to cool.

Enjoy!

Mini Caramel Apple Pies

2011-06-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

I have posted this caramel apple pie before, it was one of my very early posts. Its just that darn good I had to post it again, I’ll just pretend these are different because they are mini single serve versions. The recipe for the large pie makes four smaller ones.

Over the past year I have made this pie more times than I can count, it is boyfriends favorite whenever I ask him for ideas on what to bake this is always his suggestion. It has got pretty cold over the last couple of weeks so it was the perfect time to make it again. The caramel apple filling and crumble topping are super yummy, but I think it’s the caramel sauce drizzled over the top that makes this pie truly awesome. It’s seriously the best thing ever on a cold night served warm with ice cream!

Someone asked a little while ago what size flower cutter I used the flower pot cupcakes, this is the set I have and the approximate sizes of the cutters. For the flowers on the cupcakes I used the largest one which is about 1 cm across, I hope that’s helpful.

Monty Carlos

2011-05-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Im going to be honest, I cant take responsibly for making these, it was mostly boyfriends doing. I had to share them because they were just too good looking and too darn yummy not to.

They turned out beautifully, everything a home made cookie should be, generously sized and perfect with a cup of tea.

Monte Carlos (from women's weekly, afternoon tea)

For the cookie

185 grams unsalted butter (softened)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cups self raising flour

3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup raspberry jam

For the cream filling

60grams unsalted butter (softened)

3/4 cup icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons milk

To make the cookie- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c. Grease or line baking trays with baking paper.

Beat together butter, sugar and extract in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue mixing until combine.

Stir through the flour and coconut.

Shape level tablespoons of the mix into ovals, place on the prepared trays about 4 cm apart. ( the book said level teaspoons, but tablespoons made a more home-style sized cookie). Rough up the tops of the cookies with a fork.

Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool while making cream filling.

Spread half the cookie bases with jam and the other half with cream filling.

Sandwich the halves together.

To make the cream filling- Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, add the vanilla and milk and continue beating until smooth.

Robot Cake

2011-05-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Rory!

Little kids get the best themed birthday parties! Robots are so cool.

This is just another short picture post, sharing the robot birthday cake I got to make over the weekend.

The idea for this cake came from an awesome robot themed cake and party by Blue Cupcake.

The cake was a vanilla butter cake, with a vanilla buttercream frosting. The robots were cut from ready to roll fondant and pressed into the buttercream. The cake didn't end up quite as tall as I was hoping, so the robots got a little shorter to fit.

Sadly I didn't make it to the party, but I hear the cake was a big hit. Thanks very much Sally for getting me an inside picture.

Mint-Chocolate Cheesecake Slice

2011-05-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

Why is it I always impulse buy cook books on days that I have no money? While standing in line at the grocery store I grabbed a new Women's Weekly book, Little Squares and Slices. There are so many recipes I cant wait to try, I'm almost considering working through it start to finish, one slice a week.

I couldn't decide which one to try first, so I made boyfriend choose and he chose wisely, picking the mint-choc cheesecake slice from the cover. They are some yummy cheesecake squares, in fact I'm eating one of the last squares right now. Its very quick and easy to make, not counting the chilling time. I've never the biggest fan of cheesecakes but the mint hides the cheese flavour just enough, without completely taking over.

I have yet to dig the food processor out of the cupboard, it has been buried somewhere since we moved 2 years ago, so instead of processing the cookie base I placed the cookies in a clip-lock bag and crushed them. The only significant change i made to the recipe was not using mint liqueur, I didn't have any so substituted peppermint flavoring and a little green food dye to give it a pretty colour.

For the base

250 grams (8 ounces) plain chocolate biscuits (I used double choc-chip)

120 grams (4 ounces) butter, melted

For the filling
3 teaspoons gelatine

2 tablespoons water

500 grams (1 pound) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 thickened cream

1/4 cup mint flavoured liqueur ( I used 1 1/2 tablespoons peppermint flavouring and a few drops of green food colour)

For the Chocolate Glaze

185 grams (6 ounces) dark eating chocolate, coursely chopped

50 grams (1 1/2 ounces butter)

To make the base- grease a 20 by 30 cm (8 inch -12 inch) and line with baking paper leaving some overhang on the sides.

Process the biscuits until fine, add the butter and process until it comes together (or mix crumbs and butter in a bowl until combined).

Press the cookie mixture in an even layer over the base of the lined pan, refrigerate of 30 minutes. While the base is chilling make the filling.

To make the filling- Sprinkle the gelatine over the water in a small heatproof jug. Stand the jug in a pot of shallow simmering water, stir the water and gelatine until dissolved. Allow to cool 5 minutes.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth, add the cream and continue beating until the mix is smooth and slightly thickened. Stir in the gelatine mix and mint liqueur (or flavouring).

Spoon the filling over the prepared base and smooth over, place in the fridge and chill until set, or over night.

Once set make and pour over the chocolate glaze, chill until chocolate glaze is set before cutting into squares. (A hot knife helped to cut through the chocolate.)

To make the chocolate glaze- place butter and chocolate in a small heatproof bowl, place bowl over a small pot of simmering water, stir until smooth and combined.

Enjoy!!

Elephant Cookies

2011-05-15T03:56:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick post to share some pictures.

I have been so lucky these past few weeks, I've got to make a whole bunch of fun cookies. I'm pretty sure these are my favorites, the little elephants are just so darn cute.

These cookies were a request for a little boy's first birthday party, I was even more excited about making them after seeing the adorable invitation. I love the baby elephants so much, I'm thinking about making some more just for myself, imagine little pink and blue elephants with hearts and kisses.

Once again the cookies were shortbread with vanilla royal icing. I had a hard time finding a light green in edible glitter, so used a combination of sea green and lush lime to get the right colour. This was my first time using glitter, I can already tell its going to take a lot of self control not to cover everthing I make with it.

Happy First Birthday Hunter!

First Blogiversary & Flower Pot Cupcakes

2011-05-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Yay! today is my one year blogiversery! Crazy! I can't believe I've been doing this for 12 whole months.

Its been a fantastic first year! I've had so much fun baking and sharing a whole bunch of goodies. To all the people who have read, followed or left comments I cant thank you enough, reading your lovely words of encouragement always brighten my day.

This last week has been one of the most exciting, I received my first real out of blog-world mention, a feature about my blog in the Food and Wine section in the Canberra times ( Thank you Rosslyn Beeby, I was smiling for days!) Not to mention getting to make some really cute cupcakes and cookies.

I have loved every part of this first year and can only hope for the same this next year. Thanks again for everyones support. I decided to start this year off just as I did the last, sharring with you the recipe for my mothers day goodies.

I hope you continue to enjoy reading my blog as much as I have enjoyed posting.

To make the fondant flower pots-

Start with 250 grams white fondant, divide into 6 portions.

-colour 2 portions terracotta orange

-colour 1 portion green

-colour 1 portion light pink

-colour 1 portion dark pink

-leave 1 portion white (to roll out for garden gates)

Roll the green fondant out to 3mm thick. Cut out the shapes for the leaves (four for each flower pot), I used a daisy flower cutter and cut off the petals. Use a knife to press in the lines on the leaves.

Brush the ends of four leaves with a tiny bit of water, gently press each onto the top of the pot, allowing half to hang over the edge.

Roll some of the pink fondants into small balls, about half the size of the top of the pots.

Brush the bottom of the ball with a tiny bit of water, secure onto the centre on the pot (on top of the leaves).

Roll out the both of the pink portions of fondant to 3mm thick. Using a small flower cutter cut out the flowers (6 for each pot). Press a small indent into the middle of each flower, press in yellow sprinkle centre.

Brush a little water onto the back of each flower, press one onto the top of the pink ball.

Continue pressing the remaining 5 flowers around the sides to create the little flower bush.

Admire your cute little flower pots!

For the cupcakes (adapted from Woman's weekly, Easy Cupcakes by Colour, Vanilla Cupcakes)

3 cups self-raising flour
270 grams softened butter
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
6 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons lemon zest

To make the cupcakes- (makes 32) preheat the oven to 180°c. Line muffin pans with cupcake papers.

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, add the butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, zest, lemon juice and milk. Beat all the ingredients on low speed until just combined, increase the speed to medium and continue beating until mixture is light in colour and increased in volume.

Spoon the mixture into prepared cupcake pans, filling them about 3/4 full.

Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, until golden and springy. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes in the pans before standing the cakes on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Lemon Buttercream

200 grams butter (softened)
4-5 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon zest

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons milk

Food colour gels

To make the icing- beat the butter in a medium bowl until it is as lightly coloured as possible before adding the icing sugar and lemon zest.

Gradually add the juice and milk until the buttercream reaches pipe-able consistency.

Divide the buttercream into 3 smaller bowls and dye desired colours. Using a large star tip pipe swirls of buttercream onto each of the cupcakes.

Top the cupcakes with flower pots, garden gates and royal icing polka dots.

Enjoy!

(Sorry for editing this again, I'm having some layout troubles)

Happy Mothers Day

2011-05-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a lovely mothers day yesterday, spoiling your mum

or being spoilt yourself.

My mum was working on mothers day, so boyfriend and I surprised her at her nursery with a tea party of cupcakes and cookies.

I had so much fun making these, when I get a little more free time I'll post the cupcake recipe and step by step guide on how to make the little fondant flower pots and garden fences.

Lemon Squares

2011-05-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

This is my second attempt at lemon squares, the first time I tried to make them was pretty much a disaster. I baked the crust and then added the filling as instructed and baked for the time the recipe said. The filling just wouldn't set, so I baked it some more and some more and some more again. After baking it for over twice as long as in the recipe, I figured maybe putting it in the fridge overnight might help. No luck!, as I attempted to cut the slice into squares the next morning the lemon filling oozed all over my bench. It tasted great but it was a mess!

This time I used a Martha Stewart recipe (altered a teensy bit) and they worked out perfectly! Not only tasting great, but looking good. The shortbread base turned out buttery and crumbly and was oh so yummy with the sweet lemon filling.

For the Crust

1 3/4 cups plain flour

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter (frozen)

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar (plus bit extra for dusting)

3/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling

4 large eggs (lightly beaten)

1/4 cup milk

4 tablespoons plain flour (Martha says 3)

1 1/3 cups sugar

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (Martha says 3/4)

1 tablespoon lemon zest (not in original recipe)

1/4 teaspoon salt

To make the crust- Preheat oven to 180 degrees c. and grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan, line with baking paper.

Grate butter with a large hole grater. Whisk together flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the grated butter and stir with a wooden spoon until combined and mixture looks crumbly. Rub any remaining clumps of butter in with fingertips.

Tip the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Press into an even layer with your hands, leaving a slightly higher lip on the very edges. Place the crust in freezer for 15 minutes. Bake 16 to 18 minutes, until slightly golden. While the base is baking prepare the filling.

To make the filling- Whisk together eggs, sugar, flour, and salt in a large measuring cup or jug until smooth. Stir in lemon juice and milk.

To make the slice- remove crust from the oven and immediately pour filling mixture over hot crust. Turn down oven to 160 degrees c, and bake until filling is set and edges are slightly golden brown, about 18 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.

Remove the slice from the pan using the baking paper, dust the top with confectioners' sugar and cut into squares.

Enjoy!

Butter Hearts Sugar on Facebook

2011-05-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

My blog now has a facebook. I have never ever used facebook before, I know i'm so far behind. Its all new to me and a bit scary I don't really know what to do, so no laughing if I'm a facebook spaz.

Come visit my Facebook page.

Rocket Ship Cookies

2011-05-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

How did everyone enjoy the royal wedding? I hope everyone had fun with tea parties, drinking games or however you choose to enjoy it (or maybe not). Personally I enjoyed it while leisurely decorating some shortbread cookies(recipe).

As soon as I received the cute rocket ship invitation I knew I had to make Birthday cookies. The party had a rocket ship theme, to match Rocco's name (and personality I hear).

I’ll admit I didn’t come up with the look of these cookies, the ideas were borrowed from an amazing cookie set by Sweet Sugar Belle, I tried to recreate her beautiful decorations to suit the rocket theme.

Happy first Birthday Rocco!

Little Rocco was a bit young to eat the cookies, but I think he was a big fan of the colours he tried his hardest to grab them through their cover.

Happy Easter!!

2011-04-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

All the best to everyone and have a lovely weekend.

Tiramisu cupcakes and bunting = Love.

Easter Egg Cookies

2011-04-20T04:51:00.000-07:00

I am loving looking at all the pretty Easter treats being made by everyone. My bloglist is full of so many beautiful Easter and spring themed cookies, cupcakes and macarons. Not wanting to feel left out I've made some on my own egg cookies based on boyfriend's Easter favorite, candy eggs. Personally I've always preferred chocolate eggs and was was always disappointed receiving sugar eggs when I was little. They sure are pretty though.

The cookies are my new favorite shortbread, decorated with royal icing and fondant. The centres are rolled white fondant, cut with a small flower shaped cutter. The roses are painted on with food colour gel and were left to dry the day before I made the cookies. After flooding the cookies with royal icing I pressed on the rose fondant cutout into the wet frosting.

I wish I was lucky enough to be having an Easter lunch or afternoon tea, I had so much fun coming up with ideas for an Easter table. It started with just a basket, then I went a little overboard.

I wish everyone a safe and happy Easter weekend, whatever your plans may be.

Thanks very much to Kelly for inviting me to the Running With Glitter Party

Glazed Pumpkin Scones

2011-04-18T08:11:00.001-07:00

Lately I've found myself day-dreaming about pumpkin scones, well actually its a little more specific than that, I've been daydreaming about munching on a pumpkin scone, with a big coffee, on a sunny, clear Autumn day in Boston gardens. The weather here at the moment is reminding me of our holiday last year, I had read about Starbucks pumpkin scones before our trip and they were one of the first things I sort out after arriving.

There are so many versions of this recipe around, mine is a little different because it uses fresh Pumpkin. After doing a bit of searching I realized there is no such thing as pumpkin in a can in Brisbane Australia, unless I wanted to pay $6 a tin from the candy store that imports a selection of American foods. No thank you!

They mashed pumpkin worked just as well and the scones turned out exactly as I remembered, slightly orange coloured with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. As tasty as the scones are its the glaze that makes me swoon, a vanilla glaze drizzled with spiced icing, yum!

I will definitely be making them again, only next time I might make them half the size, then maybe some other people will get to share.

Pumpkin Scones (Adapted from- food.com)

2 cups all-purpose flour
7 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
6 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (I used steamed, mashed fresh pumpkin)
3 tablespoons half-and-half (I used 2 tablespoons cream, 1 tablespoon milk)
1 large egg

To make the scones-Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a flat bladed knife or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, milk, cream (or half and half), and egg.

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients.

Form the dough into a ball.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making four equal portions. Cut those four slices diagonally so that you have 8 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until scones are light brown, cool on a wire rack. (Prepare the vanilla glaze)

When scones are cool, use a pastry brush to paint the vanilla glaze over each scone and allow to set. (Prepare the spiced icing)

Drizzle the spiced icing over the top of each scone and allow to set.

Vanilla Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the vanilla glaze- Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth.

Spiced Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch ground cloves

To make the spiced icing- Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together.

Enjoy.

Raspberry White Choc-chip Hot Cross Buns

2011-04-12T04:33:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to like hot cross buns, I really liked the look and smell of them, but all those sultanas.. Yuck!. I hate sultanas, I'd take one bite, remember I didn't like them and then do it all over again the year after. You can imagine my excitement when shops started selling fruitless buns and then eventually choc chip buns and now all kinds of combinations. It got me thinking, what flavour would I really like? Well it had to have white chocolate chips and raspberries because they go so well together.

I haven’t had much experience with bread making but I was determined to make some of my own hot cross buns this Easter. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, they looked like hot cross buns, they smelled delicious and had the traditional sweet spiced taste. The white choc-chips and raspberries made them extra yummy, and the raspberries gave them a pretty pink swirl of colour inside.

Hot Cross Buns

2 x 7g sachets dried yeast
1/2 cup warm water
4 cups white bread flour
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
40 grams butter
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup water

To make the buns- place the yeast, 2 teaspoons of the flour, 1 teaspoon of the sugar and warm water in a small bowl and mix well. Leave the bowl in a warm draught free place for about 10 minutes, until the mix is frothy and increased in volume.

Sift the rest on the flour and spices into a large bowl, stir in the sugar and rub in the butter with your fingertips. Stir through the raspberries and chocolate chips.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, stir in the yeast mixture and up to 3/4 cup of water to make a soft dough.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes or until smooth, add more flour as nesecessary to stop the dough sticking.

Place the dough into a large floured bowl and cover with clingwap, sit the bowl in a warm draught free place for 30-40 minutes until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c. and line a baking tray with baking paper. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently to deflate.

Divide the dough into 12 portions and roll into balls. Place the balls of dough on the baking tray just touching each other. Cover loosely with cling wrap and leave to sit in a warm place until nearly doubled in size. Prepare the paste for the crosses.

Pipe crosses over the tops on the buns with a piping bag.

Bake the buns for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Prepare the glaze.

Brush the glaze over the hot buns and allow to cool.

Paste for crosses

1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon caster sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons water

To make the crosses- mix all ingredients in a small bowl to form a smooth paste.

Glaze

1 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon gelatine
1 tablespoon water

To make the glaze- heat all ingredients in a small saucepan until dissolved.

Next time I'll try orange and dark chocolate chips.

Enjoy!

New Tattoo

2011-04-08T05:21:00.000-07:00

Remember when I said the the Tiramisu cupcakes were made as a thank you, this right here is what they were thanks for. As good as the cupcakes were they really don't make up for happy I am with my new mixer tattoo.

So so many thanks yous to you Mark VanNess, it is so much more awesome than I ever could have imagined!

I borrowed the picture from Mark's site as I haven't taken any of my own yet, I'll get some when is all healed up. (The picture was taken the next day so it was still a bit red and swollen, but oh so pretty!)

Tiramisu Cupakes

2011-04-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

I may have just found my favourite sweet! Not just my favourite cupcake, my favourite sweet treat. I know I say a lot of things are my favourite, but I really mean it this time. Every single part of these tiramisu cupcakes is delicious.

I wasn't really into tiramisu until a few years ago, about the same time I really stared enjoying coffee. Regular tiramisu is yummy but this cupcake version is tasty with an added bonus, they're portable.

These were made as a thank you (I'll show you what for in a little while). When the person they were intended for mentioned he really liked tiramisu I immediately thought of this recipe in Martha Stewart's cupcakes. The recipe is a little more involved than your usual cupcake recipe, but believe me it is well worth it.

The little cakes turned out beautifully, the extra eggs in the recipe allowed the cupcakes to soak up the all the yummy coffee liqueur syrup without getting soggy. The mascarpone cream icing is light and heavenly making these cakes the perfect little packages.

This recipe is directly from Martha Stewart Cupcakes, anything I did differently I've added in brackets.

For the Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup sugar

To make the cupcakes- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard vanilla-bean pod.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes.

Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.

Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

(While the cupcakes are baking and cooling, prepare the Coffee Syrup and allow to cool)

To finish, brush tops of cupcakes evenly with coffee-marsala syrup; repeat until all syrup has been used. Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid 30 minutes. (I found the cupcakes absorbed the syrup more evenly when I poked a few holes in the middles with a skewer. The holes also prevented the syrup spilling to the edges of the cupcakes and making the wrappers come off)

(While the cupcakes are absorbing the syrup prepare the icing)

Dollop frosting onto cupcakes; refrigerate up to overnight in airtight containers. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving. (I used a large round piping tip to ice the cupcakes with a swirl of mascarpone cream)

For the Coffee-Marsala Syrup

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed very strong coffee (or espresso)
1 ounce marsala (I used Tia Maria instead)
1/4 cup sugar

To make the syrup- Stir together coffee, marsala, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

For the Mascarpone Frosting

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

To make the icing- With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.

I suggest enjoying one of these with a hot cup of coffee :)

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

2011-03-28T20:18:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to report some well guarded shortbread strawberries made it long enough to take their places on top of some strawberry shortcake inspired cupcakes. The final result was probably even cuter than I hoped, a vanilla cupcake filled with shortbread and strawberry jam. A definite win.

I look forward to making these for an actual occasion, To bad everyone I know had little boys, because these would be perfect for a little girls birthday.

To make the cupcakes I started with the shortbread circles (made with the strawberries) placed into the bottoms of the cupcake papers as a base.

I used the same recipe a the Pink butterfly Cakes, it makes a lovely moist cake. To make the cupcake, spoon the batter on top of the shortbread round until the pan is half full. Spoon a small dollop of strawberry jam into the centre of each little cake. Top each cupcake with another spoon of cake mix, filling each cup to 3/4 full.

Bake the cakes according to the original recipe. Top each cooled cake with a big swirl of pink strawberry buttercream and finish with a happy strawberry shortbread.

I hope they make you smile as much as they do me.

Shortbread Strawberries

2011-03-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

These cookies were intended as toppers to some strawberry shortcake cupcakes, but then they got faces and took on a life of their own. I had a hard time finding a strawberry shaped cookie cutter and couldn’t possibly wait the few days it would take to order one online, so I squished a spare heart shaped cutter the best I could. Their cute little faces make me smile, hopefully some will last long enough to make it onto cupcakes.

I’m not sure where this recipe came from, it was torn out of a magazine, but it sure makes some tasty cookies. From now on I think I will be making shortbread cookies rather than sugar cookies, I much prefer their soft buttery deliciousness!

The cookies are iced with royal icing and topped with a little fondant flower. For the royal icing I used the same recipe and process I’ve used previously.

Shortbread Cookies

250 grams butter (chilled and cubed)
¾ cup icing sugar
1 1/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup corn flour
½ teaspoon vanilla essence

To make the shortbread- Preheat oven to 160°c and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Process butter, sugar, flours and vanilla until the dough just comes together. (My food processor is still buried in a cupboard somewhere, but it worked out fine using the mixer)

Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until smooth.

Press dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Place chilled dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out to 5mm thick. Cut out an even number of strawberries and circles.
Re-roll and cut and off-cuts.

Place the cutouts onto the prepared trays, leaving spaces of 2cm between. Freeze for 10 minutes, until firm.

Bake the shortbread for 22 to 25 minutes, until golden.

Cool completely on trays before icing.

For the Royal Icing

4 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup meringue powder
2-3 tablespoons water (as needed)
red, green, and pink food colourings

To make the icing- add all the ingredients into a medium bowl, beat the ingredients about 7 minutes until smooth. If the icing is too thick add a little more water at a time. (Thin the icing with small amounts of water as needed when flooding the cookies)

Divide the icing in half, colour one half red, divide the remaining half into thirds for the green, pink and white.

Pipe the red strawberry outlines onto the cookies using a fine piping tip. Allow the outlines to set before flooding with icing.

Once the outlines are dry, it is time to flood the cookies with thinned red icing. Use a toothpick to spread the icing and remove any air bubbles.

For the polka dots, drop small dots of white flooding icing into the red icing while still wet.

let the strawberries dry completely, pipe on the green leafy bit and pink rosy cheeks. Stick on a little fondant flower to each strawberry while the icing is still wet.

Once all the icing has set draw on the happy faces and stitched outline with a food pen or food colour.

Mint Slice Cookies

2011-03-20T03:51:00.000-07:00

There's not a lot of back story to these cookies, except that I was really craving Mint Slice Biscuits. Actually I think my mint craving came from seeing all the green cupcakes and cookies for Saint Patricks Day, I see green I think mint.

For the cookies I used the same chocolate cookie dough I used for the valentines heart cookies, its such a tasty recipe. Half of the cookie dough made about 20 sandwiched cookies, I saved the other half for another project. The taste of these cookies was spot on, just like a mint slice only with the extra little bit of goodness that comes with homemade.

Chocolate Cookies

1 ½ cups plain flour
½ cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks, 170 grams) unsalted butter (softened)
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

200 grams dark chocolate

To make the cookies- Sift together the flour, salt, cocoa and cinnamon.

In a bowl cream together butter and sugar until fluffy and pale.
Add the vanilla extract and egg to the butter mixture, beat on medium speed until combine.

Gradually add the flour, mix on low speed until just combine.

Divide the cookie dough in half (it will be very soft). Flatten each half into a disk and wrap in cling wrap. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour.

Remove one disk of dough from the fridge, roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper until it’s about ¼ inch thick.

Cut out the cookie shapes. If the dough has softened chill for a few minutes to make cutting the shapes easier.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c. Line trays with non stick paper.

Position the cookies on lined trays about 3cms apart. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer until cookie dough is firm.

Bake the cookies until crisp, about 10-15 minutes. Let cool on baking trays.

For the Mint Cream

60 grams unsalted butter (softened)
1 ½ cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon peppermint flavouring

To make the mint cream- Beat together all ingredients until light and fluffy.

To make the mint choc cookies- Pipe or spread the mint cream onto half of the cookies.

Sandwich on the cookie tops.

Break up the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and melt chocolate until smooth.

Using a fork dip the sandwich cookies into the melted chocolate, allow excess chocolate to drip off.

Place the coated cookie on a wire rack until set.

Enjoy!