Did someone say Chocolate?!

This would have to be one of the easiest and most yummy chocolate recipes around...if i do say so myself!

I got it from my favourite food blogger Chocolatesuze! I love her blog, she gets to go on amazing food adventures and dishes out some great recipes too! Check it out, she also has beautiful pictures from her wedding and the fun she had messing up her wedding dress!
I decided to make this cake for my boyfriends brother's (Brett) Birthday ( there was alot of b's in that sorry) and i was so happy with the result!
I added a little of my own touches by putting crushed boost on top and i also made a few little cupcakes with the left overs as a treat for myself!
You can put anything you like on top but i highly recommend the chocolate ganache then a little something something.
I have done these with marshmallows on top too....30 secs in the microwave...aaahhh melt in mouth moment!!!

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

150 g Butter
220 g Brown Sugar
100 g Milk Chocolate
50 g cocoa powder
160 mls milk
3 large eggs (room temp)
1 cup +2 tablespoons Plain Flour
11/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcious. Grease and flour (with cocoa) cake tin(i use a 6 inch tin and then some left over for cupcakes).
2. On the stove top in a large pot melt the butter, once melted add the chocolate, brown sugar, cocoa powder and milk. Remove from heat and whisk till all combinde. Cool for 5 mins.
3. Add the eggs and mix till combined.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda into mixture and gently stir till mixed together!
5. Pop the batter into the cake tin and bake for 45-55 mins* or until a skewer comes out clean.

Tip* if making into cupcakes bake for around 25 mins, do the skewer test to be sure there done!

Now for the topping. I always feel that the icing on chocolate cake is to strong and you can experiment with this recipe with the type of chocolate you use. I used half Milk chocolate and half white choc and the result was a luscious soft milky almost caramel  tasting ganache! It is delicious!

Best Chocolate Ganache in the world all in one step

Ingredients
300 mls Cream
300 g Milk Chocolate (chopped)
100 g White Chocolate (chopped)

1. Bring the cream to boil, remove from the heat and add the chocolate whisk till combinded. Leave the chocolate to set a little so it is spreadable.

*Make sure you follow the last step of leaving it to set a little or you won't get far with out it running everywhere!
I you wanted you could put this ganache over ice cream...mmm chocolate and ice cream....mmmmm!!!!

Orange Sherbert

My lovely boyfriend (Mark) came back from Renmark (where he is from)  on the weekend and his lovely mum gave him a whole lot of fruit and veggies to bring back!
We had an abundance of oranges so it was the perfect oportunity to try out this recipie from The Country Show Cookbook. The Orange cake recipie i chose to use was the one by Thelma Allman from the Kiama Show!
It turned out so well, it's moist and zingy. Kinda like orange sherbert. It is also one of those cakes that gets better with age. It turns kind of dense but juicy as time goes on!

Ingredients

Cake

140 grams of Salted Butter
1 Cup Sugar
3 Eggs
2 Cups of Self Raising Flour
3/4 cup Milk
Juice and rind of 1 orange

Icing

2 Cups Icing Sugar
2 Tablespoons Butter (softened)
juice of 1/2 an orange

Method

For the Cake

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease a 20cm tin.

2. Cream the butter with the sugar.

3. Add the eggs one at a time making sure each one is well beaten in before the next.

4. Fold in the flour alternately with the milk.

5. Lastly fold in the orange juice and rind.

6. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until the cake is 'quiet' (Meaning it has stopped bubbling inside, mine took longer then 40 mins)

7. Remove from the oven and let it cool then place on a wire rack

For the icing

1. Combine butter and icing sugar in a bowl. Add enough orange juice to make a soft paste and mix well.

*I added orange food colouring....just in case people didn't realise it was orange cake :)

Sweet Saturdays

Don't get me wrong, I love pancakes and waffles (ah waffles a true love of mine but so hard to find in Australia)
But this is a simple, quick and yummy little spoil yourself on a saturday morning kind of breakfast!
I got it from a book i borrowed from the library, In the Mood for Food by Jo Pratt.
Its a bit of a twist on french toast, the warm jam and extra sugar on top is so yummy!

Ingredients

Small knob of Butter
1 Large Egg
2 teaspoons of Caster Sugar (plus extra to sprinkle)
Few drops of Vanilla Extract
2 slices of brioche or white bread
1-2 tablespoons of your Favourite Jam (i used home made strawberry n vanilla)

Method

1. Lightly beat together the egg, caster sugar and vanilla extract in a shallow dish

2. Sandwich the bread and jam together, make sure its pressed together well. Melt the butter in a medium frying pan over a low-medium heat.

3. Soak the sandwich in the egg mixture until it's soaked in. Fry it in the butter for about 1-2 minutes each side until golden brown.

4. Slice into fingers and sprinkle with caster sugar. Enjoy straight away!

If you are feeling super naughty enjoy it warm with ice cream or cream!

I'm having a Moment!

I bought a lemon last week thinking i would need it at some point and while sitting down watching TV i was hit with a sudden urge for sugar (Don't worry this happens to me alot!)
So i remembered making these biscuits from the Bundaberg Sugar web site and how easy they were and got to work!
They are a great little gift, I once gave these as part of a secret santa gift at work, i put them inside a 'Yummy Mummy' mug...very appropriate i felt :)
They are also great as a little treat if you are having a sweet tooth craving moment!
They are a soft and sort of a smooth textured biscuit with the filling having a little bit of a zing from the lemon zest.

Melting Moments

Ingredients


Bickies

200 g Salter Butter (softened)
1/3 cups Pure Icing Sugar (sifted)
1 1/4 cups Plain Flour
1/3 Custard powder

Lemon Butter Filling


60 g Salted Butter (softened)
3/4 cups Pure Icing Sugar (sifted)
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

Bickies


1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees celcious. Line baking trays with baking paper.

2. Beat together the butter and sifted icing sugar with an electric mixer until creamy

3. Sift flour and custard powder together add to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix until combined.

4. Lightly flour hands and shape 2 teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on tray 3cm apart.

5. Use a floured fork to press a pattern into the biscuits

6. Bake for 20 mins or until firm

7. Cool on trays for 10 mins then transfer to a wire rack till completely cool.

Lemon Butter Filling


Beat butter, icing sugar and lemon rind in the electric mixture until smooth and creamy

And to finish

6. Sandwich biscuits together with the lemon cream filling and lightly dust with icing sugar.

And there you have it, yummy bite size pieces of heaven. Enjoy!

Coffee Anyone?

Saturday night with the girls watching movies and chatting, i thought 'hmm...what to bring?'

Then i came across this yummy looking recipe in one of Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie making you a better cook' magazine!

It was for Coffee Eclairs. To be honest Im not the biggest coffee fan! 

I don't drink it and have no idea about coffee.

Once i got stuck in a conversation with one of my patients about coffee.....i had nothing to bring to this convo may i add!

But i don't mind coffee flavoured thinks, such as ice cream, tarts, ice coffee (does that count?)

Yet these coffee eclairs can turn even the biggest coffee hater into a lover!

They are subtle and delicate and just enough!

Coffee Eclairs

Ingredients

Eclairs (makes around 12-15)

65ml Milk

65ml Water

50 g Unlsalted Butter (softened)

1/2 Teaspoon Sugar 

75g Flour

2 Eggs, beaten plus egg wash

Coffee Custard Filling 

250ml Full cream Milk

2 Tablespoon Whole Coffee Beans

60g Sugar

1/2 Vanilla pod, split lengthways, seed scraped or  I used 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste 

1 Egg

2 Tablespoon Cornflour

25g Butter, diced into small cubes

Coffee glaze

100g Pure Icing Sugar

2 Tablespoon Espresso or Strong Coffee

Eclairs

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 and line a baking tray with paper. Place the milk, butter, sugar, water and a pinch of salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat.

2. Remove from the heat, add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Return to a medium heat and cook for 1 minute, until the mixture comes away from  the sides and a little skin forms on the bottom of the pan.

3. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the eggs till you have a smooth batter that just drops off the spoon. Cover with glad wrap and leave the mixture to cool.

4. Fit a large piping bag with a  1 cm plain nozzle, fill with cooled mixture and pipe  out your eclairs onto the baking trays, spaced at about 5 cm apart. Brush with egg wash and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and puffed.

5. Transfer to a wire rack and pierce each pastry with a skewer so the steam can escape. Leave to cool.

Coffee Custard Filling

1. Place the milk, coffee beans, sugar, and vanilla pod and seeds or paste and a pinch of salt in a saucepan and heat to just under the boil. Remove the milk mixture from the heat, cover and leave to steep for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg and cornflour in a small bowl and set aside.

2. Strain the milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. Return the mixture to the pan and heat again to just under the boil, then whisk 2 tablespoonsful into egg mixture.

3. Pour this back into the pan and whisk constantly over a low heat until you have a thick custard. 

4. Strain the custard, then stir to release the steam. Stir in the butter cubes, one by one. Place a sheet of glad wrap on the custard's surface so a skin doesn't form, and leave to cool.

Construction

1. Cut the eclairs across the side till just attached. 

2. Place the custard mixture in a piping back with a regular nozzle make sure they're nice and full! Pop the top on.

Coffee Glaze

1. Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, then gradually whisk in the espresso. When smooth and glossy, spoon the glaze over the elcairs. Place on a board or rack and allow the icing to set before serving.

And your done! 

Best Cake Ever

As my first blog ever i thought i would start with something that will not disappoint!

This is what i think is one of the best cakes ever!

It's super easy and so yummy.

I got this awesome cake from the blog A true love of mine which she cleverly developed from Gwyneth Watkins recipe found in the Country Womens Association Cakes Cookbook.

LIME SYRUP CAKE!

To describe it just isn't enough but ill have a go, its fluffy and moist, with a delicious lime syrup.

Ingredients

Cake

180g Softened salted butter

1 cup Caster Sugar 

2 Eggs

1 1/4 + 1/3 cups Self Raising Flour (the recipe i got this from had troubles with fractions and so do i so i hope u get what i mean here)

3/4 cup Sour Cream

Zest of one Lime

3 tablespoons Lime Juice

Lime Syrup

4 tablespoons Lime Juice

100 g icing sugar

Let's do this:

1. Pre heat over to 160 degrees Celsius, line or grease an 18cm tin

2. Cream the softened butter and sugar on medium speed

3. Beat in zest and eggs

4. Fold in sifted flour, sour cream and lime juice

5. Bake in oven for one hour 

Lime Syrup

1. In a small saucepan dissolve the sugar in the line juice over a low heat

And finally

Poke several holes in the cake using a skewer, then poor the delicious warm lime syrup over the cake. Don't be afraid of the syrup it won't make the cake soggy, just delicious!

Tips:

The batter looks super thick but don't worry, just smooth it out and it will work.

More holes = more yummy syrup seeping through the cake

You can also make this using lemons or oranges

This cake would be super cute and yummy as cupcakes also. I recommend having it warm, trust me its gooodd!