Sprucing up normality

Do you ever make a hot chocolate and think it's a little ho-hum? Or eat a biscuit and think it could be better, but how? Or sit around a fire in the backyard (controlled, of course) and wonder how the night could be better? Well, I have the answer for you. It's not that difficult and once you hear the solution, you'll wonder why you haven't done it sooner. Ready? Here it is... MARSHMALLOWS! And I don't mean those horrible store bought marshmallows that feel grainy while eating and you question what decade they were made in. I mean fresh, soft, delicate homemade marshmallows! Now, I sense some of you are poo-pooing this idea now you know they're homemade, but trust me, they are super easy and you'll wish you had discovered this super simple recipe ages ago! Now get baking!!

Monte Carlo is more than a place

Another post of something that links to my childhood food memories. It's a similar story to my Kingston Biscuits post, the Arnott's Monte Carlos were always popular among my family. I was also excited to see them in my lunch box at school, especially if they got a little soft, as the jam in the centre would be a tacky and I could chew it for longer. I also loved opening the two biscuits up and trying to get equal cream on both sides to eat individually.

But why make Monte Carlo biscuits now, you ask. Well, all week my morning coffee shop have had the nicest looking biscuits on display. They were thick and crumbly with either a buttercream or cream cheese centre. The girl who works there said they were going to have Monte Carlos tomorrow and that set my brain on the path of how I would make Monte Carlos. So, last night with no "treats" for my sons lunchbox in the cupboard, I decided to make some Monte Carlos. Enjoy.

Patriotism via food

I don't feel like Australians have much patriotism, unless we're at a major sporting event. As a country, we seem to support the underdog more than the over acheiver, we give critism from the sideline and we rarely produce movies that have a strong sense of national pride and achievement. HOWEVER, try to tell us certain foods are not Australian and you have a fight on your hands. We fight more often than not with the New Zealanders, who most notorisouly try to lay claim to the Pavlova - verdict is still out however this Aussie will agrue it's our creation! Other foods we feel are ours include lamingtons, ANZAC cookies, vegemite, pies and ninish tarts. Funny enough though, vegemite is owned by an American company, pies are more likely English and every country seems to have a variation on the ninish tart.

Another item I list under the Australian identity (which also reminds me of childhood) are cornflake cookies. Super easy to make with a sweetness from the sultanas and a crunch from the cornflakes. Give them a go if you've never tried them and feel free to leave me a message below with your childhood "patriotic" foods.

MORE STRAWBERRIES

Another weekend, another trip to the markets! And once again strawberries were the item to buy in bulk, which of course I did. So, with another weekend with a fridge full of strawberries, I contemplated what to make with them. I could possibly make some strawberry and banana smoothies, or maybe a strawberry mousse cake, or even the classic strawberry shortcake. However, with no visitors planned for the week, I thought I should try something a bit simple. I instantly thought of biscuits with a buttercream filling. So with that, the task was set.

I wanted to make a chewy, golden biscuit, something similar to an Anzac, however I wanted honey to be the stand-out flavour. I played around with a few ideas and settled on a mix between an Anzac and an oat biscuit. After my buttercream success last week, I decided to go with this new method and finish it off by adding a strawberry puree. The result was a fluffy and smooth cream with the sweetness of the strawberries an absolute hero. I can see these being a delightful addition to the next high tea I bake for! ENJOY.

 

Peanut Crunch biscuits

June seems to be the month for birthday's at work. We even have two on the same day (I happen to be one of those two people). So that means lots of cake! We set up a cake roster so no one would have to bake on their own birthday, however now that I share a birthday with my boss, that little plan doesn't quite work. Oh well, good thing I like to bake.

For my bosses birthday I made some vanilla cupcakes with a choc-raspberry buttercream icing. I have made cupcakes a few times on this blog, so I won't post the recipe. However, I will post the recipe for the delicious little biscuits I also baked to accompany the cupcakes. The thing you need to know about the people in my office is that they like sweets and they don't like waiting until the afternoon for the birthday celebrations. For my bosses birthday, I made some Peanut Crunch Biscuits to help get the team through the day. They were buttery, peanuty and crumbly, which pretty much means perfect :-). Try them and you'll see.

Reuben's cookies

It has rained the whole weekend. Not that much you can do when it rains. Luckily, baking is something you can do anytime! So Reuben and I spent some quality time together in the kitchen. I love baking with Reuben. The constant trying to eat the ingredients is annoying, but I love how much he wants to be involved. He pours everything into the bowl and always has to use the mixer (he's pretty good at it as well).

When deciding what to bake today, I thought back to my childhood and what it was that I liked eating. I instantly thought of iced vovo biscuits. Mum and Dad always bought biscuits for school lunches and to eat with coffee after their dinner. The iced vovo's were regulars in our cupboard. I didn't feel like sticking with tradition today, I thought we needed something a bit pretty to brighten up such a dull weekend, so we went with a flower shaped biscuit. Reuben didn't care either way, he just loved eating them!

Spotless

Helping Mummy

Rip off cookies

One of my favourite things to do at the moment is scroll through the hundreds of photos on Pinterest. I love seeing what other people discover and developing my own ideas form them. I also love that you can keep track of all the great webpages without having to bookmark the site or page in your toolbar.

This morning, while slightly hungover, I was checking out the latest updates in my Pinterest account and came across a link for Doughnut Cookies. I thought they looked amazing and possibly not too difficult to recreate. So, with a sore head and not much energy to bake for a party I'm going to this afternoon, I thought these cookies were the perfect solution.

I used my sugar cookie recipe from a previous post and a basic icing and finished them off with the special sprinkles I ordered from an online supplies store. So easy yet so delicious! ENJOY!