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!!

De-stress baking

I was just sitting at my computer, feeling a little irritated and stressed, so decided to take 5 minutes to browse some of my favourite blogs. I always find this takes my mind off being annoyed and helps me refocus. Yes, technically I am at work and should be "working", but today I haven't had a lunch break so don't believe I am being naughty :-). Also, I'm in Marketing, so any website or blog browsing can be considered research... kind of.

So, I started looking at my top 5 blogs. I started with Raspberri Cupcakes and found a delicious looking Orange Tea Cake and instantly decided I needed to do some baking tonight. That then reminded me, I haven't posted my cheesecake from my sibling's dinner last week - whoops. So here it is, along with my Top 5 de-stress baking blogs (in no particular order): Raspberri Cupcakes, Sprinkle Bakes, Bakers Royale, Sweetapolita and Tastespotting.

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.

Showering a friend with sweetness

A few weeks ago we through a baby shower for my manager at work. She has been an inspiration to me and many others I work with and we wanted to show her how special she was by throwing a party for her and bub. I've been saving this post until Baby Stalley was born... and we just got the news that he arrived. So a BIG congratulations. We cannot wait to give him cuddles.

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.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Tonight I am going to watch Christmas movies! I have waited long enough, but tonight is definitely the night for me to bust out my favourite Christmas DVD and snuggle up on the couch with some wine. I'll get the toddler off to sleep and then it's all about me ;-). I can say that now, it's only just past 9am. Give me the full day at work as well as an evening of an over tired toddler and my story might change, but right now I'll revel in the thoughts of cheesy Christmas and some alcoholic grapes in liquid form.

To further accentuate the Christmas cheer, I have made some Christmas cookies for the office. A crisp sugar cookie with a subtle mint flavour. ENJOY!

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.

 

Empty the fridge baking

It's the end of the week and I have a few bits and bobs left in my fridge that I'd prefer to use than throw away. One of these items is 3/4 of a bag of beetroot bulbs. I've seen a few recipes where beetroots have been added to baking to make something sweet, but never tried it. Last year my friend at work made me a chocolate beetroot cake for my birthday and it was delicious - so moist and rich. However, being the end of the week, I had minimal butter, no eggs and no chocolate left... so what to do with the beetroots I just roasted (besides making a salad, which I will have for dinner tonight!!). I did a little search online and found a few recipes for beetroot biscuits. I decided to play with this idea and made some end-of-the-week-fridge-clean-out cookies! They were surprisingly nice, not the most delicious biscuit I've ever made/eaten, but worth a try. They are crumbly and have a nice chocolate hit followed by the sweetness of the beetroot. ENJOY.

Here's to the Mummy to be!

My dear friend Lisa is about to have a baby. A few months ago in a flurry of excitement, another friend from work and I decided we NEEDED to throw her a baby shower (as she was avoiding having one at all). How could she miss having a heap of people around telling her awful birth stories, or playing games that would make a non-pregnant person churn, or stressing over whether people will turn up... doesn't sound all that awesome now I think about it, although it was!

We were a little slack in organising, however pulled it all at the last minute. We had many grand plans with the styling and decorating, but in the end decided simple was best. I also had a disaster day in the kitchen. The food I have baked perfectly a thousand times before stuffed up and the food I usually have trouble with was amazing. I even made two batches of sugar cookies, both for some reason came out of the oven crystalised (any tips onto why would be great). I ended up making two batches of cupcakes (not all successful), caramel tarts, custard tarts, sandwiches, avocado and tomato bites, and roast pumpkin and onion jam tarts.

Lisa was a beautiful Mummy-to-be and we had a wonderful morning. I can't wait to meet the little man! Counting down the weeks.

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

Nut-thing's the matter with cookies

I have seen a few Nutella recipes on blogs of late, so I thought I'd attempt a few of my own. I need to wait for my banana's to ripen before my next recipe, however, here are some delicious Nutella Cookies I made to use as lunchbox treats for the week.

 

Baked gifts come from the heart

There are some foods you can't go without at Christmas. You have to overdose on ham (breakfast, lunch and dinner), you must eat Christmas pudding smothered in thick custard (YUMMMM) and you have to indulge in practically everything presented to you. As you might be able to tell, Christmas is all about the food for me. However, I also love finding great gifts for people and watching them open them. So, why not combine these two joys? To continue with my baked gifts, this post features what I made for my son's teachers.

An angel for the top of the Christmas tree

I love Christmas. I love singing Christmas carols (to myself as I am incredible tone deaf!), I love Christmas food, I love buying presents for people and I love the festive feeling that is in the air. 

Growing up, Christmas was always a big affair full of tradition. We always put the Christmas tree up on the 1st December with carols playing in the background and my sister breaking at least one ornament (age did not stop this tradition). My Mum sat back and watched until it was time to put the angel on the top of the tree - that was her job. I have so many wonderful memories of those years that I want to incorporate some of them into my own family so my son can enjoy them he grows up. My family always used a fake tree, however my husband's family used a live tree. More often than not it would be a massive branch that they found somewhere in a park (or one year, just on the side of the road). My husband has always said he wanted us to have a real tree, so this year, we do. It's not huge, but something that can grow and take on a shape of it's own.

The Christmas baking starts with something simple

I've been doing a bit of research into delicious baked items that I can give as Christmas gifts. Last year was the first year I did this and had a great response. Those people I always find it hard to buy for, I found easy to bake for. So this year I'm extending the baking gifts list. As Christmas in Brisbane is always sweltering (and generally rains for those interested), I don't want to bake anything to heavy. For my 92 year old Grandma I'm planning on baking an assortment of cookies. So today I started testing some recipes. I need to work on my royal icing, but the cookie and icing taste nice. If you feel like some easy recipes to try, have a go at this one. ENJOY!

Some impromptu baking

This morning I was running around the house, trying to get my son ready for day care and myself ready for work. I was half way through making his lunch when I realised I had no afternoon tea for him. I grabbed an armful of ingredients from the cupboard and whipped up some chocolate cookies. I didn't have enough chocolate for the cookies, so I used some left over freddos from our trick-or-treating stock, so these biscuits are a mix of dark and milk chocolate. I am yet to actual taste them, as was in such a hurry that I forgot to pack myself a biscuit, but I am looking forward to crunching on one (some) tonight. Fresh from the oven, they looked the perfect combination of chewy and crunchy.

ENJOY

Attempt at a classic

There are always foods that hold special memories, or even just remind you of a feeling, when you eat them. Cupcakes remind me of visiting my grandma when we were little and eating her "little cakes". They were just a basic vanilla cupcake recipe, but to us they were a little bit of magic that melted in our mouths. Whenever I have a salmon sandwich I get the urge to cut it into as many tiny squares as possible, like we use to do when we stayed at my other grandma's house. My sister and I would sit around her table and squeal with excitement as she manged to squeeze in an extra row. And trifle is not trifle unless my Dad's cousin makes it, and only at Christmas. Every Christmas we would all stuff into our already full belly's Ray's trifle, which was soaked in port with rich custard and homemade sponge. Thinking of it now makes me smile as I remember all the delicious Christmas' we spent together as a family.

Another food which spurs memories for me are Kingston biscuits. My Dad use to buy them to have with coffee after dinner. Anything with chocolate we devoured as children, so of course we would sneak as many Kingston's as possible. I was browsing some of my favorite blogs recently and found this recipe on Raspberri Cupcakes for Oat Cookies with Coconut Milk Ganache. It was a must to attempt. I have much to learn about properly rolling biscuits and not over filling the centers, but they still tasted amazing - a biscuit which resembled an Anzac with a chocolaty coconut filling. If you loved Kingston's as a child, or even now, I recommend you try these biscuits and the amazing revelation of using coconut milk instead of cream in the ganache.

A moment to melt

Take a moment and treat yourself to these delicious buttery biscuits. I don't bake biscuits often, but these delightful treats are just that, delightful. I made the below batch for my  husband's family recently when they all popped over for a Sunday afternoon cuppa - the biscuits didn't last long.

What I love about these biscuits is that they just melt in your mouth - I guess whoever named them melting moments was pretty spot on. I've made these before using custard powder (I think they're also referred to as Yo-Yo Biscuits), but as I LOVE custard, I got a tad disappointed that I couldn't taste custard in the biscuits. The below recipe works just as well and avoids any unneeded custard disappointment.