Cookies!! - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!!

I have been having quite a lovely time lately trying out some vegan recipes.  These cookies were magnificently delicious!!



Please find the original recipe over here I used this recipe from the book "Eat Drink & Be Vegan" by Dreena Burton.  I changed the original recipe ever so slightly - Instead of allspice, I just added extra cinnamon, so a whole teaspoon of cinnamon in total (because cinnamon is magical and I love it!!. The other slight tweak I made, was that instead of plain instant oats (of which I had none) I used a sachet of Quaker "oats So Simple - Golden Syrup flavour", and then added ordinary rolled oats to make up the 1/2 cup. I also added about 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts!

I also cooked them a little longer than the strict 11 minutes specified - I think my oven is a little dodgy, and i made some other cookies from the same book which ended up a little soft when I stuck to 11 minutes.  I left these until golden brown, and once cooled, they were nice and crisp, with a slight Anzac biscuit taste to them!

High Tea!

Kara had a marvellous idea, and a high tea was organised! Complete with pretty tea cups, delicious morsels of food, a beautiful garden in the sunshine, and ladies in dresses and hats!











Anita made this selection of tarts, custard and mini pavlova!


Fancy sandwiches by Kara

Lemon tarts

I made these strawberry macarons. They were filled with strawberry almond buttercream.  They didn't quite work as well as my test batch, but they still looked pretty and tasted quite yum! (Will have to keep practicing!)


Those are my choc caramel brownies that are out of focus.... they were nice and gooey!

These little scones were great! I think I need the recipe!!

I also made these little lemon cupcakes!

We only slightly over catered.... (ok, there was heaps of food left over!), but maybe all of the guests just under ate :-) .  Look forward to the next one!!!!

Pumpkin Cupcakes - for Halloween!

We had a lovely time at a Halloween BBQ with friends this year!

We carved some pumpkins, which looked rather impressive when all lit up!

The pumpkin innards were put to great use on these delicious pizzas, expertly cooked on the bbq by Kara. 

Anita made us all individualised graveyard chocolate mousse!!

My contribution were these Pumpkin Cupcakes... the recipe goes a little like this.....

ingredients
1 cup cream
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
approx 500g butternut pumpkin (this weight was with the skin & seeds still attached)
approx 2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2  teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon "apple cake" spice mix

first remove skin and seeds from pumpkin and chop the pumpkin into small cubes.

In a saucepan, place chopped pumpkin, and about half of the cream. add 1 tablespoon maple syrup and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon & 1/4 teaspoon "apple cake" spice (or just use some nutmeg, or whatever other spice you like).  Cook over a gentle heat until pumpkin is cooked - you need to puree it, so make sure it is well cooked.  When cooked, puree with a stick blender, or similar. set aside to cool.

When the pumpkin mix has cooled, get on with the rest of the recipe.....

Preheat oven to 180c

Combine remaining cream, eggs, sugar, maple syrup and spices and beat well.  Gradually add the flour and stir till well combined.  Stir through pumpkin puree.

Spoon mixture into cupcake trays lined with papers.  Bake in oven approx 20 minutes. But check on them as they may cook a little more quickly.

Let the cupcakes cool.

Then ice with the icing of your choice - I made a simple icing of icing sugar, margarine, a little maple syrup and cinnamon. And coloured it orange.

To decorate, I melted some dark chocolate and piped it into slightly dodgy looking shapes that vaguely resembled spiders.

baking - zucchini cake

Another way to use up excess Zucchini!!

I hadn't really considered using zucchini in something sweet, but I found this recipe on Taste.com.au (click to see the recipe), and decided to give it a try!  The result was a deliciously moist and fruity cake!  It was super simple to make, just mix everything together and bake!

a couple of notes -

• The 250g of zucchini mentioned turned out to be one large zucchini.  
• I am not a fan of raisins, so I just used 300g of sultanas instead of 150g of raisins & 150g of sultanas
• My loaf tin was longer than the one the recipe specified, and I found the cake was cooked after just under an hour.
• I needed a bit more icing, because I smoothed it over the sides instead of just letting it drip.

Baking - Choc-choc chip cookies

I promised Janet I would bake some choc chip cookies, so after buying some choc chips, I decided to use the recipe on the back of the packet!  I made a couple of changes....

125g butter (soft)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 packet Dark Choc Chips (I used Cadbury 230g packet) (recipe actually says to use 3/4 cup, but thats nearly the whole packet anyway)

leave butter out of fridge until soft!! Preheat Oven to 160 C, cream butter & sugars until light and fluffy, mix in vanilla and egg.  Stir in Flour & cocoa, add choc chips.  I needed to add a little water to the mix as I found it a bit too dry.

Place dessertspoonfuls (original recipe calls for teaspoonfuls - but I thought this was a little stingy!)of mixture onto trays lined with baking paper.  Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes.  Allow to cool on trays.

Enjoy!!

Cupcakes - Chocolate & Vanilla

I made these same cupcakes for 2 different events that we had, both on the same weekend.

ingredients for cupcakes


250ml cream

220g caster sugar

2 eggs

225g self raising flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cocoa powder


preheat oven to 180c and line your muffin tins with cupcake wrappers (makes about 18 cupcakes).



whisk together cream, sugar and eggs until well combined. Gradually add flour and beat until smooth, add vanilla. Take half of the mixture and put into a seperate bowl.  TO the remaining half, add the cocoa powder and mix well (add a little milk if the mixture gets too thick)

dollop alternate spoons from each bowl into cupcake wrappers and bake for about 20 minutes (keep an eye on them!)

When cakes have cooled, ice with vanilla icing (icing sugar, a dab of butter & hot water), then drizzle randomly with melted dark chocolate (I melt in the microwave, them ut into a plastic bag and snip off the corner, for easy drizzling)

Zucchini and Haloumi Star-tletts

We were off to a birthday party, and I checked the fridge to see what I had that I could turn into something presentable, and yummy. (It was a first birthday party, so my aim was something both Adults & Children would eat)

I decided to turn some frozen shortcrust pastry into little tartletts, and along the way, they turned into star-tletts!

to make the pastry cases, cut rounds from the just thawed shortcrust, and use the rounds to line some patty pan tins. (I sprayed the tins with canola oil spray first, and also layed a thin strip of baking paper across each to ensure the cases would lif out easily)

I blind baked the pastry cases for about 10 minutes in a 180c oven. (I didnt fill them with rice or beans, I just crossed my fingers and hoped for not too much puffing :-)

With the pastry offcuts, I cut small stars, and baked these at the same time as the pastry - don;t let the stars get too brown, as they will be going in the oven again.

To make the filling I grated 1 zucchini, and about 50g of haloumi (I didnt measure this, and just used what I had left in the fridge).  To the grated items, I added 2 beaten eggs, the juice of half a lemon, some chopped fresh oregano & thyme, and a sprinkling of tabasco (I would have used some fresh chilli if I had any).  I mixed this all together and then stirred in about 2 tablespoons of self raising flour.

I then spooned the filling into the pastry cases, topped with a pre-cooked star and returned to the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the filling has cooked.

Serve hot, or cold!

Hot Cross Buns

I decided to have a go at making Hot Cross Buns this year, and they worked out very well, so might make a habit of it!!


I used this recipe from taste.com.au and just made a couple of adjustments - I only used sultanas, no currants or peel, and I used 2 teaspoons of mixed spice, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

I also made a slight error and added all of the flour, instead of only 4 cups, so my mix had half a cup of flour extra, which didnt seem to cause a problem (thankfully!!! - must read the recipe properly!!).  Instead of glazing them with the apricot jam, I mixed together 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, with 2 tablespoons of boiling water, and a sprinkling of cinnamon,and brushed this on the cooked buns.

Baby Shower Cupcakes for Gina

For Gina's Baby Shower, I made Vanilla Cupcakes iced with chocolate buttercream.  These are very easy to make, and the result is a nice light, fluffy cake!

ingredients
250ml cream
220g caster sugar
2 eggs
225g self raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

preheat oven to 180c and line your muffin tins with cupcake wrappers (makes about 18 cupcakes).

whick together cream, sugar and eggs until well combined.  Gradually add flour and beat until smooth, add vanilla. (you can ad whatever other flavour you prefer - e.g lemon zest, or orange zest instead of the vanilla).

spoon batter into the paper cases and bake for 20 minutes - the cakes will be a lovely golden colour.

to make the chocolate butter cream, melt 120g dark choc and allow to cool.  Beat 150g softened butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add 160g icing sugar and continue to beat, till you have a very light and fluffy mix, add a splash of vanilla and the cooled melted chocolate, and mic until well combined (and still light and fluffy of course!!). Put into a piping bag and ice the cooled cupcakes.

Gina had some very cool cupcake toppers, which made the cupcakes look a little bit fancy schmancy!!

and while we are here, how about some more baby shower pictures.....




on the left are some vegan chocolate truffles - I need to get the recipe for these because they were great!




this guacamole was delicious!!

.
I ate too many of these crunchy felafel!



meatballs!!



pretty sandwiches!!

Morning Tea - Cinnamon Tea Cake

Is there anything better than the aroma of warm cinnamon? This is a simple cake - quick and easy to make, that tastes absolutely delicious!!

ingredients
60g butter or margerine (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla (extract)
150g caster sugar
1 egg
150g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup milk

extra butter - melted
cinnamon sugar (made to the ratio of 1 teaspoon cinnamon to 1 tablespoon caster sugar - I always keep a jar in the cupboard!!)


preheat oven to 170c
grease 20cm round cake tin & line base with baking paper

beat together butter/marg, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Ad egg and beat well. Add (sifted) flour & baking powder with the milk. stir.

put mixture into cake tin, and bake for approx 30 minutes. Turn out, and flip back over so the top is at the top!!  Brush the top of cake with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

enjoy while still warm, and remember the times when your Gran used to make a cake just like it.

baking - Rhubarbwhines Lemon Cookies

When I saw the recipe for these Lemon Cookies on Rhubarbwhine's blog here -Rhubarb Whines Lemon Cookies - I just knew I had to make them. It has taken me a while to actually get around to it - but I can see these cookies being made many times in the future - they are quite delicious!

A couple of notes about the recipe - it took me 4 lemons to get the required amount of juice, which was fortunate, since I only had four lemons to hand (hopefully this will change when I get my own lemon & lime trees in the near future!).

The recipe makes more icing than you will need - so next time, I would reduce the quantity to avoid having to "taste test" so much of it :-)

#baked relief

I tried to post this last weekend, but that was when I discovered my email etc had been hijacked, so lets try again!

With all the flooding that occured across Queensland, the community has really banded together to help each other to get through this difficult time. One way that people have been helping is through #baked relief.  What started as an idea by Digella (blog here) has seemingly steamrolled into a massive baking and cooking movement across the state. Baked Relief now has its own website here. 

I baked these muffins to be taken out to Goodna. I wanted to share the recipe, because it was easy, it made a decent amount, and is easy to alter according to the ingredients you have in your cupboard. Which was super important last week, since there weren't many options in the supermarket, so I had to go with what I had on hand.

This recipe was adapted from Super Food Ideas August 2007 edition.

Basic Muffin Mix

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups self raising flour (or plain flour with 5 teaspoons of baking powder)

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil (or 90g butter melted)

1/2 cup caster sugar (omit if making savoury muffins)

optional - 1 cup museli

or

1 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup mixed dried fruit and 1 teaspoon cinnamon

preheat oven to 180 c.  Mix together dry ingredients to combine. Combine milk, egg, butter or oil in jug.  Pour into dry ingredients and mix till just combined.  Spoon mix into muffin tins lined with patty papers.  I managed to make 30 regular sized muffins (not giant ones) from this mix. 

I made 2 batches - a muesli batch and a fruit and oat version. Then I ran out of flour. 

Other options - Add chopped apple and a teaspoon of cinnamon (I couldnt find any apples!)

                        omit sugar and add some cheese and bacon

                        add choc chips

                        omit sugar and add 1/4 cup maple syrup, and 1 cup of rolled oats

                       add some walnuts

 

the possibilities are endless!!!!

bake in oven for about 15 minutes (cooking time will vary depending on the size of your muffins and what you have added - just keep an eye on them!!)