Cookie Time!

I needed something quick and easy this time round, and I always like chocolate and peanut as a flavour combo, so these cookies fit the bill nicely. I was given the recipe for my Hen's Party with the name "Gran's Peanut Cookies" - they seemed quite familiar when I was making (& sampling!) them, so I did some sleuthing and found they're an old favourite from the Edmonds Cookbook. I used to make them as a kid!

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Gran's Peanut Cookies

1 egg
125gm butter
1 C sugar
1 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 Dsp coca
1 C peanuts
1/2 tsp salt

• Beat the butter & sugar until well mixed and pale in colour.
• Add egg, beat again. Then add all the sifted dry ingredients.
• Mix again then add the peanuts.
• Place spoonfuls on a greased/lined tray & bake for 15mins at 170'C

NB: If you use raw peanuts toast them slightly first. I just used roasted salted peanuts (it's what was in my cupboard!) and omitted the salt from the recipe!

Happy Munching!

Nan's Chocolate Cake

Everyone loves a good chocolate cake don't they? I saw this recipe included a few spices so I was interested to try it. Only problem...its a very small recipe - so I made it in my 18cm cake tin (which is pretty small to start with) and it didn't rise much, so it looked like half a cake. Easily fixed though - I just made another one and layered them together!

Topped off with a rich chocolate buttercream frosting and this cake was delicious - the spices gave it that little extra depth of flavour.

Nan's Chocolate Cake

125 gm Butter
2 Dsp Golden Syrup
1 C sugar
1/2 C Milk
1 1/2 C Flour
1-2 Tbsp Cocoa
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Mixed Spice
1/2 C Milk
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla

• In a pot, melt butter, golden syrup and first quantity of milk
• Sift dry ingredients and then add to the butter mix
• Mix together second quantity of milk with baking powder and vanilla, then add the cake mixture.
• Bake 30-40mins at 180'C

Let me know if you bake it - maybe yours will magically rise & you'll only need one cake!

Heartbreak Cookies

I actually sampled these cookies at a Christmas Cookie swap, which doubled my motivation to make them! Yes, they are good. My niece came for a baking date to help me with my Good Bitches Baking bake, so we made a double batch to have enough for her to take some home (and so my husband could enjoy some baking too!).....it was once we'd eaten the last of our cookies that I discovered why they were probably named Heartbreak Cookies - because you're heartbroken when you run out! But with the amount of chocolaty goodness in them, they're probably pretty medicinal when you've got a broken heart for other reasons too.

My niece and I had a fun time together baking these, & talked a little about how they were going to the local hospice with the hope they'd make someones day a bit better.

Heartbreak Cookies

225g butter, softened
2c sugar
3 eggs
2tsp vanilla
1 1/2c flour
1c cocoa
1tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1c chocolate pieces (mix of white & dark goes well)
1/2c chopped almonds (or more chocolate!)

• Preheat the oven to 190'C Fan bake
• Cream butter & sugar
• Beat in eggs & vanilla
• In a seperate bowl stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder & salt
• Stir about 1/2 flour mix into creamed mixture
• Add chocolate, nuts & then the remaining flour
• Drop tablespoonfuls onto lined baking trays
• Bake 8-10mins until firm but still springy.
• Eat!

I really think you should make these - you'll thank me later!

Rhubarb Gingerbread

Despite having my own rhubarb plant, I don't actually end up making many things with it. But in amongst the recipes I received at my Hen's Party I found this recipe for Rhubarb Gingerbread - so another Good Bitches Bake gave me a good opportunity to try it out. I didn't have the recommended square tin so just made a round one (and a little cupcake so I could test what I was giving away! One must carry out quality assurance. 😉)

Rhubarb Gingerbread
*makes a 20cm square cake
*preheat oven to 180'C & line a baking tin.

100g wholemeal flour
100g plain flour
1/2tsp baking soda
2tsp ground ginger
100gm butter
100gm brown/raw sugar
60ml treacle/molasses/golden syrup
2Tbsp milk
2 large eggs
50g crystallised ginger pieces
350g rhubarb stems, washed & dried

• Remove the 'hoof' from the rhubarb stems & cut into 1cm slices.
• Chop ginger into pea sized pieces.
• Sift together the flours, soda & ginger into a mixing bowl. Tip the coarse bits of the wholemeal into the bowl. Mix in rhubarb & ginger.
• Melt together butter, sugar & treacle. Allow to cool before stirring in the eggs & milk.
• Make a hollow in the dry ingredients & pour in the liquid. Mix well.
• Pour mixture into prepared tin & bake for 40mins.
• Cool for 5 mins before removing from the tin & cool on a rack.

Are you a rhubarb fan? How about ginger?

Chocolate & Raspberry - A Great Combo!

I know the popular combo is white chocolate and raspberry, but I'm not a huge white chocolate fan. So I like pairing raspberries with milk or dark chocolate. I really like using the freeze dried raspberry powder at the moment - it gives a real raspberry flavour, though the colour isn't a strong pink so you may want to add some colouring to the icing if you want a deeper pink colour.

I was introduced to the 1M piping nozzle a while back (relatively late in my cake decorating experience really!) and its great - so easy & quick to make cupcakes & cakes that look fancy!

Best Ever Chocolate Cupcakes!

1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup boiling water
1 1/3 flour
2tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
115gm butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2tsp vanilla
2 crunchy bars, chopped (optional)

• Stir boiling water & cocoa in a small bowl. Leave to cool.
• Cream butter & sugar.
• Add eggs one at a time.
• Beat until smooth, stir in vanilla.
• Add dry ingredients & beat til just incorporated.
• Add cocoa mix & stir til smooth.
• Add crunchy bar pieces if using.
• Place in cupcake papers & bake 16-20mins at 180'C.
• Ice with your favourite buttercream frosting when cool.

Makes 16 standard cupcakes.

Do let me know what you think if you give them a try 😊

A little bit of magic.

My friend's daughters love Unicorns and, lets face it, so do I - so I use them as an excuse for indulging in unicorn related things. So for a special afternoon tea when one of these lovely girls turned 5 back in November, I made unicorn cookies.....100s of them it turned out. That's a good recipe that one! So there were herds of unicorns left over from the afternoon tea party (which we had on a yacht!) - this meant my bake for Good Bitches Baking that week was sorted. Quite likely unicorn cookies weren't going to bring the kind of magic the recipients need, but hopefully the pretty colours of the sweet treats brought a little brightness to their day.

I used this sugar cookie recipe from Cake Warehouse and made this egg free royal icing. I've not made egg free royal icing before - it was great, and so much easier to make another batch when you run out! As far as I can tell, in NZ corn syrup is glucose syrup (well, that's what I used and it worked!)

Anyway if you're like me you just want the pictures of Unicorns, so here you go :)

 

                           

Do you believe in Unicorns?