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!

=

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?

Gingerbread!

Very busy and very behind with blogging these recipes, so today will be a quick photo, type recipe & push publish kinda day! (And I've just realised I'm out of order with posting when I made what, but we won't let that get in the way of progress!)


Gingerbread

100gms butter (softened)
3/4C sugar
2 eggs
1C golden syrup
1C milk
3C flour
2tsp ginger
2tsp cinnamon
1 1/2tsp baking soda
crystalised ginger pieces (optional)

• Cream butter & sugar til light coloured, add eggs & beat.
• Warm syrup til runny & add milk, stir.
• Sieve dry ingredients several times
• Fold the syrup mixture & dry ingredients alternately into the butter mixture. Do not over mix. Fold together until no dry flour remains.
• Turn into 2 loaf pans (or 20cm square cake tins) lined with baking paper. Sprinkle with chopped pieces of crystalised ginger if using.
• Bake at 150'C until a skewer comes out clean from the centre, about 30-40mins for square pans, 40-45mins for loaf pans.

Note: 

- I used molasses instead of golden syrup (I'd run out!) & it still tasted good, probably a bit darker in colour than normal.

- I used individual loaf pans, so it took less time to cook, but I can't remember how long! I just guess anyway! (Should I be admitting that?!)

Friendship Brownie

With study for & sitting a Uni exam, I forgot what day of the week I was living in - it was about dinner time when I remembered it was Tuesday.....and I was scheduled to make a baking delivery the next day! So a quick look through the recipes I was given at my Hen's Party to find something quick & easy....and that I had the ingredients for! My good friend Fi's, Brownie recipe ticked all the boxes, so I quickly whipped a batch up.

             Friendship Brownie

           250g butter
           4 eggs
           1 Tbsp vanilla essence
           1 1/2C sugar
           8 Tbsp cocoa
           1 C flour
           2 tsp baking powder
           Choc chips
           Walnuts
           Icing sugar to serve

• Melt butter
• Add eggs, sugar & vanilla. Beat well.
• Add sifted flour, baking powder, cocoa. Mix well.
• Pour into a greased slice pan.
• Sprinkle with choc chips & chopped walnuts.
• Bake 180' for 35min.
• Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.

Can't really go wrong with chocolate now can ya? 😜

Spring Blossom

There are lots of trees covered in blossom round my neighbourhood, so I decided to send some blossom inside on this cake. Some midweek sweetness for the local hospice - a Lemon Drizzle Cake tweaked slightly by giving it a Raspberry Butter Cream Frosting. I love the combo of lemon & raspberry flavours - do you?

Eastbourne Lemon Drizzle Cake

115gm unsalted butter, softened
115gm caster sugar
4 free-range eggs
180gm ground almonds
30gm poppy seeds
zest & juice of 2 lemons
125gm self-raising flour, sifted

Lemon Syrup
100gm caster sugar
90gm lemon juice

Lemon Icing
225gm icing sugar
zest & juice of 1 lemon

• Preheat the oven to 180'C. Grease & line the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin.
• Beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy.
• Add the eggs one by one, beating each in well.
• Fold in the ground almonds, poppy seeds, lemon zest and juice, and the sifted flour.
• Bake for 40min or until lightly golden.
• Make the lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until sugar has dissolved.
• While cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top and pour your syrup over.
• For the icing, sift icing sugar into a bowl, add lemon juice and zest, stirring until smooth.
• When the cake is cool, poor the icing on the middle and let it drizzle down the sides.

Option: Make your favourite buttercream recipe and add some raspberry flavouring or freeze dried raspberry powder, spread over the cooled cake.

I made the blossom flowers out of pre-coloured fondant icing, & because I didn't have any pink dusting powder, 

I mixed a little freeze dried raspberry powder with water to paint the centres of the flowers.

Baking Things Better

Things have been a bit stressful lately, so while considering what I could do to help myself I decided to join Good Bitches Bake. Good Bitches Bake take baking donations from people like me, and deliver it to people who could do with a little sweetness in their lives, like Hospice's and Womans Refuge's. Its a win-win situation - I get to bake, which helps me feel productive & creative, but someone else gets to eat it (so I don't have to try and fit in even MORE exercise!).

As mentioned in a really old post, for my Hen's Party my girlfriends gave me some of their favourite recipes. So I thought since I'm going to be baking more regularly, it'd be a cool thing to bake my way through the recipes they gave me - and even cooler for you 'cos I've decided I'll do what I originally said, and share them here in case you want to try them too.

This weekend's baking (my first bake for Good Bitches Bake) I made Belgium Bars (like a slice version of Belgium Biscuits) - spices, sweetness & raspberry...makes a pretty tasty combo!

Belgium Bars

200gms Sugar

200gms Butter

1 Egg

1tsp Cinnamon

1tsp Mixed Spice

4tsp Baking Powder

2cups of Flour

3-4Tbsp Raspberry Jam

Icing

250gms Butter

500gms Icing Sugar

2tsp Raspberry Flavoured Essence

Freeze Dried Raspberry Power/Jelly Crystals for Sprinkling

• Heat over to 160'C and line a 28xm x 18cm slice tin
• Cream Butter & Sugar together
• Beat in egg
• Sift dry ingredients then mix into creamed butter until well combined
• Spread half the mix out to cover the bottom of the tin (you may be able to roll it out first) and prick with a fork/skewer
• Cover with Jam, and then spread other half of dough to cover the jam
• Bake for 20-30 mins til starting to brown, then cool out of the tin on a cooling rack.
• To make the icing: whip softened butter til creamy, then add icing sugar in 3 or 4 additions beating between each til smooth. Add raspberry flavouring & mix. If icing is too stiff add a small amount of warm water.
• Once the slice is cool, ice with butter cream & sprinkle with raspberry powder. 

Options: I cut the slices first before icing so I could make the piped icing look neater - if piping icing on, you may want to smear a small amount of icing on the slice first (like a crumb coat) so the piped icing will tick.

If you want you can flavour the icing using freeze dried raspberry powder instead of flavouring - you'll need a Tbsp or 2 (but taste test to get the strength of flavour you want)

Enjoy!

And here they all are ready to go to their new home :)

Looking for Corporate Gift Ideas?

Does your business or workplace give out gifts to clients, staff members or anyone else? Choosing handmade and locally made products would be a great way of rewarding those people you want to give gifts to while showing your support to local businesses. Feel good gifts on all levels :)

Here are a couple of sweet design ideas that you could choose for this years Christmas season.

Hand Stamped Peg Magnets - these wooden clothes pegs can be stamped with words of your choice (up to 10characters will fit) and are then attached to strong magnets. They're great for keeping the fridge, magnetic noticeboard or other magnetic surfaces tidy and pretty all at the same time. You could get your companies name stamped on them, or words that say something about your product. Or pick one of my pre-designed options. You can choose how many pegs you want in a pack too. The ideas are endless. 

Or you could choose pegs that match your colour scheme, or a random assortment of coloured designs so everyone gets something different.

Bookmarks - Fabric covered buttons attached to a giant clip, these make great gifts. Choose a fabric that matches your colour scheme or an image that matches your organisations theme to personalise these gifts.

Security tags - These will funky up any workplace. Fabric covered buttons attached to reels, they have a slide clasp on the back for attaching to the waste band and a dome clip to attach your keys or swipe cards to the tag - the dome clip is on a retractable cord so you can pull your swipe card away from your waist when you need to use it (its about half a metre long).

Prices are negotiable depending on the quantity but all are under the $10 per item mark. Email sweetdesignsnz[@]gmail.com to enquire.

How to have your cake & eat it too!

Its nearly September! And September means Birthday Month! And that means I HAVE to eat cake right ;)

So this year I thought it'd be fun to share the baking love around a bit with a Baking Swap.

If you enjoy baking and eating baked goods, and live in NZ this is for you!

What will happen:
You register (details below) by Friday 5th September
I sort you in to swap groups & give you the addresses of up to 5 other people.
You bake (biscuits, cakes, fudges what ever you enjoy making)
Then you split your baked goods into 6 (you need to keep some for yourself!), package them up and post them to the 5 people you're swapping with.

Then sit back and wait for baking to arrive at your place, make a cuppa to enjoy with the baking, and consume! (or invite friends over to help you - share the baking love even further)

To register:
Email sweetdesignsnz@gmail.com with your name and address (make sure you put Baking Swap in the subject)

Please note - Baking needs to have been swapped by September 30th 2014.
You don't need to send a whole batch of baking to every person - that'd be a lot of baking! 

If you have any dietary requirements, you're not excluded! Join in too, make sure you let me know in the email what they are, and i'll try and match you all up :)

This is not a competition about who does the best/fanciest/prettiest baking - this is about sharing the enjoyment of giving and receiving home baked goodies. A little bit of love to get Spring started :)

AND as an added bonus, all people who participate in the Baking Swap will go in the draw to win a Sweet Designs Oven Mitt :) (may not be exactly as pictured due to the way the fabric repeats)

Have you a Spring in your Step?

I find Winter a bit tough and long to be honest. The lack of sunshine eats away at my mood and it becomes much harder work to be positive about things. So I really love it when we get a lovely sunny day - especially if I get to hang out on the boat with my husband :)

I also really like when signs of Spring start appearing. It might be a little on the early side for some of these flowers but I'm really excited to have been able to pick this bunch of flowers from my garden - really feels like spring is here! (I'm ignoring the fact that another Stormy Southerly is forecasted for tomorrow!) 

These flowers really smell like Spring too :) 

Are you a Winter fan? Or more into Summer like me?

Recently I made a Passionfruit cake for my mother-in-laws birthday. I really like the flavour of passionfruit but I'm really not that keen on the pips!!!! I was super happy to find this recipe that gives an easy way of removing the pips.

I was a bit pushed for time so I wanted a simple way to decorate the cake (and I've made quite a few cakes for my in laws now its hard to keep coming up with new ideas!) This time I was inspired by Bluebell's use of real flowers. So simple & sweet, don't you think?

Passionfruit Cake

Ingredients

•       ½ cup passionfruit pulp 

•       ½ tsp vanilla essence 

•       1 tsp baking soda 

•       1 ½ cups flour 

•       2 tbsp golden syrup 

•       1 tsp baking powder 

•       125g butter 

•       ½ cup sugar 

•       1 cup milk 

•       1 egg

Icing

•       1 tsp melted butter

•       1 cup icing sugar

•       2 passionfruit (strain pulp)

Method

Place the pulp and milk in saucepan. Heat to lukewarm, then add the baking soda. 

Cream the butter and sugar then add golden syrup and egg. Mix well and then add the vanilla. Strain the pulp through a sieve into the creamed mixture. Add the sifted flour and baking powder. Place tin and bake at 180 degrees C for 40 minutes.

Here's a printable version of this recipe :)

Cake for One.

Recently I've been trying to reduce my sugar in take....I have good days and not so good days! I'd quite like to adjust my taste buds to not 'need' dessert every night but I'm not there yet. In the mean time I mix it up a bit, sometimes having real (sugary) desserts, chocolate etc and sometimes I make Paleo style (sugar & carb free) desserts or baking.

Recently in a novel (a trashy chic lit book called Smitten if you must know - I don't really recommend it, but I'm still getting the hang of finding good e-books to get out from the library so my reading list is a bit hit and miss quality wise at the moment!) I came across a recipe for a Sugar/Carb free Mug cake - you know, 1 serving of cake cooked in a mug in the microwave. I've tried it a couple of times now and I do quite like it - its not that sweet, so if you're really after a sweet fix I'd suggest adding more sweetener. I've also been serving it with "The Collective Dairy's" Blood Orange Yoghurt, as I didn't have any cream, but I think cream would go better (would give it more decadence).

Give it a go and let me know what you think!

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Sugar Free Mug Cake

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Almond Flour
2 tsp Xylitol (or more depending on how sweet you'd like it)
1 Tbsp (heaped) Cocoa Powder
1 egg
1 Tbsp Butter/Coconut Oil
1.5 Tbsp Milk or Cream
Splash of Vanilla Essence
1 Coffee Mug

Mix all dry ingredients in the mug, add egg and blend thoroughly. Add milk, oil (I melted mine first so it mixed smoothly) & vanilla. Mix well.
Place in 1000 watt microwave for 90 sec) 
Do not cover mug. Cake will rise.
Let cool and place on a plate. Serve with a little whipped cream on top.

Enjoy!

Valentines Day...

Are you into Valentines Day or are you someone who doesn't care for it? 

I understand peoples comments about it being over commercialised, and that we should celebrate/show our love every day rather than on one particular day. I agree. However, the thing I wonder is - Do you actually take the opportunity every day to let those who you love know it? Do you celebrate it on other days? Too often it seems that days pass by, things get taken for granted or we assume people know they're important to us. To me Valentines Day isn't just about telling our partner/lover that we love them, its a chance to appreciate our friends too. And if we do take the opportunities during the year to make sure they know they're loved, then there's no harm in telling them again is there ;)

And yes, like most holidays & celebrations Valentines Day is over commercialised. Its up to us as consumers to decide how much we buy into it tho. No one ways we have to go spending lots of money, falling for all the marketing ploys, or putting pressure on ourselves to live up to some perceived expectations. We can make our own cards, or write sweet notes, take the time to have a heartfelt conversation. We can make gifts, do some baking, run errands or buy something thoughtful that doesn't cost the earth....(and if we're going to buy something what better than shopping local and handmade....Felt is a great way of supporting NZ artists).

I love snail mail, so for some of my friends (especially out of town ones) I like to pop something in the post for them, and this year I baked some heart cookies to give to my husband and also to some friends :)

The cookies are Chocolate Cinnamon from this recipe.

Are you doing anything for Valentines Day this year?

Cake Days

Recently some friends and family had cake days (ie birthdays) so I made them some cake.

The first one was a Blueberry Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - the photo doesn't do it justice, but the inside was a great blue colour with the berries making balls of dark blue thru out. Its a very large cake - I made it in one 28cm tin and cut it in half rather than the 2 smaller tins as suggested.

The next cake was designed to use Rhubarb and Lemons as I have lots of these in the garden. I'd seen a recipe for a Rhubarb Meringue Cake but didn't really want to use 8 eggs (I don't have lots of these in my garden :P ) So I made this Lemon Yoghurt Cake and then filled and iced it using the Rhubarb Cream from the Rhubarb Meringue Cake recipe. It was a great combo!