So while it's no longer Christmas, this is still the perfect treat for any occasion, it would even be perfect alongside desserts at a New Years party as well



INGREDIENTS
225g butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

Optional:
Chocolate
Peanut pieces

In a saucepan, melt the butter, sugar, and water together, continuously stirring until it reaches a hard crack temperature of 150°C, or 300°F.

Once it has reached this temperature, pour onto a lined but not greased tray, and spread around quickly before leaving to cool.

Once the toffee is cool, you can melt the chocolate and then pour this over the top, sprinkling the peanuts over the chocolate while it is still wet.

Set aside to cool completely. I like to put mine in the fridge to speed up the process.

When cool, break into pieces and serve, or if you're going to gift it, put it into gift bags.


I hope everyone has had a great Christmas/Holiday season, and that your New Years is fantastic!

One of the best things about the holidays is the fact that you can make a bunch of sweets and no one will bat an eye at it. Another great thing is that you can gift those sweets so you don't feel too guilty about eating them all yourself.

Fudge is one of these sweet things that is perfect for gifting this holiday season, and the recipe I use is so easy and versatile, you can mix up any flavours you like into it.



Of course, this time around I've gone with a classic peppermint candy cane flavour. The fudge is infused with peppermint extract, as well as having the candy cane pieces sprinkled over the top. It's delicious and just screams out Christmas.

It's so easy to make, and people will love the simple gift. Perfect for in the workplace as well.



Ingredients
1 can condensed milk
500g white chocolate
75g butter
Peppermint extract
Crushed candy canes 

Line and grease an 8x8 inch tin. In a pot put the condensed milk, chocolate, and butter. Mix on a low heat until it is all combined together. Add in the peppermint extract to your own liking (I added about a teaspoon).  

Pour this mixture into the lined tin and then press the crushed candy canes into the top of it. Leave to set overnight and then cut into squares. 

When I used to get asked to make a dessert for a gathering, this no bake jelly slice was usually my go-to recipe to take. It's simple to make, takes hardly any time or effort, and everyone loves it. I usually get asked to make it instead of other desserts.

I haven't made it in quite some time, but I've noticed it popping up all over the place lately, and figured I would make it again, but this time with a bit of a festive flair. And by that, I mean that I added green food colouring and used red jelly.



My one problem with the recipe is that it is usually far too sweet, with the sugar from the jelly and the condensed milk. But recently we switched from ordinary jelly packets, to using sugar free jelly, in particular the Aeroplane Brand. This jelly is amazing, not only does it have 0 grams of sugar, it's also 7 calories a serving. Compare this to the brand we would usually buy which has a whopping 19 grams of sugar per serve, and 84 calories a serving! That's a huge difference, and I'll tell you what, it's definitely noticable in this slice.

What used to be a tooth-achingly sweet, but still delicious dessert, has now become a more bearable type of sweetness, one that won't have you holding back from another piece. The jelly makes all the difference. Now just to find a way to cut back on that sugar even more...

Now here's the recipe for you to try, and trust me, if you make it once, you're bound to be asked to make it again!


Ingredients
1 packet wine biscuits
100g butter - melted
1 can condensed milk
1/2 cup boiling water
3tsp gelatin
1 packet jelly
Food Colouring (optional)

Make the jelly according to directions and set aside to cool.

While this is cooling, process your biscuits until they are crumbs, then add the melted butter. Push into the base of a baking tin and set in the fridge to firm up.

In a bowl, dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water, then mix in the can of condensed milk. If you want to go for a colourful look like I have, add your food colouring now.

Pour this condensed milk mixture on top of the base and put back in the fridge to set. Once it has set, you can pour the jelly mixture on top. Leave in the fridge to set and then cut up to serve when ready.

Many years ago, I posted a recipe for cinnamon rolls, and it has been my go to recipe ever since. Whenever I feel like making some, I just pull the recipe up and make them. Also, can we note just how far I have come since I posted that recipe?

However, sometimes I just don't have the time or patience to wait for the dough to rise more than once. So, I worked around with the recipe a bit to see if I could get cinnamon rolls in less time than usual, and what do you know, it worked!


This recipe only calls for a short 5 minute rise of the dough before rolling, and then a rise of twenty minutes, but the great thing about it is that this rise is done in a warm oven, which helps the dough to rise in less time than if you left it out on the bench to rise.


They aren't quite as fluffy as if you had a longer rise period, or two proper rises, but they are still delicious, and great if you want a fix of cinnamon rolls in an hour, which is dangerous for me. If I could only eat cinnamon rolls for the rest of my life, I would be pretty happy with that. These don't last long in our house at all, and I may have eaten far too many of this particular batch.






This recipe doesn't make as many rolls as my other recipe does, but that's good for times when you don't need a huge amount, and of course the amount that you end up with will depend on how big you roll the dough out, and how big you cut them to be.


Ingredients

For the dough
2 and 3/4 cups flour
3 tbsp sugar
2 and 1/4 tsp active yeast
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup milk
30g butter
1 egg

For the filling
25g butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp cinnamon 

For the icing
25g butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Milk (if needed)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 50°C before starting.
 
Mix the flour, sugar, and yeast in a bowl. Heat the water, milk, and butter together until the butter is melted. Mix into the flour mixture with a dough hook, adding the egg after it is mixed. Knead with the mixer or by hand until the dough is no longer sticky. Leave to rise for 5 minutes.

After the short rise, roll the dough out into a rectangle. Brush the melted butter over it and then spread the brown sugar over the butter. Sprinkle the cinnamon over top of the sugar, adding more if you need to (I like lots of cinnamon, so you may want to add more or less as well).

Roll the dough up, and then cut into pieces, choosing a size you would like. Put them into a lined cake tin, and then put in the oven to rise for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, turn the oven up to 180°C and bake for 20 minutes, or until the dough springs back to the touch. Remove and leave to cool.

While cooling, mix up the icing, and once the cinnamon rolls are nearly completely cool, spread the icing over, letting the remaining warmth melt it into all the nooks and crannies of the rolls.

Now all that is left to do is enjoy!

Has anyone noticed the price of butter lately? If you haven't have you been living under a rock?

I love cake. A lot. But the price of butter is really putting a dampener on making it. It's not that I wouldn't pay the price, but sometimes I just can't justify the price.

Well, how would you feel if I told you that you can still have chocolate cake without using butter! That's right, this chocolate cake is made with OIL instead of butter, which makes it a great alternative for all our non-dairy friends out there!

I was skeptical at first, the only cakes I'd ever used oil in were carrot cakes, but this one surprised me, and I have to say, I think it's my new favourite.


The oil in this recipe produces a cake that is deliciously rich, and so moist that it just melts in the mouth. The addition of coffee brings out the chocolate flavour, making it just that much more tasty. Served with ice cream or just a bit of whipped cream on the side, it doesn't need much at all to compliment it, it really does shine on its own.


Ingredients
2/3 cup oil (I used canola)
50g cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp instant coffee
125g flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
3 Eggs

Mix together the cocoa, water, and coffee and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine the oil, sugar, and eggs until light and fluffy. Add in the cocoa mixture and beat until combined.

Add in the sifted flour and baking soda slowly, mixing until just incorporated.

Scrape down the bowl to make sure everything is mixed in before transferring to a lined cake pan.

Bake at 170°C for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Let cool and then dust with icing sugar. Serve on its own or with cream, ice cream, or plain yoghurt.

Summer is coming up quickly, and the best thing about this time of year is definitely all the desserts that start coming out. The ones that people only bring out around Christmas time.

There are two desserts that I look forward to each year, and those are trifle and pavlova.

I know I can make them year round, but it's just not the same. There's something about it being a beautiful summers day that makes it the right time to eat these.

But pavlova can be so complicated to make. Some recipes call for all sorts of different ingredients, and lots of different steps to make it, so most of the time we opt for just buying one from the supermarket, but it's just not the same.

What actually got me craving pavlova, apart from seeing them coming out at the supermarkets, were strawberries.

I had picked up a punnet of strawberries, and some cream, and straight away I knew that when I got home I was making a pavlova.



I have tried so many different recipes for pavlova, and they're either not worked, or they've had way too many steps for something that should be so simple. But finally I have a recipe that is so easy to make that it's going to continue being my go-to recipe, and of course I'm going to share it with you.

The beauty of this recipe is that it is an 'all in' recipe, meaning that all the ingredients go in at the same time. No need to whip the egg whites a bit first, no need to gradually add the sugar. 



So here we go, an all in pavlova recipe.


INGREDIENTS
4 Egg whites
1 1/2 Cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 tsp. malt vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla

Put the sugar and water in the bowl with the vinegar and vanilla. Add in the egg whites and mix together for around 10 minutes or until stiff.

Place on a lined tray in a circle, and then put into a preheated oven.

Bake at 140°C for 30 minutes and then reduce temperature to 120°C and bake for another 30 minutes. Turn oven off and leave to cool in the oven. Do not open the oven while it is cooling down.

After an hour, take the pavlova out of the oven to cool further.

Once cooled completely, top with whipped cream and fruit of your choosing.

Enjoy!

Does anyone else ever feel like having dessert, but never want to make a large one that will either last you a few days and possibly go bad, or in many other cases, would get eaten all in one night? They're great for when you have people around, or if you just have a large family, but when it's just me at home, a large dessert is not a good idea. Especially if it's cheesecake. Cheesecake is definitely one of those desserts I could eat in one night. (I'm bad, I know).

So, one weekend when it was just me at home, and I felt like a cheesecake, I tossed up the idea of going to the store and just buying a pre-made one, or just making a mini one since I had all the ingredients already available to me. It didn't take long really, firstly I was saving money, and secondly there wasn't a chance of me eating an entire cheesecake on my own.



That's where this little piece of deliciousness comes in. A jaffa inspired choc-orange mini cheesecake, with a Jaffa Thins base.

Made in a 4inch spring form cake tin, this cheesecake is perfect for sharing with another person, and the recipe is so rich and delicious that you may even be able to split it between three people depending on how rich you like your cheesecake.

The greatest thing is that the flavours are so easy to adapt and change to your own liking.







Ingredients:
25g Butter (melted)
70g Jaffa Thins cookies (around 9) or any other choc-orange cookie you like
125g Cream Cheese
1tbsp Sugar (more to taste if required)
1tsp Gelatin bloomed in 1tbsp cream (optional to set firmer)
3/4 cup Cream
50g Chocolate (melted)
Orange Essence


In a food processor, put the cookies and whiz until crumbled (I like to leave some bigger chunks), then add butter and mix together. Push into a 4inch cake tin on the base and up the sides. Place in fridge to set.

In a bowl mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the cream and whip until thick. If you are using the gelatin, melt the bloomed and then mix into the whipped mixture gently. Separate the mix into two lots. In one bowl of mixture, add the melted chocolate and mix until combined, and in the other, add some orange essence to taste.

Get the base out of the fridge and alternate between the chocolate and orange mixture, marbling it with a skewer. Once the base is full, place back in the fridge to firm up for at least an hour.

Add whipped cream and chocolate shavings to serve.


So there you have it, a mini cheesecake that you can change as you like, but the choc-orange is great too! What flavour would you try?

You know when you move house, a big move, and you have to use up the food in the freezer or throw it away before it defrosts and goes bad? Well, there is a situation like that going on in our house at the moment. I won't go into the details, but there is a big move happening {again, I know}.



About two months ago I bought a huge bag of frozen berries, and they were sitting in the freezer, getting used here and there, and now it's come up to one week before moving day, and they NEED to be used. So, instead of just feeding my son a bowl of berries - which he would love anyway - I decided to make something fun for his lunchbox as a small treat. I could have gone for a larger berry pie, but I've already packed away all of my cake and pie dishes, so mini pies on the cookie sheet it was.


They turned out great, and if I had made the berries into more of a jam and smothered them with icing, they would be almost like a homemade pop tart. Filled with a berry compote, and some of them with a small spread of cream cheese,  they are really easy to make.  They only require a few ingredients, and while I opted to use store bought pastry,  you can easily make a quick sweet pastry to use instead.



Mini Berry Pies

2 cups frozen berries - mine was a mix of blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries
1/4 cup sugar (less or none if desired)
3 tbsp cornflour
Short Sweet Pastry

Optional:
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 tbsp icing sugar


In a pot, mix the berries, sugar, and cornflour. Cook on a low heat until thick and the berries are just starting to mush up. We don't want them to collapse fully. Leave to cool a bit.

Meanwhile, mix the cream cheese and icing sugar. This is an optional step that you don't need to use if you don't want to. I like the taste of the cream cheese with the berries, and that's why I put it in.

When these are done, roll out your pastry and cut rectangles in the size that you want your pies to be, making sure that the pastry rectangles for the top are slightly larger than the bottom so that it will cover all of the berries without it oozing out the sides.

Put a spread of cream cheese and then a spoonful of  the berry mixture on top before brushing the outside with some beaten egg to help seal. Place the top rectangle of pastry over and then seal with a fork. Pierce some holes to let air escape and place on the baking tray and egg wash the top of them for a golden finish.

Bake these at 180°C for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and pastry is cooked. Enjoy warm or cold, they are great both ways and perfect for a lunchbox snack.

I've been trying to cut back on my sugar intake lately, not just for myself, but for everyone else in the house because let's face it, sugar just isn't good for you. At all. I've always known that sugar isn't good for you, and like it is with most things that aren't good for you, you still have it regardless. It's very addictive. Just like it's not easy for someone to quit drinking or smoking, it can be just as hard to quit sugar.

I watched the documentary Fed Up on Netflix, and it really made me realise that I really needed to make some changes when it came to sugar in my diet.

I'm aiming to go sugar free eventually, that is added sugar, I don't plan on getting rid of fruits and vegetables that have natural sugar in them, I will just have them in moderation. The problem with this though, is that I have a very sweet tooth. I love my chocolate and my lollies, my cakes and desserts, and I know it's going to be very hard for me to get rid of these.

So one thing that I've been doing in the past few weeks is trying out recipes for desserts that contain no added sugar.

This has been the best recipe I've tried to date, and now I want to share it with you all.


A wonderful thin short crust pastry, filled with apples and cinnamon, it tastes just like apple pie but without the sugar! Add a dollop of freshly whipped cream and it's the perfect dessert.

If you've been here a while, you know I love baking. And what better thing to bake on a winters day than one of my favourite childhood bikkies, a Shrewsbury!


These jam filled bundles of deliciousness are even better when they're homemade, and so simple to make it has me wondering why I haven't done this sooner. I appreciate anything that has jam in it, and it's one of my favourite spreads. Being able to incorporate it into baking just makes me like it even more.

Even if these particular cookies aren't your cup of tea (though they do go well with cups of tea), the sugar cookie recipe is a very versatile one, and can be used as a base for many wonderful different cookies. I think lemon curd would go well with the sugar cookie base as well.

{I love these measuring spoons so much}

So, let's get straight into the recipe, because I know you will all be dying to make them for yourself!

Shrewsbury Biscuits

• 170g butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Jam of your choosing

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy then add the egg and mix until combined.

Once combined, sift in the flour and the baking powder then mix on low speed until the dough comes together in a ball.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut out the cookies, making sure to cut centres out of half of the shapes for the jam to show through.



Transfer to a baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes.

Once chilled, bake at 180°C for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly golden in colour. Remove from oven and place on rack to cool down.

Once cool, dust the cut out cookies with icing sugar.



Then spread 1/2 teaspoon of jam onto each of the cookies that don't have the centre removed, and sandwich the two pieces together.






Now they're ready for you to enjoy, and smile at the memories of eating these as a child, but this time they're better because you made them yourself.

If you try out this recipe, let me know how it goes!

I love Easter. Not just for the terrible bad for you amounts of chocolate to be eaten, but also because it's the time of year that you can finally get hot cross buns in the shops.

The problem is, I don't like raisins, or sultanas, and therefore most hot cross buns just aren't going to be eaten by me.

If I look hard enough, I can find some fruitless ones on the shelves, but judging by how quickly they get bought, I'm going to guess I'm not the only one that likes them without the fruit.

With the weather the way it has been in the lead up to Easter, my favourite thing to do is bake. I don't have to go out in the rain, and the house gets warmer from the oven being on. So, I decided to use the bad weather as an opportunity to make some of my own fruitless hot cross buns.




 Directions

1. Mix warm milk, yeast and 15g of the sugar in a jug and set aside for 10 minutes to allow to get frothy.
2. Add the butter and beaten egg to the milk mixture and whisk together. Combine flour, mixed spice, salt and the remaining 40g of sugar into a bowl, make a well in the centre and add wet ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon until just combined.
3. Kneed mixture on a lightly floured surface for 10-15 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a bowl. Cover and set aside until dough doubles in size.
4. Preheat oven to 180c and line a pan with baking paper.
5. Once dough has risen, knead for another 2 minutes. Divide into 16 even pieces and shape into balls and place them on the pan. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes until the balls have risen a further 2cm.
6. For the cross piping, add the flour and water together and mix until you form a smooth paste. Place mixture in piping bag and pipe an on-going line down the centre of the rows, both ways to form your crosses.
7. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown, checking at 20 minutes.
8. For the sugar glaze, combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and boil for a few minutes. until it forms a light syrup. Once ready, brush the glaze over the top of the buns.

Valentine's day isn't really a day that I celebrate to a huge extent. Not because I don't like the day, but mostly because I'm still as single as I was the last time I wrote a post, but that doesn't matter when it comes to this special day.

While I agree with the people who say that you should be showing your love all the time, I do like the idea of one day to be extra special in showing that. It doesn't mean that it's the only day you show your love.

The one thing I love about Valentine's day is that it isn't used to show love just for your significant other, and that's why it doesn't matter that I'm single. Valentine's day is about showing love to everyone! Family, friends, partners... it doesn't matter who, and I think that's great.

So, to show my love for my family, today I whipped up a batch of pretty pink macarons, scattered with love heart sprinkles.



The last time I made macarons, they failed miserably, and I'm not ashamed to say that I haven't tried them again for a few years. I was so nervous when making these, just hoping and praying they would work (especially when I had a little mishap with the batter). But by some miracle, they worked, and I may have let out a small squeal of delight when I saw that they had perfect feet on them.

I'm going to link through to the macaron recipe I followed. It's not mine, and I definitely don't want to take credit for it, however it is a new technique to the recipe I usually use for macarons, and I find it an interesting way to make them. So, I used this recipe from Nick at The Scran Line. I definitely suggest you give it a try as it makes it seem so effortless. Yes you still need to be careful when mixing the two parts together, but that's just a part of macaron making.

I think they turned out beautifully, and I am definitely going to be using this recipe to make more in the near future!

What's your favourite macaron flavour combination? Personally, I can't go past a lemon with lemon curd inside. It's delicious!

Until next time, happy macaron making!

I've officially started up my cake business, and the website for that can be found at Caked From Scratch, and with this I have started to explore a lot of different flavours with cakes and cupcakes, with one of the latest creations being a s'mores cupcake!


 If there's one thing that I really love, it's a s'more. I don't have them often, but I used to love making them as a kid, especially when it Girl Guide biscuit time! The chocolate covered ones are the best for s'mores!

These cupcakes are everything that a s'more would be if it took on a cupcake form. With a crunch biscuit base, a chocolate cupcake that has mini marshmallows and chocolate chips mixed through, and then topped with a fluffy marshmallowy icing that is crisped up just like a s'more... there really is nothing better. And the best thing is that they are delicious!

So, I'll get to the recipe, but hey! If you know anyone in Blenheim that needs a cake, send them over to my website!



S'mores Cupcakes

For the base:
1-2 cups of crushed biscuits/cookies
75g butter - melted

For the cake:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp hot water
1 tsp coffee powder/granules
 
1 cup sugar
150g butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup water

1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chocolate chips

For the icing:
4 egg whites
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla


To start, crush the biscuits and then mix them with the melted butter. Put a spoonful into the cupcake liners and use a glass to squish them down so they are flat. Put these in the fridge to chill while you make the batter.

To make the batter, start off by putting your coffee into your first measure of water and mixing it, setting it aside. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and cream it together until it is light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly, scraping the bowl down after each egg. Once the eggs are combined, add the coffee mixture and vanilla essence and stir.

Sift all of the dry ingredients into a bowl so they can be added at the same time and get your second measure of water ready. Alternate the two into the butter mixture, making sure to start and end with the dry ingredients, mix until just combined and then add the marshmallows and chocolate chips.

Get the biscuit bases out of the fridge and scoop some of the batter onto each base, making sure you are only filling them three quarters full. Once all the liners are full, put these into the oven at 180°C for 15 minutes.

When the cupcakes are cooling, get your frosting ready.


To make the frosting, in the bowl of your mixer, which the egg whites, sugar, 1/4 cup water, cream of tartar, and salt. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. To test this, rub some of the mixture between your fingers, if it's not gritty, it is ready to take off of the heat. Remove the bowl from the heat and place onto your mixer with a whisk attachment. Beat until frosting is stiff and cooled, about 5-7 minutes. Beat in vanilla.
 
 Put the icing into a piping bag with a tip of your choice, or use a spoon to spoon it on top of the cupcakes. Frost them to your liking and then use some mini marshmallows and chocolate chips to decorate.

If you have a brulee torch, you can use this to brown the frosting. If not, put the cupcakes onto a tray and put them in the oven on grill for a couple of minutes, just so the frosting gets a little brown.

And now the best part! Eat and ENJOY!