3 Minute Chocolate cake

This week for the Friday Food Find I have cheated ever so slightly.  I have made this cake a few times.  Even Mr Magoo has made this cake.  He made it when his grandparents were coming to visit.  Well, a few weekends ago Mr C was pretty bored so he & Miss Pants spent some time together and made a cake.  Now, except for the bit where Mr C used a slightly too small cake tin (ring tin) & it over flowed all over my oven, and stank the house out for DAYS, it turned out REALLY well.

INGREDIENTS
90g margarine or soft butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tbspn cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 cup self raising flour

METHOD
Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
Beat the margarine and cocoa to a paste.
Add eggs, then flour,sugar & milk all together.
Beat for 3 minutes.
Spoon into a greased ring tin or 7" x 11" pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes.
ice when cool as desired.

Mr C iced it upside down & cut off the bits that hung over the sides of the tin, then ate them.  He served it up with a dollop of lite cream.  THANKS DEAR!!  'Twas Yummo. 

Bye for now, K

Choc Coffee Muffins

About a month ago I hosted a Chefs Toolbox party and we made the YUMMY Coffee Choc Friands from the website.  I didn't get to take a picture of them so I changed the recipe slightly and made them again, to suit me, hoping to take pictures but I forgot, again.  Sorry about that. 

Anyway, here's what I did.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup icing sugar
2/3 cup plain flour
1 cup almond meal
180g butter, melted and cooled
6 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons instant decaffeinated coffee granules, dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water
100g white chocolate drops


METHOD
1.  Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
2.  In a mixing bowl combine sugar, flour, almond meal, butter & egg whites.  Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
3.  Pour dossolved coffee into mixture & mix well.
4.  Fold the white choc drops through.
5.  Spoon mixture evenly into the muffin (or Friand if you have it) tray.
6.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
7.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from the tray.

They were good but I have to admit the dark chocolate gave it that something extra (I am NOT a fan of dark choc), so perhaps next time I'll try milk chocolate instead of white.

Mr C said he could barely taste the coffee, I thought it was OK.  It wasn't what we normally drink (& he has really strong coffee) so perhaps that made a difference.  I'm not sure.

Perhaps next time I make them I'll remember the photos.

Bye for now, K

EASY Muesli Bar Slice

This really is the EASIEST muesli bar recipe I've ever come across.  It was soo easy & sooo yummy that I haven't even taken a decent number of pictures to share so check out Retro Mummy's Blog, where I found this recipe for her clear pic's.

Now I wouldn't exactly call it a healthy muesli bar recipe but it is the best tasting one I've tried in a while.

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup rice bubbles
1/2 cup shredded/desiccated coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk
good splosh of maple syrup or honey or golden syrup
and I added half a cupt sultanas too

METHOD
Preheat oven to 160 deg C and line a squre or rectangular baking tray with baking paper.
Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl
Pour into the tray and flatten out making sure it's fairly evenly spread.
Now the recipe I saw said to bake for 40 minutes until lightly brown but it only took 30 minutes in my oven & smelt delicious!!  (My oven's a bit strange. Slices & cakes take less time to cook, meat takes longer.)
Leave it in the pan to cool if you can.  We couldn't...

Bye for now, K

Pear & Cinnamon Muffins

While I had a little time one morning before school I thought I'd whip up some muffins I'd seen on another blog.  Unfortunately the page wouldn't load so I pretty much made it up as I went.

They went something like this.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup plain flour
1 cup almond meal
about 2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
about 1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg & 1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 cup lite milk
2/3 cup or less olive oil
1 1/2 pears, grated

METHOD
Preheat oven to 180 deg C.  Place a muffin case in each hole of a 12 hole muffin pan.

Put ALL ingedients in a bowl.  Mix gently with a wooden spoon until until just combined. 

Divide evenly amongst the holes.  Bake for at least 25 minutes.

Grating the pear.  Sorry, but this is the only pic I took.  I'm sure you know what muffins look like though.

I'm thinking this was probably not quite long enough or perhaps not hot enough. They were SUPER moist & stuck to the cases badly.  VERY tasty though :)

Bye for now, K

White-Choc Easter Tarts

I made this Friday Food Find earlier in the week & took it to a friends place when the kids and I were invited out for lunch.  I had seen the recipe before Easter but hadn't quite found the time to make it, so I had all the ingredients already. (I had to check the date on the cream before starting, and it was still good.)

I found the recipe in a Coles catalogue.  You can find it and other yummy treats here.

Mmmmm... straight to the hips!!

INGREDIENTS
250g pkt of butternut snap cookies
375g pkt NESTLE White Melts (but I had to improvise)
1/3 cup (80ml) cream
20 solid chocolate Easter Eggs

METHOD
1.  Preheat oven to 180 degC/160 degC fan forced.2.  Combine White Melts and cream in a heatproof bowl; microwave uncovered on medium (50%) for 1 minute; stir.  Repeat process in 30 second intervals until melted.  Stand for 15-20 minutes or until cooled and thickened slightly.

3.  Place cookies over 20 holes of two 12 hole shallow patty pans.  Bake for 3-4 minutes  or until soft.  Remove from oven; using a metal spoon, carefully press softened biscuits into pan to mould into a cup shape.  Allow to cool.

4.  Spoon white choc mixture into bisbuit cases; smooth top.  Top each tart with an Easter egg.  Refrigerate until set.

ready for the fridge

This was pretty easy.  The hardest part was moulding the biscuits to the pan.  I tried a teaspoon but that wasn't terribly succesful.  I found a soup spoon to be the most effective.  You need to move quickly at this stage and be careful not to burn your fingers.  I ended up putting one tray back in the oven because they cool very quickly and go hard again.

It actually made 21 little tarts and by 8 o'clock that night there were NONE left.

Bye for now, K

Mmmm Chocolate Crackle Nests...

I saw this recipe here, and decided I would give them a go.  I had a BAD experience the last time I made chocolate crackles (almost 20 years ago, Oh my, that makes me feel old), so I wasn't sure how they'd turn out.  The recipe said they'd make 10 large ones.  I'm assuming that large would be like those JUMBO sized muffins, because I made 28.

Anyway, I started with the standard Chocolate Crackle ingredients...

4 cups rice bubbles (I just used home brand Rice Pops)
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
5 tbspn cocoa powder
250g copha, melted






Mix all the ingredients together & spoon into patty pans.  Using the back of a spoon press the mixture down in the middle and along the sides, forming a nest.








I made mine in patty pans in muffin trays to form them, then removed some of them to see how they went.









They aren't TOO bad.  (I'm not real fussed on the speckled eggs though, but they look cute)

Bye for now, K

Easter Nests Take 1

Well this isn't my normal Friday Food Find style post.  To start with, it's Saturday.  Secondly, Friday was my birthday so I was busy with other things :)  I saw another post for Easter Nests that I'd like to try but for some reason I didn't bookmark it.  I'll try to find it but I'm not making any promises.

This IS something I've never made before. I saw it here. I mentioned these nests to a friend and showed her the original post and she said "Yeah, they're Spiders!  My Mum made them for every birthday party we ever had! Didn't your Mum ever make them?"  Ahhh, no...  NEVER.  Anyway, here we go.

Easter Chocolate Nests

INGREDIENTS

1 packet Chang's Oriental Fried Noodles
2 tbspn crunchy peanut butter
200 grams of chocolate
approx 18 small Easter eggs

METHOD
1.  Line small bowls with baking paper
2.  In a microwave safe bowl, break up chocolate, add peanut butter & melt on high for approx 60 seconds.

3.  Stir the chocolate mixture and if it is not melted, heat for a further 15 seconds or more as required depending on the wattage of your microwave.
4.  Add the noodles and mix well.
5.  Spoon the mixture into the bowls evenly.  The aim is to have the base thinner making sure the mixture goes up the walls of the bowls to form a nest.  (Easier said than done.  I had to help H with this bit.)
6.  Put them in the fridge for at least one hour to set. Peel off the baking paper and add the small Easter eggs.

You could put them in cellophane bags and give them as gifts or just have them as an after dinner treat with the family.

As a bonus, I got these LOVELY flowers from a friend the day before my birthday.  She didn't know my birthday was the following day but she did know that tulips are my all time favourite flower. The photo didn't turn out too good, but you get the idea.  Thank you Gorgeous Girl!!

This is the cake Miss Pants picked out for me when Mr Creator took her shopping to pick one.  Apparently, I like Barbie.  (Again, not good quality.  Perhaps I should think about a new camera.  I don't like borrowing Mr Creators big fancy pants DSLR because it's heavy & big.  Mine fits in my pocket.)

Since my birthday was also Family Games Night I picked the game.  I decided on junior Scrabble.  It got a bit late & a bit much for Miss Pants so she had to retire early.  Master H isn't a real fan of reading or practising his spelling words so he wasn't real enthused about playing but when he won he was pretty happy with himself :)

That's it for today,

Bye for now, K

Easter Activities Begin...

... In our house

Yesterday I did a little shopping in preparation for some Easter and school holiday craft (and perhaps some it can be used at gifts).  I can home with quite a few things to keep the kids momentarily busy through the holidays.  I ran into someone that was telling me she'd heard about people having Easter "trees" and was going togive it a go, so if I come across one I'll share it with you.

One of my purchases was a box of cookie making stuff.  It came with cookie mix (like a box cake mix), icing mixture, egg shaped cookie cutter and a tube of coloured icing.  I cooked them up yesterday afternoon before the kids got home from school and we iced them after Miss Pants finished her swimming lesson.  They had 5 each to ice.  I helped with the butter icing which was supposed to be used to sandwich the biscuits together, but this way they'll go further.  The icing wasn't terribly thick but I put it in a freezer bag and snipped a corner off to squeeze it out anyway.  The kids decided how they wanted me to put it on & they used the green that came with the kit & some glitter icing pens we already had to decorate them.  I did a few too :)

Miss Pants squeezing the glitter icing on.  Pink off course.

H asked me to make different designs on his bikkies before he added the coloured stuff.

Mr Magoo's works of art.

The Finished Product

Because it was so close to dinner time (& because there was so much sugar involved) I only let them have one each before dinner.  Mean Mother aren't I.  Bwahahahaha...


Bye for now, K

Keeping Busy

We've been keeping quite busy... 

You may or may not know that I've been taking Miss Pants to Pip Squeaks.  She loves it!  It is so cute to hear her singing songs about Jesus at home.  It's something very new to me, but I love hearing it.  She's also been enjoying preschool on a Monday and sometimes while I sit and feed Little H, I listen to her amuse herself in imaginative play & it really does warm my heart.  I can't help but smile at her & want to hug her (but that's pretty difficult mid feed. lol)

I may have mentioned that I was invited to morning tea by one of the lovely ladies from Bible study recently.  I had been thinking of making pikelets for some time to make up for our lack of Daddy-made-Sunday-breakfast-pancakes but hadn't quite gotten there yet.  Well the lovely Karina served up pikelets so I was inspired to make some for the kids that afternoon for afternoon tea.  They loved it and I made such a big batch that they had heaps left for recess at school for days!

The older boys are in Scouts.  Well, Cubs & Joeys.  The Group they are a part of were delivering local phone books as the major fundraiser for the year.  This was our families load of just over 300 books (The total order was around 20,000, so we got off pretty lightly).  Admittedly due to after school commitments Miss Pants, Little H & I delivered most of them while the big boys were at school, but when they were able to help they loved it and raced from house to house putting them at the front doors.  We had strict instuctions not to deliver in the rain.  WELL, that REALLY limited the days we could deliver but we got there in the end.  Mostly, when it was me and the little ones we'd walk, (getting in some incidental exercise, Woohoo) but with the big boys along we'd take the car so we could take more books.

Here's a pic of the 3 boys playing together, watching TV and just having a bit of a relax together.  How I love them so :)

There's also been appointments several days a week to get to.  They really are starting to annoy me.  I'd just like to stay home some days and do nothing. Hmmm, well, not really nothing. More like... uninterrupted housework,  guilt free blog reading, perhaps even a little sewing. (I do still have orders looming after all.  Perhaps I'll be able to get to some shortly.)  I've also been trying to get a little more organised.  I think it will deserve it's own blog post though, so I'll keep that for another day. 

Bye for now, K

WIP: And whatever you do...

(I did actually create this post on Wednesday, however I didn't get the Banana Bread picture uploaded & forgot all about it until today.  Picture now added.  Let me know if you need an easy peasy Banana Bread recipe :) ) 

As usual, my Work In Progress post for the week has been hijacked by some NOT so crafty/creative stuff.

While Christian blog hopping today (instead of creating) I came across LOADS of quotes from the Bible. But only ONE of them jumped up off my iPad screen & slapped me in the face!!

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  Col 3:17

I found it here in this blog.  I guess after the day she'd had it just fit nicely with most of my days (although not to the degree of some of the things she dealt with that day).

The boys School is having a fundraising event this week.  Although no note came home asking for donations as prizes I thought I'd send a few things in with the boys just in case they could be used.  Mr Magoo's bag of things came home again but H's didn't, so he took the other bag in too & neither of them have been sent home so I guess they're using them.  Here's what was sent in.  I had made a whole heap of things like this to sell at markets last year but things didn't go as I'd hoped so I've been donating them to charity auctions and fundraising events instead and it makes me feel quite good.  I'm running out though so I guess I'll need to start making more, when I get my sew-jo back.

Think I've got just enough time to mix up a banana bread to pop in the oven before heading off to get the boys from school.  Hope I don't burn it!

It didn't even make it to the cooling rack before half of it was gone. YUMMO!!

Bye for now, K

Books to Investigate

2012 the National Year of Reading.  (Visit www.love2read.org.au for more info.)

I read this post by Jen from the Pikelet Workshop in January and although it opened up a whole load of Mummy guilt in me, I really must say "Thank you Jen for reminding me that one of the simplest things is so important" :)   I HAVE been reading to Miss Pants more (& oassionally to Big H, although i usually get hime to read to me as part of his homework) and I'm quite enjoying it!  I really am.  We read the same book several times on the boys swimming lessons afternoon.  We read most nights at bed time, time permitting.  Some days we read after lunch. I think I'm starting to pronounce the Spanish bits in the Dora the Explorer books properly but I could be wrong.

I've been thinking lately that perhaps I should get myself to the local library & investigate their little kids programs, for Miss Pants and I to attend with Little H in tow, and the selection of books available for my ever inquisitive 8yr old, Mr Magoo.  He LOVES to read!  I love that he loves it.  I've always hoped that his enthusiasm would be passed on to Big H but alas, no luck as yet.  A lovely lady from Bible study, who invited me to morning tea, was telling me about a series of books her ten yr old loves.  I asked the name of them twice & still forgot so I'll have to follow that up. Mr Magoo will be taking part in the Premier's Reading Challenge with the school this year so I'd love to have a great range of books available to him other than ones he's got at home (since he's read the majority of them).  You can find out more about the Premier's Reading Challenge here.

I've come across some books recently that I think I would like to read (or perhaps buy) too. For myself.  I used to love to read.  You know, when I had more time for ME. Lol.  I recently read Bitter Chocolate by Lesley Lokko.

You can find it online here

 "Three girls in search of a missing piece of their lives; three girls who will change their worlds to find it ..."
My sister-in-law lent it to me while I was in hospital during my third trimester carrying Little H.  I quite enjoyed it, although I didn't finish it until after he was born.  I just didn't have the time (once home) to finish it until I made the effort to find "me-time".  I set the older kids up with a movie after lunch during the Summer holidays when it was better for them to be inside at that time anyway and I'd take Little H and my book to my bed.  I'd feed him, wrap him and lay next to him reading while he slept.  I never once dozed off, although if I hadn't had that book I surely would have.

If you were a MasterChef 2011 watcher you may remember Merle Parrish from the Cudal branch of the Country Women's Association.  Remember the Peach Blossom Cake?  Well now you can get the recipe from her new book, Merle's Kitchen.

You can find it online here

I don't think I really NEED any more sweet treats being made in my house because I have this tendency to over induldge but to get PROPER recipes from someone with this much experience making cakes for the everyday life (as opposed to restaurant style fancy) I could just be convinced.  Yesterday there was a local book signing by Merle but I missed it.

I came across this book completely by accident during the week.

You can find it online here, or through her blog

I had never even seen the Down to Earth blog before.  I had a little read about Rhonda's view of the book.  I think I'll quite enjoy it.  One thing she said which stuck in my mind is that (paraphrasing here) while it is called "a guide to simple living", everyones idea of simple living is different and she hopes to inspire the simple in all of us.  She has had book signings in Sydney, Melbourne, etc lately, as you would expect, but she was also at Bathurst in regional NSW on Friday and I had too many appoitnments in the morning to get there in time.  I was quite excited about it until I realised I wouldn't be able to make it. Oh well.  If I do get hold of the book I can send away for signed name plate for it.

The final book I wanted to share with you is called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Ruben.

I took a peak inside the book here and when I read "I wanted to focus on a different subject each month... I resolved to tackle "Marriage," "Parenthood," and "Friends,"..." I KNEW I'd have to read the book in full.  I've been thinking LOTS about these three things lately.  I heard about this book from the Planning With Kids facebook page.  You can also find out more about the book, the author & perhaps your own Happiness Project here.

I'm REALLY hoping I get to read these books in the next few months.  Perhaps when I have a little more time.  I guess I need to MAKE the time.  Me time :)

Bye for now, K

Easy Apple Muffins

This week the older boys went back to school on Monday.  I decided to make something for them for when they got home from school that I could freeze for their lunch boxes for next week too.

This post from The Organised Housewife has HEAPS of ideas that have been contributed by her followers.  I decided on this one for Apple Muffins (& may just make those Cheese & Herb Muffins when I’m done here, AFTER a little exercise perhaps. lol.)   Of course I bookmarked The Organised Housewife’s page so I can come back to it easily.

APPLE MUFFINS

Ingredients

• 2 cups SR flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4tbsp sugar (I used raw sugar)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup melted butter/margarine
• 1/2 cup grated apple/fruit (I used a can of apple and chopped it up).

Tinned apple chopped

All mixed up

Method

·         Sift flour, salt, sugar & cinnamon together

·         Add milk & beaten egg

·         Mix lightly

·         Stir in melted butter/margarine and fruit

·         Mix just long enough to combine ingredients

·         Pour into greased muffin tray filling them 2/3rds full (I used mini muffin trays & filled to top)

·         Bake in hot oven (180deg) for 20-25 minutes (but it was quicker using mini muffin trays)

This recipe made 42 mini muffins so I have frozen several muffins in small freezer bags to stretch them out over a few weeks (minus the ones Miss Pants & I scoffed down before the boys got home to devour their share for the day).

They were LOVELY too.

Coconut Ice

Here we are on Friday with this weeks Food Find.

Yes I know, I know...  Who could believe I haven't made Coconut Ice before.

Sooo RIDICULOUSLY simple, yet I'd never done it.

I used a recipe from here

INGREDIENTS

5¼ cups (840g) icing sugar
2½ cups (200g) desiccated coconut
395g can sweetened
condensed milk
1 egg white, beaten lightly
pink food colouring

METHOD

Line deep 19cm-square cake pan with strips of baking paper.

Sift icing sugar into large bowl (but I didn't); stir in coconut, then condensed milk and egg white.

Divide mixture in half; tint half with pink colouring. Press pink mixture into pan then top with white mixture. Cover; refrigerate about 3 hours or until set before cutting into squares. (Again I didn't... I just put the white in the bottom first, then added the food colouring to what was in the bowl & put it on top of the white)

Makes 64


Master H didn't like it, but the other two did.  He doesn't like coconut & although he didn't see me make it I guess he just knew.
 

Bye for now, K

Moist Orange Cake

I'm thinking of posting my Food Finds on Fridays but I've got two this week so I'm doing one today too.  The recipe for Moist Orange Cake came from a book published from contributions to a primary school fundraiser. 

INGREDIENTS

CAKE
155g butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups SR flour
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk

ORANGE ICING
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice, approx.


METHOD
Grease a 20cm round cake pan and line base with baking paper.  Combine all ingredients in large bowl, beat on low with electric mixer until all ingredients are combined.  Beat for 3 minutes or until mixture is smooth and changed in colour.  Spread into prepared pan. Bake in moderate oven for about 45 minutes.  Stand for 2 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.  spread with icing when cool.
ORANGE ICING - Sift icing sugar into small bowl, stir in butter and enough juice to mix to a spreadable consistency.  Sprinkle with coconut.


I was expecting a moister cake.  There was no coconut on the top of mine because Master H doesn't like it.  I didn't put the orange rind in because the rind on my oranges wasn't nice at all, so I put juice in the cake as well as the icing but neither had an overly orangey flavour.  I will probably make this again though because we all ate it regardless of the lack of orange flavour.