A collection of all my favourite recipes, if I try it and love it, its here in one easy place for me to find again. While the recipes may not be mine all the pictures are.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A Pirate Birthday Party - Treasure Chest Cake



The Base




The Detail



The Colouring - we painted on a mixture of 'Cake Decorators Rose Spirit' combined with 'AmeriColor 104 Chocolate Brown'


The Assembly


The End Product!




THE FOOD

Pirate Cookies





Rocky Road - A Must For Every Christmas


Chocolate Melts
Marshmallows
Jelly Lollies (I like to use Raspberries)
Unsalted Peanuts - optional






Quantities?????
Whatever you like really.
I usually do 1 large 500g bag of marshmallows, 2 packets of lollies, a couple of handfulls of nuts to about 3 x 375g bags of melts



Cut marshmallow and lollies in 1/2 and combine them with the peanuts in a bowl
Melt all the chocolate in a separate bowl
Pour 3/4 of the melted chocolate in with the marshmallows etc and stir until everything is coated well.
Before the chocolate sets spoon onto a tray lined with baking paper and even it all out so there are no big gaps between the marshmallows and it resembles a block.
Spoon the remaining 1/4 of melted chocolate over the top, swirling and smoothing to give a nice finish
Allow to set and cut into pieces to serve



Sometimes I like to drizzle melted white chocolate over the top

Christmas Cake Pops


Made with Oreo and Cream Cheese Truffles (Reindeer Poo)









Make truffles as per recipe above or make you own if you already have a favourite
Place rolled truffle balls into the freezer to firm up a little
When firm dip 1/2 - 3/4 of a truffle ball into the melted milk chocolate and before chocolate sets dip the tip of a stick into melted chocolate and insert straight into the ball. (This will stop the truffle sliding down the stick as the set chocolate will hold them in place)
Repeat for each ball and allow to set.




Now dip the top 1/2 of each ball into melted white chocolate and decorate before the chocolate sets.



I used holly made from fondant icing coloured with gel food colouring. The leaves were cut using a cutter purchased from a cake decorating shop and the berries were individually rolled by hand (boy was that a job lol)




By placing each cake pop (stick) into a styrofoam block once you have dipped them into the white chocolate makes it easier to decorate them and it is also a nice way for presentation if you pre wrap the styrofoam block in christmas paper.




A Different Kind of Fruit Mince Pie (Jamie Oliver Christmas)


Jar of Fruit Mince
Puff Pastry
Filo Pastry
Butter
Icing Sugar to dust
Two muffin trays (12 muffins each)




Jamie Oliver added these extra ingredients (I was too lazy)
Dried Blueberries or Cranberries
Zest of Clementines
Splash of Sherry or Brandy
Flaked Almonds
Egg, beaten

Pre Heat Oven 200c *

Roll out the puff pastry into a 20x40cm square**
(Jamie combined the fruit mince, dried berries, zest and brandy)
Thinly spread the fruit mince over the pastry, leaving a 1cm gap around the edges
Tightly roll up the pastry, lengthways, like a swiss roll
Wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge to firm up

Butter one sheet of filo pastry with the melted butter then place another sheet on top
Now butter this top sheet of filo pastry
Place both sheets (now stuck together) butter side down onto a muffin tray and ease the pastry into each hole. (you may need to repeat this to cover the whole tray depending on the size of your sheets of pastry)
Brush with melted butter again (this would not have been done yet as the bottom of the sheets are now facing upwards)
Repeat for the other tray

Take the puff pastry roll out of the fridge and cut into 24 slices with a sharp knife
Place each slice, flat side down into a filo lined hole.
Brush with egg***
(This is where Jamie then sprinkled the top of each pie with the flaked almonds)
Bake in the oven for about 25mins until cooked and golden brown
Leave to cool, then crack the individual pies out of the trays
Dust with a little icing sugar before serving


* I lowered oven temperature as I was using fan bake

** I used pre rolled sheets of puff pastry, doubled the thickness of each sheet by sprinkling one sheet with water placing another on top and then gently rolling them together. To get the length required I then joint two (doubled up) sheets together side by side, then trimmed down to size.

*** I dont think I will bother to brush with egg next time as the filo turned out quite dark

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas Lamingtons - Red and Green


1 packed of red jelly crystals
1 packed of green jelly crystals







Make Lamington squares as per Lamington Recipe

In separate bowls prepare each of the jellies as the directions on packet.
Allow to cool for around an hour, do not allow jelly to set.
Dip cake squares into the jelly mixture until fully coated then roll in coconut

NOTES
I cut the cake squares slightly smaller to make them more bites size.
I used slightly less water than indicated on the packet directions when making up the jelly mix
I also added extra food colouring to the jelly mixture for a brighter coloured lamington