Gingerbread house

I love gingerbread houses. There's something magical about an edible house covered in a myriad of colourful, enticing candies. It's like something out of your childhood dreams! Wouldn't a life-sized one be amazing? Just like Hansel and Gretel! :)

So anyway, I've never made a gingerbread house before this, only gingerbread men and Christmas trees and such. This year, I decided to try a whole house instead of just wee little men and trees. It's actually not hard to do at all!

First, I decided on the shape and size of  the house and made some templates from cardboard. A pentagonal shape for the front and back, a rectangle for the walls and another rectangle for the roofs. There were 3 pieces altogether.

Then I made the gingerbread dough following the recipe below.

After rolling out the dough, I used the templates to cut out the shapes. I made two of each shape, so I ended up with 6 pieces. For the front of the house (pentagonal shape), I used a round cutter to cut a hole near the top. I thought it looked cute, like a birdhouse, and the kids could also peep into it.

Then I baked the pieces and let them cool completely. Then, I basically glued them together using royal icing. Royal icing can be made using egg whites or meringue powder. I had some meringue powder, so I used that, because with raw egg whites, there is always the risk of salmonella.

Anyway, I wanted the royal icing to be stiffer, so it would dry faster. I reduced the water, and it was so stiff that my hand-held mixer broke!! I had to continue whisking by hand!

After gluing the structure together, we get to the fun part; sticking on the candies! This is where you can let your imagination run wild and design the candy house of your dreams! :) Just pipe royal icing onto where you want your candies to go and stick on the sweets before the icing dries.

This is definitely a great pre-Christmas activity for the kids. Next year I hope to put in more effort and make some gumpaste decor like candy canes, which will make the houses even more gorgeous!

Anyway, here is the recipe for the gingerbread and also royal icing:



GINGERBREAD

350g plain flour
1-2 tsp ground ginger
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g butter, softened
175g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
4 tbsp golden syrup or honey (use molasses if you want a darker, chewier gingerbread)

Sift and mix flour, ground ginger and cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl.

Rub in butter.

Add sugar and mix well.

Stir in syrup and egg.

Mix well to form a firm dough.
Roll to 5mm thickness and cut.
Bake on a greased and floured tray at 180 degrees Celsius for 10-25 minutes or until golden brown.

ROYAL ICING

Royal Icing Using Egg Whites:
2 large egg whites
2tsp lemon juice
3 cups (330g) icing sugar, sifted

Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder:
4 cups (440g) icing sugar
3 tbsp (30g) meringue powder
1/2tsp vanilla/ lemon/ almond extract
1/2-3/4 cup (120-180ml) warm water

Method:
Beat everything in a mixing bowl until stiff and spreadable.
Use more water if you want a runny icing and  less for stiffer icing.

Retro Chic

I made this cake for myself, Sis no.2 and another 2 friends. It was for a lunch where we were celebrating our birthdays, cause the four of us are all October babies.

I'd been wanting to try out the circles design for a while, because I think it looks so classy and retro chic. So, a birthday lunch for four women was just the right occasion, in my opinion!

Anyhoo... I covered the cake in pink fondant and stuck white circles all around the sides. Then I made a small rope from chocolate fondant and wrapped it around the base of the cake. For the top of the cake, I placed a scalloped circle of brown fondant and on top of that, positioned three simple 5-petaled flowers which I had made ahead of time from gumpaste. I love the decadent look of the final product. This is truly one of my favourite designs.

The cake was a gorgeously delicious Mississippi Chocolate mud cake. I think this is the best mud cake I've tasted yet. It is dense and rich, yet not too wet or muddy and contains whiskey (I stole some of Hubby's Chivas!) so it tastes better after a few days.

 It's also so easy to make. The thing I like best about mud cakes it that you have to melt the butter, so it's not necessary to wait hours for it to come to room temperature after fishing it out of the refrigerator. I usually bake on impulse, so without planning ahead, my butter is usually still rock-solid sitting in the fridge when I'm itching to bake a cake!

I found this recipe in an Australian Woman's Weekly magazine. It is one of their top ten all-time reader's favourite recipe. It is definitely a must-try. Here it goes:

MISSISSIPPI MUD CAKE

Can be made 3 days ahead. 

Storage: Covered, in refrigerator. 

Freeze: Suitable. 

Microwave: Chocolate mixture suitable.

INGREDIENTS

250g cold unsalted butter, chopped
150g dark chocolate, chopped
440g (2 cups) caster sugar
250ml (1 cup) hot water
80ml (1/3 cup) whisky
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
225g (1½ cups) plain flour
35g (¼ cup) self-raising flour
25g (¼ cup) cocoa powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten

METHOD

Grease 23cm square slab pan, line base with baking paper. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, water, whisky and coffee powder in medium pan; stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Transfer mixture to large bowl; cool. Stir in sifted flours and cocoa, then eggs; pour mixture into prepared pan.

Bake at 160°C for 1¼ hours. Stand cake 30 minutes; turn onto wire rack to cool. Serve dusted with sifted icing sugar.


Doesn't it sound way too simple?? Simple ingredients and simple method, to produce a mind-blowing cake! What are you waiting for? Go raid your liquor cupboard!

Chocolate cupcakes

So a while ago, I was browsing through this book my sis gave me. It is loaded with cupcake recipes and I really wanted to try making a good chocolate cupcake. However, they all sounded yummy, so how was I to know which recipe was the best? There are no pictures and no descriptions of the end product, so the only thing to do, was to try them all!!

I picked out four recipes:
1. Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
2. Fudge Cupcakes
3. Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes
4. Luxury Chocolate Cupcakes

I was rather disappointed with the recipes, except for one, no.3; Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes. All the other cupcakes were not chocolate-y enough, though no.4 did have very good texture. As a self-confessed chocoholic, one rule always prevails: "the more chocolate the better"!

Clockwise from bottom left: No.1, 2, 3 then 4.

As you can see, no.3 is the darkest one, simply because it has the most chocolate content. In fact, it's just plenty of melted milk chocolate with eggs and just a bit of flour. It is actually more like a self-saucing chocolate pudding and would do better in ramekins (individual oven-proof ceramic bowls) rather than paper cases. It is deliciously dense, sticky and gooey and seriously super-chocolate-y (just look at it's liquid centre!!)... any 'chocolate-ier' and you might as well just eat the chocolate bar!

So anyway here's the recipe if you want to give it a shot;

Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes (24 cupcakes)

Ingredients:
28 oz (800g) milk chocolate
12 eggs
55gg (1/2 cup) + 2 tbsp flour


Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160C and line cupcake baking tray with paper liners.

2. Break chocolate into a bowl and place over small saucepan of simmering water until chocolate has melted. Remove from heat.

3. Stir in the flour and eggs and whisk well. Fill paper cases to about 3/4 full.

4. Bake for 10-12 mins until the sides of the cupcakes are set, but the insides are still liquid.

5. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5-10 mins. Remove the cupcakes from baking tray and allow to cool.
(I prefer them hot and gooey though...)

My ever-willing taste testers...

Chocolate Eclairs

Had a hankering for cream puffs the other day. Hubby and the kids also love cream puffs, so I decided to make a batch.

I've made puffs filled with fresh cream and also creme patisserie (vanilla pastry cream). I might try custard one day. This time however, I wanted to try making chocolate eclairs. There is a bakery near my shop which sells super delicious cream puffs filled with fresh cream. I decided to do the same but throw in a chocolate glaze to make them eclairs, since I adore chocolate and chocolate just makes everything even yummier dontcha think??!!

You can find the choux recipe for the buns here in my old post. Small round buns are called profiteroles and the larger ones are just choux buns. Eclairs traditionally come in finger shaped buns. Here are the recipes for the creme patisserie and chocolate glaze.

To make the cream patisserie:

1 1/4 cups whole milk
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, warm the milk over low heat until it is just hot enough to steam. While the milk is warming, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, flour, and cornstarch until the mixture is completely smooth.

Once the milk is steaming, add half of it, whisking constantly, to the egg mixture. Add the milk and eggs back into the hot milk, continue stirring, and heat it for 1-2 minutes, until the custard is very thick. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and chill before filling pastry.

To make the chocolate glaze:

4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream

Place the chopped chocolate in a heat safe bowl and set aside. Heat the heavy cream just to boiling over low-medium heat and remove from the heat immediately. Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until it forms a thin, smooth consistency. Set the chocolate glaze aside at room temperature for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Wilton Gumpaste

I tried making gumpaste using the Wilton gumpaste recipe. Previously, I have just been using store bought soft fondant, and adding gum tragacanth to make it more pliable and to dry hard. The recipe looked simple enough, and I wanted to try and save some money by making my own because ready-made fondant is quite pricey here. I've been spending way too much money on this hobby of mine! :)

*Sigh*, how I wish we could get affordable soft fondant and even better, pre-dyed fondant here! Man, it would make my life soooo much easier!

So anyway, I used Wilton's gum tragacanth, called Gum Tex. The resulting gumpaste is indeed pliable and dries hard. It is similar to adding gum tragacanth to store bought fondant. I think it can be better though. If I were to make delicate flowers which require the gumpaste to be rolled out very thinly, I think I would need even softer, more pliable gumpaste. This batch would do for my modelling needs. However, I do intend to try gumpaste flowers soon, so I'll be looking around for more gumpaste recipes.

Here's the Wilton gumpaste recipe:


INGREDIENTS

1 lb icing sugar
1 tbsp Gum Tex
4 tbsp water
1 tbsp glucose water


METHOD

Sift the 3/4 of the sugar into mixing bowl.
Add Gum Tex and mix well.
Put water and glucose water into saucepan and warm until dissolved and well mixed.

Make a well in the centre of mixing bowl and pour in liquid.
Mix well.


Scrape mixture into plastic bag, seal and place in airtight container.
Leave for 8 hours or more.
The dough will be hard.
Knead dough and add remaining sugar gradually.
The dough will become white, soft and pliable.


Gumpaste can be kept for 2 weeks. If keeping for longer, place in refrigerator.

Bittersweet chocolate ganache

I made a chocolate ganache out of Cadbury's Old Gold Dark Chocolate which has 70% content of cocoa. It was luxuriously rich and delicious. The only thing is it isn't sweet, so if you prefer your ganache a little sweeter, you'll have to add a bit of sugar, or use a chocolate which has less cocoa content.



Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients:

200g Cadbury's Old Gold Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa)
1 cup (250ml) whipping cream


Method:

• break chocolate into small pieces
• melt chocolate in a bowl fitted over a pan of simmering water
• allow chocolate to melt without stirring
• when completely melted, remove chocolate from heat
• allow to cool slightly
• beat cream into chocolate until well mixed

The consistency of the ganache hardens upon cooling. Therefore, if you want to cover a cake by pouring fondant over, you can do so while it is still slightly warm.

If you want to pipe the ganache however, you can refrigerate it awhile for it to firm up. Be sure to place a layer of cling film over the surface of the ganache to prevent a crust forming while in the fridge.

Trust me, if you love dark chocolate, you'll simply adore this!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

When we came back from our short family holiday, there was a bunch of bananas rotting on our dining table! This is a good thing (only bakers will understand this)!

You see, over-ripe bananas with brownish skin are the best for making banana bread (which, by the way, is more of a cake).

During the holiday, Sis no.2 bought a banana chocolate chip muffin from Starbucks which was thoroughly delicious! And there I was with a bunch of bananas just nice for baking. What was I to do?

To cut the story short, here's the recipe:




Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 3/4 cups (245 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar

1/4 cup (50 grams) light brown sugar

1 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 ounces (65 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used chocolate buttons because when it comes to chocolate, bigger is better!)

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

8 tablespoons (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 very ripe large bananas (454 grams), mashed (about 1-1/2 cups)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a 12 - 1/2 cup muffin pan.
In a large bowl combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla.

With a rubber spatula, lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky. (Do not over mix the batter).

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins.

Bake about 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Place on a wire rack to cool for five minutes and then remove muffins from pan.

Makes 12 regular sized muffins.

I adapted this recipe from Joy of Baking here.

Gingerbread men

So here are my gingerbread men! I made them specially for the kids. The recipe I used produced soft, cake-like cookies. I didn't use much ginger here, for fear it would deter the kids!



Anyway, this is the simple gingerbread recipe:

GINGERBREAD MEN

• 350g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 100g butter
  
• 175g soft light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons golden syrup

Makes about 20 biscuits.

Put the flour, ginger and soda into a bowl and rub in the butter.

Add sugar and stir in the syrup and egg to make a firm dough.

Refrigerate for half an hour.

Roll out to about 5mm thick and cut out your gingerbread men.

Bake at 190 C on greased baking trays (spaced out, as they will spread) for 10 to 15 mins until golden brown.

Leave to firm up for a couple of minutes before removing from tray and placing on a wire rack to cool.

I decorated the cookies using coloured cream cookie dough, which you pipe onto the dough cut-outs before baking. This is the same method I used for the Lebkuchen and I find it very useful. You can get the recipe here.

Last year, I made some Christmas cookies using a sugar cookie recipe and just added in a teaspoonful or two of ground ginger. It produced a sweeter and crunchier cookie. If you like a cookie with more bite, you should try it.

I used cookie icing to decorate, which was so much work and really not worth all the effort, if you ask me. I'll admit it does look nicer with shinier and brighter colours, but it is such a time-consuming method.

So anyway, here's to more Christmas baking! Cheers!

Lebkuchen

Last night I made some Lebkuchen, a type of spiced German Christmas cookie. I got the recipe from The Brown Eyed Baker here:

Lebkuchen
Yield: 18 cookies
For the Cookies:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
1¼ teaspoons ground nutmeg
1¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg
¾ cup light brown sugar
½ cup honey
½ cup molasses
For the Glaze:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Set aside.
3. Beat the egg and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl.
4. Beat in the honey and molasses until thoroughly combined.
5. On low speed, stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
6. Turn the dough out from the bowl onto a well-floured surface. Knead the dough, adding more flour as kneaded, until a stiff dough is formed.
7. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.
8. On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough into a 9×12-inch rectangle. Cut the dough into 18 3×2-inch rectangles. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
9. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool. Whisk together the confectioner’s sugar, water and lemon juice and brush or spread on top of the cookies.
10. Allow the glaze to firm, and then store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

I love chewy, spiced Christmas cookies, but these turned out a bit too hard for the kids. My jaw became sore halfway through a cookie! I must have over kneaded them. I do like the homely taste however, and it was best when warm, straight out from the oven, then it was still soft. They made the whole house smell heavenly while in the oven!

The recipe calls for a sugar glaze on the finished cookie. However, I do not like waiting for glazes or cookie icing to dry. In this humid country of ours, it takes ages, and time is not one of the luxuries which I have in abundance!

Therefore, I looked for an alternative to cookie icing and found this, a cookie decorating dough which you pipe on before baking the cookies.


Coloured Cream dough

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 6 tablespoons light cream or half-and-half
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Paste food coloring

Choose the tip you want.

1. Beat softened butter in a small bowl on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar and beat until combined. Beat in light cream. Add all-purpose flour and beat until smooth. Divide dough into 2 to 3 portions. Color each portion with paste food coloring.
2. Place each color in a decorating bag fitted with a writing, rose, or star tip. The dough must be stiff for the designs to hold their shape, so don't be tempted to add liquid. Pipe one color on all the unbaked cookies on the cookie sheet, then do the same with the second color, then with a third, if desired. Bake as cookie recipe directs. Once baked, the piped-on designs are durable and the cookies store and freeze well.

I found this to work quite well and will definitely use this method again.

Another thing I have to warn you about is greasing the tray. Since I used a non-stick tray, I thought I could skip the greasing part. When I tried removing the cookies after they cooled down a bit, I found that they were stuck on fast like cement! It was really hard to remove them and I had to use of lot of force! It must be all that sticky molasses and honey that forms the super glue effect!

So take my advice, grease your tray plenty!

Happy baking!

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

Yesterday I baked two chocolate cakes and a dozen chocolate muffins for the kids to bring to school for their year-end parties. I used Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake Recipe. It is a deliciously moist chocolate cake with a fudgy chocolate frosting and is very simple to make.

Here's the recipe:


INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa (I used Van Houten)
  
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING(recipe follows)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.


"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipes/detail.asp?id=184


Annie brought 2 of the cakes to school as a gift for her class teacher and assistant teacher. I let her decorate both cakes whichever way she wanted and she had fun coming up with these designs:

She calls them 'Alien Cakes'!

Shortcrust pastry

Last night I made some sugar cookie dough for baking cookies today. You can get the recipe here.

I also made some shortcrust pastry to freeze, because I intend to make some pies and quiche next week. I love puff pastry, but just looking at the recipe makes me feel tired! It's so much work, I'm too lazy to attempt it! Anyway, here's the recipe for shortcrust pastry which is so simple and straight forward.

I used all butter and no lard though, because lard is not very healthy, but mainly because I didn't have any! :) I'm hoping it will still turn out okay when I bake it!

Shortcrust Pastry

Ingredients:
225g flour
50g lard
50g butter
1/2 tsp salt
40ml water


Sift the flour together with the salt, high above the mixing bowl to incorporate more air.


Place fats onto flour and cut fats into flour with round ended spatula. Continue cutting until fat pieces are pea sized and coated in flour.

Use fingertips (so as not to introduce unnecessary heat from palms of hands) to rub fats and flour together. Lift high and let mixture drop into bowl while rubbing.


When mixture resembles uniform sized breadcrumbs, add 10ml water and stir with spatula.

Add another 10ml water and stir with spatula.

Add another 10ml water and this time press down with spatula.

Add the last 10ml of water and bring dough together with hands.


Knead dough lightly for a few minutes on a floured surface until smooth.

Wrap with cling film and refrigerate for at least half an hour (for the gluten to develop) before use.

Baked Mango Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce

This Food & Travel magazine has been in my loo for ages and I've been wanting to make the mango cheesecake in it for just as long! I finally made it last weekend. I added my own raspberry sauce just because I've never tasted raspberries before and needed a reason to use them ever since I saw that they were available at the supermarket! I'm glad I did make this because it wasn't as hard as I thought all cheesecakes were to make. It tasted great too, though I personally prefer chocolatey types like Oreo Cheesecake to fruity ones.

Baked Mango Cheesecake
serves 8

200g digestive biscuits
1/2 cup butter, melted
500g (2 pkts) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup mango yoghurt
225g sugar
5 eggs
1 fresh mango, cut into small cubes

for the raspberry sauce:
1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
1 cup sugar


Place biscuits in a plastic bag and crush with rolling pin until they become fine crumbs.
Combine biscuit crumbs and butter.
Place crumb mixture into 8" springform pan and press down to form a base. (I find a potato masher comes in handy here)
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.
Place cream cheese, yoghurt and sugar in a mixing bowl.
Beat on medium sped until well combined.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition, until just blended.
Mix the mango into the cheese mixture.
Pour batter into tin.
Wrap the bottom half of the tin in double layer aluminium foil.
Place tin in a larger tray filled with about 3cm of water.
Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for about 50-55 minutes or until top is slightly brown.
When done, use a butter knife to run around the rim of the cake to loosen the cake from the pan.
Allow to cool, then chill in refrigerator for at least 6 hours before serving.

For the raspberry sauce;
Cook the raspberries with the sugar over low heat for a few minutes.
Strain the puree in a metal strainer and force pulp through with a spoon.
Serve cheesecake with raspberry syrup generously poured over the top.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

With the lack of birthdays in the near horizon, I thought I'd bake something easy with which the kids could 'help'. They haven't 'helped' in the kitchen for a while because birthday cakes are too delicate to have too many cooks! So, I decided to make cookies since they can't go wrong much! Seeing as the kids like chocolate chips, and I had plenty of yucky oatmeal gathering dust in the cupboard, I went with chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

It was a hit with the kids. At least there was plenty of nutritious oatmeal in it, so I didn't feel too guilty when they gulped down dozens at a time... 

Here's the batter which the kids helped mix.
 

All in a row, ready for the oven...  

Smells heavenly... 

Here's a jar for Cousin Amanda. I bought these lovely glass jars simply because they were nice! Now I have a reason to actually use them!

Delicious with a tall glass of cold milk.




Here's the recipe I used:

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups uncooked oats
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
In a large mixing bowl, combine sugars and butter and beat until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, milk and vanilla and mix till well blended.
Add flour, baking soda and salt.
Beat at low speed until soft dough forms.
Stir in oats and chocolate chips.
Drop teaspoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 9-10 minutes.
Let cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets.
Cool completely before storing.

Warning: There might not be any left to store!

Classic Rolled Fondant

I've got some requests for the recipe of the fondant that I use for covering cakes. I've tried recipes off the internet, as well as from books, and this is a hybrid of these recipes, with some tips I learned through trial and error. Here's wishing you plenty of fun with fondant!

Classic Rolled Fondant

Ingredients:
1 kg icing sugar
1 tablespoon gelatine powder
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup glucose water (sometimes labeled as glucose syrup or maltose syrup)
1 tablespoon glycerine
2 tablespoon Crisco (vegetable shortening)

Method:
1. Sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and put around 1/2 cup aside.
2. Place cold water in a metal bowl and sprinkle gelatine over the water. Leave for 5 minutes.
3. Fit metal bowl with gelatine mixture over small pot of simmering water. Make sure bottom of bowl is not touching the water.
4. Stir gelatine mixture until totally dissolved and liquid is clear.
5. Add in glucose water and glycerine. Stir until well mixed.
6. Add in Crisco and stir till totally melted. Remove from fire.
7. Make a well in the centre of the icing sugar and pour in the liquid mixture. Mix thoroughly with a lightly greased spoon. It should form a sticky dough.
8. Move dough onto a clean, greased surface and knead with lightly greased hands.
9. Gradually add leftover icing sugar by sprinkling onto dough and kneading.
10. Stop when the right consistency is reached. Fondant should resemble a smooth stone and when dropped, it should spread slightly, yet keep its shape.
11. If the fondant is too dry, add warm water, if it is too sticky, add more sugar.
12. Wrap twice with cling film and store in an airtight container in a cool dry place. Do not refrigerate. Fondant can keep for weeks.

Yummy Cream Puffs or Profiteroles

My children love cream puffs. So the other day I tried to make a batch. I made the choux pastry buns and filled them with whipped cream. If I had more time, I would've liked to make some chocolate sauce to drizzle over the cream puffs! Yum.. The children loved them as they were anyway.

The pastry for cream puffs is called choux pastry and it's unique because you have to cook the dough before baking. I found it quite easy and straight forward to make.

Here's the recipe I used, which I got from my mum's book, 'Home Baking Made Easy':

Ingredients:

65 g plain flour
2 medium-sized eggs
50 g butter
a pinch of salt
150ml water
a few drops vanilla extract

Method:

1. Sift flour onto a piece of grease-proof paper. Place eggs in a basin and whisk lightly together.

2. Place butter, salt and water in a saucepan over a moderate heat. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring.

3. Quickly draw the pan off the heat and tip in all the flour. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.

4. Return to pan to a low heat and beat vigorously for 1-2 minutes until the mixture forms a smooth ball.

5. Draw pan off heat; allow to cool for 2 minutes. Beat in eggs a little at a time until incorporated.

6. Beat in vanilla extract. Spoon teaspoonful of the mixture on to baking sheet which has been lightly greased and dusted with flour.

7. Bake at 200 degrees C for 15 minutes, then 190 degrees C for 10 minutes.

Baby cake topper

I made this wee baby cake topper for my nephew Baby Hughie's upcoming baptism. I was inspired by the baby cake in the Wilton Fondant book. I like his hair and pacifier! :) I think his legs are a bit not proportionate though.

I finally found the right fondant recipe for modelling in our humid climate. It was shared with me by the generous ladies from 'resipidotnet', a Yahoo group. It's a recipe from a certain Chef Asma. It dries hard, but I found it a bit too dry and it cracked, so I had to add some warm water to get the right consistency. The texture would be much easier to work with if you add gum tragacanth. It makes fondant more elastic and pliable. I think I'll need that if I plan to make more intricate models in the future. I have already ordered some through the internet but they are out of stock and it will only get to me some time next month. I have had no luck finding it in baking shops here.

I found the hardest part was tinting the fondant. It was pretty messy and tedious. I was afraid I wouldn't get the right shade of beige, but succeeded by mixing lots of brown with a bit of pink and yellow. I found that covering your hands with a bit of shortening not only prevented the fondant from sticking, but also reduced the stains from the food colouring. The modelling part was fun and I definitely want to do more of this soon...

This is the recipe I used for the hard fondant:

Chef Asma's Hard Fondant Recipe

1/4 cup cold water
5 teaspoons gelatine
1 tablespoon glycerine
2 tablespoons liquid glucose
1 tablespoon Crisco (vegetable shortening)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kg icing sugar, sifted

Sprinkle gelatine in cold water. Heat up in a bain marie (a bowl fitted over a pot of simmering water) until gelatine dissolves. Stir in all the other ingredients except for sugar. Cool slightly, then add, bit by bit, to the sugar. Mix until it forms a workable dough. Add more sugar if too wet, and warm water if too dry.

Double wrap with cling film and keep in an airtight container for 12 hours before using. This fondant can be kept this way for weeks in a cool place. Do not refrigerate.

Sugar cookies

Last night I baked some sugar cookies which I need for an upcoming "project". They were pretty easy and straight-forward to make. The hardest part was lifting the cookie shapes onto the tray without distorting them. Here's the recipe I used.

Ingredients:

• 1 bar (225g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 cups self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

Makes: About 3 dozen cookies.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°F/200C. In mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extract. Mix flour and salt; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Wrap dough in cling film and chill in refrigerator for half an hour. Divide dough into 2 balls. On a floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 in. wide and 1/8 in. thick. Dip cookie cutter in flour before each use. Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.
I only used half the dough and freezed the rest for future use. I had more than I needed so I made the rest into small cookies for the kids to bring to school today, since I forgot to buy bread anyway :) I got to use my sprinkles and the kids loved them.

The photos are really crappy because it was late at night, so the lighting wasn't good and I was not bothered to try harder because my bed was beckoning!