Lunch with pash

Always a good time sharing mini waters with my beautiful pash. She's just so lovely.

Healthy Chocolate Cake?

No such thing? lies - this is the healthiest chocolate 

cake ive ever seen (look at it) and it was delicious! I had some friends from high school over for dinner this week - so much fun (do it sometime) and dear Jess is allergic to dairy. I wouldnt let this stop me from providing dessert, because lets be honest, everyone loves dessert. And like i said this is the healthiest chocolate cake ive ever had - with no butter, no oil and minimal sugar. Yum yum.

Here you go:

Stewed Apple-
3 apples
Peel the skin off and chop up into little pieces.
Put in a saucepan with 2T water and stir till it goes soft.
Mash it (or i put it in a blender) till smooth

Cake-
1½ cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
¹/³ cup cocoa powder
Pinch salt
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 c stewed apple (use recipe above)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup cold water
1 tbsp white vinegar

Mix all ingredients together and bake for 160 degrees for 30-35mins.

Icing- (i dont know what quantities i used but just use more icing sugar if its too runny and more cocoa if its not dark enough)
2 T Cocoa
1 cup Icing sugar
1-3 T hot water

When the cake is cool, put all the icing in the middle of the cake and only spread a little - the icing is a bit runny and will spread itself out and down the sides. 

Happiness in a Slice

Generally, discovering that you don't have all necessary ingredients you need when in the middle of something is less than ideal. In this case, however i found myself having a bit of luck (can i say that?). This 'Happiness in a Slice' could also be renamed a number of things including 'a bit of everything slice', 'super sweet slice' 'only eat one piece a day or get really fat slice' or just simply what it is 'accidentally stumble upon slice'. 

Yes, it was one of those days and everything went wrong. The aim was caramel slice. No slice tin - so i had to press the base mixture into a loaf tin (I should have only put half in because the loaf tin is half the size, but i wasn't concentrating) and hiffed that in the oven for 12 minutes. 

 Meanwhile, i started on the caramel filling only to find I only had half the condensed milk i needed. I add some brown sugar and a little bit of milk (1tbs) to make up for the lacking and poured that over my nicely baked slice. Realising that i had then made a super thick base which makes the caramel look pitiful i press the frozen raspberries from the freezer into the caramel and place in the oven for another 12 minutes. 

Bedtime is approaching fast, and me being a nana, i get the slice out of the oven and leave it to cool on the bench for the morning. When i remember i must ice the slice to take it to work but the plain old icing sugar, butter, water and cocoa icing will not do and i discover some dark chocolate i had used to ice my 'Red Nose Day' cupcakes with. Melt that in the microwave (forgetting I had added orange juice to it to make it jaffa flavoured) and pour it on to my slice, which at this stage is sounding like a disaster.

Off to work I go, slice in tow (still in the loaf tin). Morning tea arrives and i am hesitant to put it out due to its immense mixture of flavours. Luckily, i work with a wonderful woman who loves baking and always graciously receives it with open arms and is willing to test it out. It was amazingly delicious and such a hit. I had to prove to myself that i could make it again and success! 

So here you go.. give it a whirl:

This is the original recipe i was going to use:

1/2 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup firmly packed soft brown sugar

100g butter

filling:

30g butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

400g can sweetened condensed milk

topping:

150g dark chocolate

40g butter

Note: when the chocolate sets it goes really hard and if you try to cut it the caramel will ooze out. Put the slice on its side and cut it. I cut this slice into pieces 2cm x 2cm.

Lunch on a Winter's Day

Its cold and I'm hungry. With no butter in the house, pretty much every recipe I have is counted out... But praise Jesus! - I found a DELICIOUS scone recipe that uses no butter - it is so easy, I am tempted to have scones for every meal. 
Here it is...

Cheese and mixed herb scones:

3 cups self-raising flour
2/3 cup grated cheese
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons mixed herbs/ rosemary
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Combine flour, cheese and mixed herbs
3. Add oil, milk and eggs
4. Kneed on a floured surface (less is more! otherwise it wont rise very well)
5. Form dough into a 4cm thick rectangle and transfer to a lined tray - using a sharp knife, mark dough into the desired number of scones
6. Sprinkle with cheese and herbs
7. Bake fr 20 minutes (or till golden - make sure they aren't doughy in the middle by jabbing with a fork or skewer) 
These are so good alone but even better with soup! So i whipped up this YUM pumpkin soup. I learned that by adding a potato to the mix you get a super smooth soup!

1/2 pumpkin
1 potato
2-3 teaspoons vegetable stock
butter
oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
curry powder
1. Remove pumpkin and potato skins and cut into cubes (cut the potato smaller as it takes longer to soften) and place in a large pot, cover with water and add vegetable stock. Bring to the boil then simmer till soft
2. While the pumpkin is cooking, heat butter and oil in a frying pan - add finely diced onion and garlic (cook on a low heat for best flavour!)
3. Drain the vege liquid (save it for later) 
4. Place the pumpkin and onion mix into a blender - gradually add vege water to get the thickness you want (if you want it to be even creamier - you can add cream or sour cream) 
5. Add salt and pepper and curry powder to taste
I'm off to eat mine now! 
p.s. with the leftover soup, I let it cool then pour it in to snap lock bags and freeze it. This way I can have soup everyday! Just pop it in a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes - easy as!

Cakey Goodness

3 reasons I love having Mondays off

1. breakfast with my flatmate - porridge with banana and cinnamon and COFFEE 

2. lunch with my boyfriend

3. time to bake many yummy goodnesses

the issue is that there is so much food in our flat that really i shouldn't be eating on my own - like this 3 later apple cake i made a few weeks ago. Find the recipe here. You have to ask yourself "how could i possible justify eating 3 entire cakes with buttercream frosting on my own in the space of one afternoon?". It just isnt going to happen. So i found myself a willing boys flat who were more that happy to take it off my hands so I didnt have to stretch my self control any more than necessary. I may (or may not) have had a very large piece before giving it up however.

This cake proves to be a wee bit difficult when you only have one 20cm cake tin, but 3 hours, one broken plate and with much joy later - here it is..

Carrot Cake

Growing up, I hated carrot cake and now my brain cant even comprehend the idea of that! My 3 favourite reasons to bake carrot cake:
1. Licking the bowl and beaters of the cream cheese icing
2. Piling yummy goodness on top
3. Obviously eating the cake
So Karin had a baby shower and any occasion calls for carrot cake - especially if Karin is there!
After a few phone calls to Mum asking for a few tips on the worlds greatest carrot cake, look at this goodness...

Cake:
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup white flour
1 c oil
2 c raw sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs
3 carrots, grated
1/4 c chopped walnuts
1. Combine all ingredients and mix well
2. Bake in a 20cm cake tin at 180 degrees for an hour
3. Let the cake cool completely before icing
Cream Cheese Icing:
1 cup (non-spreadable) cream cheese
2 cups icing sugar
vanilla essence
1. Mix together with electric beater - don't over mix or it will go runny
Top with whatever yummness you fancy. I used:
- Chunks of dark chocolate
- Diced dried apricots
- Shredded coconut
- Chopped walnuts
- Sunflower or pumpkin seeds

The Boyfriend Bakes

Ironically, I will start this blog with something I didn't bake. Stefan often has to sit and wait while I bake (thank goodness for angry birds and other pointless games on his iPhone) but this one time he wanted to bake, himself! And yes, of course, his chocolate chippies turned out better than mine ever have! Although lets admit that everyone elses baking always tastes better. 

Chocolate Chippies..

75g butter, melted

1/2 cup brown Sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup choc chips

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cup plain flour

1. Using an electric beater, beat together butter, sugars and egg - the fluffier the mixture the better!

2. Add choc chips, baking soda and flour - mix together

3. Roll into balls and place on a lined baking tray 

4. Bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes

(p.s. if you leave them in the tray to cool they go chewy and slightly hard round the edges - delicious!)

If you have hungry flat mates or friends like I do - always double the mixture.