Little Farm Vegetarian Quiche

Little Farm Vegetarian Quiche.

This looks absolutely delicious!  I’m going to put this on the menu for one of the cold and rainy winter nights we’re having right now here in Melbourne, Australia.  A quiche would do the trick I think for two fussy little eaters to enjoy as well as a Husband.

Chocolate Brownie Birthday Cake that my children made!

Well, it’s my Husband’s Birthday and I suggested to my 6 and 3 year olds that they could make a Birthday Cake for their Dad.  My kids loooove cooking and decorating so of course, they absolutely jumped at the chance.

Now, my Husband doesn’t eat any other chocolate normally, but oh dear, does he love his brownies.  He says his nose can track them a mile away.

So the kids and I devised a plan to make a chocolate brownie cake (just made out of pre-packaged brownie mixes with some added walnuts of course!) in a large rectangular baking tray.

We then cut it in half so we then had two smaller sized rectangles.

Chocolate Brownie Birthday Cake with whipped cream, chocolate ganache and colored sprinkles

We’ve then taken 250 grams of milk chocolate, melted it and mixed it with 1/3 cup of thickened cream to make a nice simple chocolate ganache.  The kids then poured the ganache over the top of each cake and spread it around, then decorated with some Hundreds and Thousands Sprinkles for a bit of colour!

I’ve then taken the leftover cream and added some icing sugar and vanilla essence and whipped it until it was very very thick.  Then I’ve spread all of the whipped cream on top of one cake until it was completely covered and overflowing and sticking out the sides (of course, I had to put this cake into a ceramic baking dish as you could imagine or there’d be whipped cream EVERYWHERE!!)

Then we’ve put the top cake onto the whipped cream and voila!  The kids were so proud of their creation and I was so proud of them.  🙂

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm looks yummy.  Hope it tastes just as good.  I know one thing’s for sure, it’s gonna be a messy one to eat.

Yummy Chocolate Caramel Slice …. mmmm divine!!!

Chocolate Caramel Slice.

Seriously, this chocolate caramel slice should be forbidden to eat.

I made this again today and it is absolutely divine!

Might have to do a big workout tomorrow though…. *winks*

But it’s really worth making, even if only the once to try it.

Peanut Butter Cookies

After a hectic weekend, I’ve got my eldest son home sick with a cold and thought while I’m making an Italian Passata to freeze, I’ll bake up some quick cookies for the kids.  Lately, I keep seeing peanut butter recipes everywhere and decided on some peanut butter cookies.  This is a really simple recipe and so quick, which is what I like!

For ingredients, you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup of Peanut Butter (or a little more if you prefer)
• 1/2 cup of melted butter (I used 110 grams of butter, melted it in the microwave for 45 seconds and it came to 1/2 cup of melted butter)
• 1/2 cup of Caster Sugar
• 1/2 cup of Brown Sugar (or just 1 full cup of brown sugar if you don’t have any Caster Sugar)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• 1 egg
• 1 & 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celsius (or 320 Fahrenheit) and grease two baking trays and line with baking paper.
• Mix the sugars, vanilla essence and melted butter in a bowl, then add the egg and combine well until it resembles a caramel-type looking mixture.
• Sift in the flour and combine, then add the peanut butter and mix through thoroughly.
• The mixture can then be rolled into little teaspoon size balls and put on the greased/lined baking trays.  You can flatten them gently with a fork or press a pecan or walnut into the top before cooking, but I just went with the plain type and left as balls so they could have a nice dome shape after baked.  (Surprisingly, I thought the mixture would be really sticky, but it wasn’t and it was very pliable)
• Bake for 14-16 minutes or until golden brown then allow them to cool on a rack and they will become really very crunchy.

There’s nothing like some nice home-made cookies in cold weather.  Serve with with your favourite hot beverage for a real treat.

Enjoy!

Ps. I’ve got kids swarming around the kitchen now that the cookies are cooling.  The cookies smell fantastic!

Chocolate Caramel Slice

It’s Sunday today and after I’d finished all of my housework, laundry, folding, you know, the multitude of things a Mum does each day, I decided to make a Chocolate Caramel Slice.  I’ve made this once before and it was absolutely divine, especially when you’re craving for that sweet-little-something to tickle your tastebuds.  I originally found the recipe on taste.com.au as a featured recipe.

Ingredients

For the base you’ll need:

• 1 cup of plain flour (sifted)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
• 125gm butter, melted

For the filling you’ll need:

• 400gm can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 60gm butter, melted

For the topping you’ll need:

• 60gm copha, chopped
• 125gm cooking chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Preheat over to 180C/356F.  Grease and line with baking paper a 3cm deep, 28x18cm lamington/slice pan.
2. Combine all of the base ingredients into a bowl and mix well.  Press the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden.  My oven runs hotter than normal so I took my base out at 15 minutes.  Let the base cool.
3. Now for the filling….  Combine the condensed milk, syrup and butter in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk for around 8 minutes or until it’s golden in colour.  Pour over the cooked base and bake for a further 12 minutes or until firm.  Again, depending on your oven, check how the caramel is going as I took mine out after 10 minutes as it was ready and bubbling madly.  Cool completely and/or refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours or until set.
4. Lastly, the topping….  Place the copha and chocolate into a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Stir until both ingredients are melted and pour over the caramel.  Then simply refrigerate to set the chocolate mixture which will probably only take half an hour.
5. Cut into squares to serve and ENJOY!!

I hope others find this recipe as delicious as my family does.

And here’s a picture of taste.com.au’s finished product as my camera is out of action right now, but you get to see what the finished product should resemble *winks*

Teddy Bear Cookies

I just spent a week without my oven as I think I baked it to death.  But luckily it wasn’t anything expensive to replace, just a contact on a switch that had moved.  Probably due to the door being open and closed so much! *snickers*

Nevertheless, yesterday I was back in action baking mode again and promptly made a carrot and walnut cake.  Always a favourite 😉

Today I’ve pulled out an old recipe I found when trawling the internet for “healthy” cookies.  The original recipe is called Happy Vegan Cookies and I’ve just used the base recipe and added some extras for the kids/hubby to enjoy.

The most amazing thing about this recipe is you’ll have most if not all of the ingredients in your pantry and there’s no milk, eggs or butter!!!

Teddy Bear Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups Self Raising Flour
• Note: (If no SR Flour use 2 cups of Plain Flour with 2 teaspoons of Baking Powder)
• 1 cup of extra goodies for example: rolled oats, coconut, finely chopped apricots, chocolate chips etc etc
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup raw cane sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil (or any vegetable oil – except olive oil, as it might make them taste a bit too olivey)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/4 cup water (plus 2 tablespoons of extra water in case you find the mixture is a little too dry)

Method  (Preheat Oven to 180C or 356F)

1.  Sift all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl then add your extra cup of goodies and combine.

2. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar with the oil, vanilla and 1/4 cup of water.

3. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the sugar/oil/vanilla/water mixture and combine well.

4. Simply add an extra tablespoon of water at a time if the mixture is too dry.

5. Knead the mixture into a biscuit/cookie dough and roll out between two large pieces of baking paper (the mess-free way I always say!) to about 1cm thick.  Then simply use a cookie/biscuit cutter of your choice to cut out the shapes and place onto a baking paper lined/greased biscuit/cookie tray.  If you don’t want to use a cutter, just roll the dough into small balls and press down with your thumb or a fork on the tray.

6. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

7. Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee or hot chocolate …. Mmmmmm *crunch*

Lowan’s Cooking Class

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Here’s Lowan’s Marble Cake Mmmmmm delicious!!!

He just loved going to this children’s cooking class.  It was held during the school holidays and it only goes for an hour and a half, but he enjoyed himself so much, he raved about it all afternoon after he got home.  Not to mention, he and Connor have had two portions of the cake and want more!  I’m so proud of him and he’s made a really yummy cake too.  He wants to show me how to make another one over the weekend.  Can’t wait 🙂 …. Oh my goodness, must run now.  Connor has broken into the zinc cream whilst I’ve been typing this.  It’s everywhere!  I’ll need another piece of cake myself after this.