Anzac Slice with chocolate chips

I have been taking part in the super fun Fat Mum Slim 365 photo a day challenge for nearly 1.5 years now, where you post a photo to your Instagram account according to the theme set out for that day. You attach the relevant hashtag so other participants can find you and then you enjoy seeing everyone else's interpretation of the prompt.

You may be wondering what this has to do with my baking, but bear with me.  The lady who is Fat Mum Slim is Australian, and she recently was pleased to take part in something or other to commemorate Anzac Day today, and she also posted a recipe for and Anzac Slice with chocolate chips that sounded both tasty and easy.  So I made it.

The recipe was really easy and straightforward to follow, and before long I was at the stage of putting the slice in the oven.

As you can see from the before photos, I may not have waited quite the full 15 minutes she recommended, because some of my chocolate chips are glistening from starting to melt.  But I got it straight into the oven after this, just to be sure.

And took it out 27 minutes later - wow Becca Towers smelt great!!!   They tasted amazing straight from the oven, warm and comforting and just the right mix between crunch and chewiness.  But I left them to cool overnight, planning to take them in to colleagues the next day and by morning they had hardened up.  The Team and I had to taste test them (again) obviously, and they were still fabulous but with a more solid and thus harder to initially bite into texture.  

So next time I shall try them for only 24 minutes.  Happy Anzac Day one and all.  Lest we forget.

Mmm melting moments

We caught up with friends we hadn't seen in a while over these spring break school holidays.  I have been a little less hectic with the baking, not baking so frequently as I used to because I'd been pulling longer shifts at work, and the kids are just as busy as ever with after-school clubs and activities.  But these particular friends that were coming - well, their 13 year old was really getting into baking and I felt that I had to offer them something fresh and new as it was quite likely they'd bring along one of her treats.

I decided to keep things simple and fun, and go for small individual servings rather than a large cake that may not get fully devoured when at its best.  I chose Melting Moments - a sandwich biscuit well-loved but not often enjoyed from my youth - and even used an Australian recipe.  Well, it had to be, didn't it?!  

These beauties needed to have a particular consistency that melted in your mouth and crumbled slightly when you bit into them, but not so much that you lost all your biscuit at the first bite.  So I was a little apprehensive as I started.

Following the recipe to the letter, they rolled into what looked like small cute balls of dough.  I then flattened them with a glass and made indents with a fork.

So far, so good - they looked correct, or should I say, as I remembered.  Once out of the oven, they still looked pretty darn good but had spread a bit bigger.  I hadn't bargained on that, so made a note on the recipe for the next time.  Some were a cute 4.5cm in diameter but others were up to a centimetre larger.  So I took note to choose similar sized ones to sandwich together.

I had some classic vanilla buttercream and also some rich, decadent chocolate buttercream waiting ready to fill them.  Then I thought lemon would taste nice, so chose a lush lemon curd to add to some of the vanilla buttercream - mmm, great idea.

All the taste-testers were impressed, and I am pleased to say that this recipe tastes just like the ones I remember from cafes of my youth.  And all 3 flavours worked really well - a definite recipe to keep.

Mmm, melting moments - a biscuit from my youth

As many of my readers may know by now, I grew up in the wonderful land of milk and honey, often known as Australia.  And one of the biscuits that I recall from away back then, that I haven't eaten in decades and had all but forgotten about, is Melting Moments.

Then lo and behold, they appeared in my Facebook newsfeed, made by a baker who lives in Adelaide.  I admired her photo, gave it a little thought, then figured if you don't ask, you don't get.  I contacted her, explained I was very far away and thus no competition to her and kindly asked for the recipe...  And she was lovely!  So happy to share and so I made them.

Now, these were quite easy, and The Team could have helped if they wanted to - as Lindsay (the Australian baker) had made them with her children, but they were too busy enjoying the Summer Holidays to worry about remaining indoors with a hot oven on a hot day.  Clever girls!

Mmm, don't they look good?  The recipe only made 13 halves, so this is the whole haul.  I made them with vanilla glace icing in the middle, rather than lemon as suggested, as I felt the taste would be better.  And it was - not only did The Team love them, but Mr Becca pronounced them delicious too.  High praise indeed  ;)

Cupcake treats for visiting friends

A lady got in touch recently, saying she had some friends visiting shortly from Australia and would love some cupcakes for afternoon tea.  Ooh, lovely, I said.  We decided upon a mix of vanilla, lemon and sticky toffee and summery colours.  I even managed an attempt at the Southern Cross constellation, or Crux, as it is more correctly known.

(I found out afterwards that they absolutely loved them, and even took photos before they tucked in. Awww, that makes this baker a very happy girl indeed)

I made Violet Crumble - that's chocolate honeycomb to you non-Aussies

There are a lot of chocolate bars (or candy bars as an American would call them) that exist in Australia and nowhere else.  Well, possibly in New Zealand too, but as I've been in the UK for the last ____  years then here is where I need them.  Some of these bars are, in no particular order, Violet Crumble, Chokito, Polly Waffle, White Knight, Peppermint Crisp  oh my gosh, I've just read that Polly Waffles were discontinued in 2009 due to poor sales after 62 years!  Darn it, if only I'd liked them more  ;)

Anyway, I digress.  I love all of these chocolate bars and have told the girls about them too - in preparation for our upcoming trip to Melbourne later this year.  It's Mr Becca's and my first trip back in over a decade, and the girls have never been, so to say we're excited might be understating it just a little.  Me, I'm excited about all the chocolate bars and sweets (lollies in Aussie vernacular) I'll get to eat.  After all, diets don't exist in other countries, do they??

Hmmm, digressing again.

So anyway, I made some honeycomb for the first time ever.  And parts of it tasted just like I remember Violet Crumbles used to taste.  Result!!

I had a chance to use the sugar thermometer I had bought not so long ago, which was fun in and of itself.  It's surprising how long a watched pot actually does take to boil to 150c.  And then it all happened so suddenly that it wasn't so funny any more.

The recipe said to do everything quickly once it reached the right temperature, so I did.  But for next time I shall mix the bicarbonate of soda more thoroughly, and hope that the golden syrup doesn't sink so much to the bottom of the heavily oiled, foil-lined pan when poured out.  

Apart from that though, it was delicious.

As mentioned, in parts it was a bit chewy so I thought it'd taste better chocolate coated.  The next day I melted a mix of milk and dark chocolate and got to work.

For future reference, I think I'll just use the whole amount as milk chocolate as I feel it would taste better.  But there were no complaints on the taste, and every last bit was nibbled up by The Team and our friends.  So pleased!

Anzac biscuits, at school, in October?

I had a meeting with a primary (elementary) school in our city a month or so ago, about teaching baking to a select group of children.  It was myself, the Principal Teacher for that department and the Healthy Eating Assistant for the school, and we discussed what type of recipes may be suitable, which ingredients the Scottish Government Healthy Eating Policy (or whatever its official name is) would allow and so forth.  As a slight geek, I was excited about the basic science and maths involved in baking - watching the solids turn to liquid, watching disparate ingredients turn into delicious cookies and cakes, seeing the numbers on the scales increase, sifting the flour through the little holes and watching it get finer and so on.  I like it when my girls master a new skill, like sifting flour only into the bowl, or cracking eggs and having no shell in the bowl, or weighing out sugar and was hoping to pass that joy on to other kids.

We determined that we'd need short, easy recipes to start with (no mention was made of how long this arrangement may continue, but one session to start with, so Oct-Dec) and that in the week that I wasn't in class, the teachers would work on hygiene, basic maths, science etc to prepare the children for what was to come. 

Somehow the idea of cooking from different countries came up, and with my Aussie background, I looked for simple classically Australian recipes of my youth, and found this beauty that would perfectly suit our needs - Anzac biscuits.  For the history behind these tasty crunchy, oaty bickies (as the Aussies call them), see here.

Isn't this board great?  The teacher made it to visually show the children all the steps involved in baking.  On the left side we can see the ingredients for this particular recipe, and the recipe itself in the middle.  They each had various tasks to perform, and next time their name will be beside the task for that lesson.

Here are the biscuits, ready for the oven.  The Healthy Eating Assistant was going to take them through to the school kitchen, and they would be ready for the children once they'd eaten their lunch - perfect.

One of the children cleaning the table, others were tasked with washing and drying dishes - not their favourite parts. 
The lesson ended before the biscuits were baked, and I had wanted to try out the recipe before teaching it, so below we can see The Team plus a friend/classmate/neighbour stirring the biscuit mix yesterday afternoon, after they'd all done their homework of course.

 Here we see her making 'balls' with the mix the clean way, getting it ready for the oven.

And the finished product - the Kitchen smelled fantastic, and the biscuits were crunchy, oaty and delicious!  Enjoy.

 

Chocky Rocks? They're bonza, mate!

I had asked for easy-to-make-with-kids recipes, particularly Australian ones and was rewarded with the following links by some Aussie bakers in a group I'm in.  The first was for White Christmas, which is technically not baking, but perfect for kids.  Next up was Chocky Rocks and Anzac Biscuits, both of which seemed ideal for my needs.  The needs need to remain secret just now I think, but suffice it to say that the 'kids' in question are not my own - ooh, exciting!!

Anyway, the point of this post is that the girls and I wanted to try out one of the recipes and thought Chocky Rocks sounded fun and easy.  And messy, their favourite part! ha ha.

We started shaping the cookies by hand, as the recipe suggested, but my gosh!  What a mess!

 After shaping them, you had to roll them in cornflakes.  Not easy with such mucky hands...

 So after cleaning their hands thoroughly (with soap and water, I promise!!)

 We switched to using two spoons to roll the balls

 

 and then dip the balls into cornflakes.

 They were then unceremoniously dropped onto a lined baking tray (I'm working on the gracefulness of the girls, working hard ;))

 And popped into the oven to cook.  And then taken out to be eaten.

Served with a tall glass of ice cold milk - mmmm, yummy!!  I remembered making these as a child with my Mum and siblings and I think my girls had just as much fun.

Happy Australia Day

Today is Australia Day, (here's Wikipedia's take on it, FYI) Australia Day (previously known as Anniversary Day, Foundation Day, and ANA Day) is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, the date commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of New Holland.

Although it was not known as Australia Day until over a century later, records of celebrations on 26 January date back to 1808, with the first official celebration of the formation of New South Wales held in 1818. It is presently an official public holiday in every state and territory of Australia and is marked by the presentation of the Australian of the Year Awards on Australia Day Eve, announcement of the Honours List for the Order of Australia and addresses from the Governor-General and Prime Minister. With community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies the day is celebrated in large and small communities and cities around the nation. Australia Day has become the biggest annual civic event in Australia.

Hmm, the font is very strange in this post - sorry!

If you read the last post about Burns Night, you'll understand the cupcake.  Here I'm simply going to show you the Southern Cross topped cakes, and the latter is by Aspire2be. creative again.  Enjoy!

Honey Joys

So, Saturday morning's chez Becca.  We're all in our jammies, watching cartoons after breakfast while Daddy sleeps on after his epic Friday Night cooking session.  The girls didn't fancy cornflakes for breakfast, and we have a lot to eat, as the box was large and had been opened.  Mummy's youth to the rescue!  I remembered a recipe I used to make with my Mum (and probably my siblings too) years ago that was fun and delicious, and cut out of the side of a packet of cornflakes - Honey Joys.  Basically, honey and cornflakes baked for a few minutes.  Mmmm...

Again there was a slight (correctable) issue with the reading of the recipe - as it's an Australian recipe, their tablespoon is actually 20ml whereas the British one is only 15ml.  No worries mate, as the Aussies say.  And the best bit about all this was that Mini-1 wanted to help!  Yey, she's not usually home when Mini-2 and I tend to bake and is getting bored of cake and cupcakes, so this was news indeed.

 The recipe - as you can see, I wasn't joking.  It really is cut out of the side of the packet, ha ha.

As suspected, these didn't last long at all.  And with their festive foil cases, we had to try one of each colour to see how the taste compared.  Weeeeeeell, any excuse for more treats!

Recipe for Maple Spiced Cake with Caramel Frosting

The metric equivalents are probably within 10g/10ml of correct...
1/2 cup (120g) butter                                            
1 1/2 cups (320g) light brown soft sugar              
2 egg yolks, well beaten                                        
2 cups (300g) plain flour                                        
2 tsp baking powder                                              
1 tsp ground cinnamon                                         
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/3 cup (90ml) evaporated milk
1/3 cup strong coffee (I used 60ml pure maple syrup)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg whites, beaten stiff
Cream butter, add sugar and egg yolks and beat again.  Mix flour, baking powder and spices in a separate bowl.  Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, and beat until smooth.  Add the vanilla and maple syrup, mix and then fold in the egg whites.  Pour into the greased ring tin (this would work in a normal cake tin I'm sure, probably a 20cm diameter one would give a nicer height) then bake at 190c for 25-30 minutes.  (I found that the cake was jelly-like at this point, so gave it an extra 5 minutes and the skewer came out clean).
Allow the cake to cool (probably about 2 hours or so) then prepare the frosting/icing...

1 cup (270ml) evaporated milk                            
1 1/4 cups (300g) white sugar                              
3/4 cup (150g) light soft brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Blend the milk and sugars in a large saucepan on a medium heat, add butter.  Bring to the boil and cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens, so that a dribble dropped into a glass of cold water forms a soft ball (soft ball stage).  Cool for around 20 minutes, then add the vanilla and beat for a few minutes until the sauce thickens enough to spread onto the cake.  It thickens slightly more on standing, so spread it as soon as it's done.

Nostalgic birthday cake, maple spice with caramel icing

It's my lovely husband's birthday tomorrow and he's requested a particular cake that his mother used to bake, nearly 30 years ago.  All he could remember was that it had fudge icing and was in a ring tin.  So, problem number one, locate a ring tin.  A quick text message (ah, the wonders of modern technology) to a half-dozen friends was successful.  Next step, call his Mum and see if she knew what he meant, and more importantly, could locate the recipe.  His dad answered the phone and knew exactly the one I meant (spooky) and his Mum knew it too, and sent the recipe along a day later. 

Twenty-odd years ago, they lived in Melbourne too, so this was another Australian recipe, full of cups and teaspoons and so forth.  While baking, I converted the cups of flour, butter etc to British metric measurements in case I wanted to make the recipe again.  The recipe required liquid coffee, but he didn't want that so asked for maple syrup instead. 

I'm gonna assume that the recipe slightly didn't work (it hasn't been tasted yet) because it's old and I used a different ingredient.  After the required bake time, it resembled jelly, seriously, so I gave it 5 more mins. Here's what came out...

Or does this look more appetising??

As if that wasn't bad enough, the caramel frosting was equally difficult to get right.  Far too few instructions in the method meant using Google to figure out what on earth I should do.  I mean, does this look like it will ever be solid enough to paste over a cake?

But finally it was, hooray.

And we have the final result, ta da.  I have to assume you lot think it looks good because I've had positive feedback on Facebook and requests for the recipe too, thanks for your support!

Australian recipe

No photo just yet, as the chocolate brownies have only just come out of the oven, literally.  My friend Charlotte gave me the Donna Hay - Chocolate cookbook for my birthday last year (or perhaps it was Christmas?).  I believe she's the Australian equivalent of our Nigella Lawson or perhaps Delia Smith.  I've made a few items already and they were deliciously chocolatey.  Then this morning, a local friend Jill gave me some butter that was short-dated and suggested I use it to make brownies while my youngest child was at nursery.  A reasonable suggestion, I thought, so I did it.

Because the recipe is Australian, it uses their measurements of cups not grams.  Luckily I have a lovely set of brightly coloured melamine/plastic measuring cups and spoons (from Lakeland, if you were wondering.  Although I've just checked, and they no longer stock them) which get rare use in our kitchen.  Though looking at the two sets together it would seem that we're missing a pink measuring cup - perhaps the 2/3rds one.  I'll need to check with Mr Becca later on.  British recipes use grams, and thus a set of scales.  American recipes are trickier yet, using a mix of ounces, grams, cups and sticks. 

The brownies came out done on top but soft inside, so here's hoping they're done...