Peanut butter butterscotch scotcheroos

I liked the sound of this recipe, so felt I just had to investigate further.  I had been lucky enough to receive some Hershey's Butterscotch Chips as a gift from a pupil who had been on holiday to Florida over the summer, and was keen to try them out.

This recipe is a no-bake one, and is basically rice crispy treats with added melted peanut butter and then a layer of the melted butterscotch chips on top.

It sounds a bit crazy with all those flavours, but it was so easy to eat!  We chopped it into bite-size pieces, then managed to bite our way through the entire tin in just a few days.  The Team could probably make a dessert like this themselves, with minimal supervision, so this is going into the must-bake-again folder.  

Becca does tradition - back-to-school cookies (and gets a job!)

For those of you who have read my blog for a while, you may recall last year's first-day-back-at-school after school snack cookie treat.  I felt that this was a lovely and homely tradition for the girls, and was keen to do it again for them.

However, way back at the beginning of the year I had interviewed for a supply administrative post in any school across our fair city.  I was simply hoping to get the job to get on a list, then would hope to get a call now and then, asking me to work here or there for a few days.  I felt it would be the ideal job, as it would mean I could still be with the girls when they needed me and thus not need to pay out for childcare, but also earn a bit of extra money in the hours that I wasn't with them.  Long story short, I got offered a post at a local high school, assisting a teacher.  Because it was arranged during the school holidays, it was initially for a week, to see if I got on with the teacher and if my somewhat limited availability (because it turns out that the school day in primary is shorter than that in secondary schools) would suit also.

So, knowing I wouldn't be able to bake the cookies on the actual day, The Team and I got started on them this afternoon.  Well, the weather has been good and our new neighbours are lovely, so in between riding bicycles and general playing, only Mini-2 could spare the time to help bake cookies.  Here she is carefully cutting the baking parchment to place on the baking trays...

And helping to scoop out the correct amount of mix for each of the delicious dark chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies we planned to bake.  Please don't worry about that mark on her arm, it's the remainder of a glow-in-the-dark tattoo that hasn't yet come off, not a bruise or anything else  ;)

Mmm, what a smell!   And I'll admit, we snuck in a taste test once they were out of the oven.  But the rest we will keep for our first day back at school - all 3 of us!!

P.S.  The teacher liked me, and could work with my availability, so I'm now gainfully employed outside the home for the whole academic year - go Becca!!

Butterscotch cookies, with a little bit of help from Ikea

You may or may not know that we recently moved house.  It wasn't as stressful as it need have been because we chose to have the movers pack up all our stuff.  Sadly, the unpacking wasn't a service they offered.  But, at Mr Becca's insistence, that task was completed in a matter of weeks.  And we discovered that we had a lot of stuff, but finally a bit more space than stuff - yey!!  So a trip to Ikea was deemed appropriate, to purchase storage items so that our stuff looked nicer and tidier in the new house.  It's a fair drive from Becca Towers, and we thought to do it without the kids for a change, so they didn't have to submit to the long drive there and back for little (for them) reward.  Mr Becca had a few days annual leave, so we went.

And whilst there, I saw a large bag of Swedish butterscotch chip milk chocolate.  And my first thought, after Mmm, how tasty, was what could I bake with them?  Ha ha, never switched off (much to Mr Becca's chagrin at times).  So here's what I baked - my trusty Carnation milk recipe cookies, with a twist.

The chocolates were far too large to include as is, so each one was chopped into quarters and popped into the cookie dough, along with some leftover cashew nuts we hadn't yet eaten.  The dough then gets split in half and rolled in a sausage and refrigerated for at least 20 minutes to firm up before slicing.

I just sliced up half of one sausage to get ready as an after school treat for the girls, I had only about 20 minutes before I had to leave to pick them up, so had a wee panic as to whether these would be ready in time or not...

Lucky for me, and the girls, they were!  And a delicious after school snack was enjoyed by all!!  There's still dough left in the fridge - it keeps for about a week, so we'll be enjoying this treat for a few days yet I think.

Butterscotch is a manly flavour, right?

An ex-colleague of Mr Becca goes out with an ex-colleague of mine (from my pre-children days) - how's that for a coincidence??!  Anyway, she wanted to treat him to a birthday cake baked by my good self and after some discussion back and forth, we agreed on the same butterscotch cake that I made for Mr Becca's birthday this year.  The birthday boy is mad keen on boats, and even owns his own on which he sails whenever he gets the chance (kinda like Mr B and his motorbike) so the original plan was I'd attempt to outline a boat onto the top of the cake.  Then she got in touch to say, no, make it say 60 because after all, you're only 60 once.  So it does.

 

 

Butterscotch, piano, motorbikes... and cake

Mr Becca has 3 things he really likes (apart from us, his lovely ladies of course) - riding his motorbike, learning to play piano and butterscotch.  Last year, I made him a butterscotch cake with butterscotch drizzle and cream cheese icing and he enjoyed it very much.  As did a friend, who then ordered it for her mother's birthday a couple of weeks later!  (her mother gets migraines from chocolate and T felt that this was the perfect way for her mum to enjoy a delicious cake).

I felt that making a motorbike shaped cake was a little outside my comfort zone, so opted for the classic Meatloaf philosophy of 'Two outta three ain't bad' and decided to do a piano decorated butterscotch flavoured cake.  I had saved a few cake photos for inspiration, but the new recipe I wanted to try wouldn't suit having a fondant covering on top, as I felt it would impact the taste of the cake too greatly. 
So, to cut a long story short, I made the cake, decorated it then used piping chocolate and copied the first few bars of Fur Elise from one of his piano study books. In hindsight, I should have used more room for the music lines but hey, ho - he could read the music and loved the cake, so I was thrilled. Happy birthday darling!

Even better, I came downstairs to this note on the counter the next morning - high praise indeed, woop woop!!

Chocolate gives her migraines...

An old friend has been following our page on Facebook, and happened by Becca Towers in time to get the last slice of the Butterscotch cake we had tried out specially for Mr Becca's birthday, along with her order of cupcakes.  She was really impressed by it, bless her, and commissioned one for her mum's 65th birthday a few weeks later.  Turns out her mum gets migraines from chocolate, so they'd never really got her a special cake before.  I was most happy to oblige, of course, as the cake had worked well the first time and tasted good, yet I saw where I could make modifications without ruining it.

So this time, I used half and half dark brown and light brown sugar which gave a slightly stronger butterscotch taste.  I also baked the cakes for a few minutes less each, giving a softer springier sponge.  Tanya had given me her gravy boat, so that I could keep all the pouring sauce for her to pour over each slice rather than over the cake in its entirety.  She had requested silver balls on top in the number 65 and some glitter.  No problem, I said, not realising that the silver balls would sink into the cream cheese icing and even bleed and droop slightly.  I had taken my photos immediately the cake was completed, and it looked  little worse when it was collected.  Luckily Tanya was really kind and said it was fine.  I just hope I remember this the next time it comes up...

Oh, and everyone loved the cake!!

Butterscotch cake

Despite the apparent success of the Maple Spiced Cake, I had bought the fresh double cream needed for his first request of a butterscotch cake (recipe found online, from Delicious magazine) and had spare time this arvo, due to an appointment being cancelled.  So I made it.  It calls itself a butterscotch sponge with cream cheese icing but I beg to differ.  Although it has both white and brown sugar, it tastes like a normal sponge to us but the sauce you make is great and mixed in with the rest of the icing makes it more of a sponge with butterscotch icing and drizzle.  All in all, it's lush but not tasting of butterscotch enough I feel.  See for yourself...