Aunty Merle's shortbread

We live in Scotland, and quite like shortbread.  It's rather a staple food here - the Scots invented it actually, so there are many good brands from which to choose in almost any shop you visit.  However the last time I fancied eating some, I resisted the urge to buy some.  You see, I remembered this wonderful recipe that my dear friend H had given to me, given to her by her Aunty Merle.

We had first tried it at her homestead in rural Victoria, Australia (as you do) and all loved it!  I made it first a while back and it was nearly as good as hers, so I was determined to try again.

The recipe specified that the butter had to be cold, so I chopped it into little cubes and popped it in the food processor, as directed.

It didn't mix very well for a while, and I began to panic, as I couldn't telephone H for advice due to the time difference between Scotland and Australia.  But luckily the batter 'took' and it all became one large lump of cookie dough quite soon.  

I formed the batter into little balls, about the size of a Lindor chocolate (mmm, don't get me started on how delicious they are!  Have you tried the new coconut one? Heaven).  I had made a note on the recipe the last time that they would spread...

And they did.  Ah well, life's tough sometimes, isn't it?!  ha ha.  These are probably a bit overdone, but they tasted so good, and lasted almost a week in the cake tin that none of us minded at all.  I wonder how they'd taste if I flavoured them with something other than vanilla???  Yummy, thanks H

Burns Night, or Scottish Day if you're 4 years old

Tomorrow is Burns Night, which is (according to Wikipedia) - a Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known as Robert Burns Day or Burns Night (Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year.

Basically, to Mini-2 it's Scottish Day (although technically November 30 would also fall under this category, as that is St Andrews Day, and he's the patron saint of Scotland).  They had China Day on Monday as it was Chinese New Year, so for snack they had prawn crackers and noodles and tomorrow they're going to have Haggis and oatcakes.  Ooh, wonder if she'll try the haggis? 

I felt like trying a new flavour of cupcake, then covering the top in fondant and doing a Scottish flag design on top (with an Aussie one for the day after tomorrow) and had a wee read through my favoured cupcake books.  Peaches and cream it was - only I didn't have any peaches and wasn't planning vanilla buttercream for the icing.  I had a tin of pears, and felt that the others ingredients would be lifted by the addition of about a 1/4 teaspoon mixed spice, resulting in Spiced Pear cupcakes.

However, after baking - the Team and I weren't thrilled with the result.  Don't get me wrong, they tasted good and were moist and so on, but it was really silly of the recipe to tell you to put the chopped fruit at the base of the cupcake case, because then the whole thing disintegrated when you removed the wrapper.  You kind of had to turn it upside down to eat, not practical. And Mr Becca and I felt that I could up the amount of spice, for a better flavour.  Still, they were the perfect foil for the fondant topping, which was the original plan.  So all's well that ends well!

And again, by Aspire2be. creative photography...

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