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.

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.  

Rolo slice for the work picnic

Mr Becca's work have an annual staff picnic.  I remember my dad's work doing this - only he worked in a HUGE company, so there were rides and tents with food and everything!  To us children it was heaven, and we looked forward to going on the ski-jump ride each year, as we never went to fair or carnivals or fairgrounds or whatever those places are where they have a lot of rides and rubbish food to eat.  The work picnic was our carnival, and we loved it.

Mr Becca's work however, is small.  They have a marquee in case it rains, and a barbeque and some tables laid out for folk to sit at.  There is a large open grass area, and a playpark just through the trees. Actually, for a kid that's still kind of perfect :)

He asked me to make a couple of traybakes to take along with us, and I was happy to oblige.  A kind reader had once emailed me her secret recipe for a Rolo traybake slice and I had bought Rolo's a few months back in preparation, but forgotten about them.  Lucky for me, they were still within their use-by date.

The recipe needed milk chocolate, but I felt it would be a bit sickly, so added in a third dark chocolate.  Don't they look lovely melting up together?  Psst, Mr Becca didn't seem to notice there was any dark chocolate involved, so let's not burst his bubble, ok?  ;)

 

 At this stage, I really wasn't convinced.  I mean, be honest, that doesn't look fabulously tasty now, does it?

But wait, the addition of a layer of melted chocolate, pink glitter and some leftover Rolo's later and voila - That looks better!

 

It was so so good!  The children and adults alike absolutely loved it.  And despite there not being a full complement of staff and families that turned out for the picnic, there was no Rolo slice to take home to Becca Towers.  Score!

Sweet and salty Christmas treat

I love making this traybake.  A few times The Team have even requested I make a double batch, so we can keep one, ha ha.  It really is that good.  Such a taste sensation of salty nuts and sweet chocolate....  Mmmm. A friend's sister is pregnant at the moment, and had fallen in love with a photo from my Facebook page of another traybake and had been craving it.  But I hadn't managed to locate any Reese's pieces for a reasonable price (£1.50 per 50g bag was a tad ridiculous I felt) so the friend chose this one for her.  I delivered it in one piece, and I believe it was cut and placed in a gorgeous Santa tin, to be given as a Christmas gift.  Oooh, what a lucky girl!

Cinnamon Apple Berry bake - come on Autumn!

You may have noticed that I like to pick up recipe magazines now and then.  And try out new recipes that I think sound good.  Well, here's another one...

This one is officially called Little Chefs apple, berry and yoghurt traybake but I prefer to think of it as a Cinnamon Apple Berry bake.  It smelled great when it was cooking, and was so moist and quick to eat! And it seems quite healthy too, with 3 different fresh fruits, natural yoghurt and not much sugar. Certainly I was happy for The Team to have their fill.  

 It even looks good raw, don't you think?  All those delicious berries, mmm...

When the time was up for baking, it seemed very soft inside, so I returned it to the oven for a further 15 minutes or so.  It was still soft and very moist, but I felt it must be done so removed it finally.

It cut up easily once cooled, and was moist all the way through - totally delicious!!  Although for the next time, I'll add a fair bit more cinnamon for a bit more of an Autumnal flavour.  And a friend tried it and she added mixed spice - that would work too.  Enjoy.

Mars Bar Slice, with added fun

I had some orange flavoured chocolate buttons and some Reese's Pieces in the baking treats bucket, and couldn't think how best to use them.  Until I noticed the Mars Bars in the sweetie cupboard - bingo!  Off to buy some Rice Krispies and it was game on...

They looked kinda silly lined up like that on the whole tray, but once cut into bite-size pieces - oh my, they looked and tasted amazing!  Lucky for us that this treat was all for The Team  :)

Peanut butter and chocolate - a match made in traybake heaven

I subscribe to quite a few email lists from bakers - whether it be blog posts or email newsletters.  I love reading and saving or printing out the recipes and ideas for future inpsiration.  One such recipe was this from Betty Crocker, that great American powerhouse of ideas, for Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars.  I mean, that just sounds good right there, doesn't it?!!

And with a starting out photo that looks this good, you know it's gonna taste amazing!  Mmmm...

It was a pretty easy recipe to convert to metric measurements (I really don't like American cup measurements, they're too imprecise for my scientific mind to handle) and to get to this stage.  They asked you to sprinkle chocolate chips over the just-out-of-the-oven traybake.  You can see in the photo that a few have started to melt within moments of touching the warm peanut butter choc studded base...

Then a few moments later you had to use a palette knife or similar to smooth out the melted chocolate and quickly add the chopped peanuts, so they'd stick well.

I left it out on the kitchen counter to cool, and realised after a little while that it would never set hard at room temperature.  So I cut it into 'bars', which in my case were more like bite-sized squares, then popped it in the fridge for a while.

And got this as the end result.  Oh my, peanut butter heaven!!  This tasted so good, and was so quick and easy to make.  And only about 1000kcal per bite-size of luscious dessert.  You have to try this - let me know how you get on!  Enjoy.

Traybakes a go-go

What do you bring when you want to make something to bring, but it has to be easy to transport?  Why, traybakes of course!  Silly you, fancy needing to ask that question.  We love a good traybake chez Becca and had some Rice Crispies left (Rice Bubbles for those Aussies among you) - for some reason The Team don't really fancy them as a breakfast menu item...

So, Mars Bar Slice it was.  I had been given some fancy, schmancy milk chocolate drops (possibly Callebaut, from a large 3kg bag I seem to recall) by a colleague of Mr Becca's, and a friend, and was pleased to be able to use the last of them as the topping for this slice.   I decided to try to be a little arty and do white chocolate swirls on top - what do you think?

 Here they are from the interior - just to make you drool a little more...

 And this final shot is because they make me drool a little, ha ha.

I also tried a different recipe for Millionaire's Shortbread, as I'd been disappointed with the texture of the last one.  In that I'd used crushed actual shortbread held together with butter, and upon slicing, I didn't feel that it held together too well at all.

So this recipe required you to make your own shortbread, so I did.  However I couldn't get it in a thin enough layer to fill the size of tin required (28 x 18cm rectangle) so I put it in a 20cm square.  And the darn biscuit base rose as it cooked, leaving me little room for the next layer.

And I'd love your advice on this next bit - my caramel seems to have 'bits' in it.  They are smooth to the taste, and don't detract from the taste or texture much, but I can't think why they've appeared.  They appeared as I was stirring the mix on the stove as it bubbled, and I thought they would stir in and dissolve at some point, but they didn't.  Do you see what I mean?  Any ideas?

Then after a day of cooling, as suggested, I mentioned to Mr Becca that this recipe required just a drizzle of chocolate on top, not a layer.  And how much easier that should make it to cut...  But he wanted a layer of chocolate on top, and suggested a thin one might do.  So I did as he asked, but am now scared to attempt to cut it!  What a wuss, right?!

I'll need to get back to you to let you know how I got on...

My blog made an order!

There's a new family that have moved into our area, and one of the children has joined Mini-1's class.  They get along well, and we've walked home from school together a few times.  I was chatting with the Mum one day to arrange a playdate after school for the girls, and gave her one of my business cards so she had my contact details. 

I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that she'd spent the following morning reading my blog!  She says she really enjoyed it, and was very keen to taste the Sweet and Salty traybake.  A great choice, as it's very more-ish.  I had a busy week and weekend coming up, so she decided to have it for today, as it was her 19th wedding anniversary.

The cut one is an extra tray I made for us.  I mean, this stuff is so good that it's hard to give away.  (although I was good, and cut it into about 60 little bite-size pieces and thus shared them with the girls' school teacher, who loved them too!!)

Mini cupcakes or a traybake?? Or both...

A lovely lady, let's call her R, and I have been friends since we met with my eldest daughter (and her youngest) at a toddler group years ago.  She's one of those friends whom you don't see all that often, but pick up where you left off when you do get together, and are always happy to catch up or run into one another.

She was one of my first customers, and has recommended me to others.  And this year, her daughter wanted my mini cupcakes and a traybake again for her birthday.  There was a bit of discussion with the older brothers as to precisely which traybake but the brief was simple - white, purple and sparkle.  Ah, music to my ears!! 

The boys agreed on the Mars Bar slice, full to bursting with Rice Bubbles (I know, I know, they're not called that here, but it's the name of my youth) and covered in white chocolate this time.  I forgot to take a photo, but you've seen one before ;)

I'm pleased with the cupcakes though, and both mother and daughter loved them!  Happy 7th Birthday Dea!!

 

 

 

Pink, purple and a touch of sparkle? Must be birthday time

I got a message on my Facebook page, having been suggested to a customer by another local baker who was fully booked (thank you!).  She wanted some cupcakes and a traybake for a birthday that weekend, and I was only too happy to help.  The brief was pink and purple with a touch of sparkle, and I really enjoyed making these ones.  They are a Classic Vanilla cupcake (vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream icing) with the addition of pink and purple colours and sugarpaste accents (I used to call it fondant, but my Cake School teacher told me off one time too many ;)).  I used the Sugarflair colours Grape Violet and Pink, and was surprised and pleased at how deep the purple intensified once it sat for a little while.  Below is the matching tray of brownies, rich and luscious and dusted with Vanilla Icing Sugar from Sweden and a touch of sparkle.  Happy birthday Leanne, hope you loved your surprise! 

Candy melts aren't always a good idea...

One of the companies here makes flavoured and coloured candy melts (Silver Spoon, but I couldn't find the product on their website?), so the pink ones are strawberry.  When I bought them, I had thought this was a good idea.  Not so much now.

We had Maltesers to use up, so I made Malteser Slice.  And thought it would be fun to use the pink chocolate on top, rather than the usual white chocolate.  Please, don't try this at home.  Apart from the melts not actually melting as well as normal chocolate does in a bain-marie, it really didn't taste right having strawberry flavoured chocolate on your Malteser Slice.  Looked good, but did not taste good.  Ah well, that's what experimenting is all about really, isn't it?

Hershey's Kisses don't melt well, fact.

I've recently gone through my baking store cupboard, to check if any items are nearing their use-by date.  And found some Hershey's Kisses and Crunchie (honeycomb choc) bars. 

There are odd other items, but I wanted to use these up first.  I had thought perhaps to do cookies, or pop them into a tray of brownies or cupcakes, but couldn't face eating any of those things.  Then I remembered a traybake I'd done in the past that used Crunchie's and was divine.  So I removed all the wrappers and got the chocolate ready to melt.

And the long and the short of it is, these Kisses don't really melt very well.  But I didn't learn that until a little too late.  If you look closely at the next image, you may see a little evidence on the top layer of the slice, where it seems to have separated slightly.  Nevermind, these were for us and it didn't affect the taste at all, agreed by the external taste-testers (non Team Becca).  Yummy!

Good friends need tasty treats

I have a good friend, to whom some really bad things have happened.  On the day that her mother went into hospital for a radical double mastectomy to counter the breast cancer with which she had been diagnosed only 3 weeks prior, my friend was told the results of her biopsy - also breast cancer.  Not surprisingly, her daughter is going to have genetic screening soon too.  And her son has been ill since birth, and possibly spent more time in than out of hospital. 

So to try to cheer her up, I offered her the pick of our menu.  And she chose...  Mars Bar Slice. 

Yet despite all this, she remains as cheery as possible and is even having her hair cut (in advance of losing it with the chemotherapy treatment) as a fund-raiser for two local charities that are very dear to her, Charlie Kean's children's cancer fund and Maggie's Centre, Dundee.  Here's a lovely, smiley photo of her with her kids and long blonde hair, at our Ice Arena with very special guest...

And here's my brave friend, after the chop - still smiling away and looking as stunning as ever.

I'm just happy that our glittery bake helped her feel better, if only for an hour.  And including our donation, a mutual friend tells me that this friend has beaten her fundraising target of £1000!  Outstanding!

Gift box of baked treats

Clare, the bride who had requested the individually-boxed cupcake favours a few weeks ago (and been so pleased with them - all the children at the wedding had loved them), wanted to give a different sort of thankyou gift to her wedding photographer.  Her thought was to do some Brownies, Malteser Slice and cupcakes - my thought was to box them up and make a little treat out of them.  After some discussion about decoration, I got down to business.

In order to get the goodies as fresh as possible, I baked the Brownies first and did the Malteser Slice while the Brownies were baking.  Kind of, after the washing up was done and the surfaces cleaned and sanitised, but you get my drift.  Making a paste of the syrup, chocolate, biscuit and Maltesers was a tough job, but someone had to do it...

Once the brownies had cooled a bit, they were cut up and boxed

Then it was time to deal with the rest of the Malteser Slice.  The colours chosen for the decoration of the cupcakes was red, white and black so I sprinkled the white chocolate top layer with red and graphite edible glitter and left it to set.

Then it was on to the cupcakes.  I felt that these had to be done last, as they taste best when eaten within about 48 hours of baking (even better if within 24).  It's difficult to make only 4, so here's what we started out with...

I had used whitened vanilla buttercream icing and put a little red colouring around the inside edges of the piping bag to get the effect.  It was less red in my mind, but Clare loved these.  The black glitter was darker in my imagination too, but it hasn't come up so dark in these photos.  Here's another, what do you think?

And my friend Jill, over at aspire2be photography, took this arty shot for me

And here we see the final treat box, all cut and wrapped in fire-engine red tissue paper.  Hope the recipient loved it as much as the client did.

Happy birthday traybake

I received an email a week or so ago, enquiring about a Malteser Traybake for a lady's 18 year old son, and could I spell out 'Happy 18th Jack' on it in Maltesers please.  An unusual request, if only because Maltesers don't come in a mini size.  After a few emails back and forth to decide precisely how we could accommodate one another, we ended up with this beauty.

Red glitter and blue sparkly piping.  It works, doesn't it? 

Then she rightly decided that one tray simply wasn't enough, and upped the order to one and a half.  And one of our lovely followers on Facebook agreed to buy the other half.  So everyone was happy.