Oakley's second birthday

I am sitting here with the top button of my jeans undone while DH is snoring on the couch and the kids are (ominously??) quiet in their rooms.  Too much food, 90% of which was totally unhealthy but its a birthday party right?  I wouldn't be surprised in one or both kids are sick, I take the view that at birthday parties the kids can govern themselves and eat what they like.

His cake I kept flip-flopping between a construction cake or a train.  He is a typical boy in to his vehicles so either would have been a hit. Being two I didn't want to do a whole theme party just yet because it was mostly adults coming and in the end I decided on construction.  I did however deviate from my original plan which I probably shouldn't have, I was going to make a two tier round cake, instead I used a large bowl to give me a hill, but I wish it had more height.

 I wanted the cake to have a stratified layer look as though there were different soil layers (yes the scientist in me geeking out), it worked ok but I would have liked it to be more defined.  It failed because a) the shape of the bowl and b) the cake wasn't cooked when I took it out of the oven the first time and took it out of the bowl - the cake feel apart with gooey batter going everywhere.  I just sort of shoved it all back in and squished it down and cooked it some more.  Lucky for me frosting hides all the sins. Although it wasn't helped by my piping bag bursting (you get what you pay for , $2 set of course its going to break).


 But in the end all that matters is the taste right, at it was good.  And Oakley certainly was excited although he just wanted to drive the truck around, he was far less interested in waiting for us to sing happy birthday.

Rocky Road Dessert

Originally I called this a cheesecake because its got the cheesecake components, but it doesn't taste very much like a cheesecake to me.  It just tastes like delicious richness (and then you eat a bit too much and it because sickness, do not over indulge!).

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups chocolate-coated biscuits - crumbed 
1/4 cup coconut 
1.4 cup peanut butter - crunchy is great for this base 
60g melted butter - use salted butter 
2 x 225g softened cream cheese 
1/4 cup castor sugar 
200 g dark cooking chocolate - melted 
2 tsp gelatin dissolved in 
1/4 cup hot water 
2 cups pink and white marshmallows - cut into halves 


Method 
Grease and line a 22 cm loose bottom cake tin. 
Combine and mix well, biscuit crumbs, with coconut, peanut butter and melted butter. 
Press into a 22cm cake tin and allow to chill for a good 10 to 15 minutes. 
Beat together the cream cheese, and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until nice and smooth. 
Add melted chocolate, cream and gelatin mixture and beat until combined. 
Fold in the marshmallows and cherries. 
Pour mixture over base and chill in fridge for a good 2 hours or until set. 

Note: make a day in advance to save time. 

apricot and lemon slice, scroggin slice

Apricot and lemon slice
Ingredients

125 grams butter melted 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk 250 grams malt biscuits, crushed 1 cup dried apricots, finely chopped 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind 1 cup coconut Lemon icing: 2 cups Icing Sugar 1/4 teaspoon Butter, softened, 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind 2 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons extra coconut for decoration

Method
In a small saucepan, add the butter and condensed milk. 
Stir over a gentle heat until the butter has melted.
In a bowl, combine biscuit crumbs, apricots, lemon rind, coconut and mix well. 
Stir in the butter mixture until well combined. 
Press into a greased or lined 20 x 30 cm tin and refrigerate for 1 hour. 
Ice with lemon icing and sprinkle with extra coconut (if desired). Cut into squares when cold.

Icing: Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add butter, lemon juice and lemon rind to mix to a spreadable consistency

Left: scroggin slice, right: apricot and lemon slice

Scroggin (trail mix) slice

Ingredients

• 1-2 sheets sweet shortcrust pastry 
• 3⁄4 cup brown sugar
• 1 dessertspoon golden syrup
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 C scroggin (trail mix)
• Extra chocolate to cover (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. 

Line with the pastry and prick all over with a fork. Cover with baking paper then baking beans or rice and blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and beans then bake the pastry case for a further 2-3 minutes or until light golden. Set aside.

Whisk the sugar, golden syrup and egg together then add the flour and baking powder and whisk until well combined. Stir in the chocolate and scroggin

Pile the fruit mixture into the pastry case and return to the oven for 20-25 minutes or until set. Cool in the tin then cut into rectangles.

Cover with melted chocolate for extra choc-ness.

Cookies and cream fudge

This is my go to recipe when I need to make something quickly with minimal effort.  With only three ingredients it never fails to get people asking for the recipe. Its rich and delicious - you have been warned!

Ingredients
1 can condensed milk
400-500g white chocolate
1 packet cream filled cookies such as oreos (I use Shrewsbury cookies and cream), broken/smashed in to chunks

Method
Melt chocolate and milk in a pot over a low heat.  Mix until everything is melted and its nice and thick.
Add the cookie chunks and stir.
Pour in to a greased or lined tray and leave to set.
Scrape the bowl clean with a teaspoon and eat it (this step is a must LOL).

An attempt to make a monkey cake

Today was my niece's 4th birthday party and I volunteered to make the cake.  You see I love baking and I would love to learn to decorate cakes (its on my to do list, oh yeah that list that we all have). 

Ms M is a typical 4yr old girl, obsessesed with PINK!  And so of course her cake had to be pink.  Now this would have been far more elegant with fondant, but I've never used fondant before and had no time to practice (my volunteering was only accepted on Monday, they were going to buy a cake).  So I went with buttercream frosting.  And of course, when I went to find my icing pipers the kids had stolen them and they are in the nether regions of the house, that place where socks end up for months.  So I had to opt for a plastic bag.  Plus I only had 3 hours sleep (spent the night celebrating a friend returning to the States).

But overall I am happy, and everyone said it tasted great (it was only the second time I have ever baked a chocolate cake, I usually always make banana cake).  Voila.

Protein brownies version one

Protein bars are something I've added in to my eating plan, they're easy to eat on the go and I can eat one quickly which is super important as my job has major time restraints.  The problem is protein bars are filled with non-food.  As I commented on my weight reduction blog (Wiggly Jiggly Wobbly) non-food is any ingredient that has more than 3 syllables or a number in it (only applies to english words). When its science speak, its not food -LOL- So broc-co-li is acceptable, po-ly-dex-trose is not ;)  In my attempt to get healthy I'm trying to eat less non-food and so figure I'm going to give making my own protein bars a go. There are a lot of recipes out there in our virtual floating world for protein bars, so I'll be stealing altering and playing and hopefully I can come up with something that a) tastes good (most important), b) has good nutritional make up and c) fill the gap the same way store bought bars can.

So here is my first attempt, a protein chocolate brownie.

Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats ground in a processor to make oat flour
1/2 c chocolate protein powder (whey based)
2 T cocoa powder
1/4 c artificial sweetener
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c apple sauce (unsweetened, I used baby food nom nom)
1 egg
1/2 c water 

Directions

1. Heat oven to 180 C
2. Mix all dry ingredients until well blended
3. Add wet ingredients and mix well
4. Pour in to a 8x8 baking tray or divide into muffin cups (I poured this in to 9 silica muffin trays, medium muffin size)
5. Cook for 15-20min

I work these out to be in the 100-120cal range, which is less than my store bought bars.  I'm thinking they need to be a little sweeter or chocolate-ier (oh don't you just love how we can make up words), they're just missing something.  I did go easy on the sweetener, as often I find it to be over powering.  A few chocolate chips, maybe some peanut butter or nuts could definitely help this.  But its not a bad base recipe to play and tweak with. 

Chicken and black bean chili

Now this might seem like a common enough dish to any reader from the USA that might have stumbled upon me, however, here in NZ its not common at all.  In fact I'd never even had black beans before until I made this recipe.  But while browsing blogs or pinterest (ahh the addiction) searching for something new and scrummy to make I came across a recipe for turkey and black bean chili.  And then as I always do I forgot all about it until I was grocery shopping and looking for a can on chickpeas I found a can of black beans.  My brain had a bubble and with a pop I remembered wanting to try chicken and black bean chili.
 

Ingredients
Dash of olive oil

1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Chicken (I used 2 large breasts), chopped in to small bite chunks or chicken mince
1 can of black beans
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 large capsicum (bell pepper) diced
1/2 T ground chilis
1/2 T smoked paprika
1/2 T cumin
2 t basil
2 t rosemary or oregano
1 T red wine vinegar (or red wine)

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat.
2. Add the oil and garlic and cook until soft.
3. Add chopped chicken, one cooked add all other ingredients.  
4. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 40-60min.
5. Serve with brown rice