Molasses Cookies

Food can have the ability to bring up strong memories of your childhood, places visited, certain people important to you and so much more.  The times I have felt most homesick have been when I haven't been able to obtain a specific ingredient to make a recipe that brings me somewhat closer to home.  On one particularly emotional Christmas for me I burst into tears in the supermarket when I realized I couldn't purchase corn syrup to make my mums famous Christmas peanut brittle.  I don't think the grocer knew quite what to do.

Today I was thinking about my Grandparents in the US and how I wished they could see my kids growing up and wish my kids could get to know them.  I decided to hit the recipe books with Ella and make my Grandpas favorite molasses cookies, a recipe my Grandma gave me several years ago.

Molasses is probably my favorite ingredient to bake with.  The thick strong syrup has a beautiful rich dark color and a very distinct smell.  Its one of those ingredients you are either in love with or you hate.  I love it.  My husband hates it.  My daughter seemed to like it and kept saying it was "spicy". I only just recently found molasses in the supermarkets here so this is the first time I have made these cookies and they instantly brought me back to my grandparents house around the holidays.  What special times these were. The cookie is the perfect chewiness and I love the subtle salty taste to it.

Ingredients
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 tsp baking soda
2 c flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
Cream together shortening, sugar, egg and molasses.  Sift together dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture.  Mix well and chill for at least an hour.  Form into 1" balls and roll in sugar.  Place 2" apart on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C for 10-12 minutes.

Kids tractor cake

This cake was made for the son of a friend of mine who specifically told his mum he wanted a tractor cake for his birthday.  When my daughter saw the cake she said "Oh great!  I eat it!"  Unfortunately the cake was not for her to eat much to her disappointment and she was unable to go to the party.  She quickly got over it when my friend gave her a party treat bag when she came to pick the cake up.

Island themed wedding cake

When I heard my cousin was having a wedding reception but didn't have a wedding cake sorted I jumped at the opportunity to make the cake.  I hadn't made a wedding cake before but felt I could do it and just needed the opportunity.  The bride and groom left the design of the cake up to me which I was excited about as I love coming up with the concept for the cake. The reception was being held on a lake and was a casual ordeal as the actual wedding was a private function a week earlier so I knew I didn't want the cake to be a traditional wedding cake.  The couple live and work on a resort island in Australia so I decided to make the cake an island theme.

I was very pleased with how the cake turned out and came together.  The bottom tier was a white chocolate caramel mud cake with a toffee filling.  The middle tier was a white chocolate lemon poppyseed mudcake with a passionfruit filling and the top tier was made of rice crispie treats.

The biggest challenge I had was transporting the cake!  The reception was two hours a way so you could say I was a little nervous about how I was going to get the cake there.  My husband with his kiwi-ingenuity saved the day though and the cake arrived after driving windy roads and through road works completely unaffected.

Easy No-bake Chewy S'mores Bars

The other night I came across a blog that had chewy oreo bars.  They looked so good that I was very motivated to try them.  That night though I got a serious craving for S'mores out of nowhere.  I happened to have some wheat biscuits, marshmallows and chocolate in the cupboard so to the microwave they went and I sat there enjoying my creation imagining myself sitting at a campfire roasting marshmallows under the stars.  My husband told me I was weird.  

I knew what I had to do. Why not try a chewy s'mores bar rather than a chewy oreo bar?  Mmmm.  I could not wait to try it.  So the next shop I ordered my ingredients and impatiently got to work making it without really putting much thought into it and it was well, a messy disaster.  Not at all what I had been building up in my head.  I was very disappointed.  The mess did taste good though and so rather than be discouraged and give up I thought about it a bit more and in the next shop got the ingredients again and attempt number two was under way.  Success! I was pretty happy about it and even had some for breakfast this morning.  Breakfast of champions I know.  I really need to do something about all this sugar.  My husband complained last night about all of the sugar in the house!  I never thought I would hear that. 

So here is the recipe for these chewy s'mores bars:

Ingredients

250g McVities Digestive (or 150 g Graham crackers)

About 40 large marshmallows (I use the Mike & Jack Mr Mallow range here in New Zealand)

3 T butter

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions

1. Food process up the biscuits to fine and stir in the 1 cup of chocolate chips.  Grease a 9x9 square pan.

2. Microwave the marshmallows and butter for 3 minutes, stirring after 2.  When finished microwaving, stir until smooth.

3. Add biscuit mix to the marshmallow mix and stir until combied. (It will be messy)

4. Pour the mix into the 9x9 pan and press into the pan.  I find using baking paper to do this helps with the mess.  

5. Let set for 10-20 minutes. 

6. Cut up and enjoy!

Snickerdoodle cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

I was so inspired by yesterdays snickerdoodles and the health benefits of cinnamon that I decided to make this weeks cupcakes snickerdoodle cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting!  For the cupcake I made a white cake and added cinnamon to it.  I then topped it with cinnamon buttercream frosting with a snickerdoodle in the middle of it.  I was a little worried that there would be cinnamon overload but I was more than pleasantly surprised.  These cupcakes as my daughter would say were AMAZING.  To be honest I dont actually know what the cupcakes themselves tasted like as the frosting was so incredibly good that I didn't even notice the cake.  I am now sitting here eating the leftover frosting on top of the last of the snickerdoodles made yesterday.  So much for watching my waist-line!

I decided to give these cupcakes to the mother of one of my husbands child-hood friends.  I hardly know this woman but she has made a big impression on me.  Every time I see her she is so interested in myself and my children.  She is so encouraging to everyone around her and love just exudes from her. I wanted to let her know that I appreciate her and to encourage her to keep doing what she's doing.

For the cinnamon buttercream recipe, go to:
http://www.food.com/recipe/cinnamon-buttercream-frosting-77534

For the cupcake recipe go to:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/simple-white-cake/Detail.aspx
I did add 1 tsp cinnamon to this recipe and increased the milk to 3/4 cup.   I also followed other readers instructions and beat the eggs for 8-10 minutes.

Snickerdoodles

Baking with a toddler can be hugely messy and today was no exception. Every time I turned around my daughter was dipping her fingers into the flour, cinnamon, sugar, cookie dough, whatever she could get her fingers in for a taste.  I am starting to worry that I am creating a sugar addict and may need to start adding savory items to my list as surely all this sugar is not  healthy! At least I can say that what sugary treats she does eat are from scratch.

Today our special project was snickerdoodles which are an American classic. These cookies are a sugary almost cake-like cookie rolled in cinnamon and sugar. The simplicity of these biscuits are what make them so good.  Even better still, did you know that cinnamon was good for you? There are tons of health benefits from eating cinnamon, so I dont feel so guilty letting my daughter dip into these.

I found this particular recipe off of allrecipes and it was a hit!  They were so good and a little too addictive I might add.  This recipe does call for shortening which I have had difficulty in finding in New Zealand so butter can be substituted easily in the recipe.  

So often when doing a project with my daughter I want to jump in and correct or fix things for her to make them perfect.  Why do I do that?  She was adament in rolling the cookies herself, putting them in the cinnamon and sugar and then placing them on the tray.  To avoid conflict and to encourage her I had to accept that the quality of some of the biscuits would be lacking and that was ok.  The best part is that they all tasted the same anyway.

This recipe can be found at:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/mrs-siggs-snickerdoodles/Detail.aspx

Mrs Woolleys tips - How to line a cake pan.

When I first started baking and decorating cakes I could not figure out how other decorators would get such nice looking cakes before patching them up with frosting.  My cakes either had chunks missing from them as parts of the cake would stick to the pan or dents in them from where the lining of the baking paper created a crease in the cake.  Not only that but in order to level the cake on the top I often had to cut large amounts off of it due to large cracks in the centre of the cake(much to my husbands delight!) By the time I would finish getting the cake decorating ready, there was very little left of the cake.  It never occurred to me that there might be a very easy solution until I came across a recipe for a mudcake that talked about the importance of lining a cake tin in a specific way.  Lining a cake tin properly does take time but is so crucial to making your cake presentable straight from the pan.  It not only allows for easy removal of the cake from the tin but by placing a piece of baking paper directly on top of the cake batter you also eliminate cracks forming in the cake, the cake remains level and the heat is evenly distributed throughout the cake.

To line a round cake pan measure slightly more than halfway around the tin and cut off a piece of baking paper to size.  Fold and cut the baking paper in half.  Measure to the height of the tin and measure an additional inch more and cut the baking paper down to this size for each half.  For each half, fold over one inch and cut into the paper one inch thick across. (See the below photos)  Trace and cut two circles from the cake tin.  Lightly grease the cake tin and take one of the halves and wrap around the inside of the cake with the one inch section lining the bottom.  Do the same with the other half, overlapping slightly. Place one of the circles on the bottom of the tin over the one inch sections.  Fill the tin with your cake batter then place the other cut out circle over the batter and place it in the oven.