Baking

Chocolate Brownie with White Chocolate Icing

Chocolate brownie with white chocolate icing

This chocolate brownie with white chocolate icing is the BEST brownie recipe, ever.  I love making this, it’s really straight forward, it’s got serious wow factor and people usually groan with pleasure when they eat it.  But, that’s no surprise really, cast your eye over the ingredients…. All the good stuff, or the bad stuff, depending on which way you look at it (I’m not going to try and pull the wool over your eyes!)  But, I eat this so rarely, and it’s so scrummy,  I just refuse to feel bad eating it:  Life is TOO short to feel guilty about eating a piece of brownie! That said, I do chuckle to myself when people ask what’s in this brownie. I usually just smile and say “one packet of dark chocolate melts in the base. Oh and a packet of white chocolate melts in the icing, along with a tin of condensed milk and butter”.   Eyes usually widen and then, with a mouth full of brownie, I hear murmurs of appreciation, and then, inevitably, they ask for another slice. (more…)

Pistachio, Cranberry and White Chocolate Biscotti

SAMSUNG CSCI love biscotti and, thinking ahead to Christmas foodie presents, I figured biscotti with cranberry, pistachio and white chocolate would give it a little bit of Christmas cheer (OK, and look pretty). Biscotti is surprisingly easy to make, the only tricky bit is making sure you have enough time to let the biscotti logs cool completely before slicing them up into little pieces and baking them again to crisp them up. Once cooled, package these up in a cellophane bag with a bit of ribbon – you’ve got a nice gift for a foodie. If you’re a complete beginner in the baking world, you might find these a little difficult I have to admit. However, you could always look at some baking classes on a website like Fboi.in to improve your culinary expertise. See how you get on!

This recipe is a little bit Donna Hay and a little bit Beauty Foodie as I just couldn’t find the perfect recipe! Just quietly, I’m pretty chuffed with how this turned out! They taste delicious, I love the texture and the slightly salty contrast of the pistachio with the sweetness of the cranberry and white chocolate. Don’t tell my favourite cafe… But this biscotti is nicer than theirs… (more…)

Five Minute Banana Cake Recipe

five minute banana cakeThis speedy Banana Cake recipe, adapted from a vintage Donna Hay recipe, is brilliant; I’ve been making it for years. We love it in our house as it’s a moist,  light and delicious cake that only requires 5 minutes prep time. It’s one of those fab recipes where you biff most of the ingredients into a food processor and turn it on. Done. No elbow grease required.

This is a brilliant standby for school lunches as it keeps really well (if you can keep the family away from it). Oh, and this is easy enough for kids to make too.

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Simple Luscious Lemon Slice

Yes, another slice recipe…!  I found this little gem on the Chelsea Sugar website. I love lemon flavours like some people enjoy chocolate. Hmmmmm. This is a simple recipe – absolutely easy enough to make with a little person ‘helping out!’ I’ve made it as a lunchbox filler, when we’ve got people calling over for morning or afternoon tea on the weekend, or just ‘coz. It’s always enjoyed.  image
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Chocolate Weetbix Slice

imageI love baking slices, they take less time to make than biscuits… I find all that rolling of mixture into little balls a bit tedious: Slices are (often) faster to make! This is another family favourite that’s regularly in our home baking tins. I got this recipe out of the ‘Baking for Blokes’ recipe book by Steve Joll that some well-meaning person bought for my Hot Hubby one Christmas. He’s yet to be inspired, but it’s a cookbook I regularly reach for: It’s got a delightful Kiwi feel to it, the baking recipes in are simple, the ingredients mostly require pantry basics and, critically, damn the food is good! (more…)

Hokey Pokey Biscuits

I seem to spend a lot of time looking out for new recipes that are simple so my boy and I can make them together. I’ve realised I should just stop looking and stick to using the cookbook I’ve owned for the last 20+ years: The great Kiwi Edmonds Cookbook. This is their original Hokey Pokey recipe that, frankly, you just can’t beat. You need bugger-all ingredients, it’s easy, cheap to make and everyone enjoys them. Why make things complicated?! (more…)

Kirsty’s Scrummy Muesli Bars

This recipe is another of our family’s favourites! I love making it as it’s so versatile: I have gone to make it so many times and realised I haven’t got all the ingredients, so I improvise and it always works!  It’s easy to make, my seven year old often makes it by himself.image (more…)

Handmade Easy Chocolate Balls!

My buddy Caroline and her family came over for Friday Takeaway night and we whipped these up (literally for dessert). We didn’t do it quite right, but that’s OK, they tasted amazeballs (get it?!) and in any case, you can learn from our mistakes!  These are so easy – and so good. So bad. But so good. I usually don’t know the meaning of the word ‘rich’ – but these are so rich, I ate three and was happily content.

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