Coffee and walnut cupcakes!

While browsing through one of my cookbooks the other day, my darling Chance was being nosey and spotted this recipe for coffee and walnut cupcakes and asked me to make them for him, so I did!

As I said in one of my earlier blogs, baking is about sharing with family and friends. When Chance and I moved to Melbourne we didn't know many people at all. We have been lucky enough to meet an awesome couple, Sean and Emma, who live close to us and even greater is the fact that Emma shares my love for baking and my sweet tooth! Yesterday, Finn and I went around to their house to have a baby and baking date and made these cupcakes. Chance had one as soon as he arrived home from work and said they were "amazing". Great if you love coffee too! Enjoy x

Coffee walnut cupcakes

Ingredients

85g walnuts, finely chopped
115g butter, at room temperature
115g caster sugar
115g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tsp hot water

For coffee icing

1 Tbsp instant coffee dissolves in 1 Tbsp hot water
175g butter, at room temperature
350g icing sugar, sifted
12 walnut halves

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Line muffin tray with cupcake cases.
2. Place butter, caster sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and instant coffee solution in large mixing bowl and beat well until light and fluffy. Fold in chopped walnuts.
3. Spoon mixture into cases and bake for 15-20mins or until centre springs back when lightly touched. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
4. Meanwhile, make the icing. Place instant coffee solution in bowl and beat in butter. Gradually add sifted icing sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Pipe or spoon icing on top of cooled cupcakes and decorate with a walnut.
5. Eat! Om nom nom

The rollercoaster ride of a first-time mum

Being a first-time mum is overwhelming, challenging yet extremely rewarding. Every step is learning a long with the way with some of it coming naturally but in the end going with your instinct and what feels right for you. Everyone parents differently but we most of us just want the best for our child. Now over six months in to my journey I find I am constantly overwhelmed at the constant debate over what is right and wrong for your child. Lately, it has been regarding vaccines. After reading some research on Facebook about vaccines possibly causing harm to babies, I immediately started doubting myself with the forever recurring "what if" thought popping in to my mind. "What if vaccinating Finn resulted in something bad happening to him?". However, I had never really considered this thought up until now and he had been vaccinated when he was due for them. Did I want to continue vaccinating? Both Chance and I had been vaccinated and we're fine? After looking in to it more, I was reassured that what I was doing was the right thing by vaccinating my child, and in the end if I had decided to stop it, I know it would never have felt right. That's not to say this is the right choice for everybody, and that's why everyone has a choice. This isn't the only thing I have questioned myself over since my son was born. Supplementing at night with formula was another because I knew breast was best which is why I am still breastfeeding and will for as long as I can, but as a young new mum, introducing formula for my hungry hungry boy was the best thing I could have done. At the end of the day, I, like many other new mums are trying their hardest to do what's best for their child and instead of criticising ourselves we need to look at what we are doing right. Unfortunately for me, anxiety reared its ugly head when my son was born (never had it before) and I find myself anxious over everything I'm doing or not doing. I'm still an amatuer and I am going to mistakes but I have the most beautiful, most healthy, thriving little boy in front of me so I must be doing something right! xx

My new mixer!!!!

My darling Chance surprised me this week with a brand new baby pink Kenwood mixer!! I was so happy and used it the very next morning and what a difference it makes to my cheap version! it's so quiet and strong! It comes with the beater, whisk and dough hook and gives me even more desire to bake! Thanks baby you sure know how to make me happy :) xx

Pear and ginger upside down cake!

I made this last night for dessert and it was yum! The combination of pear and ginger works so well together and you could really taste the ginger which was important for me because I love it! I was most excited that the design worked because it was so pretty, yet very easy! Give it a go x

Pear and ginger upside down cake

50g butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 medium sized pears ( I used tin and just cut enough to cover tin)
150g butter, at room temperature or softened
1 cup of lightly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 150 C and line or grease cake tin ( or any round tin).
2. Melt 1/3 cup brown sugar and 50g butter in saucepan and pour into base of tin. Slice pear in to thin wedges and place over melted mixture in tin in circular pattern.
3. In another bowl beat sugar (1 cup) and butter (150g) together until pale and creamy.
4. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
5. Sift flour, baking powder and ginger in a bowl and combine with wet mixture. Pour cake batter over pears.
6. Bake for 40mins or until skewer comes out clean. Keep an eye on it as mine started to burn slightly on the bottom as we have a very hot oven but still wasn't cooked through. If this happens open up the oven to let the air out and reduce temp to 100 C. Keep checking with skewer.
7. Once done, leave to cool in tin for 5 minutes before turning out on to board.
8. Serve with custard, cream or ice-cream for dessert or just eat as a piece of cake for afternoon tea ( we did both). Delish!

Winnie the pooh cake!

As I said in a previous post, I am aiming to make the cake for Finn's first birthday in September so I have started practising different themes to make sure I get it perfect when the time rolls around! Today I attempted Winnie the Pooh, because it's his favourite cuddly toy and his nursery is also Winnie the Pooh themed.

Firstly I printed a pooh face off the internet to use as a template. I then baked a chocolate cake (recipe below) in a square tin and once cooled I cut around the template. I then used buttercream icing (recipe below) to cover the cake with a crumb coat (I spread it over with a knife). This is because when first icing you will most likely pick up crumbs. The cake then goes in the fridge to allow the icing to set and then you can apply another layer of icing to get a smoother look. I then coloured more icing black and piped it on to the cake for the features and used a star pipe for the ears to raise them slightly. Give it a go! It's a lot of fun :)

Simple yet delicious chocolate cake

1 1/3 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
1 cup of caster sugar
1 cup of buttermilk (sour milk)
2 eggs
125g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence

Buttercream icing:

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g icing sugar
Food colouring

Also need: piping bag

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and line cake tin with baking paper or grease.
2. Sift flour, baking soda and cocoa in bowl. Stir in sugar.
3. Combine buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla in another bowl.
4. Make a well in centre of flour mixture and pour in wet mixture.
5. Mix until ingredients are combined and mixture is thick and creamy.
6. Pour mixture in to tin and bake for 40 mins or until skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in tin for 5 minutes before turning out to wire rack.

Make up buttercream icing by mixing butter, half of milk and vanilla until creamy. Sift over icing sugar while still mixing until icing comes to spreadable consistency. Divide icing into separate bowls and colour each with yellow, black and pink. Decorate as shown in picture

White chocolate and apricot cookies!

I love all of these flavours and together they are just delicious because they compliment each other! The chunky white chocolate chunks give the cookie a nice texture and the apricot that fruity goodness! You could also use other fruits such as pineapple, mango. Enjoy x

Whites chocolate and apricot cookies














Ingredients:

290g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g unsalted butter
100g brown sugar
80 white chocolate, chopped
80g apricots, chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 190 C. Line two trays with baking paper.
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Rub butter in to flour with fingertips.
3. Mix in sugar, chopped chocolate and apricot. Add lemon zest and egg and mix to form a soft dough. Add a little water to make dough softer, if needed.
4. Roll in to balls and place on trays. Lightly press down with back of spoon or fork. Cook for 10-12 mins or until cookies are light golden brown.
5. Allow to cool for 5 mins and the transfer to wire rack.

And here is a photo of Finn enjoying his banana for breakfast! He has only just started solids and tries to eat the banana skin! Haha I love him xx

Cupcakes

I have been meaning to improve my decorating skills for a long time and with Finn's first birthday coming up, I really want to be able to make his cake. Today it was raining which is always the perfect time to bake so I whipped up some vanilla cupcakes and tried my hand at some piping with buttercream icing, which is great for decorating because it's smooth and reasonably thick so it holds its place. The presentation wasn't bad but it wasn't perfect either but practise makes perfect of course! The great thing about these is that you can decorate them how you like, with different coloured icing, and things such as sprinkles, silver balls, and in my case chocolate buttons. Here's the result! The cupcakes were delicious and very easy to make!

Vanilla cupcakes

Ingredients

225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream icing:

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g icing sugar
Food colouring

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C and grease muffin tray or line flat tray with paper cases.
2. Place all ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and vanilla) in large bowl and beat until well combined.
3. Spoon into cases or muffin tray and bake for 18mins or until risen and golden brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
4. Meanwhile to make icing, put butter, half of the milk and vanilla in large bowl and beat until smooth and blended. Add a few drops of food colouring. Sift icing sugar over the mixture while still mixing at low speed until icing is smooth and has spreading consistency. If too stiff, add a little extra milk.
5. Put icing in piping bag and pipe a swirl on top of each cupcake and decorate as desired :)

Apple, cinnamon and blueberry muffins!

Apple and cinnamon are well known as a match made in heaven but with some blueberry added in to the mix, these muffins were devine. The texture was light and fluffy with the sweetness of the apple and tart of the berry and that beautiful cinnamon flavour. They are so easy to make! Enjoy x

Apple, cinnamon and blueberry muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups self-raising flour
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 medium sized sweet apples ( I used royal gala), peeled, cored and chopped finely or grated if you prefer
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk (I used skim to make them a bit healthier)
125g butter or margarine, melted
1 cup blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 C and grease muffin tray.
2. Sift flour into bowl and add cinnamon, brown sugar and apple.
3. In another bowl whisk together milk, eggs and melted butter. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together until JUST combined. It's important not to overmix as this will ruin the texture.
4. Fold in blueberries. If using frozen I would wash them with water first to stop the juices from running through mixture.
5. Spoon into greased tin and bake for about 20mins or until golden and skewer comes out clean!

Yum!

No fuss cheese and herb damper (bread)

This is the easiest bread to whip up and perfect with a bit of butter or to accompany any of your favourite meals! There's NO yeast, NO resting time and you can use any ingredients you fancy for flavour!

Cheese and basil damper

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup coarsely grated cheese
A bunch of chopped basil or in our case we sprinkled dry basil as desired
1 1/4 cups buttermilk ( sour milk) - see rip at bottom of post as you can make your own buttermilk easily.
1 egg

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Combine flour, baking powder, grated cheese and basil in a bowl.
2. Make a well in centre. Add buttermilk and egg. Season (with salt and pepper).
3. Mix until dough just comes together.
4. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until just smooth. NOTE: dough is VERY sticky but after kneading will come together. Add a bit of flour while kneading to smooth it out.
5. Shape in to disc and place on lined tray with baking paper. Flatten slightly and score into quarters or six wedges. Sprinkle with flour.
6. Bake for 25-30mins or until golden. Set aside for 5mins to rest and then eat! Om nom nom ;)

Tip:

Buttermilk-something I hadn't heard much of until I moved to Australia. It's basically just sour milk and you can easily make your own. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of buttermilk then you just add 1 Tbsp of white vinegar or lemon juice to the milk and leave it for 5 mins before adding to recipe.

For more flavour you could add bacon or ham to the bread or anything else you fancy! X

Indulgent choc caramel slice!

Mum wanted to attempt this recipe yesterday and as a big fan of caramel slice (huge cravings of it during pregnancy), I was all for it! Caramel slice isn't the easiest thing to make because it can get messy and not turn out quite right in terms of thickness and consistency. I've tried a lot of caramel slice in my time and can't say any of them were exactly the same! The result of this recipe was a very thick decadent slice and the review from Chance was "this is delicious".

Chocolate caramel slice

Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
125g butter, melted
100g butter, extra
2 x 395g cans of condensed milk
1/3 cup golden syrup
200g dark or milk chocolate( we used milk but if you prefer less sweet use dark)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/160 C fan-forced. Grease and line a rectangular pan with baking paper, about 18cm by 28cm. Ours was a bit smaller which meant really thick slice but you don't want anything bigger as the slice will be too thin.
2. In a bowl, sift flour and combine with sugar and coconut. Add melted butter. Mix well.
3. Press mixture firmly in to prepared pan and bake for 15-20mins or until lightly browned. Cool.
4. Place extra butter, condensed milk and golden syrup in a medium saucepan. Stir over low heat until all combined and smooth. Pour over base and bake for another 20-25mins until golden. Cool.
5. Combine chocolate and oil in heat-proof bowl and place over saucepan of simmering water. Stir until melted and smooth and pour evenly over slice.
6. Make sure you CUT your slice before placing in fridge to cool otherwise the chocolate will crack. Cool in fridge for about an hour or until chocolate has hardened slightly. Enjoy!