Ros Davidson, Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Melbourne, Australia

Mars bar muffins

It has been some time since I have shared a recipe I have to tell you all about this one I made recently. Mars Bar muffins! Years and years ago I used to make this recipe (a little bit differently because I used store brought custard and a packet muffin mix) but since getting my Thermomix earlier this year, I am aiming to cook more natural and back to basics/cooking from scratch. With my Thermomix, this recipe is super simple now. I made a batch of 14 muffins and there was only 1 left hours later when I finally got to take this photo.

Ingredients

160g self - raising flour

150g plain flour

180g custard (I used the recipe from the Thermomix everyday cookbook)

150g raw sugar (you can reduce this quantity if you like)

2 eggs

70g oil

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 Mars bars (chopped)

 

1. Make custard as per the everyday cookbook recipe and let it cool

2. Place all ingredients, except the Mars Bars in the Thermomix bowl and mix for 40 secs on speed 4

3. Add the Mars Bars and hand mix them into the muffin mix

4. Spoon mixture into greased muffin tins and cook for 15 - 20 minutes in oven at 180 degrees until golden brown

Happy birthday Miss B!

Well, my baby is officially 1 year older now! Yesterday we celebrated her 5th birthday (again). We did a family celebration at the end of the school holidays but yesterday was her actual birthday. I was so tired in the lead up to her birthday that I didn't make her a special birthday card. I pulled a card out of of my pre-made box. As frustrated as I was that I didn't make B a card "just for her", I was thankful I didn't go and buy her a store brought card. (So not me and doesn't seem right if I make cards for a living!)

I did however use some crafting talent to create some lolly boxes for her to hand out at school. Boy was B pleased as a punch to hand them out to everyone. I used the candy wrapper die from the carry over flyer to make each little lolly box. Each box has a freddo frog, a lolly and a balloon with room to spare!

The pile of lolly boxes ready for school

This is the special one I made just for B

With the help of my Thermomix, I made two cakes for her birthday this year (one for each celebration), a toblerone cheesecake (very yummy) and a rainbow buttercake.

Doesn't she look so pleased?

As usual B was spoiled with lots of gifts and has increased her wardrobe and toy stash again :D I'm especially pleased with the wardrobe stash as B is growing like a worm at the moment. Were did my little girl go?

Materials list:

Cardstock: Real red

Punches: 1 1/4" circle

Accessories: Candy wrapper die (carry over flyer), big shot, cherry cobbler bakers twine (carry over flyer), big top birthday designer series paper, crystal effects, timeless type sizzlet dies

Homemade lemonade

With all the hot weather here in Melbourne lately and a fruit bowl of lemons we spent some time making homemade lemonade. It was delish and everyone came back for more. Recipe can be found here.

 

Pear crumble

For dessert tonight, I made pear crumble. I've never made it before but even the children who don't like pears enjoyed it. Handy that hubby brought a large box of pears at the local market recently. :D

 

Rocky road

After reading about Retro Mummy's rocky road, I was inspired to make some. It was very simple and oh so yummy. The batch didn't last long and I have to make another one quick smart. I'm wondering how it will taste with milk chocolate instead of white? Any ideas?

Coconut snowballs

I was reading my blog feeds the other day and came across this recipe and had to give it a go. I kept everything the same except I left the glace cherries out. They are very yummy and even Hubby is impressed. I knew he would be, he's a sucker for white chocolate and coconut.

Are you going to give them a go? They are a great recipe to get the kids involved in.

 

Guest blogging

I am guest blogging over here today and sharing another of my favourite recipes that is gluten free too.

Click here to see the recipe.

Never fail chocolate cake recipe

Remember my post here about the birthday roundup where I mentioned all the cakes I cooked. Here's is another recipe. This one we call the Never Fail Chocolate Cake as it, never fails.

Never Fail Chocolate Cake Recipe                                                       

375ml can evaporated milk   

1 ½ cups plain flour               

1 tsp vinegar

½ cup cocoa                           

1 ½ tsp bi carb soda               

1 ¼ cups castor sugar

140g butter melted                

2 eggs                                     

1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 180° and grease, 2 x 20cm cake tins
2. Add vinegar to evaporated milk to sour it
3. Sift flour, cocoa, bi carb soda and sugar together
4. Pour in melted butter ½ soured evaporated milk and mix for 2 minutes
5. Add remaining ingredients and beat for further 2 minutes
6. Pour into prepared tins and bake for 30 minutes
7. Allow cakes to cool before removing from tins
8. Spread icing or whipped cream between layers and ice top of cake

For Nikki's birthday cake (as pictured above), I used 9" tins, almost 4 family kit kat blocks and 1.5 bags of M & M's to decorate the cake.

Birthday round up

My two middle-est kids celebrated their sixth and seventh birthdays this month. We had a very busy 8 days celebrating 4 times! It was exhausting and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Nikki had an afternoon tea party with some school friends (remember the invite I posted here), we had a family celebration with all families combined and then celebrated on each of the kids birthdays. I made cupcakes for school twice, a sponge cake for Nikki's actual birthday, chocolate cake for her afternoon tea party, white chocolate mud cake for the family celebration and hungry caterpillar cupcakes for Drew's actual birthday. The kids loved their cakes but to be honest, I am a little caked out. I've included some photos of the cakes... My next step to work on is the icing and finishing off of the cake, it still needs some work.

Sponge cake

Chocolate cake (with kit kat and m & m's)

White chocolate mud cake (cake on the left)

Hungry caterpillar cupcakes

Sponge cake recipe (a simple and easy recipe and gluten free too)

Ingredients

4 eggs (at room temperature)

1/2 cup custard powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1/2 cup cornflour

1 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 cup of castor sugar

1. Sift dry ingredients (except sugar) three times

2. Separate the egg whites and add a punch of bicarb soda and beat until soft peaks form. Slowly add the sugar and beat until stiffens

3. Gently fold in whisked egg yolks

4. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients

5. Divide cake mix evenly between two tins and cook in a moderate oven (160C) for approx. 25 minutes or until golden and the cake is coming away from the sides of the tin

6. Serve cake with jam and cream in the middle layer and ice the top of the cake with icing

Since this post is long enough, I'll share the other recipes in a few days.

Risotto

Image

We had risotto for dinner the other night.... yum yum, risotto in the rice cooker is so simple.

I cooked the base ingredients early on in the day and placed them in my rice cooker with all other ingredients before resting in bed with a headache. Hubby decided to be helpful and turn the rice cooker on and was wondering why after 45 minutes it wasn't cooked.... He had forgotten a vital ingredient, 750mls of stock! Whoops. LOL

Aftering sharing this story with my SIL (who was rather amused), I told her I'd e-mail my risotto recipe. I came to the conclusion that if you have a rice cooker and what to get more use out if, you may like the recipe also.

Rice cooker risotto

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups arborio rice

500g of chicken (or leftover roast meat)

Handful of mushrooms

1 brown onion diced

2-3 cloves of garlic crushed

750mls stock

Handful of chives

1/4 cup

Frozen peas n corn

 

1. Heat 2 tbs oil in a frypan and rinse arborio rice under running water

2. Brown arborio rice, chicken, mushrooms, onion and garlic over a medium heat

3. Remove from the heat and add frozen peas n corn to the fry pan along with the chives

4. Put risotto mix into rice cooker and add 750mls of boiling stock

5. Switch rice cooker onto "cook" for 20 minutes

6. Mix through cream and serve