Christmas Time Again….

Christmas Cake

I’m not hosting Christmas this year, in fact I have a very relaxed and slack time planned, which is good as my social life is currently over the top and full on! It is nice to leave the planning and organising and most of the cooking, to others for once, although I will be contributing by probably making a dip or some other nibbles. The weather is stinking hot where I live, but right now freezing and horrible where I’ll be on Christmas Day – I hope that changes as we always like to have our Christmas dinners outside.

The only specific Christmas baking I’ve done this year is my dairy-free, low-fat (no fat in fact!) Christmas cake – sooooooo simple. Only 3 ingredients, although I did then liberally pour brandy over the top to soak in afterwards, but you don’t have to do that!

Here is the cake recipe, and below are a few other Christmas recipes in case you’re in need of some last minute inspiration:

Christmas Pudding (microwave)

Christmas Truffles

Christmas Turkey (crockpot)

Stuffing

Gingerbread

My little tree!

Happy Christmas Fooding!

 

4 Ingredient Brownies

Yes, I said 4 ingredients! Actually it was supposed to be 3 ingredients but that just didn’t work for me.

The original idea for this recipe came from another of those facebook-posted easy food ideas. The recipe said you could do this either as a slab or as individual muffins, so I decided to go for muffins.

It looked so great in theory, but my first attempt was a disaster. Even reducing my oven by 20 degrees, knowing how hot it is, I burnt the crap out the muffins! And not just a little burnt on the bottom, but super duper burnt all through the middle, burnt! Plus, the mixture only made 8, which isn’t really enough to take to work for morning tea.

I’m much happier with my second go. I changed the quantities, changed the type of flour from plain to self-raising, added a little milk to make the mixture a little runnier, and made it as a slab to cut up as a brownie slice.

Nutella is the pits to handle, I have to say – very thick and stiff, and a complete bugger to wash off the dishes – sticks like crazy and just doesn’t want to come off. So instead of mixing in a bowl by hand, which is a little too much arm power for my weak wrists to handle, I threw it all into the food processor. Well worth it, apart from the washing up.

This is not low-fat, not dairy-free, not nut-free and not gluten-free.  It does, however have great flavour – not too sweet – and a good texture. It was easy to cut up, too.

Nutella Brownies

400 gm jar Nutella

1 cup SR flour

2 tbsp milk

2 eggs

Mix all ingredients together in food processor. Pour in greased/lined slice tin (approx 20 x 10 cm) and bake at 180C (or 160C if your oven is as hot as mine) for 25-30 minutes until cooked and wrinkling on top.

Cool and cut into pieces to serve.

Makes 24 pieces.

Happy Fooding!

Failures…..

Crappy Cake!

It hasn’t been a great week for me as far as successful new recipes goes……I made an apple & pecan cake in the bread machine, which as you can see just did not want to come out of the machine! This is the first time I’ve ever had something stick like this – it was not saveable at all and went in the bin. I could have broken it up and used it in something I suppose, but I’m not a sweet eater and was not going to have the opportunity any time soon so it would have gone stale and horrible.

Then I made these Parmesan Zucchini Strips. They worked well theoretically, but just didn’t taste overly fabulous – the coating was yummy, but the zucchini inside really was just mush and pretty tasteless.

They do look good though, right? I ate some cold the next day and they were just soggy “things”. I think the concept would work much better with something a bit firmer, like sweet potato or carrot. I’ll try the idea again, but not with zucchini.

I have also failed with some easy choc hazelnut muffins recently……but I’m determined to get those right, so I will show you the failure photos when I can also show you the good ones!

Happy Non-Failed Fooding!

Zucchini Bread (Cake?)

It’s interesting that carrot cake is always cake, but banana cake and zucchini cake are often called breads. The ingredients for all of these are very similar, but we never say carrot bread (or beetroot bread!) do we! I think they’re all really cake, because bread in my view is generally a savoury thing. But who am I to argue with the masses…….

Anyway I came across this great looking zucchini “bread” recipe a couple of weeks ago via a Food.com e-newsletter, and decided to make it for morning tea at work, last week. As I had successfully made my usual carrot cake in the bread machine the week before, I looked at the zucchini bread ingredients and thought hmmmmm they’re very similar in quantity etc. so I’ll do this one in the bread machine too.

It worked, but it was not as moist as the carrot cake, so I think this one would be better eaten straight after cooking (I made it the night before taking it to work). Also it didn’t rise quite as much and I think would have been better on the medium crust setting, which would have baked it about 8 minutes longer. It was good enough to be a “keeper” though, so I will change the baking time slightly next time.

Below is my bread machine version for 1 cake – if you want to do it the original, oven way, here is the website I got it from – which is in fact quantities for 2 loaves.

The Ultimate Zucchini Bread (CAKE!!)

In order, place the following ingredients in bread machine bowl:

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 1/4 cups grated zucchini

1 tbsp orange zest, grated

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 3/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bi-carb soda

1/2 tsp salt

Bake on bread machine’s Cake setting, with Medium crust and 750gm loaf settings.

If you’re feeling like a more savoury bread, try this lemon & dill bread, also in the bread machine. I made this again recently and we had it at work with apricot & almond cream cheese on top – a great combination with the bread flavours.

Happy Fooding!

Carrot Cake Bread Machine Style

Ready for morning tea at work

My lovely bread machine, best friend for years, also has all those fancy functions like jam and cake. I’ve never tried making jam in it, mainly because I’m just not a sweet eater and wouldn’t really use it – I am a definite Vegemite Kid and the idea of eating sweet stuff for breakfast is, well, just plain full of wrongability, as the smegheads  from the Dwarf would say!

I have, however enjoyed making this carrot cake recipe in my current bread machine (which is my second one as my first, beautiful, trusty Sanyo died 3 years ago after 15 years of faithful service and being used to death, literally).

I do have a great non-bread-machine carrot cake recipe, but really this is so easy to do that I haven’t made the other one for years. It is from the recipe leaflet that came with the machine, and works a treat.

I have a Sunbeam Quantum Smartbake – but I’m sure if you have a different machine the same or similar settings and quantities will work just fine. I transferred all my favourite old recipes from my old machine to the new one without a problem.

Carrot Cake

2 eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1 1/2 cups grated carrot

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup SR flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1 rounded tsp bi-carb soda

Place ingredients in bread machine in the order listed. Bake on the CAKE setting, with light crust and 750 gm loaf size chosen.

Ice as desired, or if you can’t be bothered making icing, sprinkle with icing sugar through a sieve.

I made this the evening before I wanted it for work, and it was still beautifully moist the next morning – and disappeared very quickly!

Happy Fooding!

Fruitilicious Muffin Break

I am amazed at how great these dairy-free Fruit Cocktail Muffins taste – this recipe is from the 4 Ingredients: Kids recipe book, and in fact only has 3 ingredients in it! I wasn’t expecting too much of this, but it turned out brilliantly. Mind you, the blurb in the book says “these are ideal for breakfast when in a hurry” …..well, considering the sugar content from the caster sugar and the fruit/liquid, I’m not sure I’d encourage children to eat this in place of other breakfast options – but certainly as a supremely easy morning tea or after school snack this is ideal.

Kids could easily make these themselves with very little assistance, and all you need is to have a can of fruit cocktail in the pantry and you can whip them up and have them in the oven in literally 2 minutes.

For a more decadent version, I might add some choc bits next time. And a bit of cinnamon in the mixture would be good. Or if you have any leftover tiny Easter eggs lying around (unlikely I know!), you could press one into the centre of each muffin before cooking – caramel-filled eggs would be even better.

I’ve frozen some to see how they taste when thawed – possibly they’ll be quite dry and might need butter or jam spread on them. And I’ve realised just how similar this recipe is to the Pineapple Cake I’ve made before – in fact, almost identical – so that means you could easily substitute a particular fruit in this (or the cake recipe), rather than the mixed fruit cocktail. Lots of scope!

Fruit Cocktail Muffins

2 cups SR flour

1 cup caster sugar

410 gm can fruit cocktail, undrained

Preheat oven to 150C (140C for fan forced). Grease or line a 12-capacity muffin pan.

Sift flour and sugar into a large bowl and stir well.

Add the undrained fruit cocktail an stir until just combined (if a little dry, add 1 tbsp milk).

Spoon into muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until tops of golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Makes 12.

Happy Sweet Fooding!

Delectable Desserts, Christmas Style

Lindy’s ice cream pudding

No recipes for these (although I can put in a request from my mum for the cheesecake one if you want it, but I think the ice cream plum pudding is a family secret of my step-mum’s!), but I just wanted to share these pictures of some of the sweet goodies we enjoyed on Christmas Day.

I don’t usually eat sweet stuff much, but I could not resist the ice cream pudding, and boy was it amazing!

Hedgehog (above, on the same plate as the Christmas cake) is a staple sweet thing in my family – my mum is famous for hers. I thought I’d shared that recipe with you but I can’t find it, so I must not have…yet. And the Christmas cake is the dead easy low-fat one you can make at the last minute (we did pour some booze over it a few days before!).

Fruit salad is….well….fruit salad! And of course we had chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates. We totally forgot to get out the mince pies (bought ones, cos’ sometimes you just have to be lazy about things) and I don’t think we even had any shortbread this year. There’s always plenty to go around though, no one ever goes hungry on Christmas Day!!!

Happy Post-Christmas Fooding!

Christmas Truffles

What a busy time! I can’t wait for tomorrow, when I break up from work at lunchtime (and we have an afternoon Christmas bbq at the beautiful Kings Park) for a two week break. I’m off to Melbourne next week for Christmas with my family – haven’t seen my kids since March so am really looking forward to it.

As promised the other day, here is the recipe for the chocolate balls I made to take to my work Christmas bbq.

These are rich, chocolately, boozey and gooey. Just the things we all love at this time of year!

Fruity Christmas Truffles

500 gms bought Christmas cake (the “dark” variety seems to give a richer flavour)

200 gms good quality dark chocolate (I liked to use Lindt 70% cocoa)

60 gms butter

2 tbsp cream

2 tbsp brandy or sherry

dessicated coconut, cocoa or chopped nuts, to coat

Crumble the Christmas cake into a bowl. Combine the chocolate, butter and cream in a separate bowl and microwave until chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour melted mixture over the cake and add the brandy.

Stir until well combined and refrigerate for about 20 minutes, until firm enough to handle.

Roll into small balls and then roll in desired topping (above as you can see I have done half with coconut and half with cocoa).

Refrigerate until firm.

Makes 40-45 (depends how big you like your balls lol!).

If you buy a Christmas cake that is a bit bigger, cos’ they vary, use it all and just slosh in a bit more cream, butter and brandy (hic!) – it will still work just fine with a bit of “fudging”.

Happy Christmas fooding!

Luscious Lemon!

Couldn’t resist trying this glazed Glazed Lemon Cake cake from The Ranting Chef blog. It was the inclusion of lemon jelly crystals that attracted me – just like the chicken the other day, I thought hmmmmm what can this bring to the recipe. I am always intrigued by ingredients that are unexpected or a surprise.

Unlike the chicken, which was disappointing, this cake lived up to my expectations. I used a round, springform tin instead of the stipulated shape, but other than than followed the recipe exactly. I don’t actually think mine looks like the one in the blog though!!! Mine seems to be more like a dense, syrup dessert cake – VERY heavy with all that syrup soaked into it – but certainly it tasted great. I almost burnt it, as despite turning my very hot oven down to 10C less than the recipe, it was still a tad too hot (I have a very silly oven that doesn’t have a window in the door, so how the heck are you supposed to see how the cake is doing, without opening the door?!!!), but I think I just saved it in time, phew.

I will definitely keep this recipe on file, as it would make a perfect dessert served with cream, ice cream or custard. Very lemony – that yummy sour bitey lemon kick that I love.

I’m posting this from my phone, as my MacBook Pro is temporarily (I hope) dead and my clunky old laptop is not currently allowing me to log in to my blog dashboard….so hopefully this will work – apologies if it doesn’t look quite as normal. I promise the cake will still taste terrific!

Happy Fooding!

Charismatic Caraway…

You either love or hate the flavour of caraway seeds – I love it! I like to add a couple of tablespoons to a loaf of homemade bread, yum. Here is a cake I tried this month, which turned out looking just like the recipe (that’s always a good start!) and feedback from those who ate it was positive. I’ve frozen some of it too.

Happy Fooding!