Caramel Slice

I have been meaning to make Caramel Slice for a while. It is one of those slices that are good to stash in the freezer and take to work for morning tea! On this occasion however most of the slice has ended up as the snack for Chad’s workmates on their handover day. Granted, he did help to make it...

The recipe that I use is from the AWW Cafe Cakes mini recipe book. This book was the very first I bought from that series and all of the recipes that I have tried have delivered. When I first used to make the recipe I used a slice tray that was much larger than the recipe called for. I found that there was not enough caramel to go around and so I used to double the caramel recipe and make a thicker layer than usual. Yum!

Base
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup dessicated coconut
125g butter

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Melt butter and mix into the dry ingredients. Press into a lined and greased slice tray, 20cm x 30cm. Bake for 15 minutes at 180C.

Filling
400g condensed milk
30g butter
2 Tablespoons golden syrup

Place ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over a low heat. Stir continuously to ensure the caramel does not burn. Cook for approximately 15 minutes or until golden.

Pour hot topping over hot base and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven. Cool.

Topping
125g chocolate
30g butter

Break chocolate into small pieces and place chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl. Stir over a pot of simmering water until melted.

Pour melted chocolate topping over the caramel slice. Leave to cool at room temperature and cut into pieces when cooled.

Winter Soups

Last week Chad told me that he was the soup king... in his honour I bought him a cookbook! I started small, and got the Australian Women's Weekly mini book Soup Plus. It has lots of lovely soup recipes, with many asian inspired, as well as accompaniments and stocks. I thought that it would be a great go to book for ideas as well as to encourage us to make out own stocks.

The first recipe he made for us was curry and lime lentil soup. Yum! He used a red curry paste (the recipe was not specific) and it was spicy and sour and extremely tasty. The lime was noticeable and it cut through the heat of the curry. Mmmm...

With soups we will make a pot and enjoy the soup for the next few days. I love my soups chunky and Chad likes his smooth. We compromise by cutting the ingredients quite small.


Image 1

All the tools for pretty cupcakes!

E and I had a wander around Fremantle today. I always like to poke my nose into the Home Provedore, and especially the section dedicated to cupcakes and cake decorating. Every time I go in there it seems like they have added more and more interesting items related to cake decorating and cupcakes. Possibly it is because I never noticed previously, rather than there being new products...

Today I noticed that along with a great range of cupcake wrappers, they also have silicone moulds for flowers and a variety of ready made icings and decorations. The next special occasion that calls for cupcakes I plan to head into Freo and buy some icing flowers for decoration.

If I get keen and want to make my own, then the following website could be of use.
Hints and moulds Lynart
More moulds and tips at Earl Craft 'n' Cake

here

Look in the sky. Is it a bird?

I was keen when we were in Melbourne to eat at some of the more interesting cafes on offer. I had initially suggested to C that we head to St Kilda on the Saturday for a look around but he was not that keen. I sent a message to NM back in Perth for the addresses of a couple of places I had been to with her, and we ended up at Birdman Eating on Gertrude Street. I loved it when NM took me there and was keen to have C see what it was all about.

C is not big on breakfast - he prefers to have cereal - but he made an effort for me.

We both ordered Chai Lattes. These came in enamel pouring cups and were beautifully frothed up. I love the aroma of chai latte! There was honey provided for added sweetness however mine was sweet enough for me.

C's breakfast was Braised Beans on toast, with an added poached egg. He was intrigued as he had only ever eaten baked beans from a tin before. They were extremely tasty and I was again in heaven, determined to try to find a good recipe for use at home.

I ordered the Black rice, coconut yoghurt & mango dish that I had when NM first brought me. It was as tasty as I had remembered; however coupled with the chai latte I felt a little overloaded by all things sweet. Thankfully I had C's beans to dip into and counteract the sweet sensation.

C commented on the convenience of the tram stop opposite and next time I visit I may even try a different dish!

Birthday cake pops!

Back in March my friend KC asked if I would like to give her a hand making cake pops for her daughter's 1st birthday party. As much as I would have loved to it was actually on the Easter weekend and I was going to be in Tasmania!

I expressed my regrets (it did sound like a lot of fun!) and asked her for some photos and words so that I could post about it.

She was inspired by this post to turn her hand at chicks, bunnies and easter eggs.

In KC's words:
I have pics from our cake pops work. Here are the low res ones so far plus one of general food. The chicks turned out by far the best but, alas, the focus was off on the photos. NM and I took plenty of shots of our prep work. Two problems with the recipe, I think:
1. We can’t get cream cheese frosting in a can here so the homemade version we used was too sweet, too liquid and too much – this meant the cake filling needed major chilling to encourage it to keep its shape.
2. A vessel small enough for a bit of chocolate but deep enough to dip was problematic. Tupperware jug worked best but was quite large. We tried a Pyrex small jug in the microwave but it retained the heat too well and the chocolate seized.

Anyway, worth a try another time now I have LOTS and LOTS of sprinkle thingies and a fair bit of chocolate colouring agent left.

Ciao!
Bunnies
Eggs!
The picnic spread, with hidden treats!
Images courtesty of KC

Apple & Cranberry Crumble

Last night C asked me when I was going to make apple pie. Considering that we only had two (small) apples I knew it was not going to be last night, so I offered to make apple crumble instead. He was keen and so I got to work.

1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
50g butter
2 apples
1/2 cup cranberries
4 teaspoons golden syrup

Preheat oven to 180C.

I put the flour, oats and sugar into a bowl, and mixed them with my hand. The sugar needed to be broken up a bit too. I then chopped the butter finely and rubbed it into the flour mixture.

I cut the apple into small pieces. Into each 250mL ramekin I put half an apple, some frozen cranberries and a teaspoon of golden syrup.

I put a quarter of the crumble mixture onto the top of each ramekin, topped with a small blob of butter.

I baked the ramekins for around half an hour. I checked it with a fork after 25 minutes to see if the apple was cooked.

Serve with ice cream!

Notes
- The crumble topping was enough for four serves, so I made two last night and froze the rest of it. I made crumble again tonight. Yum!
- I definitely recommend putting your ramekins onto a tray. It is much easier to move them in and out of the oven this way.
- I probably used around 30g butter for the crumble topping, and I think that it should have had a little more so I have increased the quantity.

Disappointed

As a part of my enthusiasm for running the City to Surf, I signed up for weekly training tips. Each week the tips arrive, and with the tips comes a recipe. The recipes have failed to excite my interest, but the recipe this week really irritated me. It would have been nice if they had properly translated it into Australian measurements!

After reading the recipe I have the following questions:
1. What is cherry pie filling? 448g is not a standard weight for an Aussie item. Maybe it is imported.
2. We sell Australian pineapple here. It does not come in a "15 ounce can". Generally it is a 440g tin or maybe 850g if memory serves me correctly.
3. "Silvered" almonds?? They sound deadly.
4. Farenheit is non-standard.
5. At a guess it is "dry" sherry that they are after.

At any rate it all sounds rather sweet and there is no guide for serving suggestion.

Baked Fruit
225 g pitted prunes
225 g dried apricots
55 g raisins
1 (15 ounce) can pineapple chunks,undrained
448 g cherry pie filling
60 ml fry sherry
235 ml water
45 g blanched silvered almonds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a deep baking dish mix together prunes, dried apricots, raisins, and pineapple chunks. In a separate bowl, combine cherry pie filling, sherry and water. Pour over the fruit, and cover, and bake in preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours.

You can find this, and other recipes, here