Friday, October 21, 2011

Rock your socks off - Rocky Road and Oreo Mini Cheesecakes


I was feeling a bit peckish the other day. I had decorated cookies sitting around but just didn't feel like something that sweet.

I knew in a few days I'd be baking up batches of macarons and cake pops for the local school fete so I didn't really want to go there.

I wanted something creamy, chocolatey, with a little bit of crunch and a lot of flavor, so I created these easy cheesecakes with Oreo's as the base and Rocky Road for a bit of a flavour hit.

I made them cupcakes sized, cause it feels so wrong to make a whole cheesecake to eat yourself, but if your just having a couple of cupcakes a day that's ok.

Well that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Yup this was my lunch, apparently from my research (on Facebook) that's  perfectly acceptable


You can buy your Rocky Road already made up from a shop but I've included the recipe I use cause it's pretty easy and then I can make it like I want. Remember it's rocky road not rocket science. Pretty much just mix in what you want to the chocolate, as long as you kinda stick to the same amounts it should work. I left out the nuts so the kids could eat it easily.

Apparently if your in the US chances are you don't like turkish delight (rose)- Is that for real? My editor made me take anything Turkish Delight out of my book. Anyway just replace it with any type of candy bar you like chopped up and it should taste just as delicious. Like I said not rocket science.

Rock your socks off Cheesecake

Rocky Road (keep in an airtight container up to 2 weeks)
300g (10oz) milk chocolate melted (I melt mine in the microwave at med-low heat bursts of 60-90 seconds, do not be tempted to heat higher or the chocolate may burn)
150g (5oz) marshmallow (I use pascals brand and chopped into quarters with scissors)
1/3 cup shredded coconut
2 bars Turkish Delight (55g each) or favorite chocolate bar chopped into small pieces (3.5 to 4oz)
1/3 cup nuts (optional)


Mix all ingredients together and spoon onto a tray covered with parchment paper or tin foil. Press down until a couple of cm (or 3/4inch) high and leave to set. Once set cut into small pieces.

Cheesecake - makes 12 large mini cupcakes or around 20 - 24 regular cupcakes
12 Oreo cookies (or up to 24 if making smaller cupcake size cheesecakes)
625g (21oz) cream cheese at room temperature
1 tin condensed milk
3 eggs at room temperature
12 large muffin papers (I bought these ones from woolies)

Preheat oven to 140C.

Line the muffin tins with the muffin/cupcake papers. Place one single oreo in the bottom of each paper. Put a piece of rocky road into each paper on top of the Oreo cookie.


Beat the cream cheese using a mixer at medium speed until just smooth, add the condensed milk and mix until well combined. Reduce speed to low and add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin papers dividing mixture evenly between the papers. If you are using large ones like I did the mixture should make 12, if you only have smaller cupcake cases do not overfill the cases as the mixture will rise a little during baking, make them around 3/4 full.

Bake until the mixture is just setting in the center, around 16- 20 mins for the larger size muffin cupcake, check after 14mins if you are making smaller sized cakes.


Allow to cool in the trays for 10-15min and then pop in an airtight container in the fridge until chilled.

Serve topped with extra Rocky Road.

Keep in airtight container up to 3 days in fridge.

Here is the link to my book on Amazon, I saw on the publishers site it's due to ship out from there on the 30th of November so it's like only just over a month until it's released. Yay!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Silhouette Bird Halloween Cookies Square of course


I like Halloween.

Apparently it used to be widely celebrated here in Australia before the Depression and then fell out of favor. Well that's what I read in one of the local popular magazines......if it's in a magazine it must be true right?

Um right............Anyway Halloween Love it!

and if the local shops are anything to go by it's coming back into fashion here. Is that a bad thing, I'm not sure? For me the chance for the kids to dress up, interact with the neighbours and eat sweets.......as long as it's supervised and once a year I'm totally ok with that. We don't actually indulge in the tricks if there are no treats so hopefully it's not too great a burden on the neighbours.


Plus Halloween cookies are pretty cool.

These ones are Chocolate cookies made using a square ruffle edge cookie cutter from my d-line set - I picked mine up at Kitchnwear Plus. But you could use a round cutter if you don't have a square cutter or if your not really into square cookies.

Although I really couldn't imagine anyone not being into square cookies, so just if you don't have the cutter on hand I guess. A circle would pretty much work just as well.

and I also made some  matching cookies in a floral pattern with a kinda cute striped flower.


Bird Silhouette Halloween cookies Ingredients and equipment

Square Cookies
Square cookie cuter
Orange Ready Roll Fondant
Black Ready Roll Fondant (I used chocolate fondant colored black with some Americolor super black)
Small rolling pin
PME Robin (bird) butter small
Carnation cutter
Black Royal Icing in a piping bag with a small round tip (eg #2)
brush and water
sharp knife
Roll out some orange fondant (marshmallow or shop bought) on a workbench lightly dusted with cornflour (corn starch) and cut out a square using a cutter a little smaller than cookie. Brush the cookie lightly with water using a clean brush and adhere the fondant to the cookie, using the rolling pin to lightly press it down.

Roll out some black fondant onto a workbench, you can dust it lightly with a bit of cornflour (It's what I use) but if you find that it shows up white on your fondant you can grease the workbench lightly with some crisco or a spay of vegetable or rice bran oil, just a bit. Cut out the bird shapes and carnation shapes then roll out thin pieces of black fondant with your finger tips to make long ropes that you can shape into the branches.# Look at the cookie to see an example of how you can shape the branch and where to place it. You should be able to press the branches directly on the orange fondant without water but if you have used the oil they may not stick. If necessary use a very teensy small amount of water, the brush should nearly be dry otherwise the black will run.

Once the branches are in place adhere a bird so it is sitting on top of the branch and then trim the carnation either using the cookie cutter or a shape knife so it sits in the corner.

Then pipe black dots of royal icing around the edge of the cookie to finish off.

#If you like you can use the black royal icing and pipe branches instead of using the rolled fondant.



Oh and I have noticed that over on Amazon you can peek into a PREVIEW of the first few pages on my book plus the index. Also the cover of the book is different if you pop into the preview and shows up a few different treats in the book.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Pink Paper Doll Princess Party - Sophie's 5th Birthday Party


When I asked Sophie what type of party she wanted this year she told me Barbie......then the next week it was Zhu Zhu pet, and then the next week it was Barbie AND Zhu Zhu pet. I racked my brain which was spinning from all the changes wondering what I was going to be able to come up when I realised that Sophie didn't really want a Barbie party or a Zhu Zhu party, what Sophie wanted was presents....lots and lots of Barbie and Zhu Zhu presents. Really she was kinda relaxed about the whole thing as long as there were friends, presents and cake ;)

Photo of Sophie by Naomi V Photography for Princess Ratbag

Phew, ok with that little issue sorted I still needed a theme. I was looking at some photo's of Sophie where the stylist Candice from Princess Ratbag had pinned up her super long hair and made her look like a little vintage doll and then I remembered a cookie idea that I had floating around for over a year and the theme just worked itself out.


Paper Doll Sugar Cookie

Decorating the Sophie Paper Doll Cookies - see the clothes are stiff and easy to handle
Yup that's right I wanted to make sugar cookies and then fondant clothes that the kids REALLY dressed up the dolls with using royal icing to adhere the edible fondant clothes to the sugar cookie doll. If you follow my blog you might have already seen the photo's of the cookies - the kids had a super time. The tutorial on how to make these super sweet cookies is HERE. Sophie can spend hours dressing up her dolls and I thought it could be a theme we would both love.



Some examples of the cookies the girls made up

I had a custom picture drawn up of the birthday girl made to look like a paper doll by Karen McCubbin. Isn't it the most adorable thing - Sophie LOVED that it was a picture especially of her! By taking a copy of the hand drawn picture I was able to use it as a template for the cookies.

Custom Paper Doll and clothes of the Birthday Girl by Karen McCubbin (details below)

Jordan from Polkadot Prints made up the sweetest pink and white polka dot invitations using the hand drawn picture of Sophie, and then cause she's super talented she made up matching thank you tags and dessert table labels as well!

Invitation by Polkadot Prints

The custom picture was great as I used it for quite a few other things. Each guest received a copy as take home favors and I also used the paper doll clothes to make a DIY bunting garland to top the buttercream pink ombre cake.

Homemade Paper Doll Dress up cake garland

The pink ombre (graduated pink) cake was frosted with Italian Meringue Buttercream. Inside the cake was strawberry butter cake with white chocolate mud cake polka dots which was inspired by an amazing cake on snowy bliss ( click here).... mine needs a little work as the mudcake balls are quite heavy I think they need to be popped in over a layer of batter.

Pink Polka Dot Cake

 I have already posted a tutorial on how  I did the ombre frosting on the outside Click Here


We also had princess sprinkle macarons and polka dot milk. I tried to come up with fun names for all the party treats to work in with the theme.


The rim around the top of my the polka dot milk was inspired by a picture on pintrest of dark chocolate dipped rim in hundreds and thousands (rainbow non pariels). I just changed the idea to work in with my color theme. Then it was just strawberry milk with floating marshmallows 'polka dots'.





Oh and of course we had lollies (candy)....pink musk sticks, pink and white M&M's and Pink Princess Delight (strawberry bon bons from Sharnel Dollar Designs)



and Ah Tissue made up these Ah-mazing ombre tissue paper pom poms.



Apart from the cookie decorating we also had musical statues, bubble blowing and my kids always ask for pass the parcel. I'm not a huge fan of wrapping up layers and layers of paper 'cause we always stick some kind of prize in each layer and at the end it is huge, then it's just a big 'ole ball of paper to throw away. This time instead of wrapping up layers of paper for pass the parcel, I popped gifts into brown paper bags and wrote a task for each child to perform onto the front of the bag. When the music stopped the child reached into the basket pulled out a bag and had to perform the task to get the gift. I made sure they were age appropriate tasks like singing a song or doing the hokey pokey, the kids thought it was lots of fun.


and a special thank you to my lovely friend Jo who came over earlier in the day to hang all the poms for me as I couldn't reach up due to my recent surgery. Thanks so much Jo Xx

Party Menu

Pink Polka Dot Cake (click here for frosting tutorial)
Princess Sprinkle Macarons
Sophie Doll Cookies (click here for the tutorial)
Fresh Strawberries
Sherbert Icecreams
Musk Sticks
Strawberry Bon Bons
Pink and White M&M's



Fabulous Party Suppliers

The party sweets were made by me Bubble and Sweet  ( http://bubbleandsweet.blogspot.com/ )
Party invitations, thank you cards and dessert labels by Polkadot Prints ( http://www.polkadotprints.com.au/store/pc/home.asp )
Tissue Pom Poms by Ah Tissue ( http://www.ah-tissue.com.au/ )
Cake and bon bon Stands, polka dot straws and strawberry bon bons (princess delights) Sharnel Dollar Designs ( http://www.sharneldollardesigns.com.au/store/pc/home.asp )
Custom Paper Doll drawing by Karen McCubbin ( darkar1(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au)
Party Inspiration photo of Sophie by Naomi V Photography ( http://www.naomivphotography.com.au/ ) for Princess Ratbag ( http://www.princessratbag.com/store/pc/home.asp )
Pink and White polka dot treat boxes from Mon Tresor
Flowers from Perrotts florist Brisbane ( http://www.perrotts.com.au/ )
Most of the party pictures are by Terri Vandermeer

Flowers from Perrotts,  bon bon stand from Sharnel Dollar Designs


Just in case you haven't heard I have a book coming out in December called Sweets on a Stick - it's full of fun and easy recipes to make with your kids. Here's a link to Sweets on a Stick on Amazon.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Mermaid Cookie Tutorial


Phew - I just could not get myself motivated to do up this tutorial for the Mermaid Cookie Pops I made for Lilli's 7th Birthday party.

I've had a busy couple of months so this is just going to be a short and to the point post on how I made up the cookies.

I have had a stack of enquiries about where I got the mermaid cookie cutter. I picked mine up from Kitchenwear Plus at Logan Queensland Australia. It's a d-line brand cutter and I also spied it here at another shop on-line.

But if you can't find the same cutter I used, just use another mermaid cutter and apply the same technique, it should all work out in the end.

and cause I'm too tired to think up anything witty or cute I'll just pop a pic of Lilli's birthday party here. If you missed the post on the party you can find it by clicking HERE.


Mermaid Cookies

Ingredients and Equipment

Mermaid Sugar Cookies - I used the sugar cookie recipe from my soon to be released Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!
Mermaid Cookie Cutter
Ready Roll Fondant or Marshmallow Fondant (Mine was white, light aqua, slightly darker aqua, green and skin tone) Keel fondant in an airtight container or ziplock bag as it dries out quickly. Knead well before use.
Small Rolling Pin
Sharp Knife
Cake molding tools (see picture)
small flower cutter (I used a plunger cause they are easier)
small brush and water
small dry brush and pink edible dusting powder (optional)
Cornflour (corn starch) for dusting
Black edible pen


Roll out the skin tone fondant onto a cornflour dusted workbench. Cut out a mermaid shape using the cutter. Using the sharp knife carefully cut out hand shapes where the arms end on the cookie cutter (see picture).


Roll out the light aqua fondant on the cornflour dusted workbench and cut out a mermaid shape using the same cutter.


Place the skin tone fondant shaped on top of the aqua shape and using the sharp knife cut through both layers of fondant in a V shape at the waist. Cut the 'arms' from the aqua shape so you are left with just the tail. Take the top of the skintone shape and the bottom of the aqua shape and adhere to the cookie with a little water. Use the rolling pin to push the fondant out to the edges of the cookie as required. The hand shapes should sit on top of the blue mermaid tail.

Use the cake tools to make 'scale' indents into the tail and draw lines into the ends of the tail. If you do not have these tools use what ever you have handy. You could use the edge of a piping tip to make the scales and the sharpe knife would work nicely to make the indents.


Roll out the white fondant on a cornflour dusted workbench and cut out a mermaid shape using the cutter. The white fondant will be the top, use the sharpe knife to cut out a V neckline, sleeves and a V shape at the waist (see picture for example). Adhere the white top to the mermaid cookie with a little water.


Make the mermaid hair by rolling out the dark aqua fondant and cutting thin strips. Twist the strips to make the hair appear twirly, cut into different lengths and adhere to the mermaid head working down from the top around the face area (do not just stick it all on the top of the head or it will look odd). I used about 8 pieces of different lengths and made the hair. Repeat the process of making the hair with the light aqua color and then white.


Roll out the green fondant on a cornflour dusted workbench and cut out a small flower.


Press into the hair part and add a small amount of rolled fondant for the center or press in an edible silver ball.
Allow the fondant to dry a little and then using the edible pen draw on a face. I went with simple eyes and mouth, well pretty much as I am terrible at drawing and I find the simpler the better.#

Optional - Use a small dry brush to brush on a little pink dusting powder to make rosy cheeks. Just use a small amount, you can always add more if needed but you can't remove it. Use a clean brush to remove the excess dust.



#hint - I like to cut out some fondant a couple of hours before I draw the faces and try a few different types to see what will work best and it's also a good way to test out the dusting powder, you don't want to be too heavy handed.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Country Women's Association Classics Cookbook

 
Quick and Easy Biscuit (recipe page 527)

Wow - the CWA Classics (Country Women's Association) cookbook is one heck of a cookbook. It's huge, 400 recipes huge and filled with the kind of cooking you have come to expect from an Association which although not founded on food, has certainly made it's mark and name in that arena.

I was sent this book a couple of months ago, just as I was heading off for holidays and took it along to read during the trip despite it's hefty weight and as it turns out I'm glad I did.

I was kinda expecting a baking book, filled with scones, sponges and the types of fare you might expect to find at the CWA stall at a country fair but to my surprise this book has a great mix of savory and sweet recipes.

In fact some of the main meals were so simple and good I whipped them up while we were on holidays and to my delight the kids really enjoyed each of the meals.

The introduction gives a bit of a background on the CWA which I found very interesting as I have forgotten over time the CWA provide more than tea and scones and that they work tirelessly to support rural families in so many ways. In fact the proceeds from this book are being used to fund a postgraduate nursing scholarship for a nurse working in a rural area.

The book is a collection of recipes including starters and mains through to desserts, baked goods and preserves from CWA members.  A lovely touch is that each recipe has the name and state of the contributor which I liked and in some instances a little introduction written by the contributor which I totally loved. Some of the intro's were funny, some to the point , some told where the recipe originated..... I enjoyed reading each of the introductions as much as the recipes themselves.

So far I have tried quite a few of the recipes and not one of them has failed. Honestly would you expect any less.

Quite a few of the baking pages had been tagged to try, and when I noticed that the Quick and Easy Biscuits (page 527) only required 4 ingredients all of which I had in my pantry it quickly got pushed to first place. I helped my kids measure out the ingredients and then they pretty much sifted and mixed these babies up themselves.

Easy to find ingredients, clear instructions and yummy results. Yup that's what good classic cooking is all about.

Overall I found the recipes in this book easy to follow with ingredients that in most instances you probably already have at home as kitchen staples. Some of the recipes did not have clear instructions regarding what size pan to use but I put that down to the fact that the women of the CWA are a resourceful bunch and they make do with what they have. Something I could probably learn from if my crowded kitchen cabinets are anything to go by.

The book is distributed by Penguin and is available pretty much everywhere in Australia where you find good books.

CWA Classics

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Vampire Cake Pop Redux


Remember these vampire mouth cake pops I made last year inspired by True Blood........


well it's coming up to Halloween again and although I know any time is a good time for vampire cake pops I have had lots of questions on how to make them recently so here is bit of a better explanation of what I did.

Although sorry still the same mildly blurry over exposed photo's I used the last time :)


I made these from tim tam cookie truffles, or you could use oreo truffles (recipe at the bottom). I find that the consistency of the cookie truffles makes shaped pops a little bit easier, plus it is way quicker.

Shape the cookie truffle mixture into a mouth shape, I made an oval, flattened it down and pinched out the edges with my fingertips, then made a little lip/bow at the top. Pop your mouth shaped cookie truffles onto a parchment lined tray, grab a lollipop stick and make a hole in the bottom of each mouth (see the picture for a guide as to where you will be sticking the lollipop stick), remove the lollipop stick, repeat for the remaining mouths.Stick the tray into the fridge to chill.

Now for the purposes of this post I am going to be calling the chocolate coating 'candy coating' as that is what I buy. You can get compound chocolate melts (nestle brand) from the supermarket in Australian or other types from cake and hobby stores but I use the US candy coating/melts as they are already colored and set well on the pops. In Australia you can get candy melts from Spotlight and specialty cake stores, or online from Cakes Around Town who sell Merckens red candy coating and Baking Pleasures who sell red Wilton Candy Melts.

Melt some red candy coating (melts) in the microwave on medium low heat. Do not be tempted to melt at higher temperatures as you will burn the candy coating. If you like you can add some extra red to make it a deeper color but make sure you use special oil based color or the candy will be ruined (chocolate much like witches is destroyed by water in most instances). Melt the candy coating with some paramount crystals or copha until it is smooth. I use quite a lot of the copha, up to 1 part copha to 7 parts candy coating if I'm using Wilton, different brands will require different amounts of copha or paramount crystals, add it gradually to see what works best, the candy melts should not be thick the mixture should flow easily, kinda like this picture.

Yup I know this is blue and not a mouth it's just an idea of how your candy coating should look

Take lollipop sticks and holding one end dip the other into your melted candy coating and then insert the lollipop stick into the hole you have already made in each mouth. Repeat for remaining mouths and return to the fridge to chill for another 10 minutes.

Make sure the red candy coating is still melted sufficiently, remove the cookie truffle mouths from the fridge and holding the end of the lollipop stick dip each one into the candy coating, submerging the whole truffle and then lift out, tap gently to remove excess candy coating, and allow to set upright. I use large squares of styrofoam covered in glad wrap.

Once the mouths are set you can decorate, I lay mine back down flat on the tray to do this. I used ready rolled fondant (plastic icing) which you can get from specialty cake stores, grocery stores (in Australia) or hobby stores (in the US). Color some black and leave the rest white. Use your fingers to shape the black opening to the mouth and press onto the mouth cookie truffle pops, mine stuck without anything extra but if you have trouble adhering it try using a little royal icing or edible glue.


Shape the white fondant into teeth making four smaller front teeth and then two larger vampire canine type teeth for the edge. Adhere the teeth to the black mouth using a really teensy amount of water (really just a tiny amount of the black will smudge everywhere) and press on lightly.

Allow to set and serve.

The red drops of blood in the top picture are just more ready rolled fondant colored red and shaped into blood droplets.

Oh and Not Quite Nigella made a fun version of these last year for her Halloween party based on my original post - I love the photo where she is holding them up - so fun.


Oreo Cookie Pops

Note for US conversion, for the Oreo's just add half the amount of cream cheese to what ever size packet oreo's you get. So if you have a 16oz package of Oreos add 8oz cream cheese which will make around 23 or 24 Oreo truffles.

300g Oreo Cookies
150g Cream Cheese at room temp

Crush Oreo cookies finely in a food processor add cream cheese and process until the mixture clumps together. Shape mixture into a ball for traditional pops or follow the directions above for vampire pops.

Oh and for lots more fun ideas for sweets on a stick, check out my book being released in the US in December:



Tip Junkie handmade projects


Sunday, October 2, 2011

Halloween dress up paper doll cookies

Ghost and Witch Sophie Dolls 

Just a bit of fun I had with the left over doll cookies from Sophie's paper doll party.


Pumpkin Sophie Doll Dress up cookie

I thought it would be cute to dress them up for Halloween...


Oh and this last one is supposed to be Lady Gaga, pretty much I just left the doll in it's underwear and stuck on a ruffle, glove, mask and boots. I'm sure the real costume had a lot more to it (hehe).

Sophie is so totally NOT wearing a costume like this out :) But I'm cool with cookie Sophie wearing it.

See my previous post on how to make the Dress Up Doll cookies. I just hand cut all the Halloween costumes.