Peanut Butter choc chip Whoopie pies

You can probably tell by the pictures that these Whoopie Pies were a valentine treat made with lots of sweet love.

Yup in the lead up to Feb 14th I really think I can put a heart onto anything. But don't worry hearts or not these whoopie pies are actually a perfect anytime treat.

Originally I made the heart toppers and popped them into some mini cupcakes, but alas my valentine does not care for overly sweet cupcakes.

Then someone asked me to make up a batch of whoopie pies for their special valentine and I realised I had my solution (thank you Anna).

I find that the classic marshmallow filling below makes enough to join 2 batches of whoopies cakes, so I made up one plain chocolate chip for my friend and then modified the peanut butter whoopie recipe from "Whoopie Pies" by Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwell to incorporate chocolate chips.

You can pick it up for a good price with free delivery at The Book Depository

Recipe after jump

Cute as a Button Blossom cookie tutorial

Some of you mentioned you kinda liked my button blossom cookies in my last post.

I have to admit I'm a bit taken by them myself, there is something super sweet about button cookies.

Forget cute as a button, I think the saying should be cute as a button cookie.

This cookie was part of a set I designed and made for my sister in law's baby shower. She's an artist and sits more on the quirky cool side of things than traditional, so I thought baby bottles and onesies wouldn't cut it.

They were probably more cutesy than she's used to but hey, I am who I am and I think she was happy with them.

and big thanks to all of you who follow me on facebook and helped me out with these ones. I was unsure of whether to put the stitching around the edges and you convinced me it looked better with the faux stitching.
Some of you also recommended different colours so here you go while doing this tutorial I made up a few of your suggestions.

Blue button with green stitching

Pink button with pink stitching

Yellow button with pink stitching

Yup you get the picture this cookie looks pretty good in a variety of colours.

As a thank you I've done up a little tutorial to show how I made them.

Cute as a Button Blossom Cookie

Equipment and Ingredient for blue buttons with blue stitching
Cooked blossom cookies CLICK HERE for chocolate cookie recipe (my blossom cutter was 5.3cm or 2.1")
White ready to roll fondant
light blue (or colour of choice ready to roll fondant) I coloured mine with a little Wilton sky blue
Small rolling pin
Paintbrush and water
2 different sized round cutters (I used my the wrong ends of 2 wilton piping tips one of the big ones like a 134 and a #2 but just use anything you have on hand if you have a set of small round cutters perfect)
Edible writing pen in blue (optional)

Roll out white fondant cut out blossom shape using the same size cutter as you used for the cookie and adhere fondant to cookie using  a small amount of water. Using the small rolling pin gently roll the fondant to make it the same size as cookie. Repeat for all cookies


Roll out light blue fondant and using the larger size circle cutter cut out enough rounds to place in the middle of each cookie. Adhere blue rounds to the center of each cookie with a small amount of water.

The Wilton tips in this picture are a little different that the ones I suggested as I was making a different size, like I said use what you have.

Using the slightly smaller round cutter press lightly into the larger round fondant cutout to leave an impression. Using the end of the paintbrush gently push 4 indents to replicate the holes in a button.

If you would like to add 'stitching' in edible pen I recommend allowing the fondant to dry a little. Then draw on the stitches using short stokes all around the edge of the cookie.

Chocolate sugar cookie recipe

I have been missing in action for the last week and oh so busy. I'm not sure what is going on but since mid January I have been desperately trying to catch up and just when I think I might just about be there something else comes along.

This week I had 3 days to design, bake, decorate and pack 6 different batches of cookies which doesn't seem so hard but was a struggle for me with 1 day mostly a write off as I had put my name down to help out at my daughter's pre prep school and afterwards had swimming lessons for the kids.


Lucky for me I have a couple of easy, no fail cookie recipes, which is actually the point of this post.

Yes there is a point to this rambling post and it is to share my super easy extra delicious chocolate cookie recipe for cut out cookies.

They have a lovely chocolate flavour and result in a flat well shaped cookie, just perfect for decorating.

Chocolate Sugar Cookie Recipe

114 g unsalted butter (4 ounces)
3/4 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar use regular white sugar if you can't locate superfine)
1 large egg (a large egg is approx 55g in weight - not a jumbo or extra large egg)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups plain flour (all purpose flour)
1/3 cup cocoa (unsweetened)


Sift together flour and cocoa.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar add egg and vanilla and mix until well blended. Add flour and cocoa mixture and mix well.

Refrigerate dough until firm enough to roll (at least one hour).

Roll out cookie dough on a lightly floured surface. Some people roll out between 2 pieces of parchment paper to reduce sticking, I don't do that I just lift the dough between each roll to stop it sticking, like you do with pie dough. Use what ever method works for you.

Cut out shapes and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Gently knead the remaining dough and roll out again to cut more shapes until all dough is used or you have enough cookies.

Place cookies in fridge to chill while you preheat the oven to 160C (325 F).

Bake cookies until the middle is set, you should be able to tell by looking that it no longer looks wet, or there should be no indentation when pressed gently - this is tricky as you can't judge by the golden colour. Depending on the size of cookie it could be between 7 to 20 mins.

Leave on tray a few minutes and then remove to a wire baking rack to cool. Once cool decorate as desired.

Unbaked dough can be wrapped and frozen in an airtight container or refrigerated for a few days.

Conversation Heart macarons for Valentines

The MacTweets challenge #16 for February 2011 was dedicated to Valentines Day. In their words 'Nothing says I Love You like a sweet little something, the size of a kiss, the flavor of your wildest desire, the macaron'.

I'm nothing if not literal, so I baked up a batch of macarons and using an edible writing pen in red I drew on some conversation hearts.

Yes my sweet kiss size macarons actually say 'I love you'.... and 'kiss me' and my all time favourite 'True Love'.


I think they would look great in different pastel colours, and if you wanted really neat looking uniform decorations you could cut out a fondant heart, stick it onto the macaron and write or stamp the words on the fondant.


My macarons were made using my regular recipe and filled with white chocolate ganache and for the pink raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream blended with white chocolate ganache (ratio 3 cups buttercream to 1 cup ganache).


Macaron recipe - click here
Italian Meringue Buttercream from the Whimsical Bakehouse cookbook which is one of my all time favourite cook books for baking.


Whimsical Bakehouse: Fun-to-make Cakes That Taste as Good as They Look

Due to the super humid and hot weather here in Brisbane at the moment the white chocolate ganache is a 4:1 ratio of white chocolate to cream. Eg 200g white chocolate to 50g cream melted together carefully and allowed to set in the fridge to a piping consistency.



I'm sure all the wonderful Mac Tweeters will be coming up with some lovely macarons for the February Challenge check back at the end of the month to see all the mac-yumminess.

How ADOREable is this high tea shoot

So this story starts with a message from Sharnel Dollar asking me if I would like to help her out on a shoot she was doing for Adore magazine.

Come on you guys know what my answer was even without seeing all the gorgeous pictures on this page. Sharnel Dollar Designs Styling + Naomi V Photography + a host of other amazing providers is always going to = a gorgeous result.

Yup I jumped at the chance.

Now I can only take credit here for making the macarons, scones and melting moments, and the recipes for the scones and melting moments are courtesy of Sharnel Dollar. But I am very proud and excited to have helped out at all.

Oh and any of you readers from the US who might want to try out the scone (biscuit) recipe - lemonade is what we call clear soda...7 up would be a suitable replacement, and it is a super easy recipe. Really, really easy fast scones.

Check out the whole high tea fit for a Queen (starting page 96)  including the recipes by clicking on this link.

In fact check out the whole magazine - it's online and free and has some gorgeous stuff in it.

High Tea fit for a Queen credits

Sharnel Dollar - Styling and making of all treats except the couple made by me
Naomi V - Photography
Green and Bloom Wedding Flowers - flowers
Pen & Paperflowers - Silhouette design
Macaron Recipe 

Coconut and Strawberry Macaroon Hearts for Valentine

A macaroon instead of a macaron for a change.

I have always loved macaroons, even before I knew about those pretty little temperamental french almond things I was a fan of the dense coconut confection that is a macaroon.

I used to love the chocolate dipped ones from The Shingle Inn, a bakery in Brisbane nearby where I used to work.

I have tried a few recipes over the years with less than fabulous results. Anyway I spied a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens basics magazine that I though had promise. So I made the recipe a bit smaller and added some finely chopped strawberries and the result was pretty delicious.

and of course then I shaped them into a heart for Valentines day.


Which is really only an excuse because if you have followed this blog for any length of time you would have noticed that I frequently shape or decorate things into hearts, just because they are so darn cute.

Then I made half of them into the traditional little pyramid shape which is pretty cute as well. They are the perfect bite sized treat and not overly sweet so you can have a quite a few if you are so inclined.

I was - inclined to have a few that is, in fact a few too many so sadly my plan of dipping some of the heart shaped macaroons into pink chocolate did not eventuate.

Oh well next time ;) 

Recipe after jump.

Triple Chocolate Heart Valentine cookies

Triple Chocolate Heart cookies made using my favourite super chocolate cookie recipe filled with dark and white chocolate chips. Perfect valentines for those who are looking for something that's not overly cute but still super delicious.

and I didn't even use a special heart shaped pan........that's right no special equipment here just cookies made with love. 

This trick should work for most chocolate chip cookie recipes that do not spread too much during baking. You just get 2 tear shaped bits of dough, place them together in a V and as they bake, rise and expand voila instant love hearts.


Probably works best if you chill the dough in the fridge quite a bit before shaping them into the tear drops and baking, not like the melty sticky ones in the picture above.

I also picked all the red and pink M &M's out of a mini M&M packet and stuck them on the top before baking for a bit of extra valentine cuteness.

Recipe after jump