The BEST Choc Chip Cookies

125g (4 oz) butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups self raising flour
125g (4 oz) choc chips


Cream together butter, sugars and vanilla.
Add lightly beaten egg gradually, beating well.
Mix in sifted flour.
Add choc chips, mix well.

Shape teaspoonfuls of mixture into small balls and place ontogreased trays, allowing for spreading.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in moderate oven.

German Chocolate Cake with Caramel Pecan Frosting

For the Cake:
-4 oz Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate, broken into squares
-1/2 cup water
-2 cups all purpose flour
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
-1 cup butter, softened (two sticks)
-2 cups sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1 cup buttermilk

For the Frosting:
-1 1/2 cans evaporated milk
-6 egg yolks
-2 cups sugar
-1 cup butter, cut into small pieces
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-4 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
-2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease and flour 3 9x2 inch round cake pans, then line bottoms with wax paper.
3. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the chocolate with the water, stirring to melt the chocolate, and blend well. Set aside and cool for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, in a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, the baking soda, and the salt. Set aside.
5. In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks, about 1 minute.
6. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
7. Add the egg yolks, beating until well combined.
8. Add the chocolate mixture and the vanilla extract.
9. Add the dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with he buttermilk, beating after each addition, until smooth.
10. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites on the high speed of an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gently fold into batter.
11. Divide batter among the prepared pans.
12. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Be careful not to over bake, as this cake has a different, lighter texture than most.
13. Let cake cool in pans for 10 minutes.
14. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.
15. In a large saucepan, beat together the evaporated milk and the egg yolks.
16. Stir in the sugar, the butter , and the vanilla extract.
17. Stir over medium heat about 15-18 minutes or until thickened and bubbly and golden in color. Remove from heat.
18. Stir in the coconut and pecans.
19. Transfer to a large bowl and cool until room temperature and of good spreading consistency (about 2 hours.)
20. When cake has cooled, spread frosting between layers and over top of cake.


SO GOOD! This cake has a really light and fluffy texture, and the nuts in the frosting go perfectly with it! Looking at these pictures just makes me want to make it again!

Rainbow Cake

Today on Meg's blog, she posted a fabulous picture of the Rainbow Cake she is famous for.

A while ago, I decided to try it out for myself.

It's not too hard. You make two bowls of cake mix, then split each bowl into three so that you get six bowls (one for each colour). The hardest part is fitting them all in the oven!

Then the real fun begins- assembling the cake and frosting it! When I made my cake, I decided to use orange coloured frosting because the birthday girl loved the colour orange. The recipe called for powdered sugar, but as I stood in the cooking needs section of my supermarket, looking at all the sugar products, I could not find 'powdered sugar' for the life of me!

Thank goodness for iPhones. I Googled "substitute for powdered sugar" and found that you could use plain old white sugar that had been pulverised in the blender for a little bit. So that's what I did. Except I don't think I pulverised it for long enough because even though it looked 'powdery', I could still feel the sugar granules on my tongue and it was weird.

Anyway, at this point I had that much orange frosting that there was no way I was going to throw it all out and start again. Plus, I didn't have time because guests were arriving in an hour. So I kept at it.

Amanda recommended freezing the layers in between frosting so the cake wouldn't go slip sliding all over the place. I froze mine for an hour and it was still difficult to frost! Even when I was serving it up, I found I had to keep pushing the layers back into place because they kept sliding off each other.

Maybe my freezer is inadequate.

But the cake looked good regardless. Even if it was pastel-coloured instead of brightly coloured like Meg's and Amanda's.

Toblerone Cheesecake

I first discovered this recipe a few years ago from my friend Elise, who found it on the back of a package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I've been making it ever since- it's one dessert I'm now famous for! It is so delicious I guarantee you, you can't stop at just one piece!

1 cup plain chocolate biscuit crumbs
80g butter, melted
500g block Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
200g Toblerone Milk or Dark Chocolate, melted
1/2 cup thickened cream


Combine biscuit crumbs and butter then press into the base of a lightly greased 20cm springform pan. Chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes until solid.

Beat Philly and sugar using an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the melted Toblerone and cream until well combined.

Pour onto the prepared crumb base and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours until set. If you like, you can shave remaining Toblerone and sprinkle on top.

Duffins

I took these donut-muffins to a movie night last week, where they were promptly christened "Duffins". Everyone loved them- what's not to love? A donut mixed with a muffin? Yes please.

Originally from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, these are so yummy.

Ingredients
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
⅔ cups oil
2 whole eggs
1 cup milk
1½ cups sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 sticks butter


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.
In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening. Then add eggs and mix again. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.
Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

In a bowl, melt 2 sticks butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon.



Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.



Enjoy! Look at the yumminess!

Choc Chip Brownies

I made this Choc Chip Brownies recipe from Bakerella last week and it was AMAZING!

2 3/4 cups plain flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 lb. (2 cups) light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 packet milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Bakerella said the brownies came out best if mixed by hand, not electric mixer, so that's what I did!

By hand:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears.
Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.
Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Oh my goodness, yum!

5 minute chocolate mug cake

So tonight, I really needed to bake. It was a case of literally, "Bake it or Break It". I wasn't my usual happy self, and I knew that baking would fix that right up.

The only problem was, there wasn't that many ingredients in my cupboard, and I didn't want to stand over a stove melting butter or chocolate and the like.

Plus, my grandparents had a roast lamb in the oven, so that was out of action.

Enter, the 5 minute chocolate mug cake. Throw all the ingredients into a mug, and chuck it into the microwave. Genius.

I sourced the original recipe here. I didn't have chocolate chips, so I just left those out.

Despite the lack of chocolate chip-ness, the cake-in-a-mug was good. Oh my goodness, it was good. But it needed a little something else.

So I melted 6 squares of cooking chocolate (left over from making cupcakes on the weekend), added about 10 grams of butter and microwaved the lot for about 20 seconds.

Poured on top of the mug cake, and I nearly had a chocolate coma. It was that amazing.

Do yourself a favour and make yourself one. With the cake still warm from the microwave, mixed in with the warm chocolate sauce, this is the perfect chocolate pick-me-up. You'll thank me!