Cupcake Hero voting is open!

I don't know how I missed this - but Cupcake Hero voting has been open for 5 days! Whoops! If you would like to vote for my chocolate peanut butter and banana cupcakes I would much appreciate it :)

The Week That Was

1. Mini chicken loaves served with mashed potato and steamed vegetables
2. Cannelloni with fresh spinach and cottage cheese served with a garden salad
3. Delicious fried rice
4. Extremely naughty custard berlina

What was your food highlight this week?

Need some oven mitts?

1. Marimekko Black / White Fokus Oven Mitt from FinnStyle - $17
2. Skulls Oven Mitt from Jessie Steele - $11.95
3. Oven Mitt in Groundkeeper's Cameos from Deadly Squire - $28
4. Hats Off To You - Oven Mitts from Collisionware - $15
5. Silicone Solutions Red Oven Mitt from Target - $12.99
6. DwellStudio Modern Oven Mitt from Target - $4.99

On the sixth day of Christmas (Florentines)

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six geese a laying... or in my case a successful batch of Florentines. These are so simple and easy to make, it really is just a case of mixing all the ingredients together, baking them and finally spreading on some melted chocolate. The best part is that the florentines look very festive and they taste really good. Nice and sweet, with a bit of chew and a bit of crunch. Just what the doctor ordered, well actually a doctor would probably not order this due to the sweetened condensed milk - what a silly saying! Or perhaps just not the correct saying for this situation. Anyways that is besides the point, these florentines are easy and yummy, and they keep for a month in an air-tight container in the fridge - so they are great for Christmas presents. So what are you waiting for? Go make some :)


Florentines (from The Australian Women's Weekly - The Christmas Book)
Makes about 35

60g cornflakes
80g sultanas
35g dried currants
60g red glace cherries, chopped
60g green glace cherries, chopped
105g slivered almonds, toasted
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
200g dark chocolate, melted

1. Combine cornflakes, fruit, nuts and condensed milk in a large bowl and mix well.
2. Drop level tablespoons of mixture about 4cm apart on oven trays covered with baking paper.
3. Bake at 180C for 8 minutes, or until browned lightly. Cool on trays.
4. Spread bases of florentines with chocolate; make wavy lines in chocolate with fork just before chocolate sets.

Spread the bases with chocolate...


Make a swirly pattern on the bases with a fork...


Then try not to eat them all...


Oh and if you have some left over chocolate why not make some chocolate freckles. Just spread little circles of chocolate on baking paper then cover with 100s and 1000s and allow to set. Yummy...


Rating?
5 out of 5 reindeers!

Moo!

I ordered some business cards from Moo a little while ago for my little blog - and they are so cool! I got the Blog header together with my name, email and web address on one side of the cards, and on the other side of the cards I used a whole bunch of photos from the blog. It is such a wonderful idea and I think they look fantastic...


I also got a sticker book printed up...


With Clive of course - now I have 90 little Clives all waving at me - too cute!

On the fifth day of Christmas (Fruit Mince Crumble Cake)

Okay is it just me or do I seem to be having a fair bit of difficulties with the 12 Baking Days of Christmas project? All of the cookie dough I have made so far has been really difficult to get together, my royal icing piping skills leave a lot to be desired and now this Fruit Mince Crumble Cake. Oh dear this was the biggest disaster so far. Let me just say that I have learned a very valuable lesson. When a recipe calls for a 23cm cake tin and you think your 20cm cake tin will suffice, you are wrong and you should just stop being so stingy and go buy a 23cm cake tin. That way you won't be so disappointed when you slice into your cake to discover the bottom of it isn't cooked at all and is instead just a sludgy mess. You also wouldn't throw a tantrum and throw the rest of the cake in the bin. Yes, it was not my finest moment. All of that aside though - the edges of the cake that were cooked tasted really good and I would be willing to try this recipe again with the correct cake tin. I think the cake would be especially tasty if served slightly warmed with some lovely home made custard. So don't let my mistakes deter you - I think this recipe could be a winner!


Fruit Mince Crumble Cake (from Better Homes and Gardens - December 2008)
Makes one 23cm cake

melted butter, for greasing
icing sugar, for dusting

Crumble
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
125g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

Cake
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
160g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
400g jar fruit mince (I used my home made fruit mince of course)
100g craisins (dried cranberries) (I omitted these)

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Brush a 23cm round springform cake tin with melted butter and line base and sides with baking paper.
2. To make crumble, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl. Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Set aside.
3. To make cake, combine flour, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre, add egg and milk and stir until combined. Spoon mixture into prepared tin and press evenly on base.
4. Spread fruit mince over cake base, and sprinkle craisins over mince. Top with crumble mix.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into centre of cake. Stand tin on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove cake from tin and stand on wire rack until cold. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

Lovely looking cake cooling on the wire rack...


Dust it with a bit of icing sugar...


Then slice it open to discover it isn't baked properly :( ...


See mushy insides...


Oh well at least the edges were edible...


Rating?
3 out of 5 reindeers! Would of been higher if I baked it properly!

Iron Cupcake - Vote

Iron Cupcake voting has begun - you can vote here (if you want to of course).