Cupcakes for a friend

One of my friends had an awesome birthday party on the weekend - lots of fantastic people, wonderful food and sing star of course. I was asked to bake the birthday boy some cupcakes for the event. So I baked 12 ferrero rocher cupcakes and 12 snickers cupcakes - mmm so much chocolatey goodness.

Well I should of baked more, because these babies were demolished in a matter of minutes and everyone loved them! It was great to see everyone enjoying my cupcakes - it put a huge smile on my face :)

Yay for cupcakes!

On the seventh day of Christmas (Peppermint Bark)

Can I just say that peppermint bark totally rocks my world!

How can something so simple taste so good?

Yummy white chocolate together with crunchy peppermint candy canes makes for an awesome Christmas treat. Also peppermint bark is a great sweet to give as gifts, easy to make and easy to love. Just pop a few pieces in a little plastic bag and then tie with some pretty Christmas ribbon - voila! You can also keep the peppermint bark in an air-tight container in the refrigerator if you want to make it in advance.

So what are you waiting for get yourself into the kitchen and make some now!


Peppermint Bark

500g white chocolate, melted
8 peppermint candy canes, crushed (just place the candy canes in a plastic bag and smack them around with a rolling pin - lots of fun!)

1. Mix together the chocolate and candy canes.
2. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
3. Spread out the chocolate mixture on the baking trays. Allow to set.
4. Break up the bark into whatever size pieces you want.
   

Yummy crushed candy canes...


Melted white chocolate...


Put the candy canes and chocolate together...


Mix it all up...


Spread it all out...


Let it set, and then break it up...



Rating?
5 out of 5 reindeers!

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!