Chocolate Fudge

Remember the condensed milk I made early last week? It got put to use today as I made a trial run of the chocolate fudge I plan to make for my friend's birthdays. My sister and my dad popped up in the afternoon who made the perfect guinea pigs. I've made fudge before, but never with home made condensed milk. I was worried it might go a bit grainy. Well worry not! Turned out great!

Chocolate Fudge

125gm Butter

375gm Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 tbsp Golden Syrup

1 cup Brown Sugar

85 gm Dark Chocolate.

Line a square cake tin with greaseproof paper.  Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat, then add condensed milk, sugar and syrup. Stir continuously until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture up to the boil, then reduce the heat and allow the mix to gentley boil until it reaches soft ball stage. I stirred the mix continuously at this stage for about 20 mins. The mixture will turn a beautiful golden colour at this stage and look like boiling mud. Remove from heat and then add the chocolate, stirring til smooth. Moving quickly, pour into your tin and leave to set in the fridge. Slice into squares and serve.

This is extremely rich, so you will only need a small square. Next time I make this I will add a couple of tbsp of Kaluha or Bailey's for a truely wicked indulgence.

I Heart Cupcakes

I do, it's no secret. If I had my way, I'd own a cupcake shop and spend all day decorating and seeing people enjoy my delish sugar and butter filled creations! As I mentioned earlier, I like making them more than eating them. But I think that has come simply due to the hundreds I have come to eat in my time. Mid last year my obsession really started to take over. I bought my first edible cake topper printer, and fell in love! Between that and a piping bag, I'm in heaven.
So I'm clearly just an amature, I'm in awe of the beautiful cakes the professionals make. But one day (gunna..haha) I'll turn my passion into my income. But for now, it's my little way of spreading a smile to those I love. I find creating a batch of personal cakes for an unsuspecting friend a nice way to brighten their day. I work as a department manager in retail at the moment, and I also love creating a batch for my team's birthday's. Who wouldn't love their boss to make them cupcakes, right?! You find the event, I'll make the cakes!

Here are some that I've made recently

Would you like some cupcake with your chocolate?

My personal favourites...Vanilla Cream filled Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes with peppermint Buttercream

Cherry Ripe Cupcakes

These last 2 were made for a friend's baby shower...too cute.

Easter Wrap Up #2

To continue our crafty Easter


Saturday we made the Cupcakes mentioned earlier as well as....

Home made Chocolates with strawberry and peppermint fillings

Fresh Turkish Bread

And this morning after Easter Bunny delivered his treasures..



I made Easter Bunny Pancakes for my kids.

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend with those who make you feel special.

Easter Wrap up

This Easter I wanted to make it special for the kids. Usually Easter just involves my kids eating lashings of chocolate. To be fair, this year was no different in that respect. But since working full time again, you realise how few and far between 4 day stretches with the kids are, so I wanted to make the most of them.

Surprisingly I got somwhat organised with some craft ideas and cooking to do with the kids. A big thanks has to go out to Skip to my Lou for giving me the inspiration for a number of the activities.

I decided spread things over a few days to help build up the anticipation of Easter Bunny's visit

Friday we made

Easter Baskets

These were really easy and the download can be found here

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

You can find the instructions here

Hot Cross Buns & Fruit Loaf

I use the recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly cookbook All Time Favourites.

Hot Cross Buns

INGREDIENTS
2 x 7g sachets granulated yeast

¼ cup (55g) caster sugar

1½ cups (375ml) warm milk

4 cups (600g) plain flour

1 teaspoon mixed spice

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

60g butter

1 egg

¾ cup (120g) sultanas

Flour paste for crosses

½ cup (75g) plain flour

2 teaspoons caster sugar

1/3 cup (80ml) water, approximately

Glaze

2 Tbs warmed apricot Jam

METHOD
Combine yeast, sugar and milk in small bowl or jug; cover, stand in warm place about 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy.Sift flour and spices into large bowl, rub in butter. Stir in yeast mixture, egg and sultanas; mix to a soft sticky dough.

Cover; stand in warm place about 45 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.Grease 23cm-square slab cake pan.

Turn dough onto floured surface, knead about 5 minutes or until smooth. Divide dough into 16 pieces, knead into balls. Place balls into prepared pan; cover, stand in warm place about 10 minutes or until buns have risen to the top of the pan.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to hot.For the flour paste for crosses, combine flour and sugar in bowl. Gradually blend in enough of the water to form a smooth paste.

Place flour paste for crosses in piping bag fitted with small plain tube, pipe crosses on buns.

Bake buns in hot oven about 20 minutes or until well browned. Turn buns onto wire rack, brush tops with hot glaze; cool on wire rack.

To be fair, I have a breadmaker, so I just put all the ingredients in the machine and use the dough setting. Much easier.