Archive for Sweets & treats

A chocolate cake that will make grown men cry

February 18, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Sweets & treats · Tagged , ,

No, it's ok! See! You serve it with raspberries!

No, it’s ok! See! You serve it with raspberries!

Admittedly, this cake is scraping into the Vegie Smugglers repertoire on an almond-meal technicality. I considered calling it ‘adult nut cake (with rum and a block of chocolate)’ but I have to concede that it doesn’t contain anything healthy at all. The truth? It’s a flourless dark chocolate, almond & rum cake that is SO delicious that Mr VS loved me more after I made it for him on Valentine’s day.

Being a fan of all things tasty, I thought it worth sharing in case you know an adult in need of spoiling sometime soon. It starts off like a mousse cake, then after a day in the fridge becomes a sinful truffle cake that lasts several days.

The recipe is from Claudia Roden’s ‘The Food of Spain‘, but it’s not her recipe either, apparently it dates bake to Spanish cookbooks from last century.

Chocolate, almond and rum cake

150g dark cooking chocolate (best quality you can afford), broken into pieces
3 tbsp water
150g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp dark rum

Topping
50g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
2 tbsp water
1/4 cup caster sugar
25g unsalted butter, cubed

Heat the oven to 160C. Line a 23cm springform pan with baking paper.

Melt the chocolate with the water in a double boiler (a bowl, over a pot of boiling water – but don’t let the bowl touch the water or it will burn, you just want the steam to be a nice gentle heat source – still not sure how? Watch this video).

Stir constantly and once the chocolate is nearly melted, add in the butter and stir them together into melty-awesomeness. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, almonds, baking powder and rum. Add in the melted chocolate and mix really well.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks (when you lift up the beaters, the peaks stay up in the air – if they flop to the side, they are ‘soft peaks’ and you need to beat them a bit more.

Add 1/4 eggwhites into the chocolate mix and combine in gently with a spatula. Repeat with 1/2 the remaining mix and then again until all the eggwhites are combined in – there’s an ok ‘how to’ video here about beating and folding in eggwhites).

Pour into the tin and bake for about 35 minutes until firm.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan (it will sink – totally fine).

Release the cake from the pan and transfer to a cake plate. For the topping, melt the chocolate and water as above, add the sugar and butter and melt and mix well, then pour over your cake, easing nice drips down the side every now and again.

SERVES 8 ADULTS.

Comments (10) »

Dig out the lunchboxes… again

January 22, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats · Tagged , , ,

How are you feeling about the upcoming return to school? I’ve enjoyed spending time with my kids and I’ve had a house full of them and their friends throughout January (I actually did a tally and I’ve had a total of 34 different kids pass through my doors!) – it’s been nice to listen to them all play and get to know the personalities of my children’s friends.

But the prospect of the return to routines and of empty lunchboxes staring at me every morning does fill me with a bit of dread. As always, I’ll turn to my Lunchbox planner, which has 40 weeks of plans which takes some of the thinking out of it! I keep everything pretty simple, but throw in a weekly recipe and use lots of seasonal fruit and veg to keep things interesting. You can buy a copy of the e-book here.

There’s been a bunch of great posts around lately full of back to school ideas and advice. I liked this post from Natural New Age Mum with biscuit ideas – they all look great! At the moment I’m working on a new quick-bake e-book and here’s a little preview. It’s another biscuit suggestion that pops a bit of fibre into the lunchbox and gives them some energy for the afternoon session.

Best wishes to all of those sending off your kids for the first time. I did that last year, and it was extremely bittersweet. This year is much more relaxed, there are no nerves, just excitement about which class we’ll be in with which friends. What a difference 12 months makes!

Biscuits. They make me happy.

Biscuits. They make me happy.

Oat, sultana and sesame biscuits

½ cup self-raising flour
1½ cups oats
¼ cup Allbran cereal
3 tbsp sesame seeds (optional, but recommended)
¼ tsp cinnamon
Pinch salt
½ cup sultanas or currants
60g butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two oven trays with baking paper.

Sift the flour into a medium sized bowl. Mix in the oats, bran, seeds, cinnamon, salt and sultanas.

In a separate, larger bowl, use hand-held beaters to combine the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and mix well.

Use a spoon to fold in the dry ingredients. Pop on kitchen gloves to avoid mess and roll out ping-pong sized balls of mixture. Place on the trays and bake for 12-15 minutes until just brown.

MAKES ABOUT 24.

Comments (10) »

What’s your food intolerance?

January 15, 2013 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Sweets & treats, Vegetarian · Tagged , ,

A lot of people I know have an allergy or intolerance to some kind of food. Maybe they can’t eat gluten or eggs or meat or nuts.

For me, it’s dairy. And it’s getting worse as I get older. I manage it with a combination of substitution, abstinence and patience. I understand and accept that I’ll always feel sick after eating in most (non-asian) restaurants, where it is apparently incomprehensible that you can cook without oodles of butter. And I accept that I’ll never be able to eat dessert at most restaurants since ‘dessert’ is apparently a code word for ‘cream’ with the only other option being cheese.

It does frustrate me when I have to pay extra for soy milk in my coffee. With food sensitivities being so widespread, surely a café should allow for all of the soy/skim/rice milk variants when they set their basic prices. 50c extra seems like highway robbery – it’s not like us soy latte wankers are particularly rare.

And while I’m ranting, I went to a restaurant recently that didn’t have a single vegetarian main meal on the menu. And no, waitress, fish is actually meat. As is bacon. And chicken – that’s meat too. I was horrified that a pretty ritzy place wouldn’t even whip up a ‘off the menu’ option. My strict vegetarian friend had just two entrée options to choose from. Lucky she likes raw beetroot and dairy-laden artichokes.

Surely these days, all cafes and restaurants should be creative enough to offer up one allergy free option. Maybe something like this is tapioca dessert. It’s vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and delicious.

Proof that dairy-free, gluten-free desserts are possible!

Proof that dairy-free, gluten-free desserts are possible!

Coconut & mango tapioca (from Vegie Smugglers 2)

7-8 cups water
2/3 cup tapioca pearls
400ml coconut milk
2–3 tbsp caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

To serve:
Sliced mango and banana

Add the water to a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer.

Add the tapioca pearls to the water and simmer until they are mostly cooked and translucent (this can take up to an hour for large pearls). Check often during cooking; stir to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan (if this is happening, add another cup of water). Err on the side of undercooking – a small opaque centre is fine, they will finish cooking in the coconut milk (overcooked tapioca just dissolves into sludge).

Drain and rinse.

Return the tapioca to the pan with the coconut milk, sugar and vanilla. Simmer gently over low heat until warm and thick.
Serve in bowls with the fruit.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 2 KIDS

Comments (21) »

Hostess with the most-ess

December 19, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Sweets & treats · Tagged , , , , ,

Hello 1970, it's great to see you.

Hello 1970, it’s great to see you.

I am the proud new owner of a punch bowl. I’ve never felt the urge to have one before, but something overcame me this year and I couldn’t rest without one.

Since moving to the suburbs, we entertain much more and have greater numbers of people around at once. Primarily the adults are drinking alcoholic stuff, but it is nice to have something else on offer, particularly for the kids, who are all old enough now to be pestering for fizzy drinks.

Like everything else, my policy on soft drink is that ‘everything is ok in moderation’. But at this time of year, with fun parties nearly every night, I’m looking for a bit of an alternative.

So I’m compromising with punch. There’s still sugar and fizz, but it’s slightly diluted and packed full of fruit. Use Christmas cookie cutters to make cute shapes from watermelon and rock melon and you’ve got something pretty appealing. Serve it in small plastic cups and the kids will tend to drink much less than a standard size softdrink can.

This is my current recipe, but I’m sure it will change. My mum favors tea-based recipes, but I like the colour of the cranberry. What about you? Have you got a favourite version? I’m keen to try a few out.

I won't tell if the adults decide to pop a bit of vodka in.

Shhhhhhh. Adults might like to pop a shot of vodka in their glass too.


Cranberry punch

2 parts cranberry juice
1 part ginger beer
1 part lemonade
1 part mineral water
Heaps of berries, rock melon, watermelon & mint (although kids tend to stress about green leaves in their drinks).
______________________

And with that, I’m off for a bit of a blogging break. Thanks so much for supporting my business and blog throughout 2012. It’s been another great year and I wish you and your family all the best for Christmas and the New Year.

xx

Comments (6) »

What my children and twitter have in common

December 13, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats · Tagged , , , , ,

I’ve been trying to teach my kids the finer art of conversation.

Talking isn’t a problem for them but actually having a two-way discussion around a topic is. Most of the time, they are like a twitter feed brought to life. Short-sentence comments unrelated to anything else (eg. “my brain is itchy”). Often they don’t make any sense at all (eg. “you blew big underpants”). Private jokes and brains farts that I have neither the understanding nor patience to reply to.

Despite my public urgings for families to eat together (it’s great for kids to see adults eating healthily and provides a positive and happy opportunity for family bonding), during the week the VS household rarely manages it. We make sure we have both breakfast and dinner together on the weekends, but I suspect more regular family dinners would improve the quality of their chatter quite a lot.

Like many families, we have little choice – Mr VS is off working long hours at Temple & Webster, providing Turkish towels and cushions for the needy, so the kids and I are left to our own devices. Half the time I let them eat alone (sometimes even with the TV on), the rest of the time I eat with them and that’s when I drill them on the finer points of using cutlery and how to have a good and rewarding discussion.

It seems to be working, gradually. Last night Mr VS did make it home and as he sat down, Mr M&P piped up with “and how was your day, daddy?” It was cute.

Apparently the other kids in infant’s school are unbothered by the Tourette’s-style conversation from my children. Somehow they have made a bunch of friends and we’ve reached that time of year where they all start loading each other up with Christmas cards and candy canes. Poor teachers.

Perhaps unluckily for my kids, I still had half a batch of gingerbread dough in the freezer. So I made the biscuits (little tiny ones) and then they spent an hour decorating them. We handed them out yesterday and they were a big hit. Of course, they’re no good if your friends have allergies, but luckily we’ve only got one BFF affected and we’ve bought her a little notepad instead.

It was raining, so I had a Martha Stewart moment.

It was raining, so I had a Martha Stewart moment.

They were concentrating so hard they even stayed quiet for a bit.

They were concentrating so hard they even stayed quiet for a bit.

gingerbread biscuits

Just add a sprinkle of icing sugar and they’re good gifts for adults too.

Leave a comment »

Every day ice-cream (fruit smuggling at its finest)

December 6, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Sweets & treats, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged , , , , ,

Nothing bad, the all-fruit ice-cream

Nothing bad, the all-fruit ice-cream

When I put this dessert down in front of my kids last night, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Post-dinner treats at VSHQ consist of fruit and yoghurt (they get ice-cream at nanny & pa’s house) so they didn’t know WHAT they had done to deserve this magnificent creation.

Little did they know that there was some serious fruit smuggling taking place and there wasn’t a single unhealthy thing before them.

You see if you blitz up a frozen banana, you magically get the consistency of ice-cream. You can leave it as a magic one-ingredient dessert if you like, or you can add in some honey or other fruit. In this case I’ve used a couple of mango cheeks, then drizzled over some pomegranate seeds and ‘sprinkles’ of toasted coconut.

Best thing about this recipe is that it’s totally flexible to suit your family. You could replace the mango with berries and experiment with other toppings like pistachios and toasted almonds. I suspect frozen kiwifruit would work too, although I’ve not tried it. Maybe you can all do some experimenting and let me know what variation works at your place.


Magic fruit ice cream

1 mango
2 bananas (ripe but not over-ripe)
Pomegranate & toasted coconut to serve (optional).

Cut the flesh away from the mango skin (if you’re not sure how, watch this video). Pop into a plastic bag and freeze along with the whole bananas. When solid, peel the bananas (totally do-able – the skin comes away in chunks).

Place the bananas into the bowl of a food processor (a mini one will be fine for this quantity) and blitz until smooth.

Add in the mango and again, blitz until smooth. Pop this back into the freezer to harden up again (blitzing may have softened it all a little). Spoon into pretty bowls and serve to your astonished and amazed children.

Serves 4 kids, or 2 kids and 2 non-greedy adults

Comments (23) »

Naughty and 40

November 18, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News, Sweets & treats · Tagged , , ,

Have you ever had that experience of waking up, looking in the mirror and being a bit shocked by what you see? I had that moment over the weekend when I looked and welcomed another significant wrinkle. Not content with adding to my collection of laugh lines, this one actually crosses over the laugh lines forming a nice mesh, reminiscent of fishnets but far less alluring.

Apparently the phrase ‘aging overnight’ is based on fact, not fiction. It’s true, people don’t age gradually, but in ‘clunks’ and after the age of 35 we’re in aging freefall.

Having a second non-sleeping baby at 34½ apparently gave me a double whammy of aging. My ‘overnight’ seemed to stretch for one blurry four-year period and then when my focus cleared enough to look in the mirror, I was 38 and not the youthful flower I had been seven years earlier when I breathlessly announced my first pregnancy. (Incidentally, women feel at their most beautiful at age 32).

Searching the web on all things aging, I was thrilled to discover ‘Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome’ which is the sudden aging of soap characters. Like when Bridget Forrester suddenly got old enough to be in a love triangle with her mother and Deacon. And I’m wondering if all those university hours spent watching ‘The Bold & The Beautiful’ was detrimental to my health and somehow it twiddled with my gene structure to leave me stuck with that syndrome. You see, in my mind, I’m still 25. Which is weird, because my daughter turns 9 next birthday and she’s nearly as tall as me.

Actually the truth is that I’m pondering all these things because I’m turning 40 this week. And no matter how I try to deny it, people keep doing things like giving me birthday cards with ’40 and naughty’ on the front and cheery messages like “you’re another year more wonderful”. The sentiment is sweet, but I can’t help but think of people saying, “gee you must be lucky” when a bird craps on your jacket. They’re trying to make you feel better, but really, it’s all a little bit bullshit.

So sticking with sweet, it seems right to do a chocolate slice recipe this week. And when you bite in, think of me, huddled in the old lady corner, lamenting the loss of my youth.

Happy birthday to me, I live in a tree…

Chocolate slice

1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup oat bran
40g butter, melted and cooled
140g tub apple purée
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs, lightly whisked

Icing
1 1/4 cups icing sugar mixture
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2-3 tbsp water
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 180c. Line a lamington/slice tin with baking paper (leave some to hang over the two long sides).

Sift the flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl. Add in the sugar, coconut and oat bran. Mix lightly.

In a separate bowl or jug combine the butter, purée, eggs and vanilla.

Pour the wet into the dry and fold until totally combined. Spoon the mixture into your tin and patiently spread with a spatula until even. Bake for 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tray.

Sift the icing sugar mixture and cocoa into a bowl. Add in the water and mix well then pour over the slice and leave it to harden in the tin.

Use the sides of the paper to lift out and slice into 20 pieces.

Comments (18) »

The easiest cupcake recipe ever

September 9, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News, Sweets & treats · Tagged , , , , , ,

It’s true that I own an embarrassing amount of cookbooks. It’s a compulsion that lures me into every second hand bookstore I pass. There are cookbooks for baking with yeast, Danish sandwich making and Pritikin diets. Most are curiosities, mostly unused. But amid the novelties are essentials and the Sally Wise cookbooks are ones I refer to over and over again. Possibly because her food is a perfect fit for me and how I cook. Family food. Flavour over fancy. No smears, no complicated reductions, just page after page of family winners. Her gluten free book should be a first port of call for those of you needing help in that area. Her slow cooker book is fantastic and her preserves books are the only ones you will need (should that be your thing).

So I was keen to get her new book, ‘Sweet’. It’s perfect for those of us heading towards a spring season of cake stalls and fete days.

Our school fundraiser was last weekend and I’d pledged 24 cupcakes. Thinking I’d be making my life easier, I went to buy a packet mix. Looking on the back I saw I’d need to add my own eggs, oil and milk. Soooo…. ummmmm…. what exactly is in the packet then? Just flour, sugar-like substances and a stack of preservatives, thickeners and colourings. I popped it back, pretty sure I could do better.

So straight to Sally and she came to my rescue. This cake mix is SO incredibly easy and the cakes were really good.

sally-wise-chocolate-cupcakes

A tiny teddy never goes astray.

Sally Wise’s Chocolate Cupcakes (from Sweet!) My comments are in italics.

Makes 10 (although I made a triple batch and ended up with about 3 dozen).

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ cup milk
1 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
90 g butter, melted

Heat oven to 160C. Line a muffin tray with paper cases.

Place all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for two minutes until thick & creamy. (YES, TRULY, THIS IS ALL YOU DO!!!!)

Fill cases to 2/3 full and bake for 12-15 minutes or so until the middle of the cake is springy (IN MY CRAP OVEN, THE COOKING TIME WAS ACTUALLY JUST OVER 20 MINS)

Cool completely, then ice.

Icing
180g icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp softened butter
boiling water.

Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl, mix in the butter and enough boiling water to make a smooth consistency.

I dipped my iced cakes in sprinkles and topped with a tiny teddy. I noticed during my time of the cupcake stall that lollies and really colourful toppings were MUCH more popular than the more measly, spartan looking ones.

vs-promo-1

Comments (36) »

Chocolate, bran & zucchini muffins

August 19, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News, Sweets & treats · Tagged , , , , ,

Well, there was much interest in these little chocolate morsels when I put up a preview pic the other day over on Facebook. So rather than making you wait, I’ve fast-tracked them onto the blog for you all to bake up this week. Rather than being puritanical about food and healthy eating, I like to acknowledge that the vast majority of us mortals WILL eat chocolate; so the least I can do is pack a bit of extra fibre into the mix to make them just a tiny bit healthier.

They’re nut free and easily made dairy free too, which means that most lunchboxes should cope with them nicely.

Now I know you’re all out there, I can hear you breathing. Well actually, I can see my traffic stats. But none of you ever really comment on here. Why is that? I know we all chat over at FB, but my poor old blog gets a bit lonely from time to time. I always love to hear about if you try out a recipe, how it goes and what variations you need to make for your family.

Don’t be shy. Remember then when you post recipe comments with the posts they get kept for future reference. On FB they just get forgotten in the jumble of cyber junk.

Both you and the kids will be happy with these!

Chocolate, bran and zucchini muffins

1 ¼ cups self-raising flour
¾ cup Allbran cereal (or any type of bran bits)
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
1 egg
¾ cup milk (soy works great)
¾ cup vegetable oil (I like grapeseed, but canola is cheaper)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 zucchini, grated (fearless VS testers report back that small/medium zucchini will work best, or a large one may need to have liquid squeezed out).

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 12 cup regular muffin tray (I just use spray oil since I’m too lazy to melt and brush on butter).

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, bran, cocoa, sugar and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl or jug, mix together the egg, milk, oil, vanilla and zucchini.

Pour wet ingredients into dry, mix gently until well combined. Divide evenly between your muffin holes and bake for 25 minutes or so, until they spring back when touched and a skewer comes out clean.

Makes 12.

Optional extra: a ½ cup of choc chips will make these extra chocolatey!

Comments (77) »

Finding winter time joy (in sugar)

August 11, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, News, Sweets & treats · Tagged , , ,

A couple of weeks ago I slipped on my wooden stairs and slammed down on my arse. It was a graceful, elegant move designed to demonstrate to the children exactly why we don’t run on the stairs in our socks. After a couple of visits to a lovely (medically trained) young man with strong hands I’m now feeling alot better and am knowledgeable about C8, T3 and S4. After giving myself a fair whack, I have several ongoing symptoms, one of which is chronic GRUMPINESS, no doubt helped along by continued cold weather and the fact we’ve not had a decent holiday since this trip, which I sadly see is nearly two years ago.

How are you other Southern Hemisphere folks all travelling? Over it? What measures do you put in place to survive winter? I like to think that I combine a noble combination of exercise, interesting projects and a Zen attitude about the ebb and flow of nature to get me through, but actually I just tend to eat more sugar, wear ridiculous amounts of clothing and whinge. A lot. I whinge about the cold. About how unfit I am. About how much my children whinge. About the consistent stream of people telling me I need to read Sarah Wilson’s “I quit sugar” in order to pick myself up a little. Don’t they understand that sugar is my winter lifeline?

In defiance, here’s a cakey-bread loaf that I highly recommend for a little shot of food pleasure. As with most of my sweet stuff, there’s a silver lining of nutrition to ease your conscience and make that second piece seem more acceptable. It’s delicious straight from the oven, or do the classic banana bread thing, of toasting slices and spreading your sugar with lard.

vegie-smugglers-fruit-nut-loaf

See! Smiling already.

Ricotta, nut & currant bread

250g tub ricotta cheese
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1¼ cups self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
Rind of 1 orange
1¼ cups nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts & almonds are good), roughly chopped
¾ cup currants

Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease and line a 14x20cm loaf tin.

In a large bowl, mix together the cheese and sugar.

Sift over the flour and baking powder. Pop the zest, nuts and currants on top and fold it all in together.

Bake in the oven for an hour or an hour and 10, until the top bounces slightly and a skewer comes out clean. While warm brush the top with warmed honey.

Comments (7) »

« Previous Page — « Previous entries
Next entries » — Next Page »