Chocolate chip peanut butter muffins

I am a member of a few excellent Facebook recipe groups and I am the worst for screenshotting recipes and/or saving them to make later. This one was a "make straight away" recipe though and everyone loved them! I know peanut allergies are a very real and scary thing as we have a lot of friends with them, so I thank my lucky stars each and every day that no one in our house has any allergies.

Chocolate chip peanut butter muffins

courtesy of  The View from Great Island

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup lightly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla essence

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups plain flour

1 1/4 cup mini choc chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160C and line 24 muffin cups with liners

2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, peanut butter, brown sugar and eggs until smooth. 

3. Add the milk and the vanilla essence and whisk together.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together.

5. Finally fold in the chocolate chips.

6. Divide the batter evenly between the cups.

7. Bake for about 25 minutes, until puffed up and starting to turn golden brown on top. 

Tomato relish

Who knew I would be the person making jars of pickled stuff in my kitchen? Not me, that's for sure. But as time goes on, I feel more inclined to increase my food storage and make things in my home for our family. I love baking and sharing what I have made - and now that my kids are obsessed with tomato relish (seriously - a standard breakfast here is toast spread with butter, tomato relish and sliced cheese. I really can't blame them either - it's delicious!) I felt like I needed to make my own. Mum has been making it for years and when her neighbour (same one that gave me the incredible vintage dresses) gave her some of her own batch recently, she decided to change to her recipe as it's amaaaaazing. So today we made tomato relish. Two triple batches in fact.

TOMATO RELISH

1360g ripe tomatoes

1 tablespoon mustard

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 small tablespoon curry powder

450g white onions

1 1/2 tablespoons plain flour

450g white sugar

1 cup vinegar

salt to taste

Method:

Cut tomatoes and onions into small pieces. 

Put contents into dish, add salt to taste, mix then cover and leave overnight.

Drain in morning, add one cup of vinegar, boil for five minutes, then mix in cayenne pepper and sugar.

Mix flour, curry and mustard with a little vinegar, then add to the tomato mixture, boiling for one hour. Stir regularly to avoid mixture sticking to the base of the pot.

Bottle while hot.

This is definitely a story for generations to come. I had to cut up eight and a quarter kilograms of tomatoes, then almost three kilograms of onions last night. Poor Madeline decided to stay up and wouldn't go to bed because they didn't have school today and kept crying because the onions were so strong. Literally sitting on the couch crying from the fumes - but wouldn't go to bed. It was hilarious. She'd rather have her eyes on fire than go to bed. 

So today we made up our witches brew as dad called it, then bottled it (hot tip, put the jars in the sink in hot water first so they warm up and don't crack cause the mixture will be boiling.) ready to be eaten. Yum. 

We did really well, there was only one jar that didn't pop seal at the top

and we got 24 jars from our mix! So happy. I am sure that will take us a while to get through.

Weet-Bix slice

This is the taste of childhood if you grew up in Australia. I remember eating this at parties, or just at home... and loving it. Good old Weet-Bix slice. So when I scored a box of recently expired Weet-Bix, I knew exactly what had to be done - and it tasted just as good as I remembered. I took a batch to Ledge Point the other day and the whole lot got eaten. Plus my kids loved it too. This is absolutely going to be a regular roll out.

CHOCOLATE WEET-BIX SLICE

Ingredients

180g Butter, melted

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

3 Weetbix, crushed (45 grams)

1 Cup Desiccated Coconut

1 Cup Plain White Flour

3/4 Cup Sugar

1/4 Cup Cocoa

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

 

BASIC CHOCOLATE ICING

1 1/2 Cups Icing Sugar

1 heaped Tablespoon Cocoa

1 teaspoon Butter, melted

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Water, teaspoon at a time

 

Instructions

1.      Preheat oven to 160 degrees fan forced

2.      Prepare a rectangular baking tin

3.      Melt the butter in the microwave. Add to this the vanilla and set aside

4.      In a large bowl add the Weet-Bix, coconut, flour, sugar, cocoa and baking powder and stir well to blend

5.      Add to this the melted butter and vanilla and stir until fully combined

6.      Pour into the prepared baking tin and press until firm and smooth

7.      Bake for 15 minutes and remove from the oven, set aside to cool

8.      Once cool prepare the icing. Melt the teaspoon butter and add the vanilla

9.      Add sifted icing sugar and cocoa and stir to combine

10.  Add a teaspoon of water at a time until the consistency can just drizzle off the end of the spoon

11.  Spread over the slice evenly and if desired sprinkle with a little desiccated coconut to finish

12.  Allow to set, then slice and serve or store in an airtight container

Sunshine slice

A few weeks ago I screenshot a recipe from a Facebook page I love - 4 ingredients, for a recipe called Sunshine Slice. It looked absolutely delicious, but I was a litle suss, as I often am when things look that easy - that they'll be average, or just not good all...

But this slice, that requires barely any ingredients or effort, is absolutely incredible! It has a yummy shortbread style base, a pineapple cheesecakey kind of middle and toasted coconut on top. Well worth the make. This will absolutely be made on repeat.

SUNSHINE SLICE (from 4 ingredients Australia)

340g packet vanilla cake mix

150g melted butter

300ml sour cream

440g can crushed pineapple (drained)

1. Preheat oven to 160C (fan forced)

2. Line and grease a slice tray

3. Mix together cake mix and butter, then spread evenly in the baking tray

4. Bake for 15 minutes

5. Mix sour cream and pineapple together

6. Spread across the warm biscuit base, then sprinkle with shredded coconut and return to oven for 15 minutes

7. Remove from oven and allow to cool, then store in the fridge.

Honestly, go make this. It is amazing. We are hooked!

ross's vanilla cake

i am a december baby, so i am super sympathetic to anyone else that is. so often your birthday gets forgotten or lost in the hustle and bustle of christmas and the month flying by. so i like to make a big fuss over our friends that have december birthdays and there is quite a few of them! for instance our mate ross, whose birthday was today. i sent him a message to wish him a happy birthday and he replied with "still waiting for my birthday cake - no chocolate." i knew he was obviously kidding (other than the no chocolate part - because he is actually allergic to chocolate, poor dude!) but decided to do him a solid and actually make him a cake. easy peasy, except my best cake recipe is chocolate. sigh. off to the internet we go.

enter "my very best vanilla cake" care of recipe tin eats which was indeed that. so flipping good! i will absolutely be making it again and again.

CAKE

2 cups plain flour

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ tsp salt

4 large eggs

1 ½ cups caster sugar

115g salted butter

1 cup milk

3 tsp vanilla essence

3 teaspoons vegetable oil

VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

225g softened butter

500g icing sugar

3 tsp vanilla essence

2-4 tsp milk (to adjust thickness)

 

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) for 20 minutes before starting the batter.

Grease and line 8” cake pans

COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

BEAT EGGS UNTIL AERATED:

Beat eggs for 30 seconds on medium/high speed

With the beater still going, pour the sugar in over 45 seconds.

Then beat for 7 minutes on high speed, or until tripled in volume and white.

FINISH CAKE BATTER:

Heat Milk-Butter: While egg is beating, place butter and milk in a heatproof jug and microwave 2 minutes on high to melt butter. Do not let milk bubble and boil (foam ok). Don’t do this ahead and let the milk cool (this affects rise).

Gently add flour: When the egg is whipped, scatter 1/3 flour across surface, then beat on low for 5 seconds. Add half remaining flour, then mix on low  for 5 sec. Add remaining flour, then mix on low  for 5 – 10 sec until the flour is just mixed in. Once you can’t see flour, stop straight away.

Lighten hot milk with some Egg Batter: Pour hot milk, vanilla and oil into the now empty flour bowl. Add about 1 1/2 cups (2 ladles or so) of the Egg Batter into the Milk-Butter. Use a whisk to mix until smooth – you can be vigorous here. Will look foamy.

Slowly add milk: Turn beater back on low speed, then pour the Milk mixture into the Egg Batter over 15 seconds, then turn beater off.

Scrape and final mix: Scrape down sides and base of bowl. Beat on low  for 10 seconds – batter should now be smooth and pourable.

BAKE:

Pour batter into pans.

Knock out bubbles: Bang each cake pan on the counter 3 times to knock out big bubbles

Bake 30 minutes or until golden and toothpick inserted into centre comes out clean.

COOL & FROST:

Remove from oven. Cool in cake pans for 15 minutes, then gently turn out onto cooling racks.

VANILLA BUTTERCREAM:

Beat butter with whisk attachment in stand mixer for 1 minute until creamy. Add icing sugar / powdered sugar in 3 lots, beating slowly (to avoid a powder storm) then once mostly incorporated, beat on high for a full 3 minutes until fluffy.

Add vanilla and milk, then beat for a further 30 seconds. Use milk to make it lovely and soft but still holds it's form (eg for piping). Use immediately.

he seemed pretty stoked with his non chocolate cake and stopped giving me crap for about 1/2 an hour so that made it well worth it haha.

came out beautifully and so so yum. really handy when said mate is actually a chef! i'm always nervous when he eats anything i cook, so i feel like this was a win!

melting moments

i am always so proud when i manage to make something for the first time. especially when it's something that looks super fun and fancy. i actually am surprised that i've never attempted melting moments before, now that i know just how easy they are. i found a recipe on a facebook page i love to follow - from the pantry to the table - her page is full of simple, hearty, good food. 

i decided to make these for amelia's birthday party a few weeks ago and they came out beautifully, they were especially fun as i joined them together with pastel sprinkles in the icing sugar. they were little girl party perfect and definitely going on the regular baking list. 

MELTING MOMENTS

250 g butter (softened)
3/4 Cup Icing sugar
1/2 Cup Cornflour
3/4 Cup Custard powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Cups plain flour
1 Cup of Icing sugar extra to join biscuits.

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celcius (fan forced)
Cream butter, icing sugar and cornflour until smooth and light.
Add custard powder and vanilla essence. Mix well. Add flour to make a soft dough .
If your mixture is too dry add a little water.
Line a baking tray with baking paper
Using a teaspoon roll teaspoon size balls of dough and place on the baking tray.
Press tops down with a fork.
Repeat until all the mixture is used.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Allow to cool on the tray.

To join together:
Mix icing sugar with a little water to form a thick paste.
Spoon a little onto the base of a biscuit the join to another.
Note: you can also join with jam

mermaid costume making

bookweek is on monday and madeline has decided she wants to be a mermaid. inspired by the shell crown my mum made her to wear to her mermaid party last year, that was what she decided it needed to be this year, so she could wear it again. so. this mum got to work.

inspired by this shirt i found online, i bought iridescent iron on vinyl patches from spotlight, traced and cut a pattern from tracing my computer screen and proceeded to cut each individual piece out, one by one. shoot me now, that's never happening again. 

but it worked and oh did it work, so it was totally worth it of course.

see, piece by piece, not fun. 

i ironed each one with a tea towel over the top to prevent it melting, but i think it was just sheer luck it worked out.

the skirt was very much inspired by this skirt my friend made for her daughter years ago for a costume day at their school, i had to search back for ages on her facebook but finally found it and just guessed and kind of winged it to make it the right shape.

which also miraculously worked, so maybe i am finally nailing this barbara junior gig hahaha. i can vouch though, the famous fork pleating video online works an absolute treat - cause that is how i managed to get this fishtail skirt to sit so nicely. 

she is so thrilled and i am chuffed, she can't wait to show it off at bookweek and keeps bragging to everyone that i made her costume. well, yes i did, so i guess i can be a little bit proud of myself too! ❤

 

a gift for baby willow

i finally finished something really special - a hand stitched willow tree for my friend melinda's sweet baby willow. she was born with trisomy 18 and they aren't sure on how much time they have with her, so i wanted to make something that they can treasure for always if she is called home.

i searched on pinterest until i found a picture i was happy with...

traced it onto linen (while wanting to tear my eyes out... it was a lot harder than i thought it would be)

and got stitching... originally the plan was to have it done as a gift for her baby blessing, but considering i started it that morning - and severely underestimated just how long it was going to take... it was not finished for quite some time after that.

after much time and then much more time of careful stitching...

and the addition of her name stitched at the bottom...

it was ready!

my amazing mum framed it up for me

and it looked absolutely perfect and i was so so proud of it! 

and when i gave it to mel, she loved it just as much and now it's on permanent display at their house. i love knowing there's a little piece of my heart in their home.

maddie's fancy birthday cake

let me tell you the story of how we got to this amazing cake in front of my little girl and all about how i made it- all. by. myself. i am so proud that i actually did a little dance on the spot when i finished it, so let me tell you all about it. when i asked madeline what kind of cake she'd like this year, she said a chocolate cake with bright purple icing, with things that come out of the inside when you cut into it and sprinkles and roses on top and a drip please. um what? i am in no way a professional cake maker and to be perfectly honest, i normally leave these things up to her super talented aunty jenny... but it looked as though i was up this year. brace yourself and prepare to be amused. there's some great entertainment to be had in this story. 

here's our inspo right here, although the colours were completely off. no no no. we wanted purple, with a yellow drip and pink, yellow and purple chunky sprinkles that matched her birthday invitations.

step one. find the sprinkles i wanted that matched the cake perfectly. hahahaha. you're funny. the only ones i could find that i was happy with, was this batch. in the uk of all places. they were going to cost much more than i was willing to pay to get them here and i was not keen on the off chance that they wouldn't even make it here, so it was a hard pass. 

instead, i went to woolworths, spent $14 on three packs of sprinkles and made my own. no, i'm not joking. i tipped them out one by one and sat there and fished out all the colours i wanted to get the perfect mix, then did the same with the smarties i bought to put down the middle.

apparently i have way too much time on my hands. either that or i'm ocd as. more likely to be the latter.

anyway... back to the cake. i used my favourite chocolate cake recipe, which you can find here- with buttercream icing from here (via i am baker)

ingredients

454g unsalted butter, room temperature

907g icing sugar, sifted

large pinch of salt

1-3 tablespoons milk as needed

extracts and flavourings as desired

 instructions

Combine the butter, sugar, and flavourings in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Start mixing on low speed until the sugar is incorporated with the butter. Increase the mixing speed to high and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Adjust the consistency with milk as needed. Store unused buttercream in the refrigerator in an airtight container and bring it back to room temperature before using to pipe or frost.

after being instructed that bright purple was necessary i bought purple gel colour to make sure i got it right... that was our next set of amusement, the very specific instructions on the box, not to exceed 253 drops in 1kg of icing. that is very specific. what happens if you do? 

anyway, this was the colour i got after using what i thought was about half the bottle, so i messaged bestie and asked her what she thought. i got a very blunt response of "use the whole bottle" um what? okay. she assured me the world would not end and that it was perfectly safe, so i put the whole lot in and what do you know, we are all still alive and well.

i was also instructed to add this. it smells horrific and i can't even place the taste, but oh my goodness am i glad that i used half the recommended amount - cause it is truly something else. 

layers were trimmed to make them flat, iced in-between and stacked ready for the crumb coat...

which i did... then popped it in the fridge - only to turn around and see the smarties carefully sorted and set aside for the filling sitting next to me on the bench. oh my word. i had to flip off the top layer, press a circle into the middle as a guide, then use a skinny sharp knife to cut out the middle and scoop it out carefully - only to add the smarties, put the lid back on and continue. deep breaths. i really did consider telling her oh sorry mate, no filling for you, but i just couldn't bring myself to.

okay smooth coat on - let's go! time for the drip. please send help.

okay. i am actually still getting over how easy this was. i found instructions here (via chels sweets) would you believe that the drip is made solely of cream and white chocolate chips?! me neither. all these years i avoided them cause i thought they looked too hard. well, they aren't actually that bad. please note, i literally used a spoon to get it on the top and make the drips. no squeeze bottle used. i also used normal food colouring, not gel and just added it drop by drop, stirring the entire time. it was fine and i had no issues with the chocolate seizing, thank goodness!

Colourful Drip Recipe

1/3 cup heavy cream (77 grams)

1 cup white chocolate chips (175 grams)

gel food coloring

White Chocolate Ganache Drips:

Heat heavy cream in a heat proof bowl in the microwave for 45 seconds, until it's just beginning to bubble. Gently pour white chocolate chips into the heavy cream, making sure they are fully covered with cream. Allow mixture to sit for 1 minute. Stir slowly until the cream and white chocolate are combined. Some bits of chocolate may not be fully melted yet. Heat the mixture again for 20 seconds, and stir. Repeat as necessary until all the chocolate bits are fully melted and incorporated. Add in gel food coloring, if desired. Allow to cool until desired texture is reached (barely warm to the touch). If it seems too thin or thick, you can add a touch more chocolate chips or heavy cream! The type of cream and white chocolate that you use can affect the consistency, so feel free to adjust as needed.

drip was on, no disasters and looked surprisingly good. all that was left was to pipe rosettes on the top... (i confess, i practiced on the benchtop so as to not ruin the cake lol) and then put the sprinkles on the top and amongst the rosettes. done, done, done and it looked a-ma-zing! i think i was almost as proud of this cake as when i pushed out a baby. i'm sorry, but it's the truth!

seriously - ta-dah!!!!!!! wheeeeee. i made that and yes i will continue to brag about it.

and maddies's favourite part - was cutting into the cake and seeing the inside splash out like so, which made me so glad that i made the effort to go back and fix it. the cake was in no way perfect, but it looked great and tasted good - and more importantly madeline loved it. well worth the effort i'd say! 

and now i just need to find a project to use the other two new packets of sprinkles i made!