Posts Tagged ‘baking’
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Crafty Cheap Christmas Sweets
Generally, if you want to give a present that appeals to all ages, sexes and races and don’t have a budget of thousands of pounds, it has to conform to at least one of the holy trinity of gift ideals - impressiveness, cuteness or deliciousness. Case to point - in my previous post I told you all how to make a sockmonkey- a present that hits both the ‘aaah’ cute factor and - unless you are some stitching wizzkid - a certain amount of surprised adulation from your family that you actually made something other than a sandwich with your own fair hands.
In this post I am going to show you how to make three different types of edible Christmas treats, that when parcelled together with a bit of decoration can make a gift that is both impressive and yummy. Observe! My ginger biscuit, peppermint cream and chocolate truffle Christmas tree! (for want of a snappier name)
What do you need to make this sweetie stack?
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What’s the matter, cupcake?
Cupcakes -- trickier than they look
The other week my friend E asked me to help her out with a baking task – she was hosting a wine and tea party and she wanted to serve pretty little cupcakes for dessert, and also offer some as take-home gifts.
E had sussed out cupcakes at several bakeries, and whilst they looked and tasted lovely, at between £2 and £3 per cake, the price was a bit of a sticking-point.
Posted in Food
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Thrifty food: ‘Left-overs’ muesli
Will you just take a moment to admire this superb-looking muesli? It’s actually a totally thrifty home-made recipe masterfully created from left-overs by Sydney-based blogger/chef/foodie/stylish girl about town The Likkle Girl Who Wurves Pwetty Things (hereafter known as Likkle Moola).
In an extremely kind and blush-worthy post, Likkle Moola explains that she was inspired by Oola Moola to clean out her pantry where she discovered “bits of grains, seeds, nuts and dried fruit left over from previous baking projects”. She used all the bits to make herself a huge batch of healthy, crunchy toasted muesli. We applaud her “make do” efforts. (And we also applaud the inclusion of peanut butter in her recipe.) Luckily, she was kind enough to share it with us. Take it away, Likkle Moola …
To make your own, you’ll need:
~ 200g nuts (make up that amount from what’s left in your larder - I used a mix of macadamias, slivered almonds and pepitas)
~ 250g rolled oats
~ 100g bran
~ 50g shredded coconut
~ 150g dried fruit (again, use what you have - I threw in sultanas and dried cranberries)~ 100g vegetable oil
~ 50g peanut butter
~ 150g honey- Preheat oven to 150°C.
- Place all dry ingredients (except dried fruit) into a big bowl.
- Add oil, peanut butter and honey. Mix well.
- Line two large baking trays with greaseproof paper. Divide mix evenly onto trays. Spread mix out as thinly as possible to ensure even cooking.
- Place trays into preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Pull trays out and give muesli a good stir and spread it out thinly again so all the bits get a chance to brown.
- Place trays back in oven and repeat the stirring and spreading every 10 minutes until the muesli is golden.
- Oh, remember to mix in the dried fruit in the last 10 minutes, when you think the muesli is nearly done as the fruit burns easily.
- Leave to cool completely and store in airtight container.
There, done and can be kept for at least a month, if stored correctly (but I think it’ll be eaten way before that!). What I like most about making my own muesli is I can choose what I want to put in - there’s always at least one ingredient in store-bought ones that I don’t like and have to pick out before eating.
Total spent: AU$0.00 (had everything in the pantry)
Cost of a 1kg bag of our usual macadamia muesli: AU$19.oo
Savings: AU$19.00Thank you Likkle Moola, you’ve done us proud!
Posted in Food
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Posh afternoon tea for two for £10 [Part 2]
My home-made afternoon tea went down a treat – have a look at the results:
Admittedly I came in just over budget at £11.94, but think I did an OK good job with making my own scones and sandwiches. Remember, I’m not the best of cooks, so this was something of a challenge for me. I also have a very tiny kitchen and not a huge range of baking utensils, but I made–do with a few substitutes. For instance, I don’t own any scone cutters, so I used a glass tumbler to cut out the rounds of dough instead. And I also don’t have a pastry brush, so I ‘brushed’ milk on the tops of the scones with my (very clean!) finger tips! Thankfully the scone recipe was super-easy and they came out quite well – and it was lovely eating them warm and straight out of the oven.
Scones before …
… and looking v. golden and gorgeous, after!I picked some flowers out of the garden for my ‘centrepiece’ and dug out all my vintage china to set the table. I got a new cake stand for my birthday, which looked very pretty piled with scones and retro English biscuits. I ended up going for Jammy Dodgers, Party Rings and Fondant Fancies. My friend brought along her own art-deco cup, saucer and plate, and I think we achieved that mis-matched vintage look we were going for.
Despite going over budget, it was a big success and we had a lovely afternoon. Watch the video below and see me making a huge mess in the kitchen. I’m not called the Swedish Chef (from the Muppets) for no reason…
TOTAL SPENT: £11.94
COST OF AFTERNOON TEA FOR TWO AT LONDON’S DORCHESTER HOTEL: £75.36 (not including the discretionary service charge we usually pay)
SAVINGS: £63.42PROS:
• Could relax with friend at home.
• Lovely warm scones straight out of the oven.CONS:
• The shopping, cooking and cleaning-up afterwards.
• Not exactly Dorchester-standard food.
Posted in Food
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Posh afternoon tea for two for £10 [Part 1]
Afternoon tea for two at London’s swanky Dorchester Hotel (see above) can cost up to £100. The challenge? Host your own sumptuous afternoon tea – without scrimping on quality – for £10.
Posted in Food
