Rainy Days and Mondays....

.....always get me BAKING!!

Today's special is a double whammy of a biscuit.  I know of people who will put a meat pie on a breadroll and spaghetti in a taco and the idea of putting a biscuit in a biscuit...well....also insane.....until you try one of these. 

I got my inspiration from a youtube video Miss M was watching and as always, I've tweaked it a little.  You will need:

180g of softened butter
1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Optional: fun measuring cup duck and if I was showing off I'd say the gorgeous Nigella Lawson's blue mixing bowls purchased at Victoria's Basement for 70% off!!
.....and my secret ingredient: 80g mini Oreos....cute eh?

Follow the usual recipe for biscuit making ie, cream the butter and sugar, beat in the egg and vanilla, sift in the flour, salt and baking powder, stir until combined. Now comes the fun part.....

Take two teaspoons full of the mixture and roll each teaspoon full into a ball then flatten with your hand. Pop the little Oreo button onto one flattened ball then top with the other flattened ball and gently mould the two sides around the encased Oreo..... should look a little like this....

Place on a lined baking tray and bake for 20 mins in a 180 degree C oven.  Should make about 24 little parcels. They will come out of the oven looking a little like this.....

 

A bit boring to look at, I know, but wait till you take a bite!!!

.......... and there's the WHAMMY!!

By all accounts next time I'll be doubling the mixture as my 2 girls ate a dozen between them for afternoon tea today before I even got a chance to pile them on to a vintage plate, dust them with icing sugar and take a pic. Try them!

xxMs K

The Best Bake of the Year

The time has finally come! I normally do this around October but due to the busy business that's been going on this year I'm v.late in comparison. So, one week before the fat man comes (is that phrase still kosher?) I have finally hup-two'd into the kitchen to bake my Christmas Cake. I don't mind a bit of aprons-on old fashioned baking but I must say the Christmas Cake is my most favourite bake of all.....feeling "sad" just re-reading that sentence!! I do have a life....REALLY!
And as luck has it my Secret Santa is a woman of great style so I ended up with these babies (among other goodies) in my stocking......No, they didn't actually lay those eggs, although I wasn't in the room the whole time...

I put them to good use during my Christmas Cake bake. Little cuties!! I've always enjoyed a bit of Nigella action in the kitchen so it is only fitting for me to use one of her recipes for The Cake and my favourite one that I have used for the last couple of years is the Chocolate Fruit Cake. Find it HERE.
Basically you bung about 750g of chopped dried fruit into a large saucepan; I use the remainder of whatever I couldn't fit into my fruit mince jar, with a few other ingredients, gently boil for a while, add the "cake" ingredients and cook for about 2 hours. Smell but don't look while it's boiling in the saucepan! Trust me.

After it has cooked and cooled I take it out of the tin and wrap it in Gladwrap then a layer of alfoil and put it to sleep in a cool dark cupboard until the unveiling on Christmas Day. Easy peasy! Nigella puts a lot of gold bling on the top but I don't have time for that so au naturel is my serving method of choice. Bon Apettit!


xxMs.K