White Chocolate Icing for All Your Frosting Needs

This icing is amazing.  It's soft enough to spread on virtually everything, and sets to a medium firm icing that it dry enough to not smear off.

White Chocolate Icing for All Your Frosting Needs

110 g butter (if you use half a cup, I won't tell anyone)
250 g icing sugar
150 g white chocolate
1 tablespoon milk (if needed)

Melt the chocolate in the microwave until totally melted and smooth - leave to cool, but not so much that it sets
Cream together the butter and the icing sugar - it will be quite thick
Add the melted chocolate, mixing all the while, until a smooth and fluffy frosting forms
If the icing is too firm, add a little milk.  If it is too thin, add a little icing sugar

And that's it!  Spread on whatever you desire, or just eat with a spoon.  If the icing starts to firm up while you use it, you can heat it gently in the microwave to loosen it a little.  This recipe will make enough to ice the top and sides of a standard cake or 12 cupcakes.  If you want to make a layered cake with the frosting between the layers, I'd suggest either doubling the recipe, or add an extra 50% of the ingredients.

Cookie Dough Cake

When I made this cake the first time, I left it in the oven a bit long.  It didn't burn, but it was a bit dry and hard - something like a giant cookie that is still soft enough to cut into slices that hold their shape without crumbling.

Cookie Dough Cake

3 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 and 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180C, 350 F
Mix together all the dry ingredients in a seperate bowl
Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla
Add the eggs one at a time, alternating the eggs with about 1/4 of the dry mixture
After the second egg is mixed in, add the rest of the flour to make a smooth, thick batter
Stir through the chocolate chips
Spread the batter into a lined, greased cake tin
Bake for 20 minutes - it will be a little soft and wobbily in the middle.  The idea is that it will make a moist, squishy cake
Cool completely before removing from the pan

My (Current) Favourite Cupcake Recipe

I find this recipe dangerous enough to force myself to only make it in batches of 6 cupcakes at a time.  It forms a light, buttery and rich cake, and the simplicity of it works wonders.  Plus, it's really easy!  I really, really love recipes with few ingredients, because it means that each ingredient shines through.  You can also use this recipe (doubled) to make an amazing cake that holds icing really well.

My (Current) Favourite Cupcake Recipe

60 g butter
75 g white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
90 g self-raising flour
1/4 cup milk

Preheat overn to 180C, 350F
Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla until light an fluffy
Add the egg and about 1 tablespoon of flour, and mix well until smooth
Add the remaining flour and combine
When you add the milk, make sure everything is well mixed and smooth
Spoon into 6 cupcake whole (lined with cases)
(If making a cake, line the bottom of the tin with parchment paper and grease the sides well)
Make for 20 minutes
Cool slightly before removing from pan to a rack, and cool completely

The cupcakes will be buttery and springy, and are perfect for icing.  Noms!

Super Easy Cheese Scone Bread Thing

I love scones but I hate cutting the butter into the flour because I am super-lazy.  I love bread, but I am scared of yeast.  I also love cheese in everything.  The following recipe is awesome, and super adaptable.  You can bake it as a loaf, you can bake dollops as scones, and you can also use it as a breaded crust to a casserol.  Bake!  Enjoy!

Super Easy Cheese Scone Bread Thing

1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup grated cheese (a sharp cheddar works well, and I often add a few tablespoons of parmesan just for extra cheesey goodness)
2/3 cup milk
1-2 tablespoons pesto
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of paprika (optional)

Preheat oven to 180C, 350F
Mix all the dry ingredients (including the cheese) together to distribute all the cheese evenly
Add the milk, and mix gently until the dough is just combined
Pour/scoop the dough into a greased pan
Bake for 15 minutes

Thats it!  I like it served warm with lots of butter.

Icecream Salted Caramel Sauce

Imagine the scene - craving something bad for you, you check out the kitchen.  You find icecream in the freezer, but alas, you want something a bit more fancy that a bowl of icecream.  If only you had some kind of terribly decadent topping for your icecream... but!  Tragedy!  All you have in the house except for icecream is some sugar, a bit of butter, and a salt shaker.

Rather than do something sensible and grown up like going to the store and maybe getting some vegetables, why not whip up some dangerously tasty salted caramel sauce?

Icecream Salted Caramel Sauce

4 tablespoons of white sugar
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons of icecream
Salt to taste, about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon (I like my salted caramel salty)

DANGER:  This recipe involves hot sugar napalm.  Be extremely careful with melted sugar, because quite frankly it is probably one of the most dangerous things in your kitchen.

Put the sugar and salt into a small, non-stick saucepan and place over a medium heat.
Note about melting sugar; avoid stirring molten sugar - to do so can make it grainy (melted sugar is a supersaturation solution of sugar - if you add some sort of seed crystal it causes the rest of the sugar to start clumping).  Instead, swirl the pan around as the sugar melts to incorperate the sugar evenly into the melted mix.
Swirl the pan regularly to help the sugar melt evenly.
When all the sugar is liquid and a golden colour (not dark gold), remove from heat and add the butter.  The mixture will foam violently!  This is normal.
Swirl to mix in the butter evenly.
Return the pan to the heat and then imediately add the icecream.  It may foam again, and that's fine.
Keep swirling the pan on the heal while the icecream melts.
Once the icecream is melted and mixed through, remove the pan from the heat.

You can spoon this directly onto icecream (the icecream will cool the sauce so you won't burn yourself on it), or leave for 15 minutes to cool.  It can be stored in the fridge, just give it 20 seconds or so in the microwave so it is spoonable.

Dangerously addictive!

Dark and Mean Brownie (Cupcakes)

I love most things chocolate, but unless I'm in the mood for something easy or decidedly frou-frou my preference is for dark chocolate.  Most baking recipes for things chocolately involve a lot of sugar, and while this is good in it's place sometimes one wants something not-so-sweet to "fill in the corners" (if one were a hobbit).  This recipe fits the bill, as well as being super easy.  You can make it in a 20 cm X 20 cm pan if you feel like it, or in a cupcake pan.  I just squeezed it into 6 cupcake cups, nit it would probably work better in 8 to 9 cups.

Dark and Mean Brownie (Cupcakes)

150 g butter (about 3/5 of a cup)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

Yes, you read that right - 1/2 cup of cocoa.  I use Dutch, but feel free to substitute whatever you have on hand.

Preheat the oven to 160 C, 320 F.
Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well between each egg.
Add vanilla and salt.
Add flour and mix well.
Add cocoa and mix well.  You can sift the cocoa first if you feel like it - if not, just make sure you scrape the bowl once or twice to get rid of any big lumps.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
The mixture should be soft and creamy when you either spread it into a lined pan or divide it between cupcake holes - if you are not using a silicon cupcake pan, make sure the holes are either lined with cases or well greased.
Bake for 25-35 minutes.
Cool completely before removing from the pan.

The brownies/cupcakes will have a crisp top, with a rich, moist centre.  Enjoy the deep, dark chocolate goodness.

The Cake is a Lie Cookies (plus a bonus sneaky recipe)

There are two things you need to know about this recipe.  One; it was billed as a Cake Batter Cookie recipe.  While tasty, these cookies do not taste like cake batter.  Two; this recipe uses packet cake mix.  I know, I know.  I am embarassed.  I hate it when recipes call for a pre-packaged ingredient.  That being said, I was willing to give it a try for the sake of cake batter flavoured cookies.  All in all, these cookies are nice, but if you want home made cookies for the sake of being home made you're better off just busting out a sugar cookie recipe.

The Cake is a Lie Cookies

2 and 1/2 cups butter cake mix (I used Homebrand, because I couldn't bring myself to use a froufrou cake mix in cookies)
2 and 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 tablespoon vanilla (or less - I'm a bit of a vanilla addict)
1 egg
3 tablespoons jimmies/sprinkles

 Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F
Mix together cake mix and flour
Cream together butter and sugar
Add egg and vanilla, and mix until incorperated
Slowly mix in flour/cake mix until a reasonably firm dough is formed (you may not need to use all of the dry mix - just enough to form a dough that isn't sticky)
Knead into a ball (add more of the dry mix if needed)
Flatten the ball, add the sprinkles, and knead though until evenly distributed
Roll dough to about 1/2 tp 3/4 cm thick (1/4 inch or so), cut out and place cookies on a lined tray (about 3 cm/ 1 inch apart)
Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden at the edges
Cool for 5 minutes on the tray, then cool completely on a rack

These cookies spread a little, but will still hold their shape pretty well.  They're a nice solid cookie, not too crisp and not too soft.  They'd probably work well with a simple icing, too!

Bonus Sneaky Recipe

Speaking of cake mix, this is an ideal recipe when you need cookies in a hurry.  All you need to do is take a packet of cake mix and omit the liquid portion of the required ingedients.  Add any required eggs and butter/oil, but do not add any milk or water.  This will form a fairly thick dough.

Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking tray and throw in the oven for somewhere around 10 minutes, somewhere around 180 C/350 F.  This will make puffy, soft cookies that are perfect for emergencies.