Choc Chip Muffins

CHOC CHIP MUFFINS

I've been busier than a hooker in fleet week, or for the kids reading, Santa in December. Which means I have been missing creating new, wonderful baked goods. So when I have to make items, I have been going old school and making some of my favourites. And what could be more of a favourite than choc chip muffins? And these are pretty damn tasty, if I do say so myself.

Made these for my cast. They pretty much expect baked goods when they come for rehearsal now, they will sadly be disappointed tonight. Instead of baking, tonight I'm writing about it. But below is a photo of my two ladies enjoying their muffins. I know I share a lot of muffin recipes, but  wow they are so easy to make, and so delicious to eat!

Please never make packet mix muffins again, these are simple and you NEED them in your life.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour
3/4 cups Caster Sugar
1 cup Dark Choc Bits
2 tablespoons Margarine, melted
1 1/4 cups Milk
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 180°c

2 - Use canola spray to line 12 cup muffin tin.

3 - Sift flour into bowl and stir in sugar and choc bits.

4 - Stir in the combined remaining ingredients, mix well.

5 - Spoon mixture evenly into the muffin pan.

6 - Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until they spring back.

7 - Enjoy!

Catch you during the week with another tasty muffin recipe.

Wayne
xx

White Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

WHITE CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY MUFFINS

These are probably my most requested and most made muffins. There are just some flavour combinations that work perfectly, and white chocolate and raspberries are probably my favourite. And in the past couple of weeks I've made these twice. Once for closing night party for my teen's Fringe theatre show, "The Words of Others" and once for the first read of my new show, "Six & Out". Both times, they were eaten very quickly. This always makes me a happy little baker.

These are simple to make and I often make these when I have little time. I often can get up and make these while getting ready to leave in the morning. The batter has almost a lemonade taste and I often take a sneaky spoonful when making it. The only problem with these muffins, you can rarely stop at one.So make them, it'll make you a popular baker too!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups Self Raising Flour

2/3 cup Caster Sugar

2/3 cup White Chocolate Chips

1 Egg

3/4 cup Milk

125g Unsalted Butter, melted

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1 cup Frozen Raspberries

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Grease a 12 hole muffin pan and preheat oven to 190°c.

2 - Combine flour, sugar, chocolate and raspberries in a large bowl.

3 - Combine egg, milk, butter and vanilla and stir into the flour mix. Don't over mix.

4 - Spoon mixture into pan and bake for 20 minutes, approximately.

5 - Turn onto a wire rack and cool.

6 - Enjoy!

Wayne
xx

Marble Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Icing

MARBLE CAKE WITH STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM ICING

Sorry it's been 2 weeks since I posted but it has been a CRAZY few weeks. Working everyday and every night I had my student show, "The Words of Others". 19 of my teen students were in a show I wrote and directed about self acceptance, bullying and how the words of others effect us. The show was a great success and I was very proud of every single one of my kids.

Now during the rehearsal process, one of my students, Chanda, had her birthday. The actual day of her birthday we had a 4 and a half hour rehearsal in the night. It felt I had to give her a cake to make up for it. I always have a massive amount of bookmarks for recipes on my computer, so I looked through and remembered a recipe I found on the cadbury kitchen website for a marble cake. I knew I'd found my cake with the addition of some buttercream icing.

It's funny how this cake looks like it would be hard to make, but is really quite easy. This is a great cake to make and take somewhere - people will think you're a baking wizard. Have a go and remember to send me your pic - I love to see what people have done with the recipes.

Cake originally from:

http://www.cadburykitchen.com.au/recipes/view/chocolate-marble-cake/2/

INGREDIENTS:

Cake:

125 grams Unsalted Butter, softened

3/4 cup Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 cups Self Raising Flour

3/4 cup Milk

2 tablespoons Cocoa, sifted

1 tablespoon Milk (extra)

Pink Food Colouring

Icing:

125 grams Unsalted Butter, softened

80 grams Icing Sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon Strawberry Essence

Pink Food Colouring

Silver Decorating Balls

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat the oven to 180°c and grease and line a round springform tin.

2 - Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3 - Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.

4 - Fold in the flour alternatively with the milk.

5 - Divide the mixture evenly into three bowls. Add the cocoa and extra milk to one, the pink food colouring to another, and leave one as is.

6 - Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, layering the colours.

7 - Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

8 - Cool for 10 minutes in pan before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

9 - For the icing, cream the butter and icing sugar until creamy.

10 - Add in the essence and colouring and beat until evenly distributed.

11 - Liberally spread across cake and sides and add the decorations.

12 - Serve and enjoy.

Catch you again soon for my most popular muffins.

Wayne

xx

Wagon Wheel Slice

WAGON WHEEL SLICE

The Wagon Wheel Slice had been on my list of things to make for a while but I'd never gotten around to making it. After trying it at my recent Madonna birthday party, I wish I'd done it earlier. It was certainly the favourite for the night with my guests. The wonderful thing is that it does have that taste of the old fashioned Wagon Wheel, but in a delicious slice. There weren't many of them left after the party, but the ones which were I took into work the next day and they disappeared very fast as well. One of my friends who has tasted a lot of my baking said they were one of the best I'd made. Thanks Cas!

I think I held off making them because I thought it was going to be delicate and difficult to make. I'm a pretty robust baker, and have never been described as delicate. But the thing is, when I made these, they were much simpler than I thought. Not at all hard, and parents, you could certainly make these with the kids. Think this could become quite the family favourite for you.

One more biscuit for you guys during the week and then I may go back and blog some of my older recipe attempts. Trying to be good over the next few weeks and drop a few kilos for an upcoming photo shoot I have. But don't worry, baking will never be too far away from me. I'll just have to do a few more push ups to make up for it!

Recipe originally found out: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/29889/wagon+wheel+slice

INGREDIENTS:

235g Unsalted Butter, softened

1/3 cup Caster Sugar

1&1/2 cups Plain Flour

1/3 cup Self Raising Flour

1/2 cup Raspberry Jam (I only had Strawberry and still came out well)

145g Marshmallows, white preferred but doesn't really matter - I had to use some pink too

200g Dark Chocolate Melts

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 180°c and grease and line a slice pan.

2 - Using electric mixer, beat 185g of butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift flours over butter mixture. Stir with spoon until dough comes together.

3 - Press mixture into prepared pan. Level and press down with the back of your spoon. Don't over fill (I ended up not using a little of my mixture - as seen in the above picture).

4 - Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. While baking, use scissors to cut marshmallows in half.

5 - Spread warm base with jam. Cover with marshmallows, cut size down. Bake for 2 minutes. Remove from oven. Press down on marshmallows to level surface. Cool completely in tin.

6 - Combine chocolate and remaining butter in a small saucepan over low heat (I used a double boiler saucepan). Cook until completely melted and smooth, don't rush this process. Pour over marshmallows and smooth the top. Refrigerate until set.

7 - Cut in pieces to serve and enjoy.

Catch you during the week with the lemon and lime shortbread in one of the pictures.

Wayne
xx

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake

WHITE CHOCOLATE AND RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE

Last Tuesday was National Cheesecake Day. Sure, it's an American thing, but I wanted to celebrate all the same. Plus, cheesecake is my boyfriend's favourite dessert.So I decided to make this cheesecake. Now the result was not perfect, I think mostly because I let the gelatine get too hard. But it was still a nice tasting dessert that was easy to eat - because let's face it, dessert is always amazing to enjoy. I have a whole list of cheesecakes I want to try, so you'll be seeing a few coming up. Any ideas from you which cheesecake I should make next?

If you give this one a try, remember to be careful with the gelatine. Too hot and you'll ruin the ingredients, too cold and it'll set and you'll have lumps and a hard time setting it. But it's worth the trial and error.

INGREDIENTS:

185g Nice Biscuits, crushed
90g Unsalted Butter, melted
500g Cream Cheese, softened
1 can Condensed Milk
100g White Chocolate
1 tablespoon Gelatine
1/4 cup Hot Water
3/4 cup Thickened Cream
150g Raspberries, pureed
Whole Raspberries to top

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Combine biscuits and butter in a food processor and blend till combined. Then press into the bottom of a lined springform tin. Refrigerate until firm.

2 - Beat cream cheese and condensed milk until smooth, then beat in the cream.

3 - Melt the white chocolate over a double boiler on the stove top. Allow to cool to room temperature.

4 - Sprinkle gelatine over hot water and stir to dissolve. Allow to cool.

5 - Beat cooled chocolate and gelatine into the cream cheese mixture and spoon evenly over the biscuit base.

6 - Add the raspberry puree to the top and swirl to make a pattern. Plus add whole raspberries to the top.

7 - Refrigerate before serving.

Catch you on the weekend for some baked goodness.

Wayne
xx

Coca Cola Chocolate Cake

COCA COLA CHOCOLATE CAKE

Here's part two of the birthday cakes I cooked last weekend for friend's birthdays. This one was one of my boyfriend's closest friend's, Elyse, who's also become a great friend of mine. Now Elyse loves a drink of Coke, we joke she's addicted. Now I had heard you could put Coke in cakes and it tastes great, but hadn't tried it. This was my chance to have a go, and wow it was worth it. This is one of the best cakes I've made in a longtime. The Coke made the cake light and fluffy, and combined with my standard ganche recipe, it was perfect. I always know when the cake is good because it goes fast. We cut the cake up and everyone had a slice and ate it all - a sure sign the cake was a hit. People said they had hints of coke as they ate it. So have a go at this cake and I know you'll love it.

There's a few things I want to try over the next few weeks, experiment a little. Some may work, some may not. So I look forward to sharing the successes with you.

Original Recipe from: http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/coca-cola-chocolate-cake-L1378.html

INGREDIENTS:

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups Marshmallows

1/2 cup Oil

1/2 cup Margarine

3 tablespoons Cocoa

1 cup Coke

1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

2 Eggs

1 1./4 cups of Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1/2 cup Buttermilk

2 cups Self Raising Flour

Ganache:

400g Milk Chocolate, roughly chopped

300g Thickened Cream

Lolly Coke Bottles to decorate

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 160°c and grease line a springform tin with baking paper.

2 - Place marshmallows, oil, margarine, cocoa and Coke in a saucepan and heat and stir on medium heat until melted.

3 - Mix in bicarbonate soda.

4 - Beat flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence and buttermilk.

5 - Mix all ingredients together, including flour, and pour into springform tin. The mixture will be runny, so don't worry.

6 - Bake for one hour or until cake bounces back or skewer comes out clean.

7 - Let cool in pan. When cool, cut in half, ready to ice.

8 - To prepare the ganache, place cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat and bring just to boil.

9 - Remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate (in a heatproof bowl). Leave for 5 minutes and then whisk mixture together. Chill in fridge, stirring every few minutes until it gets thicker.

10 - Spread the ganache liberally over the cake and the side. Refridgerate to set.

11 - Top with fizzy Coke bottle lollies and enjoy.

Catch you on Tuesday for the results of my national cheesecake day bake.

Wayne

xx

Rolo Brownie Cake

ROLO BROWNIE CAKE

I just had a massive weekend of birthday celebrations. It seems like a ridiculous amount of us were born in July, me included. Lately as a present to my friends I've been making them birthday cakes. I had two good friends with birthdays last week, so made two lovely cakes (will share the other on the weekend). This cake, the Rolo Brownie Cake, was one I've wanted to make for a while. It's from my favourite blog, Raspberri Cupcakes, and her stuff is always nice - albeit very fattening. Trust me, this is the kind of cake that is divine to eat, but you can't have a lot.

I made it for my friend Jen, a very talented actress and make up artist. She is one of the nicest people I have met since moving to Melbourne. I have directed her twice and have loved getting to know her. I felt very honoured, and very excited to share a small dinner for her special day.

This cake was wonderful to make, I had a lot of fun doing it. The only difficulty I had was with the actual Rolos themselves. I couldn't find the tubes of Rolos, just the block. I rang Nestle, and they told me they didn't makes the tubes anymore. Dumb. Apparently you can get them in import stores still - but I'd left it too late. So I had to do things a little differently. The other different thing to do here is to make your own caramel sauce with a can of condensed milk. This was great and it turned out perfectly.

So have a go at this fun cake, but make sure you share it or you may just explode!

Original recipe from: http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2012/04/rolo-chocolate-brownie-cake.html

INGREDIENTS:

For the Cake:
400g Salted Butter
200g Dark Chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 Large Eggs
200g Caster Sugar
200g Plain Flour
1 block of Rolo Chocolate
1 can of Condensed Milk

For the Icing:
400g Milk Chocolate, coarsely chopped
300ml Thickened Cream
1 block of Rolo Chocolate

DIRECTIONS:

1 - First you need to make the caramel sauce for the filling. Take the unopened can of condensed milk and remove the label completely. Place in a medium saucepan and fill with water until it is half to 3/4s of the way up to the side of the can. Cover with lid and boil over a medium heat for two hours. Check regularly and top up with water if it falls below half. WARNING - if the water runs out the can will explode. Please don't let that happen (I'll feel really bad). Let it cool, and then put in fridge until you need it. (Will look like pic above)

2 - Preheat oven to 150°c and grease and line 2 springform tins (if like me you only have one, you'll have to take turns cooking them).

3 - Melt butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until smooth.

4 - Whisk eggs and caster sugar in an electric mixer until thick and pale (about 3-5 minutes), fold through chocolate mixture and then fold in flour until just combined.

5 - Pour half the batter in the two pans. Smooth the top and then spread half of the Rolo block to the top of each cake mix.

6 - Bake for 25-30 mins, until cake is firm to touch.

7 - Cool completely in pan before carefully transferring to serving dish. As it's a brownie cake it will crumble easily.

8 - Open caramel tin and add some salt. Use beater to smooth the caramel and mix salt. Then spread completely over the top of one of the cake pieces. Put in fridge for at least half an hour, to make sure it sets.

9 - Carefully sandwich the second cake on top.

10 - To prepare the ganache, place cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat and bring just to boil.

11 - Remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate (in a heatproof bowl). Leave for 5 minutes and then whisk mixture together. Chill in fridge, stirring every few minutes until it gets thicker.

12 - Spread the ganache liberally over the cake and the side. Break up rolo block and place on top. Refridgerate to set.

13 - Serve and enjoy.

On the weekend, the Coke Chocolate Cake will be put on the blog.

Wayne
xx

Homemade Snickers Bar

HOMEMADE SNICKERS BAR

Last year my boyfriend sent me a recipe, a homemade Snickers bar, that he wanted me to try and make for him. It looked tricky, but I am someone who loves a challenge. So I decided to make these little wonders. They took some effort, but it was worth it as they are divine. D-VINE! I made them the first time and then waited for well over a year to try again, because making this the first time, I heard Whitney Houston died. Now Whitney was my first ever favourite singer. And through the years she still remained someone I loved. So the recipe was tainted slightly, I remember making it while playing Whitney loud and bawling my eyes out.

I made it again for my birthday this year, no one died, and everyone loved it. So I won't hold it against this recipe anymore.This recipe makes a large amount, and because it's so rich you only need to cut small pieces. So I cut it all up for my birthday party and assumed there would be some left over for my Mum to take back to Sydney. I wish I had put some aside, because it all went - very fast! I only got one piece, but it was okay, it made me feel like I'd done a good job. I then also made two trays for my friend Corey's short film and people raved about the slice. I have included the photo of the uncut tray with the other baked goods I made. All tasty!

So here's the recipe. I've done it differently than before. Each layer is listed with its ingredients and directions. Happy baking (even though this one is all done on the stove top.)

Now for making it, I always use a tin tray that I throw out after. I use canola spray to grease it beforehand.

BOTTOM CHOCOLATE LAYER

1 1/4 Milk Chocolate Melts

1/4 cup Smooth Peanut Butter

Melt ingredients together in a heatproof bowl above a saucepan of boiling water. Don't melt too fast, keep flame on a medium heat. Pour into the dish and spread until even. Let cool to room temperature and place in fridge until completely set.

NOUGAT LAYER

60 grams Unsalted Butter

1 cup Granulated Sugar

1/4 cup Evaporated Milk

1 1/2 cups Marshmallow Fluff (included photo above - found in a US sweet store or online)

1/4 cup Smooth Peanut Butter

1 1/2 cups Salted Peanuts, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in sugar and milk, stirring until dissolved and bring to boil. Let cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in fluff, peanut butter and vanilla - stirring until smooth. Turn off heat and fold in peanuts, then pour over bottom chocolate layer and spread until it covers it completely. Let cool to room temperature and then cool in fridge until completely set.

CARAMEL LAYER

1 can of Top 'n' Fill Caramel (photo below)

1/4 cup Double Cream

Combine ingredients in a saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally until smooth and fully combined. Pour over nougat layer and let cool completely. Put in fridge and make sure it is completely set.

TOP CHOCOLATE LAYER

1 1/4 cups Milk Chocolate Bits

1/4 cup Smooth Peanut Butter

Melt ingredients together in a heatproof bowl above a saucepan of boiling water. Don't melt too fast, keep flame on a medium heat. Pour into the dish and spread until even. Let cool to room temperature and place in fridge until completely set.

Cut to size you want and keep in fridge when not eating. Share these round and EVERYONE will love you (or hate you - depending on whether they are on a diet). 

Can't wait till I make these again. If you make them, please send a pic - love to see how they turn out.

Wayne

xx