Strawberries and Cream "Cupcakes"

Don't be fooled by the name, these are in fact muffins even though the recipe says 'cupcakes'. Its from one of those 'cupcake' recipe books that actually randomly tell you to use muffin trays for some recipes and cupcake trays for others. Anyway it makes 16 muffins. Luckily, for once I actually read the entire recipe and found out it was a muffin recipe before I got the cupcake tray out. Enough of that, its a muffin recipe lets move on. Mr & soon-to-be-Mrs Pizzaman said they were very sweet - which I took to be a good thing, but I think I probably have a sweet tooth so I would like it ;-)

Ingredients:
- 225g unsalted butter softened
- 225g caster sugat
- 225g self-raising flour
- 4 eggs 
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Topping:
- 350ml whipping cream
- 4 tbsp icing sugar, sieved
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 375g sliced small strawberries (or normal sized strawberries if, like me, you can't find small ones!)
- 4 tbsp strawberry jelly
- 1 tbsp water

Method:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 175degreesCelcius. Place paper baking cases in muffin tins.

Step 2: Combine all the cupcake ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and pale, about 2 to 3 minutes

Step 3: Spoon batter into the muffin cases and bake for 20min. Remove from oven and cool for 5 min then remove cupcakes and cool on a rack.

Step 4: For the Topping, whisk cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until soft peaks form. Spoon onto cooled cupcakes and arrange the strawberries on top.

Step 5: In a small saucepan heat the jelly and water until melted.

Brush the mixture on top of the strawberries. Chill until ready to serve. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2days.

Sticky Date Pudding!!

The BEST dessert EVER in the history of the universe. I am serious. No I am not exaggerating in the slightest. And this is a quick and easy version of it.

Ingredients: (serves 6)
 - 1 1/4 cups chopped pitted dates
 - 1 1/4 cups water
 - 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
 - 60g softened butter
 - 3/4 cup castor sugar
 - 2 eggs, lightly beaten
 - 1 cup self-raising flour

Sauce:
 - 1/2 cup cream
 - 100g butter
 - 1/2 cup soft brown sugar

Method:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180degreesCelcius. Lightly grease a six ramekins (or similar)
Step 1b: If you're like me and bought dates unchopped, you'll have to chop them... which is a disgusting job because the dates reminded me of dead bugs. But once you get past that (if indeed you can get past that) it only takes a few minutes to chop them up.

Step 2: Place the dates and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, simmering for about 5min or until the dates are softened.

Remove from the hear and stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

Step 3: Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating after each addition to make a smooth batter. Fold in the sifted flour and then stir in the date-and-water mixture until well combined.

Step 4: Spoon into the prepared ramekins and bake for 20min or until firm and springy to touch.

Step 5: To make the butterscotch sauce, combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the butter is melted. Simmer for 10min or until thickened.

Turn the puddings out (or if you're lazy like me, keep them in the ramekins) and serve warm with hot butterscotch sauce poured over the top. Deeeeeelicious!

Meringue Mice

This one takes awhile to cook, but is fairly quick and easy to make otherwise.... They're cute and great for kids parties - which is kinda what I made it for; a kids party themed International Mens Day morning tea at work.

Ingredients:
- 2 egg whites at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1 licorice strap
- 1/4 cup flaked almonds
- 50g dark chocolate, chopped

Method
Step 1: Cut licorice into 8cm long thin strips

Step 2: Preheat oven to 120degreesCelcius and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Step 3: Beat egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar and sugar with an electric mixer for 8-10 minutes until meringue mixture is thick and glossy.

Step 4: Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plan nozzle. Pipe teardrop mice shapes onto prepared trays, about 4cm apart. Insert 1 licorice piece for the tail and 2 almond flakes for the ears into each mouse shape.

Step 5: Bake mice for 1 and 1/4 hours or until hard when tapped, but still white. This is where I went a bit wrong I think, because I left them for 1 1/4hrs and then after that thought 'why are they a light brown colour?' Yeah if I had read the instructions better I'd have taken them out earlier. Buuut they were still yummy and either no one noticed or no one said anything about it if they did notice. Also, the meringue looked a bit granular, as though there were sugar granules on the outside... not sure what thats about but again, they tasted good and nobody said anything. Not sure if you can see the of-whiteness or the granularness in this picture, but it was there...

Turn oven off and leave meringue mice to cool with door ajar.

Step 6: Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted and smooth. Spoon chocolate mixture into a zip-lock bag. Snip one corner and pipe eyes and a nose onto each mouse.

I made 2 batches to take to work with me, which was about 35 mice.

Melon Tiramisu

The thinking behind this one was that it would be a nice summer-y dessert. I'm the first to admit that it wasnt the best dessert I've ever made, but, as the Pizzaman said, "It was better than I expected"/ And it was certainly quick and easy.

Ingredients
- 300ml thickened cream
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar
- 2 x 18cm round bought sponge cakes --This is where I went majorly wrong, Bilo just had madeira cake left... the orange-y flavour didn't go so well with this one, so I suggest you don't buy that as a 'it'll do' option!
- 1/4 cup (60ml) melon-flavoured liquer
- 300g rockmelon
- 300g honeydew melon


Method
Step 1:  Chop the melons coarsely into small cubes

Step 2: Beat sifted cream and icing sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form

Step 3: Split cakes in half horizontally; trim brown edges. Cut 12x6 rounds from cakes (or whatever size rounds you need to fit in your serving glass...

Step 4: Place one cake round in each of six 1 1/2 cup (375ml) glasses; drizzle with half the liquer.

Step 5: Divide half the combined melons and cream over cake. Repeat layering with remaining cake, liquer and melon mixture.

Ready in less than 30min and (if sponge cake is used and not madeira cake) quite a nice, light summer dessert!

Scones with Jam and Cream

So I figured it was about time I had a go at the classic 'scone' recipe... And for something I had dreaded attempting for years, it was surprisingly easy and quick - took me less than 30min to make them,

Ingredients:
3 cups self-raising flour
1tsp salt
60g butter
1 1/4 cups milk (or buttermilk... as I have no idea what this is or where it would be located in the local supermarket, I went with milk...)
Jam
Cream

Method:
Step 1: Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter - while I usually love delving in with my hands, this felt like it took awhile so be prepared: your hands may get tired!

Step 2: Add nearly all the milk at once and mix quickly with a knife. Add remaining milk only in necessary to mix to a soft dough.

Step 3: Turn onto a floured board and knead by turnin and pressing with the heel of your hand 3 or 4 times. Then pat out into a flat round shape about 2cm thick.

Now this is where I had to get creative... The recipe calls for a 4cm (1 1/2inch) round floured cutter. Of which I have none. However, my 1/4 cup measuring spoon/cup/thing was about the right size, so I used it to cut out the round scone shapes.

Step 4: Once the scones have been shaped, place them close together on a lightly greased baking tray. Brush tops with a little milk and bake in the top of a preheated very hot oven (230degreesC) for 10-15min or until well risen and golden.

Step 5: For soft scones, wrap in a tea towel as soon as they come out of the oven. For crusty scones, cool on a wire rack. I chose nice soooft scones so I wrapped them up. As they were an afternoon tea thing and I made them late morning, I popped them in the oven for 10 or so minutes when the Pizzaman had finished making pizzas so that they were scrumptiously warm! And of course, serve with jam & cream!