White Chocolate Mudcake

I made this for my birthday cake (yes, for those of you who know when my birthday is, it was some time ago now, I know, give me a break, I've been busy!... but mostly lazy ;-)  ) and it was a superb choice if I do say so myself! ;-)

Serves: 16 (or less depending on portion sizes of course! For instance, it would only provide 8 of what I call 'Dad' slices)

Ingredients:
300g white chocolate
200g butter
1 cup milk
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
2/3 cup self-raising flour
1 cup plain flour

Sour Cream & White Chocolate Ganache (topping)
200g white chocolate
88g sour cream 

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 145degreesCelcius (160 for conventional)

Step 2: Line base and sides of a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper (I don't know if I'm the only one who does this, but I like to either wipe butter on the tin or spray it with non-stick cooking spray, so that the baking paper actually sticks to it and stays in place). Alternatively, if you (like me) don't want to go to that much effort (can't be bothered) I like to use a silicone cake 'tin' with a light spray of non-stick oil spray.

Step 3:  Place chocolate, butter, milk and sugar in a large saucepan over low heat stirring frequently.

Once butter and chocolate have melted, remove from heat and stir until completely smooth. (Note: I started with rock hard utter, so decided to try and soften it in the microwave... well long story short it was already alf melted when I started, so this step didn't take long! The point is, its not the end of the world if the butter is melted when you put it in...)

Set aside and let it cool at room temperature for 15min.

Step 4: Add vanilla and eggs to chocolate mixture and stir until well combined.

Step 5: Sift flours together in a large bowl. Now the original recipe says to add one cup of chocolate mixture to the flour and stir until a paste forms, in order to prevent lumps... The first time I made this, thats what I did and what did I get? Lumps. So the second time I made it, I added a bit of the chocolate mixture, gave it a stir, added a bit more, stirred and so on. And, what do you know, no lumps.

Step 6: Pour into prepared cake tin and then bake for 1 hr 10min to 1hr 20min (knife inserted into centre will come out clean when its ready).

Step 7: Lick bowl and saucepan clean (unsurprisingly, this is my favourite step...)

Step 8: Loosely cover cake with greaseproof paper or a clean tea towel and allow to cool to room temperature in pan.


The Ganache. So its well known that I am not exactly a fan of sour cream, and I admit I was rather sceptical of putting a sour cream based icing onto my birthday cake for fear I wouldn't like it. But. Gosh was it gooooood :-) So for all my fellow sour cream dislikers, don't worry, it doesn't taste like sour cream.

Step 9: Melt chocolate in a small saucepan over very low heat, stirring frequently. When chocolate has completely melted, remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Use immediately, or if your ganache is quite runny, set it aside at room temperature to thicken slightly before using.

Bonus: I made some (oddly shaped) chocolate freckles to decorate the cake with; just melted some milk chocolate, poured it into a foil-lined container, poured hundreds & thousands over it and left it to set at room temperature. Easy & yummy!

(Purple) Vanilla Pudding

It was Mr Pizzaman's last Friday Night Pizza Night with us before moving to Perth, and I asked him for his final dessert request. He said "something purple". Yes, he is one of those people who like to be 'difficult'. But, he made us pizzas so he got away with it! ;-)

I couldn't think of anything to do, so I resorted to food colouring. Vanilla pudding with a couple drops of red and blue dye and viola! Purple dessert!

So, this one was my Farewell Dessert to a wonderful pizza chef that will be sorely missed.

Ingredients: Serve 4
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch or riceflour (I used the latter because I was all out of cornstarch)
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 cups milk
- 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
- 1 tbsp margarine or butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
 - And if you happen to have a difficult customer who requests 'purple' desserts,  red & blue food colouring

Method:
Step 1: In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch/riceflour and salt. Gradually stir in milk.

Step 2: Cook over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute.

Step 3: In a small bowl, stir about 1/3 of hot mixture into egg yolks.

Stir yolk mixture into hot mixture; blend well. Cook until mixture bubbles, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in margarine and vanilla.

Note: this is the point that one would add food colouring if they so wished...

Step 4: Serve into separate dessert bowls. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Berry Sorbet

I needed a quick easy and somewhat healthy dessert (because I was feeling guilty about eating bad food for the previous few days!) and I came up with this one.

Very easy, and pretty darn healthy for a dessert. But requires more time than I gave it originally... The recipe suggested 2hrs in the freezer, I had to give it several days.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups strawberries
- 2 cups blueberries
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- pinch of salt

Method:
Step 1: Put all ingredients into a food processor. (Yes the photo has them in a blender, but trust me, this does not work. Well, at least when you're using frozen berries like I was. Use a food processor!) Puree until smooth.

Note: Because I used frozen berries, I think I probably added too much water to the mixture which may have contributed to the freezing difficulties...

Step 2: Pour the berry mixture through a sieve into a freezer-safe container. This step can take a bit of effort depending on how fine a sieve you use... probably took me about 5-10min to do completely.

Step 3: Freeze for apparently 2 hours but in reality more like 2 days (after 3hrs it was still runny so I left it for a few days to make sure it froze). Even then I found that it was a bit icy - don't get me wrong, still good and yummy, but a bit icier than its probably meant to be.

Traditional Dutch Poffertjes

I know I said Sticky Date Pudding was my absolute favourite... But really Poffertjes (poff-et-yers) are really truly my absolute all time favourite dessert EVER!

Up until now I've cheated and made pancake-pofferje hybrids using a pancake mix. But we had a Harmony Day celebration at work where we all brought in traditional food from different countries and I took the opportunity to do it right.

One of the best presents I have received (and I've received many great ones) is a poffertje maker machine (shown in the photos below), but if you don't have one of these you can use a normal fry pan and just get flatter - but just as yummy - results.

Ingredients:
- 1 level tsp instant yeast
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1 cup buckwheat flour (can be found in most health food stores)
- 1 cup plain flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups warm milk
- 1 tbsp butter

And a 'good' quantity of butter and icing sugar to serve

Just a note on quantity: I made a double batch and it turned out to be this many...

So one batch would happily do 4 people for a dessert

Method:
Step 1: In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in milk.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, combine the buckwheat flour, flour, eggs, yeast, sugar, salt and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.

Step 3: Add the remaining milk and beat again.

Step 4: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rest for an hour.

Step 5: Spray pofferje maker machine with cooking oil or melt butter in each whole (be careful if using butter because I often find the butter burns and then ruins the poffertje) Alternatively if you don't have a poffertje machine, put the oil/butter into a frying pan.

I use a sauce squeezey bottle to squeeze the mixture out as its easier and less messy than trying to use a teaspoon. Having said that, if you don't have an empty sauce bottle, a teaspoon would work fine!

Step 6: Just like pancakes, turn the poffertjes around as soon as the bottom has set. I suggest sticking a fork into the edge of the poffertje and quickly flipping it over. I have used toothpicks in the past but I think forks are easier.

The poffertjes are done when they are a nice light golden brown

Step 7: Serve. Poffertjes are best served hot/warm, so plate them up asap! Put a generous amount of butter with them and then sprinkle/cover with icing sugar.

Hot Cross Buns

I made these in early March... a little early for the Easter festivities maybe, but I do love my hot cross buns and I was excited :-)

Not so quick but it is fairly easy to make if you've got some time up your sleave.

Ingredients: Makes 16
- 1/3 cup caster sugar
- 4.5 tsp dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cup warm milk
- 600g plain flour
- pinch salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice
- 60g butter, chopped
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 2/3 cup sultanas

Paste for crosses
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- 4 tbsp water
- 2 tsp caster sugar

Glaze
- 1 tbsp very hot water
- 1 tsp gelatine powder
- 1 tbsp caster sugar

Method:
Step 1: Combine caster sugar, yeast and milk in a bowl, stir until smooth, cover and rest in a warm place for 10min or until frothy. Its a little hard to see in the photo but the one on the right is frothy...

Step 2: Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and mixed spice into a large bowl. Use your fingertips to rub butter into the flour mixture - be warned, this is tiring! My fingers start to ache after a minute or two, and there seems to be a never-ending supply of butter that needs to be rubbed in! But stick with it, you'll get there... eventually!  And then you'll end up with something like this:

Step 3: Stir in yeast mixture, egg and sultanas until well combined. Cover and rest in a warm place for 45 minutes or until mixture has doubled in size.

Step 4: Preheat oven to 220degreesCelcius.

Step 5: Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 5min). Divide dough into 16 even pieces and roll into balls. Place balls into a lightly greased square cake pan lined with baking paper. Rest covered for 10-15min or until balls have risen to the top of the pan.

Step 6: Combine paste ingredients in a small bowl and, using a piping bag or a sandwich bag with the corner snipped off, pipe crosses over the buns.

Step 7: Bake for about 20minutes or until well browned and cooked. Combine glaze ingredients in a small bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved. Brush buns with warm glaze and cool on a cake rack.

Mrs Pinks' little piece of advice: if you're planning on packing your hot cross buns into a container for storage or transport, I would consider holding off on the glaze. Once you glaze them, the buns become quite sticky and will stick to each other or whatever else they touch.

Butterscotch Self-Saucing Pudding

This one was a request from my dad for his birthday and even though I gave him the opportunity to pick something tricky if he wished, he chose butterscotch pudding - easy, quick and yummy. Gotta love him ;-)

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/4 cups (190g) self-raising flour
- 100g butter, melted
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup (125ml) milk
- 4 tbs golden syrup
- 1 tbs cornflour
- ice-cream to serve (or if you're one of those crazy people who like pudding with cream instead of ice-cream, double cream to serve)

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 180degreesCelcius. Grease a 1.5 litre (6 cup) ovenproof dish.

Step 2: Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar and all of the flour in a bowl.

Add the melted butter, egg, milk and 2tbs of the golden syrup and stir until combined. Spoon into greased dish.

Step 3: Combine the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar and cornflour.

 *Small note of thanks to Mr Pizzaman for his artistic photography above! ;-)

Sprinkle over the pudding mixture.

Step 4: Combine boiling water with the remaining 2 tbs of golden syrup. Pour over the top of the pudding mixture.

Bake for 40-45min or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Step 5: Serve with ice-cream (or for crazy people, double cream... whatever takes your fancy)

Choc-Brownies with Caramel Sauce

I'm a sucker for anything chocolatey and hot (especially when served with ice-cream) and this one satisfies all of that PLUS has a yuuuummy caramel sauce as well - soooo good! (A little messy lookin, but gooood!)

Took me less than 30min to make (including cooking time) and serves 6

Ingredients:
- 80g butter
- 150g dark chocolate
- 3/4 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten lightly
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 3/4 cup (110g) plain flour
- vanilla ice cream (to serve)
- 1/3 cup (45g) vienna almonds, chopped coarsely

Caramel Sauce
- 2/3 cup (180ml) cream
- 60g butter
- 3/4 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to hot (I hate it when recipes do this - what the heck does 'hot' mean?! I think I went with somewhere around 190degrees celcius but it would be nice if they actually specified exactly what temperature 'hot' is! Anyway, I didn't burn them and they seemed cooked enough...)

Grease 6-hole muffin tray (surprisingly I forgot the greasing step and had some difficulty getting the brownies out of the tray at the end, so may I suggest that you don't forget like I did... if you can help it...)

Step 2: Combine butter, chocolate and sugar in medium saucepan; stir over medium heat until smooth.

Step 3: Stir in egg, essence and flour. Divide the mixture into the muffin tray and cover tightly with foil. Bake in hot oven for 20minutes and then stand for 5minutes.

Step 4: For the caramel sauce, combine ingredients in na small saucepan, stir over 'medium' heat (again with the ambiguous temperatures!! I used 4 on our 6 point stove-top scale) until smooth. Simmer for 2 minutes.

Step 5: Place brownies on serving plates, top with ice-cream, caramel sauce and almonds (I completely forgot to put the almonds on it and it was fine without, but I'm sure the almonds would have made it eeeeven yummier!)