Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns

600gms White Bread Flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tspns dried yeast

2 tspns bread improver

100gms softened butter

1 egg

320mls milk

1/2 tspn salt

1 tspn cinnamon

1 tspn mixed spice

Finely grated rind of 1 orange

1 cup sultanas

Crosses

100gms plain flour

1/2 cup water

Glaze

55gms caster sugar

1/2 tspn mixed spice

1/2 tspn cinnamon

1/4 cup water

Pre-heat your oven to 220C

Place all ingredients into bread machine and set on 'dough', once it is ready remove the dough, knock it down (place dough mix onto bench and give it a little hit with your hand to knock the air out of it), ten work in the sultanas.  Cut into 16 pieces and shape into balls, using a rectangular or square cake pan, place the balls evenly - allowing some space from the sides so all buns can grow at the same rate.  Put in a warm place for 30 mins until doubled in size.  Mix the plain flour and water together to make the crosses until it forms a smooth mix about the consistency of toothpaste, place this into a piping bag or tube and pipe on the crosses.  Bake until deep golden brown and cooked through (test with a skewer), approx. 25 mins.  Whilst they are cooking make the glaze, bring ingredients to a soft boil for a few minutes until sugar has melted.  When you take out the buns, brush over the glaze using a pastry brush and allow it soak into the hot buns.  Serve hot with butter.

(You may add mixed peel if you wish, I have used orange rind, to eliminate the need for big chunks of peel, this is a personal choice.)



Kaftan

Kaftan for Daytime

Kaftan for Evening

If you're looking for a quick dress to make and would rather not insert a zip here's a very easy and sexy way to make something to wear either casually or for going out.  It is all up to the fabric that you use and with a slight adjustment you can make a 'V' neck or a round neck and make it fall to one side or both sides, you can also make your own tie waisted belt or use a belt from your wardrobe.  Here's a couple I made, one for evening and one for daywear.  Play around with the layouts and fabrics and you'll soon design some of your own gorgeous Kaftan's.  You'll need about 2 metres of fabric (dependant on your height and how long you want your Kaftan. The width across the fabric can be anything over 90cm wide dependant on if you wish to have two sides (as per daywear Kaftan) or one sided (as per Evening Kaftan).

Kaftan Layout (click to enlarge)

Kaftan Layout (click to enlarge)

Valentines Cookies

Rose Petal Valentines Cookies

125 g butter, softened
2 tspns finely grated lemon (or orange)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup plain flour
2 tbspn self raising flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 tbspn rose buds, pull out stems and shake out seeds, then crush petals

Icing
2 egg whites
450gms soft icing sugar


Oven 180C /160C (fan forced)

Beat Butter, rind and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg yolk.  Sift all flours together, add to mix along with almond meal and rose buds, stir until well combined (do not beat).  Knead cookie dough on a floured board/bench until smooth.  Seperate into two balls, roll each one between sheets of baking paper - about 5mm thick.  Place dough in fridge (still between baking sheets), for approx 1/2 hour so it becomes firm. 
Once firm, cut out heart shapes and bake a few cm's apart for about 12 minutes, until just turning golden brown.  Allow to cool a little before transferring to cooling rack.
Once the cookies are completely cool, make up the icing mixture.
To prepare icing, beat the egg whites and the icing sugar until very light, white and fluffy (resembling toothpaste).  Place 1/2 the mixture into a bowl, and the remaining mixture into two seperate bowls.  Tint the larger bowl and one the smaller bowls pink, then add a little water to the larger of the two to make it a bit runny, this is the 'flow icing', leave the third bowl white,and add a little water so it is runny to use as flow icing.  Place the icing into piping bags or tubes using a mid size hole on the flow icing, a small hole on the white (to use for the dots) and a very small hole on the firmer pink icing (this is the line icing).
Trace around the edge of the hearts with the line icing, once this is dry, pour in the pink flow icing and allow it to flow to the edges of the line icing, filling in the entire surface of the cookie.  Using the white flow icing place tiny dots on the cookie - this will run into the pink icing and spread a little, so make the dots small - practice on a few first if you are new to all this.  Sprinkle some of the plain pink cookies with crushed rose petals.  Turn your oven on to 50C and place the iced cookies in for 15 minutes, this will help the icing to set really well. 

Package them up in something gorgeous and share with friends, loved ones or that special someone. 

Have a delicious Valentines Day! 



p.s. don't forget my Valentines Heart for those crafty people out there.... a few posts ago...

Chocolate Cake

This week I organised a party for a lovely four year old boy called Alex, and I thought I would share the cake and party bags with you for inspiration.  I have also included the chocolate cake recipe as it's quite easy and yummy, so much so that both children and adults came back for seconds.  When you read the ingredients, you'll see that it contains lots of chocolate - so it's no wonder it was a hit! The recipe below is for a double mix of cake as the tin is obviously quite large.  Just a hint, you can often hire the cake tins from specialty gift stores or catering stores, just have a look around your local area. The cake board is covered in contact and strips of the same were popped onto plain white paper bags with orange stars cut out of paper and attached with a matching ribbon.  I also made a cute garland using the stars on a ribbon to run across a doorway.  Very inexpensive and very effective.  I hope you find some fresh inspiration for your next kids party...

And now for the recipe...

Melt and Mix Chocolate Cake
400g butter, softened
400g good quality dark chocolate  (I use Callebaut Couveture chocolate but, if you're on a budget cadbury's will do, but nothing cheaper.. the taste is in the chocolate)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (buy from your supermarket)
2 cups caster sugar (I use raw caster sugar)
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2  cups self raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 160c. Grease and line a large pan (NB. this quantity is for a large pan or 2 pan mix)
2. Place butter, grated chocolate and 1/2 cup hot water in a microwave heatproof bowl and microwave uncovered for 1-2 mins (stirring occasionally) until smooth.
3. Add cocoa powder to warm chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla, sugar and egg.
4. Stir flour over the chocolate mixture and stir gently until combined. Pour the mixture into prepared pan
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre has moist crumbs clinging.
6. Allow to cool completely in the pan.
7. Turn cake onto a cake board and decorate.

For the number four cake shown above, I used pre-prepared fondant icing, available from your supermarket.  Before the cake is decoarted, apply a layer of chocolate ganache to the cake, made from 200gms dark couveture chocolate and 100mls cream, simply bring the cream just to the boil, pour it over the grated chocolate, stir gently, so you don't create air bubbles, pop it in the fridge and let it semi set, then spread over the cake to create a lovely even layer, so the fondant rolls on neatly.  The image just above shows the same cake with fondant in between two layers of cake, and also on top with grated chocolate to finish it off, great with a coffee... 

For the childrens cake, the fondant is tinted with food colouring, rolled out and placed on the cake and the stars are made using a cookie cutter, the stars are applied with a little beaten egg white. Allow the icing to dry before transporting (especially in hot weather).