Mini Cupcakes...Recipe can make large ones too!

I made these mini just because I had the mini cupcake papers and i think they are super cute!

Ingredients:
125g Butter, softened
1tsp Vanilla essence
2/3 C Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
1 and 1/2 C Flour (One and a half)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 C Milk
Icing Ingredients:
2 C Icing Sugar
2tsp Butter
2Tbsp Milk
Food Colouring (optional)

1. Preheat over to 180 Degrees
2. Put paper cases in mini muffin tray (or big muffin tray if using large cases)
3. Combine all ingredients and beat for 3 mins, or until mixture is smooth
4. Drop teaspoons of mix into the cases or until about 3/4 way up the case
5. Bake mini cup cakes for about 10-15mins or until golden (large 20mins)
6. I turned the tray round a bit over half way to ensure even cooking.
7. Let cool and ice with icing below.
8. Mix icing ingredients together until smooth heat if needing to soften
9. Spoon over cupcooks drizzling so they spread evenly, you can ice normally if you prefer, I find drizzling quicker.

Wala finished product :-)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is my recipe for yummy soft chocolate chip cookies, you can cook longer for harder biscuits. SUPER EASY RECIPE!

Ingredients
250g Butter
3/4 C White Sugar
3/4 Brown Sugar
1tsp Vanilla essence
1tsp Water
2 Eggs
3C Flour
1tsp Baking soda
Chocolate chips - about 2 C (more or less depending on how chocoholic you are)

1. Cream Butter and both sugars
2. Beat in Essense and Water
3. Beat in eggs one at a time
4. SIft flour and baking soda into the mixture and then mix in (do not beat as it will thicken)
5. Stir in Chocolate chips
6. Roll into balls and place on oven tray, slightly flatten with a fork
7. Bake for 8-10 mins or until starting to flatten and turn golden.

Yummy Cheese Scones

This is a good scone recipe which I hav been lazy and decided not to rub in the butter, this worked perfectly so I think I will stick to it!!!

Ingredients
3 Cups Flour
6 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
75 Grams Butter
1 C Cheese or more if your extra cheesy
1 .5 C Milk (one and a half)
Extra Milk

1. Preheat oven to 220 degress celcius
2. Sift Dry Ingredients into blender
3. Add Butter and blend (similiar result to 'cutting' in the butter)
4. Make sure the butter is all processed and the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
5. Pour into a bowl and add cheese and mix
6. Add milk and quickly mix with a knife until you have a sticky dough
7. Turn out onto floured over tray or bread board and knead until flattened to an Inch high
8. Cut out rounds of the dough, I used cookie cutters and place on floured over tray
9. Bake in oven for about 10mins or until golden
10. Serve with lots of butter!!!

Baked Fish

We have recently been away on holiday and went out for a bit of fishing and managed to catch quite a few Kahawai and also Gurnard.
The boys swear by their butter fried recipe but I thought I would try something a little different for them. My boyfriend is usually quite against change, and he lvoed his fish butter fried but this proved to be a winner, so much so this is now the usual way we cook fish!

Ingredients:
Tin Foil
Fish - However many as you please
Butter
Lemon Juice
Masterfoods tuscan seasoning

1. Preheat oven to 200 Degrees
2. Simply clean the fish and place on a sheet of tin foil
3. Slice the fish slightly and squeeze lemon juice over the fish
4. Sprinkle tuscan seasoning over the fish generously
5. Slice butter and place over the fish
6. Wrap the parcel up and put in oven for around 15 mins depending on how large your fillet is.
7. Check to see if cooked and serve.
8. Do not over cook as the fish will be quite dry.

Banana Bran Muffins

Yum...Ive always loved bran muffins so gave this lil recipe a go just now! Great way to get rid of bananas that are starting to age!

Cant beat this with loads of butter on fresh warm muffins!!!!

1 C Bran

1 C Flour

3/4 C White Sugar

4 tsp Baking Powder

2 Eggs

100g Melted Butter

1/2 c Milk

2 Mashed Bananas - As ripe as possible without being rotten ;-)

1. Preheat oven to 200 Degrees Celsius
2. Mix Dry Ingredients together in one bowl
3. Beat others together in another bowl until combined
4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry lightly until JUST combined...do not over mix!
5. Pour the batter into Muffin Trays - makes about 12 large ones!
6. And bake for 10 - 15 mins, or until raised and the muffin bounces back when touched!
7. Serve with Hard butter...mmmm!!!

Bruschetta

(Sorry about the pics, taken from my cellphone)

Ingredients:

1 Ciabatta loaf

2 Tbsp Olive oil

1 Garlic Clove, crushed - or 1 tsp Crushed Garlic

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

3 Large tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/2 Red Onion - or more if you prefer

1/4 C Flat leaf parsley, or fresh basil leaves as I prefer.

1. Place oil, garlic and vinegar in a bowl and mix
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and toss to combine
3. Toast Ciabatta Bread in slices, I did this simply in the toaster
4. Top Ciabatta with Tomato combination and serve! YUM!
   

Poached Eggs

So a while ago I searched on the internet to try and find a way to succesfully poach eggs...I used a dozen eggs giving almost every method I had found a go...and it all turned into a disaster, I ended up being so frustrated i swore I would never eat poached eggs again!
Welll....
A few days ago I decided to give it a go again...I had heard about a whirlpool method and though hmm this was practically the only one I hadnt given a go so I did...and it worked!!!
I will post up pics etc the next time...but I gave it a go this morning for my darlings brekkie and was successful again!

The Method...will add pics next time!

• Boil water in pot, not too much as you will swirl it around so about half fill will do!
  Once boiling add a tablespoon of vinegar (helps with cooking the white quickly)
  Break egg into a soup ladle
• Using a metal spoon start swirling the water round and round, like ya used to do as a kid in a swimming pool ;-)
• Once a little whirlpool has started drop the egg in the centre and continue to gently whirl it.
• Dont be afraid, in the beginning it looks like the white will be going everywhere and the yolk will just burst...but it doesnt :-)
• Wait until it cooks, about 2-3mins I guess...I just watch and take it out when it looks ready (the white is solid and cooked)
• BADABING...perfect poached eggs...I trime the white a bit to make it pretty!

The bikkie cake! (more of a slice)

My boyfriends late Grandmother was quite a master cook as I have been told, I never met the woman but would have loved to! I have recently been given her Kenwood Chef by his mother which I have had a few goes with and I cant wait to use it some more!

Anyhow, James is always talking about his grandmothers cooking and certain things she used to make, but above all was her 'Biscuit Cake' which was something he has not had since!

Yesterday we managed to find a copy of the recipe, and I gave it a go!

We were at the beach house (his brothers house) where I do not have my usual collection of utensils so I made do...it was a first attempt so why not!

Biscuit Cake

250gms Butter

1 can condensed milk (375gms)

2 Packets of Super Wine Biscuits

1-2 Large Blocks of Energy Chocolate

1 C Dessicated Coconut + extra for sprinkling on top of slice.

1. The recipe said to leave butter out over night to soften, but I did this the quick modern way in a microwave (sorry grandma), and then to cream it.
2. Add the condensed milk to the butter.
3. I then spent ages crusing the biscuits into pieces, I normally would have given this a go in my blender, but did it the old fashioned way in a bread bag, and also using the masher...this took quite some time - apparently it needs to be finer than what I had done...next time :-)
4. Using a sharp nice flake off half - a whole block of energy chocolate, depending on how chocoholic you are, I started using the grater but apparently the bits of chocolate were too small so i used a sharp knife as instructed...god Grandma must have had some muscles because I am feeling this!
5. Mix the biscuit crumbs, chocolate, and coconut in with the butter mix and mix until combined.
6. Press the mix firmly into a large tray or container, the slice was about 3cms high in my container, but Im sure you could do it taller or shorter.Grandmas recipe said leave to set, about 2 hours. Instead I got straight onto the next step...melting the chocolate.Melt the rest of the block of chocolate (about one whole large block) and pour over the slice until it is all covered. We started with half a block but had to instruct the boyfriend to do the dash to the dairy for more as it did not cover!
7. And chuck it in the fridge! After about 30 mins I cut into slices and placed back in the fridge, this made it easier to slice later on as it is designed to get quite hard.I was told by my partner to cut them very small as the slice is very rich!

He was very impressed in the end...the biscuits could have been crushed a bit better but other than that - perfect!

First Post

Wow how exciting my very own blog!
People have been talking about these for quite some time and I havent really thought about doing my own until today!
My main reason I wanted to start one is that I am slowly building up skills in cooking that I wish to share and also that I want to document all of my recipes and failures and success stories so that I and other may learn from them!

A bit about myself...Well I am 21, nearly 22 and live in a rural town in New Zealand! I live in a small house with my partner James and my 3 year old dog Kyla, You will probably hear alot about her and James as I rant and rave!
I work full time and use cooking as a way to relax, its amazing that a chore to most can actually become a hobby!
I started enjoying cooking due to the enjoyment others get out of food when it is great cooking!
People rarely find the time these days to sit down and savour the moment!

I started off with pre made mixes, such as muffins etc. and slowly got better at making them.
I am also a magazine addict and love any excuse to buy one, therefore I started buying all of the cooking magazines and slowly reading through them trying to take in any tips I could!
Basically I grew up in a meat and 3 veg household, as most kiwis do, and I still love that one main meal of the day - dinner!
Recently I have taken to baking as a challenge, as I used to enjoy mainly cooking mains and found baking quite a challenge but I think I am slowly getting there!

Well enough going on I shall start my blog or I guess its more of a food diary, but wither way here we go :-)