Musk sticks and Mint twigs

Although I had never heard of these in my childhood (sad) I certainly made up for it when I was buying my own sweets and lollies, when newly married and emigrated to Australia. I now have a grand daughter I can make them for and sneak a few in to myself. (Ha ha ha ha)

Ingredients...

1 teaspoon unflavoured GELATINE

1/3 cup WATER.

1 teaspoon GLUCOSE SYRUP.

500g ICING SUGAR.

1-2 teaspoons MUSK STICK FLAVOURING. (or mint essence for mint twigs)

Few drops PINK food colouring (or green for mint twigs)

Piping bag with 1cm star nozzle.

Method...

Line a couple of trays with baking paper. In a small saucepan over a low heat, heat the glucose syrup, water and gelatine, until the gelatine has dissolved.

Take pan off the heat and stir the mixture. Get a large bowl and your electric hand mixer. Transfer the mix into the bowl with 1/3 icing sugar, mix on low speed until combined.

Add another 1/3 icing sugar and mix until combined.

Add the remaining icing sugar, colour and flavouring and mix until well combined.

Transfer to the piping bag with the nozzle in and pipe 4cm sticks on to the baking trays.

Allow to air dry for 6-8 hours (mine took 12 hours, if you did them thinner it won't take as long)

Store in a airtight container at room temperature.

****Note****

The musk essence (oil based) can be got from here...

http://bakingpleasures.com.au

Yummy, Gooey, Fudgey Slice.

This is so easy, and can be made up, chilled and sliced in well under an hour. Very sweet, and fudgey, and very moreish.

The recipe..
8 oz of Butter.
8 oz of Sugar. (I used half brown and half white)
8 oz of Digestive Biscuits (crushed)
1 tin Condensed Milk (395 gms)
8 oz melted Milk Chocolate (I had more 'cos wanted a thick layer on top)

How to make..
Line a Swiss roll tin with foil and crush the biscuits, set a side.
Melt the butter, milk and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and continue boiling for 3 - 5 minutes. Add in the crushed biscuits and stir. Melt the chocolate over simmering water in another saucepan. Pour the milk/biscuit mixture in to the prepared tin and level out with a spatula. Then pour the melted chocolate over the mix in tin and again, level out. Decorate with sprinkles or coarsely grated chocolate. Chill in the fridge. When chilled, remove from pan and slice to your desired size. Stores well in the fridge for a few days in a covered container. I bet you don't just make this the once.
Next time I shall try different biscuits, like ginger snaps maybe, and change the chocolate from milk to dark.

Tablet.

This recipe was given to me by Rita from Scotland, have looked at it several times over the past month, but was too scarred to tackle it. Having never tasted it, I really wasn't sure of the texture to achieve. Rolling boil and setting point also really made my palms sweaty. But, it's made, it's set, and it's stored, but not for long as this is simply DELICIOUS. Tablet. (The recipe)

2lbs Granulated Sugar.
1 tin Nestles Condensed Milk. (Large) *(395g)
1 cup of Milk.
2 ounces Butter. (Cut in to small chunks)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (But this is optional, I did use it)
Method....
First, grease an 8 inch by 10 inch tray with some melted butter. I melted it in the microwave and brushed it on.
Put all the ingredients (except the tinned milk) in to a HEAVY based saucepan, and melt REALLY slowly until there are NO grains of sugar left. Avoid stirring vigorously as you will push grains of sugar up the sides of your pan and end up with a gritty tablet.

Once it has melted, add the tinned condensed milk, and take to a ROLLING BOIL. This will change colour too, almost a toffee colour is fine. Keep this rolling boil up for around 20 minutes, being very careful not to burn and boil over. Test a drop of the mixture in a glass of cold water. It should BALL. (Not dissolve as mine did the first few times) Once BALL has been achieved, take it off the heat.

Now this is where you get working really hard with a wooden spoon. Although being the true Scottish lady that I try to be (LOL) I used my SPURTLE. You will feel it thicken as you beat. This did take quite a while, so in the end SPURTLE got a rest and in came my electric hand mixer for one minute. Once thickened, pour in to your prepared tray. and leave to set. Mark it before it is totally set and cold. Will make for easier cutting later.

I have another SPURTLE that is currently going around the world and seeing the sites. If you wish to learn more about SPURTLES please visit.....http://theadventuresofmrbertielspurtle.blogspot.com/

The texture of the tablet should be, slightly crunchy on the outside, smooth and creamy on the inside. And just melting on the tongue. Fudge like, but BETTER.

Please note edit, to the weight of tin required for this recipe.

A Rocky Road indeed.

The always lovely Nigella, has a new book out called Nigella's Christmas. It's full of fascinating recipes and one of which has been adapted by http://culinarytravelsofakitchengoddess.wordpress.com/
I have now adapted it again myself, purely by accident as I forgot to add the golden syrup she had used. But it really is sweet enough to give that a miss anyway.
I also learnt another lesson here, well two actually. Always line your cake tin, as this is really hard to get out. The second lesson is, marshmallows melt in heat. YES, so I added more when it had cooled down some more.

This is what I did...
175g soft unsalted Butter.
200g dark Chocolate (into pieces)
200g milk Chocolate (into pieces)
200g Hobb Knobs (or a wheaten biscuit)
100g mini Marshmallows.
100g glazed Cherries.
100g chocolate coated Sultanas.
Icing sugar (to dust, optional)

Method...

Heat the butter and chocolate in a heavy based saucepan over a gentle heat.
Crush the biscuits in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, so you have both lumps and crumbs mixed.
Fold the crushed biscuits into the melted chocolate in the saucepan, remembering to take off the heat, allow to cool a little before adding the marshmallows and fruit.
Put the mixture into a lined 9 inch square tin or similar, and smooth down a little with a wet spatula.
Put into the fridge to set for a few hours. Cut into manageable size pieces and dust with icing sugar. (I did not do this) It's up to you really, though it would be more festive if you did.
Now the photo at the top! I didn't get mine as smooth as I would have liked, so, raided my son's old toy box (he's now 24) and found this smashing car. So a bit of mucking around really.
Do hope you enjoy making yours, and Thank you Nigella and George for giving me the inspiration.

Strawberry Trifle.

I have made the traditional sherry trifle many times, and usually at Christmas time. But having found a new series of liqueurs recently, (well, new to me) I really wanted to see if this would work, and it did.

The liqueurs are VOK made here in Australia. With some really sexy and delicious cocktails at their website. www.voktails.com.au (Have a look at *Sex on the Beach*)

I used the Orange Curacao in the Chocolate Orange Cake. (See under my labels)

I also wanted to try it with making blancmange instead of the custard, but when it came to the making, I had no cornflour. So good old BIRDS CUSTARD with a dash of strawberry essence did the trick.

I used shop bought sponge but you could use

your own.

To make your layers.

Slice cake and put in bottom of large bowl.

Dollop strawberry jam over this.

Pour the Strawberry liqueur over the cake.

Then soak over night.

Make 1 litre of custard and allow to cool.

Put over the soaked cake.

(I let mine get very cold in the fridge, before adding the cream.)

Whip cream until it forms peaks.

Spread over the custard.

Decorate with fresh strawberries.

Do hope you have fun with making yours and do visit that web site. They have some lovely recipes there. I am a big VOK fan now, and will be getting the Melon next.

Dark Choc Slice and White Choc Cherry slice

I actually found a variation of this on another blog. The Oh
so clever Violet from http://violets-homecooking.blogspot.com/

Vi used two sorts of chocolate in one slice. I used one chocolate for each of the two slices.
Putting smashed biscuits, sultanas and dark choc together for one, and white choc, glazed red cherries, smashed shortbread biscuits and flaked coconut for the other.


For these you will need...


1 bar dark cooking chocolate (melted)
1 pack of sweet tea biscuits (smashed up)
1 cup of sultanas.

Combine the biscuits and sultanas in a bowl, add the melted chocolate and stir well until all is covered. Place mixture into a tray and press down firmly. Put in the fridge for half an hour to set.
Then cut into slices.







For the white slices, you will need...
1 bar white cooking chocolate (melted)
1 pack glazed cherries. (roughly chopped)
1/2 cup flaked coconut (most for mixture and some for the top)
1 pack shortbread biscuits (smashed)

Same directions as before and adding the coconut to the top and squashing down a little just
before you put them in the fridge.

Truely amazing Birthday Cake.

All the credit goes to the lady who made this cake.

Emmcee (Gail) from the great blog called....

http://vipantrywedonthaveablogblog.blogspot.com/

It is her Birthday on the 4th of September and she made this cake to celebrate the fact.

She says she is not a professional, but looking at that cake and others she has done, it's hard not to believe her.

Please go and see her blog, and look at the others she has made. The *BOOB* cake made for her father's birthday is amazing too.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAIL.

Am leaving the type black here so the picture really speaks for itself.

White Chocolate Rainbow Muffins and Fruit Loop Clusters

This is my basic muffin recipe yet again, which can be found under labels.

This time , I added white choc chips and a half a cup of coloured sprinkles. And drizzled melted white chocolate to the top once they had cooled.

Not sweet enough for you?

Then I made Fruit Loop Clusters.

Fruit Loops are really a breakfast cereal for children,

and are very high in sugar, so don't make

too many of these if you don't want the tooth

fairy visiting too often.

Very easy to make.

Melt a bar of white cooking chocolate over

boiling water. Add a little, say 50 grams of

vegetable shortening and stir to combine.

Measure into a large bowl 4 cups of the Fruit

Loops and then pour in the melted chocolate

mix. Stir to make sure each loop has chocolate on it.

Then spoon into paper cake cases, put in the fridge or a cool place until they set. Even my BIG kids liked these. Aren't they pretty?

Here are both, muffins and the clusters ready

to be eaten. And can I say, they were

devoured mighty quickly.