When is an icecream not an icecream?

When it's a CUPCAKE CONE :)  

These delicious and cute looking "icecreams" are actually cupcakes in disguise!! I love this idea (my cousin found it in a kids recipe book) of putting cake into cones! Kids love it as well! We made it for Young Childrens Day and the kids loved helping out! The best part was decorating the cones with little lollies and you can be as creative as you want! It was funny seeing the little kids licking the cones like icecream xD

I used a simple vanilla cupcake recipe and then coated with a chocolate ganache and the toppings can be anything!

Ingredients 

For the cupcakes:

• 125g butter, softened
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 190oC. Grease/line 12 cup muffin pan.

2. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla with an electric mixer until pale. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. 

3. Sift flour into over mixture and stir until almost combined. Stir in milk.

4. Spoon mixture into muffin holes and bake for 15 minutes.

-for chocolate cupcakes just substitute vanilla essence with 1 tbs cocoa powder-

Freesia and I with our cupcakes :)

Chocolate coating:

1. Melt 300g cooking chocolate with 300ml thickened cream in a bowl over a pot of simmering water.

2. Remove to cool.

Assembly

1.  Cut cupcakes using a cookie cutter to the appropriate size and place into cone.
2. Dip cupcake into chocolate coating.
3. Decorate with lollies... sprinkles... chocolate..

Beautifully decorated!! so colourful!

HAHA! if only this pic wasn't blurry =p hilarious!! chomping down!!!

DK bread!!

You guys are probably thinking... what is DK bread? is that a brand? a type of bread? ahhaa.. well i guess you could say both?? actually DK is a friend who is famous for his bread!! I've never actually tried it but seen photos ^^ and it looks yummy so asked for the recipe... but in the end I chose a different recipe (still similar).. and YAY!! it worked =D I also wanted to make a Pappa Roti style bread. So together... I chose: 

CONCHAS - mexican sweet topped buns 

Ingredients:

For the bread-

•  7g dried yeast (1 sachet)
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup lukewarm milk
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1/3 cup (~75 g) butter softened
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 3 1/2 - 4 cups plain flour

For the topping-

• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup (~55g) butter
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground coffee granules

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl.
2. Stir in milk, sugar, butter, salt, egg and 2 cups of flour.
3. Beat until smooth.
4. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
5. Turn onto lightly floured bench.
6. Knead until smooth and elastic ~ 5 minutes
7. Place in a large greased bowl, then turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (~1 1/2 hours)
8. Meanwhile, make the topping by beating sugar and butter till light and fluffy. 
9. Stir in flour until mixture is of a thick paste consistency. Divide into 2 parts and stir cinnamon into one part and coffee into the other - BE CREATIVE! It's really up to you what flavoured toppings you would like =) you could have vanilla, orange zest, lemon zest, cocoa powder - the list is ENDLESS ~~
10. Divide dough into 12 equal round balls and place on lined baking tray. Place topping onto the surface and shape it over the ball. Make 5 - 6 cuts across the topping to form a criss-cross/shell pattern.
11. Cover and let rise until double ~40 minutes (I forgot to do this.... but it still turned out fine =])
12. Bake at 190oC for ~20 minutes or until buns are nice and golden brown.

ta da~~~ look so yummy!!!! i took them out of the oven just in time! haha

inside tasted like bread :)

DK's version! they look much tastier! i need more practice XD

Pappa roti bun!!! if only i could make this~~...



Recipe modified from http://www.food.com/recipe/conchas-mexican-sweet-topped-buns-119586

1:1:1.5:2 - make sense? XD

My friend shared this recipe with me during the "Recipe exchange" and I found it pretty funny that she said the recipe was as easy as "1:1:2:1.5" ahhhahah that's the ratio of ingredients for LEMON CUPCAKES. No matter how you remember it, it really is simple! and the results are light, fluffy, lemony cupcakes =) you only need ONE BOWL (as you can tell I LOVE these kinds of recipes =P) 

Ingredients: 

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup cream

2 eggs
1.5 cups self-raising flour, sifted

zest of one lemon

1. Preheat oven to 180oC.
2. Place sugar, cream and eggs into a bowl and whisk until smooth.
3. Gradually add the flour and lemon zest. Whisk until the flour has incorporated and mixture is smooth.
4. Pour into cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Simple as that.

nice and golden brown!! :) :) :)

They do sink a bit once they have cooled down but don't worry! the flavour and texture is still as lovely =)
so what are u waiting for!!?? GO BAKE!!! =D

The BEST Brownies!!!!

Ever since a friend at work bought me this brownie from a cafe down the road.. I've been wanting to bake them!! and they don't seem too hard! Another friend also gave me this recipe a while ago so I tried it out and it was DELICIOUS! - almost as good as the one from the cafe =p 

I don't really like walnuts but you need them in the brownie for texture! I'm sure you can use macadamia nuts and other nuts as well. This recipe is also good for the kids! We made it at Youth Retreat.

And the title of the recipe was actually called: The Best Brownies


Ingredients:

• 125g butter, chopped
• 200g (1 cup) brown sugar
• 125g dark chocolate, chopped
• 3 eggs
• 50g (1/3 cup) plain flour
• 35g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 150g (1 1/4 cup) walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease/line cake tin.
2. Place butter, brown sugar and chocolate in saucepan and stir over medium heat till combined.
3. Remove from heat and beat in the eggs one at a time using a wooden spoon.
4. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the chocolate mixture and stir till well combined. Stir in the walnuts.
5. Pour in prepared cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes or until firm.


Best served warm with ICE CREAM (or custard from vanilla slice if you don't have any icecream xP)

Brownie served with vanilla slice custard because there was no icecream!! -actually it all melted ><

mmmm love the crunchy topping, soft chocolate mix and crunchy walnuts!!!

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/10033/the+best+brownies