Easter Chocolate and Dulce de leche Cake Pops. An International Incident Party.

I've been looking forward to this month's International Incident Party.  As always, it's hosted by the lovely Penny from the Jeroxie blog.  This month's theme is Cake pops.  Some might say that they are the new cupcakes.  They're cute, they're cool and they're fun and easy to make.  I've made cake balls before but have never made pops. Bakerella is known worldwide for this little ball of sweetness. You can see her demonstrate on how to make them here.  

There may be many steps to create these little cakes but it is actually quite easy to make.  I wanted to make Easter Cake pops and I got my daughter to help decorate them.  It's a great kitchen project for children.  They can get really creative.  

You don't have to freshly bake a cake just to make cake pops (though you can, of course) but you can use left over cake trimmings.  Just freeze any left over cake (no icing) in the freezer.  It can keep for a few months.  When needed just defrost in the fridge.

I had left over devil's food cake from when I made my Christmas cake balls. Instead of using the usual cheese cream frosting, I used a can of dulce de leche.  I make these from cans of condense milk.  You can get recipe here.  The dulce de leche makes it luscious and sweet, just the way Hubby and my children like it.  You don't have to make balls, you can make any shape you like.  I experimented and made little bunnies too.

To make cake pops:

Crumble the cake until until it resembles bread crumbs.  Add about a third of a can of dulce de leche and mix thoroughly until the mixture is moist enough to make balls.  Don't add too much dulce de leche or the mixture becomes too sticky and hard to shape.

Take a heaped tablespoon of the mixture and roll in the palm of your hands.  Shape the balls into eggs and place on baking paper on a tray.  Place in the refrigerator for about an hour to harden a little.

Melt chocolate in a bowl over barely simmering water until shiny and smooth.  Take a lollipop stick and dip about 1cm of it into the chocolate.  Insert the stick about half way into the cake pop. Let it set for a minute.

Dip the cake pop into the chocolate and cover the whole cake.  Don't move it around too much as you might lose some crumbs into the chocolate or the cake might come off the stick.  You can decorate straight away with sprinkles or any lollies or you can let the chocolate harden and then decorate with liquid gel pens.

Deanna had fun decorating them

Dry the cake pops by sticking them into styrofoam.  Or you can do what I did and stuck it in a box that I made little holes in.  

Deanna and I enjoyed decorating these.  We spent the whole afternoon do this so it gave a great opportunity to have mummy-daughter time.  When you make this, make them with children.  If you don't have any, borrow someone else's.

You can check out everyone else wonderful creation :

Cook Book Challenge : Raspberry Delight

Theme 3: Love

Cookbook : Little Kitchen by Sabrina Parrini

Recipe : Raspberry Delight

Love.  This theme can be interpreted in many ways.  The way I interpret this week's theme is Deanna.  Yes, I love her but the reason I chose her for this theme is that she loves to cook and bake.  She recently turned down an invitation to attend a previous blogger lunch, simply because there will be no cooking involved, unlike the last one she attended.  You have seen many posts on her and her kitchen creations and I am certain you will see many more in the future.

Having children in the kitchen can be a bit messy but they always have fun.  So if you don't worry about what needs to be cleaned up afterwards, children can get be quite helpful

Since this recipe came from a children's book, it's very easy and really only requires a few ingredients.

300ml cream
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 punnets raspberries (we used frozen mixed berries)
2 tsp caster sugar

1.  Put the cream and vanilla bean paste into the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat till soft peaks form
2.  Tip half of the berries into a small bowl and mash them with the sugar using a fork until it forms a runny sauce
3.  Arrange a layer of cream in a glass then spoon a layer of the berry sauce then the whole berries.  Repeat till you have about 2-3 layers of each or until you reach the top.

We also add crushed up biscuits (scotch finger) to the top and Hubby and I drizzled some butterscotch sauce on it as well.

Deanna layered her own glass (with a little help from me) and I did the other.  She also made another two smaller ones but they didn't photographed well (read : messy) but all 4 glasses were very delicious no matter what they looked like.

Check out my previous posts on this year's Cook Book Challenge


Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

Deanna bakes Christmas Cookies

This is my first year to make Christmas cookies.  I always had the intention to do a lot of Christmas baking but as always, I ran out of time.

This year, I promised Deanna that we would bake cookies.  Deanna, as you know, loves being in the kitchen.  She always asks if she can help me when I'm cooking dinner but unfortunately, I'm usually rushing dinner or I don't have the time or patience during the weeknight.  Because of that, I try to have one-on-one cooking sessions with her, during the weekends or when I have some time up my sleeve.

This is a recipe I  found in Nigella Lawson's feast.  It's perfect for children, especially the decorating, which happens to be Deanna's favourite part.  She took her time and meticulously decorated each and every cookie to perfection. 

90g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour, sifted

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine salt

1.  Cream butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.  Add in the egg and vanilla and beat.

2.  In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

3.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs and mix gently.

4.  If the mixture it too sticky to be rolled out, add a little more flour. (not too much or else the dough will be tough)

5.  Form into a ball, press down into a flat disc, wrap with clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

6.  Sprinkle  the surface with flour and roll the dough to about 1/2 cm thickness.  Cut out shapes. (dip the cutter in flour as you go)

7.  Bake in a preheated oven 180degC for 8 - 12 minutes, depending on how big your shapes are.  When they are ready, they will have more colour on the outside but soft in the middle.  Carefully move them to a wire rack to cool completely

8.  Make the icing by adding a small amount of hot water to icing sugar to form a thick paste.  Add colour as desired.

9.  Decorate the cookies.

This was fun for both Deanna and myself.  I will definitely make the time  to bake cookies again next year.

Cherrie

Deanna is in the kitchen and she's making chocolate stars

I love having Deanna in the kitchen and she loves being in the kitchen.  She is so much fun.  She is full of questions and enthusiasm.  Deanna loves cooking and baking and she already has a few of her own cook books.   I definitely have a budding cook on my hands.  You can find one of our creations here.

This recipe great for children.  It's easy and there isn't really any measurements. Deanna was able to make this all by herself with my supervision.

Get a block of chocolate and break into small squares.  We used Green and Black 70%

Cut out stars of ready made puff pastry sheets.

Place a square of chocolate in the middle of each star and brush the sides with beaten egg.

Place another star on top and seal the edges.

Brush the top with beaten egg.

Bake in  preheated oven 180deg for 10 minutes

Sprinkle with icing sugar.  

Happy Easter 2010!

This year, Easter was quite a hectic long weekend.  I had so many plans of baking and cooking up a storm but unfortunately, time got the better of me and didn't end up doing anything I had planned.

Good Friday was spent at my Mother-in-laws for lunch.  Gourmet fish and chips was on the menu.  It was light and delicious.

The children had their annual Easter Egg Hunt in my Mother-in-law's backyard

Thomas found one though he is still too young for chocolate

Deanna managed to find a basket full.

It has lately been tradition to spend the evening of Good Friday at the Botanical Gardens with my family.  However, my brother, @MrEd2U and family spent the long weekend at Rosebud.  So we took my parents out to Williamstown for a walk and dinner.

Deanna on her scooter

Thomas loved being on the swing

We had dinner at Williamstown Mussels.  My brother raves about this place  so we wanted to try it out for ourselves.  When we got there, there was only one person in front of us and we were told the wait will be 15 minutes.  I thought the wait wasn't too bad.  After ordering, the queue became a lot longer.  In fact, it was out the door.  I bet the wait would have been at least 30 minutes at that point.  My verdict?  We enjoyed the fisherman's basket and Hubby enjoyed his "Porky Burger"  The fish was fresh and the batter was light and crispy.

Easter Sunday was spent at Fawkner Park in South Yarra, celebrating our Nando's store's 3rd Birthday.  We also celebrated a great year in 2009 where our store is ranked 3rd in Victoria.  The staff that attended were treated to tasty make-your-own sandwiches and a Black Forest Birthday Cake.  Entertainment came in the form of one of the staff playing his guitar and another staff singing, making words up as he went along.  It was quite entertaining.

After lunch, we played a game of soccer.  We were so tired after that so we decided to just take it easy  the rest of the afternoon.  

On Easter Monday, we took the children to the Royal Botanical Gardens Melbourne where Guilfoyle's Volcano was opened  to the public.  It was originally built in 1876 and stored water for use in the Botanical Gardens but has been closed for  60 years.

As you can see, the long weekend was full of activity.  I vow to bake and cook up the storm that I wanted to, next year... hopefully.

Chickie Eggs inspried by JustJennRecipes.com

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Deanna In The Kitchen: Pineapple Slice

Silvermoon Dragon from Dragon Musings just celebrated  her two year blogoversary.  To celebrate, she decided to hold a blog event called Kids in the Kitchen.  I think this is a great idea.  Our children get their eating (and hopefully, cooking) habits from their parents so it's very important to teach them the good and the bad about food and ingredients.

My 3 year old, loves to help out in the kitchen.  Actually she gets terribly upset if you start without her, especially when it comes to making cakes and sweets. Since my son, was born, much of my attention has been on him, so I do like to have some private mum and daughter time.  We mostly spend this time, doing art and craft and of course, cooking and baking.  Yes, it does take a little longer and yes, it is messier but spending precious times together and coming up with delicious results stay with you in memory and heart long after the mess and dishes has been cleaned up.

For the Kids in the Kitchen Blog event, we made pineapple slice together.  Deanna loves to sitr and mix, so that was her job.  The only problem is that she likes to taste everything while cooking.  I have to stop her most times or else there won't be any ingredients left.  

• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 185g unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300ml thickened cream
• PINEAPPLE TOPPING
• 440g can crushed pineapple
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup custard powder

1. Preheat oven 180c.
2. Grease a 19cm x 30cm pan. Line base and sides with baking paper, extending 2cm above sides of pan. This will make pulling out the slice easier.
3. Combine coconut, sugar and flour in a bowl. Add butter and vanilla. Mix to combine. Press over base of prepared pan.
4. Cook in oven for 15 - 20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool completely in pan.
5. Meanwhile make the topping. In a saucepan over a medium heat, combine the pineapple topping ingredients. Keep stirring until mixture boils and thickens.
6. Pour evenly over the cooled base and spread evenly. Refrigerate until set.
7. Beat cream until firm peaks form and spread over set topping.
8. To serve, lift the pineapple slice from the pan and cut into squares.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/111847/pineapple-slice.html

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie