The Christmas Rush

You know what the problem of Christmas is? You are so busy getting everything sorted all month for the big day, that little things don't get done.

I made all these really yummy treats to share on Christmas day. I got a lot of positive feedback about it all, and I wanted to make a really cool blog post showing you all, photos, recipes etc. Well, um, I never did get around to taking those photos! But I want to share the recipe for what I thought was the winner on the day (and I think it was the favourite of pretty much everyone) - gingerbread cake balls! (yep, them cake balls again lol). So christmassy, and something a little bit different. I actually got the idea from Pinterest, from this blog here - linky link. I, however, don't do packet mixes, so I baked my own gingerbread loaf from scratch - and I have to say, my recipe its pretty damned awesome. So here it is

Gingerbread Loaf

50g Butter
1Tbsp Golden Syrup
1 egg
1/2c brown sugar
1c flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
(I then also add some grated fresh ginger in, just to make it extra yummy!)
1 tsp baking soda
3/4c milk

Melt together the butter and golden syrup.
Mix together the egg and sugar. Add the syrup mix.
Mix all ingredients bar the baking soda and milk.
Mix baking soda and milk together. Gradually add to mix, and stir in.
Pour into a greased/lined loaf tin

Bake at 180c for 35mins

Now, this particular recipe makes a very flat loaf in my loaf tin, so the last time I made it (for these cake balls) I doubled it, and it was the perfect loaf! I cannot tell you how long it took to bake though, it did take quite some time. But the end result was this beautifully moist, gingerlicious loaf that I nearly cried when I had to crumble it up to make the cake balls haha!

Right, now to make them into cake balls. Just use your fingers and crumble the loaf up (cake balls are the perfect way to use up cake that has failed... even if its dry and overcooked, cake balls make them so moist and yummy). Make up an icing, I just made a very plain vanilla icing (ya know, a knob of butter, however much icing sugar, a dash of milk, a splash of vanilla and voila!), and then SLOWLY add it into the crumb mixture. The trick is to not put too much icing in, you only want enough to bind the crumbs together and no more. Though even if you do put too much in, they will still taste fine, just be a lot wetter in texture.
Then chill the cake ball mix in the fridge for a while (I actually prepared the mixture a day early, just as I ran out of time to finish them haha). Once they are nice and cold, start rolling them into balls (think rum ball size).
Now to finish the cake balls, you have a couple of choices. I choc dipped half of them in white chocolate (like in the link) but I hadn't bought enough white choc melts (and being Christmas Eve I was NOT going to brave the supermarket for more). So the other half I rolled in coconut. And you know what? I think I preferred the coconut ones, the white chocolate gets a bit much after a while, but you can eat more coconut ones in one sitting. Oh, did I mention I put on 1.6kg over this past week? Yeah, all my goodies along with the usual Christmas fare have not been diet friendly lol!
Anyways, other flavour cake balls I have done in the past I have rolled in cocoa - but the cake ball itself has to be really sweet to offset the cocoa, and then others I have rolled in drinking chocolate as that's sweet itself (or if you have no drinking chocolate, mix cocoa and icing sugar together).

I made a few other truffles and stuff too, maybe I'll blog about them another day! It is school holidays now, and being Summer I am spending less time indoors and more time at the beach and school pool, so while I will try to blog about some fun things we are getting up to, I may be slack about it!

I discovered Pinterest - uh oh!

So a couple of weeks ago I discovered pinterest. I'm a bit slow compared to many. But I found it. And sure enough, I was hooked. I now have so many ideas, so many recipes to try. So many craft projects. Oh I am so inspired! But reality hits and I don't actually have the time or money to undertake most of these projects. Bugger. But it feels pretty damned cool to be feeling this inspired... I used to be pretty artistic before I had kids. But then I guess I got lazy. And cheap. Why does everything have to cost money? So instead of being arty, I tend to bake a lot. In my blog you will probably come across a lot of yummy recipes I am trying out. A lot of them are thanks to pinterest...


Which takes me to today. I am baking something I found on pinterest. This blog post here, from The Girl Who Ate Everything - Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies!


I made my own changes of course. I made my brownies from scratch as opposed to a box mix (you see, I'm too cheap to buy box mixes). I had a bit of a hiccup - appears I hadn't written on my shopping list that we were practically out of icing sugar! Not to worry, I sent hubby and the 4yo off to the shops to save the day.


Drool over this! Watch your arse and hips grow, just by looking! Now go make some, they are seriously far too good to just look at. And I suspect they would be even better if you aren't using dairy free alternatives... as you can see on the chocolate topping, there is oily residue left over from the "spread" I used... don't know if it's just how I mixed it, or what, as I haven't tried it with normal butter....

Here is my altered recipe:


Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies


Brownie Base - (recipe my good friend Nicola gave me)

200g butter (I used budget table spread -its dairy free, it works... oh and its cheap!)

1/2 c cocoa

2 c brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 c flour

2 eggs

optional ¾ c choc melts added after eggs

Preheat oven to 180ºc. Melt butter and cocoa in a large saucepan. Add sugar and vanilla, then remove from heat. Add flour then eggs. Add chocolate melts (optional). Mix all together, then put into a lined and/or greased 13" by 9" slice pan. Bake for 20 minutes. 

Once the brownies have thoroughly cooled down, give them about an hour or so, then follow on with the rest of the recipe

Peanut Butter Filling

1/2  cup butter, softened (again, budget table spread - works fine)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I used crunchy because that's what we happen to have, it just gives a more bitty texture)

2 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons milk - (Pams rice milk I used here, its fine)

In medium bowl, beat filling ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over brownie base.

Now onto the topping:

Topping

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used Pams choc drops, they are dairy free)
1/4 cup butter (again, Budget table spread, I was a lil concerned it wouldn't set properly but its fine, however seems to have some excess oil lol)

In small microwavable bowl, microwave topping ingredients uncovered on High 30 to 60 seconds; stir until smooth. Cool 10 minutes; spread over filling. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set.

For brownies, cut into 9 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.

YUM. I have just been on a weight loss mission the past 3 months. I have finally reached my goal weight (BTW, if you are looking to lose weight, I HIGHLY recommend http://www.myfitnesspal.com/).... Somehow, after eating these brownies, I think I will have to start tracking my calories again haha!