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!

Hotcakes, hot off the press

I have been without my computer for a couple of weeks, it got a nasty virus that wiped everything. Not to worry, it's all fixed now. It's now school holidays and I was hoping to do lots of fun things with the kids, ya know, to make for some interesting blog posts. Well somebody out there had other ideas. We spent the first week catching up with people, and had big plans for adventures for the 2nd week. Well, we got sick didn't we! From Friday till today I still feel like absolute s***. A nasty cold, it's ripped right through the family. Ruined all our plans.

Today I am feeling half human though, I can actually move from the couch for more than a minute at a time. Mr6 asked for hotcakes for lunch. Normally I might make crepes or pikelets... hotcakes aren't really common around here, except for at McDonalds lol. So I googled for recipes - I needed one I could make dairy (or at least lactose) free. Which brings me to a product plug...

Anchor Zero Lacto. Its still got dairy protein in it, so not good for dairy allergy people, but for people who are lactose intolerant like most of my family, its perfect. And it's the same price as rice milk. I only buy it for cooking with though, as its easier to buy rice milk to keep in the pantry till needed. It is as close to milk taste as you can get for a lactose free product - its not sweet or anything like rice or soy milk so it doesn't taint flavours. Drinking it straight however, it tastes a little like sour milk lol. It gets a thumbs up from me.

Anyways, back to the hotcakes. I found this recipe here. And I made it using the Anchor zero lacto milk, with a tablespoon of vinegar per cup to make it lactose free buttermilk. (Previously I have made buttermilk the same way with rice milk, but its just not really the same is it? lol).

And the result? Beautiful, light, fluffy hotcakes, tasting and looking much the same as the ones from Maccas! Shown here smothered in maple syrup - yummy!

A classic, with a twist

I never was a fan of devilled sausages. I love sausages, I love apples, but to me, they just don't go together. Or at least, the cooked apples just feel wrong with the sausages. Its a texture thing more than anything I think.

Anyways, we got this cookbook a while back - The Watties Kiwi Favourites Cookbook, and in it was a recipe for devilled sausages. Hubby and the older 2 boys would often cook dinner most weekends, and would normally follow recipes from this book. Nobody had tried the devilled sausages recipe yet, but I randomly had the urge to make it one night, and started it, only to realise we were out of apples. So that's when I started adapting this recipe.... I dug out a tin of pineapple, and thus my love of devilled sausages began - it just worked perfectly. The pineapple stays firm when cooked and the flavours are divine. It tastes so good, that I felt the need to share it.

So here's my revised recipe....

Kate's Devilled Sausages

8 Sausages (I use 14 - a kilo of countdown's precooks - to feed my troop... I then cut the sausages up, easier for the kids... you don't need to use precooks, I only do cuz they are cheap)
an onion, sliced (I cut into quarters then slice, easier for the kids)
1 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp Vegemite/marmite (I tend to do 1tsp)
1/4 - 1/2 c tomato sauce (I tend to do more as I use more sausages)
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce (a decent big squirt does the trick)
1/2 tsp prepared mustard (I tend to do about 1tsp, for kicks)
A tin of pineapple in *juice* (not syrup). (I use pineapple rings and cut them up into pieces, as the pineapple pieces are too chunky for my liking. You could use crushed pineapple if you don't like hot chunks of pineapple) - Keep the juice

In a non stick pan, brown the sausages on all sides. Then add the onion and cook for 2 minutes.
Dissolve the Vegemite/marmite in the boiling water then add to the pan with the rest of the ingredients (minus the juice).
Simmer for about 10 minutes, then I add the juice, and simmer for a further 10 mins or until the sauce has thickened.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes, and steamed vegies (or if you forget to do the vegies, quickly pop some frozen mixed veg into the microwave like I had to last night, oops!).