Hard Toffee, a retro treat

It must be well over 20 years since I last had Hard Toffee, but even after all that time the aroma from the cooking process bought back vivid memories of my childhood.   This recipe is for a very Hard Toffee, the type you can't bite or chew but is absolutely delicious to savour.

It is a simple recipe, but is not one for the Children to assist with as the Toffee is extremely hot.  Why not make a batch these school holidays.

Enjoy

Hard Toffee

Recipe: (makes 24)

Note:  This recipe is not for Children, the boiling point of sugar is very, very hot and can cause nasty burns.

• 3 cups caster sugar
• 30 grams butter
• 6 tablespoons hot water
• 6 tablespoons white vinegar
• 100's and 1000's to decorate

Method

1. Place 24 patty cases in patty cake pans.
2. Place all ingredients (except the 100's and 1000's) in a small saucepan and stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Bring to boil then simmer for 10 to 15 minutes - without stirring.
4. To test if the Toffee is ready, place a small amount in a glass of cold water, when ready you will hear a  crack.  For less hard Toffee, reduce the simmer time.
5. When ready, remove Hard Toffee mixture from heat and leave to rest until the bubbles subside.
6. Pour mixture into patty cases.
7. Garnish with the 100's and 1000's and leave for about 1 hour to cool and set.
8. Enjoy

Affogato - Wicked Wednesday

For a simple, yet elegantly presented dessert it is hard to go past a classic Italian Affogato.  This simple dish can be prepared in less than 5 minutes, is absoluetly Devine.  It could be a nice way to end a dinner party - or just a warming midweek treat.

Enjoy

Affogato

Recipe:

Ingredients per person:  

• 1 / 2 good scoops  Good Quality Vanilla Ice Cream
• 1 shot espresso Coffee (I add a teaspoon of sugar to the coffee)
• 1 shot Frangelico liqueur 

Method

1. Place the ice-cream in a glass or bowl.
2. Slowly pour the espresso and Frangelico over the Ice-cream
3. Enjoy

Bogan Party (Bogan Bingo)

We recently attended a fantastic school fundraising event called Bogan Bingo.  Bogan Bingo is a night to dust off your '80s bogan clothes (or make a quick trip to an Op Shop), dance to some fab retro music, play Bingo, partake in air guitar, ping pong competitions and watch the all important crowning of the nights king and queen Bogan.

This was a really great night, we had a lot of Shazza's and Dazza's, Mullets, Ugg boots and visible underwear - a very classy event.

The event had self catering so we all got to test our bogan cooking skills.  After much thought and research I decided on a few dishes to grace our bogan table.

Starting at Dessert, any self respecting bogan could not resist a can of VB.  My VB cans were actually Chocolate Rum Ball mixture formed into the shape of beer cans.  I then used green fondant to cover the Rum Ball mixture added a VB with some white icing and used cachous balls to make the rim and ring pulls.

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VB Can - Bogan Bingo

Another choice dish was good old cheese, Kabana and Savoy biscuits.  I had a retro pressed bamboo bowl for serving and some classy umbrella's to decorate.

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Kabana, Cheese and Savoy's - Bogan Bingo

One of my favourite dishes was bogan canapés.  I used savoy biscuits and topped with cream cheese and slices of cherry tomato, I then added smoked oysters, cocktail pickle onions or slices of gherkin.  Topped with more umbrella's you have another classy dish.

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Canapes of Cream Cheese, Tomato, Smoked Oysters, Pickles and Gerkin - Bogan Bingo

For some added extras for your bogan table try Nobby's nuts, classy stubby holders, plastic cockail glass animals, party poppers and a good bubble gum.  Remember to use classy serving bowls, you can easily collect retro wooden bowls at most op shops.

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Table extra's - Bogan Bingo

If you do get a chance to get to one of these nights, they are really a lot of fun, so dust of your dancing shoes and find your inner Bogan.

Chilli Hot Chocolate - Wicked Wednesday

As winter descends and the days become shorter and colder we all look to ways of staying warm and enjoying the indoors.  I find a great lazy Sunday afternoon doesn't get much better than a Chilli Hot Chocolate, a good book and an open fire.  The combination works really well at alleviating the winter gloom.  On the other Hand, my children have not embraced the flavour of Chilli Hot Chocolate, so I find I'm also making a pot of regular Hot Chocolate, with Strawberries on the side.

So, when you next have a lazy afternoon at home, try a pot of Chilli Hot Chocolate.

Enjoy.

Chilli Hot Chocolate and regular Hot Chocolate

Recipe:

Chilli Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:  

• 100 g good Dark Chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
• 3 cups Milk
• 1 tablespoon Caster Sugar (or to taste)
• Chili Powder

Method

1. Heat Milk in a saucepan.
2. When warm, break the chocolate into the milk and stir until melted.
3. Bring to almost a simmer and add a pinch of Chilli.  Taste and add more Chilli if required.
4. If required, slowly add sugar until you reach the desired taste.
5. Enjoy

Note:  For milk chocolate substitute the Dark Chocolate for Milk Chocolate and omit the Chill

Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding - Wicked Wednesday

Normally I reserve a Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding for a cold winter night but decided this week will be an exception.  I just love it when you break into these puddings and you have a lava like eruption of Chocolate sauce ooze over the plate.  I like Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding with a good Vanilla ice-cream and Raspberries.  But it also works wonderfully with thick whipped cream.

Enjoy

Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding

Recipe:

Ingredients:  

• 60 g butter
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 3/4 cup packed cup brown sugar
• 2 cups boiling water
• Ice cream, raspberries and dusted cocoa to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180c.
2. Grease a 6 cup capacity baking dish.
3. Melt the butter with the milk in a small saucepan.
4. Add the vanilla, caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa.
5. Mix well and pour into the baking dish.
6. Combine the brown sugar and remaining 1 tablespoon of the cocoa in a bowl with 2 cups of boiling water.
7. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, and pour carefully over the back of a spoon over the batter.
8. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the top is firm.
9. Dust with cocoa and serve with fresh raspberries and ice.cream
10. enjoy.

Mothers Day Cupcakes

With Mothers Day only a few short days away I've been busy thinking of a simple Mothers Day Cupcake design that would be easy for children to make.  So after some trial and error I've settled on a very simple approach that only requires Royal icing, Sparkle Gel and small Chocolate hearts. 

I hope you all have a fantastic Mothers Day and as you sit back and relax on Sunday morning, remember to ask your children for some Mothers Day Cupcakes.

Enjoy.

Mothers Day Cupcakes

Lemon Slice - Wicked Wednesday

While this is a very short working week with both Easter Monday and Anzac day holidays,  I couldn't let a Wednesday slip by without a Wicked Wednesday post.   This week I've made my favourite slice, which is the humble Lemon Slice.  Lemon Slice is a wonderful afternoon tea and is perfect with a good coffee. Equally Lemon Slice can be made for a high tea or just a treat for school.

This slice is best removed from the fridge 30 mins prior to slicing.

Enjoy 

Lemon Slice

Recipe:

Ingredients:  

Slice

• 2 Packets Marie Biscuits
• 1 tin Condensed Milk
• 250 g Butter 
• 3 tablespoons Lemon Juice

Icing

• 2 1/2 cups Icing Sugar
• 3 tablespoons softened Butter
• Grated Rind of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice

Method

Slice

1. Crush the biscuits in a food processor.
2. Melt the butter.
3. Mix together the crushed biscuits, Condensed Milk, Melted Butter and Lemon Juice.
4. Press into a slice tin and place in the fridge to cool and set.

Icing

1. Shift the icing sugar.
2. Mix together the icing sugar, softened butter, lemon juice and rind.
3. When smooth, ice the slice and return to the fridge for the icing to set.
4. Enjoy.

Carrot Favours bags - Tutorial

Recently we created a Bunny Birthday Party for one of my daughters.  One of our favourite items from this party were these cute carrot favour bags, which we filled with lots of treats.

They are not difficult to make and the children really loved them.

While we made fairly large Carrot Favour Bags, you can easily vary the size and create exactly what you want.

Today we are posting a simple 5 stage tutorial,  I hope you give them a try at your next Bunny Birthday Party.

To see this party in action visit our Bunny Birthday Party.

Enjoy.

 

Step 1

To create these Carrot Favour Bags you require :

• Orange card, I used scrap booking card, 
• Light and Dark Green Crepe paper
• Glue, sticky tape, sissors and some rubber bands

Step 1 - How to make a Carrot Favour Bag

Step 2

Roll the orange card into the desired shape and glue the underside.  I then placed a rubber band around the carrot to stop them from un-rolling while the glue dried.  I then cut around the top opening to form a even circle. 

Step 2 - How to make a Carrot Favour Bag

Step 3

Lay the light green Crepe paper over the Dark green Crepe Paper. Determine how long you want your carrot leaves.  Double that and cut along the whole length of the crepe paper.  Then cut that into smaller sections, as per your carrot size e.g. double the circumfrance measure.

Fold the crepe paper in half and then fold the fold the bottom edge up once for strength.  Cut slits from the other end as per the picture.

Step 3 - How to make a Carrot Favour Bag

Step 4

Finally we folded the leaves in half and taped then to the inside of the Carrot Favour Bags, which we then filled with treats.  

Step 4 - how to make a Carrot Favour bag

Step 5

We displayed our Carrot Favours in a box we found in the recycle cardboard bin at Cosco, and added thank you cards from our Bunny Party Printable Range. 

Step 5 - How to make a Carrot Favour Bag

Chocolate Easter bunnies - Wicked Wednesday

With Easter only a few days away I decided to try my hand at creating Bunny Lollypops using chocolate moulds.  This is a first for me and I can report it was a straight forward process.

For the chocolate, we melted Cadbury milk and dream chocolate (not cooking chocolate) and poured into a mould after first giving the mould a light spray of Bakels Sprink.  Bakels Sprink was a wonder spray I discovered a few months ago which is a baking release agent that works great with anything you have to get out of a mould in one piece.

I used Some cute bunny moulds from Roberts Confectionery.  Added a ribbon bow and that was all - a very straight forward process.

Enjoy

Chocolate Bunny Lollypops

Bunny Birthday Party

My middle daughter has a total love of all small animals, so it was only time before we had to have a Bunny birthday party. We had a lot of fun creating the dessert table for this party.  We used both carrot and bunny cake pops and carrot and bunny cookies.   To this we added cup cakes and layered jelly.  Our Birthday Cake is a delightful cottage Vegetable Garden, with naughty bunnies trying to eat the vegetables.  We created a printable range featuring bunnies in blues, mauves and red, this range will soon be available in our shop.

To style the bunny dessert table we used a collection of country cottages and bunnies from the Sylvanian Family range, these really complemented the theme of the party.

For a different type of favour bag, we created paper carrots, that we filled with treats, these carrots were very effective and we will soon post a tutorial.  For activities we had real bunny feeding, a bunny scavenger hunt and a bunny photo booth.

A great day overall and a great bunny birthday theme, enjoy.

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Bunny Cake Pops

The ideas for the bunny cake pops came from Bakerella and while they did take some time they were a big hit with the kids.  For the carrots I made cone shaped cake pops and created sugar paste leaves, using a silicon leaf press.  The carrots are displayed in a styrofoam circle (available from cake supply shops) with a cute picket fence to keep the bunnies away .

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Bunny and Carrot Cake Pops

Dessert tables are the place to let your creativity run wild.  Our Bunny Dessert Table held lot's of bunny edible treats and the rabbit range of Sylvanian families.  Our Printable collection includes the cake toppers and Jelly toppers.

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Bunny Party Dessert Table

The Sylvanian Families range provided a great feature on the dessert table.

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Bunny Party Dessert table with Printables from Chicpartyideas.com

The bunny cake pops looked really effective, but do take time to create.  They can be made the day before but leave a good couple of hours aside for creating the detail in the faces.   

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You have to have cup cakes at a party, we've created these cute bunny cake toppers, just perfect for bunny parties.

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Bunny Party - cup cake printables

We used a three types of cookie cutters for our cookie bunnies, and found a delightful carrot cookie cutter to create some carrots.

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Bunny and Carrot Cookies

Bunny cookies

Carrot Cookies

Vegetable Garden Birthday Cake

I had a lot of fun making this cake, I'm not a cake decorator so I have to select designs that are fairy straight forward and do not require too many techniques and the Vegetable garden was just perfect..  

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bunny party - Vegetable Garden Cake

Vegetable Garden cake

While this party did have a lot of sweets, we included a simple vegetable and dip platter which we called bunny food.

Vegetable and Dip Platter.

Party Favours

These cute Carrot Party Favours turned out really well, they were simple to make but look really effective and like a real carrot.  We filled the carrots with goodies and included a Thank You card from our Bunny printable range.

I actually found our carrot crate in the cardboard recycle box crate at Cosco.  It looked great and did not require any work.

Carrot Party Favours

We will shortly post a tutorial on how we made these cute carrot party favours 

Carrot party favours

Games and Activities

At this party we had real bunny feeding, a great bunny scavenger hun and a photo booth.

The bunny feeding station was a hit with the children, I used a commercial bunny food and small cup cakes wrappers.

Bunny Party - Bunny Feeding Station

I'm sure the bunnies had as much fun as the children, they were the centre of attention for a few hours and had lots of pat's and hugs.

Bunny Party - Bunny Feeding

The Scavenger Hunt game includes a sign, envelopes for the cards and nine treasure hunt cards to be placed around your house and garden.  

Bunny Party - Scavenger Hunt Game

Using Blu tac, hide the cards around your garden.  Remember to make it a challenge, but not too hard. I tend to hide all the same type of card in the same area, this way the children can swap clues to find the cards.

Bunny Party - Scavenger Hunt Cards

I created a simple photo booth where the children could select a real bunny or a plush bunny and a set of bunny ears.  Out of interest they all choose the really bunnies.

Olivia and Tibbles at the Photo Booth

Our Printable Range

Our Printable range includes invitations, signs, long wrappers, cup cake toppers, Thank you notes, mini bunting, happy birthday bunting, tent buffet cards.  These will shortly be available from out shop

Bunny Party Invitation

Bunny Birthday - mini bunting

Bunny Birthday - Long wrappers

Happy Birthday - Customised Birthday Banner