Guest Post: Wow your guests with cheat's brandy snaps!

Errbody! Please welcome Rachel, the babe behind Redcliffe Style. Get her to make you these brandy snaps sometime...

I love throwing dinner parties. Often they are spontaneous, but I still want to be able to produce yummy food at the drop of a hat and make it seem effortless. I have a few emergency meals that are awesome, and today I am going to share one of my favourite 5-minute desserts.

I usually have dinner party emergency supplies at the back of my pantry for moments like this. You can find brandy snap baskets, individual meringue shells, etc, in the supermarket and they last forever in the pantry waiting for moments like these.

Find wonderful fresh, seasonal fruit. Because I have young children, I always have fruit, and right now strawberries are gorgeous and cheap.

From my pantry:
Brandy snaps
sugar

From my fridge:
strawberries
butter
vanilla essence
thick cream (the better the cream, the nicer the results. King Island would be much nicer than the Bulla I used).

A little cheating way to make stewed strawberries - chop into pieces, add a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of butter, cover and microwave 45 seconds. If you want to add some alcohol, this works really well too.

Combine the cream with a few drops of vanilla essence and a teaspoon (or two) or sugar. To take it to the next level, you can use half cream, half mascarpone.

You need to compile the ingredients now. You should do this just before serving, as the brandy snap will be less snappy if they are sitting for too long. To fill the brandy snap tubes, I grab a sandwich bag and snip off the end. Fill the bag with the cream mixture and squeeze it out the hole and into the tube.

Put two filled tubes on each plate, a combination of stewed and fresh strawberries, and a blob of cream. You can always sprinkle with a little vanilla icing sugar to finish it off like a mastercher.

I hope your guests like it as much as mine do.

Rachel Wernicke is a 39-year-old married mother of two girls. After working as a paralegal in Brisbane for 14 years, she left life in the big city to focus on her family. Once the kids were both in school, it was time to get back to work. In a four-person house with five computers, two iPads, two iPhones, two iPod Touches and half a dozen cameras, there seemed only one direction to go. Rachel decided to learn more about the world of blogging and and indulge her passions for style and life on the Redcliffe Peninsula. In October 2011, she started RedcliffeStyle.com as a place to write about and photograph the things she enjoyed. Redcliffe Style is a light-hearted blog about lifestyle, fashion, beauty and food. The facebook page is here.

Pear + apple crumble with ginger

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So my pears were in grave danger of being an overripe mess (how do they go from rock-hard to almost too ripe so quickly? gah!), and to salvage them I decided to bake a little crumble. Just a quick one, perfect for the two of us on a wintry night. The ginger made it pleasantly pink, and imparted just enough unusual flavour to lift what could be a pretty boring pear-apple standard combination into something a little out of the ordinary. Who wouldn't want that?!

By all means double this for extra servings, but this was just right for what I wanted.

Ingredients

2 medium pears, cored and chopped

2 small apples, cored and chopped fine (I didn't peel mine)

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

juice 1/2 lemon

sprinkle of brown sugar

sprinkle of cinnamon

sprinkle of ground cloves

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1. Place chopped apples and pears in a small baking dish.

2. Stir in the ginger, lemon, sugar, cinnamon and cloves.

3. In a separate bowl, mix oats, flour, sugar and butter. Spread over the fruit.

4. Bake at 180C until cooked through and brown on top, 20-30 minutes.

Banana waffles and butterscotch sauce

Waffles were definitely something I never ate until I was an adult. That whole small-town girl thing, supermarket didn't stock such nonsense, and people definitely didn't have their own waffle irons. I'm not entirely convinced they were even available in Australia.

My mama bought me one for Christmas when I was about 23, and I was far too excited than a normal person would be at the prospect of making my own waffles. My only problem was I didn't have any kind of electric beater (or even hand-cranked one) with which to beat my egg whites, as the recipe suggested.

That so didn't stop me. I sat in front of the tv with a big bowl, some egg whites and a whisk and beat them by hand until they were firm enough. No kidding. It took me about an hour and I never, ever did it again. That poor waffle iron got put back into the cupboard until I could afford electric beaters!

I still don't have electric beaters, or a mixer of any kind. but I DO have an electric whisk attachment to my stick blender! Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Some people still look at me incredulously when I tell them I beat my butter and sugar by hand. I like to think it's because I'm old-fashioned and I enjoy having one bicep bigger than the other, but it more truthfully is because I'll never in my whole life ever be able to afford a KitchenAid mixer.

For these waffles, I used the basic waffle batter recipe that came with the waffle maker (whoa, extreme! I know!), except I added mashed banana to it. Easy peasy.

The butterscotch sauce is even easier. You have butter, sugar and cream? you have butterscotch sauce!

You got a door? You got a gym!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cream
3 tablespoons butter

Directions:
1. Bring all ingredients to a boil in a saucepan, then let simmer, stirring, two minutes until thickened.

Decadent Chocolate Mud Cake

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that all home cooks should be armed with a good mud cake recipe.  Even me, someone who isn't much of a fan of cake. To me, they're too cake-y (heh), oftentimes dry and lacking in flavour. I also didn't find mud cakes all that palatable - too dense, usually served cold (a travesty!) and weirdly textured. 

My husband said to me one day recently "so... you should probably do a chocolate mud cake for your blog", wink wink nudge nudge, so to appease him, I did. But it had to be something I wanted, so it had to be made with very little flour. I wanted sort of a cross between a pudding and a cake - no ghastly dry tasteless bits. A flourless chocolate cake with flour, if you will.

I also needed an excuse to wear my super-cute Smitten apron I had won through a promotion Liss from Frills in the Hills was running on Pinterest. If you've never been to Pinterest, stop what you're doing immediately and go look. It's porn for anyone with eyes and a house. 

Welcome to the Veggie Mama kitchen.

 Cutified x 1000 thanks to Smitten apron.

Sure I grease my tins with whole blocks of butter... don't you? ;)

Inspected and approved.

Even by the humans.

Ingredients
200g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
250g best-quality cooking chocolate
1/4 cup self-raising flour

Ganache:
150g cooking chocolate
3-4 tbs cream

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar.

2. Add eggs, one at a time.

3. Melt chocolate and add to the mix with the self-raising flour.

4. Bake at 180C oven for 45-50 minutes.

5. When cool, ice with ganache.

Ganache:

1. Melt chocolate with cream. Add more cream if chocolate is too thick.

We're fond of putting this in the microwave... then serving it with ice cream. Yep.


*Disclaimer - I am in no way affiliated with Smitten. I simply loved their products and was lucky enough to win one. They are awesome and you should check them out. They make candles too! 

Finish Quantum and the Chocolate Challenge

I'm a teensy bit competitive. Not the sweaty, athletic type, but if there's a challenge going on, I don't like to lose. You're looking at a crossword competition champion and inaugural ice-block-eating winner. Oh! and once I had to suck jelly through a straw with my hands behind my back. I won that too.

And if you don't like to lose, don't play me in Trivial Pursuit...

If you want to see my dreams die before your very eyes, play me in Scrabble (yes, I completely suck even though I'm a professional writer... go figure), Monopoly, checkers, chess (I have a deep-seated love-hate relationship with it) or poker. That being said, I'm a mean Boggler and Battleship-er.

When someone throws down a challenge, I more than likely accept. I want to triumph, dammit! I was encouraged by the good people at Finish to bake an uber-ooey-gooey caramel chocolate brownie and to wash the pan with their new Finish Quantum tablets in my dishwasher. I was skeptical. I mean, tons of the caramel from the eggs had melted through the brownie and was now stuck fast on the bottom of the pan. I couldn't even scrape it off. 

Well we couldn't have it going to waste now, could we?

Yet, the next morning both Veggie Dad and I were genuinely surprised to see a very clean pan indeed. 

Impressive...

Sure there was a little left over, but it brushed right off, and did I mention the baked-on caramel?

This killed me.

The fun part is that we got to eat these brownies. You can too! And if you make a ridiculous mess like I did, then email finishsamples@handlingmatters.com.au for your very own free sample of Finish Quantum. #winning!

Delicious easter egg brownies are constructed thusly:

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter

200g dark chocolate, chopped

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup plain flour, sifted

2 x 110g packets caramel easter eggs

cocoa powder, to serve

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan forced. Coat the baking dish in non-stick spray.

2. Place the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water on low heat. Don't let the bowl touch the water.

3. Cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes until smooth and combined. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar thoroughly until you have a silky consistency. Set aside for 5 minutes.

4. Stir in beaten eggs and flour. Pour a mixture into a prepared dish. Spread top evenly with a spatula. Press chocolate eggs into brownie mixture.

*Disclaimer: I was given this challenge and all the necessary items as a gift from Finish. I wasn't obliged to write anything at all. However, did I mention the baked-on caramel?!

The Royal Wedding and Prince William's favourite Banana Flan

I, for one, love a wedding. The gowns, the flowers, the love, the food. Especially the food. I made sure my wedding featured a buffet, as the first thing guests complain about is teeny portions, or worse... a cocktail reception. Turns out I wasn't really hungry and hardly ate a thing, but people still rave about the food almost four years later - I must have done something right!

Veggie Dad and I ready to eat. My poor wind-tunnel hair.

I was even so excited about the royal engagement, I made Eton Mess a little while ago. It was worth every sinful, cream-covered bite.

I can barely even begin to imagine how amazing the food will be at the royal wedding tonight of Prince William to Catherine Middleton. I'm almost more interested about that than I am in the dress... almost.

After a bit of digging around, I found out what Prince William's favourite dessert was, and figured I'd see if I could replicate what was once created in princess Diana's Royal kitchen by royal chef Darren McGrady.

Mr McGrady's website says that in 1993 he moved to Kensington Palace as their private chef, and for the four years until Diana's death, he took control of the family's day-to-day menus and the preparation and catering of private and official lunch and dinner parties.

One firm favourite was this banana flan. Crumbly shortcrust base, sweet pastry cream and bananas topped with melted apricot jam.

You think YOU could resist? I couldn't...

Mr McGrady also (very generously, I thought) provided the recipe for the oficial wedding cake Prince William has chosen to go along with the traditional fruit cake - Chocolate Biscuit Cake.

I am totally going to be having my own royal tea party to mark the occasion... what will you be doing?

Royally delicious.

Banana Flan recipe here

Vintage Lane - Raspberry Buns from Nana's War Cookbook

Warning: this post is going to contain a lot of pictures. Because this recipe book is so cool. I honestly wish it was in better condition :(

As I've mentioned before, I couldn't make it to my grandmother's funeral, so my mother packed up some of her old cookbooks and aprons and brought them back for me. This is one of them. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the name is, nor when it was made - save to guess it was around the time of World War II, as there's a lot of info and ads geared to the goings-on of that time.

Hello. My name is _________________



Fire stove baking! As compared with Electric stove baking.

As with most of the books from this time, there is a bunch of information at the start about various things. So many tests to see if your oven is ready, etc... we once had a wood stove. I felt like I lived in the House on the Prairie.

Here's something you don't see every day though - making a will! I guess it was pretty important in times of war to ensure everyone was covered, and as recipe books were usually the bible of the housewife it makes sense that this kind of information was available to them easily.

There is also a preface by one Dorothy M. Giles, who politely informs us she has a Diploma of Domestic Economy. What I wouldn't give for one of those! Hailing as the 'sometimes' head of the Cookery Section of Swinburne Technical College, Glenferrie, Victoria (when did that section disapper?!), she has many years practical experience. Probably not in will-making, however.

She confidently recommends to all users of the book to patronise the advertisers therein, and also to use the ingredients advertised. Ok.

Ms Giles also regrets having to increase the price to 3/3, which has been approved by the Prices Commissioner (nice guy) - Approval No 1790 - and is necessitated "owing to the other paper being unprocurable and the super-calendar paper used in this issue being much more expensive," and goes on to say there is some compensation in the superior appearance of the book with its fancy new paper. Probably the sole reason it's still together all these years later!

There are recipes for soup, fish, meats, meat pies and pasties, chicken, cold meat dishes, economies, vegetables (with a little section on rules for preparation), steamed puddings, milk puddings, boiled puddings, cold sweets, jellies and creams, gelatine (an advertiser), pastry, pies, sauces, sandwich cakes, butter cakes, wedding cake, icings and fillings, biscuits, scones, bread, tea cakes, yeast goods, breakfast, eggs, casseroles, preserves, savories, and apologies about the lack of invalid cooking, which you can find in another book.

om nom not.

hm cake + brain... not a delicious combination.

Not sure what's weirder... a good daughter pudding or one made out of cabinets?

An example of the photos. There aren't many.



This was a popular page! Honey cakes next.



This poem cracked me up. How cute.

Plenty of "how to get a man" hints...

 I found this tucked away among the pages.

Still have no idea what this recipe makes!

"I'll have some propaganda with my buns, thanks."

You've been told...

LOVE IT.

There were so many recipes in here I wanted to make - from apple shortbread with lemon cream, to little honey cakes and cheese straws. But I couldn't go past the raspberry buns recipe - they sounded so cute! When I was a kid I used to love reading Enid Blyton, and she had a character called Mr Pinkwhistle. He had a cat for a housekeeper that always made him chocolate buns, and I always wanted to eat them! I will make chocolate buns one day... soon...

Anyway, this recipe gave amounts in pounds and gills (cute, right?) so I have adapted in case you'd like to make them yourself. Good for afternoon tea or as a home-made treat in a lunch box :)

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

70ml milk

1/2 cup ground rice/rice flour

1 1/2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder.

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar, add the egg and the milk.

2. Then the flour and baking powder, and mix into a fairly stiff paste.

3. Roll into small balls and hollow the centre of each.

4. Insert a little raspberry jam and close up. Dip into the white of an egg and put on a greased tray.

5. Bake in a quick oven. They will crack during the baking and show the jam.

They were so nice - a lot like a jam drop, but with the jam inside. I found it much easier to pat them into discs and pop the jam on top, then pinch closed and form into a ball from there. But that probably means the jam stayed more inside the bun, much like a donut and not a cracked-open jam-filled delight. It's up to you! for me, the "quick oven" was 250C for 20 minutes-half an hour.

Valentine's Day: Heart-Shaped Sponge Cake

A few days ago, my oven door broke off. Yes, off. A tragedy. Was my oven unaware that it was approaching Valentine's Day and Veggie Mama being unable to bake cute treats for Valentine's Day equals severe trauma?

Trauma. Capital T.

Veggie Mama does not do store-bought.

Plan B must be devised. Enter purchased sponge cake. As much as I grimaced while selecting it from the shelf and taking it home to pretty up, I actually felt quite relieved that I didn't have to turn the oven on in the middle of summer and raise the temperature of my little hot-box house by ninety-five degrees.

Please don't tell my oven. I still love him/her.

The result was the fastest and probably easiest Valentine's Day dessert I've ever made. And it was divine! Whipped cream will do that.

All that needs to be done is to cut the sponge into heart shaped pieces, sandwich together with a good strawberry jam and sweetened whipped cream, sprinkle over icing sugar and pop a berry on top. Dessert for two, fuss-free.





Happy Valentine's Day xox

Vintage Lane - Chocolate Mocha Cake from Gold Crest Recipes

Normal and Formal - for every occasion!

Vintage Lane is going to be a regular feature on Veggie Mama - to bring you up to speed, go here, or click the "Vintage Lane" tab.
Cute, right?

This book is part of a collection given to me by my sister, and it was once owned by her husband's grandma. She wrapped them up all pretty in a box and gave them to me for Christmas. Good sister!

The introduction tells us that there was "tremendous demand" for copies of Gold Crest's last recipe book, containing "inspiring and practical recipes to please every member of Queensland families".

I have to tell you, the cake I made did just that. Not much of a cake eater, I ate three cupcakes in a row, and I even received glowing reports from Veggie Dad.

The contents include recipes for cakes, puddings, pastry and biscuits, as well as "Special Meat Dishes" (goulash, salmon balls, casserole chops and more), fillings (not the dentist kind... though they might send you there), cookery hints, weights and measures and a list of equipment one should own when setting up their own kitchen.

The Faithful Rainbow Cake is presented in full colour, and we are told it has been reproduced by popular demand. Looks good to me!

Pretty in Pink

There's even an Oriental Cake (which only has cinnamon, cocoa and vanilla for flavouring, so I'm slightly confused... ), Rice Custard Pudding, Cornflake Tart, Cornish Pasties, Iced Vo-Vo Biscuits, and Monte Carlos, among others.

I can't tell when this cookbook was made, as a google search of just about every word combination I can think of comes up with nothing. It was obviously a time when offal was a regular feature in a cook's repertoire...

Om Nom Not:

Tasty: so subjective!

and now for the featured recipe... Chocolate Mocha Cake

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups Gold Crest self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons cocoa
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup cold milk
2 teaspoons coffee essence (I used two tablespoons espresso)

Mocha Frosting:
2 cups sifted icing sugar
pinch salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
3 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 tablespoons coffee
1/2 teaspoon Gold Crest vanilla essence

Directions for cake:

Sift the flour, salt, soda, cinnamon and cocoa together twice. Add coffee essence to milk. Cream the butter, add sugar gradually. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sifted dry ingredients, alternately with liquid mixture, a little at a time. Beat very smooth. Bake in two greased and floured 7in sandwich tin in moderate oven 30 minutes.

Directions for frosting:

Sift the sugar, salt and cocoa together. Cream butter until soft. Add part of sugar mixture gradually, beating thoroughly. Add remaining sugar mixture alternately with warm coffee, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla.


This made a very light cake, with a rich, buttery frosting - really delicious. The batter was so fluffy, and was interesting to see - the addition of cocoa only made it a very light brown, like the cakes I used to make when I was a kid (I only had one recipe book and it was sooo old), compared to the deeper browns of mudcakes and boxed cake mixes.

Verdict?





NOM!