CHECKERED COOKIES

I made these cookies as a thank you for one of my friends as I thought the checkered pattern would be popular with his little son but the cookies didn't make it to his son .. he ate them himself! :) On the tray you can see the other pattern which I made as well.

MIXED FRUIT PIE

I felt like making a fruit pie but I had too much pastry so I made two. One is with two kinds of grapes and the other one is with kiwi and slices of peach. I can't wait for the spring & summer season in which you get lovely summer fruits for crumbles, pies and coulis.

Hello readers ..

It brings me lots (and lots!!!) of joy that people are actually looking at my blog, I never thought that anybody would be interested. I'm actually writing to you all to ask for a (little, really little) favour, I would love love love to get some followers, really would love it. Not that i'm so full of myself but to put a face on the readers.

I'll shut up now but it's really only a little click to follow .. really ..

MARSIPAN COVERED GENOISE

I made an airy genoise (very light vanilla cake), layers covered with strawberry jam and whipped cream and the top layer is covered with some more jam so the marsipan would stick nicely. It's best not to put too much on the layers as you you need to push it down a bit and you don't want it squirting out. I then covered the cake with a rolled out layer of marsipan. The flower was made from marsipan and a touch of chocolate to create the middle of the flower. I made one with strawberry jam and the other one with bits of cut up pineapple, quite teasty! :)

BANANA PIE WITH VANILLA CREME

This is a combination of home made pastry, vanilla creme and slices of banana soaked in crème de banane (a banana liqueur).

APPLE CRUMBLE PIE

this is my easy peasy apple crumble pie. It's a combination of apples, crumble and pastry. Made warm with some vanilla ice cream it can't go wrong!

CHOCOLATE PIECES WITH RAISINS AND NUTS

I melted milk chocolate, poured it onto baking paper to make (a kind of) circles, decorated them with nuts and two kind of raisins. You can also decorate them with lots of different items ranging from bits of dried fruits and a variation of nuts. I put them on a tray and let them cool in the fridge for a few hours. You can also make dark chocolate and white chocolate ones. This is a very easy gift to make and it gives it an extra charm if you make them yourselves in stead of buying the expensive ones from the shop.

APPLE PIE WITH CINNAMON TOPPING

This apple pie was made with a crunchy cinnamon topping, it's a slightly different recipe than the ones I've put on my blog already so let me know if you would like it.

PROFITEROLES

This is one of my favourites to make for guests. You can make it in advance and be creative with the filling; whipped cream, ice cream or custard.

Ingredients for 30 profiteroles:

• 225ml (7.fl oz) cold water
• 75g (3oz) butter
• 115g (4oz) plain flour
• a pinch of salt
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

Steps:

• Place the water and butter in a saucepan and heat gently until the butter melts, and then bring to the boil.
• Remove from the heat and tip in the flour. Beat with a wooden spoon until combined. Return to the heat and cook over a low heat for a few seconds until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan to form a ball. Do not over-beat.
• Gradually pour the eggs. Mix until just mixed and the pastry forms a stiff, glossy paste. Do not over-process or it will become too thin.
• Spoon walnut-sized balls onto a baking sheet, then bake for 20-25 mins until golden. Remove from oven, poke the underneath with a teaspoon, turn upside-down, then bake for 5 mins to dry out. Cool on a wire rack before filling.
• once cooled you can fill them with vanilla creme, whipped cream or ice cream. Above I've added a picture with whipped cream and vanilla cream.

TIP: It's important to tip the flour in as soon as the water boils, because losing too much liquid by evaporation will affect your pastry.

RASPBERRY COOKIES

LEMON COOKIES

ALMOND COOKIES

Ingredients:

• 375 grams grounded almonds
• 22o grams white granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon almond essence
• 3 egg whites
• 80 grams almond flakes

Steps:

• preheat the oven to 190°C
• mix the almonds, sugar and essence in a large bowl
• lightly beat the egg whites, only a minute or two as you don't want stiff peaks
• mix it in with the mixture until it turns into a paste
• sprinkle over the almond flakes
• take some of the mixture and create balls, half moon shapes or whatever shape you want it to be.
• put it onto baking paper in a tray in the oven and bake for about 15 until they are golden brown

VANILLA CUPCAKE WITH CHOCOLATE & CHERRIES

I used the classic cake recipe (can be found on my blog), added a table spoon of vanilla essence, dark chocolate chips and cherries for these cupcakes. Due to the dark chocolate you didn't really taste the cherries, I only added a few spoon fulls so I would have to add more next time. I got about 24 cupcakes out of the batter.

CHRISTMAS CUPCAKE

I made these cupcakes for our office Christmas party. I made the box myself and used it as a name tag. The cupcake was flavoured with chocolate, the frosting was vanilla and the little chocolate decoration was dark chocolate. I used this recipe , added chocolates sprinkles and devided it into cupcakes. I made about 24 cupcakes with that batter. For the frosting I used this butter cream frosting recipe but I left out the lemon zest and added lots of vanilla essence.

For the decoration I just melted some dark chocolate, spread it out on baking paper, let it set in the fridge and pushed out the shape. You can't let the chocolate set too much as you will break it when you push down the shape. I leave it in the fridge for a few minutes and then I try, if it's too soft I put it back in and if I notice that it's too hard I leave it out of the fridge for a bit to soften. I know it seems like a lot of work but actually it's just melting, spreading and picking the right time to push out the shape.

ANNIVERSARY CHOCOLATE CAKE

I made this cake for my grandparents their 60 year anniversary. That definitely deserves a nice cake so I made a chocolate cake which I covered with a layer of abricot marmelade and over that I spread a chocolate frosting. To top it off I made some chocolate decorations. I went a bit overboard to cover the cake but my grandmother loves dark chocolate so I had no choice :)