Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter this month's Treat Petite. Without further ado, here are this months delicious recipes to inspire us all - with some early Easter additions too.
Next Helen at Family Friends Food made fortune cookie hamantaschen - like fortune cookies but tastier! Made for Purim these look great.
Corina at Searching for Spice whipped up some chocolate and banana cupcakes with a hidden surprise - a creme egg. Yes please!!
The Good Egg Foodie used some leftover to knock up a batch of Lemon Raisin Flapjacks. Never thought of using lemon in flapjacks but it does sound good.
A savoury treat from Kate the Gluten-Free Alchemist who made these Scotch Eggs which are also dairy and nut free. No matter what they are free from, I want one!
Caroline at Caroline Makes used her slow cooker to make these ever so indulgent looking butterscotch puddings.
Sarah at Tales from the Kitchen Shed made homemade belgian buns. The icing on top looks so tempting to me I just want to bite right in!
My Treat Petite co-host Kat, The Baking Explorer made Bailey's cheesecake brownies. Adding booze to brownies is ingenious!
Claire, The Foodie Quine, made Scottish Tablet and added creme eggs to it for a fab Easter twist on an already delicious treat. I must give this a try!
Chonnie at Baked to Imperfection also made Oreo Brownies and linked these into Treat Petite. I love brownies and oreos so yes please on both counts.
My own entry next, some (brick) red velvet cookies made for Red Nose Day. These were soft and cake like in texture and perfect for a Red Nose Day bake sale.
Ali at Fix Me a Little Lunch made mini strawberry chocolate galettes which was inspired by a book 'Dinner with Edward' by Isabel Vincent.
Charlotte, in her Lively Kitchen, made super cute hidden heart cupcakes. I loved seeing how the hearts got in there - so clever!
Choclette at Tin and Thyme made goji berry bliss balls which were whipped up in her super blender. They look healthy and scrummy.
Lastly Nicola and Something Sweet Something Savoury made No Bake Chocolate Easter Fridge Cake. This is loads of chocolate and biscuits and syrup, mini eggs, creme eggs - you name it! Great for an Easter buffet!
Thanks to everyone again and visit Kat, the Baking Explorer for next month's Treat Petite.
We’ve had a bit of a disaster in the kitchen this week! We
are waiting on workmen coming back to fix a big leak in the outlet pipe.
We’re having to use our utility room for washing up and I’m
afraid nothing was baked this weekend, what with workies removing kitchen
cabinets to get to pipes, the contents of cupboards everywhere, a complete
guddle as you can imagine.
Not to fear, this provides me with the opportunity to share
with you a couple of items I have been sent to try out, which would actually
make good last minute Mother’s Day pressies.
Firstly, not food related (unless you are a food blogger),
but something the majority of us use on a daily basis. A keyboard from Penclic.
I was sent their C2 wired mini keyboard. I have been giving
this a try at my work over the past few weeks, rather than in the study at
home.
The keyboard is a Scandinavian design which features full
functionality with ergonomics meaning this is a very comfortable keyboard to
use. It’s much smaller than my old keyboard and has a 5mm profile so your
wrists are in a much more natural position meaning less chance of developing
repetitive strain injury.
It’s very quiet too, so no clunky clicking of keys when I am
typing (I’m quite fast actually!). I do like this keyboard and will continue to
use it.
The only down side is the lack of a number pad at the side.
But this is easily remedied by hitting numlock and using letter keys assigned a
number in the same format as a number pad. But I have gotten used to this
already. (It's also a Grroovy keyboard - check the 'Alt Grr' key above!)
It’s available online coming in at £45.99. Penclic also sell
wireless versions and they come in white too. Check out Penclics full range of keyboards, pen
shaped mice and more.
Next I was sent a knife set from Edge of Belgravia. This is
the Precision Chef Knife set and features 6 knives. These are the Chef knife, bread knife, slicing knife, fish filleting knife, a ‘deba’ knife based on a traditional Japanese
salmon knife and a paring knife. The knives come in black stainless steel for
the blade, extremely sharp and apparently easy to sharpen, which I haven’t had
to do yet. The handles are award winning in their design and feel smooth to grip plus do look very stylish.
These look so cool on our worktop and even more so in the
black diamond knife block Edge of Belgravia also sent. This is described as a unique floating knife
design which looks reminiscent of a rough cut diamond.
It holds up to 11 knives and the knives slide into the block
effortlessly.
My only fear of the knife block is the open design. As the
sides are exposed, curious little fingers could easily be cut if grabbing the
block. Having said that I would hope households with children would keep knives
out of reach from children.
That is my own little criticism, but perhaps me just being
extra cautious. It’s absolutely fine for an adult only household like ours.
The black knives and block, both designed by Christian Bird
complement our black worktops perfectly.
These would make a great gift for a mum who loves to cook.
Or anyone who loves to cook.
I'm bringing you a few treats to possibly make at your Red Nose Day Bake Sale. You are having one aren't you?
24 March sees Comic Relief's Biennial fundraising Red Nose Day event. The charity which helps disadvantaged people here in the UK and in Africa too, will be hosting their ever popular telethon on the night with a host of celebrities erm, hosting. The night will also include the much anticipated Love Actually mini sequel, well worth donating some dosh for!
In truth, I had hoped they would be a more vivid red, rather than a brick red colour. Nonetheless, these tasted smashing and with a dusting of icing sugar over the top, no one would know!
If you wanted a more reddish hue, go for less cocoa, use goat butter (which tends to be less yellow than regular) and clear vanilla extract which you can find online. All of these tips will make your red velvet cookies 'pop' (I don't know why I don't take my own advice!). Add as much red food colouring as you think is necessary by the way, but gel colouring is best.
You will notice in the ingredients below, vinegar is included. This is quite normal in red velvet treats and you don't taste it in the finished bake. It reacts with the bicarb and gives a bit more leavening apparently!
These are soft cake like cookies, which is just how I like them!
Here is the recipe:
print recipe
Red Velvet Cookies
by S Vettese March-15-2017
Red Velvet Cookies perfect for a bake sale!
Ingredients
300 grams plain flour
25 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
170 grams unsalted butter, softened
300 grams granulated sugar
3 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons white vinegar
Red food colouring
Icing sugar to garnish
Instructions
In a bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb and salt.In a separate bowl, with a mixer, beat together the butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating in between each addition. Add the food colouring and vanilla and beat these in too.Add the vinegar and beat this in. The mix will go lumpy, don’t worry it will come together.Add the dry mix and slowly beat this until you have a smooth batter.Refrigerate for about an hour and when ready to remove from the fridge preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and line two cookie sheets with some greaseproof paper.Dollop spoonful’s of the mix onto the cookie sheets, spacing apart slightly as they will puff out.With wet fingers, push the mounds down a little.Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes or just until the edges turn a darker colour.Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before carefully peeling them from the greaseproof paper and allowing them to cool fully on a cooling rack.When cool, dust with a little icing sugar and your cookies are ready to enjoy/sell!
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 30 cookies approx.
I'm entering these cookies into this month's Treat Petite, hosted by myself and Kat, The Baking Explorer.
As these are quite cakey in texture, I am entering these into Love Cake hosted by Ness over at Jibber Jabber UK. The theme is a batch of cakes, and these are certainly a batch.
I'm also entering these into this month's We Should Cocoa hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme.
It’s Red Nose Day on 24th March and with that in
mind I thought I would share a couple of recipes this month that can be knocked
up quite easily for a bake sale on the big day.
I remember the first Red Nose Days back in the late 1980’s –
I was at school and it was always a huge event, as it is nowadays.
I got my red nose in Woolworths and back then they were made
of hard plastic. You wore it as long as you could before the pain set in – it was
like having razor blades clipped to your nose. Thankfully now they are made of
a much kinder soft rubbery material and are much more comfortable.
I also remember the singles released. In 1989 it was
Lananeeneenoonoo along with Bananarama.
Lananeeneenoonoo was comprised of Dawn
French, Jennifer Saunders and Kathy Burke acting a lot like a badly behaved
Bananarama. Both groups were on the single, which was a cover of The Beatles ‘Help’
– I still have my copy on 7” vinyl!
Back to 2017 however and whilst we may still being doing
something funny for money, a lot of folk are embracing that favourite pastime of
the UK – baking. And Bake Sales are happening all over the place.
This recipe is super-simple as it only has 4 ingredients –
cream cheese, icing sugar, almond extract and cocktail cherries. The icing
sugar and cream cheese are whipped into a dough and made into small discs. They
are chilled and then with a utensil (I used a wine cork – red wine of course!)
a small dent is made in the disc. To this half a cocktail cherry is added.
At this stage you can add eyes or a mouth. I used some shop
bought candy eyes (this does make it 5 ingredients I’ve just realised) or you
could get some black icing, or melted chocolate to add on the fizzog.
These treats need to be chilled before serving. They are
soft and pillowy mounds of almondy tasting sweet cream cheese with a tangy
fruity burst from the cherry. I used cocktail cherries as they are really
bright in colour and they were perfect for a red nose. You could use glace
cherries too, but they wouldn’t be quite so bright.
These are a great item to sell at a bake sale and raise cash
for a very worthwhile cause – to help disadvantaged people here in the UK and
also across in Africa.
Give these a try and let me know what you think. Stay tuned
for more Red Nose Day treats soon.
print recipe
Cherry Almond Cream Cheese Treats
by S Vettese March-08-2017
almond flavoured cream cheese fondant topped with a cherry
Ingredients
115 grams full-fat cream cheese
560 grams icing sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
225 gram jar of cocktail cherries
Embellishments such as candy eyes, chocolate etc. for making
eyes and a mouth (optional)
Instructions
In a food mixer beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar and almond extract (slowly at first or the sugar will go everywhere) until a dough forms.Pinch little mounds, just less than a tablespoons worth and with hands dusted in icing sugar roll them into a ball then flatten slightly into a disk.Place these on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and when all are done, place in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.Take the jar of cocktail cherries and remove half the amount of cherries as there are cream cheese discs.Dry these with some kitchen paper and with sharp knife cut each cherry in half.Make an indentation into each disc (a wine cork is an ideal size) and add the cherry into the hole, curved side up.Add eyes or a mouth at this point if doing so. Refrigerate again until ready to eat/sell!
Red Nose Day, the fund-raising event from Comic Relief is happening on the 24th March. I recently interviewed TV star and singer Carrie Grant to discuss her involvement with this great cause, her home life with husband David Grant and their four children, Eurovision and baking.
Q. Carrie, Red Nose Day is just around the corner. Can you
tell me why
it is an important charity for you?
A. Ever since Fame Academy did our Comic Relief version of
the show I have
loved being a part of the event. I love that it raises money
both here and
in Africa for some of those who are struggling the most. My
Father is buried
in Sierra Leone so I have a special connection to West
Africa and back home
here in the UK our own family have had to access a lot of
help with Mental
Health Services so I see the need on a daily basis.
Q. You raise
awareness for children with special needs and your own
children each have learning disabilities including Autism
and ADHD. What
challenges can this present on a typical day in the Grant
household?
A. The only thing about a typical day in our family is that
there are never two
days the same! Each child has significant needs so David and
I are usually
desperately running round trying to make sure each child's
needs are met,
sharing out the work as we go! One child may need an hour's
counselling to
get out of bed, another may be refusing to dress or eat,
another may be
being extremely violent so we never quite know what we'll
get! I love the
school holidays when it's all so much easier and the kids
can move at their
own pace. One of our children only attends school for an
hour or so, so we
have to make sure we are there for the school runs
throughout the day. This
has meant David and I have to job share. We have at least
three health or
school meetings a week so we have to be around for those.
Life is full but
our children are amazing and magical and so talented in many
different ways.
Q. There is still
a lack of awareness surrounding 'invisible
disabilities'. As a parent of children with such disorders
have you
experienced discrimination towards your children?
A. I can't even begin to tell you how bad it is for many
parents of high
functioning autistic girls. From GP's not knowing what to
look for, to
schools who don't believe there's an issue, to diagnostic
criteria geared
towards boys and therefore no diagnosis is given, to CAHMS (Children and
Adolescent Mental Health Services) being so overstretched
that your child
has to be suicidal before you can access any help. That's a
description of
Services. Then you have the judgement from other parents
when your child
melts down in the supermarket. I want to put a big sign
above my kids' heads
reading, "Please don't judge, I'm autistic and today is
actually a good
day!" Some parents have a terrible time within their
families with relatives
blaming parents for their lack of parenting skills. It's
hard for parents
and you have to develop a very hard exterior and a warrior
spirit!
Q. I'm a
sweet-toothed baking blogger and love baking in my spare time.
Are baking and cooking activities you do with your children
and can these be
good therapy?
A. Oh gosh - YES!!!!! My children have a lot of sensory issues,
which means
they hear everything at 10 times the volume of a
neuro-typical person, they
are extra sensitive to smell, touch, taste, all of those
areas. The
advantage of this is that they are brilliant at art and
baking and the
creative areas. My children can literally spend an hour with
their hands in
a bowl of watered down cornflour! We make cakes, biscuits,
pastry etc. We
even have 27th Dec set aside as Pie Day each year.
Q. If you're
favourite song were a cake, what would it be?
A. One of my favourite songs is Cameo's "Candy" as
our entire family do the
dance to it called The Electric Slide. At weddings we've had
about 300
people doing it in one go! In our family it was started by
the Jamaican side
but each year more of our white relatives learn it and join
in! It's a
dancefloor filler! If it were a cake it would be a
Black Forest Gateaux -
because it is one of those things that every generation
knows, it's down to
earth and gives you great memories. i.e. I know my kids will
talk about this
song in years to come and laugh in the same way as my
generation remember a
Black Forest Gateau.
Q. I'm a HUGE
Eurovision fan. You were part of the group Sweet Dreams,
the UK's 1983 entry. Do you have fond memories of taking
part in the
contest?
A. I absolutely LOVED doing Eurovision. Representing my
country, singing every
day, doing loads of TV, Radio and press - it was a great
opportunity. If I
hear the Eurovision theme tune I still get nervous. I
thought it had all
been forgotten but when I did Fame Academy suddenly it all
came out again.
We came 6th, which at the time was shameful but now is
really seen as a huge
Q. You were the
head judge in this year's jury for 'Eurovision - You
Decide', helping to select this year's entry Lucie Jones ( a
great song!). It must
feel quite a responsibility.
A. Actually I was Head Judge last year and the jury's favourite
lost! Lucy
Jones is great though and David and I loved her in The X
Factor. Great
singer.
Q. As a busy
working mother of 4, do you find time to relax and if so,
what do you do to unwind?
A. I love reading, cooking, hanging out with friends and going
on holiday. We
go to the Isle of Wight each year and we love it. It's like
going back in
time. I love creating memories for my kids.
Q. Finally
Carrie, charity and raising awareness are things that are
clearly important to you. What are your future plans in
respect of these?
A. Oh gosh so much. I want the subject of Girls and Autism
awareness to be
raised, I am campaigning constantly around this subject. I
want for all
special needs to get greater understanding in society. Two
of my children
have ADHD, one has Aspergers and another has Autism and
ADHD.
In the healthcare arena I work in I want patients to be able
to lead in
their own health. I do a ton of public speaking on this
subject and I am
Patient Lead for The College of Medicine. I think it
empowers the patient
and ultimately will help to make our amazing NHS
sustainable.
Carrie Grant and family are wearing limited edition
HomeSense aprons designed by celebrated British photographer Rankin to support
Red Nose Day 2017 and help people living incredibly tough lives across Africa
and here in the UK. The apron is part of a Red Nose Day 2017 range of products
available in HomeSense stores nationwide.
A massive thanks to Carrie for taking the time to answer my questions. Check out my next post, coming soon, for a chance to win a Red Nose Day gift bundle.
It's March and there are tons of crocuses popping up in the grass across from our house. I think spring time is just around the corner and Treat Petite is here again for you to share all of your individual baking achievements which we love to see and share. Thanks to everyone for the flurry of entries in February over at The Baking Explorer.
As you might know, Treat Petite has no monthly theme now, so once again Anything Goes! You can enter anything you like, just remember the Treat Petite rules below...
Treat Petite is for all of those delicious bites, which can be individually portioned. Tray bakes are fine, cookies, cupcakes, brownies, macarons and so on. No cakes, puddings, whole loaves – you get the idea… here are those all-important guidelines:
1. Add your petite treat to the Linky Tool at the bottom of the current month's post by the 25th of the month, midnight at the latest
2. Post your bake onto your blog and link back to Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer, stating who is hosting this month
3. Follow Cakeyboi and The Baking Explorer blogs on Google+ (see sidebar links), if you haven't already.
4. If you tweet use #TreatPetite and mention @MrCakeyboi and @BakingExplorer - we will retweet
5. Add the challenge logo to the post and 'Treat Petite' as a label to the post
6. Use any recipe as long as the source is noted
7. If you like, add your photo to the 'Treat Petite' Pinterest board (request access from Cakeyboi)
8. Feel free to enter old posts as long as you update the post and meet all the requirements above!
