MIA

I am behind with my Daring Bakers and Tuesdays with Dorie posts. Be back and posting my creations soon, and playing catch up.

We had a death in the family a few weeks ago :o( Lost our beloved Aunt and have just remembered I haven't posted.

A new daring baker :o)

And I can't believe I forgot to post this yesterday!! My first challenge was pizza. Unfortunately although the pizza dough tossing was great fun, though disastrous I only had my 6 year old to help with the photos of that and I have some lovely photos of my elbows etc lol






Rosa chose this challenge. I very often make my own pizza bases so was interested in trying a new one. It was made in 2 stages starting the dough the night before and leaving it in the fridge. Usually I end up with bases that are to thick and hard to shape but this little beauty of a dough behave and stretched out nice and thinly and tasted great. I might fiddle with some flavourings but will be trying this dough again with some more adventurous toppings. It was only the boys and I this night so I did a biggish pizza with a tomato base and various cheeses for the top and it all disappeared with no moaning s must of been good :o) Well it was despite it's boring look lol

This Daring Baker can't wait to see whats in store for November :o)

TWD chocolate-chocolate cupcakes

This weeks TWD was chosen by Clara. Having read others comments before I started baking I cooked mine for a couple of less minutes and they turned out beautifully, almost dense, fudgy and moist. They were so good the kids got to them before I decorated *G*


So with just 10 left from the original 18 I started with I had help from my 6 year old with the icing. I melted to chocolate and let it cool and he whisked like his life depended on it LOL Wish I had thought to take a photo of his face after he finished licking the bowl ;o)

Am not sure kids will appreciate them as much as adults but they eat them just as fast.




I would probably make these again and probably will for the Halloween party we are having on Friday :o) Our verdict is the recipe is definitely a keeper

I mean who could resist these ??

Bored and Lonely......

.... are not good things for me to be. The kids literally dive out the of eyesight when I say I am bored as I might come up with some crazy scheme they have to be involved in LOL

Well Friday night and I found myself childless and nowhere to go :o( So what better than try out the spaghetti attachment on my Kitchen aid mixer? I had made pasta sheets before and used them for ravioli and lasagna, so decided spaghetti was Friday nights adventure.


I made a quick sauce using garlic, chilli, anchovies, baby plum tomatoes, olive oil and lemon zest. I then tossed in the freshly cooked pasta and topped with some Parmesan and a little black pepper


and voila a quick delicious supper.




The pasta kind of behaved considering I didn't rest it long enough and it all looked a little rustic but it tasted Divine to me :o) This is the kind of quick food I love but the kids aren't impressed with. Anchovies to them used to result in faces looking like I was trying to poison them.

TWD Lenox Almond Biscotti, pages 141-143

I had a lot of fun with making these this week. I just did the basic recipe with no frills so far. I love a biscotti when I am at a coffee shop and wasn't convinced these were going to live up to the ones I was used to. I was SO wrong, they were better. The kids loved them and so did my Mum, who doesn't like biscotti! I can't wait to go shopping to get some extra bits to try these in different variations. The 6 in the picture above were all that were left when I went to take photos. My daughter came home after the first stage after I had sliced them and some went then before I even caught her. By the time they were out the oven the second time the boys were home as well and I lost more even though they only asked for 1 each they were vanishing fast. By the time my Mum popped in Leanne was offering them around like the perfect hostess :o)

Lesson learnt this week is to make sure I can bake in time to hide my TWD treats so I can take some decent photos before they all vanish in front of my eyes. I was planning on sharing these with the children after dinner with a cup of tea but maybe next time ;o)

First Tuesday with Dorie

My first assignment and I ended up posting this late *tuts*


Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake, page 264 and 265.

Now I have to say I loved the topping and I loved the cake and technically it's a wonderful cake but non of us were that keen on the 2 together.

This actually was my first bit of cooking in almost a week as I was out for the count with a chest infection and asthma attack so I was so proud of actually managing to get this done even if I did post it 2 days late :o)