Kids punch - for a birthday lunch

Sylvia wanted punch at her party.  So many punch recipes are alcoholic but we found one that was suitable for kids.  Of course punch is about a pretty drink with lots of ice and mint and fruit.  We liked this one so much she had it at her party and then when we had a birthday lunch with my family.

I only made a small amount at Sylvia's party as it was a small gathering and I didn't want lots of of leftover with fizzy drinks in it.  (And I didn't even consider ice cream that was in the recipe we adapted because ice cream is something you put in a individual drink but not in one that will sit around with ice cream melting in it!)  I think we might have made up more than one lot.  Sylvia insisted on red lemonade.  I would have preferred ginger beer in the mix instead.  It is interesting in the above picture that the raspberries float and the tinned pineapple sinks.

We had all sorts of robust discussions about a cake to take to a birthday lunch in Geelong.  She really wanted the lamington 10 from the classic Australia Women's Weekly Birthday Cakes book.  The logistics, esp with cream on top, got the better of me, esp when we had a leaking tap and decided maybe I could change the washer myself.  My dad ended up coming to help and it ended up needing some mucking around and visits to Bunnings for washers and o rings.  My energy did not extend to cake!

Instead we focused on familiar food.  My mum did a bbq so Sylvia made her favourite potato salad.  I made a batch of grubs for dessert.  There was cheezels and pav and Sylvia bought some lamingtons from the supermarket to make a lamington man.  And everyone enjoyed the punch.

I finished off changing the washers after the lunch.  At first it seemed to work and I was very proud of myself.  Then the shower taps began to leak badly again.  We turned off the water except when we needed a shower or to do dishes and survived on jugs and buckets of water until the plumber came after the end of the weekend.  But kudos to my dad for his help and for then helping with fixing the flywire on our front door after our cat scratched it off.  He has a great knack from doing stuff around the house.

More non-alcoholic party drinks on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Blackberry limeade (gf, v) 
Delia's festive punch (gf, v)
Lemonade (gf, v)
Purple passionate pine pom juice (gf, v)
Raspberry punch (gf, v)

Kids punch
Adapted from Natasha's Kitchen

500ml raspberry lemonade
500ml soda water
250ml pineapple juice
250ml tropical juice
juice of 1/2 a lime

To serve:
raspberries
mint leaves
tinned pineapple chunks
ice cubes

Mix all punch ingredients together in a jug not long before ready to serve.  Serve with raspberries, mint leaves, pineapple and ice cubes.

On the Stereo:
Bande à part - Nouvelle Vague

We Bare Bear cupcakes for a birthday party

As always, there were many discussions on the theme of Sylvia's birthday this year.  She insisted on a We Bare Bears theme.  It is not a tv show with which I am very familiar.  Sylvia had lots of ideas and turning 10 years old meant she was able to be involved in a lot of organisation.

Here is a selection of her birthday presents on her birthday.  She is lucky to have some generous overseas family as well as friends and family more close by.  For her party she invited 3 friends and one couldn't come so it was a cosy group.  Initially they were going to come after lunch but then it was easier for one parent to drop her kid before and so we asked the other to come earlier as well.  Which meant it was a 4 hour party rather than a 2 hour party.  But at this age, the girls are able to entertain themselves so it was fine.

We decided to make rice paper rolls for lunch.  Sylvia had been keen to make them and it was a fun group activity.  I made them like these rice paper rolls.  It had been so long since I had made them that it took quite a few til I hit my stride.  It was a messy and fun thing to do.  My mum came to help which made the party much easier.

Sylvia had taken charge of a lot of the activities.  The kids did a What We Bare Bear Are You quiz (based on one at the Cartoon Network).  It was a good ice breaker because they all had their personalities to discuss.  Sylvia and one friend were the solitary, stoic and clever Ice Bear whereas the third kid was the easy going outgoing Grizz.  Sylvia had wanted a cake decoration party.  They started by making some tick tock teacups.  We had heaps of buttercream icing so it was useful here.

The main event was the We Bare Bear cupcakes.  Sylvia wanted each kid to decorate three cupcakes with fondant to represent each of the bears.  As we don't do a lot of fondant decoration, we had a practice a week or two beforehand.  This proved very useful in getting out head around some basics of fondant and how the cupcakes might look with what we had.

I looked into Sylvia doing a cupcake decoration course but they were so pricey that we decided to do it at home which was pretty easy.  After all, part of these courses are just having the chance to experiment.  It was very interesting watching the three girls at work and their different approaches.

I took very few pictures of the cupcakes because I was too busy advising the girls and then getting the afternoon tea ready.  I had to remind the girls to use icing sugar so the fondant did not stick.  We purchased some candy eyes which made the cupcakes look pretty cool.  I had organised a table for the girls to decorate outside but it was warm so they decorated inside and that was fine.  They aren't as messy now they are a bit older.  I didn't have enough mini rolling pins like the pink one above so we ended up using a cylindrical wooden block so everyone had one.

Once the decorations were finished, the girls went outside to do pin the tail on the We Bare Bear with E helping out.  I realised the We Bare Bear cupcakes were too cute for candles so I decorated a few leftover cupcakes with chocolate melts and sprinkles quickly.  My mum and I tidied up and put out  fruit and cakes.

There was heaps of food, singing, candles, a birthday punch (that I will write about another time) and colourful cardboard boxes so Sylvia's guests could take their creations home. Sylvia and her friends had great fun.  For me it was pretty easy to prepare.  I just tidied the house, made some cupcakes and saved my energy for helping out while the kids made most of the food.

To celebrate 10 years of Sylvia's birthdays, I have made a collage of her previous 9 birthday party cakes.  I wonder what sort of cakes and celebrations the next 10 years will bring!

Top: Baby Pram, Dinosaur Farm, Georgie Pig's dinosaur
Middle: Pirate Treasure Chest, Toadstool House, Frozen Castle
Bottom: Minion, Hedgehog, Cat cupcakes

How to make We Bare Bears Cupcakes

Food:

1 dozen of vanilla cupcakes (or cupcake of your desire)
Buttercream (see below recipe)
White fondant
Brown fondant
Mini oreos (or other small dark round cookies or chocolates)
Mentos mints (or other small white round mints or candy)
Dairy milk melts
Edible eyes
Edible black pen
Icing sugar (confectionery sugar)

Equipment:

Wooden boards (not smelling of onions)
Small rolling pins
Aprons
Round cutter (for faces)
Spreaders for buttercream

To decorate cupcakes:

1. Firstly check you have a round cutter that will cut a circle about the size of the cupcake top as you will want to cover it.  If you don't have a scone cutter or cookie cutter, you can use a well dusted (with icing sugar) glass or cup of the right size.

2. Take a small blob of white fondant and keep the rest of fondant in an airtight container.  Roll out the blob on a wooden chopping board with a rolling pin, keeping both board and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour.  The fondant can stick: to avoid this, pick it up and turn over regularly while rolling out.  The fondant should be about 2-3mm thick.  While it is important to use the icing sugar to stop the fondant sticking, it is also better not to have lots of icing over the fondant, esp the brown one.

3. Spread buttercream in a thin layer on a cupcake.  If required, neaten buttercream around the edges so it isn't ragged.  Cut a circle of fondant and place over the buttercream on the cupcake.  Smooth it down with your hands.

4. To make Ice Bear: Use buttercream to stick on white mentos as ears.  They should be sticking out of the circle of the face slightly.  Use buttercream to stick on candy eyes almost halfway down the circle and have them fairly close together (about 0.5cm apart)  With a black edible marker draw on a nose about the shape but smaller than a jelly bean and a wry smile (or do your own style of nose and mouth).

5. To make Panda: Repeat steps 2 and 3.  As for step 4 but use half a mini oreo with no icing for ears and half a mini oreo with icing for eyes.

6. To make Grizz.  Using brown rather than white icing, repeat steps 2 and 3.  As for step 4 but use milk chocolate melts for ears.

Buttercream
125g butter
125g icing sugar (confectionery sugar)
dribble of milk

Beat butter 3-5 minutes until pale and creamy.  Gradually add icing sugar until it is absorbed by butter.  If it is creamy, you can stop here.  However mine was little pellets of sweet butter and needed me to beat in a drizzle of milk at a time until it just turned creamy but still was able to hold its shape.

On the Stereo:
Songs from the South: Paul Kelly's Greatest Hits

In My Kitchen: April 2019

April bring lots of holidays this year.  School holidays, Easter Holidays and the ANZAC Day holiday.  And I am ready for them after finishing last month with a bout of sickness.  However March was full of fun with St Pat's greens, of change of the season and fresh apples.  But let's start above with some cheery pop-art labels on tins of my favourite Annalisa diced tomatoes.

It has been busy with work going crazy and not much energy at home so I haven't been baking much.  These Fruits and Roots Choc and Berry Cookies with Beetroot have been a great little snack at work.  Actually my boss came by the other day and looked at them with suspicion, saying that his daughter had a way of finding interesting snacks.  Wrapping the cookies in pairs seems excessive packaging but it is convenient.

We saw there was a free make-an-easter-pinata course for kids at the local library.  So Sylvia and and friend went along and brought home a pretty pinata each.  I have insisted that we wait until Easter to crack it open with her cousins.  It seems a long time away but I am sure it will be here before we know it.

I have been pleased that Sylvia has been trying a few new foods lately.  She is particularly smitten with cheese.  Haloumi is one of her new lives.  She has even been known to fry it up herself.  (The plate of haloumi, spinach, roast pumpkin and rice and lentils above is my dinner. not hers)  She has also tried my mum's spinach and cheese puff pastry pie and is talking about trying other soft cheeses.

During Harmony Week this year, Sylvia managed to be sick on the day, they were taught a cultural dance, forgot to wear cultural dress the next day but we did some tattie scones for the lunch where they had to take some traditional food.  It was a rushed morning but she was pretty happy with her lunch that day.

We've had a lot of slime in the house lately.  Sylvia has become a bit of an expert at slime using glue, activator and shaving cream.  I borrowed a book from the library called "101 kids activities that are the ooey, gooey-est ever!"  I bought her ingredients for a complicated butter slime (yes there are many types of slime): saline contact liquid, baby powder, hand lotion, oil, shampoo, bicarb soda, shaving cream and of course butter.  The recipe in the book didn't work as hoped and Sylvia had to doctor it to get it coming up in a curtain.

The next day she tried again with some soft clay from Daiso and activator and had her most wonderful butter slime.  Watching her make the more complex butter slime from the book but it is fun to see how much fun she has with her butter slime made from clay.

We have had a bit of fun with fondant lately.  So when a local kitchenware shop had a huge sale I was tempted by some fondant implements.  I am not sure how much I will use them.  Perhaps some time we will have a go at more fondant decorating as we still have leftovers of the huge amount we bought for Sylvia's birthday.

Coles supermarkets has done it again: given away little plastic toys in plastic packages to set young hearts aflutter.  These Stikeez have not been as huge as the Little Shop collectables last year but Sylvia has enjoyed collecting and swapping.  I think Coles has been appealing to parents by focusing on fruit and veg this time.  Interestingly Woolworths yet again managed to have some giveaways that are a lot less plastic focused than Coles but not quite as popular.

After I went to stay at my parents and visit St Patricks Day Irish Folk Festival, I bought home goodies from the fete and apples from my mum's tree.  The apples were superb.  And the plum chutney and peppermint slice did very well for lunches.

I was very excited at the fete to find this cactus drink dispenser.  We had bought the same one early in Summer and then found that the hole for the tap broke easily if someone (no names) did not read the instructions.  Here was our second chance to get it right.  I can't say we have used it yet apart from to test it but I think I will put it away for next summer.

Meanwhile, summer seems far away now that the cold weather and accompanying illness has hit.  Sylvia was ill over the weekend and the doctor prescribed some horrid tasting pills.  She also missed her first day of school camp.  We bought lots of junk food (and The Women's Weekly which had a free tote bag for me) to help her get the pills down and to feast on while we watched all the Harry Potter movies.  I hope she will be better tomorrow so I can drive her to camp for the last couple of days.  (Fortunately it isn't far.)

Actually I felt like I needed a bit of comfort food this morning when I got to work and discovered that I was the only person left of my team of 4 people, with everyone else either ended their contract or on extended leave.  Luckily I have a good group of people around me who are not in my team but are very supportive.  Though I did think it ironic I baked a cake from morning tea at work this morning and then bought packets of biscuits for home.  Life is a bit odd like that lately.  Hopefully it will calm down over April.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to peek into more kitchens.

Peppermint crisp slice and St Patrick's Day Fete

This St Patrick's Day I really went green.  Green food, green clothes and a fete where green abounded.  (And you only have to look at the name of my blog to know I love green!)  Today I will share some of the lesser green food I made (a peppermint crisp slice) and some photos of the fete.

Let's start with the Peppermint Crisp Slice.  I was inspired by my sister in law's Aero mint slice.  However Peppermint crisp is a sentimental favourite.  My mum has been putting it on pavolvas since I was a kid and still does to this day.  Whereas Aero is a johnny-come-lately in my world of chocolate bars.  I think it became a joke to me when I travelled to Europe and found it sold as Bros bars.  And if you had a sister who loved the band called Bros then it would amuse you too to find a bar called Bros which is advertised "it's the bubble of nothing that make it really something"!  'Nuff said.

I have been told that Peppermint Crisp is an Australian speciality.  So for those who aren't familiar with it, it is a bar of flaky peppermint covered in "dark" chocolate.  I don't eat it as a chocolate bar ever but love it crumbled up.  And mixed with condensed milk, coconut and chocolate ripple biscuits it sounded heavenly.  Chocolate ripple biscuits are another Australian speciality that we bought to make chocolate ripple cake but as it involved cream and I don't like cream, they just lingered.

I made the Peppermint Crisp Slice to take a school cake sale on the eve of St Patrick's Day.  Hence the token greenness of the peppermint and my decision to make the coconut on top a little green.  I was in such a rush to get it to the cake stall on time that I forgot to photograph it a home or even save a piece.  So I suddenly remembered when there were only two pieces left at the cake stall.  After taking the photo I purchased a piece so I could taste it.  And it was so good that I regretted not leaving a stash at home.  But it was also so rich and decadent that perhaps it was better to have it out of the house.

At the same cake stall I made some shamrock cupcakes and offered to take some to my niece's school fete.  You can see this in the picture of some of the cakes in the Kilarney Cafe at the fete.  I was amused that my niece went there twice: once for one of my cupcakes and once for her mum's choc chip cookies.  They had heaps of food but sometimes eating what you know is comfort.

I got to the Irish Folk Festival early and had quick wander around the fete. It meant getting to the jams and cake when they were still in huge piles, having my pick of Granny's O'Reilly's jumble stall, walking through the creative market when it was quiet.  I bought a plum relish, some peppermint slice (yes I know it was a little ironic) and an unused cactus water dispenser.  I was very tempted by the Live Eco stall with lots of reuseable products such as bread bags and straws but was happy to see they have a store on nearby pako street.

When my family arrived we watched some of the music.  My brother played with his band and got my niece up to sing "Baby Shark".  I admired her bravery in getting up on stage.  (The photo above is the band warming up when it was I could get a clear view.)

While we sat watching the band, we also watched the queue grow at the bbq stall.  It was only later I saw they had baked potatoes nearby.

The kids were not hungry yet.  They were more interested in the Kingdom of Magical Slime.  There were a few purchases there and then some disappointed looks once it sold out.

And then quite a few of my family left and we stayed on with my sister and niece.  Sylvia and her cousin had a great time on the jumping (dinosaur) castle, the tea cup ride and the flying swings.  Only my niece went into the petting zoo while Sylvia and I stayed outside to try and catch an escapee guinea pig (luckily the idea of us catching him was scary enough to send him back to captivity).

They also had great fun doing crafts and cupcake decorating.  The craft room had a make-your-own-squihy.  Sylvia and her cousin had great fun.  Though it was a bit of a challenge when my niece asked me to hack a unicorn shape out of a chunk of foam.  She was pretty happy with my attempt.

While they were painting their squishies, my sister ran out to get us potato twists for lunch.  Then it was time to cover some cupcakes with icing, sprinkles and lollies.  Then we tried to wait for the cupcakes and squishies to dry!  The joys of crafting at a fete.  Sylvia was very pleased with her watermelon slices.

It was a warm day and the girls wanted something sweet.  They bypassed the ice cream and pancake stalls for the snow cones at Molly's Lollies.  We took them to some shaded seating and sat enjoying watching the crowds.  Best fun was watching the dunk-the-teacher game where kids threw a ball at a target and if they hit, their teacher got dunked in the water.  Thank goodness it was a warm day but I still admired the good nature of the teachers in participating.

Finally it was time to leave.  We had a lovely time spending time with my niece.  She showed us where her classroom was and we went with her to the Art Show (below) where they had some really lovely artworks.  I particularly liked the printed tea towels.

Finally I leave you with the recipe I used for the peppermint crisp slice.  I found it hard to find exactly what I wanted.  It has to be simple in the way of old fashioned CWA slices.  My slice was delicious but it was quite soft, even with adding some coconut.  But it tasted great and could be made with any sort of chocolate bars.

More old fashioned Aussie slices for fetes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Apricot condensed milk slice
Coconut ice (gf)
Hedgehog
Jeanette's coconut date slice (gf, v)
Lemon slice
Marshmallow weetbix slice
Pooh bear honey slice
White Christmas 

Peppermint Crisp Slice
Adapted from Best Recipes

250g packet of choc ripple biscuits
3 peppermint crisps
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
400g tin of condensed milk

Topping:
225g dark chocolate melts
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup desiccated coconut
green food dye (optional)

Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper (I used a slice tin but it was a bit big so I would use a 20cm square tin next time).

Crush the chocolate ripple biscuits to coarse crumbles and chop the peppermint crisps.  Mix with coconut and condensed milk.  Scrape into prepared tin.  Chill in freezer for an hour or so.

Put a drop or two into the coconut and rub it in to make the coconut green if you want to colour it.  Melt chocolate and butter together.  Spread over chilled slice and then sprinkle with coconut.  Chill in the fridge.  (I did this overnight but I think 4-6 hours should firm it up.)

Eat cold and firm or at room temperature and soft depending on your preference.

On the Stereo:
Discrete Music: Brian Eno

Slow cooked smoky chickpeas with tacos

On the weekend, I had been to a few places where we had seen friends and was queuing for burgers at Lord of the Fries.  I noticed one foot seemed higher than the other.  When I looked down I was wearing odd sandals.  That about sums up life at the moment.  Some highs - swimming 1 km for the first time in years, meeting the author at bookclub, and Sylvia trying more foods.  Some lows - lots of unsettling staff changes at work, a dysfunctional worm farm, and hearing about the death of Scott Walker.  And lots of surprises.  Like a recipe for slow cooker chickpeas that turns out to be a good meal to see me through a week, even without a slow cooker.

I made these chickpeas during the day while chatting to my mum.  They are incredible easy as long as there is some time to let them while away at their own pace.  Then after gymnastics we could come home to easy dinner.

I had decided to serve the chickpeas in soft tacos.  They were really good.  And so simple to heat the stew and chop some vegies and cheese.  It is a nice social sort of meal to sit around the table and everyone can take what they like.  And I got to use up some sour cream and packet salsa.

I think one of the reason this recipe works so well is adding just a little water and keeping the sauce thick so the flavour is intense.  I tried to make the recipe this week with half a pumpkin.  It was still nice but I had to add more seasoning and it was quite watery.  Not the lovely thickly coated chickpeas of my first attempt.  However it still worked really well to serve it with gnocchi, grated cheese and baby spinach.  Or it works with sourdough toast.  I think this is a very versatile dish.

As for my odd sandals, you might wonder why E and Sylvia had not mentioned them to me, given they were there the whole morning.  Seems they think I am quite a trendsetter.  But I don't recommend it myself.  If you want to follow my lead, I suggest making these delicious chickpeas rather than wearing odd sandals.

I am sending these chickpeas to Shaheen of Allotment to Kitchen who is hosting My Lovely Legume Affair this month on behalf of Lisa's Kitchen who took over from The Well Seasoned Cook who started this event celebrating legume recipes of all kinds.

More chickpea recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Chickpea hummus scramble (gf, v) 
Chickpea, peach and pumpkin curry (gf, v) 
Chickpea pilaf (gf, v) 
Chickpea, potato and tomato stew (gf, v) 
Mock tuna (chickpea) salad (gf, v)
One pot pasta with chickpeas and zucchini (v)

Slow cooked smoky chickpeas 
Adapted from Backyard Lemon Tree
Serves 6-8

olive oil, a drizzle
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp seeded mustard
shake of dried herbs
good pinch of salt and pepper
2 x 400g tins chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1x 400g tin diced tomatoes
water as required

Cook onion and carrots in olive oil in a heavy bottomed stockpot until golden (about 5 or 10 minutes over medium heat).  Add garlic, smoked paprika, mustard, herbs and seasoning.  Cook for a minute and then add chickpeas, tomatoes and about half a cup of water.  Bring to boil and the reduce heat to low.  Slowly cook for 30 to 60 minutes, adding a little boiling water from time to time until tomato sauce thickened.  (NB only a small amount of water at a time so it does not get watery and have to cook a lot to thicken.)

On the stereo:
Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel

St Patrick's Day Shamrock Cupcakes

St Patrick's Day was lovely this year.  I made lots of green food, including two batches of green shamrock cupcakes.  I went to a St Patrick's Day fete where green ruled.  Today I am going to share how I made the cupcakes and the fondant shamrocks.

While I am a newcomer to fondant decoration, I am no stranger to green food on St Patrick's Day.  I used to love green beer on the day when I was a student and once made a wonderful cake with a friend of St Patrick sending the snakes of Ireland into the sea.  (You can see a picture of the cake here but bear in mind it was taken long before digital cameras or blogs graced our lives.)

I've done quite a few green cakes since.  This year I decided to do green cupcakes for a school bake sale.  It was easier to do because Sylvia was on a sleepover at a friend's house.  It gave me time to bake cakes and shape shamrocks on the Friday night and then make buttercream and pipe it before taking them to the bake sale at 9am.  And to make a peppermint crisp slice that I will share another time.  (And to watch the tv news in horror as the Christchurch mosque killings were reported.  So sad to see such hatred fuelling all that death and grief.  So heartening to see Jacinda Ahern's compassionate and brave response.)

I am very new to decorating with fondant.  I don't like eating it and so I don't tend to use it.  However, we decided to use it for Sylvia's birthday cupcakes (in a post soon) and had heaps leftover.  I gave some away for friends doing a party cake (who reported back it was too sweet but looked good).  I liked the idea of just a little fondant to decorate the cupcakes.  When it came to making shamrocks, I was pretty unsure and made it up myself.  Once I got a system going it was easier to make them all.

I made most of my shamrocks while watching tv.  (As an aside I highly recommend the coming of age movie, Submarine, written and directed by Richard Ayoade.)  Fiddly work like that is easier when there is something else to concentrate on, whether a podcast, tv show or chatting with a friend.  I kept the piece of fondant whole rather than trying to piece together little bits of fondant.  I also made some fondant dots to use as sprinkles but didn't have enough time to use them.  Maybe I will experiment with them at at later date.

I took my dozen cupcakes to the bake sale and was glad to have bought the slice as well because there wasn't much there.  I think the last few bake sales have had so much baking that people probably thought someone else would bake.  I was pleased to see that they sold well.  Honestly I was happy to see others eating them because these are not my sort of cupcakes at all.  They are too plain and too much icing.  But I had fun making them.

In fact, I was so pleased with my shamrock cupcakes that I offered to take some to my niece's school fete the next day.  Making them with Sylvia was a bigger challenge.  Especially as before I began my brother rang to ask us to come down Saturday night rather than Sunday morning to have a family dinner.

We made the cupcakes, buttercream and shamrocks at home on Saturday and put them together on Sunday morning.  There were slightly more sprinkles and only a tiny bit more time than on the previous day.  Sylvia got to use her St Pat's Day sign.  And they were appreciated at the school fete, even though there was lots of good food.

More St Patrick's Day green food links on Green Gourmet Giraffe 

More St Patrick's Day recipes on blogs elsewhere:
Colcannon casserole - VegHog
Irish goldrush cupcakes - Laws of the Kitchen
Shamrock cookies - Allotment to Kitchen
St Patrick's Day healthy snack board - Eating by Elaine
Vegan Guinness triple chocolate brownies - Wallflower Kitchen

St Patrick's Day Shamrock Cupcakes

Green cupcakes
Buttercream icing
Fondant shamrock
Green sprinkles

Cupcakes, buttercream and fondant shamrocks can all be made the day before.  Pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes to make a small swirl that still leaves some of the green cupcake visible.  Place a shamrock on top.  Sprinkle with green sprinkles.  I tried making some small green dots with fondant to place in the buttercream but never had time to experiment with placing them neatly.

Green cupcakes
Adapted from Kidspot via Green Gourmet Giraffe
Makes 12-16

125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp green food dye (I used Queens)
1 cup milk
2 cups self-raising flour

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs, vanilla and green food dye.  Beat until smooth.  Fold in half the milk and half the flour and then repeat with remaining milk and flour.  Spoon into pattypan cups or a greased pattypan (or muffin or cupcake) tray.  Bake at 180 C for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Buttercream

250g butter, softened
500g icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk

Using electric beaters, beat butter til creamy.  Gradually beat in icing sugar.  By the time I added all icing sugar, it was like tiny pebbles.  Beat in a tablespoon of milk at a time until the mixture is creamy.

Fondant Shamrocks

White fondant
Green food colouring (the good thick stuff)
Icing sugar for rolling out and shaping

Take a chunk of white fondant about 8 x 5 x 5cm.  I dabbed on a good thick green food dye (because I did not want to dilute the fondant too much) and kneaded it to make the fondant green.

Lightly dust a board with icing sugar.  Roll out the fondant to be 2-3mm thick, turning it over once or twice while you roll so it does not get too sticky.

Cut out a circle of fondant.  (My cutters are about 2-3cm in diameter.)  Put the remaining fondant in an airtight container to prevent it drying out while you shape each shamrock.  Have a little icing sugar at hand to rub on hands if fondant is at all sticky but only use a little to avoid having it all over fondant and leaving white spots.

Cut four lines equally spaced from near the middle.  Cut three of the quarters into thinner wedges by shaving off a little either side.  Shape each of the three wedges into a shamrock leaf shape.  I did some of these with making a small dint with my round cutter and the using my hands but found it easier to find a wavy cutter (a mini gingerbread man cutter worked as in the step by step photos) and use to cut some shape to found the corners as well as make a little dent in the middle before final shaping with my hands.  Then cut the fourth quarter to be a stem a little thinner at the top than the bottom.

These can be air dried overnight.  It will make them a bit sturdier for handling but still soft enough to eat.

On the Stereo:
Irish pub classics