healthy nuts and oats hiding inside a child's dream

When you finally realise your dream and open a deli / coffee shop / bakery what is it you are really hoping for?  Time to do lots of baking ?  Loads of manolo-clad ( or ugg-booted, as it’s winter) feet stomping, shuffling and striding over your threshhold?  Someone else to do the washing up? 

All of the above would be my answer, but the reality is that loads of feet striding over your threshold inevitably means selling out of all the artisan baked goodies you’ve slaved and laboured over for hours.  But that’s good, right?  Sigh!  I think I really understand how my mom’s bakers felt for all those years when 15 waiters had already sold all the scones and cheesecake that they kept churning out all day, even before they were out of the oven.  Some times you just want to be able to bask in your domestic goddessness for awhile.  Some days, like today, in between giving thanks for the steady stream of oohing and aahing custom, you barely have time to curse the person who bought the last 10 chocolate brownies. 

I mean, I know they’re good.  I baked them.  But who can eat 10 chocolate brownies?  And more to the point, how do I stop to bake another double batch in between orders of espresso hot chocolates, free range beef burgers with all the trimmings, avocado, rocket and sundried tomato bruschetta and French toast with Parma ham and verjuice syrup?  Ever the dreamer, even I have to admit that I can’t.  Once they’re gone, that’s it.  No more until tomorrow.

  But every good baker has a secret weapon or 6 tucked inside their floury apron pocket.  These giant cookies are one of ours.  They take literally minutes to throw together, less than ten in the oven, and the smell sells them before people have even seen them.  The most difficult thing will be convincing your guests to wait until they’ve cooled before they eat them.  And kids of all ages can’t resist them.  Even the most hardened chocaholic can be persuaded to ignore the empty chocolate brownie plate when gently tempted with a giant peanut, oat and smartie cookie that takes up both hands.  Try them and you’ll see what I mean.

For the recipe, click here, (as usual I’ve posted it straight to the sidebar for easy access), and please excuse me, I’m off to bake a quadruple batch of chocolate brownies for tomorrow’s ugg-booted, baked goods addicts!  Bless them one and all…

peanuts, oats and chocolate candy…

Preheat your oven to 180*C and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Cream:

• 225g granulated sugar
• 175g brown sugar
• 225g butter

Add:

• 2 eggs, lighlty beaten
• 1Tablespoon vanilla extract

and beat until light and fluffy.

Sift:

• 300g plain (cake) flour
• 5 ml bicarbonate of soda

Add to egg mix together with

• 125g rolled oats
• 1/2 cup of peanuts

Spoon 1/4 cup of mix onto your baking sheet at a time.  I usually get four cookies to one large sheet.  Make sure you leave plenty of space for them to spread out.

Poke your smarties (or chocolate m&m’s ) into the top of the cookie, and bake for 8-10 minutes (or until lightly browned).

The cookies will still be soft and you need to let them harden for a few minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.  Try and wait until they are cooled completely to enjoy them at their best.

i heart cupcakes

Actually, we call them fairycakes.  And from the pics below you would be forgiven for thinking my love goes beyond normal into the realms of obsession.  Not true, although I do know of some complete cupcake queens. (Cupcakes take the cake, cupcaketastic, Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit  , to name but a few). 

We just make them a lot in the deli, which gives us plenty of time to play with the decorations, and I do love photographing them.  Somehow, they always look just right in our old-fashioned, shabby chic, seaside deli.  And although the actual cupcakes and the buttercream icing are all organic, the colouring isn’t. 

Yet, it seems to be the colouring that silently beckons to the inner child, whispering: ‘pick me up.  I’m yours’.  And they do.  I’ve know grown men to go weak at the knees when eating one of our cupcakes, and last week, at the end of the day when I only had one pink fairycake left, a surfer fought his girlfriend for it.  Clearly no problems with getting in touch with his feminine side.  (It was really PINK).

It’s not just the grownups who are drawn to these fairytale creations.  Kids adore them, and between the cupcakes and the giant oat, peanut and smartie (like chocolate m&ms) cookies, children entering our cafe seem to wear permanently glazed looks.  We have made boxes and platters of these for parties, press shoots, kitchen teas, and I filled a pink, three tiered stand with mini cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday cake this year.  They were, as requested, multi-coloured, topped with handpainted icing berries, hearts, leaves and bees.  It’s like edible crafting, such fun!

Some of the dedicated cupcake blogs have some amazing cupcake combos, which are truly inspiring.  At the deli we like to keep it simple.  We make giant cupcakes with a foolproof victoria sponge batter, then we top it off with the perfect buttercream.  Mostly it’s just really good butter and organic vanilla, but sometimes it’s orange, lemon, rose or coffee.  Simplicity is the key here.  And these fairycakes make for a shot of pure nostalgia.

Don’t forget to click here for the recipe, and have  a look at some other cupcake blogs for more inspiration.  Or just visit the deli and we’ll happily ply you with ours along with a cup of All -African organic coffee.  In fact, I think I’m just off to have one now…   

Vanilla sponge fairycakes with rose and vanilla buttercream

This is a simple Victoria sponge recipe, that works every time and improves over 2 or 3 days.  The recipe makes 6 -8 giant muffins or 12 – 16 regular muffins.

Cream

• 350g butter
• 350g caster sugar

Sift together

• 350g Plain (cake) flour
• 2 pinches of bicarb
• 2 t baking powder

Lightly beat

• 6 large freerange eggs
• 1/4 cup warm water

When the buttercream is light and fluffy, fold in the dry ingredients with the flatbeater on low speed.

Then swap back to the whisk and beat in the egg mix until it is all incorporated.  Don’t overbeat.

Spoon into well buttered and floured muffin tins, mine are individual moulds, and bake for 20 -35 mins at 180*C – 200*C.

The temperature and length of baking time depends on how large your cupcakes are and how hot your oven is.  Slightly lower temp and longer cooking time for larger cupcakes, and hotter shorter times for smaller cakes.  To check for readiness a skewer inserted should come out largley dry with only a few crumbs clinging to it, and the cupcake should be pulling away slightly from the tin.

Leave for a moment to cool, then turn out and leave on a baking rack to cool completely before icing.  Click through here for perfect and easy buttercream icing.  Once iced, we wrap in squares of baking paper and tie with some string.  This keeps the cupcake from drying out too quickly, and it looks pretty…

Happy baking.

Fresh, crispy, cheese & pesto muffins

Man cannot live on bread alone, he needs the odd muffin to keep him sane.  I don’t think anybody ever said that, but they should have.  Muffins are like mini breads.  Quicker to make and quicker to eat, and just as satisfying for a host of different reasons. 

You don’t need to make a sandwich out of a muffin, you can just bake your filling in.  Of course, that doesn’t preclude you from adding more fillings afterwards.  For more than 25 years these muffins, in one form or another, have been a mainstay of my mother’s kitchen.  The basic recipe is so easy to make, and the results so irresistably delicious that they were one of the recipes I gave to Garden & Home magazine for their May feature on me.

We sell several batches a day in the deli, and I have some in the oven whilst I type.  So, I’ve got 35 minutes to get the recipe down for you, and to link it to the lovely Chris at Melecotte, who is hosting this week’s WHB.  Originally the brainchild of Kalyn (Kalyn’s Kitchen), Weekend Herb Blogging is now in its 4th year and is being administered by Haalo at Cook (almost) anything.

So click here for the recipe, and yes, they qualify for WHB because they are full of homemade basil pesto.  Feel free to substitute any of your own herbs, cheeses, or other muffiny type things like crispy bacon bits, or slices of preserved green fig, apple or peppers.

Happy weekend everybody.

Whoops!  Clearly I am on African Time.  This week’s host is Marija from Palachinka.  Sorry Chris, but nice to discover a new blog anyway.  Thanks for hosting Marija.