Showing posts with label Donna Hay cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donna Hay cookies. Show all posts

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Ava's 3rd birthday party


Gotta love a party loaded with sugar!! It's not often that I wilfully feed Ava bucket loads of sweets, but birthdays come only once a year, so why not make the most of it.

Bursie really outdid himself with this cake - although it wasn't gluten free so I am already paying for the cheeky slice I had to have. My contribution! I did the writing and a bit (ok a lot) of micro management of the final touches...poor Burnsie.  


Ava seriously lost her shit (but in a good way) when she saw it before that party this morning. She said it was the bestest cake ever in the whole wide world.


I should also mention that our rather fancy Ilve oven decided to pack it in the night before the party! Seriously???  It's only 4 years old grrrr!  Luckily the cake was done, it just meant that we had less savoury adult food as I had planned on baking a batch of GF mini vegetarian quiches. 


Ava and her best friend Marli had a ball playing together in the park. They have known each other since they were born. 


We didn't invite too many kids, just Ava's cousins and her best park buddies Marli and Emily. She had so much fun running around the park, playing chasing and bossing us all around too!

The kids enjoyed blowing bubbles, playing pass the parcel and snacking on a mix of both wholesome and sweet treats.

These fruit cups were really easy to make and were a hit with the kids and adults. We chopped up watermelon, cantaloupe, nectarines, grapes and berries that morning, put them into a big container, then filled the cups at the park. Simple, beautiful and really healthy!

For a twist on fairy bread, we made wholemeal hundreds and thousands pin wheels which disappeared pretty quickly.

To make these I asked the baker to cut the bread loaf long ways. You should have seen his face, he had never been asked to do this before and thought I was totally insane.

Actually, I think he was worried that his cutting machine would destroy the bread! However he cut the bread perfectly and it was so much easier to make them rather than cutting long ways yourself.

Tip!! Flatten the bread out with a rolling pin before you butter it and sprinkle on the hundreds and thousands. Once flattened out they are so much easier to roll up. Then you cut each roll into three pin wheels. So easy.

Can you spot the dodgy one I made???
The marshmallow sticks are another super easy and very pretty sweet treat. What kid doesn't like marshmallows??

Bunsie insisted on making home made LCMs. I am not a fan, they are sickly sweet and full of sugar. As you can imagine the kids loved them...

So it kind of backfired for Burnsie, he was hoping to have them all to himself.




Saturday, November 5, 2011

Just baked these Donna Hay Brownie Cookies with Peanut Butter Frosting, sooooo indulgent!!

Ok, these Donna Hay cookies have to be the richest, most decadent cookies I have ever made or even tasted.

Not quite a cookie, not quite a brownie they are a calorific mind bender, and are loaded with enough chocolate to power Willy Wonker's factory for a year.

I saw them on Life Styled a couple of weeks ago and have been obsessed by them ever since.

I'm taking a batch of these to work for our team morning tea on Monday, this was the practice run. They were a bit on the runny side, so were way too big and flat but I'm still pretty happy with them!

Brownie cookies with peanut butter frosting
  • 350g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 40g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • ⅔ cup (150g) caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup (35g) gluten free plain flour, sifted
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder, sifted 
Peanut butter frosting 
  • 1 cup (160g) icing sugar mixture 
  • 1 cup (280g) smooth peanut butter 
  • 80g butter 
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
  • ⅓ cup (80ml) single cream (I used milk)
Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Place 200g of the chocolate and the butter in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and smooth. Set aside. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk for 15 minutes or until pale and creamy. Stir through the flour, baking powder, chocolate mixture and remaining chocolate and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Spoon tablespoonfuls of the mixture, at a time, onto baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake for 8–10 minutes or until puffed and cracked. Allow to cool completely on trays.

To make the peanut butter frosting, place the sugar, peanut butter, butter and vanilla in an electric mixer and beat for 6 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the cream and beat for a further 2 minutes. Spread half the cookies with the peanut butter frosting and sandwich with the remaining cookies. Makes 12.