So it’s a good thing that the RSPCA are holding another Cupcake Day on August 16 this year to raise money so they can continue to look after animals in need.

Seeing as I had a bit of time today, I thought I’d do some decorating of my own. You may remember that I went to a cupcake decorating class earlier in the year, so prepare to be blown away by my talent.

Are you ready? Here it is…

It’s a cat cupcake! I know, I know, it looks exactly like a cat, right?

Now, if in your head you’re thinking ‘I can do that/better than that’ then you’re probably well suited to sign up and raise some money. They also have a Most Creative Cupcake Cook competition – I suggest looking through the entries and being inspired.

Can’t bake or decorate? Why not donate to one of the participants?

While I haven’t started a team yet, rest assured I won’t let my cupcake decorating talent go to waste. Even if Jarod might be the only person kind enough to give me money for them.

Let me present the rainbowyay!cake:

As for the inside… well, we weren’t smart enough to get photos of the actual cake before the icing or after the cutting, but this photo of the test cake I made the weekend earlier shows pretty much exactly what it looked like…

Yes, that is all the one, solid lump of cake. And it’s all rainbow layer’y! I had the order of a rainbow pinned up next to my computer for about a week an a half… and I still can’t remember how it goes.

As for how I made it? Well.

- Take one cake recipe that’ll turn out a white/creamish batter (I used a vanilla cupcake recipe).

- Divvy up the batter into 6 different bowls and go crazy with colour.

- Find a cake tin that will fit inside a contraption that steams. Grease it, and steam it for about 5 minutes to get it warm.

-Grab your handy order-of-a-rainbow piece of paper and work out which colour will be first.

- Open up the steamer and pour the batter inside the cake tin – spreading with a spatula to ensure it is level(ish). This part gets hot, so be careful.

- Put the lid back on for another 7 or so minutes. Repeat with your next layer (in order!). And keep repeating until you run out of layers.

- You can then either: steam the cake for a bit longer so it’s cooked through OR take the cake out of the steamer and put it into a preheated oven so it cooks through. I put it in the oven for 10 minutes… because I felt like it, really. You just have to be careful that it doesn’t dry out if you do use the oven.

And then you cover it in some kind of icing and then put some letters on the top. Just a hint though: it’s always better if you write at least one of the letters backwards by accident. It gives the final cake a really amatuerish look which is hard to beat.

Happy Birthday Miss Rah! We hope you have an excellent day.

(I should mention that on the day Jarod was a MAJOR help with the cake making and decorating. Who would have thought there would be so much to get done before a wedding?)

Yogi made it all look so easy. She explained her way through some of her cupcake decorations, showing us all the tips and tricks while we watched in awe.

A pirate!

A baby in a blanket! (Which, to be honest, I find a little creepy).

Yogi making a cat on request. (Awesome).

Then it was our turn to play with the fondant and tools. It was much harder than it looked. We were each given 6 cupcakes and told to go wild.

Here is Leigh and Laura hard at work…

Some all important photo taking…

And my ‘finished’ cupcakes. (Pick the one that Yogi made!)

Let’s not forget the actual 365 photo – Yogi was lovely enough to agree to pose with us and some of her creations and Leigh was lovely enough to take the photo for us.

It was a great night – I’d happily recommend the class to any other cake decorating beginners. The Craft Room courses will be running throughout May, June and (maybe) July, so keep and eye on the website if you’re interested.

Thanks to Laura and Leigh for making it extra entertaining, and of course to Yogi for her patience and sharing some of her talent with the rest of us.

- Hot Cross Buns (two batches – choc chip style);
- Banana Bread (with wholemeal flour);
- Chocolate cupcake-muffins; and
- Wholemeal bread! (!1!!2)

That makes up for missing out on the March Daring Bakers challenge, right?

To people that question why we live in the Inner West… running to the local IGA in the rain is reason #27. It’s way more fun than getting in the car and driving 10-15 minutes to your local super market.

Ingredients
60g butter
2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
2 eggs
1 big ripe banana, mashed
1 cup or so of milk choc bits

How to
1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a medium muffin tray (12 sections) with paper cases. Melt butter in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Put a mixing bowl (not siftable!). Stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients.
3. Lightly beat milk, eggs and butter in a jug. Add to dry ingredients, along with mashed banana. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix ingredients until just combined. Stir in choc bits. Don’t beat the mixture or the muffins will be tough.
4. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm on top. Let cool.
5. Eat. Nom nom nom.

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

Graham wafer: a sweet cracker that bears some resemblance to a cookie — digestive biscuits are the closest approximation.

Nanaimo bar: a dessert of Canadian origin popular across North America. A type of chocolate no-bake square, it is named after the West-Coast city of Nanaimo, British Columbia. It consists of a wafer crumb-based layer, topped by a layer of light vanilla or custard flavoured butter icing, which is covered in chocolate.

The process:

1. The start of the graham wafers.

2. Adding in the butter.

3. My graham wafer dough ready for cooling. (No photos of the dough making process because it was sticky business!)

4. Dough poked, ready for the oven.

5. Crushed rice bubbles (while waiting for the wafers to bake).

6. Baked graham wafers! Tasty.

7. The base of the Nanaimo bar.

8. Adding the middle layer.

9. It seems I can’t count and missed adding the image for number 9.

10. Chocolate top and ready for the fridge!

11. Cooled overnight, sliced and ready for the eating.

While I did make the graham wafers with plain flour (staying Gluten Free was not mandatory), I did enjoy the challenge. Both graham wafers and Nanaimo bars are something I’ve never tasted before, let alone made!

Graham wafers seem to be a big thing in America. While they were tasty, I probably wont be making them again an time soon. The Nanaimo bars were delicious – but so, so, so sweet. Those slices I cut were way to big for an individual serving for us. But we did make our way through most of the bar by the end of the week.

The recipe:

Link to the full challenge recipe.

Gluten-Free Graham Wafers – Ingredients
1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

Gluten-Free Graham Wafers – Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.

2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.

3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.

4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.

5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).

6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.

7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.

8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.

9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars – Ingredients

Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Nanaimo Bars – Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.

2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.

3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

Adjustments made by Liz: Recipes were halved to create a smaller batch. Wheat based flour was used. Coconut in base layer of Nanaimo bars was replaced with crushed rice bubbles.

Many thanks go to Lauren for hosting this month’s challenge. It was a great challenge to start Daring Bakers with!

Breakfast this morning. Chocolate buttermilk pancakes with freshly whipped cream and chocolate dusting.

Nutella Banana Muffins

Ingredients

2 eggs
125g soft butter
100g sugar
2 large ripe bananas
100g Nutella
100ml milk
1 tsp baking soda
250g flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g (milk) chocolate (topping)

How to

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs.
Fold in mashed banana and the nutella until mixed through. In a separate bowl, combine the milk and baking soda. In another bowl combine flour and baking powder.

Alternately blend in part of the milk mixture, then part of the flour mixture, then part of the milk mixture… until everything is combined. (This way provides better control over the consistency of the batter).

Pour batter into greased or paper-lined muffin tins and bake at 180°C in the preheated oven: 20-25 minutes for normal sized muffins, and 10 minutes for mini muffins. Check if the muffins are done by poking in a wooden skewer – it should come out quite dry and almost clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.

If you like, add a thick layer of milk chocolate to top, or spread with Nutella when eating. These are beautiful eaten straight from the oven.

And here’s some photos from the making of… click for bigger.

In case you’re wondering, Jarod mounted his Nikon with fisheye lens onto on of our cupboard doors, and pointed it downwards. He had a remote control and he took photos at random intervals. Most of the time I didn’t know when he was going to take them. The exception being the few in which I’m smiling.

Yesterday in the stupid Sydney heat I was determined to make it, however I was given two restrictions by Jarod: the base had to be chocolatey, and I was not allowed to turn on the oven.

I consulted the internet, and pulled together various recipes to create a ‘no oven’ choc mint slice.

Chocolatey base:
115g butter
50g white sugar
75g cocoa
25g rice bubbles (slightly smooshed in a food processor/with something heavy)
[I also had '2 eggs' written down. I forgot to add them, but the base works fine anyway. Up to you if you want to add them in]

Melt the butter, sugar and cocoa in a double boiler. (Or a heat resistant bowl that fits snugly on top of one of your saucepans), stirring occasionally. When all melted into a chocolatey goo, remove from heat and stir through your smooshed rice bubbles. Press the mixture firmly into some kind container. I used a loaf pan. The mixture will be hot, so you may have to improvise and use something other than your hands.

Put the container with the base into the fridge (or freezer) to cool/set while you make the minty middle bit.

Minty middle bit:
1 1/4 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp warm/hot milk
15g softened butter
Peppermint essence to taste

Stir the icing sugar, milk and butter together until you get a thick sugary paste. The butter can take a little while to work through. Add peppermint essence to taste. I added around 1/4 tsp of the essence, and it was plenty minty. At this stage if you would like your mint to look green, you can also add some food colouring.
Mix the essence (and colouring if used) in thoroughly.

Check the base: if it is still warm, put both the minty mixture and the base back in the fridge. If you try and put the minty bit on while the base is still warm, you run the risk of your minty bit being melty. Once the base is cool, spread the minty mixture over the base and return to the fridge to set for 10 minutes.

Chocolatey top:
150g dark chocolate
1/2 tsp melted butter

Melt the butter in a heatproof container. Add chocolate and make it melty too. Mix together with a knife until smooth. Leave mixture to reach room temperature. (Again, if you add this while hot your middle bit will go melty).
When cool/room temperature, spread over the top of your middle bit. Return to the fridge to let the chocolate set.

When it’s all set, it’ll look something like this:

Cut into bits and eat.

It is a very rich and sugary slice, we couldn’t eat much at once. The base (surprisingly) held together quite well sans eggs.

I think next time I’ll do it when it’s cooler and I’m allowed to use the oven, and make it ‘normally‘ by baking a biscuity base. Still, very edible. Just in small portions.