How To: Reinvent Your Cake Scraps!

I always seem to accumulate cake scraps, whether it's a little slice of cake sitting in the fridge I had been meaning to get to or the leftovers after I level a cake. I hate food wastage and any solution to wasting food is a winner in my books. I have come up with a way to save those cake scraps and turn them into something amazingly moreish!

Everyone feast your eyes on these...

Yep that's right cake balls. A mixture of delicious icing and cake scraps , rolled into a ball and dipped into some melted chocolate and you have yourself a delicious treat ! and best thing about this is it is great for sharing/ a gift or some self indulgence. 

What you need :

- Cake scraps (I have some leftover chocolate cake that has gotten too dry to eat and some cake scraps from leveling out a cake.)

- Icing ( I'm using left over peanut butter frosting from a bake sale at work, but you could use Nutella or anything really)

- Melted chocolate 

- Optional : Peanuts, Snickers, pretzels (all left overs I have from a bake sale)

Cake Ball mix: leftover Cake, Icing and anything else you have! (in this case chopped up Snickers)

Chocolate chips to melt, crushed pretzels and peanuts to roll the cake balls in.

What to do: 

1. Crumb the cake scraps until it is all broken and crumbled

2. Mix it thoroughly with the icing 

3. Roll into balls
4. Freeze your cake balls for 1-2 hours 

4. Dip the balls into melted chocolate and roll into sprinkles or your choice of topping.

Cake Balls (cake, icing and Snickers mixed together, rolled into balls and frozen)

Dipped into melted chocolate and rolled in crushed pretzels and crushed peanuts. 

* A little tip on saving cake : Cake freezes really well, so when you find yourself with some cake scraps and  no time, simply freeze them and get to them when you do have time.

This is also a great activity to do with kids , it can be messy so I would make sure they each have their own little aprons. To make it easier pre-roll some cake balls and allow the kids to dip it into chocolate and the toppings of their choice. 

Enjoy 

xx Mel. 

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bliss

Peanut butter and chocolate ... a flavour that in one way or another everyone has encountered. Why do you think almost every chocolate company has invested in some form of peanut butter and chocolate product ? Because people love it of course!...

So naturally I wanted to share with everyone my favourite form of peanut butter and chocolate :)

This is my Chocolate cake with a very fudgy white chocolate and peanut butter frosting. 

I love making small 6 inch cakes. Especially for small groups of people. In this case I am making this cake for two :) This smaller cakes allows us to enjoy our cake without over indulging or having any wastage. 

What you need: (Chocolate cake : Adapted from Donna Hays Recipe)

- 6 inch (12cm) round pans 

- 1/2 cup of hot water

- 60 g unsalted butter

-4 table spoons of dark cocoa powder

- 1 cup of plain flour

- 1 cup of caster sugar

- 1/2 tsp bicarb soda

- 1 egg

- 1/4 cup of buttermilk (I never buy butter milk I make my own - mix milk and lemon juice, let sit for a few minutes )

- A pinch of salt 

Frosting: (fudgy white chocolate and peanut butter frosting)

- 60 grams of unsalted butter

- 200 g cream cheese

- 1 cup of sifted icing sugar

- 2/3 cup of smooth peanut butter

- 100 g melted white chocolate

- 1/2 tsp of vanilla bean paste. 

What to do:

1.Preheat oven to 150 degrees

2. place water, butter and cocoa powder in a microwave proof dish and microwave for 60 seconds 

3. mix cocoa mixture until smooth and add in the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, bicarb, salt)

4. mix in the egg and buttermilk 

5. grease and line baking tins and divide mixture between them (If you only have one pan then bake each layer at a time (each layer should be around 3/4 - 1 cup of mixture)

6. bake for 20-25 minutes (check at 20 min mark with a skewer, the cake is very moist so you may see a little bit of chocolate on the skewer )

7. while the cakes are cooling make the frosting 

8. using an electric mixer whisk together the butter and cream cheese. 

9. once it is smooth mix in the sifted icing sugar

10. when icing sugar is combined mix in the peanut butter and then the melted chocolate with vanilla bean paste. (to melt the chocolate it takes around 1 min in the microwave)

11. when your cake has cooled frost it with your delicious peanut butter frosting (if you haven't already eaten the whole bowl!) 

12. Remember to share it and enjoy with a cup of tea ! 

*Note: there is no need to level your cakes as this recipe doesn't cause the cake to dome out too much (to keep the top layer level and flat just flip the cake over and use the bottom of the cake for the top)

Enjoy 

xx Mel. 

Mushroom Picking- Belanglo State Forest

Over the Easter Holidays my family and I decided to go mushroom picking! We all love to eat good food so we thought picking mushrooms that you don't normally find in shops would be perfect for us,

Mushroom picking season takes place from early March to late May. To make sure there will be plenty of mushrooms check the weather report if you have had a few days of rain this is perfect! Mushrooms love the wet cool environment of a freshly rained on pine forest.

There are two types of mushrooms that are safe to pick and I'd advise you to go to the local information centre for a picture guide of the safe mushrooms. Saffron Milk Caps and Slippery Jack's are the safe ones to pick and they both have a distinct look. When we were picking mushrooms the only ones we could find were the Saffron Milk Caps. Saffron Milk Caps are rare finds in shops or restaurants they have a floral smell, mild flavour, a slightly solid yet crispy texture and a beautiful saffron coloured secretion when cut into.

The first day of the holidays we travelled all the way to Oberon which was a 4 hour drive from Sydney mainly due to traffic. Unfortunately as beautiful as the pine forest was there were no mushrooms to be found :( this was due to the dry weather the days before. Disappointed and sore from the long car ride our whole stubborn family refused to give up on our hunt for mushrooms. Two days later we decided we would travel to a closer but infamous Pine forest ... Belanglo State Forest. Was I nervous to be going there with my entire precious family? yes! we've all heard the stories so I'll spare everyone the details. We made it in around 1.5 hours and straight away the images of a Dark Scary forest melted away... There were families camping and children running around with buckets too large for their little hands. Not so scary after all...

Belanglo State Forest- beautiful
 

Toadstools ! they exist! The Stuff of fairytales  (Warning Poisonous do not pick or eat)
 

Weird blue poisonous mushrooms (Warning do not pick or eat)



Saffron Milk Caps - edible ones! yummy. (When picking cut at the base , leaving the roots in encourages them to regrow)



We made mushroom pizza with a truffle butter. Recipe below

Mushroom Pizza

What You Need: (amount depends on how many pizzas you make)

Mushrooms ( We used saffron Milk Caps)
Truffle butter ( you can buy in jars at specialty shops)
Truffle Salt
Cheese grated
Fresh Thyme
Garlic - clove diced
Pizza Bases (Store bought or you can make your own)
Butter
Salt and Pepper to taste

What To Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius
2. Sautee the Mushrooms in butter, thyme, Garlic, salt and pepper till lightly browned and fragrant
3. Mix some truffle salt in with the truffle butter and spread generously onto the pizza base
4. Spread the mushrooms over the top
5. Top with the grated cheese
6. Bake in the oven for 10- 15 minutes
7. Remove and then dot the pizza with more truffle butter
8. Slice, serve and enjoy!


Enjoy


xx Mel