Time for tea

Hungarian Tart

250g Butter
3/4cup Castor Sugar
1/4cup Sunflower oil
2 Eggs
3cup Flour
3tsp Baking Powder
3/4 cup Apricot Jam

Cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually pour in oil and then eggs and mix through. Sift in flour and baking powder and knead into a soft dough. Lightly grease an oven/roasting tray and press 3/4 of the dough mixture smooth into tray. The other quarter of dough mixture, pop into the freezer. Freezer for 5-10 minutes to firm up. Meanwhile you can attend to base dough in your tray. Prick base with a fork and smooth jam over. Then get your other quarter of dough and grate it all over the jam. Bake this in an oven already heated at 180 degree C for +/- 25 minutes or till top is slightly golden. Allow to cool and cut into bars. Enjoy!

Friday afternoon I made a batch of Hungarian tart. Rich biscuit base with a soft, sweet center.. Yum! I must tell you all my baked goodies are photographed in my kitchen, you will notice the kitchen counter in nearly all of my pictures. I always think about editing them but hassle of cropping and re-designing is too much work for me. How I wish I could take professional pictures like the ones you see on websites and magazines but unfortunately I don't own a high ranked camera. I just have my iPhone and as long as the pictures are really clear I guess I have a good shot. But today I really wanted to try, try to be more professional :) I've read on previous blogs that a good background will aid in your shots and give a somewhat professional appearance, so I did just that. I think it turned out pretty good. I'm so proud of myself :D

Since I used a silver plate and cake stand I chose a black background with made the picture "pop". Looks good!

Yay the weekend is here!

Its Friday and almost the start of the weekend. I am relieved that i don't have any orders that i need to rush around for. I am hoping, that tomorrow with having helped with school homework and month end shopping that I cant put together some tutorials which i can share with you... Well lets keep our fingers crossed. But for now listed below are pictures of a party done for an energetic young man. His party was held at a Water Park in Durban South Africa. And since it was at such a fun venue, we decided to keep the theme "Fun in the Sun".

Look how gorgeous the venue was

Chips Ahoy

Chocolate Chip Cookies

125g Butter OR Margarine
125ml ( ½ cup)  White Sugar
125ml ( ½ cup)  Brown Sugar
3ml ( ½t) Vanilla Essence
1 Egg, lightly beaten
435ml (1 ¾ cup) Self-raising Flour
3ml ( ½t) Salt
125g Chocolate Chips
60g Walnuts, chopped (optional)

·  Cream the butter/margarine, sugars and vanilla essence together.

·  Gradually add the lightly beaten egg. Mix in the sifted flour and salt.

·  Add the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts, and mix well.

·  Shape teaspoonfuls of the mixture into small balls and place on a lightly greased oven tray, allowing room    for spreading. Push a few extra choc chips into each cookie if desired.

·  Bake in at 180°C for 10–15 minutes

That's the way a cookie crumbles..

So I will be sharing my tried and tested recipes with you, they are somewhat fool proof. So bear in mind you do not have to worry about your end result.
Most recipes are on an easy level and can be prepared in no time at all. So if it's an afternoon tea you planning or just feeling for a pick me up why not try one of these.

This is a versatile cookie recipe where lot of variants can be added to it. You can add in nuts, glaze cherries, choc chips. They are delicious plain too.

Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
500g Pure Butter
1 cup Icing Sugar
1 1/2 cups Cornflour
Flour as required

Method:
Cream butter and icing sugar till pale in colour. Add in your cornflour and mix through. Now add flour 1 cup at a time as mixing until you get a soft smooth dough. Make sure you add a bit at time, you don't want a too stiff dough.
You can roll cookie dough between sheets of grease proof paper, and cut shapes as desired alternatively you can pipe them out with a pastry bag fitted with a star nozzle.
Bake them on a lightly greased cookie sheet at 180 degrees Celsius for about 10 - 15 minutes (all depends on your oven heat settings) or until the are golden in colour.
Once cooled decorate as desired, with melted chocolate, royal icing or a dusting of icing sugar.

Enjoy!!!

The Carnival is in Town!

This carnival themed party i had planned for my little boy. I had so much fun planning the function. I kept the colours bright and bold as you would find it in the carnival. The weather was great, it was a day of good food, family, friends and loads of fun.
All goodies baked and created by me.

Candy Tree

Party favor bags

What a gorgeous birthday cake.. 

Cute big top Favor boxes

My little Clown