Simple Peanut Butter Cookies

Simple. Scrumptious. And super-sweet. These are my type of cookies.

I'm a sucker for anything peanut butter. Peanut butter and celery top the list of my favourite combo's. It may sound weird, but you can't judge until you've tried it. AH-MAZING!
You could trick me into eating anything if it had some peanut butter smeared in it. Well, almost anything. You couldn't trick me into eating chicken. Blergh.

Uncooked cookie dough and the finished product.

Is it OK that I burnt my tongue eating one of these fresh out of the oven? You know, checking for quality?
Yeah, I thought so too :)

How cute is the imprint on these cookies! Almost looks like a slice of orange.

I followed the recipe, halving it and it made about 15 cookies. They were very sweet, so maybe next time I might use natural peanut butter instead. You can find the recipe here.


I do love a giant stack of cookies. Mmmmm......

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The V8 Cake

I have been quivering in fear to post this cake.
Yes, it has been many months since I actually made this cake for my sister's 21st birthday and I can honestly say that I never wish to make it again. Maybe.

Was it impressive? Yes.
Was it delicious? Definitly!
But was it worth it? I would say so-so.


Due to my climate, I had to change out alot of things and source recipes for the layers elsewhere. And being rushed to finish it by the "Haaappy-Birthhdaaay-too-youu" deadline didn't help, as assembly was no where near what I desired.
The layers looked messy, but the flavour was still there and as I was serving to family I had no real worries.

I do have a sweet tooth, but after a few decadently-rich mouthfeels, some sort of tart fruit (raspberries!) would provide relief.

You can find the recipe, along with some excellent tips from these websites.

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Get ready for it...

I am going to attempt the V8 cake by Adriano Zumbo, featured on Masterchef.

Brace yourselves.

I want s'more!

Who could say no to this? Drool.

Cookie+Marshmallow+Chocolate=Sweet, Sweet Heaven!

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Failed: Tarty Tuesday

Don't you hate it when something you put alot of effort in to, doesn't turn out the way you want it? I haven't had any recipe failures in a while now, but I guess I jinxed that today. The fillings and topping were really nice, and the base... well, that's were all the nice-ness ends. I had no butter left over so I 'smartly' thought "Flora (a margarine spread) will be fine". Big mistake.

The base, described by my mother, was 'inedible' so I'm not posting a recipe for today. But here are some photos which look edible:


Caramel Tart with Roasted Peanuts.


Smores Tart adapted from How Sweet It Is.


I'm going to go sulk and eat the rest of the caramel from the pan.
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Cakey Doughnuts with Sugar Glaze

I'm currently working my way through the entire season 5 of How I Met Your Mother while chowing down on some seriously yummy doughnuts. I suggest you run to your kitchens and bake these. Or just your kitchen, I don't know about you, but I only have the one. Anyway, it uses your pantry staples, so there's nothing exciting you need to buy. Unless you don't have any sprinkles. Then you must first run to the store, buy your weight in sprinkles and then make these doughnuts.



Meet the players.




I once did a science project using buttermilk, testing how it works in baking muffins. It's the acidity of the Buttermilk which reacts with the baking soda and baking powder (both of which are more basic/alkaline), creating all those lovely little air pockets. So it is scientifically proven. Buttermilk = awesome.


Glazed Cake Doughnuts
(from Jenna, at Eat, Live, Run)

Glazed Cake Doughnuts
makes 6 doughnuts or 12 mini round doughnuts

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs cold butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

Glaze:
1 tbs milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Cinnamon-Sugar:
1 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I add extra)


Preheat your oven to 175C (350F).


Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk till thoroughly mixed. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub in to the flour mix until the texture is like sand.

Now grab a smaller bowl and combine the buttermilk, vanilla and egg together. Add to the dry mixture and mix until just combined. Overmixing might result in tough doughnuts, just like it would with muffins.




Pour mixture into piping bag and pipe into greased doughnut moulds or rounded cake moulds like I did.
Bake in oven for 15 minutes, or until a lovely golden brown.




I burnt myself trying to get one of these bad boys out of the tray as soon as they came out of the oven to toss in some cinnamon-sugar. There's nothing better than a hot cinnamon donut.




Drool.



I chose to glaze some and dust the others in the cinnamon-sugar mix. Both were incredibly delicious. I created a hybrid sugar-glazed, cinnamon-sugar dusted donut but he was devoured before I took a photo. My bad.



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