DIY Sweet Stuff

This particular post is dedicated to tips on those do's and don'ts that I have personally experienced and for somethings especially baking there are no substitutions. There are a few things that can however be substituted.  1. FOLLOW EVERY STEP! Fist and foremost please when trying a new recipe or idea read the ingredient and instructions to the end before attempting. This may sound funny but one time I jumped into a new recipe with excitement without doing such and ended up wanting to scream. This will allow you to see if you have all required ingredients and if not a grocery trip is needed. 2. SET OUT ALL YOUR INGREDIENTS AND UTENSILS BEFORE MIXING Ensure you have all the requirements for the process and have them readily available so you wouldn't be going back and forth. Neglecting this element can result in chaos.  3. MELTED BUTTER & SOFTENED BUTTER IS BY NO MEANS THE SAME Refrigerated/Hard butter can be difficult to mix with other ingredients h...

For this recipe you can use your preferred brownie recipe, I know with time one tends to end up with that favourite one.  Recipe: 12 Servings Ingredients: Baked and cooled brownie (9' x 13' sheet) Medium sized 💗shaped cookie cutter Icing: 1 1/4 Cups Confectioners Sugar 3 Tablespoons Milk 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract NB: If you plan on making a double batch of brownies be sure to double up on the icing recipe as well. Instructions: Ensure the brownies are completely cooled then you want to use the 💗shaped cutter and carefully cut out twelve brownies. Depending on the size cookie cutter you have available or prefer to use you can do more or less. Also do not fear if you do not have a 💗 shaped cookie cutter you can do them free hand if you are artistic or cut a template from a piece of foil/parchment paper and carefully using a small knife cut around the template.  Set aside and prepare icing, ensure it is of a consistency that can be d...

Chocolate Glaze The finishing touches can make or break your perfect dessert. I am not a specialist on frosting or fondant but in trying some recipes I have found a few good frosting recipes.  This chocolate glaze is taken from a "Taste of Home" dessert cookbook. It is simple and doesn't involve melting of chocolate chips which I know can be a hit and miss at times for some people. It has certainly happened to me on a few occasions and is dependent on the brand of chocolate chips used for melting.  Tips for melting chocolate chips will be given in a further post. Recipe: glazes and 9 " Cake Ingredients: 1/4 cup butter (cubed) 1/4 cup baking cocoa 3/4 cup confectioners sugar 2- 4 tablespoons  milk Hershey's cookies and cream chocolate (optional) Instructions: Melt butter and cocoa in a small saucepan, whisk in confectioners sugar and enough milk until you get a consistency for drizzling. For a little pop I coar...

Coconut Bake Pizza Crust  This recipe was not taken from any cookbook or website, this is my personal recipe. Having kids you always have to be innovative even in the kitchen. When you want to get them to eat the healthy stuff (carrots, sweet peppers, etc) it takes going beyond the norm. The type and amount of cheese depends on your preference. I did not give measurements for this ingredient, also I know some persons love to do a layer of cheese before adding ingredients, so the choice is yours. Additionally feel free to use whatever ingredients you prefer.  For this recipe homemade coconut bake courtesy my dad was used. However, feel free to use store bought, I have tried them with both and came out equally yummy!! Also you can prepare in a traditional oven/grill/convection oven. Personally have tried this with both traditional oven and grill and the end results were the same.  Recipe: 8 Servings 1 coconut bake 4-5 strips of bacon (meat of your c...

I have made bread pudding several times with left over bread both homemade and store bought. For this recipe I used some left over homemade biscotti, any type of bread can be used.  Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding with Rum Butter Sauce Recipe:  1 loaf bread cut into cubes 2 Cups heavy whipping cream 2 Cups whole milk (Full Cream) 1 Cup Sugar, plus additional 2 tablespoons divided 1/2 Stick melted butter (4 tablespoons) 4 large eggs 8 oz of chocolate chips/ roughly chopped chocolate of choice 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)  Buttered Rum Sauce Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees, lightly greese a 13" by 9" baking dish (use whichever you have available) . Place bread cubes into a large bowl, in a medium bowl whisk together 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream, milk, 1 cup of sugar and eggs. Add this mixture to the cubed bread gently stirring, let stand for 15 minutes.  Stir in chocolate and pecans, spoon the mixture i...

Wedding Favors Made Simple Jordan almonds, assorted colours Favor Tins 1/8 " Reel of Ribbon/s of desired colour Instructions: Separate Jordan Almonds into bowls according to colours, if you intend to use a mixture of colours just place almonds into a bowl. Using approximately 6 Jordan Almonds place into favor tin then carefully place lid to cover. Depending on the size of the tin you choose you may want to add more Jordan Almonds. Cut about 5-6 " of ribbon and place around rim of tin, make a small bow pulling tight to ensure it is held in place. Below is an image to show how simple this idea is and can cut costs when having a wedding or any other function. Alternately this can be done using Mini Goblet (or any type of plastic glass) or favor containers for different occasions. You can also use different types of candy according to the occasion. Apart from needing a few extra hands to assist putting them together, wouldn't you agree that those ...

Ice Cream Layer Cake Having a passion for cooking I am always ready to try something new, saw this recipe on Food Network and tried it for my birthday. It came out pretty awesome for a first try, I did tweak it a bit from the original recipe using ice cream I had readily available at that time.  The pound cake can be made in advance which will allow it to cool entirely before layering with ice cream, feel free to use a recipe of your choice or even store bought. I used a recipe from taste of home cookbook.  Also the ice cream must be softened enough to be easily spread in between layers of cake. A tip for the ice cream purchase the three in one flavour (vanilla, strawberry and chocolate) Neapolitian, this will save on cost of buying three different flavours. You can dress it up using your preferred candy choices. At the time of preparation I did not actually have the Chocolate Shell ice cream sauce and used chocolate hot fudge in my recipe, it did not set 100% but ...

S'mores For this recipe I used Graham Cookies which I purchased as Sav-A-Lot- Food Store in Mt. Lambert, it cost approximately $20. 00 a box.  Recipe: 4 Servings 4 Graham Cookies  Hershey's Chocolate (Fun/Mini Size) Large Marshmallows Instructions:   Break each of the Graham Cookie into halves, use two marshmallows per smore and cut into halves placing flat onto one half of the Graham Cookie. Next take a fun size Hershey's and place to the centre of the marshmallows. Using the other half of the Graham Cookie place on top the chocolate to cover. Repeat steps for next three smores. Place the four smores into a microwave safe dish and in the first instance microwave for 10-12 seconds. Remove and check to see if marshmallows and chocolate is slightly melted, of not microwave for another 5 seconds. Remove from microwave and gently press the top of each smore, the marshmallow and chocolate should slightly ooze from the sides.

This blog is inspired for my passion of cooking, having parents who encouraged learning to cook at a very early age was a plus for me and quite beneficial to my family. My hobby for baking and cooking is sort of my haven for relaxing; this has developed over the years into quite a few extra activities. Being a mother of nine year old twins I can guarantee that other parents experience pretty much the same dilemma. From deciding what to cook to activities that keep them occupied is like another full time job! Of course with these tasks come attached expenses given that children get bored of the same things over and over. Can we blame them because even as adults we feel the same way and besides every child needs a little distraction from school. The blog has something for everyone, kids, novices and experts can have fun trying activities and recipes posted.  Ideas presented on this blog also assist with cutting costs and provides a platform to share some of my personal experienc...