The MOST delicious carrot and apple loaf cake

I just had to share this recipe as it is AMAZING!!  It's kind of a 'bit of this, bit of that' recipe but it turned out so well I just had to post it.  I was trying to find a recipe for nut free (school policy) carrot or apple muffins to make for Master J's lunch box treats.  When I googled it hundreds and hundreds came up!!  I started reading through them all to find one that was both healthy and a little bit of a treat and I decided to combine what I thought were the best bits from two or three different recipes and hope for the best.  Who would have thought I'd be this brave and adventurous in the kitchen!??

Cake Ingredients:

300g peeled carrots
2 green apples peeled and cored
150g butter
100g rapadura or soft dark brown sugar
100g unrefined caster sugar (I made mine by whizzing raw sugar in the thermomix for 3 secs on speed 9)
3 eggs
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
180g plain flour

Method:

• Pre heat the oven to 150 degrees.
• Grate the apples and carrots for 5 seconds on speed 6.  Scrape the sides on the TM bowl down and grate fro another 2-3 seconds on speed 6.
• Put the grated apple and carrot into a separate bowl and using (clean) hands squeeze out the excess juices.  I discovered this little trick when cooking baby food finger food for Miss L.  Too much liquid will make the cake a bit too dense and soggy.

• Add the butter and sugars to the TM and beat for 30-40 seconds on speed 7 until light and fluffy.

• Scrape down the sides of the TM bowl and add the eggs.  Beat on speed 7 for 15 seconds or until fully incorporated.
• Add the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder and mix for 10-15 seconds on speed 7.
• Fold in the grated apple and carrot by mixing on speed 3-4 for 15-20 seconds.

•  Pour into a loaf tin lined with baking paper and bake in the oven for 50 minutes to an hour.  I decided against the muffins in the end and actually I think it was much better as a loaf cake.

It smelt amazing!!

Cream Cheese and Orange Icing:

This is the best bit, I think - it was sooooo yummy!!  I used a block or 250g cream cheese, 50g icing sugar and the juice and zest of 1 orange.

Firstly I put the orange zest into the Thermomix and whizzed it for about 1 minute on speed 9.  Keeping a little of it aside for decorating I then added everything else to the TM bowl and mixed it for 20 seconds on speed 6.

Spread over your (cooled) loaf and ENJOY!!!

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Traffic Light Brownies

This is another idea that I saw somewhere - Pinterest I think, but I just can't remember exactly where it was!!  Anyway I thought it was a great idea - and I'm very sorry for not crediting it's original source.

I've decided to use a lovely Nigella Lawson recipe for the brownies (which I altered ever so slightly for the thermomix), so if you're on any form of diet - look away now!!

A quick trip to woolies for the ingredients with two very enthusiastic little helpers!

Ingredients

150g chocolate (I used dark chocolate)

150g butter

3 eggs

280-300g sugar (I used the lesser)

1 tsp vanilla essence

25g cocoa powder

130g plain flour

A large bag of smarties (or M&M's)

Prep and Method

• Set the oven to preheat at 160 degrees (NOT 180 degrees as I did without thinking and then had to wait for it to cool a bit).

• Line a 20cm baking tin with baking paper.

• Chop the butter and chocolate for 5 seconds on speed 5.  Scrape down the sides with a spatula.  

• Melt the chocolate and butter for 2 mins at 60 degrees on speed 1.   Don't worry if there are still bits of solid chocolate in there - as Nigella says "there is nothing better than finding a sneaky lump of chocolate in your brownie".

• Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence and mix if 5 seconds on speed 4.

• Add the flour and cocoa and mix again for 5 seconds on speed 4.

• Pour the mixture evenly into the tin (trying not to eat it in the process).

• Finally get your 'enthusiastic' helper to sort out all the Smarites into traffic light colours ready to decorate!  Bonus points if they can tell you what the colours mean!!

• Pop your beautiful brownie tray into the oven and bake it for 50mins.  Nigella says to take them out the oven 10 minutes early if you want your brownies to be a little bit gooey in the middle.  Which we did and they were DELICIOUS!!

The green Smarties seemed to turn yellow in the over - but no one seemed to notice!!

• Once cooled, cut up and serve (and again try not to eat them all at once).

And it really IS a good picture!

This evening whilst I was cooking dinner for the second time.... (earlier today I made an amazing Green Thai Curry, but I underestimated just how hot it would be!  Hence dinner number two as my beautiful curry was too 'burny' for the kids).   Anyway, whilst I was in the kitchen, Master J yelled out to me "Mum, come in here and look at us!  This will make a really cool picture! '  Not sure what they were up to, I grabbed my phone and walked into the lounge.

This is what I found!  Master J was so right - it really IS a good picture.

This post was brought to you by Memories Captured.  Linking up on Writing, Wishing

Weaning made easy in the thermomix - Stage 1

It's always fun when you get round to that baby stage of weaning!

I remember reading an article that was circulating Facebook a while back that described weaning a baby something like this:

1.  Make some holes in a watermelon and empty out as much of the fruit as you can.
2.  Fill 'said' watermelon with some kind of green mush (keeping some aside for feeding).
3.  Hang 'said' watermelon from the kitchen ceiling and swing it.
4.  While dodging flying green mush, attempt to put some of the leftovers into the holes in the moving watermelon with the smallest spoon you can find.
5.  Stand back and admire the mess you now have to clean up (3 times a day).
6.  If you were successful then you are ready to wean your baby!!

This did make me chuckle as I can whole heartedly relate to the mess!!  I've got to the stage now where I am starting to give Miss L some bits of food and (semi) control of the spoon so she can start to feed herself.  She's just over 8 months now and I probably should have started to do this a while ago, but I'd got feeding her with a spoon without any mess down to a such a fine art that I've really had to dig deep to give her control of the spoon!!!!

Since having my thermomix I have found the process of weaning  SO MUCH EASIER than I did with my other two.  I can remember having every chopping board out and every single pot and steamer going all at the same time just to get one meal cooked.  Then the worst bit was the 'blending'.  Mashing all the cooked fuit and veg down into a puree without either burning myself or splatting it all over the kitchen was impossible!!  And then I'd have to wash it all up and start again, just so that they weren't eating the same thing three times a day for a week.  Oh and those weeks just fly by too.  That sense of achievement you get when you have filled the freezer up with lots of little pots of pureed food only seems to last a couple of days before the freezer starts to look empty again!

With my thermie, I've been able to make just about anything I want in less than 30 minutes from start to finish without even taking a pot out of the cupboard!!!!!!!  Yes, it really is my kitchen princess!  The only problem I've had is finding good thermomix recipes for making 'baby food'.  So I have decided to make some of my own recipes and share them with you all.  I have taken a lot of my inspiration from Annabel Karmel, who is, in my eyes, the guru of baby cooking and weaning.

Here is a great all rounder that my miss L just loves!

Sweet, Creamy Vegetables
This could be made with any combination of vegetable that you have in the cupboard, but this is what I used:

Ingredients
1/2 onion
75g carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
150g sweet potato peeled and roughly chopped
1 tbs olive oil
200ml water
40g sweetcorn (frozen or tinned)
35g frozen peas
50g formula milk

Method:
Add the onion and chop on speed 6 for 3 seconds
Add the oil and saute for 1.5 minutes at 90 degrees on speed 1
Add sweet potato, carrot, peas and sweetcorn and chop on speed 6 for 5 seconds

Add the water and cook for 20-25 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 1.

Drain out all excess water using the thermomix basket.

Add the formula milk and blend by turning the dial slowly from 1-10 for 20 seconds.

You can easily alter both the speed you blend at and the length of time you blend for to give you different textures from very very smooth to more lumpy.

Transfer the puree to a bowl and leave it to cool for half an hour and put them in your pots ready for the freezer.  Give the thermomix a quick rinse and you're ready to start the next meal!!  EASY PEASY!!  For a bit of variation you could also add 70g of grated cheese just before you blend or 150g of steamed fish which you can cook in the varoma at the same time as your veggies.

As a general rule, I have found that mixing two to three fruits or vegetable together always works.  If your baby is not so keen on veggies, try adding two veg plus one fruit together.  Here are some great basic combinations for puree's that I have made :

Apple and pear
Pear and blueberry
Banana and Mango
Apple and carrot
Sweet potato, carrot and apple
Broccoli, pea and pear
Butternut, sweetcorn and spinach

All veggies I cook at 100 degrees on speed 1 for between 20-25 minutes and fruit I tend to cook at 90 degrees on speed 1 for between 10 and 15 minutes.

A bit blurry but she was jumping up and down and waving her arms around so much it was nearly impossible to get a good shot!

Next I will be venturing onto cooking some proteins.  I have not yet started Miss L on meat, but that is my next project.

Do you have any fabulous baby puree recipes??  I''d love to hear from you as I'm always looking for new, exciting things to cook for the kids.

Twirly wirly garlic and herb bread (home-made of course)

Who would have thought that I could make such a fancy looking garlic bread??  Normally I would have scared away from something like this - well, actually truth be told I would have just popped into Bakers Delight and bought it!  However this recipe is so easy that you can't go wrong, and you know exactly what's in it too (I'm trying to steer clear of all preservatives at the moment.)   It's also a great one to take to a BBQ or picnic as it looks so pretty.

A few people have asked me for recipe so here it is - it really couldn't be simpler.  I have made it in the thermomix but I am sure you could just adjust it if you don't have one.

Start by making the garlic & herb butter:

• Add 500-600g of fresh, chilled cream into the TM bowl (not thickened) and using the butterfly attachement blend for 1-3 minutes on speed 4.  Once the butter is separated pour off the buttermilk (pop it straight into the fridge and use it to make either pancakes or scones - SO YUMMY and much tastier than using normal milk).
• Strain the milk off one more time using ice cold water and you are left with beautiful butter.  (you could of course just use butter from the supermarket if you don't want to make it)
• Add chopped garlic and herbs of choice (I used rosemary and thyme) and mix it into the butter for 30 seconds on speed 4.  There you have it - beautiful garlic & herb butter.  Just set it aside in a bowl (not in the fridge as you don't want it to go to hard).

homemade garlic and herb butter

Bread Ingredients:

450g luke warm water

4 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

750g bakers flour

5 tbsp oil

• Turn the oven on to 180 degrees (I always forget this part!!  It's SO annoying).

• Put the water, yeast, salt, flour and oil into the TM bowl and mix for 5 seconds on speed 7.  Then set the dial to the 'closed lid' position and knead for 2 minutes on interval speed.

• Tip the dough out and wrap it up either in some cling-film plastic or your thermo-mat and leave it to rise for about half an hour or until it has doubled in size.

The Fun Bit:

• Roll the dough out into a bit square - about the size of the thermomat (approx 50-60cm long).  I find that if you rub some olive oil (or any oil) onto your hands and then press the dough out it is so much easier to handle and doesn't stick.

• Spread your garlic & herb butter across all the dough.  You can use a butter knife or spatula for this, but I just used my hands (clean of course) and spread it out.  A rather messy job but it does feel kinda nice squidging butter between your fingers!

• Using a spatula or a knife cut the dough up into 3-4cm wide strips and roll each one up like a snail.

• Arrange each little snail in a pattern inside a 26cm springform cake tin.  Sprinkle a little rock salt and a few herbs on top and pop it into the oven for 40-45 minutes.

before.....

After!!  (sitting on my lap in the car on our way to a BBQ with friends)

Simples!!  It really was delicious and oh so easy to make.  If anyone tries it without the aid of Thermie, let me know how you got on........

*(This recipe can also be found on page 20 of the Thermomix Festive Flavours Cook book.  The pictures are all my own)

Last week! Love Instagram!

I don't know about you, but each week on the run up to Christmas seems to be getting busier and busier!  There are just so many end of year parties, picnics, get-togethers and lunches that it's nearly impossible to find a spare minute anywhere in the almost the whole of December!  Not to mention the Christmas card writing, shopping, cooking and Santa visiting to name a few other things to squeeze in.  Phew!!!! Makes me exhausted just thinking about it.  However there is just something magical about this time of year that puts everyone in such a good mood!  I love it.

It is funny though, how we are all so busy during the 11 months that run up to Christmas that we hardly have time for all these fabulous social get-togethers and then suddenly December arrives and we try to fit EVERYTHING into one month!!

Miss L has started teething this week and the poor little bunny has not been happy at all!  All red eyed and miserable and she still managed a little smile for mummy.

Late night cuddles with Daddy.

We had some pretty hot days last week and I just LOVE LOVE how easily I can whip up some fresh, delicious ice-cream in the thermomix for the kids in just a couple of minutes.  (I always have to remember to fill my ice trays with milk as well as water now)

Miss H and her little buddy enjoying the strawberry and kiwi ice-cream that they just helped me make.

An afternoon on the beach after school.  We are all really hanging out for the school holidays now.  I am so over the daily pick up and drop offs!!  Bring on the summer holidays.

Candy Bows and I have been very busy at the local Christmas Markets over the last couple of weekends.  Mr D has been rushing around with the big kids while I've had my little Market Hippy as company.  We've had an awesome time.

Little Market buddy

I had to take a picture of this little fella at Saturday's Market!  Fabulous Christmas spirit!

Mmmmmmmm Candy Floss ( or Fairy Floss, depending on where you're from).  I dread to think what it does to their teeth!!  He had to eat it so quickly as it melted quicker than ice-cream in the heat!

I was very proud of this home-made garlic and herb bread - pretty awesome if I say so myself.  Thanks thermi!!

You wouldn't believe that the hugest storm EVER hit this beach about 15 minutes after I took this picture.

Such little darlings xxxxx

My week in Pictures! Love Instagram!

Today is the 25th November and that means just one thing!!  Christmas is exactly ONE month away!  Gulp!!!  I have not even started my Christmas preparations yet?  How is everyone else doing??  Organised??  Or hoping that if you close you eyes tight and then open them again, it will all be done??  Actually I am quite looking forward to all the Christmas prep, especially seeing how excited the kids get - thats the best bit!!

Here's my week

Far more organised than mummy!!

Master J and I had 'the chat' this week about whether or not Santa is real.  He is only just 6 and I'm not ready for him not to believe yet.  "Everyone at school says Santa is not real mum!  Did you know he is a fake??"  Double gulp!  "Well...." I say, stalling to think of a good story.  "It's all about what you believe darling" I tell him. "If you believe that Santa is real, then he really is."  "Oh and your friends are also right" I quickly throw in for authenticity, "but they're talking about the Santa in the Mall.  He's just a pretend one as the real Santa lives in the North Pole.  So don't tell Miss H, because she doesn't know yet!!"  Phew!  Lucky save mum.  He bought that one hook, line and sinker!  Well, for another year anyway.  In England we called him "Father Christmas" and in Australia he seems to be called "Santa", so Miss H has decided that he should be called "Santa Christmas".

My little darlings

Homemade salmon and brocoli quiche!!  How clever am I? (and yes, it was made in my kitchen princess, aka the thermomix)

Cute as a button

My daily alarm clock!!  I think he actually stopped and posed for this picture

Exhausted after a full on morning of barbies and fairies with her little BFF

A gorgeous Sunday morning stroll around the Lake

worn out!

A Pelican and a Palm