Nutty as a Fruit Cake

Fruit cake featured heavily in the Christmas lineup when I was growing up and I distinctly remember that my mum's was the best. She would make this huge pot of fruit (well it seemed huge) on the stove and then it would miraculously turn in to a cake. I used to love eating the boiled fruit and butter mixture from the pot before the flour and eggs were added. It was a miracle any was left for the cake. So some years ago I asked her for the recipe and her answer... "Its the one off the fruit box but I added a bunch of other stuff." Naturally I wanted to know what other stuff which was met with vague replies of more fruit and some nuts and "then I pour booze all over it. Its in the book". "The book" is a raggety old book mum started way back in the 70's which is filled with recipes from all over the place.  What I have discovered is that the recipe really didn't matter. I doubled the fruit and added some extra peel and nuts then like a dutiful daughter poured booze all over it. The result was delicious. I have been making a full size cakes and struggle to finish them (there is still a piece in the fridge from last year) so this time I decided to make mini cakes. Not cupcakes but quarter sized perfect little fruit cakes. These will be gifts for the support staff at my daughter's school. I think they will be a hit. Well I hope they will because those ladies run that place.

My recipe went as follows:
4 cups of mixed dried fruit (in Australia you can buy this in a packet)
1 cup of mixed peel
1/2 cup of walnuts
1/2 cup of whole almonds
1cup of brown sugar
5 oz of butter
1 tsp baking soda
Put above in a large pan with 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Simmer for a few mins then cool.

1/2 cup of plain flour
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2 eggs
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.

Bake at 175ºC or 350ºF for 1.5 hours for a large cake or 35-40 mins for a small cake. The small cake I made was about 10 cm across. For a large cake you will need a 22 cm tin.

The "original" recipe.

Rainy day (or in our case too hot to play outside day)

Salt dough has been a revelation. Until a few weeks ago I had no idea it existed. I have made other non-edible dough but never have I seen 2 people have more fun than my kids and this dough. There is no "cooking" except the 20 mins in the oven and you most likely have everything around the house for this one. Salt, flour, oil, water. It can be that simple but then we decided to paint them. We used poster paint mixed with PVA or craft glue (Elmers) but I would recommend using acrylic paint if you have it. The glue makes it nice and shiny so I would still mix it in to the paint. If your kids are big paint wasters (yep) then maybe just stick with poster paint. Its way cheaper. This was a great activity for us because Poppy, being 7, is a little more advanced artistically than Asher who considers all activities in this world a type of smashing game. But they both had fun and can do it to their own skill level. I gave them a huge pile of kitchen gadgets like the garlic crusher, forks, paper clips, erasers, plastic bottles and lids, cookie cutters, anything you can use to make a pattern is fun. 

**I can not stress enough that this is a non toxic dough but it is in no way edible! YUCK.**

You will need 

a big bowl

the recipe

cookie/play dough cutters

kitchen/play dough gadgets

rolling pins 

a baking tray

paint

PVA glue

and a big pile of news paper

Rolled out and ready for the oven

Just out of the oven

Aren't we supposed to be painting the dough?

Some of the finished projects

Recipe
300g(10 oz) plain flour
200ml(1/3 pint) water
300g (10 oz) table salt
2 tsp oil
mix and squish until a dough forms
(adapted from the Rainy Day Book by Jane Bull)

You can play with this the way it is or shape it and bake it for 20 mins at 180º/350º. Some pieces may take less or more time depending on size and thickness.

This dough will last a couple of weeks in a air tight container. It does get softer as the salt absorbs moisture but we just added more flour.

Don't use kosher or flake salt for this or the dough will be to rough for little hands.

Opening Ceremony Fun

Today for my daughter's class I made Olympic torch cupcakes and it was so easy and they were such a hit that I thought I would share. I saw a picture of this on Pinterest last week and I knew it would be perfect. Use any cake recipe or mix you want. I used a simple vanilla cake. You will also need regular kids shape ice cream cones your favorite frosting recipe, food colouring, a piping bag with an open star tip and some deep loaf pans. You bake these straight in the cone!

Make the cake batter, put the cones in the loaf pans and then fill them about 2/3 full. They take a bit longer to bake so keep checking them with a long cake tester.

The icing I used was just butter and icing sugar and vanilla. I then made 3 different shades of orange and yellow. I ran a bead of red gel food coloring down one side of the bag and dark orange down the other side. Then put all 3 colours of icing in the piping bag together.

When you do the icing you just pipe straight up.

And Ta Daaa Olympic Torches.

Peanut butter cookies

Untangle your panties people. I know peanut butter is the enemy but these are the best cookies I have had in forever. It is a little like short bread but with extra protein. Plus you can decorate them however you want with a few sprinkles. So cute and so tasty. These were very easy and so a winner when I want to bake with my daughter(5). Also it is a big batch so I bake 12 and then scoop and freeze the rest on a cookie tray and then put them in ziplock bag. When we want some cookies we pull them out and put them on the tray and while the oven heats up they get soft enough to squish. I did not create this recipe but I love it and I did add vanilla. We can't stop eating them. I do have to stress PLEASE do not take these to school with you. It could be dangerous for the kids with peanut allergies and even if there isn't any kids with allergies the crazy peanut nazis will kill you with their dirty looks and passive aggressive bullshit.

Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
METHOD
1 Cream the butter for 2 minutes. Add the sugars, cream for 2 more minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and egg. Mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into the sugar butter mixture.
2 Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
3 Preheat oven to 375°F. Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. Bake until light brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for a minute; transfer to rack to cool completely.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
For chewier cookies, bake at 300°F for 15 minutes.
This recipe is from simply recipes.