mudslide cupcakes

How can something sound so wrong be so right??

Now before you think “ew. Mudslide.” I ask you to stop, and reconsider.

Now, I’ve been known to have a few cocktails in my time. But not a mudslide, or if I have had one, I can’t remember having one. The only thing I’ve had that comes close to a mudslide is a Toblerone cocktail or some CSCs (I’m sure you know what the abbreviation is and I don’t need to spell it out).

I love cocktails, and everything about them. I love that you can concoct pretty much anything by combining liqueurs and fruity or chocolately flavours. You’re only limited by your imagination.

So when Rebecca suggested the theme for our Cupcake Combat could be cocktails, I couldn’t say no! As soon as the theme was settled, I dreamt of two things: sweet, tasty, fruity concoctions or rich, creamy, velvety chocolate creations.

So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that for my first cupcake (out of three) I decided on mudslide cupcakes. Before I decided to take on this cupcake, I did a bit of research. To say I wasn’t daunted would be a lie. A dual swirl of frosting? I’ve never done that before. All the versions I saw online looked so professional, so beautiful and not to mention so tasty!

And then if the frosting dilemma wasn’t enough, there were so many different cake base recipes. So many in fact that I got confused. Ones with Kahlua, ones with Baileys, ones that were plain chocolate… Turns out everyone else in the cupcake sphere enjoy experimenting no?

Nevertheless, I decided to give these bad boys a go. I adapted the chocolate cake recipe from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook and added dashes of Kahlua and Baileys to just a simple vanilla buttercream icing recipe.

The results as above: you judge for yourself. Winner? I think so, but I’m biased.

Mudslide cupcakes

Chocolate Baileys cupcakes

Makes lots and lots of cupcakes – at least 50 mini cupcakes and 16 standard sized cupcakes (that’s what I took in to work and they were all gone!)

3 cups of flour

2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of hot water

1 cup of cocoa

2/3 cup of Baileys Irish Cream (or 1 cup of Baileys if you want even boozier cakes)

1/3 cup of milk  (omit if using 1 cup of Baileys)

200g of softened unsalted butter

2 cups castor sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1| Preheat your oven to 170^oC. Line your trays with cupcake liners.

2| Sift together the flour, bicarb soda, baking powder and salt. In a small separate bowl, whisk together the cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another bowl, combine the milk and Baileys.

3| In the bowl of your mixer or in another bowl, using a hand mixer, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the castor sugar a third at a time, beating for around 2 minutes after each addition. After the last addition, keep beating until the butter and sugar mixture is light and fluffy. You should see it change colour – the mix won’t be as yellow as when you first started the creaming process.

4| Add the eggs in, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and beat for another minute or so.

5| Add a quarter of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add about a third of the cocoa and Baileys mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this process twice more. Add the rest of the flour and until combined. Be careful not to overbeat – it will toughen the mixture. Beat until just combined and you can gently fold the rest with a spatula if you like.

6| Spoon the mixture into the cupcake papers, filling each to about three-quarters full. If you don’t want cracks in the tops of your cakes (come on, no one does right? It’s not that pretty), just sit your cakes for 10-20 minutes before baking.

7| Bake for about 10 minutes (for little cupcakes) or 15-17 minutes for standard sized cupcakes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the trays immediately and completely cool on a wire rack before frosting. Try to refrain from eating.

Baileys buttercream icing

150g softened unsalted butter

1-2 cups of icing sugar mixture, depending on how sweet you want it

A dash of vanilla extract

3 tablespoons of Baileys Irish Cream

1| Cream the butter for 1-2 minutes in a clean, dry bowl.

2| Add in the Baileys and vanilla extract and beat for at least a couple of minutes.

3| Add in the icing sugar, a bit at a time, adjusting to your tastes.

Kahlua buttercream icing

150g softened unsalted butter

3 tablespoons of Dutch cocoa powder (this is the good stuff – it’s dark and has a slightly bitter taste so will balance out the sweetness of the Baileys)

A dash of vanilla extract

6 tablespoons of Kahlua

1| Cream the butter for 1-2 minutes in a clean, dry bowl.

2| Add in the cocoa powder and beat for at least a couple of minutes.

3| Add in the Kahlua and vanilla extract and beat for at least a couple of minutes.

4| Add in the icing sugar, a bit at a time, adjusting to your tastes.

Frosting the cupcakes

Note: this is a little tricky, and messy if not careful but definitely doable. You need a bit of equipment, but nothing that a well-equipped kitchen won’t have. The cakes do look better with a swirl but you can easily find a swirl nozzle from many stores like House, Matchbox, or the General Store.

You’ll need:

A large swirl nozzle

2 smaller piping bags (you can use disposable piping bags

1 large piping bag to house the 2 smaller piping bags

1| Place the Kahlua and Baileys icing into the smaller bags (one bag for Kahluah, one for Baileys). Try to make sure that the amount of icing in each bag is equal.

2| Place the nozzle in the end of the big piping bag. Snip the end off (but only make a small cut). Place these two bags side by side into the big bag. Close off the big bag by twisting off the top.

3| On each cake, make a swirl and sprinkle with chocolate shavings if you like.

4| Eat one or many, until full.

red wine chocolate cupcakes

Red, red wine.... go to my head...

Yes, I'm a light-weight. A cadbury, as one would say.

I always have trouble finishing off a bottle of red. Don't get me wrong, I do like a glass of red, but am not one for drinking a whole bottle. Luckily, I found this recipe while browsing through one of my sites of inspiration: Smitten Kitchen. The red wine in this recipe is the perfect amount to finish off that last bit  of wine in a bottle.

This cake is really divine. You can smell the wine (yes, it doesn't completely cook off!) and so has that 'adult' feel to it. The flavour can be quite intense but I think that's a good thing. Some type of topping or cream would help with the intensity of the flavour. I used cream cheese icing for my cupcakes - a bit like a red velvet cupcake. I recently made some for a friend's party and her daughter accidentally ate one (apparently she is attracted to anything 'chocolate'). She quickly proceeded to tell her mum that 'they taste funny' so a word of caution: probably not best for the kiddies!

If however, you are looking for a lovely cake for dessert or a cheeky somewhat boozy afternoon tea, this cake will hit the spot. It works in multiple ways - I made them into cupcakes but it would work as a cake too, as seen on the Smitten Kitchen website.

They are really easy to whip up, so go on, treat yourself, use up the last of the red wine in that bottle and kick your feet up when done. You'll thank me for it, I'm sure.

red wine chocolate cupcakes

adapted from smitten kitchen's Red Wine Chocolate Cake

85g unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup red wine, any kind you like
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup + 1 tbs plain flour
1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1| Preheat the oven to 165 degrees. Line your cupcake tray with cupcake liners.
2| In a large bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter on a medium speed until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy (for about 3 minutes).
3| Add the eggs and beat well. Pour the red wine in and vanilla. The batter will probably look a little uneven but that's ok.
4| Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together, over the wet mixture. Mix until 3/4 combined, then fold the rest together with a rubber spatula. Nice and slow, so it's all even.
5| Divide the mixture into the cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes or so, or until the cake tester inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.
6| Cool the cakes on a rack. Top with any icing you like or with icing sugar. I topped mine with cream cheese icing. mmm. cream cheese icing.

lemon cupcakes with lemon curd and cream cheese icing

Right. I dont' think I've ever made anything with such a long name, and with more than two elements. I usually stick to a cake base and icing. Nice and simple. That's kind of my thing.

And then I watched an episode of Cupcake Wars.

Talk about mind blowing. Now that show separates the amateurs from the hard core professionals. The creativity that some of these contestants exudes was amazing. The confidence was something else but believe me when I say, they certainly upped the ante of cupcakes. Who would have thought - goats cheese frosting? Baked apple cupcakes? Maple frosting topped with crisp bacon? Salmon cupcakes topped with cream cheese icing and capers?? Yeah, not sure about that last one, but amazingly, the lady that dreamt that creation won.

If anything, when it comes to baking cupcakes, this show has pointed out at how much I still have to learn. Ok, I know what some of you may be thinking. These guys on the show, they're professionals (or at least bake cupcakes for an actual living). But these people all started from somewhere. Probably from their home kitchens. Sweating it over a hand mixer. Or even whisking by hand (I saw a lot of that on the show which really surprised me).

So, as it was, a Thursday night. Late, on a Thursday night. I live with a quiet housemate, in an apartment block of 8. I didn't think a kitchen mixer whizzing up cakes would be a welcome sound at the time of night I actually got my act together so I went hunting for an easy mix cupcake recipe. Viola - I found this lemon cupcake recipe that was originally seen on Junior Masterchef. I was surprised at how quickly it came together and how lovely they turned out. Easy peasy. I did however got the mixer going for the cream cheese icing but hey, with a KitchenAid, hey presto, done in minutes.

So here it is, my first attempt at a cupcake with an extra element (lemon curd in the cakes) and I think it was pretty successful. Maybe not Cupcake Wars material but still, I was pretty happy with the end result. As a market researcher, naturally, I welcomed feedback from my colleagues. I am happy to report that the most negative comment was that they were too small.

lemon cupcakes

1 cup of thickened cream
3/4 cup of caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups of self raising flour
finely grated rind of 1 lemon + its juice

1| Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (160 if fan forced). With the eggs, pour the cream and sugar into a large mixing bowl and whisk until nice and smooth.
2| grate lemon rind over the top and squeeze the lemon to get the juice out.
3| Sift your self raising flour over the bowl and whisk the batter until thick and smooth. The consistency will be like a thick pancake mix.
4| Divide mixture into cupcake cases.
5| Pop into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Don't over bake them - they won't be spongy and moist!

lemon curd

3 egg yolks
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup of lemon juice
6 tablespoons of caster sugar
4 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter cut up

1| Combine the yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk up to combine. Set this over a medium heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure you stir evenly - don't forget the sides and bottom of the pan. Cook until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon (around 5-7 minutes).
2| Take the saucepan off the heat. Add the butter, one piece at a time, continuously stirring with the wooden spoon until the consistency is smooth.
3| Transfer the mixture into a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on the surface (this will help the curd to not form a skin). Let the curd cool, refrigerate until firm and chilled (at least 1 hour).

cream cheese icing

250g cream cheese at room temperature
125g butter at room temperature
icing sugar (about 1 cup, but that depends on how sweet you want it)

1| Get the cream cheese going first. Place it into the bowl of a mixer or using a hand mixer, start the beating.
2| After a couple of minutes, add the butter and whip that up.
3| After a couple of more minutes, add the icing sugar. Use 1 cup first, add more if you want it sweeter. Beat until thick and fluffy.
4| Try not to eat the whole icing out of the bowl. Top cakes with lemon curd with a swirl.

putting it all together

1| Make sure your cupcakes have cooled completely.
2| If you have one of those thin, long piping nozzles that you use for jam or things like lemon curd, load up your piping bag with lemon curd and stick the pointy end in the middle of the cupcake and inject it with lemon curd. Repeat with all the cakes. OR you could just scoop out a bit of cake on top and place a bit of lemon curd in the hole you made. Easy!
3| Admire your work. Then pipe, or spoon or swirl some cream cheese icing on top.
4| Eat until your heart's content, but probably best eaten shared with your friends / family.

cupcake decorating class

I've been wanting to do a cupcake decorating class for...oh I don't know, a really long time now. With so many out there, it's been hard to pick just one, and also find the time to do it. So when I came across a Scoopon email one Saturday for Jennifer Graham's cupcake decorating class I quickly snapped it up.

I have been a fan of Crabapple cupcakes for so long now. I first came across Jennifer and her book when I was in a bookstore in Brisbane, looking through the sweets/cakes section for inspiration. Jenny's book provides inspiration by the bucket load and best of all, it really is a fantastic guide on baking and decorating cupcakes. There used to be a flagship store in Prahran but Jenny now mainly teaches classes at CAE in Melbourne, Flinders Lane, where her classes apparently constantly sell out. Her other classes seem really interesting and I'd love to do it, when I find some more time...

During the class, Jenny showed us 9 different designs/techniques:

• free form swirl
• signature crabapple swirl
• flat spatula
• lattice
• topiary tree
• soft serve swirl
• proposal 
• mounded 
• buttercream rose

And here is the first cupcake I decorated on the night - the free form swirl. I think simple decorations like these flowers make the cupcakes really pretty. 

I unfortunately didn't push enough icing to the edge so didn't quite get enough sprinkles on I think... 

Nevertheless, not a bad effort I guess...?!

I love chocolate frosting. I'm just not very good at smoothing it out... 

So, whilst this is supposed to be the flat spatula, it's not very flat...

I decided to jazz it up with a rose and some leaves, to hide the not so flat top... 

I absolutely LOVE the crabapple swirl. I'm just not very good at it!

It's quite pretty. Looks simple but it's not. 

Here's my attempt and again, the flower is great for hiding imperfections or bumps....

There were lots of different coloured icing and types of sprinkles.

I decided to give the blue icing a go with pink and white sprinkles around the edge, using the free form swirl. 

A very pretty effect I think which really surprised me, as I would have thought blue icing would look unnatural. Instead, it looks very sweet and much like bubblegum I think!

Ah, the topiary tree. Basically a whole bunch of piped leaves on the top of the cupcake, with roses and pearls and a sprinkling of green glitter.

Unfortunately you can't see the glitter here but trust me, adding glitter to the tops of the cakes makes them that little bit more special. It gives the cupcakes pizazz. 

At first I thought this was really hard but actually it's not that bad...

Well as you can see, I can't pipe in straight lines very well... but still, lattice designs can be very effective (once I master piping in straight lines!)

This design is very sweet with a mini topiary tree in the middle squished by two flowers on either side. 

A sprinkle of glitter adds a bit of sparkle.

We only had about 45 minutes to decorate our cupcakes so unfortunately I didn't do all of them (I didn't try the last three on the list) but I bought a piping kit so will have to try at home and post up results! 

Aside from limited time to decorate the cakes, I found the class to be extremely useful. The tips provided were invaluable and the stories shared were touching. I found it to be a very inspiring night and can't wait to make cupcakes and put my new-found skills to action! 

chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting

I don't really need a good excuse to bake cupcakes. Heck, I don't need an excuse full stop. I will happily oblige and provide cupcakes for anyone that requests I bring them to any shindig. The Biggest Morning Tea was no different.

What's the Biggest Morning Tea? Only one of Australia's most well-loved fundraising events, that's what. It's a great fundraiser for the Cancer Council. Apparently a first for the company I work for this year (in terms of participation), the inaugural Biggest Morning Tea was scheduled for Friday 27 May 2011. My colleagues are really organised. So organised in fact that we discussed what we were going to bring for the Morning Tea the week before. Hands down, it was unanimous. I was to bring chocolate cupcakes.

This suited me fine because I LOVE chocolate cupcakes. What's not to love? I am a firm believer that the best kind of cupcakes are the simple ones. Don't get me wrong, I love all the different kinds of cupcakes and flavours you can get these days that are frosted sky high and decorated to the nines. They certainly are beautiful to look at but my only criticism is I find them too sickly sweet for my palate and end up not enjoying the sensorial experience a cupcake should bring. Instead I find myself keeling over thinking I shouldn't have eaten that amount of sugar in such a short space of time, especially when I can feel my teeth 'hurting'. I believe that there's something really beautiful in the simplicity of a good chocolate cupcake made with high quality ingredients. I think that's key - you have to use a high-quality cocoa powder and chocolate (dark chocolate if possible!) to create the most scrumptious chocolate cupcake.

 I've tried a couple of different chocolate cupcake recipes; some with great results and others, not so great results. This one is a good one. They're easy to make, with minimal preparation and are absolutely scrumptious with good quality dark chocolate topped with my super quick and easy chocolate icing!

Also, I have been doing some reading online and have found that people are really worried about cupcakes with cracked tops. As you can see from above, mine cracked and I don't really care. It doesn't really affect the taste of the cupcake but, I will make chocolate cupcakes again I'm sure, so when I crack the mystery of cracked tops I'll be sure to blog about it! But for now, I am content with hastily covering them up with yummy chocolate icing and coloured sprinkles.

chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing

 

preparation time | 15 minutes

cooking time | 20 minutes

makes | 12 cupcakes with a muffin top, 16 smaller ones

chocolate cupcakes

100g dark chocolate, chopped

1 cup (250ml) water

125g butter, softened

1 cup (210g) brown sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour

1/4 cup (30g) cocoa powder

chocolate icing

2 tablespoons butter at room temperature

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

1 cup icing sugar mixture

1 tablespoon boiling water

1 tablespoon milk

1| Preheat your oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced). Line the muffin / cupcake tray with pretty paper cases.

2| Place the chocolate and water into a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring for about 5 minutes or so or until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is nice and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

3| Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, always beating well after each egg to make sure all are combined well. Sift the flours and cocoa and fold into the mixture, alternating in thirds with the chocolate liquid mixture, ending with the flour/cocoa mixture (so, you should mix flour, then a bit of liquid, flour, liquid and finish with flour).

4| Spoon the mixture evenly into the prepared cases (about 2/3 full so you don't get that muffin top look). Place into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

5| To make the icing, place the butter, cocoa and icing sugar mixture into a small bowl. Pour 1 tablespoon of water. Whisk together the mixture until it forms a paste. Add in a little bit of milk (just a little bit!) at a time, until the mixture is spreadable. If you like heat up the milk a bit so it's easier to mix. If you want a sweeter icing, add in a bit more icing sugar mixture. If it's too thick, add in a bit more liquid and if it's too runny, add in more sugar (for those that love their icing sweet) or a bit more cocoa powder.

6| Ice and decorate your cupcakes any which way you wish!

portuguese custard tarts

Now, I’ve made these before without a hitch. In fact, they were really straightforward, no issues whatsoever. Granted, I made them in Brisbane, in my mum’s awesome kitchen filled with everything you possibly need (plus, her oven is truly amazing. I’m so glad my parents decided to renovate our family home and that my mum gave herself the kitchen she’s always dreamed of). And then, having craved egg tarts for weeks gave in to temptation and decided I would make them again.

Talk about a disaster. Wait, let’s rewind. Ok so I started off ok, separated the eggs, whisked in the sugar, starch flour and milk and the mixture was starting to boil. All going according to plan, just as it should. But after constant stirring, I was wondering why the boiling mixture wasn’t getting any thicker. (Poor) instinct told me, no matter, I’ll just add in some more starch flour. Fail. That just made the once smooth mixture lumpy and gross. Having been raised never to waste food, I added in a half a cup of rice, a dash of ground cinnamon and nutmeg, thinking that I could make a rice pudding. After 10 minutes the delicious aroma wafted through the kitchen but the mixture looked like vomit. I kid you not. The rice wasn’t cooking and more and more of the mixture was sticking to the bottom of the pan. I kept putting a bit more milk during the 10 minutes but I think that made it worse. The liquid I was adding kept evaporating. Epic fail.

I’d had enough. I scraped as much as I could out of the pan and into the bin. I hate wasting ingredients but I knew it was a lost cause. To make things worse, I had this pan with a lot of milk, egg, sugar, starch flour and rice stuck to the bottom. Good thing I remembered something my mum taught me – if you have a non-stick pan with a lot of food stuck to the bottom, to make it easier to clean, add some water to the pan and place on the stove. Cook it off (until it boils) and use a wooden spoon or some sort of sturdy scraper and the stuck food will come off. Voila it worked!

So what was the cause of the epic fail? I had put in two teaspoons of starch flour, rather than 2 tablespoons of it. Yep, a simple mistake like that has dire consequences.

Right. Take two.

A much better result! I admit, I did deviate from the original recipe but that’s only because I didn’t want to brave the cold and decided to just make do with what was in my pantry. This time around I used 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg instead of 3 egg yolks, raw sugar instead of caster sugar and soy milk (Soy Milky by Vitasoy) rather than cream and milk. I quite like making these tarts with soy milk – the custard is still nice and creamy but it tricks our mind into thinking we’re doing something good for us. Plus, it also means that our lactose intolerant friends can enjoy a nice egg tart too. 

Now, I’ve also been reading other blogs where people are having issues with getting the nice brown colour on top. I haven’t had that issue. That’s probably because usually, I’m prone to burning things. I like to put the oven on fan forced at about 200C. If it’s burning too quickly, you can always turn down the temperature. Now, when they come out of the oven, the tarts will puff up a bit and then they'll deflate. Don't worry, it won't change how good they'll taste!

Adapted from Bill Granger’s pasteis de nata recipe

portuguese egg tarts

preparation time | 10 minutes for custard plus cooling time, 15 minutes for tarts

cooking time | 20-25 minutes

makes | 12 tarts

3 egg yolks

110g sugar

2tbsp cornflour or starch flour

230ml cream

170ml milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 sheet of puff pastry

Ground cinnamon

1| Lightly grease a 12-hole muffin / cupcake tray.

2| Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a pan until smooth. Gradually whisk in the cream and milk until smooth.

3| Place the pan over medium heat, and cook, continuously stirring until bubbles appear (come to the boil) and the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Cover the pan with cling film wrap to prevent a skin forming and leave the custard to cool.

4| Preheat the oven to 200°C.

5 | Sprinkle the cinnamon over the pastry sheet. Cut the sheet in half and put one half on top of the other. Set aside for about 5 minutes. Roll up the pastry tightly from the short end and cut the pastry log into 12 x 1cm rounds. Lay each pastry round on to a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll out until each is about 10cm in diameter.

6| Press the pastry rounds into the muffin tin. Spoon the cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry and custard is nice and golden. Leave the tarts in the tin for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

If you want to make a healthier version – use 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg, raw sugar instead of white and 400ml of milk (you can use soy milk – tastes just as good!). Adding in a bit of cinnamon to the pastry will also do wonders - sure these may not end up tasting like the original Portuguese tart, but I think you'll find them just as good.

peanut butter and mini m&m cookies

You know the feeling. It’s a Saturday night; it’s cold, damp and dark outside. The forecast says “rain”. You don’t feel like going out. All you want to do is spend time cosying up in front of the fire, watching Saturday night movies, and munching on something, anything, just because.

As I sat there, watching dare I say it High School Musical 3 on TV, I thought to myself, what better time than the present to do some baking? I’ll tell you why. It gets you up and about (albeit the kitchen), away from watching High School Musical (I know, secretly, I love it), you’re saving money (for a few $ you get way more biscuits than in a pack of Tim Tams!) and all the ingredients are household staples (except maybe the mini m&ms. I’m lucky I work in market research and sometimes, we get to keep the leftover stimulus.)

These peanut butter cookies take no time at all to whip up and trust me, it’s fun. Ok, so it might take a tiny bit of prep time and you have to then roll the mixture into balls and wait for them to bake but then you get to reap the reward of lovingly and painstakingly making them by gobbling them up. Another plus of baking cookies yourself is you know what’s in them. Yes, you can eat a few of these and not feel guilty. I feel your scepticism rising in your bones. I know you’ve raised your eye brows at me. How can I not feel guilty eating a handful of cookies? Because in my version I’ve adapted, I lessened the sugar content and added in chocolate. Eating chocolate causes our brain to stimulate endorphins, endorphins make you happy. Therefore, chocolate makes you happy. Also, the smell of fresh cookies wafting through your kitchen alone will have you salivating and thanking me for encouraging you to bake your own. 

So what are you waiting for?

peanut butter and mini m&m cookies

adapted from the Woolworths Good Taste magazine, April 1997, Page 76

Recipe by Anneka Manning

preparation time | 15 minutes

cooking time | 15 minutes

makes | about 40 small cookies, about 35 bigger ones

125g butter or margarine, at room temperature

275g (1 cup) crunchy peanut butter

150g (3/4 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar

1 egg

260g (1 3/4 cups) plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup (2 tubes) mini m&ms

1| Preheat oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced). Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

2 | Beat the butter or margarine and peanut butter in a mixing bowl with electric beaters until creamy (around 1-2 minutes). Add the brown sugar and beat until pale (around 2-3 minutes). Add the egg and beat until combined. Sift the plain flour and baking powder together. Using a wooden spoon, mix the dry ingredients and mini m&ms into the peanut butter mixture. 

3| Lightly flour your hands then roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls and flatten in the palm of your hand to about 5cm in diameter and 1 cm thick. Place onto tray about 4 cm apart on the baking tray you prepared earlier. Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Stand on baking tray for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining mixture. You can store the cookies in an airtight jar for up to 1 week (if they last that long!)

For extra crunch, add in 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped, when mixing the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture.