Moreporks! (Owls)

I've volunteered myself to be on the crafts team for the upcoming gala at the little miss' school... This means I will be making a bunch of crafts to be sold at the school gala in early March. The aim of the craft team is to make inexpensive crafts that can be purchased at the gala by the kids with their pocket money, while raising some money for the school. This year it's a kiwiana theme, so I was hoping to get a few NZ-ish craft things made. I had a few ideas of things I could make with bits and pieces I already have around the house, and then I saw a friend post some photos of adorable little owls that she made. Along with the photo she posted the link to where she got the idea from, and that they were easy to make, so I had to take a look!

I looked at the photos from the tutorial and saw that the pieces were cut out at fairly specific angles, but then realised that the exact angles didn't really matter so long as it was the same general shape as what was in the photos. It looked easy enough, so as per my usual gung-ho-ness I jumped right in and cut out pieces for 7 little critters... And then I realised I probably should have just cut out one or two to see if it was actually going to work first! I cut some bigger than others and figured at least a few of them would turn out ok, but they were actually all super cute - or at least I think so. I used buttons for the eyes as opposed to felt material because I have a fair amount of plain buttons in the house and no felt.


They really were easy and the hand stitching part is perfect for doing while sitting in front of the TV at the end of the day. I've already got another 11 cut out and waiting to go (there's no shortage of fabric scraps in this house!) So, what do you think of my little moreporks? [*Moreporks are a type of owl native to NZ, so they can count towards my kiwiana content!]

I'll be posting about the various crafts I'll be making for the gala in the next little while... theoretically all should be easy and inexpensive. If you've got any ideas you think I should try (especially kiwiana type stuff), please do let me know!

Marshmallow Snowmen

I'll admit right from the start that this was not an internet find (although I'm willing to bet that if you searched "Marshmallow Snowmen" on Pinterest you'd get about a million hits). I heard someone on a TV show describe these and I thought - yeah, that sounds cute AND easy enough to actually make!

These are pretty self explanatory - some small bamboo skewers, marshmallows, an icing pen (or 2) for the faces, and a rolo chocolate bar. The description I copied these from used a chocolate button with a round rolo melted on top for the hat, but I could only find a block of rolo so I decided to skip the chocolate button part and it worked out quite well and a whole step easier!

Well, that's it for my Christmas baking this year - except for another batch of peppermint bark to add to a few presents (and some for me because it's delicious!)

Peanut Butter Fudge - Fudge Success!

For my last party baking item for the week, I was trying to decide between making no bake chocolate peanut butter bars or peanut butter fudge. The fudge was on my baking list, but last night my husband suggested the chocolate peanut butter bars as another option... I was almost swayed to making the bars, but after my chocolate fudge fail I felt the need to redeem myself with the fudge.

The recipe is actually called the "Easiest PB Fudge EVER", but I am far too aware that 'easiest' doesn't always mean successful. I have literally just finished making the Easiest PB Fudge EVER, and it was really, really easy. And quick. I like quick! After licking the spoon (as I was cleaning up) I can vouch that it is delicious, and since it's already almost set I think it's pretty safe to say this one has been more successful than my last fudge attempt.

I don't normally re-write the recipes I blog about, but this one was easier to copy than to try to explain...

Easiest PB Fudge EVER 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp. vanilla, 3/4 cup peanut butter. Bring sugar and milk to a boil. Boil two and a half minutes. Remove from heat and stir in PB and vanilla. That’s it.

See, easy! And I feel I have redeemed myself. :)

Success. Yum!

Easiest Fudge Ever - Seriously! (but I still managed to fail)

Last night I made this fudge recipe, and it really is the easiest fudge in the world to make! The hardest part was trying to work out those pesky imperial measurements again. FYI: a 14 oz can is the regular size sweetened condensed milk you get at the grocery store in NZ and 12 oz of chocolate is 340 grams.

It's that last measurement that got me... I remembered from making my peppermint bark that the recipe called for 12 oz of white chocolate, and then I remembered measuring out 170 grams (which incidentally was half of the white chocolate in the recipe as I melted the top & bottom layers separately). So long story short - I used exactly half of the chocolate in this fudge recipe and, not surprisingly, it didn't really set. What is surprising is that it almost set, and it tastes amazing!

So instead of bars of chocolate fudge, we're now going to have fresh strawberries with chocolate fudge spread! You can't be perfect all the time, right?

Banana Gingerbread Muffins

Today's baking will be killing two birds with one stone: Christmas party baking & re-stocking the freezer.

Last night I put the last of the frozen baking in the little miss' lunchbox. I really like keeping a stock of home-made muffins or pikelets in the freezer for when I have to throw a school lunch together quickly or for the day before grocery shopping when we're getting low on everything else. So I was looking for something that I could put out for the Christmas party (in case there are guests who would like to nibble on something that's not chocolate or candy!) but that would also be eaten by my daughter in her lunches. The little miss generally likes banana muffins, and she loves ginger & cinnamon so I figured these banana gingerbread muffins ticked that box, but would also fit in with the Christmas theme due to the added spices. This recipe was totally not on my baking list - nor even pinned to my Pinterest boards before this morning, I was actually searching on gingerbread muffins and was weeding out the ones that required ingredients not currently in my cupboards, and when I saw this one it just ticked all the boxes.

Of course I didn't have any molasses in the cupboard (a major ingredient in gingerbread, I know) but the research I did after my peanut brittle baking indicated that I could use golden syrup in exchange for the molasses - although substituting brown sugar was recommended to give it a stronger taste. So I used slightly less golden syrup than the amount of molasses stated and slightly more brown sugar. I also added a little extra of the spices as that was also suggested in something I read about the substitutions. I made them in mini muffin trays because the size works better as party nibbles than a loaf or big muffins, and they work better in my kids lunches. The recipe states to leave them in the oven for 20-25 minutes for muffins, so I checked mine after 16 minutes and they were perfect!

My mini muffins actually turned out really well. They don't taste Christmassy at all, as the banana is the main flavour, but the are moist & delicious none the less. Depending on how things go, I may top them with a little bit of crystallized ginger & a sprinkle of cinnamon to tart them up a bit for the party (the lunchbox ones will stay as is).

Peppermint Bark

Chocolate bark is another one of those baking items that shouts Christmas to me, so when I saw this one topped with candy canes I knew I'd be making it this year. It's like Christmas topped with more Christmas!

The recipe that I originally pinned (and linked to above) was actually taken from here. Both recipes are the same and both are in imperial measurements - hrumpf! 

To save you the hassle of converting imperial to metric, a 6 oz packet of chocolate chips/buttons measures approx 1 cup (or 170g for those who actually have kitchen scales). I like this kind of recipe because exact measurements aren't required for any sort of chemical reaction, and I'm more into cooking with approximates as opposed to measuring things properly! So if you want to give it a go you'll need 2 cups of white chocolate melts, 1 cup of milk chocolate melts, a bit of vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil cause that's what's in my cupboard), and some crushed up candy canes. :)

Both recipes stated that you need 1/3 crushed candy cane pieces, which confused me a little as to how much that actually meant - but I figured it would take about 1/3 of a cup to cover the top, so that's what I went with (3 to 4 regular sized canes = about 1/3 cup).

Making bark is generally as easy as melting chocolate, and this one was no different - the hardest part was crushing the candy canes into little pieces without them all turning into powder. So easy, so pretty, and so yummy!

*Note: I actually I ended up doubling the recipe at the last minute because I was worried that it wouldn't make quite enough for the party as well as extra left-overs for me!!!

I also thought that if there was a lot extra it would make a nice addition to the kid's teachers end of year/Christmas presents. So if you want to make as much as is in my photos, you'll need double what's written above.

A double batch of this recipe made this much...
The pieces not in the container became un-layered while I was cutting them -
I'm sure they won't go to waste though!

Peanut Brittle - So simple & made in the microwave!

Peanut brittle is one of my most favourite Christmas baking treats! However, I've never been particularly successful at making it myself.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and it looked easy enough that I thought even I could manage it. It's made in a microwave after all! ;)

In theory it worked well... Corn syrup isn't a regular grocery item in NZ like it is in America, so I figured I'd just substitute it with golden syrup and it would be fine - good theory, yes? Well, in fact, yes! However, what I didn't find out until after is that golden syrup burns much quicker than corn syrup. It still turned out fine, but with a slight hint of burnt flavour. It's still edible and it still makes me happy, but next time instead of microwaving it on high for 5 minutes like the recipe states, I'll try it after 3 minutes or so.

I've still got a few more recipes to go, so until the next one...
Happy Christmas baking everyone!

ps - I've had a bit of a thought... for posts such as this, would you like me to add the actual recipe to the end, or would you prefer to link through to the original source instead?