{Call me "the crazy gingerbread lady"}

Recently I made {this} batch of over 300 gingerbread cookies for a Breast Cancer Awareness evening. I received feedback from people that don't like ginger bread who even said they liked this recipe. 

However, since I am not one to shy away from a mammoth task, two friends from church and I decided to create a homemade Christmas gift for each of the young families at church (I am glad I had your help girls, team effort needed for this one and you girls rocked it!)
After sorting through different options of delicious treats, we decided to steer clear of 'perishable' treats that would make it hard to prepare ahead of time and things that would need refrigeration.
This is the thought process that led to us 'sanely' create a cookie-a-thon of 700 gingerbread stars that turned into 50 individual and delicious Christmas trees.THis takes my kitchen to a grand total of  over 1000 gingerbread cookies in the last little while....JEEPERS!

Here is the final product that was totally gorgeous and made the days of work worth it for the three of us! They looked so pretty being handed out at the BBQ we had today.

{Breast Cancer Awareness Night : Pt 2}

At the planning meeting, we tried to think of a gift to bless every woman that came. Something, cute, pink and girly. Someone showed a picture of some 'bra cookies' they had seen on the Internet. I had seen a few variations of these before and thought I'd give it a go making them. They were totally adorable and fitted the 'brief' (hahaha boom tish). These would actually be totally cute for a bridal shower also!

I have never done anything like this before (especially in such quantities) so here is how I made them:
Cookies:
*Find a cookie recipe and make dough as per instructions. I chose a gingerbread cookie recipe {loved this one}.
*Roll out dough, cut out heart shapes with your cutter. Before you slide it on to the baking tray, cut off the tip of the heart. It will help with the end design.
*Bake and cool.

{Rediscovering a Childhood Favourite : Honey Jumbles}

I used to love these at my grandma's house. When I stumbled across this recipe on taste, I just had to try them. These are now requested by my boys and they are a delicious time warp!


Ingredients:

60g butter, chopped
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons milk

Icing:

1 eggwhite
1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Pink food colouring

Method:

1. Combine butter, honey and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until butter has melted. Bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Set aside for 10 minutes.

2. Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, mixed spice and cloves over butter mixture. Add milk. Stir to combine. Cover. Set aside for 1 hour or until mixture has cooled and thickened.

3. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly. Divide dough into quarters. Roll 1 portion into a 25cm-long log shape. Cut into 5cm-long pieces. Place on prepared trays, leaving room for spreading. Using a wooden spoon, flatten each piece of dough until 5mm-thick. Repeat with remaining dough portions. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden. Stand on tray for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Make icing Using: a whisk, beat eggwhite in a bowl until foaming. Gradually beat in icing sugar until combined. Stir in lemon juice. Spoon half the mixture into another bowl. Tint pink with food colouring. Spread half of the biscuits with pink icing. Spread remaining biscuits with white icing. Set aside for 30 minutes or until set. Serve.

{12 Days of Christmas ::: Day 1} Almond& Rosewater Shortbread and a Guava Mocktail

Well, I have had a hectic few weeks in my little world. Not much crafting or cooking or anything like that as I have finally settled into our new house. I love the kitchen and it is such a feature, will have to share a pic soon.

But now that I have found my power cord to my lap top, I am now free to start sharing some festive inspiration as we all approach my favourite time of year - the very busy season of Christmas.
We have 12 days till Christmas so, here is DAY ONE. I thought I would share 2 yummy festive treats for my first post back after the move. The first of these treats is what I Christened my new oven and my new Kitchen Aid with and it is simple and delicious ;)
Almond and Rosewater Shortbread I loved this (and so did my girlfriends I had over for a craft night recently). I also had all ingredients except for the rice flour on hand in the pantry, so adding that to my shopping list for $1.30 meant this was very economical. I doubled the batch it was so delcious. This would also make a wonderful gift for school teachers, just bag or box up nicley and done!



Oil spray to grease tray or baking paper
180g soft butter
125g (3/4 cup) icing sugar mixture, sifted
1 x 100g pkt almond meal
115g (3/4 cup) plain flour
45g (1/4 cup) white rice flour
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tbs rosewater essence
About 3/4 cup icing sugar mixture, extra, to dust (i didn't need that much, but use how much you like here).

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
   

2. Spay 2 baking trays with oil to lightly grease or lay with baking paper.
   

3. Use an electric beater to beat together the butter and icing sugar mixture in a bowl until pale and creamy.
   

4. Add the almond meal and sift over the flours and ground cloves. Stir until well combined.

5. Use your hands to roll heaped tablespoonsful of mixture into 8cm long logs. Roll them into a ball first and then roll the logs so the ends are nice and rounded. Shape into crescents and place on prepared trays. THe mixture does spread so make sure to leave a few cm between them. I did try a few different designs (hearts, logs and crescents) but the mixture doesn't hold shape very well do do hearts, but the logs and crescents worked well.
   

6. Bake in preheated oven, for 20 minutes or until cooked through and light golden. Remove from oven.

7. Lightly brush shortbreads with rosewater essence and set aside on trays for 30 minutes to cool and firm.

8. Dust shortbreads with extra icing sugar.
   

9. Set aside for a further 30 minutes or until completely cool.

Guava, passionfruit and lime mocktail
I love this drink, as you can have all ingredients on hand and they last for a while in pantry which means you can shop ahead of time for this one too. It's a delcious and festive drink that adds something special.For an extra nice touch, pre-chill champagne or martini glasses in the fridge and serve in them as your guests arrive :)

Fresh limes cut into small wedges
1 tin of passionfruit (or fresh if in season)
1 bottle of Guava nectar
1 bottle of soda water
Ice
Strawberries and mint leaves to serve (if desired)

1. Put ice cubes into glass
2. Squeeze lime wedge into glass and put the whole wedge into the glass
3. Put a teaspoon of passionfuit pulp in glass
4. Pour Guava nectar into glass till about 1/3 full
5. Top up with soda water
6. Push a fresh strawberry onto side of glass to garnish if desired. 7. If you want a minty touch to it, just rip a mint leave in half (to realease aroma) and place in glass.

Enjoy;
Lauren x

Cookies on a whole new level!!!!

Today's post is amazing. Fathers Day is approaching in the USA, so alot of the blogs from the states are all about gifts/ crafts for Dad. I am not going to tell you about all of these cookies.....you just have to check it out yourself :)

AMY ATLAS (via Eleni's NY)