Lately I've been cooking..........

Bbq pork ribs!

Filo wrapped chicken

Filo wrapped chicken with a creamy bacon, basil and parmesan sauce

Beef Stroganoff with buttered french beans, honeyed carrots and buttered rice

                                                                        Milk chocolate fudge sauce

                                                                                     Love Jem

                    Quadruple Layered Mud and Profiterole Cake

My good friend Renee turned twenty five so I decided to make her a really special cake. With the help of my friend Jess we made her a delicious and impressive looking cake. It was pretty easy to make as we simply used two packets of Betty Crocker Decedent Chocolate Mud Cake mix. After cooking the two cakes I left them to cool and then cut them in half. Jess and I then made an incredibly thick chocolate icing which was slathered between each half of the cakes. Finally we used another packet mix for the profiteroles. All up it took about four hours and the result was a decadent, moist cake. I'll definitely make this cake again, it was a winner. Heres the link for the icing recipe: (note) I doubled the recipe amount and added about half a cup of coco powder to make to icing darker. Warning! my electric beaters almost burnt out while making this, it is an incredibly thick icing recipe.
Scroll down until you see the heading Chocolate Butter Frosting:
http://southernfood.about.com/od/chocolatecakes/r/bl30106l.htm
                                                                                       

                                                            Jam Puffs

Right, your craving something sweet or you have people coming over for dinner and you need an easy dessert, well look no further. These jam puffs are a pinch to make and only four ingredients are needed.

Most people have jam and milk in the fridge so all you'll need is a packet puff pastry and some flaked almonds ( optional).

What you'll need:

1 packet of puff pastry

A small jar of your favourite jam, I like strawberry. You could also use Nutella:)

1/4 cup milk or 1 beaten egg

Hand full of flaked almonds(optional)

First defrost the pastry then pop the oven on at 180 degrees fan forced. Cut the pastry in half and then half again across ways.

Next  place a tablespoon of jam in the middle of each one then fold one corner over in half.
After folding over press the sides down hard with you index finger or thumb. 

                                                                       

          

 

Brush each triangle with milk or beaten egg. This gives them a lovely golden colour as well as a little shine. Sprinkle flaked almonds on top if you like.

 

Bake for 20 minutes and take a peek, if they are puffed up and golden they are ready, if not bake for longer.



Here I added melted Toblerone mmm. I'd strongly suggest serving these with thickend cream, I always do.

Puff pastry filled with whipped cream and strawberries

I made this dessert for Andrew's family when his Nan and Pop came to visit, I just made it up when trying to think of an easy dessert. This is a really simple but impressive looking dessert.


What you'll need:

*A packet of puff pastry.
*A jar of strawberry jam, or whatever jam you like the most.
*A carton of thicken cream.
*A punnet of strawberries
*White sugar.
*Icing sugar for decoration.



preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Put the puff pastry in the fridge, not the freezer.
Start by pouring the cream onto a deep bowl and adding a table spoon of sugar, using an electric beater whip the cream until it has stiff peaks (aka it should be thick and if you stop the beater and lift it up, the cream should stay on the beater). Cover with plastic wrap and pop into the fridge. Next, take the pastry out of the fridge (leave the plastic wrap on the back of pastry) and cut the sheets into six equal rectangle pieces. Place all the pieces on top of an oven tray lined with baking paper. Pop in the oven for around fifteen to twenty minutes, keep an eye on them until they puffed up and are a golden colour. Leave to cool. Once cooled gently press your hand on top of each one. Spread a teaspoon of jam onto half of the rectangles. Grab the cream out of the fridge and dollop a heaped table spoon of cream on each of the jammed rectangles.
Cut strawberries thinly and place a few slices on top of the cream. Place the unjammed rectangles on top and decorate by dusting with icing sugar. I also decorated mine with a fanned fresh strawberry on top. For a chocolate lover i would suggest omitting the jam in place of Nutella and drizzling melted chocolate on top instead of icing sugar.

Hope you enjoy, Love Jem.

Caramel Tarts

I got this wonderful recipe from a lovely lady named Mary who was a cook at my centre. These caramel tarts are a pinch to make, just buy a packet of short crust pastry or if you really want you could make it from scratch but who has the time. Next buy one can of condensed milk.
Fill a medium or large pot with water and bring to the boil. Peel the label off the can if you want, this is optional. Carefully drop the can of condensed milk in the boiling water, ( don't open the can!!) Leave to boil in the water for two hours (you may need to turn the can a couple of times and fill up the pot with more hot water as the water will reduce over time). While the can is boiling use a medium sized round cookie cutter or an egg ring as I use. Press it into the sheets of dough (do not take the usually blue, plastic wrapping off the back, it is easier to peel the circles of dough off if it has a backing). Spray one or two muffin tins with oil and gently press into each hole. Preheat the oven 180 degrees Celsius fan forced for about five to ten minutes. Pop the pastry into the oven until they start to go lightly golden in colour, about fifteen minutes, keep an eye on them as oven heat varies. Take them out leave to cool. After two hours, turn the heat off the pot and use tongs to take the can out and place in a sink of cold water for at least thirty minutes. Pick up the can and peel the lid off facing away from you.
Warning: If you do not leave the tin to cool for long enough you may experience hot caramel bursting in your face like i did :( Anyway scoop out a teaspoon worth of caramel and smoosh into each pastry cup. Finished. You could also put the caramel into a piping bag fitted with a thick nozzel and pip it into the cases if you want them to look fancy. I like to add whipped cream on top too. Hope you enjoy. Love Jem.