Shortbread

I was looking for something to bake for Christmas and I thought I would go back to my Scottish background (my mum is Scottish) and bake some Scottish shortbread. The recipe is quite simple- there are only four ingredients. They are 250g butter, chopped; 1/3 cup caster sugar; 1/4 cup rice flour and 2 1/4 cups plain flour.

Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth.

Sift the flours together, add to the butter and sugar and stir.

Press the mixture together to form a firm dough.

Knead on a floured surface until smooth.

Cut rounds about 7cm in diameter or press some of the mixture into an 11cm shortbread mould. We have a shortbread mould but it is smaller than 11cm so I just stamped it onto the 7cm rounds. If ya get what I mean :)

Bake the 11cm shortbread about 30 mins at 150 degrees C and the smaller ones about 20-25mins. Stand the shortbread on the trays for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy! I will be doing more baking for Christmas and will post recipes and pictures. My dad also made some fudge this weekend and I took some pictures so I will put them up as well. I really want to make a gingerbread house but I don't know who would eat it! It would be fun to do though. I'm still not sure what else I will bake but I will keep looking for recipes.

Love,

Little Miss Cupcake.

Recipe adapted from Scottish Shortbread in the Australian Women's Weekly Christmas Book

Hello Kitty biscuits

How cute are these?! Hello Kitty biscuits with tiny cute little faces! They also tasted pretty good, just in case you were wondering.

Here's the recipe:
You will need 250g butter, 2 cups plain flour, 3/4 cups caster sugar and an egg.


Process or mix with a mixer the butter and flour.

The mixture should resemble fine breadcrumbs.

Add the sugar and mix to combine.

Add egg and mix until mixture comes together.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth.

Divide in half, wrap halves in plastic and chill for about 30 mins.



Roll dough on a floured surface until 4-5mm thick.

Here's where the fun part comes: cutting shapes out of the dough! At least, it was fun for me. Aww too cute!

The Hello Kitty cutters came with a cutter


and a cute little imprinting thingy. They are similar to these Star Wars cutters that Bakerella has.

Bake for 8-10 mins in a 180 degree oven until golden. I think I baked these for a little less time because they are pretty small. They were really yummy and buttery. The full recipe is here.

Enjoy!

Anzac Biccies

It's Anzac Day tomorrow so why not make some of these yummy Anzac biccies!

You will need oats, plain flour, caster sugar, golden syrup, butter and bi-carb soda.

Okay first up: the dry ingredients. To 1 1/4 cup flour add 1 cup rolled oats...

1/2 cup of sugar, and 3/4 cup desiccated coconut. I didn't have any coconut so I added and extra 1/2 cup of oats.


Mix the dry ingredients together.

Next, place 150g of butter into a saucepan, along with 2 tablespoons of golden syrup.


Stir over low heat until the butter has melted.

Meanwhile, mix 1/2 teaspoon of bi-carb soda with 1 1/2 tablespoons water, and add to the butter and golden syrup mixture.



Stir and remove from heat.

Pour mixture into dry ingredients and mix together until combined.


Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on tray, pressing down tops to flatten

Bake in 170 degree oven for 12 mins or until golden brown.


Mmm yum!

Love, Little Miss Cupcake (LMC) :)

YoYo biscuits

I love my new KitchenAid stand mixer! Isn't it pretty? The first thing I decided to make with it was yoyo biscuits.

Here is the recipe:

Vanilla yoyo biscuits

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup custard powder

175g butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup soft icing mixture

Filling

1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar

40g butter, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

A few drops of food colouring, if desired

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Attach flat beater to stand mixer. Place flours and custard powder in bowl with shield and mix on speed 1 to combine. Remove from bowl and set aside. (If you don't have a stand mixer just sift the flour and custard powder into a bowl and mix together.)

2. Place butter, vanilla and icing mixture in bowl. Beat on speed 6 until pale and fluffy. Add flour mixture; mix on speed 1 until just combined, then beat on speed 4 until smooth.

3. Roll a rounded teaspoon of dough into a ball and place on prepared trays. Lightly press down with a fork. Repeat with remaining dough.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Stand for 5 mins then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Meanwhile, make filling. Attach flat beater to stand mixer. Place icing sugar and butter in bowl and mix on speed 4 until pale and well combined. Add vanilla and lemon juice; mix on speed 1 to combine. Add a few drops of food colouring if desired and then beat on speed 4 until fluffy. Sandwich biscuits together with filling.

Ooh and look at the pretty red spatula that goes the mixer-

So cute! Red is my favourite colour, too.

Happy Baking!

Yummy peanutty biccies!

I made these yummy biscuits today and they were sooo easy! I used this recipe that I found on Bakerella's blog. Instead of dipping the biccies in chocolate and peanuts I added some chocolate chips to the dough. I think I may have added too much though, almost half the packet! Next time I would only add about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, otherwise the biscuits will fall apart. These were so easy- I will definetely be making them again.

Happy Baking!