Melting Moments

Often eaten with eyes involuntarily shut, they're so good. This recipe should make about 32.

250g unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 cup pure icing sugar, sifted

2 cups plain flour

1/3 cup cornflour

Passionfruit filling

60g butter, softened

1 large passionfruit

1 cup pure icing sugar, sifted

 

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter, vanilla and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Sift flours over butter mixture. Beat on low speed until a soft dough forms.

Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of mixture into small balls. Place on trays. Using a fork dipped in flour, lightly flatten each biscuit until 1cm thick. Bake for 15 minutes or until firm. Cool on trays for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make passionfruit filling: Using an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Stir in passionfruit pulp and icing sugar.

Spread flat side of 1 biscuit with 1 teaspoon filling. Top with another biscuit. Repeat with remaining biscuits and filling. Dust with icing sugar.

Shortbread

Not just for Christmas, but for Fair time too! This recipe should make about 50 biscuits.

Melted butter, to grease
225g (1 1/2 cups) plain flour
120g (2/3 cup) McKenzie's Rice Flour
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
Pinch of salt
225g cold butter, coarsely chopped
Plain flour, extra, to dust
Melted white chocolate, to decorate

Preheat oven to 150°C. Brush 2 large baking trays with melted butter to lightly grease. Combine the flour, rice flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Use your fingertips to rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Roll dough out until 1cm thick. Use a 5cm-diameter star-shaped pastry cutter to cut shapes from dough. Place on prepared trays. Bake in oven for 45 minutes, swapping trays halfway through cooking, or until shortbreads start to change colour. Cool on trays for 1 hour. Drizzle with chocolate to decorate.

Chocolate Fudge

This will make a 15cm square slab.

1 cup (200g) brown sugar
1 cup (215g) caster sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) thin cream
1/4 cup (60ml) milk
2 tbs glucose syrup or pale corn syrup
50g dark chocolate, chopped
40g butter, chopped
Icing sugar mixture, to dust

Grease a 15cm square cake tin. Combine the brown and caster sugar, cream, milk, glucose syrup and chocolate in a saucepan over very low heat. Cook, stirring, occasionally brushing side of the pan to remove any sugar crystals, for 20 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high; bring to the boil. Cook for 5-7 minutes or until thermometer reaches 116°C.

Remove from heat. Add the butter, but do not stir. Set aside to cool to 40°C without stirring. Once mixture cools to 40°C, use a wooden spoon to stir for 3-4 minutes or until mixture reluctantly falls from the spoon. Pour into prepared pan; cover with foil. Put aside overnight to set. Cut into squares and dust with icing sugar. Store in an airtight container.

Rainbow Cake

This is quite involved, so you might want to make it for the Fair, or keep it in the vault for your next special birthday. Use the butter cake mixture below (which is actually three times the amount required for a normal cake) or buy three vanilla packet mixes. Another tip! Use the special gel colours from cake making shops to get this sort of brilliant colour.

4 1/2 cups of self raising flour
3 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups of milk
6 eggs
375g (4 oz) butter, melted
3 tsps vanilla extract.

Preheat oven to 180oC conventional. Put all ingredients in a bowl and beat on medium speed for five minutes. That's it.
Divide your mixture up into the number of layers you want. You'll need about 1 1/2 cups of mixture per layer. Colour them their separate colours and bake each in about a 22cm tin for around 12 minutes.

To ice: trim the rounded tops of each one so the layers are completely flat ( you could use the offcuts for some psychodelic trifle?), and turn over so you are icing the firmer bottom.
Make an icing mix from icing sugar, butter and warm water and 'glue' the layers together. Coat the whole cake in a thin layer of icing and refrigerate for at least an hour for it go hard. This is called the 'crumb layer'.
Ice over the whole cake once the crumb layer is firm and you won't have crumbs in your icing.
Finish off with sprinkles, etc.

Rocky Road

300g marshmallows with roasted coconut, chopped coarsley
400g turkish delight, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup roasted blanched almonds, chopped coarsley
1/2 cup roasted shelled pistachios
450g milk or dark eating chocolate, melted

Grease two 8cm x 26cm bar cake pans and line the base and sides with baking paper, extending paper 5cm above the long sides.
Combine marshmallow, turkish delight and nuts in a large bowl. Working quickly, stir in chocolate, spread mixture into pans, push mixture down firmly to flatten top. Refrigerate until set, then cut into squares.

Coconut Ice

Pretty as a picture and Miss Popular too.

5 1/4 cups icing sugar
2 1/2 cups desiccated coconut
395g can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg white, beaten lightly
pink food colouring

Line a deep 19cm square cake pan with baking paper. Sift icing sugar into a large bowl, add coconut, then milk and egg white. Stir to combine. Press half of the mixture into the pan. Tint the remaining mixture pink and press evenly over the first layer. Cover, refrigerate for several hours before cutting into squares.

Classic Lamingtons

You can make the cake part of the lamington from scratch if you'd like. Or, you could just go and buy yourself a 23cm (or similar) square sponge cake.

23cm square sponge cake or similar
4 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
20g butter, melted
2/3 cup (160ml) milk
2 cups desiccated coconut

Cut the cake into 16 squares. Mix the icing sugar, cocoa, butter and milk in a saucepan. Place the saucepan over a pan of simmering water, and stir until the icing is of a coating consistency. Dip squares of cake in the icing, then into the coconut.