Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

Recipe

Good bye my friend

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It has been a week since my beloved Miss Kitty passed away, I had to make the hard decision to put her down, it was the hardest decision I have ever had to make.
She was my baking companion, I always knew a good recipe when she tried to taste test. I will miss her everyday.

Strawberry Blondies

100ml strawberries

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup white chocolate pieces

A few strawberries to place on the top (optional)

Using a stick blender blend the strawberries together until they become a liquid, then set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs, crushed strawberries, and vanilla essence and stir until combined.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and stir through. Then add the chocolate and mix until combined.

Pour into a square lined 20x20cm tin, place a few cut strawberries on the top and bake for 30 minutes or until cooked.



A few photos of my Beautiful Miss Kitty that I had on my phone…….

Enjoying her favourite food… Pizza
Just sharing the love

Miss K and her son Raz
Just catching up on our TV
Catching up on shut eye
Good bye my beautiful friend.

Romance of days gone by

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Happy Valentines day everyone. It is officially after midnight here in Melbourne so I hope I am the first to wish you a good day. I hope you get to spend it with someone special, or if your doing a Bridget Jones, I hope your doing it in style, with good food and a great movie.

The other day my dad was going through some old papers and found some old envelopes that happened to be letters that he and my mum had written to each other many years ago. He wouldn’t let me read them, so it must have been good reading. Anyway today I pulled them out to use in this next shoot (don’t worry I didn’t read them), after all whats more romantic than a love letter written over forty years ago. My Parents celebrate there 43rd Wedding Anniversary at the end of March(so don’t forget Dad).
My Father lived in England and Mum was from a little country on the other side of the world, New Zealand. My Dad worked at sea and on one particular journey, he walked into a small pub in New Zealand, where my mum planted eyes on him and said to her friend, I’m going to marry that man. And within the year they were married. They only knew each other in person for two weeks, the rest of that year my dad spent at sea, so there were lots of letters back and forth. It seems so very romantic, good old fashioned love letters. 

Chocolate Tarts

Pastry
1 1/2 cups flour
250 g butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder (dutch)

Filling
100g dark chocolate 
50g butter 
1/4 cup sugar 
1/4 cup cream 
1 egg  

Place the flour, sugar, cocoa and butter in to a food processor and pulse until combined. Then add the egg and pulse again until a dough starts to forms. Remove from the processor, and kneed on a floured surface until just smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour. 

Remove from the fridge and roll out of a floured surface until about 2mm thick, then place into tart tins. Blind bake for 15 minutes, remove the beans and place back in the oven for a further 10minutes.

While the pastry is cooking prepare the filling. Place the chocolate and butter into a saucepan and heat until they melt and combine. Remove from the heat and stir through the sugar and cream. Wait for the mixture to cool slightly then stir through the egg. 
Pour the mixture into the tart cases and place back into the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edges are just cooked and the centre is a little wobbly.

Plum Cake

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cut plum

Two days ago, I went to a cute little bakery/cafe, in Brunswick St. Where we had this amazing Hungarian Plum Cake, it was sweet and sour, moist yet dense. When I got home, I just had to have a go at making one.
There where some ups and downs along the way, I was after all having one of those days when you know you shouldn’t have got out of bed.
Firstly, I completely forgot to add baking powder to the mixture, and only realised once I had poured half the mixture into the pan, so there I was scraping the mixture back into the bowl, and sprinkling in some baking powder, and trying to stir it in. Then once I had assembled the cake I thought, this cake tin is a little small, oh well, I’m not pouring it all out again I though, and sure enough when the cake rose it  looked like a big muffin top instead of rising nicely.
But eventually I got there in the end, sure its not the most glamourous cake, but it sure does taste good and thats all that really matters in the big scheme of things.

It’s the perfect cake to make if you have a number of plums left over, you could make a few cakes and freeze them.

Let me know if you have a go at making it.

Soph xxx

bowl of plums

plums in a bowl

Plum cake with ice cream


Slice of plum cake

plum cake
Plum Cake

200g butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup of cornflour
3 teaspoons baking powder
4 eggs, separated

1 kilo of plums
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon 

Pre heat the oven to 200C

Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until soft peaks form, leave to the side.
In a separate bowl cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, with an electric beater. Add the flour and cornflour a little at a time until all the flour is incorporated, it will resemble bread crumbs. Then stir through the yolks, once these are incorporated add the egg whites and stir through.

Pour half the mixture into a lined 25cm cake tin, make sure its quite high as this cake will rise a fair bit.

Cut the plums in half and de-seed. Add the sugar and cinnamon into a bowl and toss the plums through, then press the plums into the mixture skin side down, pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top and press some more plums in and then cover with the remaining mixture.

Bake for 45 minutes or until cooked.
plum cake

plum cake

plum cake



Apple Pie

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How I love apple pie, it just screams home baked goodness. Plus you can make it at anytime of year as apples are always in the fruit shops. I don’t like to think of how apples are always around, I hate the idea of fruit and veg being kept in oxygen controlled environments, it just seems to go against nature. However that seems to be the way of the world now. I live in hope that the little fruit shop doesn’t do this and that it’s only the big supermarkets however you never know. Ok well on to better things, such as….. Apple Pie.



It is absolutely essential to eat apple pie with mountains of freshly whipped cream. Yes that right essential, it’s a must. The two just seem to pair so well, if you’re out of cream I guess ice cream will just have to do. 



Pastry

2 cups plain flour

1⁄2 cup white sugar

200g butter

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons water

Filling

8 large size apples

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoon cinnamon

Pre heat oven to 180C


Cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, alternatively use a food processor and pulse. Stir in the sugar then add the egg yolks and water, stir until the mixture forms a dough. Wrap and then chill for 60 minutes or until firm.
Roll out half the dough using a rolling pin, and place into a 20cm cake tin.  
To make the filling, peel and chop the apples into pieces. Place in a large saucepan on a medium heat. Cook until the apples soften slightly. Pour into the cake tin.
Roll out the remaining pastry and place over the top of the pie. Alternatively cut into strips and place over the pie. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.