Little Box Brownie

A Baking Blog from Melbourne, Australia

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Spreading the love with chocolate frosting

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Phew I made it…. I didn’t think I would… Happy Valentines day all you love birds! and of course all you single ladies and gentlemen. I hope you all had a fantastic day and got absolutely spoiled either by someone or you spoiled yourself.
I knew Valentines day was fast approaching and even had the foresight to borrow the little sugar hearts you see here from my sister, however it snuck up on me. So here I am 1 hour and 15 minutes before the day officially ends getting this post up. It was a huge rush but here it is, just in time for everyone on the other side of the world who might just be waking up.
Happy baking everyone.
xxxx Sophia

 

Love Cakes
Author: Sophia Purvis
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • CAKES
  • 175g butter
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 tablespoon Vinegar
  • 5 eggs
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • ICING/FROSTING
  • 200g milk/dark chocolate
  • 240mls thickened cream
  • 50g cream cheese (room temperature to avoid lumps)
  • 35g white sugar
Instructions
  1. Pre heat the oven to 160C
  2. Place the butter, milk and vinegar into a saucepan and heat until the butter melts, The mixture will curdle so don’t worry. Set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric beater.
  4. Sift the flour, baking powder and soda into another bowl. Then slowly add to the egg mixture along with the milk mixture. stir through until well combined. Pour into a 25x35cm slice tin
  5. Bake for 30 minutes or until it bounces bake when touched. Leave to cool.
  6. To make the icing your going to need three bowls for this.
  7. Bowl 1: Place the cream into a bowl and whisk until it forms peaks, then place to the side.
  8. Bowl2 : Place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl and place in the microwave to melt (you could use a double boiler instead).
  9. Bowl 3 : Beat the cream cheese and sugar together using and electric beater until combined. Then slowly add the chocolate and stir until it has all be incorporated. Then using a spatular fold the cream in.
  10. Cut the cake into desired shapes and ice, sprinkle with sugar hearts if desired

 

 

Believing in a dream

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I have some very exciting news to let you in on. I’m publishing a baking book with the help of the amazing team at Random House NZ. Can you believe it? I can’t, Its been such a long road to get here.
I started the book about 4 or 5 years ago, long before I started the Blog. A baking book was something I felt like I had to do in my life time. So one day I simply started it, not knowing if I would finish it and not knowing if anyone would want to print.
I took it one step recipe at a time. My plan was to get to 100 recipes, slowly and surely the book began to take shape, the further I got into it, the more it began to excite me that I was actually doing it and it was really taking shape. It took me about 2 years to complete, a real labor of love. I didn’t tell anyone really what I was doing, except my family and a few close friends, in someway I guess I was embarrassed to let anyone in on my little secret. What if it was a huge flop and I didn’t finish it, what if I was just wasting my time and it would never see the light of day. So day in day out I plugged away in secret, distributing all the baked goods to neighbors and friends who remained unaware they were my taste testers. They really helped form the shape and the direction of the book and so I owe them a huge thank you.

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Lamingtons

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Happy Australia Day! I hope your all soaking up the sun either at the beach or in your backyard. For todays post I went with an iconic Australian cake, the world famous Lamington. Now for those of you that don’t no what an earth a Lamington is, its a little sponge cake covered in a chocolate icing then dipped in coconut. It is said to be named after a man called Lord Lamington, who was the governor of Queensland. There are many speculations as to who created it and why but I for one am glad they did.

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Oreo Brownies

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Look at this little baby, this cute Little Box Brownie was kindly given to me from my Dads next door neighbour, this Brownie would have to be one of the cutest I have seen.
For those of you that don’t know, the Brownie was produce by Eastman Kodak in the 1900’s, the camera made photography accessible to the millions, before the Brownie photography was expensive and this little camera brought about the accessibility that we have today. People where able to have there own camera and capture their own family moments, it really revolutionised photography.
I have a couple Brownie Cameras in storage, well they really belong to my brother. But the do say possession in nine tenths the law, and he hasn’t had them for about 15 years so surly there mine? Well I haven’t been able to locate there exact position so when this was kindly donated to me I of course had to shoot it with some delicious Chocolate Brownies. So finally I have be able to pair the two reasons this blog is called Little Box Brownie, Brownie the Camera and Brownie the Sweets, combining my two loves both photography and baking into one name.