The Ultimate Gluten free take-a-plate slice - Caramel Topped Brownie!

I must admit I am pretty proud of this creation. Perfect, just in time for all those take-a-plate outings you are bound to have coming up in the next month or so.
Fudgy, dense, moist brownie on the bottom, chewy buttery caramel in the middle topped with a soft real chocolate topping and oh so perfectly divine!

Even better - it is gluten free! For all those that gluten free is not an issue - simply replace the baking mix cup for cup with normal wheat cake flour and you will be fine, it works either way. 

Recipe:

For the brownie base:

Pre-heat your oven to 180 Deg C (350 F) and line a 30x20cm (8x12in) tin with non-stick baking paper.
Melt 155g (5 1/2 oz) of butter in a medium sized bowl.
Add to the butter 1C of sugar, 1/3C of Cocoa and 2 large eggs. Beat well to combine with a wooden spoon.
Fold in 1C of quality Gluten Free Baking mix (or if not gluten free, then 1C of normal baking flour)
Pour into the tin and spread out evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until just firm.

For the Caramel:

In a microwave proof glass bowl (or in a double boiler if you are very patient) combine 1 tin of sweetened condensed milk, 2 Tablespoons of golden syrup, 110g (4oz) butter and 1/3 C sugar. Microwave on high for 3 minutes, stir, cook a further 2 minutes and stir again. Continue to cooking for 1 minute intervals, stirring between each time. It takes approximately four minutes of this depending on your microwave. It needs to be a deep golden colour and when you place some caramel on a cold surface it will set sort of soft but chewy. Alternatively you can cook in a double boiler, stirring constantly until it reaches soft-firm ball stage (this takes ages, hence the microwave cheat)

 Don't panic - when it gets properly boiling the butter will separate from the caramel and it will look curdled - trust me it will come together in the end.

Once cooked to the chewiness you like, beat well with a handheld beater until it all comes together (about a minute) then pour on the brownie base. Sit this aside to cool and set.

For the Chocolate topping:

Melt 250g (8 1/2 oz) of 50% cocoa solids good quality chocolate with 50g (2oz) of unsalted butter - it takes about 1 minute in my microwave. stir well to melt any last pieces of chocolate and pour over the set caramel. Place in the fridge for about an hour to set the chocolate. Cut in to bars with a hot, dry knife. Store in a air tight container. Will keep at least a week - but it never lasts that long at our house!!!

EEeeepp Christmas is coming!

Dare I say it - Christmas isn't that far away! If you are anything like me, that is very exciting! If you are a bit of a grinch, feel free to book mark this page to read in early December :-)  I love Christmas and always have. It may have something to do with the fact that it is my birthday 2 days before Christmas as well, so it has always been my favourite time of the year.
This year I have decided that we needed a new kind of countdown to Christmas in our house - when they were little we had a tree that had little doors on it, and each day they could open a door and hang the little bell from it on the tree, this worked well with one toddler and one baby but as soon as they could argue about whose turn it was it kinda all fell over!
This year, I plan to have each envelope to have an activity or fun thing to do/look forward to for each day.

 

 

All the items were easily available - I did make the little envelopes, but I'm sure they would be easy to source. The frame is a cheap photo frame from Kmart, the butchers twine is from Spotlight, the 1-25 cards and the stick on decals are from The Stationary Warehouse and the little pegs are from Lincraft. I'm sure you could find these items in many other stores as well.

 

 

Ideas for the cards on the inside:

Help ice the Christmas cake

 

Make palmier hearts for after the candle light carol service tonight (a Christmas eve Tradition in our family)

Make some invites and plan a Christmas party (I have pre-invited the parents of this party, so they already have it booked in, so the fact that they get 4 days notice from the invites is ok)

Make a cinnamon ornaments wreath for the front hall way

Make the family and friends Christmas cards

Paint/stamp some brown paper to make our own Christmas paper

Make food presents for the Grandparents/Aunts/Uncles

Hide Rudolf's nose – ongoing until Christmas eve (a game where you hide a red ball in the house, and the first person to find it hides it somewhere else)

Reindeer cupcakes  or these

 

Make your own snow globes

Bake some rice krispie ornament treats

Write our own twinkling holiday sign

Make gingerbread houses

Put up the Christmas tree and decorate it

Make something to wear to the Santa parade

White choc marshmallow popcorn and a Christmas movie

 Host a Christmas party for our friends

Sock the neighbours

Flour fight! We don't get snow at this time of year, so why not get messy with flour?

Santa beards with shaving foam and take some photos!

Family picnic under the Christmas tree and read the Christmas story under the tree

Toast some marshmallows

 

Do you have any family traditions you would like to share that I could add to this list??

 

 

Rainbow Butterfly party - my (current) youngest turns 4!

 

Well life has been a  bit busy lately, what with the pregnancy ticking along and a business from home, working the weekends at my other job and raising two wonderful girls!
Little Miss 3 wanted a "Rainbow Butterfly Party" for her fourth birthday - so this is what we did:

 

Butterfly and Roses centerpiece

 

 

Marshmello fondant is our new favourite!! so much cheaper than regular fondant AND it TASTES LIKE MARSHMELLO!

 

 

 

 

 

Face painting is always a hit with the kids!

 

 

Rainbow jelly oranges went down a real treat at the icecream bar

 

 

 

 

Once everyone had eaten their savoury course we moved all this sugar to a little coffee table and let the kids (and adults!) make their own ice cream sundaes. I was amazed at how grown up the kids were about it! They lined up nicely and took about the same amount of lollies a parent would have served them anyway, and they hardly spilled anything. Goes to show that kids step up to responsibility if we give them a chance.

 

 

 

 

After the usual rounds of pass the parcel (known for some reason in our house as castle castle...), a treasure hunt outside, the making of butterfly puppets with much glitter/sparkle/feathers and a face paint, our happy punters had a good jump on the trampoline and headed home.