Peace-keeping Brownies

anyone who has a daughter knows they are a beautiful but delicate bundle of emotions...
My Uma is no exception to the rule and she has the added bonus of being the only girl, the middle child and being 3!!! So sometimes we have to take some time out to do something together (NO BOYS ALOUD) sometimes painting nails and sometimes a little bit of baking...

so these brownies were one of our baking ventures, they came out yummy and the kids devoured them :)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 tea-spoon of baking powder
1/2 tea-spoon of baking soda
1 table spoon of Cocoa powder

4 table spoons of butter
1/2 tea-spoon of vanilla extract
1 table spoon of vinegar
1 cup of water.

icing sugar for dusting

pri-heat oven to 180c

Sift the dry ingredients,
and mix in the rest...
give it a good beat

pour into a greased and floured baking tray

it really is as simple as that :)


Bake for 30- 40mins. (depending on how deep your mixture is in the baking tin)

serve warm with a big scoop of ice cream

Mmmmm

A Special Cake for A Special Boy xxx

On the 30th of June two years ago i had a beautiful little boy who came into the world 15weeks before he should have, he gave us a precious 5 minutes to cuddle his tiny but perfect little body and say our goodbyes. The hardest thing i have ever done...

well two years on, i cant say iv healed but i guess we've learnt to include little Oja in our life's, my other kids know about their brother and we still celebrate his birthday, even if he isn't here to blow out his own candles.

Red Velvet Cake 

the last couple of months iv been kinda fascinated with the red velvet cake (think iv been watching too many American cake shows) It has this amazing red sponge and white icing... Looks so cool...

History

i stole this from wikipedia 

 James Beard's 1972 reference American Cookery describes three red velvet cakes varying in the amounts of shortening and butter. All use red food coloring, but the reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to better reveal the red anthocyanin in the cocoa. Before more alkaline "Dutch Processed" cocoa was widely available, the red color would have been more pronounced. This natural tinting may have been the source for the name "Red Velvet" as well as "Devil's Food" and similar names for chocolate cakes.^[3][1] While foods were rationed during World War II, bakers used boiled beets to enhance the color of their cakes. Boiled grated beets or beet baby food are found in some red velvet cake recipes, where they also serve to retain moisture.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of self raising flour

 1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda

2 tbs of cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 cup of yogurt 

3/4 cup of sunflower oil

1/4 cup of golden syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbs of red food colouring (1 bottle) 

1 tsp white distilled vinegar

Pri-heat oven to 180c.

grease and flour two 9inch cake tins

sift flour, baking powder and cocoa in a bowl. add sugar and mix.

in a separate bowl mix the oil, yogurt, syrup, vanilla and red food colouring, beat for a minute.

add to the dry ingredients, mix well till it blends.

in another bowl, add the vinegar to the baking soda, this will fizz up, quickly fold it through the cake batter.

pour into tins and bake for 30minutes.

leave to cool before frosting.

(i will admit to cheating when it came to frosting this cake... i used Betty Crockers icing) 

but a cream cheese frosting is perfect :o)

Happy 2nd Birthday Oja from your big brother and sister