Kids Cooking Thursday: Pocky!

This was a simple, but fun, snack to make, and it's so delicious, the kids will be lucky if I don't eat them all myself!

Homemade Pocky
200g chocolate, melted
150g pretzel sticks

Dip pretzel sticks in melted chocolate, shake off excess. Place on trays lined with baking paper. Chill until set. Then eat. Or store, if uneaten, in a covered box in the fridge. You can use dark or milk chocolate for this. We grabbed two marked down 100g blocks - one 60c Xmas themed wrapped milk block, and one end of line dark chocolate with sea salt. I mixed the two together and it was heaven. Chocolatey heaven on a stick. And then I ate the stick. Om nom nom!

Master Two did have a go, but the photos were all blurry because he was jumping so much.

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Kids Cooking Thursday: Rocky Road Fudge

A combination of three different variations of this recipe, the kids and I made this for DP's birthday. Normally I make him Rocky Road Ice cream for his birthday, but with the the heat of the kitchen in this sudden Summer swelter, I thought I'd try something different for a change.

Rocky Road Fudge
3 cups chopped chocolate (we used 1 cup chopped Tobelerone, 1 cup 70% dark and the other 50% dark)
1 cup chopped (or mini) marshmallows
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 Choc Ripple biscuits, crushed roughly (any creamless chocolate biscuit would do)
1/4 cup chopped glace cherries
1/4 cup extra chopped marshmallows

Place the chocolate, 1st cup masrhmallows and condensed milk in a large, microwave proof bowl. Heat for 2 minutes on MED. Line a jelly roll pan with baking paper.
Remove bowl from microwave and stir. Continue heating on HIGH for 30 second bursts until the chocolate is all melted and the marshmallow has mostly mixed in. Add the rest of the ingredients (marshmallows last) and stir through thoroughly. Pour into lined tin, and refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.

Remove from pan and place on a chopping board. Peel the paper off and cut into small squares. Store covered in the fridge. If the fudge is sticky and hard to cut store in freezer for 30 mins and try again ;)

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Kids Cooking Thursday: Aztec Truffle Cupcakes

Using the leftover mixture from the Aztec Truffles, we whipped up an .87c chocolate cake mix into cupcakes, and placed a tiny ball of truffle inside each one before baking. This is not a recipe to make with children if you are messphobic, or want photos of the process. They tasted great though!

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Kids Cooking Thursday: Chocolate Cheesecake Truffles

Just in time for your NYE parties...

These were snaffled up too quickly for me to get a photo of the finished product, and of course, were too chocolatey in the making of, so you'll have to use your imagination for these. Or alternatively, look back at the time we made these in strawberry flavour or regular flavour. The only difference in these were that I bought Chocolate Creme Oreos instead of the other flavours. I have to try these with the peanut butter and chocolate flavoured ones next I think...

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Kids Cooking Thursday: Choc Mint Truffles

There's a friend in my Facebook feed who has a secret recipe for Choc Mint Balls. Every time she makes them my feed goes a flutter, with everyone talking about them, and making excuses to go visit her. I thought perhaps she made Cheesecake Truffles with Mint Slice biscuits instead of Oreos, but she told me she doesn't use cream cheese, she uses Sweetened Condensed Milk. That was all the information I needed to hit up Google. I came up with this site, where if you scroll down six recipes you'll find Aileen's Peppermint Xmas Roll. I don't know if this is the recipe my friend uses, but it sounded so good I had to give it a try. I messed around with it a little, to make it easier for KCT, so what follows is what we did.

As Good as Sai's (?) Choc Mint Balls
2 pk chocolate ripple biscuits
2 blocks peppermint chocolate (the flowing middle type)
can sweetened condensed milk
choc pareils

Blitz biscuits, chocolate and milk in a food processor to get coarse lumps. You may need to do this in two batches, unless your food processor is huge. Roll into balls and then coat with pareils or coconut and refrigerate on foil tray. That's it!

I started ours a few days before, and had trouble getting the pareils to stick because the biscuit crumbs had absorbed the sticky milk, so we coated ours in chocolate. (Hence the lateness of this post, sorry!) I had trouble restraining myself from eating the mix while it was sitting in the fridge waiting for us to roll into balls too. Like I said, I'm not sure if this is my friend's recipe, but it's soo good you won't care!


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Kids Cooking Thursday: Aztec Truffles

Adapted from Allrecipes.

Aztec Truffles
200g Chilli Dark Chocolate (we used Lindt)
100g Maya Gold 55% solids chocolate (use regular semi dark if you can't get this exotic Green & Blacks flavour)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
good pinch Dutch cinnamon
cocoa (or pareils or coconut) to roll

Melt chocolate with sweetened condensed milk on lowest microwave setting in a heatproof bowl. Try 1 minute on LOW and then 30sec bursts. When melted and smooth, stir in cinnamon. Cover and chill 2 to 3 hours or until firm.
Shape mixture into small balls and roll in cocoa.
Refrigerate in a tightly covered dish.

Sorry for no in process pictures today again, but rolling sticky balls of chocolate goop between one's palms is not conductive to responsible camera handling. If your truffles are destined for the family cookie plate, or you have slightly older kids home from school already, you might want to pass that job to them. Master Two was quite adept at shaking the dish with the truffles and cocoa in it, and Miss Five was quick to point out any that weren't fully coated. Both had a good stir of the mixture, and enjoyed the tasty job of breaking the blocks of chocolate down into pieces. So even though our truffles were destined to be a gift, and needed to be adult rolled for the slightly improved shape and size uniformity, there was still lots to be done for little fingers.

It goes to show, never judge a recipe as too complex before giving it a try. Odds are, even the youngest child will find a step or two they can help with.


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Kids Cooking Thursday: The Rainbow Connection

Another birthday round up, this time for Miss Five. I can't believe she is going to school next year already!

Rainbow Cake

Rainbow Clouds (just add food dye)

Rainbow Butterflies

Rainbow Jellies

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Kids Cooking Thursday: Anzac Bars

Anzac Bars (not biscuits) from the Coles Recipe website - so simple a two year old can make them!

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Kids Cooking Thursday: Strawberry Coconut Cake

Just a little something we whipped up for afternoon tea. I saw this recipe in 4 Ingredients 2, which I had borrowed from the library, and couldn't resist giving it a try.

Strawberry Coconut Cake (adapted from the 1,1,1,1 cake in 4 Ingredients 2)
1 cup coconut
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup SR flour
a few drops each strawberry essence and pink food dye

Place all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well. Sneak a handful of batter while Mum is distracted with the camera.

Insist on adding strawberry essence and pink food dye because everything is better pink, and with strawberries. Mix through.

Pour into a paper lined loaf tin and bake at 180°C for 40 mins. Allow to cool slightly in the pan, then slice and serve warm spread with butter.

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More Rainbow Cake!

This is the first of a few rainbow themed posts I had planned for the lead up to Miss Five's birthday. Instead, I'll be posting them in the next couple of weeks. After the enormous success of the rainbow cake I made for my brother-in-law's birthday party, Miss Then-Four wanted to have a rainbow party, so she could have one of those cakes.

Of course, since she had separate parties for kinder friends and family, that meant I had to make two of those cakes. Meaning 14 bowls to wash up. And way too much food dye consumption. But everyone was thrilled by the suprise colours inside again, even those who were expecting it. I decorated the "fluffy white cloud" icing with a sour strap rainbow to throw people off the scent. You can never have too many rainbows.

See, it's all deceptively plain and sneaky

Rainbows make me happy. And they do the same to Miss Five and Master Two as well. (Master Six is ambivalent). I didn't take photos of the process like I did back in January because I was racing the clock to get cake in the oven before Kinder pick up time, and before I needed the oven for dinner. But I used the same method as last time so I guess that will have to do.


This was an entry for Sugar High Friday, started in 2004 by Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess, and hosted this month by Soufflé Days with the theme “Desserts with a Hidden Surprise.”

Virtual Girls Night In: The Indulgence Edition - Round Up

Sadly, this year was a bit of a bust. Nobody turned up to join me to raise money for the Cancer Council, which is very disappointing after the great turn out last year. With my computer out of commission I wasn't able to do the promoting as much as I would have liked, but it is still sad. Next year we'll go back to pink things, that seems to be a much more popular theme.

Of course I made something for this event, Chocolate Risotto topped with more chocolate (and rainbow sprinkles for the kids) so you can feast your eyes on this, if nothing else.

I hope you think about joining me next year, and remember, it's not too late to donate at least!

Kids Cooking Thursday: Choc Honeycomb muffins

We were running short of after school snacks, so in very little time we whipped up these Honeycomb Muffins. Only change I made was to skip the choc chips in favour of more crushed honeycomb.

Sadly there is a shortage of photos today, because it was hard to co ordinate scooping with a four year old and a two year old, and have a hand for the camera as well.

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Kids Cooking Thursday

Regular KCT has been interrupted by the fact that my computer died, and I can't upload pictures. Please bear with me as I get this sorted out.




Don't forget to indulge yourself for the Virtual Girls Night In, our annual fundraiser for the Cancer Council.

Kids Cooking Thursday: Puffy Butterflies

A really simple snack that can be whipped up in time for afternoon tea. Miss Four and Master Two helped me make these between the end of Mister Maker and when Master Six got home. Master Six helped us eat them!

Puffy Butterflies
2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
2-3 Tbsp jam (we used strawberry)
Sugar, and butter to top

Spread one sheet of pastry with jam. Top with second sheet.

Spread butter over the top sheet. (We used butter creamed with sugar because I had some in the fridge, otherwise I would have melted it before spreading) Sprinkle sugar over the top.

Cut out with a butterfly shaped biscuit cutter, or whatever shape you prefer. Place on a paper lined baking tray.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 180°C, or until golden.

Cool for as long as hungry tummies can stand. The aim is to serve fairly warm, but not so anyone burns themselves on hot jam.

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Don't forget to indulge yourself for the Virtual Girls Night In, our annual fundraiser for the Cancer Council.

Chocolate Risotto

It's been a while since I managed to take part in the Cookbook Challenge, but this week I managed to pull something out of my hat, and kill two birds with one stone, while only spending $1.55 on buying ingredients I didn't already have in the house. Risotto is a pretty indulgent dish to make at the best of times, with all that stirring and ladling, especially in this house, where DP doesn't eat rice. But making a risotto purely for dessert purposes, and then filling it with chocolate makes it doubly decadent, and that's why I'm using this as my own entry for my Virtual Girls Night In later this month, the theme of which is Indulgence.

Chocolate Risotto(from 30 Minute Italian - Fran Warde)
600ml milk
25g sugar
50g butter
125g arborio rice
50g hazelnuts, toasted and chopped (I subbed in 1 Tbsp choc hazelnut spread, so I could serve this to young children)
50g sultanas
125g good quality dark chocolate, grated
splash of brandy (optional)
grated chocolate to decorate

Put the milk and sugar in to a saucepan and heat to simmering point.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the rice and stir well to coat the grains.
Add a ladleful of hot milk and stir well. When the rice has absorbed the milk, add another ladleful. Continue to stir and add the milk until it is all absorbed. The rice should be slightly al dente and with a creamy sauce.
Finally add the hazelnuts, sultanas and grated chocolate and mix quickly. Serve decorated with a little grated chocolate. Try not to over-mix the chocolate as the marbled effect looks good. For a special treat add a splash of brandy just before serving. Decorate with grated chocolate.




This was an entry for
The Cookbook Challenge: Week 47 - Italian.









Don't forget to indulge yourself for the Virtual Girls Night In, our annual fundraiser for the Cancer Council.