Good grief. Ive been itching to post for a few weeks now but the mix of work, being ill and moving to this new blog has got me all in a whirl! So, im going to split my doings into two posts. This, being Easter.
A few years ago I was given the cutest set of easter cookie cutters and its taken me up until now to actually get off my butt and use them. So use them I did! To make easter egg sugar cookies.
Easter Egg Sugar Cookies (from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)
Ingredients
200g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
400g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Royal Icing
Method
1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy
2. Add the egg and mix well
3. Mix in flour and cream of tartar
4. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shape
5. Bake at 170 degrees celsius for around 10 mins. Be very careful though, my oven cooks them quite quickly so I take mine out after about 7 mins, as soon as they start to go golden around the edges. They burn VERY quickly.
6. Decorate!
Unfortunately for my tummy, my easter cooking didn’t end with biscuits. Delicious Magazine had a particularly tasty looking Easter Trifle. So off to the shops I went (hoppity hop) to get myself some super sweet ingredients. Now, I eat some seriously sweet things, but its been a VERY long time since I last made something this sweet.
One chocolate cake, tin of caramel, carton of custard, bottle of cream and pot of mascarpone later (not to mention several packets of easter eggs and chocolate shavings) and I had my ultimate easter confection. Of course, the addition of a tin of pears means that some of the unhealthyness of the dish is cancelled out… doesn’t it?
Easter Trifle
(I thought I would just note that I wasnt that impressed with the cake/brownie that this recipe had so rather than reproduce it here I would instead strongly advise you to make your favourite cake/brownie instead!)
Ingredients
410g tin of pears in natural juice
380g can of Caramel
250g Mascarpone
400g Custard
300mL Thickened Cream
1 Packet of Chocolate Eggs
Method
1. Cut up cake or brownie into small squares and place in a serving bowl
2. Place sliced pears over cake squares and add half the easter eggs
3. Combine caramel, mascarpone and custard and pour over cake and pears
4. Add the other half of the easter eggs
5. Top with whipped cream and grated chocolate
6. Chill for 2 hours minimum (This trifle is magnificent the next day, so if you can hold out for 24 hours, its worth it!)