Homemade Nakd Bars

This weekend I made some of these beauties for snack time at work.

 I keep reaching for the chocolate now I have a readily available vending machine and it has to stop. So apart from not taking money to work with me I had a go at making my own Nakd bars.

You would not believe how easy they were, I checked a few different recipes on line and it seems that providing you use equal amount dried fruit (mainly dates and sultanas) and nuts, you won't go far wrong. Chuck everything in a blender for a few minutes until everything is chopped up small and combined. Tip out and mould into whatever shape takes your fancy. Individually seal in cling film for freshness and you are done. Yum

So the yellow one is a version of pecan pie, the green one is choco mint, I used a mint options to flavour these, and choco orange with cocoa powder and the rind of an orange.

They all taste great, I might even go so far as to say they are tastier than Nakd bars, I guess because they are a little fresher?

Next time I might experiment with some flavours, maybe cocoa and cinnamon, ginger and lemon or even coffee I'll let you know how it goes.

Sugar Roses

I don't know if I've mentioned but I am planning to make my own wedding cake. They just seem so expensive and putting the word wedding in front of anything seems to bump up the price ten fold, so I though I would give it a bash. 

We had decided on a traditional fruit cake as this is on of our favourites, it can also be baked months in advance so that would take some of the pressure off. But I still wanted it to look a bit fancy so on Saturday I attended a cake decorating class with my mum and aunt to learn how to make sugar roses.

We started with a tear drop of icing and just started adding petals.

They shape up quite quick,

It can be fiddly and you have to remember to do things in the right order,

I was super pleased with how they came out, a little direction goes a long way.

Also had a quick bash at buttercream roses, they are crazy easy when you know how and have the right tools.

What do you think? Not bad for a first attempt.

We took the class at Dee's Creative Cakes she does do scheduled classed, but you can also book in for a private class if there is something specific you want to do, like we did.

Mince Pie Popcorn

The best thing about Christmas for me is over indulging in all the sweet treats I can possibly handle. 

Thanks to Kirsty Allsop, I decided to add mince pie popcorn to my list this year. 

It was super simple to make, just pop your corn, a couple of dollops of mince meat. Mix it up with your hands so all the popcorn gets covered. 

Then you put it in a tray in a 200 degree oven for about 10 minutes to dry it out and crisp up. That's it. 

So easy to make and even better to share. Enjoy.