Candy Cane Fudge

This fudge is a delightfully festive looking treat for the holidays! It is easy to make, can be made by children and makes a great homemade gift for the neighbors and your kids' teachers. It is a twist on my original Quick Fudge recipe.

 Ingredients

2 cups white chocolate chips or 450g white chocolate
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
10 to 12 candy canes

Directions

Crush candy canes into very small broken pieces. (A mortar and pestle work great for this, or just put them in a seal-able storage and roll a rolling pin over it several times.)

In large glass measuring cup, combine white chocolate  and sweetened condensed milk.

Microwave on high 3 minutes.

Stir until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth.

Stir in vanilla extract.

Stir in 2/3 of the crushed candy canes.

Spread evenly into foil-lined 8-inch square pan.

Sprinkle remaining crushed candy canes over the top.

Chill until firm, about 2 hours. Makes about 1 1/4 pounds fudge.


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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

This is simple to make, does not require the use of an oven (only a microwave) and kids will love it!


Ingredients:


1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/4 cup sugar
mini cupcake papers



Directions:

1. Mix the peanut butter, butter and sugar in a bowl and set aside.

2. Melt the chocolate in a mug by placing it in the microwave for 2 minutes, stopping the microwave to stir the chocolate half-way through.

3. When the chocolate is soft and fully melted, place a teaspoon into each mini cupcake paper and spread across the bottom.

4. Place a small amount of the peanut butter mixture in the center fo the chocolate in each mini cupcake holder.

5. Cover the peanut bitter with more of the melted chocolate.

6. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer.

7. Enjoy!





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Easy Banana Bread

This recipe only takes 5 minutes to prepare before baking. Adults will need to put the mixture into the oven and remove it from the oven, but children can do all of the measuring and mixing themselves.

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour


Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

2. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

3. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla.

4. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.

5. Add the flour last and mix.

6. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan.

7. Bake for 1 hour.

8. Cool on a rack.

9. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Enjoy!


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Rock Cakes

My husband grew up having these as a special treat. So today, he brought the kids into the kitchen and taught them how to make these fruity rock cakes.



Serves 12.

Ingredients

225g plain flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
110g butter or margarine
110g mixed dried fruit
55g raisins
55g caster sugar
1 medium egg
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp milk
demerera sugar for dusting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200C (180C for fan-assisted ovens) or 400F.

2. line or grease baking tray.

3. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl.

4. Add the fruit, raisins, sugar and egg and mix well.

5. Mix in two tablespoons of milk.

6. Spoon 12 large spoonfuls on the tray or trays, spearating by about 1 1/2 inches form each other.

7. Sprinkle the tops with demerera sugar.

8. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool for 5 minutes after removing from the oven.

Serve and enjoy!

Make sure the parent or adult operates the oven and places in and removes the cakes from the oven for safety.





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Reduced Sugar Belgian Chocolate Truffles

These are delicious and decadent tasting smooth and creamy chocolate truffles.

The version noted here for is Belgian chocolate, but these could just as easily be made in any flavor, from simple mint chocolate to toffee chocolate or orange chocolate, depending on which flavor of Options or Skinny Cow sachet is used.

These are very easy to make and don't require any actual cooking other than a minute's use of the microwave, so kids can easily make these!

(The next time I make these, I will add a photo to this post.)

Makes 20

Ingredients

50g Dark Chocolate
113g Quark
6 tbsp sweetener
2 sachets of Belgian Chocolate flavor Options
1 tsp Cocoa to dust (1/2 syn per tsp)

Directions

1. Melt chocolate in microwave for 1 minute

2. Beat Quark with sweetener until creamy. Add melted chocolate and mix well.

3. Add the Options sachets and mix well.

4. Make into 20 blobs using a teaspoon and put on greaseproof paper or wax paper.

5. Put into the fridge to harden for about two hours.

6. Remove from the fridge and shape into balls.

7. Roll in cocoa powder and set in the fridge overnight.

8. Serve and enjoy!


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Quick Saint Patrick's Day Cookies

I had not planned anything special for St. Patrick's Day this year even though I usually do. So when today arrived, I knew I needed to do something quick.

My kids loved making and eating these green cookies. They were fascinated with the fact that the cookies and frosting were actually green.



Makes 12 cookies.

Ingredients

1/2 cup soft margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
1 medium egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp green food coloring
2 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
Fry Light or other oil spray
decorative sprinkles (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F.

2. Mix the butter, sugar, egg, 1/2 the green food coloring and 1/2 of the vanilla extract together in a bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and baking powder together.

4. Mix the two bowls together by pouring the flour mixture into the other bowl and combining with a spoon until thoroughly mixed.

5. Spray a baking tray with Fry Light or other oil spray.

6. Put spoonfuls of mixture onto try, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between each.

7. Bake in the oven for 8 to 12 minutes.

8. While the cookies are baking, mix the milk, powdered sugar, the rest of the vanilla extract and the rest of the green food coloring in a bowl together. (If the mixture is too thin, add more powdered sugar until you get the desired consistency.)

9. Remove cookies from oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes.

10. Once the cookies have cooled, pour the frosting mixture over the cookies. Add sprinkles if desired and then leave to sit for another 15 minutes.

Enjoy!













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Chocolate Spoons

These are incredibly easy to make and can be used as they are for a sweet chocolate lollipop or to stir into hot chocolate or for stirring coffee to add a bit of chocolate to it.

Ingredients

2 cups milk chocolate chips
plastic spoons
decorations (sprinkles)

Directions

Put the chocolate chips in a microwave safe mug and microwave for one minute.

Mix the melted chocolate chips until smooth and creamy.

Dip plastic spoons into the mug until the mouth of them is covered in chocolate. Tap on the side of to get any excess chocolate off each spoon.
Lay the spoons face down on wax paper/grease-proof paper and let cool until the chocolate hardens.

Sprinkle the cake decorations over both sides of the spoons.

There is also the option of making the spoons without any colorful cake decorations. The decorations just make the spoons more festive in appearance.



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