Christmas Bark

I love reading Karen Cheng's blog and especially love it when she post simple and creative recipes on her blog. This christmas bark is adapted from her blog: http://www.karencheng.com.au/2013/11/27/amazing-chocolate-bark/

I like to call it Christmas bark as it has all the nice bright colors to match the festive season and also, it was part of a lazy attempt to get easy dessert out for our Christmas lunch.

Ingredients:

- 1 packet of Malt and Milk biscuits from Arnotts.

- Pretzels

- Oreos cookies

- Lollies

- Pistachio nuts, lightly pounded into small pieces

- Chocolate chips

- M & M

- 1 bar of baking chocolate (melted)

Method:

1. Melt chocolate bar in microwave in 30 seconds interval. I manage to melt my chocolate within 60 seconds

2. Line a rectangle tray with foil and arrange the biscuits nicely on the tray

3. Pour the melted chocolate over the biscuits and then start decorating

4. You can put any yummy goodies you like in this bark. I just make used of all our leftover candies, biscuits and nuts. The more salty items the better it tastes.

5. After decorating, place in the fridge overnight for it to set.

6. Just break it into pieces to eat. The kids will enjoy this colorful, fun dish.

These are the stuff I used for my Christmas bark. You do not need alot, just small bowls of each treat as the bark can get really heavy with all the toppings.

 2 trays of biscuits

 

All done. Easy peasy

M & M Birthday Cake

Another milestone for the family. Cake recipe adapted from:
http://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/best-chocolate-cake-ever/

Butter cream recipe also adapted from the same site:
http://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/buttercream-cupcake-frosting-recipes/

Chocolate Cake Ingredients:
200g (7.05 ounces) 70% cocoa dark chocolate, I used Plainstowe Chocolate bars.
320gms Butter
8 eggs
2 1/4 cups caster sugar
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder, I used Plainstowe dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:
1. Melt chocolate bar and butter in microwave. Check every 30 seconds to ensure all ingredients are melted nicely. Place aside for it to cool

2. Whisk egg and sugar together. Thermomix Speed 4, 5 seconds
 
3. Combined egg and chocolate mixture from Step 1. I used Speed 4 for 10-15 seconds. 
4. Sift the dry ingredients, Flour, Cocoa powder and baking powder

5. Mix in the dry ingredients in the wet ones. I used the same Thermomix settings and just stop when all ingredients are nicely incorporated.
6. I distribute the mixture between 2 round 9 inch baking tins. Baked this for 20 minutes at 160C



Butter cream Ingredients:

120g (4.23 ounces) butter
1 1/3 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder, i used the same Plainstowe powder as the cake.
1-2 tsp milk

Iced the cake when it is cooled.

For decorations, i used Cadbury chocolate fingers ( 3 packets), 4 packets of M & Ms. Just lined the chocolate fingers around the cake and then decorate as you like for the top of the cake.