Jelly Crystal Meringues

These are a super easy treat that are quick to whip up, even if, as per normal meringues, they take a while to cook.  Using jelly crystals means they are flavoured differently depending on what flavour you pick.  







INGREDIENTS
3 egg whites (size 8s preferably, use 4 eggs if smaller).
1/2 c caster sugar
1 packet of jelly crystals

METHOD
Combine the sugar and the jelly crystals until well combined.  In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peak.  Once this stage is reached, slowly add the sugar/crystal combination a table spoon at time, ensuring that each addition is well mixed into the egg whites.  Once it is all combined, keep mixing for a further two minutes, ensuring well combined.

Line a tray with baking paper and pipe the meringue onto it.  Bake at 120 °C for 40 - 50 minutes depending on your oven. They don't need much cooling, are good to go practically straight away.

I have baked this as a whole like a pavlova, and it came out just fine.  Be aware that due to the gelatin in the jelly, the middle is a different consistency to a normal pav, it is more chewy, but it still has that delightful crust.  Actually it has MORE of that deliciousness, which is my favourite part.

Stegosaurus birthday cake

I made this Stegosaurus cake for my sons 5th birthday, inspired by a photo I saw on pinterest.  Link

I started out with a 20cm chocolate cake iced green buttercream, luckily it baked with a lopsided top as this worked well for the stegosaurus body.

Used a template from google images and traced around the template onto coloured card for head, tail and spikes.  Then just pushed cardboard spikes into icing.

A very quick and easy cake, think of all the other possibilities of cake and cardboard you could do :-)

Kate

Slow Cooker Fudge

Found a recipe for Chocolate Fudge in the slow cooker on Pinterest the other day and thought it seemed like a good idea. Not bad I guess, but I'm actually not sure why you would do it as melting chocolate isn't really that big of a deal.

Here's the original recipe:

• Slow Cooker Fudge

I didn't have honey so used maple syrup, and I also used coconut cream instead of coconut milk and neither change seemed to matter.

The chocolate tastes slightly burnt even though I turned the slow cooker off 10mins early, which was annoying as using the slow cooker was supposed to prevent burning. I reckon the recipe would work perfectly fine if you did the first step in the microwave or in a pot instead. Much faster too.

It only took about an hour to cool down, and an hour to set in the fridge. No idea why it took so long for the person who wrote the original recipe!

Anyway, it still tastes alright so not a complete fail. I'm still thankful that I have fudge to eat tonight!

Nic xx