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Sabtu, 22 Februari 2014

Vanilla and Coconut Cake for Tea Time Treats

It was my mother-in-laws birthday on Sunday. I know that she loves coconut, so I made this Vanilla and Coconut Cake, a recipe by Lynn Hill, from the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook. I reviewed The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook in February and didnt even mention this cake! However, a quick search through the index for coconut and I came upon this simple but effective cake. I cant print the recipe as it is copyright, but its a butter sponge with added desiccated coconut and vanilla extract. Filled with a layer of jam and vanilla buttercream, with some more buttercream on the top and finally sprinkled with toasted coconut. It was totally delicious and went down well with the oldest: mother-in-law to youngest: our 2 year old grandson.

Over at Tea Time Treats, the blog event run by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked, Kate is hosting this month and has picked Layer Cakes as the theme. I know I should probably try harder and go for multi-layers but two layers is allowed and as I am desperate to share this cake with you, this seems like the perfect opportunity!

I can thoroughly recommend The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook, its a positive cornucopia of proper cakes. Now its my sister-in-laws birthday this weekend...

Minggu, 09 Februari 2014

DOG REWARD TREATS

Ive been making this reward treat for our dog Chloe for 8 years and she loves them. As a matter of fact, when they are baking, she positions herself in front of the oven and waits "patiently".....well, theres only a LITTLE bit of drooling!!

If you want to make your dog very happy, bake up a batch of these "puppy treats". They are super easy to make and bake up hard and crunchy(they will "keep" forever, much like a commercial milk bone, but tastier).

Since Chloe isnt a BIG dog, I bake little treats, just the right size for her; if you have a big dog, you can cut them bigger.

Another reason WE love giving our dog these treats is that they dont cause the "gas" that many commercial treats cause.

2½ cups whole wheat flour (white flour will work too)

1/3 cup bacon grease (see note below)
1 egg
½ to ¾ cup milk (see update note)
1 teaspoon garlic powder (not salt)
1 teaspoon onion powder (not salt)
3 heaping teaspoons beef bullion granules

Mix everything ( using the ½ cup of milk) into a STIFF dough (stand mixer works best). Beat until it comes together in a smooth ball. All flour is different, so if the dough seems dry and won‘t hold together in a smooth ball, just start adding the other ¼ cup of milk (one tablespoon at a time) until it holds together in a nice moist (but not sticky) ball (the dough texture should feel like freshly kneaded Play Doh).

Roll the dough into ropes about ½” in diameter. Cut the ropes into small pieces and put on an UNgreased cookie sheet (try to spread the pieces out; its ok if they get sort of close to each other, but just make sure they are in a single layer.

Bake at 350° for 40 minutes; remove the pan from oven and shake the pan a little (the pieces should slide around easily). Cool the treats right on the pan. When the treats cool, they will be as dense and hard as a commercial milk bone treat; your dog will thank you!!!

NOTE: This recipe calls for 1/3 cup of bacon fat, sounds like a lot, but the recipe makes a LOT of treats. If you dont have bacon fat, peanut butter works well too.

NOTE: We keep Chloes treats in a large peanut butter jar. We often find her staring at the jar, lol!!

UPDATE: Our dog had developed problems when eating anything dairy, so Ive been making these, lately, with water instead of the milk, and she doesnt seem to notice any difference.