Melt in your mouth jam sandwich biscuits...

There is something so insanely comforting about a jam sandwich biscuit. It's such an old school biscuit that believe me, something that has been around that long, has to tickle your taste buds. So, let's not try for a second to imagine that biscuits in a packet are going to taste anything like the ones you can make from scratch. The only real fiddley bit in making your own is the actually assembly of the biscuits. However, once I had a method to the madness it moved along quite easily.
So, first you start with your shortbread - 1 cup butter creamed with 1/2 cup icing sugar, then add a teaspoon of good vanilla extract, finally 2 cups plain flour. Mix until it comes together, shape into a disc and refrigerate for an hour. Once chilled, roll out and use your cutters to get as many biscuits as you can. Use smaller cutters to cut out centre pieces. Bake for 10 minutes. Once cooled, spread jam on the full biscuits. Sprinkle the cut out biscuit with icing sugar and sandwich on top. Devour shamelessly! Taking comfort in each bite...one is never enough!

kek batik...

so this is batik...indonesia's famous fabric designs that they are very proud of...

and this...

is kek batik or batik cake...which i am very proud of...

and no, it wasn't baked in my antique oven...i seem to be having a bit of a blockage with the oven for the moment and found out about this delightful cake when i was in Singapore recently. a friend had it at their house for Hari Raya and when i tasted it i fell instantly in love with the taste, flavour, the whole deal...the cake was very chocolately, with a fudgey-cake like consistency and yet the sweetness of the biscuits mixed in there too. a perfect combination! so when i got back to Bali i had a search on the internet and found a few recipes and decided to just take my chances, pick one and hope for the best. making the cake was easy. it's all done on the stove top - eggs, butter, sugar, milo, cocoa, condensed milk and vanilla extract. then when you reach the right consistency you mix in the broken up biscuits, put it in a baking tin and stick it in the fridge overnight. i was worried that it wouldn't set and firm up properly. but it set wonderfully and was easy to slice too. i made this for a get-together at a friend's place and it went down a treat. seconds all round and lots of lip licking and tongue smacking! oh, the joy to be able to add another no-bake to my repertoire!

an absolute MUST to make and try yourself!

millionaire's cupcakes!

ok, so i'm a BIG fan of millionaire's shortbread. they sell it in the shops here and it's basically a biscuit/shortbread base, layer of toffee, layer of chocolate. it is so good! i could sit and eat square after square with no thought of expanding waistline because the sheer pleasure in the eating eradicates any other negative thoughts.

so i thought i'd like to try and recreate it in cupcake form hence millionaire's cupcakes! i figured a thin layer of biscuit base, then a vanilla cupcake on top with more bits of biscuit in it, then some homemade toffee popped into the middle of the cupcake and finally a nice topping of melted chocolate! perfect!

for the biscuits i used a mixture of ginger snaps and oatmeal biscuits, because i wanted the hint of gingery taste and also the chewy consistency of the oatmeal. i pressed the ground up biscuits mixed with melted butter into the bottom of each cupcake. the batter was pretty straight forward but i liked the addition of some more ground up biscuits in there. while these were baking in the oven, i started on the toffee.

hmmm, the toffee...there was a moment when i thought it was all going to end in disaster. i decided on making the toffee myself this time, rather than using pre-bought stuff. i figured that since i use toffee quite a lot i might as well figure out how to make it. well, when i loaded everything into the saucepan and put it on the heat, everything started bubbling up and getting really hot and splashing everywhere. i got a few burns courtesy of said toffee but it was worth it in the end because after it seeming to stay thin and runny for ages, it finally began to thicken up. after leaving it to cool it was nice and thick and the perfect consistency. phew!

everything came together nicely. once the cupcakes had cooled, using the cone method, i made some space in each cupcake and filled it with the thick toffee. replaced the lid and topped it with the melted chocolate and a marshmallow. i was hoping the chocolate would set...but strangely it didn't...mind you, i haven't checked them in awhile so maybe it has by now.

then came the taste-test...obviously these cupcakes had a lot to live up to as i have had more than my fair share of millionaire's shortbread and might be somewhat of a connoisseur on the delight! but yes, these lovely little creations completely passed the test. the biscuit base was lovely and moist and not hard and crunchy. the mild gingery taste was there and the oatmeal provided a little more texture which was good. the cupcake was moist and the toffee simply lovely - thick and creamy. the chocolate topping (although not at this point set) was perfect. all in all a very pleasing re-creation of a favourite treat.

Recipe

Base
8 oatmeal biscuits, ground up
8 ginger snaps, ground up
1/4 c. melted butter

mix the butter and biscuits together and then put one heaped tablespoon into each cupcake case. press down to form a thin base.

Cupcake
1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 c. plain flour
1 t. baking powder
1/3 c. ground biscuits
1/8 t. salt
2/3 c. milk
1 t. vanilla extract

mix together flour, baking powder, salt and ground biscuits. set aside.
beat butter in a mixer until soft. add sugar and beat until fluffy.
add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
add flour mix alternately with milk and vanilla extract mix in three additions, finishing with the flour mix.
pop into cupcake cases and bake for 25 minutes.
let cool on a wire rack.

Toffee filling
175g butter
175g caster sugar
1 can condensed milk
4 T. golden syrup

put the ingredients in a saucepan and heat over a low heat until butter melts. turn up the heat and bubble mix for 5-8 minutes until it has turned a golden brown and consistency is thick and fudge-like. leave to cool.

Topping
bar of plain chocolate, melted

Assembly
cut a cone in the top of each cupcake and remove some extra cake. fill with toffee mix and replace lid of cupcake. top with melted chocolate and marshmallow.
devour shamelessly!

*update*
the chocolate did set and i managed to snag a few pics of one of the last remaining cupcakes....

i've also decided to enter this for a blog event i found...Original Recipes : Culinarty Round-Up as this is my very own translation of a popular recipe to cupcake form!