Oat Choc Chip Slice (with Olive Oil)

Baking day today and needed something for the kid's lunch boxes. Emelia is such a fuss pot and won't eat dried fruit so it has to be pretty basic and at least a little bit healthy. No nut policy exists at both School and Kindergarten so no nuts either.

This was a recipe I found on the Simple Savings Forum but I substituted the 125gm butter with 125gm of Olive Oil. Fat is fat and I'm not sure it's any healthier but it still produced a lovely golden slice with a crunchy texture. Got the seal of approval from the kids so that's the main thing.

Oat Choc Chip Slice (with Olive Oil)

1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup coconut
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup choc chips
1 tsp vanilla
125gms olive oil
1 egg, lightly whisked

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a slice tin with baking paper.

Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the oats, coconut, sugar, and choc chips, stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and add the vanilla, olive oil and egg. Stir well. Scoop mixture into pan and smooth the surface.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown and firm to touch. Set aside to cool.

Red Velvet Cake, finally!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

So, what's the big deal with Red Velvet Cake? Just about every American blog I've ever read all mentions Red Velvet Cake. My curiosity got the better of me and I decided to do this recipe from here which is Australian so has ingredients and measurements that we're used to.

It was a lovely, light, moist cake but just basically a chocolate cake but coloured red. I'm not sure that my kids need any more artificial ingredients in their diet so I probably won't make it again. The cream cheese icing was an unusal, but nice, topping. Something I usually only save for Carrot Cake. Wikipedia says:

"James Beard's 1972 reference American Cookery^[2] describes three red velvet cakes varying in the amounts of shortening and butter. All use red food coloring, but the reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to better reveal the red anthocyanin in the cocoa. Before more alkaline "Dutch Processed" cocoa was widely available, the red color would have been more pronounced. This natural tinting may have been the source for the name "Red Velvet" as well as "Devil's Food" and similar names for chocolate cakes.^[3][1] While foods were rationed during World War II, bakers used boiled beets to enhance the color of their cakes. Boiled grated beets or beet baby food are found in some red velvet cake recipes, where they also serve to retain moisture.

In Canada the cake was a well-known dessert in the restaurants and bakeries of the Eaton's department store chain in the 1940s and 1950s. Promoted as an exclusive Eaton's recipe, with employees who knew the recipe sworn to silence, many mistakenly believed the cake to be the invention of the department store matriarch, Lady Eaton.^[4]

A resurgence in the popularity of this cake is partly attributed to the 1989 film Steel Magnolias in which the groom's cake (a southern tradition) is a red velvet cake made in the shape of an armadillo.^[1]"

Love is in the air!

After a lot of umming and ahhhing, I've decided to create a blog devoted to domesticated bliss, or trying to create domesticated bliss. I've kept my old blog private and copied over previous entries relating to food, craft and organising to this blog. I copped a bit of flack from family for 'putting it out there' in blog world in relation to the kids, so hopefully this will keep everyone happy.

I can't believe this will be my first post for February. It's been so busy, so hot and a birthday month for me. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day (well, not really - I get kind of sad if I don't get anything), but received a single red rose, a beautiful card and a small box of Belgian chocolates from my husband. I decided to give the kids a handmade card with a small heart shaped chocolate and I went a bit crazy with plain chocolate cupcakes for their afternoon tea when they came home from school and Kindergarten. They loved it.