Delicious Crunchy Honey Joy Recipe – Cute Food

by VioletLeBeaux | Aug 1, 2014 | Baking, Cooking-Tutorials, Tutorial

Another yummy recipe from my childhood! Today we’re going to make Honey Joys ^_^

Out of all of the childhood foods I’ve been eating lately, these are definitely my favourite. They are sweet without being too sweet and they are crazy cheap to make.

For this tutorial you will need:

4 cups of corn flakes
1 tablespoon of honey
1/3 cup of sugar
100g of butter

You will need a bunch of these little cupcake wrappers. Mine are extra tiny because they are for holding chocolates.

Preheat your oven to 150C.

To begin with, melt the butter, sugar and honey together in a pan

Heat it until it start to bubble. Make sure you keep mixing so it doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom.

Add in the corn flakes and mix thoroughly so they are totally coated.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake wrappers. I like to heap them so they are nice and tall.

Bake them in the oven for around 5-10 minutes depending on your oven. You don’t want to burn them, just heat them enough so the liquid gets into the corn flakes.

Now allow them to cool and then pop them in the fridge to store… or eat them all straight away >_>

Yum!

Enjoy! They won’t be around for very long!

I like to make them a little bit fancier by dusting them in some edible glitter. You could also add some sprinkles or cachous for more sparkles.

Let me know if you give it a try, they are so yummy!

Lunch Time Spring Bento – Cute Food

by VioletLeBeaux | Jul 18, 2014 | Baking, Cooking-Tutorials, Tutorial

Spending more time thinking about my food is something I’ve been trying to do with my whole Lazy Inspiration thing but I tend to only gravitate towards cute sweet foods rather than savoury things too. It’s really stupid because I actually don’t like that much sweet food, I prefer savoury in general -_-‘

One thing I’ve been trying to get into the habit of is having better lunches. When I’m working I tend to just forget to have lunch or if I do have lunch it’s something quick, easy and terrible like reheated pasta nonsense.

I want to be a bit healthier and have more variety in my diet now so I’m trying to have more bentos for lunch. I find that having a set number of spaces makes me think about what I’m going to eat and fill each one accordingly!

So this is a totally random one I put together for lunch a few days ago. I bought this Hello Kitty box from a random import shop in Brisbane years ago but I never really used it much until I started this.

Inside it has two big spaces and 3 small ones. I aim to have one big main food, one big salad and the small ones are for sweet things, fruit and sauces.

These were left over things I just scrounged out of the fridge.

I set an egg to soft boil while I was working on the other parts.

I used a rice press to make little mini onigiri with tuna and cream cheese in it.

Yum!

Next I sliced up an apple for the fruit portion.

I wanted it to be well presented so I used some icing flower cutters to cut out cheese flowers.

The only thing more beautiful than flowers: cheese.

Then it was a matter of putting things together.

Top left: Tuna onigiri
Top right: Crushed noodle, apple and soft boiled egg salad with furikake seasoning

Bottom left: Special Greek candy from Cel (YUM!!)
Bottom middle: A strawberry with cream cheese
Bottom right: Cut up apple

This is probably a quite a bit more than I would normally eat but having a good combination of reasonably healthy ingredients stops me from feeling so full and bleh in the afternoons.

Also, totally pretty and fun to make.

I thought that doing this would be more of a chore than it turned out to be. I actually really enjoy trying to find new things to put in each space.

And having cute things like the bunny soy sauce container doesn’t hurt!

So there you go! It takes a bit of effort but the amount of happiness that it brings is totally worth it! Do you have any recipes I should try and include next time??

Reliving My Childhood With Chocolate Crackles – Cute Food Recipe

by VioletLeBeaux | Jul 4, 2014 | Baking, Cooking-Tutorials, Tutorial

Cute food time! Today I’m going back in time to make chocolate crackles. This was such a staple of childhood party food and they are still delicious!

You know the stupid part about this, I spent this entire time looking at the photos, looking at the crackles, eating the crackles wondering why they didn’t look like they did when I was a kid. It was driving my crazy. Today when I’m writing up the recipe it clicks: because when I was a kid we used coco pops not freaking rice bubbles.

-________________-‘’’’’’’’ Oh my god so stupid!! But at least they tasted really good anyway so I guess you can do either.

You need:

4 cups of rice bubbles
1 cup of icing sugar
1 cup of desiccated coconut
3 tablespoons of cocoa
250g/1 stick of copha

In a bowl, mix up the icing sugar,coconut and coco powder so they are well combined.

Add in 4 cups of rice bubbles (or coco pops) and mix that through too.

Set up a bunch of cup cake wrappers ready to go because you will need to be quick in the next steps.

On the stove top, melt the copha in a pot. You can cut it up first if you want but I never bother. Don’t boil it, it just needs to be liquid.

Once it’s totally melted, pour the copha into the rice bubble mixture and stir it through.

You want it to be really evenly coated.

Spoon the warm mix into the patty cakes so they each have a bite sized amount.

Leave them on the bench to cool to room temperature then pop in the fridge to set. If you’re in a hurry just put them in the freezer.

Once they’re cold they are ready to enjoy! I like to add sprinkles or a little extra dusting of cocoa powder or even a drizzle of chocolate to the tops.

Delicious and a fun walk down memory lane, even if my memory is apparently a little fuzzy on the exact recipe!

Let me know if you make them!

Jimmy Make Danishes – Cute Manly Food

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 20, 2014 | Baking, Cooking-Tutorials, Tutorial

‘Sup ladies! It’s me, Jimmy!

When I was a just a young lad growing up deep in the heart of Texas my mom would buy these 24 packs of danishes from the Auchan Hypermarket, which from my memory was like a European-y Costco. Granted I have sustained quite a few serious head injuries and more electrocutions than I care to/could remember since then, so I may be wrong. The place that she bought them from isn’t really integral to the story, so I’m just going to move it along here before I start ranting about how there should be more buy in bulk places in Australia…which there should be.

Just imagine a bag of 24 of the most delicious assorted fruit danishes you have ever had in your life. Crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, flavours like apple cinnamon, cherry and blueberry drizzled in streams of icing sugar icing and half of them have this soft and creamy cheese filling nestled in between the fruit and pastry. Now image getting to have these fresh from the oven whenever you want for breakfast for 9 years, then you move overseas where they think a danish is a glazed apricot on a tombstone of store bought puff pastry. DISAPPOINTED!!!!!

So regular readers will know that last year Violet and I went to Europe for a work vacation and while we were staying in a little cottage on Lake Tittisee (heeheehee) in Germany they had a literal smorgasbord for breakfast! Violet and I aren’t what you would call early risers so when we got there at 10:30ish most of the food was gone but in one of the baskets there was one little solitary danish, waiting to be experienced. I quickly dove for the basket, elbowing one or two old ladies out of the way and claimed it as my own! Back at the table, my fingers trembled as I brought the pastry to my mouth and then BAM! Memories of my childhood came rushing back to me! Being late for school, watching Angry Beavers Marathons with my little brother, opening presents on Christmas morning! Then, heartbreak, I realised that this was the last one and judging by the fact that they were cleaning up, they wouldn’t be bringing out any more. I let Violet have a bite so she could taste what ambrosia tastes like, but she wasn’t impressed. I’m not going to lie, I thought about leaving her right then and there. We left Germany that day and went back to Switzerland where our breakfasts comprised mainly of cured meats, cheese and yoghurt.

And that brings us to today! Being driven mad by lack of sleep thanks to relentless nightmares of being just out of reach of sexy pastries I decided to take it upon my self to try and make my own! Also for some reason we had fruit in the house and it needed to be eaten before it spoilt.

You will need the following!

About 125-250g of cream cheese, depending on how cheesey you like your danishes
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 egg
1tsp (or capfull) of vanilla extract
Splash of lemon juice (I used lime because I didn’t have lemon and figured citrus is citrus)
1/2 tsp salt

It’s basically a runny version of a cheesecake mixture.

In a kitchen aid, cream together the cream cheese, salt and sugar.

It should look like this:

Then add the egg, lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix together.

Now prepare your fruit. I wanted two kinds of apples, sliced and diced and diced cherries.

For the diced apple, pop the wedges in a food processor.

Done!

Then add some brown sugar, white sugar, flour, lemon juice (I found half a lemon in the fridge, call me Mr. Lucky!) cinnamon and nutmeg to the sliced apple.

I made 4 different types because even if they tasted terrible they sure would look pretty! the photos should be fairly self-explanatory.

Now pipe the cheese mixture in to the centre of your store-bought puff pasty. Time for a mini rant! I see that in ‘merica you can buy all kinds of frozen pastry in all kinds of forms from all kinds of brands. One example that comes to mind is crescent dough which is freaking delicious but very time consuming to make. Here, we have NOTHING!!!! We have 6 sheets of puff pastry, 6 sheets of shortcrust pastry and sometimes pre-made frozen vol-au-vents. THAT’S BALLS!!!! Not only is the selection crap, it tastes like crap too! /rant

Now bake for about 20 minutes at 180ish centigrade! Professional, huh? I’m one of those people who sits in front of the over the whole time something is baking so I can keep an eye on things, so you know, check up on it every now and then.

Tadaa! To answer your question, no, they didn’t taste like home, but they did all get eaten! Mix some confectioners sugar with a little milk and pipe lines and swirls and maybe a giraffe fighting a t-rex on top to sweeten the pastry. You can fancy them up a little more by brushing an egg wash onto the pastry before you pop them in the oven and if you do end up icing the giraffe-dino fight send me a photo because that sounds awesome.

White Hot Chocolate Recipe – Cute Food

by VioletLeBeaux | May 30, 2014 | Baking, Cooking-Tutorials, Tutorial

Today let’s make something yummy and perfect for this time of year (in Aus anyway…) white hot chocolate!

For this recipe you will need:

White chocolate
Double cream
Milk
Milk frother is optional but awesome

Break up the white chocolate and put it in a microwave safe bowl. I used 8 piece because I loooove white chocolate.

Melt it in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time until it’s totally liquid.

Add in a large teaspoon of double cream.

Stir very vigorously until it’s smooth and it will become white chocolate ganache. Eat some… because it’s delicious!

Now let’s make it into a drink! I used my milk frother to make cappuccino foam.

The milk should be warm at this point too. If you don’t have a frother then just warm the milk on your stove or carefully in the microwave.

Put the white chocolate into your mug.

Pour in the milk a little at a time and stir until it’s combined.

Add the foam on top of that.

I was feeling fancy so I added some pink sprinkles too. That turned out to be a mistake as all they did was burst the foam and sink into the milk XD

Delicious and SO sweet!

Good luck not having cavities by the end of this one! I like to drink this with something salty and savoury like chips because it’s just that sweet. So good though!!

Hope you enjoyed the recipe and let me know if you give it a try!

Lottie’s Favorite Dog Treats Recipe

by VioletLeBeaux | May 16, 2014 | Baking, Cooking-Tutorials, Miss Lottie Pomeranian, Tutorial

Today I’ll show you guys the recipe for Lottie’s favourite dog biscuits! You can see, she will do pretty much anything for them…

I had wanted to make her treats for a long time but she wasn’t very interested in a lot of the ingredients that most of the ones I found online had. I ended up making a hybrid and adding things she loves. Obviously if your dog has dietary concerns you should adjust as needed and please do check with your vet before giving your dog anything new.