Tip of the Day 13 February 2010

Valentine's Day Treats You Can Make With Your Kids

When kids are first introduced to Valentine’s Day it is by their parents. They are told that it is a day to show those we love how we feel about them.

These days Valentine’s Day is a day for treats as well as expressions of love. So skip the commercial hype and show your love and affection by spending time with the kids (or grandkids) and make some special sweet treats with them. Here are two ideas for making biscuits and cupcakes that ooze with love and fresh baked goodness.

Heart shaped cookie cutters will turn regular biscuits into creations of love. Kids don’t only like hearts. Let them experiment with other shapes in the cookie cutter arsenal if they want to. They can even design shapes of their own with the dough pieces that are too small to cut.

Cupcakes are much the same way. Make little heart shaped cupcakes by putting a marble or large bead between the filled patty pan and the cake tin. The marble pushes the cake mixture in, making a little indentation that forms the heart shape. Decorate with white icing and red jelly crystals or pink icing and sprinkles.

Biscuits and cupcakes can get a nice makeover for Valentine’s Day to help reflect the good feelings of the holiday as well as create great family togetherness.

Basic Butter Biscuits
Ingredients:
250g butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar mixture
2 1/2 cups plain flour

Method:
Beat butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Transfer to large bowl.  Stir in the flour, in two batches.  Knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide dough in half and roll each half into a 25cm log. Wrap in clingwrap and  refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Roll dough out to 1cm thick. Cut into shapes with floured cookie cutters. Place biscuits on greased oven trays 2cm apart. Bake, uncovered, about 10 minutess or until browned lightly. Turn cookies onto wire rack to cool.

The Worlds Easiest Cup cakes
Ingredients:
1 cup cream and
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cups SR flour
2 eggs

Method:
Combine cream and sugar. Beat into flour. Light  beat eggs and stir into mixture.  Spoon into patty pans and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes.