Santa cupcakes

I had a can of condensed milk in the pantry. It was one of those cans my mum randomly hands over and says, "Take this, you might be able to use it". O.K. then.

Combine that can with looking at my christmas board on Pinterest and we(me and Izzy) made some santa cupcakes with strawberries and  cream. I don't own a piping bag, so a freezer bag with a small hole sniped out of the corner did the job with the cream.

Chocolate cupcakes using a 395 gram can of condensed milk.

150 gr margarine

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs (I used one duck egg)

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1 and a half cups SR Flour

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180 deg/160 degrees fan forced.

Beat butter and condensed milk until light and creamy.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Stir in flour and cocoa, alternately with milk.

Spoon into patty pans and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Icing

2 tablespoons condensed milk

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Combine until smooth. If it is a bit stiff, add a few drops of hot water at a time to get it to a spreadable consistency, a bit like nutella.

I had to admit, it was the best tasting cake mix I have ever tasted!

My pantry is full of pegs, even the freezer!

 The santas were put on iced normal sized cupcakes. The top 'hat' sliced off the strawberry and then a bit of cream piped on and then the hat put back on top with a pom pom of cream. Chia seeds for eyes.

These were whole strawberries placed on mini cupcakes taken out of the case. Cream piped around the base of the strawberry and a pom pom on top.

Aren't these the cutest christmas cupcakes you have ever seen?

Have you got your christmas baking on yet?

Do you use pegs to keep stuff closed?

Mini grapefruit cheesecakes

My dear old Dad is retired now. He likes to go on short walks a couple of times a day. While on one of his walks he noticed a tree laden with fruit, asking the lady who owned the tree if he could pick some, he hurried home to get his wheelbarrow.

He was proud of punch when Mum came home, "Look at all these big lemons I got". Mum had a look, only to shake her head and wonder what she was going to do with all those grapefruit.

Mum googled and started the grapefruit diet, I took one home out of curiosity, I always like to try new things. It sat on my kitchen bench, and probably would have perished. 

Good thing I came across a cute little cheesecake recipe in an old magazine, and I didn't mind eating the rest here and there. It's actually not too bad in small doses. 

The original recipe used lemon rind and juice, and you could substitute that instead of the grapefruit I used.
I used a 6 large muffin tin and about 8 spaces of a smaller 12 muffin tin, with large muffin cases. 

A packet of gingernut biscuits
85 gram pkt lemon jelly crystals
1 teaspoon grapefruit rind and 2 tablespoons juice
250 grams cream cheese
2 tablespoons caster sugar

Place a biscuit in the bottom of the muffin cases.
Combine 2 tablespoons of the jelly crystals with a quarter cup of boiling water, mix in rind and juice and sit in the fridge to cool.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Gradually add the lemon jelly, rind and juice mix, beating well between each addition until smooth and thick. 

Spoon over biscuit bases and smooth tops. Refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight. 

Hot tip: Be careful not to separate the cream cheese mix from the muffin cases around the edges as the jelly will not set on the top, it will seep through to the bottom of case.

Mix remaining jelly crystals with 2/3 cup of boiling water, and place in fridge. When cool, pour over cheesecakes and let set for at least 30 minutes.

There may be not enough jelly to do them all, I decorated some with grated chocolate or strawberries.