Test driving Tim Tam Brownies Recipe
Step 1. Gather the ingredients
Brownie Mix
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 pack Tim Tams
Step 2. Combine all ingredients (except Tim Tams)
- Oops! ‘Scuse fingers. No shell please
Step 3. Spread a layer of brownie goo in a pan
- Hmm…. maybe I should have used 2 packs of brownie mix
Step 4. Mmmmm Tim Tams
Wishing I’d bought 2 packs of Tim Tams. 1 and a bit for brownie testing, some for eating
Step 5. Cover with more brownie goo
It becomes rapidly apparent I needed more brownie goo, and there was going to be precious little left in the bowl for me to lick
Step 6. Cook for 30 minutes at 190C
Step 7. Lick the bowl
Yummmmmmmmo
Step 8. It’s done when a skewer comes out clean, then cool in the pan for 15 minutes
Ouch! I burned my mowf on the skewer
Step 9. Remember that you should have used baking paper to line the tin
Dammit! Wonder if I can stick it back together with the fudge?
Step 10. Try drowning it in faux cream to see if that helps
The good news is…. because it’s faux cream, logic declares it’s full of faux calories
VERDICT: Tim Tam brownies are not as nice as they sound. Apart from all the cooking problems that may have been related to my lack of skills – the chocolate melts, but the biscuits stay hard. In fact the biscuits get harder. Maybe if you crushed the biscuits up, or soaked them in something for an hour or two first… but I think you’d be better off making brownies AND having Tim Tams.
Rainbow Cake in a Jar
A couple of months ago I decided to make rainbow cake in a jar from this recipe:
As you will notice, the recipe is both straightforward and easy to follow.
In my defense however, it is done using imperial measurement units rather than the more civilized metric units used in Australia.
 
So I had to improvise a little
 
Which, in hindsight, is probably where the wheels fell off. Oops
- Firstly, I decided to use a white mud cake mix instead of a normal cake mix. Because I like chocolate
- Secondly, I chose to guess at what a pint was – and settled on “about the size of a chicken tonight jar”. Because that’s what I had in the cupboard
- Lastly, when the recipe said “lightly grease the inside of the jar” – I took that to mean “empty half a can of spray oil into the jar and swish it around a bit”. Because apparently I’m stupid
 
The lessons I learned from all of this were
1. A pint is a lot smaller than I thought it was
What a pint is:
 
 
 
 
 
What I thought a pint was:
 
2. Use something a little runnier than mud cake mix
3. Use a wide necked jar or smaller spoons
4. Food colouring stains stuff and you really don’t need as much as you think you will
5. Greasing the jars does not mean half filling the jar with oil
6. When the cake isn’t cooked after the suggested 30 mins – put it back for a little bit longer, not another 30 mins.
7. Wiping down the inside of the jars would almost certainly have been a lot easier BEFORE the cake and spray had been baked into them for an hour.
 
Food Math: Holy healthy promotional deliciousness
In honor of tomorrow the 8th March being Pancake Day, (Shrove Tuesday) and this week being National Bacon Week in Australia, here is a lovely bacon-y,banana-y, pancake-y breakfast recipe. Many thanks to Liz for sharing it with me!
Chocolate banana pancakes with bacon. YUMMO!!!
Food Math: Perfect food
What is perfect food you ask?
It’s Baconey
It’s Chocolatey
It’s Sprinkley
It’s on a Stick
It’s Chocolate Coated Bacon With Decorative Sprinkles
YUMMO
52 things to celebrate in December
1st
- Eat a Red Apple Day
- Pie Day
- World Aids Day
2nd
- National Fritters Day
- Day for the Abolition of Slavery
3rd
- Day of People with Disabilities
4th
- Wear Brown Shoes Day
- Santas List Day
5th
- Sacher Torte Day
- Volunteers Day
6th
- Gazpacho Day
7th
- Cotton Candy Day
- Pearl Harbour Day
- Civil Aviation Day
8th
- National Brownie Day
9th
- Pastry Day
- Anti-Corruption Day
10th
- Human Rights Day
11th
- National Noodle Ring Day
- International Shareware Day
12th
- International Childrens Day
13th
- Ice Cream Day
- Violin Day
- St Lucia Day
14th
- Bouillabaisse Day
15th
- Lemon Cupcake Day
16th
- Chocolate Covered Anything Day
17th
- National Maple Syrup Day
18th
- Migrants Day
19th
- Oatmeal Muffin Day
20th
- Human Solidarity Day
21st
- Hamburger Day
- French Fried Shrimp Day
- Solstice (winter in North, summer in South)
- World Peace Day
- Look on the Bright Side Day
22nd
- Date-Nut Bread Day
23rd
- Roots Day
24th
- National Egg Nog Day
- Christmas Eve
25th
- Pumpkin Pie Day
- Christmas Day
26th
- Kwanzaa
- Boxing Day
- Day of Goodwill
27th
- Fruitcake Day
28th
- Card Playing Day
29th
- Chocolate Day
30th
- Bicarbonate of Soda Day
- Oh My! Day
31st
- New Years Eve
- Make up Your Mind Day
52 things to celebrate in November
1st
- All Saints Day
- Day of the Dead (Not the Zombie Kind I Don’t Think)
2nd
- National Devilled Egg Day
- Melbourne Cup Day
3rd
- Sandwich Day
- Cliché Day
4th
- King Tut Day
- Waiting For the Barbarians Day
5th
- Bonfire Night
6th
- Book Lovers Day
7th
- Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day
8th
- Cook Something Bold Day
- Abet and Aid Punsters Day
9th
- Chaos Never Dies Day
- Young Readers Day
10th
- Science Day for Peace and Development
11th
- Armistice Day
12th
- Pizza with the Works except Anchovies Day
13th
- Indian Pudding Day
- World Kindness Day
14th
- Diabetes Day
- Loosen Up & Lighten Up Day
15th
- Clean Your Refrigerator Day
16th
- Day for Tolerance
- Remembrance Day for Victims of Road Accidents
17th
- World Peace Day
- Homemade Bread Day
18th
- Occult Day
19th
- Have A Bad Day Day
- World Toilet Day
20th
- Universal Childrens Day
- Absurdity Day
21st
- False Confession Day
- World Hello Day
22nd
- Go for a Ride Day
23rd
- National Cashew Day
24th
- Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day
- Use Even If the Seal Is Broken Day
25th
- National Parfait Day
- Eid Al Fitr
- Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
- Thanksgiving
26th
- Shopping Reminder Day
- You’re Welcome Day
27th
- Pins & Needles Day
- International Aura Awareness Day
28th
- Buy Nothing Day
29th
- Square Dance Day
- Cyber Monday
30th
- St Andrews Day
- Stay At Home Because You Are Well
- Computer Security Day
13 reasons why the chronically uncoordinated should not parachute
1. Once you’re facing the open plane door, you realise how stupid you are to think that you’re capable of exiting the plane without a far more coordinated person strapped to your back.
2. Instructors and fellow jumpers will push you out anyway and laugh as you demonstrate the completeness of your grasp on expletives, threats and other colourful phrases.
3. The graceful “belly facing down” arch you plan on making somehow turns out to be an ungainly belly up/parachute down, arms & legs flailing wildly freefall which only ends when,
4. The parachute opens from underneath your body, whips around smacking into your arm like a fourbetwo being wielded by an angry builder,
5. Before opening and pulling you instantly from a 10G freefall to a complete and sudden stop.
6. The resultant concussion combined with distraction from the pretty scenery makes you forget to look where the parachuting company guys are telling you to be,
7. Until you look down and see the barbed wire fence you’re pretty much straddling.
8. Did you know that when parachuting, like when riding a bike, what you look at is what you head towards? True fact!
9. Narrowly missing the fence, you then land in the only bit of uncleared land in the area and prepare to perform the roll which closes the parachute so it doesn’t fill with air and drag you off.
10. Unfortunately, for the chronically uncoordinated, rolling is a bit too challenging. So you just flail around a little as the parachute fills with air and drags you across the uncleared paddock.
11. As much as you’d think that logs, stumps, rocks and various shrubs would stop you. They actually don’t.
12. However, I did learn that people bounce. At least I do.
