Sleep-Over Snickerdoodles

As mentioned, Favourite Niece was having a sleep-over with 2 of her friends and I made them some Valentine Heart Biscuits, I also made them up a batch of Snickerdoodles as Chloe absolutely loves them. If you have never had them before I urge you to bake a batch, as Chloe describes them they are like little pieces of cakey loveliness!!  They are a sort of a cross between a biscuit and a cake with a lovely cinnamon flavour to them and they are soooooo moorish, once you have one you want another, and then another........and oh go on then, just one more.......

She announced that they would keep them until midnight and eat them then and that it was ok she didn't want her Mum to keep them safe as she was going to put them underneath her bed where she kept her midnight snacks! (cue a worried look on my sister face as she began to wonder what other food was under her bed!).

The recipe for them is mentioned in an earlier post (called, ahem, Snickerdoodles!)

Melting Moments & Valentine Hearts

For Mrs Shorts get-together I also whipped up a batch of Melting Moment biscuits.  I had seen the recipe on the Hairy Bikers programme the other week and quickly jotted down the very easy recipe:

250g Plain flour
250g butter
50g corn flour
50g icing sugar
1/2 tsp good vanilla extract

Blend everything in a mixer until it reaches a dough-like consistency.  I then placed in the fridge for 15 mins to chill so the mixture was easier to handle.  I drew circles on some baking parchment (evenly spaced I got 16 on) and then rolled in my hands small pieces of the dough to form balls.  I then placed on the baking sheet and pressed down to fill the circle.  It makes it easier to sandwich the biscuits together if they are roughly the same size.

Bake in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes at 180°C until they are a pale golden colour.  Once out of the oven leave for a few minutes on the tray and then with a palette knife transfer onto a cooling rack good side faced down (easier to fill as you are then not handling the biscuits too much as they are crumbly!).

Once cooled I spread some seedless raspberry jam on one biscuit and piped a small splodge of the lemon buttercream I had left over from Mrs Short's cupcakes onto another biscuit and sandwiched them together and then dusted with icing sugar.

This mixture made 30 individual biscuits or 15 sandwiched together ones.

They proved to be a popular hit!  The biscuit was nice and crumbly in texture but still had a bite to it and the lemon buttercream offset the raspberry jam very well.  Maximum results for minimum effort - marvellous!!

They were so nice I decided to do some in honour of Valentines Day and used a heart cutter to cut out the dough (note, roll the mixture out in small batches on a well floured surface or it will stick like hell!).  My niece was having a sleep-over with her friends so I made them some for their 'midnight snack'.  I sandwiched these together with a chocolate buttercream with a bit of nutty chocolate spread mixed in......mmmmmm!!  Chief Taster also got some along with a bag of Snickerdoodles which kept her happy!

Monster Biscuits

'Favourite Ne ice in the World' needed some biscuits that had been decorated to enter into a competition last weekend.  So I quickly bought some cookies from Sainsbury's and decided to do so monster biscuits with the icing that was left over from the monster cupcakes.

As I had only done 3 instead of the 4 biscuits needed (it was a long baking night!) when Grandma brought her round in the morning to collect them, she quickly decorated one herself to make up the 4.

She (or I?!) won the competition and received a bag of minstrels for her prize, of which I have not seen any of them!!  Hmmmm, will be having words I think!!

Little Girls Day Out

Favourite Niece in the World rang up the other week and told me that she had a cake order for me.  When asked what it was she told me that she would like a couple of bags of Snickerdoodles and some cake pops!!  Well, cake pops are a no go at the moment as I just find them very fiddly to do so I would rather not bother, so I persuaded her to have cupcakes instead.  She told me that her and her little friend Harika were going on a day out and they would like some treats!

As my payment for all these treats, she would come and stay at my house for the weekend.  Hmm, have I got the rough end of the deal here I wonder??!!!

She enjoyed the day out and they even shared with their mums!!

So here are Chloe & Harika's treats for their day out....

Snickerdoodles!

My 7 year old Niece, Chloe loves Snickerdoodles.  Fact.  She would eat the entire batch if you let her.   She was going to Yorkshire with her mum and her friend Harika and her mum Cassie and Chloe put in a request for some Snickerdoodles - "for her journey".  She said I could make her 6 and Harika 6 and when asked well what are you going to do if Harika doesn't like them, she replied "don't worry, I will eat her's for her"!  She paid for her 12 with kisses, a special deal only given to Niece's!!


Chloe describes them as 'little pieces of cakey loveliness' and I think she is right!  If you have never tried them, give them ago, they are so easy to make and delicious.....be warned though, they are very, very moorish.....one is not quite enough as Jess (taster) found out....her text message read 'mmmmmmmmm very nice with a cup of tea' and when asked how many she had had, her answer was 3....one after the other!


They are a mixture between a biscuit & a cake with buttery cinnamon & nutmeg flavours running through.  They are just yummy and a batch of them never lasts long.....well not in my house anyway, and as Jess said, they are just perfect with a cup of tea!


Snickerdoodles
Makes about 30 biscuits

Ingredients125g butter, softened
110g caster sugar, plus 1 dessertspoon extra, for rolling
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g plain flour
½ tsp  nutmeg
¾ tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 dessertspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180oC/350oF/Gas mark 4.

Cream the butter in a large bowl or in an electric food mixer until soft. Add the 110g caster sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until combined.

Sift in the flour, nutmeg, baking powder and salt and gently mix together to form a dough.

Mix the dessertspoon of sugar and the cinnamon together in a medium-sized bowl. Using your hands, roll the dough into walnut-sized balls then roll in the sugar and cinnamon mixture and place on two baking trays (no need to grease or line), each ball spaced about 3cm/1 ¼ in apart. Flatten them down with the palm of your hands.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until they feel firm around the edges.
Allow to stand for 2 minutes on the baking trays, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool.