Oh god. I first had this dessert at a wonderful gelato bar in Crows Nest called Bravo. I admit that it is not the most elegant dessert on the face of the earth but It was so delicious that an evening trip to Bravo for some gelato has become a semi regular occurrence. But alas, sometimes I am just too tired or too plain lazy to make the drive. Therefore, it has become necessary for me to be able to recreate this dessert at home.

While Bravo make their own amazing gelato, it was more convenient to get my gelato from the another amazing store: Pure Gelato which have their factory in Croydon Park. As I was in the area, I picked up a tub of chocolate gelato. It took all my willpower not to demolish it on the drive home!

Delicious! This gelato is consistently creamy, fresh and full of flavour. I highly recommend it!

I hit a few snags when making the crepes. I’m more of a pancakes kinda girl so I don’t think i’ve ever actually made crepes before. After finding a simple recipe on taste.com I cracked the frying pan out and got to it.

mmmmmm batter…

co ordinated I am not.

No one will argue with that.

But I am a fast learner!

soon I had a nice stack of crepes

(ok the one on the top was really thick but as we have already established, I am pretty lazy and this was the last bit of batter)

then all you need to do is wrap the mars bars in the crepes

times two

snug as a bug in a rug!

Then you just need to nuke them in the microwave for about 40 seconds (make sure you put the heat on medium or 50%) to make the mars bars nice and melty

Then scoop yo icecream and cover in chocolate sauce!

I used Hersheys topping

mmmmmm gooey caramel

I have to admit that before settling on this dish, I had a bit of idea overload for his blog hop. Death By Chocolate should be so easy but everything I thought of was either not chocolatey enough, or so chocolatey that I would never be able to eat it without developing diabetes right there and then. But this baby is just on the right side of decadent to make it actually eatable. Although you may fall into a sugar coma. You have been warned!

Mars Bar Crepes with Chocolate Gelato Recipe

Ingredients

2 crepes

2 normal sized mars bars

1 scoop chocolate icecream/gelato

Chocolate Sauce

Crepe Recipe

Crepe recipe from taste.com can be found here you only need two good crepes for each serving, and they don’t need to be huge, just big enough to wrap your mars bars in

Assembly

1. Wrap each mars bar in a crepe making sure that they are fully wrapped

2. Nuke them in the microwave for roughly 40 seconds at medium heat (or 50%)

3. Scoop out one scoop of icecream and place on top

4. Cover liberally with chocolate sauce

This post was part of the Death By Chocolate Sweet Adventures Blog Hop kindly hosted by The Hungry Australian

I hate being late. Considering my utter disorganisation in every other area of my life, this might seem like a strange dislike, but there you go. I don’t mind so much when other people are late, but I loathe arriving somewhere after an event has already begun or after everyone has already arrived. I would much rather get somewhere early and wait, calm and composed and relaxed.

But, alas, despite my best intentions for this post, I am several days late for the newest Sweet Adventures Blog Hop. Hopefully, this is a case of ‘better late than never’?

I love gingerbread and the way it makes the house smell like Christmas when it’s baking in the oven. I love the idea of making gingerbread houses, but I always forget how fiddly they are! Gingerbread houses are the sucker punch of baking. You get through making, chilling, rolling, cutting and baking the dough no worries. You enjoy it, the house smells nice, you sneak a bit of gingerbread dough while you’re at it and then you’re in a happy place. Until it comes time for assembly. Then BAM it all falls apart. Often literally.

I made my dough fine, thanks to the spiffy new Kitchenaid food processor

I chilled, rolled and baked fine

even the royal icing was working fine

but then my pink food colouring had mysteriously turned red (elves? i’m looking at you.)

and sliding walls necessitated impromptu scaffolding.

An engineer was consulted before lowering the roof on

Decorating supplies were gathered. And, not too long after, we had a

complete house!

An all the reindeer gathered round.

Here’s a side view. I think the world would be a better place if everyone’s guttering were made of musk sticks and lemon sherbert. Who could be cranky and late then?

This post was part of the Sweet Adventures Festive Favourites Blog Hop kindly hosted by 84th&3rd. 

Gingerbread House Recipe – Taken from the Australian Women’s Weekly Cook

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups (675g) self raising flour

3 tsps ground ginger

2 tsps ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground nutmeg

185g butter, chopped

1 cup (220g) firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup (180g) treacle (I substituted golden syrup as I had no treacle and it worked fine)

2 eggs beaten lightly

assorted lollies for decorating

Method

1. Mix flour, spice and butter in a food processor until mix is crumbly

2. Add sugar, treacle and enough egg for the mixture to just combine

3. turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth

4. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour

5. Roll out your dough to 5mm thick and cut out according to your pattern

6. Cook in the oven at 160 degrees celsius (fan forced) for 12 minutes or until they are just firm and golden

7. You will probably have excess dough so you can churn out a few trees or g-bread men if you like

8. Pipe some royal icing onto the corners of each piece in order to attach walls and roof. You may need to use some scaffolding to hold pieces in place while the icing dries. Leave undecorated house overnight to dry before decorating.

9. Secure decorations to the house by using extra royal icing

Royal Icing Recipe

Ingredients

2 egg whites

3 cups icing sugar (480g)

Method

1. Mix the egg whites lightly until foamy

2. Whisk in the icing sugar until a stiff icing is formed.

3. Decorate!

Dear Time,

Why do you move so quickly? Only yesterday it was weeks until Christmas and today I wake up to find that there are only three more sleeps! Slow down loser.

Love, Katie.

Anyone else wondering where all that time went? I like to think that i’m pretty organised when it comes to Christmas (laugh all you want people, but despite my lack of organisation throughout the year I do get my Christmas shopping done super early). But it’s not the shopping that has fazed me this year, rather its all the co ordination of the cooking, cleaning, seeing friends etc. At the moment i’m procrastinating before working up the energy to decorate my gingerbread house (post to come!) and cook my potato salad for a Christmas Party tomorrow. Of course, in the interim I thought I would have a crack at another quick and easy edible Christmas gift, you know, in case you aren’t quite as organised in the shopping department as I am. (Let me take this moment to gloat because, i’m clearly behind throughout the year. Give me this one!)

I saw this recipe for Hot Cocoa at My Baking Addiction (another find through Twitter. Loving that!) and thought that this would be a great way to use up some sweet little jars I bought, and it would make great Christmas gifts. PLUS it meant that I could buy marshmallows, because who doesn’t have marshmallows all the time with their hot chocolate? I thought I would make it a little more christmassy by adding in some cinnamon and I reduced the amount that I made, but otherwise the recipe was great as it was.

marshmallowwwwssssss…..

all you need to do is sift all the ingredients together. I sifted mine a few times to get the sugar really fine otherwise you’re left with white specks throughout your mix

then bottle!

then repeat!

p.s. how cute are these jars? $2.5o from a little reject shop style store. Make sure that you wash them thoroughly in hot soapy water though.

If you are totally stuck for ideas this Christmas, I would recommend this. Who doesn’t like hot chocolate? And why would you be friends with someone who doesn’t like hot chocolate? I’m pretty sure thats not normal.

If you want to view the original recipe you can find it here.

Otherwise,

Christmas Hot Chocolate Mix – yield is roughly 2 and 3/4 cups

Ingredients

1 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar or confectioners sugar)

1/2 cup cocoa powder (dutch processed is best)

1 1/4 cup powdered milk

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cornflour

1 tsp cinnamon (add more according to your taste)

Method

1. Mix all ingredients together and sift several times. The more times you sift, the finer your mix will be.

You could add more or different spices according to what you like or what your giftee would like. Be creative!

2. Pour into jars and seal

3. To make the hot chocolate, add to hot milk or water and stir thoroughly