GINGERNUT BISCUITS

Biscuits are really the first thing I got into baking. Besides tasting pretty damn good, they are also quite easy to make. Plus they usually don't have a huge range of ingredients. I've really enjoyed learning to make some of my favourite all time biscuits, making everything from Melting Moments/YoYos, Monte Carlos and Kingstons. Next on my list was the classic gingernut. I only slightly liked these as a kid, I guess as we get older our taste buds develop because I've grown to really love the taste of ginger. Now these were fun to make, easy and tasted divine. My friend Josh (pictured below) was coming over to help me prepare for an audition, so these were a thank you. He had quite a few, so I guess he appreciated it! I dunked these into my favourite tea of the moment, T2's Melbourne Breakfast, and they were divine. I'll be busy baking over the next few weeks with my birthday coming up and my Mum in town, I'll try and blog recipes when I can.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
60 grams butter (I used salted for this recipe)
4 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup

INSTRUCTIONS:

1 - Pre heat oven to 180 degrees and line 2 baking trays with baking paper

2 - Sift flour, baking powder and ground ginger and combine in a bowl.

3 - In a saucepan, place butter, sugar and syrup. Put on a low heat and stir softly until butter is melted and all ingredients are mixed. Don't let it boil.

4 - Add wet ingredients into the bowl and mix until it becomes a soft dough. It will be quite sticky.

5 - Roll into teaspoon sized balls and place on the trays, pressing down gently with a fork. Make sure you allow room for the biscuits to spread.

6 - Bake for approximately 15 minutes or you can touch them and see they are getting solid.

Although 1 tablespoon of ginger seems a lot, it was perfect. If not as big on ginger, you can reduce.

Enjoy and remember to send in any pics of stuff you make.

Wayne
xx

Easy Lemon Tart

So I've been feeling pretty confident about my baking, almost untouchable. I could bake anything. Then I came crashing down to earth. I've become a massive fan of all the Bake Off shows and can't wait for the Australian version to begin. My favourite is the original, The Great British Bake Off. They had an amazing challenge with a lemon tart by Mary Berry, one of the judges. I watched her make it in the masterclass and was sure I could do it. Made the pastry, blind baked it, made the filling, baked it. The end result, fail. Burnt the pastry at the top, still raw down the bottom (a soggy bottom is a no-no on Bake Off) and the filling looked like I had scrambled the eggs. The taste was still nice but it looked awful. I was due to go to my partner's sister's place with dessert and now only had a few hours to spare. I went on line looking for an easy replacement, and hopefully a cheap one! The result was this easy recipe using condensed milk, which is often on sale and is so easy to use. So here's the recipe, you can make it fast and it is so super tasty. So tart, loving lemon lately!

EASY LEMON TART (Thanks to All Recipes)

Ingredients:
200g sweet biscuits (Nice are best, I used Milk Coffee but added a little caster sugar)
70g unsalted butter, melted
1 (395g) tin sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
3 lemons, zested and juiced

Directions:

1 - Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2 - Crush the biscuits in a food processor and then add the melted butter and mix. Line the bottom of a pie dish by pressing the mixture onto the dish with the palm of your hand. Then place the pie dish in freezer while you prepare the filling.

3 - Pour the condensed milk into a bowl and then add the eggs and mix well. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest, folding in until mixed well.

4 - Place the tart in the oven and then pour the lemon mixture into the tart shell. This will ensure you don't drop any on your walk to the oven.

5 - Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until you see it wobble in the middle.

6 - Cool to room temperature and then place in fridge to cool completely.

7 - Serve with icing sugar sprinkled on top. Best served with vanilla ice cream.

Now finally, a friend made my first recipe, the Oreo Cheesecake for her boyfriend's birthday. Thanks Bella. Here's a photo of the result:

So please send in any pics if you make any of these fun and tasty desserts!

wayne@tunks.com.au

Happy Baking!

LEMON SPONGE (TROLL FEAST CAKE)

The very talented playwright extraordinaire, Van Badham, put a challenge out on the net. On June 10, make a troll themed cake for #trollfeast, a day dedicated to fighting internet trolls. Trolls are those nameless people who like to just write rude things at people, usually with unintelligent rants and name calling. The thing I always find interesting is that they never have their real name or photo on their profiles, so they feel like they can say anything they like. And boy do they!

The challenge was made and I gladly accepted, making this hate cake with love. I made a lemon sponge with lemon buttercream icing. I coloured it blue, the colour of twitter, and also so you could see my black and white icing pens. It was fun writing all the words that I, or people I know, have been called. I am directing a play for my teen drama class about bullying called, "The Words of Others", so this seemed fitting.

I put it on line, Van retweeted it and then suddenly there was an audience, and naturally trolls. I put up a cake to fight the name calling and got called names myself. There was one rant I didn't quite get, maybe I was too dumb, maybe he was insane. But there was another one. I have posted what she said below:

This woman would put a dog down? In Van Badham style, I had to answer back. I don't get why people need to send anonymous people vile messages? Maybe I'm just getting too old for this shit. Anyway, the cake was super tasty and the lemon really lifted the taste of the cake and the icing. Feel free to make a normal version without the vitriol and hopefully without the hate that follows. Keep baking my friends.

LEMON SPONGE CAKE RECIPE:

Ingredients:
250 grams of unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups of caster sugar
4 eggs
2 1/4 cups of self raising flour
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
3 tbsp milk
Squirt of lemon juice

Directions:
1 - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line 2 round cake tins, or if like me, 1, and then use it again after you make the first one.
2 -  Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
3 - Add the eggs individually, beating well after each addition.
4 - Sift through the flour and fold in completely with a metal spoon.
5 - Fold in the lemon rind, juice and milk gently and evenly.
6 - Spoon half the mixture into the prepared pans (mixture will be quite thick), and evenly spread across the bottom of the pan.
7 - Bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and springy to touch.
8 - Cool completely on wire racks before icing.

LEMON BUTTERCREAM ICING

Ingredients:
500 grams of unsalted butter, softened
150 - 200 grams of icing sugar (rough estimate, keep putting in until it reaches a thicker consistency)
Juice of 1 lemon
Food Colouring (I used blue, you can use yellow)
Writing icing pen

Directions:
1 - Cream together butter until pale and creamy
2 - Add icing sugar gradually until you are happy with the thickness, shouldn't be too runny and will be easy to spread.
3 - Add juice gradually. 1 whole lemon juiced makes it quite tart, so keep tasting flavour to see how tart you want it.
4 - Finally add colour and beat until through completely.
5 - Place icing all over top of 1 sponge and then sandwich second on top. Ice whole cake and place in fridge for 15 minutes to make sure icing firms up.
6 - Grab your icing pen and have fun writing whatever you like.
7 - Share with friends and enjoy

So here was my #trollfeast cake, time for you to make one.

OREO CHEESECAKE

So here's my first recipe post for you, the Oreo Cheesecake. My wonderful partner, Nick, and I were heading over the dinner with his brother Sam, and his girlfriend, Kaylah,. We were gonna have a spot of dinner and then watch one of my all time favourite movies, "A League of Their Own". Nick had never seen it ... I was horrified too, so we thought he should see it. Now I asked Kaylah what she would like me to bring for dessert, she only had one suggestion, Oreo Cheesecake.

I looked over many recipes, but none really hit me as being something I wanted to try. Then I remembered a recipe I bookmarked an age ago. I have so many recipes bookmarked on my computer, I barely remember what anymore. Read carefully over the recipe and decided to make a few adjustments.The thing I liked about this recipe is that it's a traditional style baked cheesecake. The texture was so creamy and definitely works well with beautiful vanilla ice cream. It's filling, but most definitely satisfying.

So here goes, my first recipe for you:

OREO CHEESECAKE 
(Adapted from http://www.food.com/recipe/oreo-cheesecake-12177?mode=metric&scaleto=1.0&st=null)

INGREDIENTS:
Base:
24 Oreo Biscuits
1/3 Cup of melted unsalted butter

Filling:
680 grams softened cream cheese
395 gram can of sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of caster sugar (can use 1/2 if you have a sweet tooth)
2 squirts of lemon juice
extra Oreos for filling and topping

DIRECTIONS:

1 - Preheat oven to 150 Degrees C. Spray a springform cake tin with cooking spray and then line with baking paper. (I cut a circle for the bottom and then cut more for the sides)
2 - Make base by mixing Oreo in food processor until all fine. Add butter and mix until combined.
3 - Press firmly down the base mixture into the tin and put in the freezer to firm up as you prepare the filling.
4 - In large bowl, use beater to mix cream cheese until smooth and then add in condensed milk, eggs, vanilla, sugar and lemon juice. Cream together until well blended.
5 - Break up Oreos and drop them into the mixture. (I used 6 but could do more). Then gently fold through the mixture.
6 - Pour into tin and then break up more Oreos to place on the top. Get creative.
7 - Bake for 45 - 60 minutes. Place a pan of water in the bottom self to help prevent cracking. Is cooked when the middle wobbles. Don't cook till you get cracks.
8 - Fully cool in pan and then chill in fridge before removing from pan
9 - Enjoy!

So there goes, my first recipe. Going to try and create my own as the weeks pass.

Welcome, let's get baking!

My name is Wayne Tunks, I'm 37, and I love to bake. The passion really came to me a little later in life, but now nothing is stopping me. I always enjoyed helping my Mum out and would bake things occasionally and think, "Wow, that was fun". But I'd mostly use packet mixes. (Enter horror sounds) I always thought I should get into baking one day, well, the day has arrived. (It actually arrived a few years ago). I love baking for friends and family and sharing pictures. It went from once a month to more regularly. I love it, it brings me such joy. Many friends suggested I should start a blog. So here I go.

Upfront, I am not a professional baker. This is about love. I can be quite messy and clumsy. I have never been trained, I learn from reading recipes and admiring what others have made. I am still quite new to all of this. So for now, there won't be anything too hard on the site. But maybe we can evolve together? I look forward to baking and blogging it. If you have any suggestions for things you'd like me to try, I welcome the suggestions. So let's get baking together.
Wayne
xx