Gypsy Sue Creams

A recipe inspired by Gypsy Sue, the fortune teller in Bree McCready and the Realm of the Lost

Junior has returned home from his holiday!

I think it's safe to say he is glad to be 'home sweet home'. Baby the cat was beyond ecstatic to see his boy. It was like a love-fest when Junior walked through the door. Very cute indeed.

I've missed you, crazy boy!

I think Junior missed my home cooking as he texted me all through the week to put in orders for what he wanted to eat when he came home! 

He put in a special request in for Mrs Oxter's Oaty Crumbles as these are his very favourite. But I like to try new things and I was well overdue posting something on the Bake With Bree blog so I made some Gypsy Creams instead. They are similar enough to the Oaty Crumbles to put a smile on my boy's face - more of a biscuit than a flapjack. 

I had also been feeding a friend's cats over the weekend so I made a few extra to leave for their return.

The inspiration for my Gypsy Creams came from a character in the third novel in the Bree McCready series. 

Bree, Sandy and Honey visit a fortune teller called Gypsy Sue at the funfair and get a little more than they bargained for! 

Here is an abridged extract from chapter 1 of Bree McCready and the Realm of the Lost.

'The top half of the wagon door swung open with a creak. A plump lady appeared, her black hair peppered with grey and mostly concealed under a shimmering headscarf.

"I am Gypsy Sue," she smiled, her hoop earrings swinging from side to side.

"Hello," Bree said awkwardly. "Can you tell me my future please?"

Candles and fairy lights lit the inside of the caravan. It was a tiny space, so small that Bree could touch either side without stretching. Bree admired the walls, which were decorated with gold scrollwork and carvings of birds. 

Gypsy Sue gestured to a pack of cards lying face down at the centre of a table.

"Pick them up and shuffle them," she said to Bree with an encouraging nod.

Bree picked up the pack of cards, shuffled them clumsily and put them back, face down. Gypsy Sue fanned them across the table with a graceful sweep of her hand. 

"Now choose one."

Bree pulled a card from the middle of the deck. A skeleton, carrying a black flag emblazoned with a white flower, was riding a horse. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the bold lettering along the bottom.

DEATH.

She dropped it quickly, as if it had burned her fingers."

Here are the ingredients you'll need to make about 10 medium Gypsy Sue Creams.

For the biscuits:

100g of butter

50g of caster sugar

150g of self-raising flour

1 tablespoon of chocolate powder

100g of rolled oats

2 tablespoons of Golden Syrup melted in 1 tablespoon of hot water

For the butter icing:

50g of butter

100g of icing sugar

A few drops of vanilla essence

1 tablespoon of chocolate powder

I used my electric mixer but this recipe can easily be prepared the old fashioned way.

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees.

 Mix together until light and creamy.

Thank you, big sis for my terrific new mixer!

 Meanwhile...

Sieve the flour and chocolate powder together to get rid of any lumps...

Weigh out the oats...

And melt the syrup in the hot water.

Add the flour, chocolate powder, oats and syrup to the creamed sugar and butter. Mix again for a short while. I did this on 'pulse' as the mixer seemed to struggle a little with the thick mixture. 

It looked like this at the end... 

I did a little stirring with a spatula to make sure all the ingredients were properly combined and then I rolled dollops of the sticky dough into little balls using the palms of my hands.

I then flattened the balls onto a well greased baking tray with the back of a fork. I have to confess to thinking they resembled little hamburgers at this point!

Space them well apart on the tray as they do swell and spread during cooking. 

Bake for a total of 20 minutes. I did 10 minutes - flipped - then another 10 to get a nice even bake. The biscuits will still be soft when they come out of the oven but they will crisp up on the cooling rack.

Don't worry about the cracks as the buttercream will fill these.

While the Gypsy Creams are cooling you can prepare the butter icing. Again, I did this in my mixer but you can just as easily whip this up by hand.

I chilled the butter icing for about half an hour as I find it easier to work with when it's a little more solid.

Wait for the biscuits to cool completely before icing them or the buttercream will slide right off! Spread some of the butter icing over half the biscuits...

 ...then sandwich them together.

Using a fork to press down the dough gives a nice finish

Chill the Gypsy Sue Creams for about an hour (if you can wait that long!) to set the butter icing.

Put the kettle on and enjoy!

I left a few 'open-topped' ones and added some sprinkles

We'll enjoy these a little later when Junior has finished Pokemon hunting with his best mate and my washing machine isn't in overdrive!

Holidays are fun but there's no place like home.

Until next time...

      

Ferris Wheel Cheesecake

So, we have two birthdays this week. My boy turns 12 tomorrow and on Tuesday I turn...well let's just say my 21st was some time ago.

I decided to do a less traditional cheesecake this year and there could only be one flavour.

Can you tell we're Nutella freaks in this house?

Due to a rather hectic weekend we had a small family tea yesterday to celebrate our birthdays. My Ferris Wheel cheesecake turned out to be a major success and everybody loved it. It was a rather large cake and I thought there would be loads leftover but I was wrong.

Here's how to make it.

Melt 150g of unsalted butter over a medium heat. 

Whizz up 24 Digestive biscuits in a food processor to get very fine crumbs. Add the biscuits to the melted butter and stir well to coat every crumb. 

Put the buttery crumb mixture into a 23cm springform cake tin and press down firmly into the base. Leave to chill in the fridge for ten minutes. 

Weigh out 500g of full fat cream cheese. I always use Philadelphia. Give the soft cheese a beat with a wooden spoon to soften it.

Add 85g of icing sugar and stir in. 

Measure out 300ml of double cream.

Pour the cream into a large mixing bowl and  add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Whisk the cream and vanilla until soft peaks form...

Fold the whipped cream into the soft cheese mixture then add 4 chopped Ferrero Rocher chocolates and 100g of chocolate chips and stir well.

 Spoon over the chilled biscuit base and smooth with a fork.

Chill in the fridge for about 6 hours until set.

When everything has set, put 300g of Nutella in a pan and melt over a low heat until runny.

Anything with Hazel in the name must surely be fab.

Leave the melted spread to cool for a few minutes and then spread it over the top of the cheesecake. I noticed that the Nutella hardens quickly when it hits the cold cheesecake top so act swiftly to get a smooth finish. 

You can decorate your cheesecake any way you like but I wanted mine to resemble a Ferris Wheel so I chose Toffifee chocolates and Ferrero Rocher - 12 of them to represent 12 wonderfully rich and nutty years. I also invested in some of this...Not cheap but worth it for the decadent finish. And there's plenty left for Christmas cookie decoration!

Well, it's not every day you turn 12.

The coloured sweets are supposed to represent the bright lights of the Ferris Wheel.

It's the eyes in case you were wondering. Cheeky rascal.

 

Twelve little chocolates. Twelve happy years.

Back for seconds.

Happy Birthday, Junior. From the minute I knew you existed you have made every day feel like Christmas Day. Sometimes I wonder how it is possible to love someone so much and still be standing. Be happy, stay safe and always be you because you are awesome. I am so proud of how far we have come together. You are my best buddy.

Here is a poem I wrote for you many years ago but it is still so relevant today. I love you more than ever X

My Sleeping Boy

I stare in wonder at my sleeping boy.
How beautiful he is, like an angel or a portrait in oil.
He has kicked off the covers; long limbs strewn across the sheets.
He cuddles Elmoure, a matted dog he cannot sleep without and who I have to wash in secret.

I step over the paraphernalia of childhood, dodging the loose floorboards that may betray my presence.
During the day he is in perpetual motion, a blur of noise and movement.
Time is impossible to freeze so this is my chance to study him; his liquorice lashes, his button nose and the top lip that forms a perfect heart.
He looks like me from the nostrils down.

I touch his clammy hand and his fingers twitch.
For a moment I am transported back to the night he was born,
That first moment we were together but separate for the first time, a flimsy curtain hiding us from the rest of the world.
Just me and him as it has always been.
I watched him then as I watch him now.

I marvelled at those fingers, the way they curled around mine like little worms.
Such perfectly formed nails, like tiny shells.
I remember the surge of untamed love that told me nothing would ever be the same again.

Now he is too big to sit on my knee and I'm not allowed to kiss him at the school gate.
Soon he will be all but lost to me.
I tenderly tuck him in and close the flimsy curtains that hide us from the rest of the world.

 

Halloween Treats

"Chills in the night air are tingling skin

The veil between worlds is now growing thin

Bright spirits gather, the dead return

Drawn to the flickers where candles burn"

Louise Heyden

Did I scare you? Sorry! But I'm getting into the Halloween spirit. It's tomorrow in case you didn't already know. As promised, here are a few simple goodies which require no baking whatsoever...just a few hours in the kitchen and A LOT of chocolate!

Have a lovely time tomorrow night. Stay safe if you're out Trick or Treating and remember to give your teeth an extra clean before you go to bed.

Mummy lecture over.

These took the longest to make...and the most mess to clear up (at 1 o'clock this morning!)

It's a pretty simple idea but tricky to assemble. Inside these chocolate hats are lots of little sweets - Skittles, chocolate buttons, Smarties etc - so attaching the ice cream cone to the Wagon Wheel base involved some pretty impressive construction skills and lots of patience! To my frustration I discovered that because of a slight slant to the waffle style cone, there was a gap at the bottom of the cone - big enough to allow some of the smaller sweets to spill out. So I had to carefully craft thin strips of Royal icing (luckily I had some ready made stuff to hand) to wrap around the bottom of the cone. I knew this 'patch up job' would be invisible once the chocolate was painted on. 

Once the basic structure was complete it was a case of painting on melted chocolate with a pastry brush then waiting for that to set in the fridge before adding the finishing touches. I'm hoping the final result will be like a Pinata so the kids will bite into the top of the hats to reveal the hidden goodies inside. I won't know for sure how everything has turned out until tomorrow night but I can hear the sweets rattling around inside so that's a good sign. And I'm quite sure these are going to taste amazing.

Again, a very simple idea which looks effective. I used small waffle biscuits for the base but you could use Oreos or even made your own basic cookies. 

I rolled out icing, cut it to size with a cookie cutter then stuck it onto the biscuit base using jam. I used edible writing icing (which I bought from Lakeland) to give a bloodshot effect and Smarties were used to create the different coloured Irises.

These don't require much skill but they're pretty and magical. A nice change to blood and gore! 

I dipped chocolate fingers into melted chocolate  then laid them flat onto greaseproof paper before sprinkling multi-coloured stars on top.

Make a wish!

 

Cadbury's Mini Rolls are fab at this time of year as you get the kind with green slime jam and raspberry blood inside.

The monster faces were made using white chocolate buttons, mini chocolate beans and black icing. I got the small gummy teeth from Morrisons.

Line up white chocolate fingers along a cooling rack and drizzle over melted white chocolate to create the look of bandages. Use tiny dots of black writing icing for the eyes. 

I love these! 

So, there you have it. Couldn't be simpler really and yet I know the kids are going to love these treats.

I have to confess to having eaten a few 'spare' chocolate fingers and to licking a few bowls over the last couple of days so I will probably not be partaking in the scoffing of any more Halloween goodies. In fact I am craving some homemade soup and fruit! 

Have fun!

Until next time, here is a spooky extract from Bree McCready and the Realm of the Lost, which of course is my inspiration for all these Halloween goodies.

"Bree hit the fresh air with a stitch in her side. Running in the direction of Gillespie Gardens, she hoped that Sandy had made his way back to Freesia House. She slowed when she spotted some children heading her way, dressed for Halloween in ghoulish costumes, shouting 'Trick or Treat!'

Stepping off the pavement to let them pass, she spotted three small figures whizz by on the other side of the road. At first she thought it was another group of children, wearing gruesome masks, but when she looked closer she caught a glimpse of bare, red skin and yellow eyes. Gargoyles."