CHOCOLATE PICNIC SNACK BARS

Dark Chocolate Seed Bars recipe on http://www.bettybake.co.za .
Great for picnics and school lunches. This would also make a great present - cut into bars and pile high in a jar and dressed up with a wide ribbon. (would be so pretty)... Christmas maybe?

WIN Gordons Ramsays Latest cookbook

Win a SIGNED copy of Gordon Ramsays Lastest cookbook called THE ULTIMATE COOKERY COURSE with www.bettybake.co.za and Checkers

ON HOLIDAY ... see you soon!

The husband is on leave so I am happily drinking coffee and wine tasting and ignoring regular life... as much as possible (there are still dishes but eating out means less of them :) YAY!

If you would like to see what I'm up to follow me on instagram (@bettybake) 
or twitter


See like this Caramel Mousse cake that I found at a nearby town Patisserie .... bliss!
Of course I Instagramed it!

My daughter actually ate it (it was wheat-free) but not before I photographed it and took a bite ;)

See you soon!

Lunch with Olive Pride at the SA Chefs Academy

Here are some photos of a gorgeous and very delicious lunch I had last week hosted by Olive Pride and made by the chefs at the SA Chefs Academy.
Just look at the windows with stacks of natural light- Isn't it stunning?

I am not a keen olive eater - so I approached the lunch with a little caution. RSVP'ed and Told them I am vegetarian - (which I have been doing for 5 months now :) and feeling great for doing it!) and wandered if I'd have anything I liked to eat...
Well every course was delicious - there wasn't one thing I didn't like. 

Add caption

Would you say these photos were taken with my cellphone? well there are... to see more of my cellphone pics check out my instagram account HERE


DISCLAIMER: I always find it hard to decide whether to blog about a breakfast/lunch/dinner or event... Some are nice but just not blog worthy - while sometimes some are lovely but don't fit with the theme of my blog (healthy food, gluten free etc) PLUS if I had to blog about every event my blog would be to filled with events and very few recipes!

Well this lunch was an easy YES!
It had all the factors I loved about an event.. Great lighting, Good healthy food and lovely Company (without any push that I had to blog about it = no pressure!) yay!
This post is my own thoughts, photography and opinions
 

BAKED SWEET POTATO CHOCOLATE CAKE (GLUTEN FREE)

I wanted to bake a "healthy" chocolate cake and in cases like that I usually make a Beetroot chocolate cake. But on this very day I didn't have any beetroot in my fridge and so with some tweaking and hoping and substituting this cake was born - Baked Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake.

You know what - it turned out better than my beetroot version ... and so this is the NEW chocolate cake in our house! It is softer and sweeter - even though the same amount of sugar is used. This is because the sweet potato is baked in the oven till caramelized on the edges and it is naturally sweet.   

Not to say the beetroot chocolate cake is no longer good enough, if I can't get sweet potatoes then it will be back on the menu shortly but this cake has really stolen the show.

NOTES*** 
I have made this cake many times over the years - its still a winner and used at every birthday and everything in between! Some things have been tweaked and changed ---

SUGAR: I now use half a cup of sugar instead of a whole cup. But use as much as you think your sugar tooth needs.

WATER: I have found the cake batter has got quite thick and I now add between half a cup to 1 cup of filtered water at the end of the batter if I find its a bit to thick for my liking.

SWEET POTATO: Bake a large sweet potato with its skin on in the oven at 180 degrees celcius (turn half way through baking). Bake until soft when inserted with a knife and the outside yields nicely when pushed with a thumb. Some of the outside may look dark (brown to slightly black in places) on the outsides as the sweet potato caramelizes inside its skin. Allow to cool and then peel and mash with a fork.


INGREDIENTS (BROKEN UP INTO 4 PARTS)

STEP 1:

50g dark chocolate (I used 70% cocoa dark chocolate)
a tiny pinch of salt
3 Tablespoons of cream (coconut cream or dairy cream - your choice) 

 combine the 3 ingredients and melt in a baine marie - stir until smooth and put to one side.

STEP 2:

1 generous cup /200g/250ml Jaggery or Brown Organic Sugar (READ NOTES about how much sugar I now use*)
3 Free range eggs
100ml coconut oil (melted down to measure)
100ml olive oil

Beat/mix together with a stand or hand mixer in a large bowl until thickened and the mixture has lightened a little

STEP 3:

1 cup /250ml baked and mashed sweet potato (roughly 240g when cooked) *see note above*

add to the egg/sugar mixture above and mix in then add the chocolate cream and mix in until totally incorporated.

STEP 4:

3 heaped dessert spoons of cocoa
1 teaspoon bicarb
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 and a half cups / 375ml Gluten Free flour mix

Gradually add each ingredient above one by one beating after each addition to the mixture. See if you need water - (please see NOTES above the recipe)
Place mixture into 2 buttered/coconut oiled and floured medium cake tins and place in the oven at 155 degrees celcius for roughly 40 minutes - until the cake springs back to the touch and the knife inserted into the middle of the cake come out clean.

 
ICING:
I usually make a chocolate ganache for this cake  - I melt dark chocolate with coconut milk, allow to cool then pour over the cake. or alternatively I blend dates (pips removed) with coconut oil and a pinch of salt for a caramel type of icing.

And the Winners are....

Congrats to  Robert Miller & Beth who are the winners of the Fireworks cookbook by Jan Braai :)
Please email me

Happy Monday :)

WIN: Fireworks Cookbook by Jan Braai

On http://www.bettybake.co.za  - WIN a copy of FIREWORKS by Jan Braai.

I LOVE public holidays! I mean who doesn't? They are great for spending time with family and friends and doing things you wouldn't normally do because you are usually working on a week day.
This years Heritage day also known as BRAAI DAY falls on Monday 24th September :) yay loooong weekend!!!  I can just imagine smoke and fires all over the country with the smell of sizzling meat and salads. Im personally going to try cooking miellies in the skins for perfect smokiness (as recommended in Jan's book)

ABOUT THE BOOK:
This book has great advice on how to braai from the basics of steak and VARIOUS meats to sides like potatoes, mielies and braai bread. There are sections on sauces, spice combinations and puddings too. (so not just carnivores will like it)
I found it very interesting on Jan's thoughts on various meats and it has some really nice styled pics inside.


THE GIVEAWAY:
2 x copies of FIREWORKS by Jan Braai (valued at R250 each) supplied by Pan Macmillan



THERE ARE 3 WAYS FOR YOU TO WIN - you will get an entry for each thing that you do and leave a comment for.


BE A FOLLOWER OF BETTY BAKE BLOG
Please enter your email address in the subscription on the side bar to be a Follower of Betty Bake Blog


1) Be a follower and then leave a comment telling me you what you would love to braai / eat on national braai day

2) "Like" Betty Bakes facebook page (just come back and say so here) - 1 entry

3) Tweet this phrase - WIN A COOKBOOK= FIREWORKS by Jan Braai worth R250 over at http://www.bettybake.co.za @bettybakeblog @janbraai @PanMacmillanSA #proudlySouthAfrican - (just come back and say so here) - 1 entry

*please leave a SEPARATE comment for each thing you do (facebook like, tweet, etc) in comment section below

This is SOUTH AFRICA give away ONLY

Competition closes midday Saturday 15th September 2012

V&A Waterfront - MASTER OF THE TRADE ROUTES

Its hard to imagine that just last week I boarded the SA Agulhas II (an ice breaking scientific ship) for a dinner of exquisite proportions.
Thoroughly thrilled and honoured to be a judge for the first round of the competition,  Master of the Trade Routes where 27 restaurants from the V & A Waterfront competed for place as the number 1 restaurant.

HOW IT WORKED
Being 1 of 8 judges in the first round - we each got to eat at 6 restaurants. It was great fun and interesting to try out 6 of the restaurants at the V & A Waterfront over roughly 5 weeks. And we narrowed it down to the TOP 8 Restaurants

THE TOP 8
Dash Restaurant (Queen Victoria Hotel)

Den Anker

Harbour House

Reuben's (One&Only Cape Town)
Sevruga
Signal (Cape Grace Hotel)
The Grand Beach
Willoughby & Co


The final judging took place on board the SA Agulhas II and was decided on the night. 

THE WINNER
I can happily say that I got to eat at the top 2 restaurants and that I had really hoped that my top 2 would win! AND my prediction of my top 2 restaurants came in First and Second just as I had hoped and predicted - in the exact same order!

1ST: Signal Restaurant (Cape Grace Hotel)
2ND: Dash Restaurant (Queen Victoria Hotel)


Congrats to Signal and Dash.
Thanks to the V & A Waterfront  -  It was a great competition which was exciting to be apart of.

RIGHT NOW...

Right now I'm

• Looking at tooooo many travel agent websites and wishing I was on holiday (not very productive for getting work done)
• Im wishing my cup of coffee wouldn't end... Sometimes it just tastes so good
• I want to bake but I have LOTS of work to do - darn, *sigh*
• I'm still loving pinterest far to much! and Instagram too!
• hoping the weekend will be filled with relaxing cups of coffee on the couch and maybe a movie or 2 and possibly a walk on the beach
• Trying to edit photos (but as I said I keep getting distracted!)
• Wandering how it can be the last day of August and the first day of Spring tomorrow?

What are you doing right now?
Do you have plans for the weekend?

WIN: TICKETS TO PINOTAGE ON TAP

WIN 1 double ticket to the #PinotageOnTap festival

WHEN: 13TH October 2012

WHERE: Diemersfontein Wine & Country Estate 

BAND PERFORMING: Goodluck, Albert Frost & Gerald Clark

TICKETS INCLUDE
Entry, goodie bag on arrival, lunch, choc fountain dessert, endless wine on tap , live music bands and games -Value R320 per ticket

To enter simply tweet this phrase "WIN a set of double tickets to #PinotageOnTap and drink endless wine for a day via @bettybakeblog and @Computicket"


THE GIVEAWAY:
2 x TICKETS (valued at R320 per ticket) to one person to Pinotage on Tap Festival in the Western Cape

Tweet this phrase - WIN a set of double tickets to #PinotageOnTap and drink endless wine for a day via @bettybakeblog and @Computicket

This is SOUTH AFRICA give away ONLY - and tickets are valid for Cape Town only

Competition closes 6pm 28th August 2012

THE BEST BAKED APPLES

The Best Baked Apples recipe on www.bettybake.co.za

I know saying the BEST of anything is a tall claim. You see I'm not a baked fruit kind of person. I am more of a cold desserts kind of girl - you know anything containing chocolate, cold and custardy, or mousse, or creme brulee or anything creamy.
The husband is the reason I make anything baked for pudding - like this baked plums or baked cookie dough apple pie.
But this time its all me!  
I keep making these and actually loving them... usually baked fruit is eaten by me slowly and its ok! but not anymore - this dish keeps being made over and over and I just can't stop!
I think I may take some left over baked apples and try to make a baked apple ice cream!!! (but thats if there is any over!)

INGREDIENTS
4-6 organic apples (or as many as you need - 1 per person)
1 large orange (organic so you can use the skin)
ground cinnamon
2 - 4 Tablespoons Jaggery or brown sugar
a handful of Raisins

METHOD
Wash you apples and make sure they can all fit in a baking dish that has a fitting lid.
Core the apples (take out the centers while leaving the rest of the apple whole)
Make a small slit/ incision all the way around the middle of the skin - just piercing the skin (imagine the apple is hoola hooping)
Place all the apples in the dish you are using and stuff raisins down the necks/ center of the apples until 3 quarters fill.
Wash your orange and grate orange rind on the small side of your grater over the apples - let a little go down neck/ center of each apple.
Sprinkle the Jaggery or brown sugar down the necks/center of each apple.
Cut your orange in half and squeeze the juice over all the apples.
Sprinkle cinnamon over each apple
Place the lid on the dish and bake in a moderate oven 180 degrees celcius until soft and juicy
Roughly +/- 30 - 40 min
Enjoy with a drizzle of cream or served with vanilla ice cream

Small Changes make for Healthy Eating

Sometimes healthy eating is just a change in how you look at food...

In the past when I ate takeaways and tubs of ice cream and I needed to be more healthy and "diet" I would think "öh great now I have to cut out all this yummy stuff I love!" 
I would begrudge myself and the food I ate. Instead of looking for delicious alternatives I would pout and sulk and be miserable. Years later and many mind shifts later - I see food in a totally different way. I still love a good pizza! but how I want to treat myself and my body has changed in my thinking.

SLIGHT CHANGES:
Its a slight change over weeks and months and even years:
After slowly changing bit by bit - by doing the little things like cutting down on sugar and swopping fizzy cool drinks like Coke! (which is now a swear word in our house) to fruit juice and water.

TRY IT:
Simply buy sparkling spring water and 100% real fruit juice with no additives and mix them together.
So when I felt like a coke I would reach for my "new" sparkling friend - juice and sparkling water and feel like i wasn't depriving myself.

You see its the little things!
I no longer see food as a happiness pile of stuff to eat what I want. I see food as a source of health and yumminess! I want to treat my body right. Once you cut out bad items like coke and soft drinks filled with sugar  and stop eating sweets and candy bars and you feel great - after the initial  detox (headaches and flu symptoms)
I was so ALIVE and happy and well that when I went back to eating a piece of candy it made me feel yuk! It wasn't that that sugar wasn't nice in my mouth but the after effects just weren't worth it.

EXAMPLE:
After cutting out MSG and other additives and preservatives out of our diet for some time (months and months) we went to a braai and the food was taking long. The husband and I were getting hungry and there were bowls of flavoured crisps around so we started snacking. After eating several handfuls the food was finally ready and we ate. Now I didn't have any alcohol of any kind but the next morning I woke up with hangover type symptoms - sore head and felt terrible. Just yukky and wanted to sleep! I realised after a while of waking up and trying to figure out what I ate and drank why I would feel this way and the only thing different were the MSG laden crisps (which we don't eat! only plain salted allowed in our house)!! and that when it hit me - my disgusting hang over symptoms were from them - now I will never go back to eating crisps because I could feel what they were doing to my body!

GOOD HABITS :
I find that changing things bit by bit over long periods of time that I am able to change my habits. If I try change everything at once I feel like I am punishing myself and then I would go back to my bad ways but if I picked one or two things then it was a small change and I would keep doing it. Then after a long time of doing that one little thing it would have become part of my lifestyle (like no more soft drinks) I don't even go to that aisle in the supermarket any more. Actually I rarely shop at a supermarket - but thats another story for another day. I don't even consider it in my head. If someone asks me to bring drinks to a braai (BBQ) I simply buy sparkling water and organic fruit juice. Simple as pie. Really its not even a battle for me any more.

IDEAS:
So focus on something small like:

• Stopping sugar in your tea and coffee

• Swopping soda for fruit juice and water

• Buying hormone free meat and eggs

• Not eating candy - buy nuts and dark chocolate (70% cocoa and higher)

"Eat cake if you bake it yourself and can limit the sugar and additives"

WILL YOU TRY IT?:
See if you can change that one little thing for 2 months and then consider swopping another thing and another thing. Eventually in a year or twos time you will be a healthy, whole food, happy person who doesn't even crave the bad stuff and is happier for it!
Just try it
 
We still eat really dark chocolate and nuts and i bake cake-but I use gluten -free flour and only a tiny bit of sugar. See what I did swopped out  unhealthy for healthy) 


What changes have you made in your lifestyle to be healthier?

Things that make me Smile

 
Life is a happy place when I reflect on the good and happy places in my life. It makes the craziness more bare-able:   

• watching funny you tube videos will make time fly and then you'll realise you were meant to be working!!! ;)  
• Coffee and chocolate make me happy each morning - its the little things
• being creative seems to fuel me ... drawing, editing, creating stuff... :) 
• Just sitting in the sun with my cat 
• Happy songs played REALLY loud (its the loud part that important)
• Beautiful sunrises and still evenings with dramatic winter sunsets
• A well baked chocolate chip cookie
• Getting a note  from my kid saying "you are the best cooker" (cook)
• Reading a good tweet and laughing
• Getting through a bunch of things on my to-do list done!

 What is making you happy and smiling at the moment?

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE ICE CREAM RECIPE

Chocolate Ice cream recipe found on www.bettybake.co.za


We have cut down considerably on dairy but this week I had an incredible dessert craving...
something smooth and chocolatey. I wanted chocolate mousse or pudding or cold chocolate-something!

I have been using coconut milk and frozen bananas as a substitute in baking for milk and dairy but this time I just couldn't do it! I had to have cream and chocolate! So I started by making a chocolate pudding of sorts and then decided to freeze some of it in individual little cups for dessert. It was so yummy that the remainder that was in the fridge had to be turned into ice cream.

BUT I worried that if I put the mix in the ice cream maker that I wouldn't be able to share the ice cream that came out as  the amount was a little and SO YUMMY! (I wanted to gobble it ALL up) So I added a cup of milk and mixed it all together before putting it into the ice cream maker:) It was now a little less chocolatey but still so delicious. So its your choice whether you want a stronger chocolate taste or a bigger batch of ice cream. You could also not add the extra milk and leave it in the fridge - it sets to a gorgeous velvety pudding! soooo good!

INGREDIENTS
250ml cream (1 tub)
300 milk + 200ml later (optional)
1 vanilla pod
3 eggs
100g GREAT TASTING dark chocolate (the best you can afford)
2 tablespoons jaggery / brown sugar
2 tablespoons agave syrup / honey / brown suagr
2 tablespoons xylitol / brown sugar



METHOD
Place the cream and 300ml of milk in a small pot on the stove with a vanilla pod -score and scrape out the seeds into the milk and then place the whole empty pod into the milk as well.
Heat on medium until just before boiling point then take off the stove and stir through. Allow to cool quite a bit till warm (this will allow the vanilla to infuse into the milk)
In a small bowl or a jug beat/mix the eggs with the a whisk (i use a fork) till the yellows are broken and combined with the whites. Add the sweeteners (brown sugar, jaggery, xylitol) and mix.
Slowly add some of the milk to the egg/sweetener mix and stir.
Add all of the egg mix back into to the pot stirring continuously so that the egg doesn't scramble.
Place the pot on a low heat and continue to stir until slightly thickened. It won't be to thicker - just slightly and won't taste like raw egg any more. Turn off and continue to stir.
Remove the vanilla pod.
Break up and place all the chocolate into the milk mix and stir until it is melted and one uniform chocolatey colour.
CHOICE 1) place into individual small bowls and place in the fridge for chocolate puddings or the freezer for tiny ice cream mousse puddings

CHOICE 2) add the additional 200ml milk and place in an ice cream machine and make into ice cream. If you don't have an ice cream machine then place in a metal dish and place in the freezer and take out and beat to break up ice crystals every hour for 3 or 4 times.

Serve and enjoy
YUM

The Ooh Box

On Mondays my kid has show and tell at school (you know when a kid takes something to school and shows the class and talks about it)... Well here is an adult version.


I received this box via courier last week and was curious to see the contents inside...

Inside neatly packaged and nicely separated were 4 bottles of wine, olive oil, olives, energy drinks and some snacks (salticrax, biscuits, toffees).

HOW IT WORKS
The Ooh Box (your personal tasting journey) is a nifty way of getting 4 different wines to taste and some other goodies each month delivered to your door via courier - 4 surprise wines each month,  kinda of like a luxury lucky packet.

COST
I am told box subscription costs R395 per month and the contents of this months (July) box is worth R660.

NICE TOUCH
I liked that each wine had a label attached profiling the wines taste and price = you knew the value of the bottle - also you didn't feel like it was maybe a cheap bottle of wine thrown in. This also helped so you knew what to expect to pay if you wanted to buy it at the store.

IDEAS
Would make a nice gift for anybody who loves wines - a nice surprise for them each month.

FINAL THOUGHTS
My husband was way to happy about this box :)  He is already into the second bottle of wine... I am starting to realize this box would be more for him than me as I am more of a wine sipper than a wine drinker.
I still enjoyed unpacking it - it really is like a lucky packet for adults.



DETAILS
http://www.theoohbox.com


 

DISCLAIMER: I received this via the ooh box as a gift - all thoughts are my own.

And the WINNER is!

Congrats to Taryn Peters who is the winner of a R500 Wellness Warehouse Gift voucher :)
Please email me

Happy Monday :)

CURING OLIVES (RECIPE)

How to cure olives on www.bettybake.co.za

I am no Olive connoisseur, in fact I don't really like them (shock, horror) But my kid loves them! So when I came across fresh olives still in there raw state at the Earth Fair market (farmers market) the lovely stall holder insisted I should buy some fresh olives and make some olives at home. I was perplexed and said I didn't know how and don't really eat them but the lovely lady assured me that it was very simple and easy to do. She talked me through the process and handed me a recipe with my purchase of a bag of kalamata olives.

I was skeptical that it could be that easy but also trusted the lady opinion so with some hope I headed home to soak my olives and wait and see after 6 weeks if she was right. This is how I did them... apparently the results are good.

INGREDIENTS
1 kg olives (what ever variety you like)
water (filtered if possible)
100grams salt
60grams salt (this is for 6 weeks later)
a little olive oil

METHOD 
Wash the olives rubbing them lightly in a large bowl or container and leave to soak for 24 hours (don't rub to hard you don't want to bruise them) This is just to get all the dust off them and any stubborn dirt.
After 24hours rinse them off and place the olives in a container where you are able to place a lid on top with something to push the olives under the water. (I used a very large glass jar with an unusual shaped vase that kept all the olives submerged under the water/brine.)
Mix up your water and salt to make a 10% brine solution. For every litre of water you use 100grams of salt. Mix the solution then pour onto your olives. Make sure that your olives stay under this water at all times while they are curing.
Please note a moldy gunk will grow on top of the water - this is perfectly normal and your olives are not off!!! Promise! 
After 6 weeks - take out an olive rinse off and taste if ready rinse them all off but if not leave for longer checking every few days/ once a week.
When ready rinse the olives off and leave to dry on a clean surface for 3 - 12 hours. They will get dark - almost the colour they were when you bought them.
Mix up a 6% solution - 60 grams salt per litre of filtered water.
Place olives in clean jars and fill with the new brine.
Pour a little olive oil on top and seal with a lid tightly
Place in the fridge ( I am told if kept in the fridge they can keep for upto a year)
Eat as desired

We have had ours about 3 months and my kid says they taste great