How to make m&m pretzel Rolos

My family taught me to make these when I was in America and I have been teaching sharing them with people ever since. I just love how easy they are to make! Plus they are incredibly delicious and if you are willing to hunt for the correct m&m's you can make them fit ANY occasion!

What you will need:

+ Mini pretzels - don't use regular size ones or the Rolos will melt through the gaps. In Australia our mini pretzels come in different shapes - only use the pretzel and star shaped ones. I've had trouble with the others.

+ Rolos

+ Peanut m&m's - although I sometimes use a mixed bag so that people who don't like peanuts get the regular and crispy m&ms instead.

What to do:

1. Preheat oven - 300° Fahrenheit or 130° Celsius. I know this isn't a correct conversion, but these are the two temperatures I use when i'm in Australia or the States.

2. Cover a baking tray with mini pretzels.

3. Place a Rolo in the middle of each pretzel.

4. Put the tray in the oven. Leave in the oven until Rolos have softened - but before the caramel bursts out!! At 300°F they take about 3 minutes, at 130°C it takes about 2 minutes 10 seconds.

5. Take tray out of the oven and immediately start putting m&ms on top of each one. Don't press too hard or the Rolos will burst. I put the m&m's lightly on top so the Rolos still hold their form, however when i'm making these using pecans I do squash them more.

And now you are done! Enjoy!!

Remember to eat a few while they are still warm - yum!!

The wonderful thing about these is that you can make them appropriate for any occasion! Pastel M&Ms at Easter, red/green/white at Christmas, blue/red for 4th of July and Australia Day. And every colour when you are just making a quick snack for afternoon tea!

Photo credit

Sorry about the poor quality photos. I didn't have m&m's on hand (or even pecans which are a good alternative) so I couldn't make any. Instead I dug up old photos that my friend took so that she would remember how to make them! :) I'll repost better ones when I have next make them.

The blue, red and white

Happy Independence Day!! Here are a few of the yummy homemade snacks we made and then ate at our party today.

M&M pretzel rollos

Pigs in a blanket - with a few original designs mixed in!

Chocolate walnut fudge

Can you build snowmen in Antarctica?

The kids at school are studying Antarctica so today I made them snow-people cupcakes. The kids were thrilled with them (although I really doubt that they'd turn anything away that contained sugar) but I wasn't particularly happy with my work - despite slaving over them for HOURS!

This is what they were supposed to look like:

And here is my version:

As you can see, there is quite a difference! :(

My sister was given some adorable Miniamo icing tubes (pictured below) for her birthday, so I planned on creating the hat trim using those. Unfortunately, they turned out out to be REALLY difficult to use! Hopefully with practice, they will become easier. But that was just the first problem with these cupcakes.

TBC...

Chocolate mug cake

I found a recipe today on Maker*land's blog to make a cake in a mug. Since there was nobody home and my plan for dinner had consisted of toast and honey, I decided that this would be the perfect desert.

I stayed true to the Maker*land's recipe although I did consider switching the oil for butter. The only time that I have ever used oil for baking a cake is when I lived in the US and made packet cakes. I much prefer to use butter, but as this was my first microwaved cake I decided to not mix things up just incase I messed things up!

The ingredients

Mix 4 Tbspn plain flour, 3 Tbspn sugar, 2 Tbspn cocoa and 1 egg. This is what the ingredients look like before mixing.

After mixing you are left with a VERY thick mixture.

Add 3 Tbspn milk, 3 Tbspn veggie oil and a few drops of vanilla essence. Eww. Oil floating on top of milk, floating on top of cake batter.

Stir well until it actually resembles cake mix!

The recipe said to microwave for 2 minutes 15 depending on your microwave. I had no idea what my microwave was like compared to others so I decided to stick to 2 minutes thinking it would need longer. It didn't, the cake was perfectly cooked in that time. If fact, it was overcooked. Or i'm assuming that it was. It was rather chewy and rubbery, although not in an awful way. But also not in the 'I want to try this recipe again immediately' way.

It was yummy, but not as great as I expected. Next time I try this I will microwave it for less. I'm positive that's the reason it didn't turn out as great as Maker*land's.

Still, i'm pretty excited that I just baked a cake in approximately 4 minutes!! I just wish i'd had chocolate chips and marshmallows to add on top! Cookies and cream ice-cream had to do.

Thanks for the recipe Maker*land!!

An apple a day

Earlier in the week we put on a morning tea as a small thank you for the teachers at school. My scones were the first thing too go - but really scones, jam and cream? Of course they would be!

My favorites (also popular - although really, these teachers would eat ANYTHING!) were my mini cupcakes!! I made two types: plain with a strawberry-flavoured buttercream icing and mini apples.

Strawberry icing!

Mini apples. These are so ridiculously easy to make! The cupcakes were iced and then rolled in a bowl of red sprinkles. The stems are simply tiny wedges of chocolate cut from chocolate buttons and the leaves were a lucky find in cake store. I had planned on using mint leaf lollies but these worked out much nicer. Adorable, right?

The apples actually looked so much better than the one pictured. Sadly I forgot to take a photo before they were all devoured. I didn't want to forget my hard work so I made a cheat apple just for these photos. I put some hot water on the strawberry iced cupcake to soften the icing and then covered it in red sprinkles. It looks like a mini disaster with the melted icing and other sprinkles underneath, but it also reminds me of the actual pretty cupcakes. I bought extra leaves so i'll have to think of another occasion to make teeny tiny apples now!

An apple a day keeps.... who away? The teacher or the students? Hmmm...

The proof in the pudding

Christmas is my favourite time of year! And this year was even better thanks to A Very Glee Christmas!! (although my coworkers might have something different to say on the subject...)

To make up for the fact that Rachel Berry was belting out carols every day in the office, I decided to make some Christmas treats to share.

These are mini chocolate-chip muffins decorated with a buttercream icing. The "cherry" is half a gummy bear turned upside down. The leaves are just mint leaf lollies cut with scissors into about 10 small pieces. So simple! And much more delicious than actual Christmas pudding.

They were very popular at work and didn't last past 11am each morning. However i'm going to have to think of something else to make next year if Glee decides to bring out another album...