Best Ever Orange Cake!

I wanted to bake something for school, and the tart was a little hard to pack in a lunchbox, so I asked my auntie to take it to my Oma who I am sure will appreciate it. This recipe is kind of our house's fall-back recipe, and whenever we want to bake something, but can't decide, we all agree on this. It is an amazingly easy recipe, and tastes great. It's also really good for lunch boxes. It is from the Women's Weekly Everyday Cakes & Cookies. It is the moist orange cake.

Ingredients:

- 150g of butter (softened)

- the zest and juice of 2 large oranges

- 2/3 of a cup of caster sugar

- 3 eggs

- 1 1/4 cups of self-raising flour

- 1/4 of a cup of milk

How To Make It:

1. Preheat oven to 160˚C, fan forced

2. Grease and line the base of a 20cm round cake pan (make sure it is quite a deep pan)

3. Add all the ingredients together in a large bowl

4. Use an electric mixer, and beat on low speed until combined

5. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for about 3 minutes or until the mixture is changed in colour and smooth

6. Spread into prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the top is browning and a skewer inserted comes out clean

7. Leave the cake in the pan for about 2 minutes to cool, and then turn onto a wire rack to cool

Icing (it's a bit makeshift, but tastes good)

1. Put about 2 tablespoons of butter into a medium bowl (add more if you like your icing buttery, like me)

2.Put about 4 tablespoons of icing sugar into the bowl, and mash it up (using a fork) until it is a really rough paste

3. Add in the juice from 1 orange, and stir (add more of each ingredient until it is the right consistency)

4. Spread onto cold cake, and add sprinkles or writing icing, or leave it plain :)

I added those yummy little silver balls on top!

(Also, just so you know, this was supposed to go up last week, but I accidentally saved it as a draft instead of publishing it so sorry about that!)

Choc-Chip Cookies!

I was really craving choc-chip cookies and fudge today, but Mum said I had to make a choice. I chose the cookies (well, technically she said 'I hate fudge and cookies, but cookies are better!). This recipe is off of my favourite food website, taste.com. Almost all of the comments were good, except a few said that the dough was a bit sticky, so I chose to add only a little bit more flour. Anyway, these are the Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Ingredients:
- 185g of butter, softened
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 of a cup of caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 cups of plain flour (I added about a tablespoon more)
- 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder
- 200g of dark chocolate, roughly chopped

How To Make It:
1. Preheat your oven to 180˚C
2. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper
3. Put both sugars and butter into a medium bowl
4. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth, creamy and pale in colour
5. Add in the egg and egg yolk and beat until well combined
6. Add the flour and baking powder, and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined (I used a spatula, but it's nearly the same thing)
7. Add the chocolate and stir until combined (make sure the choc-chips are evenly dispersed throughout the mixture)
8. Roll balls about 5cm's wide, place on tray with spaces between, and press down slightly (when they are cooked, they pretty much double in size)
9. Put in oven for 12 minutes or an extra 5 minutes if you want them crispier (Mine were in the oven for almost 20 minutes and they were still quite soft, but keep checking them whilst they are in there)
10. Take out of oven, and leave on tray for about 3 minutes to firm up, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Turned out really yummy!