3 in 1 biscuits

I found the recipe for these on Kidspot when I was baking with the little monsters.
Super fun to make and they look brilliant!

You will need:

• 250g butter, softened
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 ½ cups plain flour
• 8-10 drops red food colouring
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar together with a spoon in a bowl or using an electric mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the flour and mix until a smooth dough forms.
 
Divide the dough into four.

 Colour one portion with red food colouring and another with cocoa powder. I did this in separate small bowls with a knife, but you could knead the colour in.
Wrap the four dough portions separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
Roll each piece of dough on a floured surface into a rectangle shape about 18cm x 20cm.

To make swirly biscuits, place the pink dough on top of the plain dough, trim edges into a neat rectangle.

Now, roll into a log.

Repeat with the other plain dough and chocolate dough.

 To make the marbled biscuits, knead the trimmings together and roll into a log.

Slice the logs into 5mm width biscuits using a serrated bread knife. Place biscuits on baking trays and cook for about 15 minutes until golden.

• Recipe created by Melissa Hughes for Kidspot.

Classic Carrot Cake with a touch of Awesome.

Okay, so here's the deal. There's carrot cakes, and there's this carrot cake. This moist, textured, rich carrot cake that practically hugs you.

You can also make it into adorable little cupcakes, like these:

I used gummy carrots, found at my local corner store. The awesome recipe for this cake was actually invented by my clever partner, TJ.
Here's what you'll need:

For the cake:

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs

½ cup milk
¾ cup flour

¾ cup wholemeal flour

2 ½  cups grated carrot (blend further in food processor if desired)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice
1/2 cup hot water
100g melted butter

For the icing:

50g butter- softened

½ cup cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla essence

1+ cups icing sugar

1+ tbsp milk

Okay, so firstly, pre heat the oven to 160c.

Combine flour, wholemeal flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices in a bowl. Set aside.

Add butter to sugar and brown sugar, beat thoroughly. Beat in eggs. Alternate adding water and milk with dry ingredients to ensure even consistency. Beat for 2-3 minutes with an electric beater, then pour mix into a well-greased cake tin.

Bake at 160c for around 45 minutes, until cake springs back and does other cake-like things when tested.

Icing: 

Beat together butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Alternate adding icing sugar and milk, beating continuously until desired amount and consistency of icing is reached. (You probably want it thick enough to hold it's shape but soft enough to pipe.) You can either cover it in icing, like this:

Or you can be a little more subtle and pipe it, like this:

This cake is an absolute dream to eat!