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Posts tagged ‘donna hay’

Jul 29

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Neapolitan Layer Cake

As I was planning for my daughter’s 5th birthday party, I was eagerly awaiting the release of Donna Hay magazine’s annual kids’ issue.  Judging by the cover of the magazine, I would surely find something beautiful inside to make for my daughter’s birthday.  On the morning of the magazine’s release, I bought my copy and started flipping through the pages.  There were so many neat things, including the cover recipe for chocolate cups.  But I found what I wanted on page 115.  It was called a rainbow layer cake, but it looked more like neapolitan cake, with chocolate, pink and white layers, rather than a rainbow.  There was what looked to be a fluffy, white frosting in between the layers and all over the cake.  Dotting the frosting in 3 rings around the cake were pink and white mini marshmallows that had been cut in half.  It looked really beautiful and it looked exactly like something my daughter would love.  There’s a picture of the cake in the magazine at the bottom of this post.

I was a little skeptical about the cake to begin with.  One reason is because I have never had a good result from any recipe I’ve tried from Donna Hay.  I think the reason for this is that Donna Hay is a food stylist, not a chef!  Another reason I was skeptical about this cake is because the entire thing contains 750 grams, or 1.7 pounds, of butter.  That is a lot of butter.  Unfortunately, I still wanted to make it and my reasoning was that it was just a birthday cake, we don’t eat that much butter all the time!

I was also skeptical because the way this cake is made involves a method I have never used before.  Donna Hay calls it “melt and mix”.  250 grams of butter is melted, then the entire list of ingredients is dumped together into the mixing bowl at once and then mixed.  This is not the normal way to make cake.  This method is used in most of the birthday cake/cupcake recipes in Donna Hay’s kids’ magazine.  I want to say right now that I will never make a cake this way again!  There are definitely other things I want to try in the magazine, but I will be using my own favorite cake recipes instead of Donna Hay’s.

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May 13

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Donna Hay's Molten Brownie Kit

When I made Donna Hay’s Chocolate Cupcake Mix, I promised you I’d eventually try out more of her dessert kits.  For this post I chose the Molten Chocolate Chunk Brownie Kit.  The picture of the brownies on the box looks to-die-for, which is why I chose these over the Chocolate Chip Cookie Kit (which I’m sure will be next).

Donna Hay’s chocolate cupcakes from the kit were pretty good, but I was disappointed in the frosting.  There wasn’t enough of it, and it turned out much lighter in color than the frosting on the box, which was so dark it looked like fudge.  Also, the wrappers kept peeling away from the cupcakes, which was quite annoying.

I wasn’t much happier with the brownies.  All that is required to make the brownies is some butter and eggs, then you whisk it into the dry ingredients from the kit.  After whisking, you mix the chocolate chunks in.

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Feb 15

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Donna Hay Chocolate Cupcake Kit

What’s your take on box cake mixes?  It appears that you either love them or hate them.  For those that hate them, the general idea is that box cake mixes are not made of anything natural and leave a chemical aftertaste.  If you love them though, you probably love them because you believe it’s quick and easy, and maybe you love how light and airy they are.

My take?  I wouldn’t pass up a slice of cake made from a box, but when it comes to making a cake, I’d rather do it from scratch.  I also think that it doesn’t take much longer to make a cake from scratch than it does from a box, so if you’ve got the ingredients to make a cake from scratch, do it!

There’s something therapeutic and calming for me when making a cake from scratch (when my kids are not “helping” me, that is!) and I just can’t get that same feeling with a box cake mix.  That said though, I do love box brownie mixes!

Anyway, last week I stopped in a relatively new shop called Thomas Dux, which sells a lot of organic and gourmet products.  The main aisle I was interested in was the baking aisle, and there I found a range of Donna Hay box mixes – cupcakes, cookies and brownies.  What intrigued me about these mixes is that instead of the usual oil, eggs and water that you’d find in an average box mix, the Donna Hay box mixes required butter, eggs and milk.  I picked up the chocolate cupcake box!

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