This week LiveBetter celebrated the beginning of the silly season with our annual LiveBetter Christmas Bakeoff! LiveBetter offices in Orange, Dubbo, Griffith, Bundaberg and Broken Hill took part and created some delicious Christmas treats. It was a tough competition with countless entries, and each treat was judged on visual appeal, Christmas cheer and most importantly, taste!
Here are those winning recipes that you can make at home!
Orange
Robyn’s Lemon Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 ¼ cup SR Flour
¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
55g unsalted butter, room temp
¼ cup vegetive oil
¾ cup sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
90ml milk
¼ cup lemon juice
Buttercream Frosting
225g butter, room temp
3 ¾ cups icing sugar
¼ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Green food colouring
Method
Step One
Preheat oven to 180°. Combine all cake ingredients. Mix for 2-3 minutes and divide into a lined cupcake tin.
Step Two
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cool.
Step Three
Beat room temperature butter for 7-8 minutes or until pale. Add sifted icing sugar, 1 cup at a time while mixing to ensure it mixes well. Add milk, vanilla and food colouring, and mix well.
Step Four
Put frosting onto cupcakes and serve!
Griffith
Leanne’s Mint Slice
Ingredients
Base:
300g choc ripple biscuits
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
150g melted butter
150g sweetened condensed milk
Pinch of salt
Filling:
500g Icing sugar
3-5 tablespoons water
A few drops of green food colouring
A few drops of Peppermint essence
Topping:
175g dark chocolate
30g coconut oil
Method
Step 1
Line the base and sides of a 20x20cm square tin. Place the cookies, cocoa and coconut in a food processor and blitz until small crumbs. Add the butter, condensed milk and salt and blitz until it comes together. Press into the tin and smooth out. Pop it in the fridge while you make the filling.
Step 2
Place the icing sugar in a food processor and blitz until you get rid of the lumps. Add the water (slowly so as not to be too runny), colouring and peppermint essence and blitz until smooth. Spread over the base and pop this in the fridge while you make the chocolate topping.
Step 3
Melt the chocolate in a microwave or double boiler with the coconut oil. Stir until smooth. Spread over the filling and smooth out or use a fork to make a pattern on the top. Allow to set in the fridge before cutting.
Bundaberg
Tegan’s Reindeer Cake Pops
Ingredients
Coles butter cake dry mix
2 eggs
160ml of milk
60g of butter softened
100 -150g cream cheese
200g packets of white chocolate baking chips
Mini M&Ms
Pretzels
Method
Step One
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Beat together and place the mix into a cake tin. Cook the cake for 45 minutes. Let cool overnight.
Step Two
Crush up cakes. Mix in 100-150g of cream cheese by hand and roll mixture into balls.
Step Three
Melt white chocolate baking chips
Step Four
Roll the cake balls into melted chocolate. Place one red M&M (nose) and two brown M&M’s (eyes) onto the ball. Then place each half of a broken preztel on either side of the ball (antlers). Place in fridge overnight. Serve!
Dubbo
Alanna’s Christmas Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
300g Sugar
250g Unsalted Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
250ml Milk
4 Eggs
430g Self Raising Flour
1tsp baking Powder.
1 pinch Salt
Icing:
30g Butter
80g Cream Cheese
1 ½ Cups Pure Icing Sugar
Method
Step One:
Preheat oven to 180°. Cream Butter and sugar. Add in Milk, Eggs and vanilla.
Step Two:
Add in Flour, Baking Powder and salt.
Step Three:
Divide mixture into muffin pan. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Allow to cool.
Step Four:
Beat room temperature butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in icing sugar. Spoon mixture onto cooled cupcakes and serve!
Broken Hill
Leeanne’s Raspberry and White Chocolate Trifle
Ingredients:
20 small sponge fingers
1/2 cup (125ml) orange-flavoured liqueur
250g fresh raspberries, to serve
Raspberry jelly
2 tbsp gelatine powder
1 1/2 litres cranberry juice
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
500g frozen raspberries
White Chocolate Ganache
1 cup (250ml) single pouring cream
180g White Chocolate
Mascarpone Cream
1/2 cup (140g) mascarpone
1/2 cup (80g) icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 1/2 (375ml) single pouring cream
Method:
Step One:
Place 1 cup of cranberry juice in a small bowl. Sprinkle with the gelatine and set aside for 5 minutes. Put remaining juice and sugar into a large saucepan on a medium heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for 1 minute. Remove saucepan from heat, add gelatine mixture and whisk to combine. Let sit for 20 minutes or until cool. Pour mixture into 4-litre capacity dish and place frozen raspberries on top. Put in the fridge for 4-5 hours or overnight.
Step Two:
Place chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and add 1/4 cup of cream while stirring, until combined. Allow to cool and then refrigerate until cold. Pour the remaining cream into an electric mixer bowl and whisk on high until stiff peaks form. Add chocolate mixture and gently fold to combine.
Step Three:
Place the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla and cream into electric mixer bowl and whisk until soft peaks form.
Step Four:
Spoon ganache over the jelly and smooth. Place the liqueur in a small bowl, dip the biscuits in the liqueur then layer over the ganache. Spoon mascarpone cream over the biscuits and sprinkle with fresh raspberries to serve.
