Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a scary (and safe) Halloween this year! Halloween isnt very popular in Australia (although more and more Aussies seem to be celebrating in recent years), but that doesnt mean you wont see Halloween stuff in the shops, or trick-or-treaters on your doorstep. We havent celebrated Halloween in a few years not since my ever-popular zombie cupcakes and spider pumpkin dulce de leche cupcakes, anyway. Did you even realize that my zombie cupcakes are featured on the Bake It Pretty product page for the zombie hands? That totally blew me away when I saw that!

Well, since my kids are getting older, I decided to treat them to a Halloween feast last night. The day before Halloween, I bought a sackful of decor from a dollar shop and decorated our dining room table with spooky stuff while the kids were at school.

I then got to work on some Halloween desserts, which I really had a lot of fun with. I started with these bloody zombie cupcakes, made especially for my 5-year-old son, who, for some reason, has a thing for zombies.

These are red velvet cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting; the clotty, gelatinous-looking blood is actually boysenberry sauce! For my sons amusement, though, they were zombie blood cupcakes with bone frosting and fresh zombie blood. He took it rather seriously and thought they were pretty cool! I havent used these zombie hands since 2009, so I had a lot of fun incorporating them into these cupcakes. The recipe for the cupcakes comes from Brown Eyed Baker, but I used Philadelphias brand new cream cheese frosting to make the process a bit quicker. The cupcakes and frosting were really delicious together, and the fresh blood boysenberry sauce (which was store-bought) added a nice little fresh touch. As previously mentioned, you can get the zombie hand cupcake toppers from Bake It Pretty.

Next up were these witches fingers. These cookies were a major wow-factor for the entire family, and, unfortunately, were a little too creepy; everyone refused to eat them!

They scared my 3-year-old, even after I had repeatedly assured him that they were just cookies. My husband took one bite and decided he couldnt handle eating the rest. What a sissy! Anyway, theyre just a basic sugar cookie dough with a bit of green food coloring mixed in; the blood is just red icing gel; the fingernails are blanched almonds. I was actually quite impressed with these. It was amazing to make these witch fingers because they do indeed look quite life-like! The recipe comes from Annies Eats.

The kids came home to see these cupcakes and fingers on our Halloween-themed table and they were simply delighted! They continued to talk about it and gather around it for the entire rest of the night!

For the savory foods, the kids got to help once they were returned home from school. We made deviled eggs with olive spiders

I used my own recipe for the deviled eggs and I got the olive spider idea from She Knows. This was pretty easy, but it was time-consuming chopping the olives and getting them in the right place for that spider effect.

And lastly, mummy pizzas and hot dogs!

We put a little too much cheese on our mummy pizzas, so after they baked, it all melted together and it didnt look so mummy-ish anymore! We love cheese though. This idea came from Curry and Comfort.

The mummy hot dogs were easy, but a little tricky to do as the weather was so warm, which made the pastry sticky and difficult to work with. We still got those dogs wrapped up though, and they were the most popular of the savory food. This idea came from Damn Delicious.

The only thing we were unlucky with last night was that we only had 3 trick-or-treaters! Last year, we had so many that we ran out of candy. Were in a different house this year, however, so Im presuming there either arent a lot of kids around our neighborhood, or Halloween isnt celebrated much in this suburb. Oh well, at least the kids had a fun Halloween feast and a great spooky night!

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Biscoff Ice Cream With Brownie Chunks and Fudge Swirls

Do you love Biscoff? And chocolate? And ice cream? If you answered yes to all three questions, then youre going to love this post. Ill show you what Im talking about

Okay, this looks like a bowl full of mess, youre right. Let me explain what happened to this bowl of ice cream, though. I churned the ice cream last week and put it in the freezer to harden up, so that it would look better for photographing. When the time came, later in the day, I set up the area where Id be taking the pictures. I then scooped the ice cream into the bowl, drizzled melted Biscoff over it and crumbled a Biscoff cookie on top. I got my camera from my camera bag, turned it on, and framed my first photo. I clicked the shutter. Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing happened.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that my camera battery was dead. And my ice cream was melting.

I put the bowl of ice cream into the freezer, and put my camera battery in the charger. About 5 minutes later, I removed the battery and put it back in the camera. I took the ice cream out of the freezer and placed it back on the set I had prepared. It was pretty much too late for the ice cream, though, as it had already melted quite a bit.

Since I got my new ice cream maker, I have noticed that homemade ice cream melts faster than store-bought. If Im going to photograph my homemade ice cream in future, I have to remember to be sure my camera battery is charged!

So that explains why my ice cream looks so messy, but yet to be explained is what this ice cream actually is. Its a delicious combination of Biscoff ice cream, gooey chocolate brownies and chocolate fudge swirl. Its better than any tub of Ben & Jerrys (no offense, Ben & Jerry!). In fact, I hid the container of this ice cream behind bags of frozen peas and raspberries, and a couple boxes of frozen fish, just so that no one would find it.

Actually, I did share some with my 7-year-old daughter, who loved it just as much as I did.

Just to be extra-extravagant, I warmed a scoop of Biscoff spread and drizzled it on top of the ice cream. But I couldnt stop there. I also crumbled a Biscoff cookie over the entire bowl. *blush* This is getting kind of embarrassingly extravagant.

Let me talk you through the various recipes I used for this decadent ice cream First up, the ice cream base. Its my adaptation of Billy Laws peanut butter ice cream recipe, which you can find in his new cookbook, Have You Eaten? (click here to buy). I made the peanut butter ice cream earlier and loved it, and thought it would be even better if I substituted creamy Biscoff spread for the peanut butter. What an excellent idea this turned out to be! Besides leaving out the peanut butter and replacing the full amount with Biscoff, I also completely left out the honey. Buy Billys book for the original recipe, and just do what I did to make Biscoff ice cream. Alternatively, choose an existing Biscoff ice cream recipe by searching on Google, or substitute Biscoff for peanut butter in most peanut butter ice cream recipes.

Next, the brownies. Again, this is a recipe from Billy Laws cookbook. These brownies are the ultimate brownies. So fudgey and chocolatey and delicious. Billys original recipe also uses peanut butter and macadamias, but I left these out. To add brownies to your Biscoff ice cream, buy Billys cookbook for his recipe, or choose your own fudgey brownie recipe. To use them in your ice cream, follow the recipe to prepare the brownies, and after they have cooled completely, cut the batch in half and place one half in the freezer. The other half you can give to friends or family. I recommend putting the brownies in the freezer so that they will be easier and cleaner to cut into small chunks. Once frozen, use a sharp knife to cut the brownie into bite-size chunks. Use as many or as little chunks as you like. Once cut, place the chunks in a ziploc bag, or something air-tight, and put them back in the freezer until needed.

Lastly, for the fudge swirl, I used this recipe.

Now, to get this ice cream and add-ins all in the same bowl. assuming you have already made the ice cream base and it has been chilled completely in the refrigerator, churn it in your ice cream maker as per instructions. Once finished, scoop out some ice cream and spread it out on the bottom of a freezer-safe container so that its flat. Toss some brownie chunks on top and drizzle over a bit of fudge sauce. Working quickly, before the fudge sauce sets, swirl the fudge into the ice cream with the tip of a butter knife. Then repeat the layering. Cover the ice cream tightly and freeze until set (or eat straight away, if youre into that sort of thing).

To serve it the way I did, just melt a few scoops of Biscoff spread in the microwave (about 10-15 seconds, or just until warm and its of drizzle-able consistency), pour it on top of the ice cream, then crumble a Biscoff cookie over the entire bowl. If youre in Australia, you wont be able to find Biscoff spread, unfortunately, unless you have a friend traveling to the US or your family lives there. Luckily, I have family in the US that can send some to me. However, I can help you out with the Biscoff cookies as a local confectionery shop has just started selling these tasty little morsels. Read my post about where you can find this shop, or information on how you can have a package of them posted to you.

And what does my ice cream actually look like when its not all melted?

It looks beautiful and delicious!

Before you leave, be sure to check out my other Biscoff recipes:

• Biscoff & chocolate striped popsicles
• No-bake chocolate Biscoff bars
• Biscoff pumpkin pie

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Strawberry, Basil & Black Pepper Ice Cream + Ice Cream Maker Giveaway!

What is it about ice cream that makes it one of the worlds most loved comfort foods? Many nights, after having a hard day, Ive cuddled up on the sofa with a small tub of ice cream after everyone else is asleep (Ive eaten more tubs of Ben & Jerrys than I care to admit!); it always makes me feel better. Theres just something special about ice cream.

Ive tried making my own ice cream before, with the hand-churning method, but never really got excellent results. This is where you prepare your ice cream mixture, freeze it, then every 2 hours, take it out, scrape it into the bowl of an electric mixer, mix it to break up the ice crystals, scrape it back into the freezer bowl, freeze it, and repeat the entire process another 3 times. How annoying! And can you believe I have never owned an ice cream maker in my entire life? Yes, I do live under a rock.

Ice cream makers basically do the hand-churning method for you. All you need to do is turn it on, pour your ice cream mixture in, and leave it for 15-20 minutes to churn the mixture, in a way that is similar to a stand mixer. After that youll have a soft-serve consistency, and if you would like it to be firmer, just pour it into a freezer-safe container and freeze for a few hours, scoop it out and enjoy.

If you were to take a look at my Firefox bookmarks, youd find heaps of ice cream recipes. Even though Ive never had an ice cream maker, a girl can dream, right?

Last week, my dreams came true, when Kitchenware Direct, my go-to shop for kitchen supplies, heard my ice cream maker pleas and sent me one of my very own (and they have one for you, too!). I immediately gave my red Cuisinart ice cream maker a test run with this dark chocolate sorbet

I used my cherished Valrhona cocoa powder for this recipe and the results were spectacularly dark and delightfully creamy. This was an easy recipe, consisting of pantry staples (cocoa powder, sugar, and vanilla) and water. I wasnt sure what to expect with my first go at sorbet and found that when the ice cream maker had been going for 20 minutes, the consistency of the sorbet was like a super-thick milkshake. I froze it for a few hours (it was about six, I think) to get it to scoopable consistency. It was really silky and smooth, I was quite pleased with myself!

I didnt realize what an ice cream maker actually was. It reminds me of my Zoku Quick Pop Maker; they both have a silvery surface that freezes liquids instantly (and wet fingers!). The ice cream maker has a big paddle attachment (sort of like a stand mixer) to keep the mixture constantly moving, ensuring the end result is creamy and smooth. Theres only one button on this machine, which is the on/off switch.

While I gave the ice cream maker a test run with a sorbet, I wanted to make ice cream for my official review post. I chose a recipe in the latest issue of delicious. magazine for strawberry, basil and black pepper ice cream by one of my favorite food bloggers, Katie Quinn Davies from What Katie Ate. I had never tried basil and strawberry together before, although I had heard it is a great combination. But what is this about black pepper? I couldnt resist making this recipe.

Fresh strawberries, lemon, lime and basil! The strawberries will need to sit in the refrigerator to macerate with a bit of juice from the lemon and lime and some sugar for 2 hours. Afterwards, half of the strawberries will go in a blender, along with a few basil leaves and fresh finely ground black pepper to puree. The rest of the strawberries are to be crushed with a potato masher and set aside. Milk, cream and vanilla beans are added to the pureed strawberries. This mixture then goes into the ice cream maker.

Dont be too concerned about the size of this machine, by the way. Its actually quite compact and fits easily into our cabinets. Compared with our kettle, it isnt too much larger.

According to reviews of this product on Kitchenware Direct, a common complaint seemed to be the noise of the machine while it was churning. Personally, I didnt find the noise to be too loud. My food processor is much louder than this ice cream maker is!

After 10 minutes of churning, the crushed strawberries are added to the mixture. After 20 minutes, I turned off the machine. The ice cream was at a very soft, soft-serve consistency. I had a taste and was surprised at how wonderfully tasty it was! I scraped out the ice cream into a freezer-safe container and froze it overnight.

Scraping out the ice cream from the freezer bowl is a little tricky. Youll need to use a silicone spoon or spatula as a hard plastic or metal one will damage the bowl. And once the machine stops churning, the ice cream starts sticking to the bowl. So Ive discovered that you have to be pretty quick to scrape out the ice cream easily!

The next morning, I sampled some ice cream. The texture was just like the ice cream Im used to and scooped out easily. The flavor was brilliant! With the first bites, you can really taste the basil, and as you eat more, you start tasting the fresh strawberries. Every few bites, theres a slight tingle from a piece of black pepper. My only complaint is that it left a sort of greasy-mouth feel for some reason, which was a little odd.

((Update: Ive discovered a possible cause or two of this greasy-mouth feel. It could be that there is too much fat content in the ice cream, however, I doubt this is the reason in my case as I was just simply following a recipe. The other cause is over-churning, which could turn all that cream into butter! Just like how youre not supposed to whisk cream too much, otherwise itll turn into butter? It appears the same thing goes for ice cream makers, and this, I believe, is the cause of the greasy feeling I experienced. Since writing this post, I have made two more batches of ice cream; one was matcha, and it had the greasy feeling as well. The next batch was peanut butter, and I was sure not to over-churn. I churned the peanut butter ice cream for only 15 minutes, whereas I had been churning my ice creams for 20 minutes. The peanut butter ice cream did not have a greasy feeling whatsoever. Problem solved!))

But I can overlook that because this is some mighty delicious ice cream.

I am absolutely thrilled to own my first ever ice cream maker and am now looking forward to working through my extensive list of ice cream recipes that Ive bookmarked. I can guarantee you that there will be Biscoff ice cream, peanut butter ice cream and matcha ice cream to begin with, then Ill work on some more interesting flavors.

Recipes for the dark chocolate sorbet and strawberry, basil & black pepper ice cream are at the very end of this post.

GIVEAWAY!

Now, how about this giveaway? If you live in Australia, you can enter to win your very own ice cream maker, just like mine, in your own choice of color red, blue, orange, pink, yellow, or green.

Here are the rules:

1. Open to Australian residents only.
2. Prize is one Cuisinart 1.5 litre ice cream maker in the color of the winners choice, provided by Kitchenware Direct.
3. Leave one comment only on this post and tell me your favorite ice cream flavor for extra entries, as below, please leave a separate comment.
4. For one extra entry, tweet about this giveaway and be sure to tag me (@jamieanne), then leave another comment here telling me about your tweet.
5. For another extra entry, post about this giveaway on Facebook by liking my page, The Sweetest Kitchen, and tagging it in your post, then leave yet another comment here telling me about your post.
6. This giveaway closes on Monday, October 29 at 11AM (AEST).
7. One winner will be selected and notified by email, after which the winner will need to respond within 3 days or another winner will be selected, so be sure to include an active email address.

Good luck!

This competition & review is made possible by Brad from Kitcheware Direct.

Dark Chocolate Sorbet
Adapted from Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker instruction booklet
Makes about 5 cups

Ingredients
3 cups water
1 2/3 cup caster sugar
pinch of salt
1 2/3 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)

Method
Combine water, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook mixture, stirring often, until sugar is completely dissolved.

Gradually add cocoa powder to sugar mixture while whisking constantly until smooth. Add vanilla and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours, or overnight.

Churn in an ice cream maker, according to the manufacturers instructions. The sorbet will be soft and creamy; transfer to an air-tight freezer-safe container and place in the freezer for a few hours until desired consistency is reached. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving.

Strawberry, Basil & Black Pepper Ice Cream
Adapted from delicious. magazine, October 2012
Makes 1.5 litres

Ingredients
195g fresh strawberries, hulled, quartered
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
165g caster sugar, divided
about 7 medium-sized fresh basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon fresh finely ground black bepper
190ml whole milk
250ml thickened cream
150ml thin cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped

Method
Place strawberries in a bowl with the lemon and lime juices and 55g sugar. Mix well, then cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours to macerate.

Place half the macerated strawberries in a food processor, along with the basil and pepper. Whiz for a few minutes to form a juicy pulp, then set aside. Crush the remaining macerated strawberries with a potato masher and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, whisk the milk and remaining 110g sugar together for 2 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Add creams, strawberry and basil puree, and vanilla seeds, then gently stir together. Chill overnight, if possible, or for at least 6-8 hours.

Churn the chilled strawberry mixture in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturers instructions, adding the crushed strawberries 10 minutes before the end of churning. If you prefer a firmer ice cream, freeze for a few hours before serving.

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