Baking with Lisa Smith

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup vegetable oil

13 oz evaporated milk

1/4 cup poppy seeds

1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:

Whisk together confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice in small bowl (or cup) until nice and smooth.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and make sure to butter or grease your loaf pan.

In a large bowl mix together your flour, baking soda, salt and sugar. Once well combined, add eggs, vanilla, oil and milk. Again make sure to mix well! Then fold in the poppy seeds – no over mixing. 

Bake your poppy seed cake, until the toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean!

Take your loafs out of the oven, and drizzle your lemon glaze on top, while it’s still warm.

Enjoy!

Belinda compares two top coats to see which one gives better value.

Marianne was thrilled to be a Monica’s Famous Australian’s school project this month. As part of the project Marianne gave Monny some bookmarks and postcards to distribute to her class.

Monny also streaked her hair purple for the occasion to match Marianne’s current colour.

For those of you who don’t know, Monica is Belinda’s (Friday Ketchup) daughter. Monica is an avid reader, loves spooky dolls like her mum and dad, and just made district trials in athletics.

Go Monny!

Belinda Hamilton interviews teen expert and author Michelle Mitchell.

We’re heading into the lead up to mid-year exams for Aussie high school students. What are your top 3 tips to surviving exams?

 
Try these tips to help keep things calm….

1. Put as much value on relaxation and exercise as you do on exams. Value and time are two different things. You may have to cut down on the time you spent watching television or sports, however don’t eliminate them altogether.

2. Eat a decent breakfast before going to school. When you are hungry if affects your concentration, mental speed and clarity.  Eating a good breakfast, which includes protein, helps brain function stay stable.

3. Start assignments and study as early as possible. Stress builds when you have too much to do in too little time. Start each assignment the day you are given it and don’t leave things to the last minute.

We’ve been running a series on www.burnbright.com.au called Mirror Mirror to counteract the YouTube trend of teens asking the masses, ‘Am I beautiful?’ Our focus in this series is to highlight teen girls and women who have done incredible things with their lives. Who would you suggest we should profile for role models for young women?
 
I am privileged to come in contact with many young ladies who are turning their lives around and achieving great things.  Chantelliene is one of those ladies.  She is now a 24 years old, successful business owner.  She got heavily involved in drugs and alcohol when she was a teenager but has managed to get herself back on the straight and narrow.  She grew up with quite a number of challenges to overcome, including an alcoholic father. I’m so proud to see she is now kicking great goals for her own life and learning from her families mistakes.
 
Why do you think society places so much focus on young women to aim for beauty rather than striving to achieve amazing things?
 
There is so much focus on beauty and body image in society and the media.  It puts a lot of pressure on our girls.  I see girls wanting a ‘box’ so badly their life is melting down over it.  Girls don’t put all your eggs in the one beauty basket. There is more to you than how you look. I’m blogging more about this more at michellemitchell.org this week.
 
There’s a saying, ‘You can’t troll a troll,’ (eye for an eye) when referring to Internet bullying, however this is inaction is perpetuating the issue. How can teens take charge of the issue, without trolling the trolls?
 
I agree. You can’t beat a bully  by being a bully. The person who started the fight is usually meaner and stronger than you.  You can however, beat a bully by outsmarting a bully. One way of outsmarting a bullying is not giving them any attention AT ALL.  Bullies thrives on attention. The more dramatically we react, the more we fuel it.  The other way of outsmarting bullies is by taking yourself off social media sites that are known for bullying, like Ask.fm. If you have a profile on a site like that you are a sitting duck, waiting to be bullied.  That’s no way to live! Lastly, be careful who you friend and follow in the first place and keep in contact with supportive adults if you feel uncomfortable about anything online.
 
So much attention is given to how parents can start a non-threatening dialogue with their teenage children, but very little is taught to teens as to how to do the same with their parents, who may be just as disconnected in the relationship as they believe their teens to be. Can you suggest so me conversation starters that shouldn’t send parents into defence mode?
 
If you are asking your parents to allow you to do something ‘safe’ but you are still worried about your response, I’d suggest a few things.  Try not to over react and scream the house down. This will get their back up more.  Try to communicate your feelings calmly, slowly and with respect. Make your parents feel appreciated.  Give it a few days. You don’t have to get your point across in 30 minutes. Sometimes parents need time to think about things. 

Michelle’s Bio:

An advocate, author and active youth worker, Michelle’s honest and hope-filled approach has seen her help countless teenagers transition successfully into adulthood.

Working in schools, homes and community groups, Michelle is the founder of charity Youth Excel which started in 2000. Youth Excel delivers life skills education and support to hundreds of teenagers and their families though presentations, small groups and individual mentoring.

Michelle passionately advocates for equal opportunities for all young people, regardless of cultural background, socio-economic status or family dysfunction.

As a speaker, Michelle is entertaining, energetic and passionate about helping teenagers and their families navigate through challenging crossroads.

As an author, Michelle has incorporated years of grassroots experience into her book, “What Teenage Girls Don’t Tell their Parents”.  Michelle has also authored a series of five life skills programs being utilised by schools nationwide covering topics including self esteem, relationship strategies, problem solving, goal setting and self leadership.

Michelle is a registered teacher.

Along with her husband Doc and two teenagers, she lives in Brisbane, Australia

– See more at: http://michellemitchell.org/

Baking with Mandy Wrangles

Om Nomnom Malteser Cake

The Malteser Cake is perfect if you’re after a treat that will knock everyone’s socks off. Not only does it look super-impressive, but it’s delish!

It does come with a warning though – it’s not for the faint-hearted. This one is seriously sweet and chocolately; even for seasoned chocolate addicts, any more than a sliver might just have you jumping sky-scrapers.

What you’ll need:

150g of softened butter

250g of caster (superfine) sugar

150g of self-raising flour

125g of sour cream

4 eggs

50g of cocoa powder

1tsp of baking powder

a pinch of salt

a few drops of vanilla essence or extract

How it’s done:

Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees C.  Grease and line 2 x 20cm round cake tins with baking paper. I actually doubled this recipe and made four. Because, you know – more impressive. This recipe works best if you have an electric mixer of some sort, or really big muscles. I used a mixer.

Mix together the butter, caster sugar, flour and sour cream. Then add the eggs (one at a time), cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Finally, add the vanilla.

Divide the mixture evenly between your cake tins, smooth the tops with a spatula and cook for about 30 mins, or until a skewer stuck into the middle comes out clean. Let them cool for a couple of minutes before turning out (carefully!) onto a wire tray to cool completely.

 Buttercream Icing:

100g of dark chocolate, melted (you can either do this in the microwave in a bowl over simmering water. I find the microwave method a bit hit and miss – it’s easy to burn or ‘seize’ the chocolate)

550g of icing sugar

250g softened butter

2 tbs of milk

Mix together your icing sugar, butter and milk until they’re light and fluffy. Then add the chocolate and mix again.

Now for the fun bit!

Smother each layer of cake with buttercream (again, I doubled this recipe) and squish gently together. Then cover the whole thing with even more chocolately buttercream, paying extra attention the edges of the cake. Once it’s totally covered, you’ll need about 600 to 700 grams of Maltesers. Start at the bottom of the cake, in the middle and place the Maltezers over the cake in a straight vertical line. Use that as a guide to covering the entire cake.

Ta-Daaa!