first attempts

flybynight

ok, as a self confesed "over presenter" my girlfriend has instructed me i have a limit on what i can spend for her birthday, as we are a bit skint. I have bought a card and decided instead of buying her a box of chocs, i was going to make her one. the box is no problem , i have constructed myself and am pretty impressed with my first attempt. Only now i've realised i have b*gger all idea how to make sweets, so i just have a box. her birthday is on sunday. also any ideas on the best sort fo cake to make ( im guessing i'll have to make on sat)
cheers in advance for any suggestions

Cazzdevil

How about making some rum truffles? I sometimes make these for my dad for Christmas, so simple to make, quite cheap too! Here's a recipe that's the same as mine, but you can coat them in anything - cocoa, white choc, choc strands etc...

http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/tech/recipes/cookies/rum-balls-2/Chap1.html

juliapenguin

flybynight wrote: »

ok, as a self confesed "over presenter" my girlfriend has instructed me i have a limit on what i can spend for her birthday, as we are a bit skint. I have bought a card and decided instead of buying her a box of chocs, i was going to make her one. the box is no problem , i have constructed myself and am pretty impressed with my first attempt. Only now i've realised i have b*gger all idea how to make sweets, so i just have a box. her birthday is on sunday. also any ideas on the best sort fo cake to make ( im guessing i'll have to make on sat)
cheers in advance for any suggestions

Hi there

Chocolate truffles are really nice - try Delia Smith's website - it's not as much trouble as it sounds and they're a million times nicer than bought ones.

If she likes chocolate, do a chocolate cake too! My recipe is really cheap but great - mix up 6oz margarine, 6oz sugar, 3 eggs, 5oz self raising flour, 3oz drinking chocolate not cocoa with 3 tablespoons of boiling water. Put it into whatever cake tin you've got and cook for as long as it takes on 180 degrees C - check after 30 mins. You can also microwave this lot for 5 mins and eat it hot with custard (it doesn't keep well for some reason when it's been microwaved).

Good luck. My OH wouldn't even try!:beer:

Plum_Pie

How thoughtful! I wish someone would make me sweets!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....html?t=414524

If you scroll down to Post #11 , there are several recipes (from the Hampers sticky in MS for Families). HTH

flybynight

cool nice one guys.
i was considering marzypan made into shaypes and coated with chocolate, as i figures thats pretty simple. will look at the truffels although they look a little fiddlly (the last coment on anything i do vagueley delicate was that it looked like it had been done by sombody in boxing gloves).

Good luck. My OH wouldn't even try

i figured, if i can take the car apart it canet be hard to maek summat rapped in chocolate.

angie_loves_veg

just moved over from greenfingered - gentle please! (but might explain my fruity suggestion!)

How about fruit dipped in chocolate - I'm thinking strawberries, cherries that sort of thing......?

Sugar_Junkie

What a lovely idea! I'd recommend truffles too, they're really a lot easier to make than they sound. If you can hand make a fiddley sweet box I'm sure they'll be really easy for you. My mum used to make them every Christmas as a treat and I still adore them now. She rolled them in chocolate strands. Let me see if I can find the recipe...

Here we go, knew I had her old cooking file somewhere.

8oz icing sugar
3oz butter
2oz ground almonds
2oz cooking chocolate
Almond essence
Rum essence
Egg white
Icing sugar to dredge
Chocolate vermicelli

Cream butter, add essences (doesn't say how much but I assume a drop or two). Stir in sieved icing sugar and ground almonds.
Melt chocolate then leave to cool slightly but whilst still liquid beat into mixture.
Using icing sugar to dredge, knead up mixture. Shape into small balls. Leave in cool place to become firm.
Coat with egg white, roll in vermicelli.
Place in small paper cases.

I'm sure she'll love whatever you decide on as you went to all this effort for her! Lots of brownie points

lynzpower

Maybe make a smaller box with some honeycomb in

I made this for OHs birthday ( really for me ) and WE loved it!

http://thefoody.com/sweets/honeycomb.html

Also we dug out a recipe for nut brittle the other day as well

http://uktv.co.uk/index.cfm/uktv/food.recipe/aid/514892 ( done in under 20mins!)

DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

lil_me

Would have suggested the same, just wanted to add a well done, what a lovely idea

Ytaya

Awww, what a sweet guy you are! Your girl's very lucky

If you want some entertaining reading on the subject, try this thread from MrBadExample. There's lots of links to recipes for sweets and it'll keep you amused :rotfl:

debbym

Try melting some chocolate and use to coat brazil nuts or similar, marzipan is also good, as is dried fruit- if you do fresh fruit use something that is whole (not cut fruit) and dry well before dipping in chocolate as otherwise it won't stick cos of the juice Most supermarket sell the little sweet cases in the baking section if you want to have the sweets individual rather than one big lump.