RSPCA Puppy Cakes

Make these delicious honey flavoured cupcake with a sweet peanut butter and cream cheese centre and toasted meringue topping to raise funds for the RSPCA and share them with your four legged friend!

Obviously don't top the human cupcakes with dog-chocolate and bone treats...unless you want to.

Now. I don't know if you know but I love dogs. I adore them. I'm obsessed with them. I have a folder on my phone full of photos I've met on the street. I have over 60 kilos of dog that lives inside my house, two dogs who literally are my children. My puppies are a 6 year old German Shepherd named Stompypants and a 5 year old yellow Labrador named Puca but her name really should be Cheekypants. And I'm working on getting a rescue pug who I plan on naming Sausage.

Two dignified ladies, ready for their picnic.

As you can see, when I am on the topic of dogs, I can talk forever and I do get sidetracked in lovely puppy kisses and wet noses and wagging tails. My puppies are so spoilt, treats, fresh food, water, daily walks...but not all dogs are so lucky. Some dogs, through no fault of their own, have no warm place to put their fluffy bum and no one to pet their pretty heads. Some dogs are born into puppy farms or on the street. Some puppies are mistreated or suddenly can't be looked after anymore.

Oh that looks good..

...can I have it?...

AWESOME!

But thank the canine stars that we have the RSPCA. The RSPCA do vital work. They house and feed and give life saving medical attention to literally tens of thousands of dogs across Australia each year. And their care and welfare doesn't just stop with woman's best friend! They care for cats, birds, horses, chickens, snakes, Guinea pigs, rats, mice, lizards...all of our furry, scaly, feathery friends. Haven personally volunteered at RSPCA, I can tell you the care they give to animals is outstanding and wonderful.

This care doesn't come cheap. RSPCA QLD needs $42 million a year to keep running. And 99% of their funding comes from donations from people like me and you! And here's where you get to make a real difference. August 15 is RSPCA Cupcake day. All you need to do is register, bake some delicious cupcakes, (like the ones I have made here!) and raise some much-needed funds for those saints at the RSPCA.

What could be more awesome than baking some delicious cupcakes and raising money for a important cause AND EATING THEM! Can you show me the downside? No! Cos there isn't one!

The fun thing about these cupcakes is that you can eat them...and your dog can eat them too! Bake these Honey and Peanut Butter cupcakes, then sit down and share one with your dog! How much fun is that? And then whip another bunch and sell them at your work or your school or invite some people over and have a fundraising puppy cupcake party!

Head on over to www.rspcacupcakeday.com.au and register. Print out some posters and get all your friends and family involved and raise as much money as you can for RSPCA! And enjoy these photos of the puppy picnic I put on for Stompypants and Puca. They were such ladies.

Honey and Peanut Butter Puppy Cakes
These cupcakes are safe for your dog to eat, but please be treat-wise. Dogs don't need sugar. For this reason, these cupcakes are smaller in size. Top with dog treats for the doggies and a rice marshmallow crispy for you!
Prep time: 60 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

Total time:  75 mins

Servings: 24 small cupcakes

Honey Cupcakes

125g butter, softened 

125g caster sugar

3 tablespoons honey

2 whole eggs plus 3egg yolks (reserve the whites)

1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 cup lactose-free milk

Peanut Butter Filling

3 tablespoons sugar free peanut butter

3 tablespoons cream cheese, room temperature

2 tablespoons honey

Meringue Icing

3 egg whites

1/2 cup caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and line a 12-hole cupcake tin with smaller cupcake liners
2. Beat the sugar and butter together until lighter in colour
3. Add eggs and yolk one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Sift the flours into one bowl and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk, in three lots, starting and finishing with the flour
5. Fill each cupcake liner two-thirds full
6. Bake for 23 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, add the peanut butter, cream cheese and honey to a small bowl and stir thoroughly to make the peanut butter filling.
8. Allow to cool while you prepare the meringue. 

Meringue

1. Wipe a mixer bowl with a paper towel dampened with lemon juice.
2. Add egg whites to the bowl and whip until soft peaks form.
3. With the mixer running, gradually add the sugar mixture and beat until thick and glossy.

Assembly

1. Scoop out a small amount of the cupcakes with a teaspoon or a melon baller. Put the bit aside.
2. Fill cavity with a generous teaspoon of peanut butter filling.
3. Replace the cut-out cupcake piece.
4. Pipe or spoon on the meringue on each cupcake and pass a kitchen blowtorch over the meringue is toasted. Alternatively, place the cupcakes back into a 200°C oven until golden.

REVIEW: Moray Cafe

Straight off, I'll tell you this post guest stars the cutest dog ever.

In Queensland, there seems to be some confusion as to when our public holidays should be. One political party puts Labor Day one place, the other party puts it back and now we're all so confused as to where it's supposed to be. But a curious thing happened to the Queens Birthday holiday. It used to be in June and so it was for years and years. I know this because the Queens Birthday weekend was also MY birthday weekend. Some may suggest that the logical connection is that since the celebration is for a queen and my birthday is that weekend, that I am in fact a queen. A fact I can neither confirm or deny but I will say that I have grey hair, am 89 years old, was born in Mayfair and I look bloody good in a crown.


Oh my days, will you get a load of those eyes?

In any case, they took my holiday away and now it's sometime in October where Labor Day is and Labor Day is going to May. Confused? Me too. Take home message: we went out to breakfast and this is my review. We were meeting friends and discussed places to eat, we thought about Bitter Suite as I haven't tried their breakfast but they only served breakfast to 11am and I do not need that sort of negativity in my life. ALL DAY BREAKFAST OR NOTHING. So Moray Café it was.


Not even sorry about the number of photos of Stompy in a food review. SORRY, NOT SORRY!

Moray Café sits on a pretty corner, a couple of blocks back from the river. I did a quick search online to see if they were dog friendly and they seemed to be so we decided to take along the hairy wrecking ball herself, Stompypants aka Puppy Cakes. A place can be dog friendly, but it's another matter if our dog is place friendly. When we arrived, our friends had snagged a great spot inside but for some strange reason, places generally don't want a 37.5 kilo German Shepherd in narrow spots. After a small wait, the kindly staff arranged a spot for us outside. The whole time we were there, the staff we so nice about us having our dog there.

Right, this is a food blog...not a puppy appreciation blog...why not have both?

We sat outside a caught a lovely breeze coming off the river. The café sits on a pretty corner with a great big Moreton bay fig lending it's shade. We started with some coffees, juices and a caramel milkshake for me. It came in a sort of mason jar hybrid that is popular in many places. The flavour of the milkshake was fairly mild, it tasted a bit like bought caramel. The texture was fine, a bit thin. So all in all, it was okay and will probably hover towards the lower half of the Cassie Cakes Milkshake Bar.

Yep, thems some eggs.

The breakfast menu has a good mix of classics and a few adventurous dishes. Though despite my pleadings, no one would order the Fried Chicken and Sweet Waffle - $20.50. We stuck with the classics. First up, was the Smashed Avocado with House Marinated Feta, Crushed Pistachios, Poached Eggs & Preserved Lemon on Dark Rye for $17.50. The rye bread looked under toasted and was dry, but this was remedied with extra butter. The avocado was a little on the shy side but the feta was creamy and generous. The eggs were slightly overdone.

And thems some more eggs. Yeah, they were okay. :/

Next was the Scrambled Eggs and Bacon with Turkish Toast, Streaky Bacon, Dukka Roast Tomato & Tomato Relish, $15. The bacon was cooked well with crispy edges. The Turkish toast also benefitted from the butter we requested. The dukkah tomato was nicely roasted - often they seem to be almost raw so it was nice to see it cooked through. The scrambled eggs were the same as the smashed avocado eggs, dry and overcooked.

 

More scrambled eggs! Man, people love eggs scrambled.

Obviously there were some fans of the old scrambled eggs, me included as I ordered the Haloumi Stack with Mushrooms, Avocado, Poached Eggs, Smashed Hash Cake, Fresh Spinach & Roast Tomato for $16.50, swapping the poached eggs for scrambled. This could have been a mistake as I too was underwhelmed by the eggs. The haloumi was nice, if a little cold. The hash cake didn't blow me away, it was all a little bit bland. Not terrible, but not memorable either.

This Turkish toast is very sun conscious, big on the SPF.

Eggs were not having their moment this day. The Poached Eggs & Bacon with Turkish Toast, Streaky Bacon, Dukka Roast Tomato & Tomato Relish - same as the scrambled eggs and bacon dish $15 - was not great with the poached eggs being overdone too. The Turkish toast on the other hand looked very pale. It was as though the meals got cooked but then the toast was forgotten about and everything had to wait while it cooked. Most of the eggs on this dish went uneaten.

On the other hand, these sausages look like a gold coast housewife who suns for hours every day.

Finally, never one to stray from a breakfast, with generous proportions - he likes his breakfasts like he likes his lady! - Mr Cakes ordered the Moray Big Breakfast with Poached Eggs, Turkish Toast, Streaky Bacon, Sautéed Spinach & Mushrooms, Kransky, Bacon & Cheese Potato Hash Cake & Dukka Roast Tomato for $20.50. And no one was denying that the breakfast was indeed big. The bacon was again cooked well and the mushrooms were garlicky. Other than that, this was more miss than hit. The Turkish toast benefited from butter and the hash cake was a bit soft and flavourless. The sausages looked like they were cooked before the rest of the meal was ready. It wasn't bad, it was just a bit...meh.

Stompy approves of this message.

And unfortunately, that was the how we all felt about our food. The staff were lovely and accommodating but as much I wanted the meal to be great so I could write a glowing review, it was all a touch disappointing. No flavours punched through and the elements of the meals seemed poorly timed, bits were cold and others were over cooked. With such a lovely spot and happy friendly staff, I hope we just visited on an off day. Moray Café has been around forever and there must be a reason.

Food: 2.5/5
Service: 4/5
Price: 3/5
Atmosphere: 4.5/5