PEPPERONI PIZZA SANDWICHES

Sometimes I want a sandwich but at the same time I want a pizza.
The struggle is real.
So today I'm bringing you a pepperoni pizza sandwich. It's stuffed with pepperoni and cheese and pizza sauce. It's warm and delicious and there's a little bit of spice from the pepperoni. These can be made with any filling really.
I eat these with sour cream and chive dip but you can have them plain at a picnic or make them even smaller as a finger food at a cocktail party. They can be dressed up with fancy cheese inside or dressed down with plain pizza blend. They're adaptable and as we know, only the strong survive.

I also want to talk briefly about the new trend where people are directing you to their latest blog post via their Bloglovin' pages. I'm not sure I appreciate this. That's an extra click, it's wasting my time and I'm less likely to actually read the blog post in the end.
Please stop that.
I want to read your carefully thought through words and look at your stunning photos that you spent all day perfecting. I don't want a Bloglovin' frame and a link that should have been posted to begin with.

Now back to pizza.
You'll need some pizza dough to begin with. You can see how to make that here.

Ingredients:
Pizza Sauce (homemade or store bought)
Pepperoni Slices
Pizza Blend Grated Cheese

1// Roll out your pizza dough and use a large cookie cutter from a standard cutter set to cut out circles. You'll need two for each sandwich so make sure you have an even number.
2//  Use a fork or pizza spike to create holes in the dough. This is so the dough doesn't puff up but stays thinner and crispier to get the pizza effect.
3// Spread a thin layer of pizza sauce on each one of your circles using the back of a spoon. You can leave a little bit of "crust" around the edges if you prefer.
4// Pop a few slices of pepperoni on each round and then a small mount of cheese on half of the circles.
5// Top the cheese mounds with the circles without cheese and use your fingers to seal the edges as best you can.
6// The pizza sandwiches need to go into an oven at 220 degrees C for 20-15 minutes. I like to put my pizza rounds on a pizza tray (the ones with the holes) and then put a solid tray below to catch any cheese or sauce that drips out.

These are pretty delicious and even though there's not bread involved, it totally cures my sandwich cravings.

What are you planning to put in your pizza sandwich?

DIY Flower Crown Tutorial

I've lusted after flower crowns for a long time and if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know all about my love for the hair accessory. But it's been really difficult to find one that I absolutely love and want to pay for. A lot of them are either not what I want or so expensive I can't afford them anyway.
So after a bit of research, I decided to dive into the world of DIY Flower Crowns.

Excuse any bad photography, I was also watching Green Street while doing this and if you know anything about Charlie Hunnam, you'll understand how I could get distracted.

Also, I have to point out that these flowers cost me very little. The long yellow and pink garlands were only $2.50 each and they have roughly 50 flowers on them so that's a lot of flower crown for not a lot of money. The larger flowers cost a little more but I bought fewer because they would act as the center piece of the headband.

• Fake Flowers
• Floral Wire (various colours)
• Floral Tape
• Wire Cutters
• Scissors
• Beads

I started off by measuring my head with the floral wire, adding two thumbs worth of wire and then chopping it to size. That should fit around your head nicely. I wrapped the wire around at the ends and tucked it around itself so there aren't any wire ends poking through.
Then I trimmed the fake flowers to the size I wanted and attached them to the wire headband with more floral wire. I spent a while arranging the flowers so they suited the headpiece and looked the way I wanted.

I also strung beads on some floral wire and worked that into my floral crowns (I made more than one).
When I was happy with my flower crown, I used floral tape to hide any wire I didn't want on show.

I also wanted to make the headband a bit bigger so it can be adjusted depending on people's head size.

Are you going to make your own flower crown?

Things I Love Thursday #006

Oh wow, this year is going by so fast! Can you believe we're already 4 months in?
That's absolutely crazy in my opinion.
So I thought we might need some almost-mid-year inspiration!

MILO AND COFFEE POKE CAKE

Not long ago, we went to a community BBQ. There have been quite a few burglaries in the area and it's been decided that if you know your neighbour, you're more likely to look out for them and them for you. It's a good theory and there was a huge turnout. There was good company, a raffle in which I won 500g of whitebait and a chunk of smoked marlin and of course there was a lot of food.
I'm normally not a chocolate person, it's quite normal for me to eat maybe one chocolate bar a year if that, but I am a big chocolate cake fan. I like them gooey and fudgey, served warm with cream or cold with ice cream. There was no cream or ice cream at the BBQ but there was a chocolate cake that made me re-evaluate life itself. It was that good, I shit you not.
Of course, I cornered the woman who had brought it alone and tortured her (asked politely) for the recipe. She even ended up posting it on Facebook for everyone. I think she said it came from the Australian Woman's Weekly but don't hold me to that. Well, I made the cake with a few twists and I'm here to tell you that it was amazing.

I didn't have any cocoa powder so I used Milo instead and it turned out really well. The cake wasn't as rich as when it's made with cocoa powder but that suited my just fine as I served this with cookie dough ice cream which can be a little heavy with a cake.
Also, if you don't know what a poke cake is, it's a cake that you poke so when you pour a sauce over the top, it absorbs into the cake. Yeah, it's amazing. Thank you America.
Oh, added bonus, no need to use a hand mixer, stand mixer or any electrical equipment to whip up this cake. That's right, just a whisk and a wooden spoon!

Ingredients:
1/2C Milk
1TBsp White Vinegar
1C Sugar
1 Egg
1/2tsp Salt
1tsp Vanilla
1/2C Oil
1/2C Milo
2TBsp Instant Coffee Powder
2 1/2C Self-Raising Flour
1/2tsp Baking Soda (Bicarb)
1TBsp Jack Daniels

1// Whisk together your sugar, salt, Milo, coffee powder and flour.
 2// In a separate bowl, beat together your egg, vanilla, oil and Jack Daniels. You can use another type of spirit, for example I used white rum, instead of Jack Daniels but make sure it isn't a flavoured alcohol otherwise it might taint the cake.
3// Add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients slowly as you combine it altogether. It should form quite a stiff batter.
4// Pop your vinegar on top of the mixture and then add your baking soda (bicarb) on top of that. It will fizz and bubble like those volcanoes you make at school. That's what you want! Let it do it's thing for a moment or two before folding it into the cake batter. The batter should start to become light and airy after that so don't worry if you thought the cake was a bit dense before.
5// I used a casserole dish for this cake but you could use a springform or push pan if you wanted a stand alone cake. I didn't greasy my dish at all but you might need to greasy or paper your pans if you're not using a casserole dish. Pop the mixture into your desired container and pop into a pre-heated oven at 190 degrees C for 25 to 30 minutes.

Frosting:
150g Butter
1C Icing Sugar
1C Boiling Water
1/2C Milo
2tsp Instant Coffee Powder

1// Add the boiling water to the Milo and the coffee powder. If you want to add more Milo powder then go right ahead. This part isn't so much about measurements as consistency and you might need to tweak this part to work with your climate.
2// Melt the butter and add it to the Milo and coffee. Then add the icing sugar, beating it thoroughly until combined. You want a liquid consistency so add more water if needed.
3// While the cake is hot out of the oven, poke holes in it using a skewer or a spoon handle. The more holes, the better the absorption but be careful that your cake doesn't look like a teenager's acne ridden face. Not too many holes.
4// Pour your liquid mixture onto the cake, trying to spread it out evenly if you can. The dish will sizzle, the liquid will bubble, that's totally ok.
5// Let the cake cool before serving.

Because of the added liquid on top, the cake is going to go like a fudgey brownie on the inside. Trust me when I say this is one of the best recipes ever. Ever.
I know a lot of people prefer white poke cakes, but I think chocolate is always better when it comes to cake simply because of the colour and the consistency. But you do you.