Russell and Cake: Books and Bikkies

On Friday morning we took the kids to the book fair held annually at Northcote College. As always, there were more books we wanted than there was money to spend on them...especially for the girls, who are not so discerning in their choices. But we came away with a good selection, and on top of all the kids books (admittedly, quite a few of those were mine...), the girls each chose a cookbook while they were stuck waiting in the hall full of grown ups books.

So, the rest of Friday was spent reading...even at my dad's for dinner , James was unable to put down her Paul Jennings find, and I was stuck on Nancy Drew, unable to stop reading until Nancy had solved The Sign of the Twisted Candles. Sometimes I think I was supposed to stop growing somewhere around age 12. Maybe mentally, I did. I love young adult fiction. It's so easy and fun and full of possibility.

Anyway, on Saturday James was looking for something else to do, so she chose a recipe from her new book...based on the ingredients available in my cupboards. And thus we made 'Monte Creams'...otherwise known as 'Monte Carlos', I believe.

These consist of two coconutty biscuits sandwiched together with raspberry jam and a fluffy, cream-like icing sugar/butter/milk mix. Our first few biscuits were rather large, so it's kind of like eating 4 biscuits at once. They looked a bit like scones with jam and cream...scone sandwiches...which is not to say they looked bad; on the contrary...I know I seem to be easy to please when it comes to the visual side of baking...but these babies looked pretty sensational. James is turning out to be a talented baker ... and she looks pretty cute when she's tasting her bikkies, too!