Buttery Orange Cake and a Looooonnnng Break

I know it has been months and months since I posted. If I am to be totally honest my blogging mojo has kind of waned a bit. I have still been baking and even taking photos but when it comes to sitting down and actually focusing on blogging about it I just haven't had the motivation or desire to do so. So I figure that maybe I have to change tack and aim to still blog but do so less frequently? Who knows? All good intentions maybe? It doesn't help that life seems so busy...I think that is the working mothers cry internationally. I'm lucky I have a much older son who, at 16 years old, is pretty independent, but my 9 year old is still dependent and as he dances 3-4 times a week as well as ballet competitions etc etc our lives are pretty much taken up with all of that. 

Anyway I whipped this cake up for work on Waitangi Day for those of us working on a public holiday while the rest of NZ enjoyed the sunny day, which explains the paper towel and very average photos...taken on my phone before it all disappeared. However this cake was anything but average. I loved the texture and the flavour. I didn't glaze it like the recipe said and instead iced with some orange cream cheese icing to use up half of a container of cream cheese before it expired. 

Buttery Orange Cake

250g unsalted butter, softened

2 Tbsp orange rind
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 c plain flour
¾ cup (180ml) orange juice 

METHOD

Preheat the oven to moderate (170°C/150°C fan-forced). Grease a deep 23cm round cake pan, line base with baking paper (I used a 20cm square tin).

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined between additions. Fold in sifted flour and orange juice in 2 batches. 

Bake about an hour.

Oma's One and Only Dutch Apple Tart- Chelsea Winter

OMG have I got a ton of stuff to blog about. In fact no doubt I will have forgotten where I got a recipe from it's been so long since I have made it! I'll do my best to remember but I really can't promise anything. Life for our household is pretty full on. With working shifts full-time (and having 6 weekends in a row), my boys being at school and all of that routine, trying to keep on top of housework, varying other commitments and all of Harry's dance stuff there is precious little time for anything else. While I always talk about having people over for dinner or lunch, the reality is that we barely see anyone socially. Time for a change.....she said.....famous last words I think!

Anyway I made this delicious and easy tart/cake for my recently bought Chelsea Winter cookbook. For those NZ Masterchef followers out there, you will know she won it last year. I can't say she was my pick and I can't even remember what converted me to liking her but regardless of what it was she is actually a very good and accessible cook. Her book is well worth it and if you have a Facebook account 'like' the page. You might find yourself a convert like me! This recipe is really yummy and would make a good afternoon tea cake or a simple dessert.

Oma's One and Only Apple Tart (Chelsea Winter 'At My Table')

5-6 medium apples (I used Braeburn and Granny Smith)
1 Tbsp each lemon zest, lemon juice and cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp grd ginger
1 Tbsp sugar
150g butter, slightly softened and cubed
200g sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
220g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 Tbsp milk
1/2 c blueberries
2 Tbsp apricot jam
1 Tbsp boiling water

Preheat oven to 160 C fan bake (or 180 C). Grease a 20cm springform tin with butter and dust with some flour (tip out the excess).

Peel and core the apples and cut into segments (cut into quarters then again 2-3 times). Put into a bowl and add the lemon zest, juice, cinnamon, mixed spice, ginger and the 1 Tbsp sugar. Mix well to combine and coat the apple and set aside.

Cream the butter and second measure of sugar together until thick and pale. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Add the flour and baking powder and mix until just combined then mix in the milk. You will have a thick creamy batter.

Spread and thin layer of batter in the base of the tine. Gently place a ring of apple slices very close together all the way around the inside edge of the tin, lightly pressing them down. Put the 'fat' end of the apple towards the outside of the tin.. Repeat with another layer inside each previous ring until the batter is totally covered with apples. Pour over the lemony liquid (I barely had any) over the apple. If there is a lot only put over half. Scatter over the blueberries. Put the remaining batter over the top and spread as best you can do. Repeat with the apple slices.

Bake about 1 hour or until golden, puffy and set in the middle.

Make a glaze with the apricot jam ad boiling water and brush all over the cake.

Do not store in the fridge.

Plum and Pistachio Tart

I made this for when my sister in law came over for dinner with the most gorgeous little pork chop you could ever see (otherwise known as Ante our nephew), when her husband was overseas for work. I always like to serve a dessert and at the time I was inspired by the delicious plums I have got of George and Russ's tree and had bottled. So I cracked open a jar of these and used them but you could also just open and large can of plums from the supermarket and this would be just as delicious. I loved the green colour from the pitachios with the purple of the plums. It was a perfect end to dinner...not too heavy and not too light...in other words a definite make-again! 

Plum and Pistachio Plum Tart

1x 750g tin Black Doris Plums, drained
70 g pistachios
40 g ground almonds
1/3 c self raising flour
1/2 c caster sugar
100g butter, melted
finely grated zest of 1 lime and 1/2 orange
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp apricot jam, warmed (I didn't do this as I had just used all of my apricot jam up)

Preheat the oven to 180 C (160C fan forced) and grease a 23-24 cm tart tin (or a 11 x 35cm one) with a removable base. Line with baking paper.

Halve and stone the plums then put cut side down on paper towels to absorb some of the moisture.

Pu the pistachios and almonds into a food processor and process until finely chopped. Set aside 1 Tbsp and tip the remaining nuts into a bowl. Add flour, sugar, butter, zests, eggs and vanilla. Beat with a wooden spoon to combine and pour into the tin and spread it our evenly.

Arrange plums cut side down on the batter. You may not use them all. 

Bake 25-30 mins until top is golden and the filling puffed and firm tot he touch. Remove from the oven and brush with the warmed jam. Cool

After taking it out from the tin sprinkle with the reserved nuts and lightly dust with icing sugar. Serve with softly whipped cream or some nice yoghurt.

French Plum Cake

During our lovely holiday up north I was able to collect a heap of delicious dark plums from the tree up there...it was either me get them of the birds! I have since made plum jam (really good), and preserved a couple of big jars of them but when we had a small housewarming BBQ at my Brother and Sister-in-laws new house, I thought this would be the perfect thing to take to showcase the amazing plums I had. Anyone here in NZ (and I think in Australia too), would have heard of Annabel Langbein by now....and if hadn't you really need to familiarise yourself with her because she is AMAZING!!! Her book 'The Best of Annabel Langbein: Great Food For Busy Lives' has been on the NZ best sellers for years and years. This recipe features in that book although I did change it a bit. It makes a large cake (a roasting tin size) and is easily halved. We had it with whipped cream but custard or yoghurt would have been even better. My other sis-in-law took a better photo of it for me (as I only took these quickly before we left) but I'll have to add it once she remembers to send it to me.

French Plum Cake

6-8 plums (I think I may have used 10!)
3 Tbsp sugar
300g butter
1 1/2 c sugar
3 eggs
finely grated zest of a lemon
1 tsp vanilla
1 c milk
3 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a roasting tin with baking paper. Slice the plums and sprinkle with the 3 Tbsp sugar. Toss and leave to sit while you are getting the cake batter ready.

Cream together the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the lemon rind and vanilla. 

Mix the flour and baking powder together then add to the butter mix alternating with the milk. Do not over mix. 

Put the batter into the tin then arrange the plums on top. Bake about 45-60 mins (depending on the size of the tin), until a skewer comes out clean.

Baking for Nightshift- Rhubarb and Custard Cake

I tried to post this the night I made it to take to work but this silly laptop was playing up and the photos weren't loading. We are sort of lucky said laptop didn't end up out the window with an accompanying temper tantrum! Does anyone else have a love/hate relationship with their computer? I hate mine with a passion at times but these days they are a necessary part of life and we can no longer do without them! Very frustrating!

As you can see by the tile of this post I made this cake to take to work on Monday night. I found it in a magazine and earmarked it immediately because if it has custard and rhubarb in it it must be good! I was right, it was delicious and a make-again cake. I used the ready made Thick and Creamy Custard, so even that part of it was easy. However you could whip up a batch of the good old Edmonds custard if you really wanted to. You could also change the fruit depending on what is in season. Apricots or peaches would be delicious! So to get to the recipe as we are taking Harry to the RNZBC's performance on Cinderella tonight and I still have to get ready and get some dinner sorted before we go.

Rhubarb and Custard Cake (Real magazine)

250g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 2cm pieces
1 1/4 c caster sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon or 1 orange (I used an orange and it was perfect)
200 g butter
3 eggs
1 3/4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 c store bought custard

Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease and line a 23 cm tin.

Toss the rhubarb with 1/4 c sugar and the zest. Set aside.

Cream the butter and remaining sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold into the butter mixture alternately with 1/2 c custard.

Spoon about 3/4 mixture into the tin and sprinkle the rhubarb over the top. Dot with the remaining custard (I think I actually used about another 1/2 c because I love custard), and then spoon the rest of the mixture on the top leaving some of the rhubarb showong.

Bake about 50-55 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 15 mins then remove to cool. Dust with icing sugar. Lovely served with more custard.

Apple Rhubarb Lattice Tart with Spiced Crust

I made this for dessert last night when my mum and step father came over for dinner. The recipe is from the latest Food magazine which used to be known as the Foodtown magazine. As a lot of you know I am an avid cooking magazine/cookbook buyer. I try not to be as I have far too many of them than I know what to do with but I really just can't help myself. I do subscribe to quite a few already but unfortunately for me, and fortunately for the magazines, I also buy them as soon as they come out. I have discovered though that the Donna Hay is available on my ipad and for much much cheaper so yes, I did also subscribe to that. Well at least it saves a bit of space and I was saving quite a bit of money (there is always a justification). So if you are interested go to itunes and search for Donna Hay and go for it. I do find that I refer to it less but at least I know I have it if I NEED it...as you do....!


Back to this recipe. It's best to start this in the morning so the filling has a chance to get nice and cold. If it is warm when you put it into the pastry, the pastry will melt and not taste as good. The pastry was easily made in my food processor. I found the dough a little soft so when I cut the strips I put them back in the fridge to firm up before I put them onto the tart. I served this with Chantilly Cream (basically cream whipped with icing sugar and vanilla paste to get the nice little flecked seeds look), and custard and we all really enjoyed it. I would make this again for sure.


Apple Rhubarb Lattice Tart with Spiced Crust


4 medium cooking apples, peeled and chopped
200 g rhubarb cut into large chunks
1/4 c each sugar and water


Put into a pot and cover until boiling. Simmer with the lid off until the fruit has softened. Cool completely.


Spiced Crust
300 g plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
150 g each brown sugar, cold butter
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp milk


Put the flour, sugar and spices into the food processor and blitz to combine. Add in the butter which has been cut into chunks and process until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the yolks and milk and process until it just forms a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and rest int he fridge for about 30 mins. Then grease and a 23 cm loose bottom tin and line with the pastry. I rolled mine out and then patched it up as it was a bit soft.You will use about 2/3 of the pastry, then roll out the rest and cut into strips. I put mine back into the fridge for about an hour along with the strips.


When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180 C. Fill the pastry with the fruit and then arrange the strips over in a lattice pattern. Bake about 40-45 mins. Leave in the tin about 5-10 mins then remove, dust with icing sugar and enjoy.

Baking for Nightshift- Brown Sugar, Pecan and Pear Bundt Cake

Little roses...so pretty!

Inside the one I had to try

Still cooling so is unadorned with icing sugar

So tonight I once again start my night shifts. As you would know by now I like to take something with me on my first night (and occasionally on subsequent nights too...), for all the girls (and sometimes the occasional boy), to share. Last night I started getting Harry's cold and today I have a very sore throat so I really should just be lying down and resting before I have to go to work. However I am what you would call, an 'active relaxer' and I find it hard to sit down for too long instead preferring to be doing something I enjoy. That is first and foremost baking so after washing my hands almost obsessively, I chose this cake to make based on a recipe from Dorie Greenspans Book "Baking: From My Home to Yours' which is one of my favourites and is jam-packed with fantastic recipes. If you decide to get it don't buy it here in NZ as it is way more expensive than getting it from Amazon or Book Depository. As well as that I love love love using my bundt tins and I needed an excuse to try out my Nordicware Rose Tin so the decision was sealed almost immediatly. 


Awhile ago I made these Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbreads (also a Dorie recipe), and I just love the flavour combination of the caramel-like brown sugar with the pecan nuts. This recipe is one of those recipes you can mix up and change to make it into whatever combination you want. Dorie gives ideas for an all nut cake, apple and raisin, pear and prune, you can add in nuts...or not, so really it's up to your imagination. I had some pears which are in season at the moment sitting in the kitchen and when I looked into my container of nuts I found that I only had pecans and almonds. Therefore I thought the combination of pear with the brown sugar and pecans might work....and it does.


This cake has a delicious light texture. The pears keep it moist and the mix of pecans with the pear and brown sugar is delicious. I did think to make a glaze but I think I will keep it like it is with just icing sugar on top so as to not detract from the flavour. This is a cake well worth making. All those in the Tuesdays With Dorie seemed to love it and if you do a search for the cake you can see how all the others fared making it. Feel free to mix it up and let me know if you have tried a different and lovely combination if you can.


Brown Sugar, Pear and Pecan Bundt Cake


2 1/4 c flour
1/2 c toasted and ground pecan nuts (or you can use other nuts or else just use plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
230g butter
2 c packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c buttermilk
2 medium pears cored and cut into small cubes (or else use apple)
1/2 c chopped pecans (or else other nuts, or prunes, raisins etc)


Oven to 170C. Grease a 12 c bundt tin (I used my 10c Bavaria tin as well as 4 of the little rose).  You could also use a 26cm tin but I would line the bottom as well.


Whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda and ground nuts.


Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating for a minute after each. Beat in the vanilla.


On low speed beat in the flour mixture in 3  lots and buttermilk in 2 lots alternately beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Do not overmix and just mix to combine. Fold in the pears and other nuts.


Bake about an hour or until cooked.


Sprinkle over icing sugar and enjoy.


And to my lovely friend Michelle who is having her little boy tomorrow....good luck Hon, I can't wait to meet the little darling! And a big congratulations to little Miss Lotts who will be a big sister for the second time this time tomorrow. Lots of love to you all xxx

You can see this post over at  Sweet As Sugar Cookies who very kindly invited me to put this post on...Thanks!!!

Feijoa Friands with Cream Cheese frosting

For the last two days I have been stuck inside looking after a sick Harry. To say that it is impossible to overdose of Cartoon Network and Children's movies would be a lie. Today I couldn't bare it any longer and just HAD to turn it off before I went crazy. Luckily Harry is on the mend so he was quite happy playing on his Playstation (which almost never gets used) instead, as well as drawing and 'making things'. I only had a few criteria for him which was to stay warm in his PJ's and slippers, no running around and to clean up after himself. We managed the first two but weren't so lucky with the third one. It's just as well he didn't manage to get into creating in full-on mode! 


While he was otherwise engaged and children's TV turned off, I turned to the main way I know how to relax which is to bake. I had some spare egg whites in the freezer so thought I might try these Feijoa friands from Helen Jackson's new book. As feijoas are pretty much out of season now, I remembered that I had some frozen in the freezer too. One thing I find with fruit like this is that they can make the cake/loaf or whatever else you are making a bit heavy and sometimes a bit 'gluggy'. Maybe this is because of the moisture content in the fruit- especially if it has been frozen first. 


I had to make these in my muffin tins as quite possibly one of the only tins I don't own is a friand one. I have also never made friands before, nor do I often eat them, so really had no idea of what to expect. The mixture itself is pretty easy and I did substitute the flour with rice flour as Dons is gluten free. I don't think this affected the end result all that much. However the one thing I found is that the end result was quite heavy. I think this is from the fruit but who knows. They are still really quite nice to eat, and lets face it, anything with cream cheese frosting has got to be that much better than it would have been unadorned with this delicious icing. 


Regardless of how good or bad they taste they will have to be given away to the neighbours as Dons found them too sweet, Harry isn't all that into them, Reuben is going to his Nana's house for the night, and I now have a very sore throat thanks to Harry, so I will be avoiding sweet stuff anyway. I'm hoping that a good sleep will put my sore throat to rest but as I sit here swallowing like crazy...to just check if it is still sore, I think that may be a long shot. Anyway if you want to make these a similar recipe can be found here just substitute 1c of feijoa puree for the rapsberries. 

Baking for Nightshift (and Leigh's Birthday)- Strawberry Cupcakes

Packed up and ready to go

These ones were made for the kids in Harry's ballet class as they have all been working really hard towards their Grade 1 exam

And a couple for the 2 lovely ballet teachers too

As I said in my previous post it was my friend Leigh's birthday on Monday. I had already planned on making the chocolate slice but I was hoping I would have time to make some cupcakes too. Last week I bought some of the delicious Petal Cupcakes which I blogged about. My favourite flavour was the Raspberry one which was beautiful beyond belief- especially the icing. I had read something where the owner of Petal Cupcakes was saying that she used freeze-dried fruit powders to get the flavour in the cupcakes. At the time these were only available (as far as I knew), for businesses not joe-public. However thanks to Becs who left a comment on one of my posts, I have managed to track down where you can now buy these powders you home use. For those who might be interested the manufacturer is Fresh-As and you can get these powders from Farro, Sabato and I think Nosh too. I went over to the new Farro in Constellation drive and bought the Strawberry and Blueberry ones. 


In all the years I have known Leigh, she has always been hot on fruit- especially summer fruit and berries so of course I had to try the Strawberry powder in my cupcakes for her. Let me tell you, these powders are incredible! They are easy to use and taste beautiful. You can tell they are the real thing as the flavour is a true one not that plastic, imitation one. I put about a heaped dessert spoon in the actual cake mix, (just a vanilla cupcake recipe from the Crabapple Bakery Book or you can use your favourite vanilla cupcake recipe), and to be honest I don't think it made all that much difference to the flavour of the cake. The real star was the buttercream icing where I added about 3 Tbsp of the powder. It really developed with time so the icing today tasted even better than it did last night (but it tasted pretty dam good last night if I do say so myself). These powders are well worth the purchase. They are a bit pricey but for that special treat you will be glad you bought them. The flavour variations are wide and include Raspberry, Plum, Feijoa, Passionfruit, Peach and so on. Next time I might add a bit more to the cake mix to give more of a flavour to the cake itself.


Anyway HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEIGH!!!! I hope your year ahead is wonderful as you deserve it to be xxx

Feijoa Loaf

In our house the most favourite fruit ever for all of us is the Feijoa. All year we look forward to them and every year we make a pledge to plant a couple of our own trees. Needless to say every year we don't get around to it...!!! In our area it seems like every second house has a nice mature feijoa tree and it is torture seeing all that lovely ripe fruit rotting away on the ground because either the household has too many feijoas to eat so they are heartily sick of them, or sin of all sins...they hate them! We usually manage to find a few bags here and there so we do tend to get our fill of this most delicious fruit. I try not to buy them as they are ridiculously expensive but when the feijoa need to calling I sometimes relent especially at the beginning of the season. As we have had quite a few given to us, I have at least managed to freeze quite a lot so we can enjoy them out of season in a crumble or in a cake. This recipe was one that I found in last weeks Sunday Star Times magazine. It is very easy to bake, has little butter in and actually made a very moist and flavourful loaf cake. I think it gets better with a bit of time as today the feijoa flavour is more pronounced than it was when I made it yesterday. I put a lemon glaze on it as I love the lemon/feijoa combination. I made the glaze by melting a bit of butter then adding lemon juice and rind and finally icing sugar. If you have some spare feijoas give this recipe a go as it is really quite good for little effort.


Feijoa Loaf


Place 1 cup of peeled and chopped feijoas, I cup of boiling water, 50 grams of butter and 1 cup of sugar into a pot and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 5 minutes.


Cool slightly then add in 2 cups of self raising flour, 1 eggs and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. 


Pour into a loaf tin and bake for about 45 minutes at 180 C.

Baking for Nightshift- Feijoa Upside-Down Cake

For night shift on Monday night I wanted to make something using some of the delicious feijoas we had managed to get from under the trees when we were up at Leigh over the weekend. Without a doubt feijoas are my most favourite fruit and Ever since I had seen this recipe in the Ripe cookbook I have been waiting for Autumn to come and for the feijoas to start coming. It's basically a ginger cake with feijoas on top. I used way more than the recipe stated and because of that it wasn't as pretty as it could have been if they were more spaced out. It did, however, taste really lovely especially with the generous amount of feijoas I had put on top. I also took in some lightly whipped cream to have with it as it is the kind of cake that just screams out for some cream or nice yoghurt on the side. You can substitute the feijoas for pears, bananas or even tinned pineapple. Unfortunately as I was running out the door I grabbed my container which promptly came apart tipping the cake onto the bench as I hadn't clipped in properly. I did the best I could to put it back together and took it to work anyway. I did make it look even more ugly but I figured that it would still taste the same anyway.

Feijoa Upside-Down Cake

Oven to 170 C. Line the base and grease a 23 cm tin with baking paper.

Topping

50 gm butter
1/2 c brown sugar
6 large feijoas peeled and sliced thinly. Toss in lemon juice to stop from browning.

Melt the buter and sugar together until the sugar has melted. Pour into the base of the prepared tin. Arrange the feijoas nicely in the tin. 

Cake

50 gm butter
1/2 c caster sugar
1 egg
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 c golden syrup
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp grd ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c warm milk (it doesn't say this in the recipe but I think it would make the cake lighter)

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, golden syrup and lemon juie and mix to combine.

Sift together the flour and spices. Dissolve the soda in the milk. Add the dry ingredients and the milk alternately to the butter mix starting and finishing with the dry. Mix until combined. 

our over the feijoas carefully and bake 30-40 minutes. Cool in the tin. Before serving run a knife around the edge of the tin and tip it onto a plate (make sure you put the plate over the tin to tip it or else there will be a mess).

Orange Tea Cake

On one of the blogs I follow, I found a nice easy recipe for this Orange Tea Cake. As the boys have now ...ahem... BOTH started school I thought I would come home and make something I could put in their lunchboxes for the next couple of days. I immediately thought of this as it was easy, looked pretty tasty and seemed like the perfect thing for a lunchbox and for me when I'm having a quiet cup of tea in my now quiet household after the busy school holidays. I was not wrong. I took The Food Librarian's advice and just sprinkled icing sugar on top, but an orange glaze would also be good, as would a chocolate buttercream icing (as trialled by Reuben) with the buttercream I made earlier for the eclairs (see the previous post)). This cake is light and full of orange flavour. I think rubbing the zest through the sugar really makes the difference here. I have done this before with lemon cake and have noticed the bigger flavour hit you get doing this. Anyway give this a go especially if you want something easy to bake and easy to eat.


Orange Tea Cake (from The Food Librarian)

115gm butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
4 tsp finely grated fresh orange zest
2 large eggs
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c fresh orange juice
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and line a 20 cm square tin.
Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside.

Rub the zest with the granulated sugar until damp which will make the sugar very fragrant.
Cream the butter and sugar (with zest) until creamy.

Add eggs one at a time then add the sour cream and orange juice and mix.


Add flour mixture until just incorporated being careful to not overmix.

Bake about 30-40 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack.


When completely cooled, dust with powdered sugar.

Pour yourself and your friend a cup of tea or coffee, and enjoy!

Roasted Strawberry and Rhubarb Compote

The other day my favourite magazine 'Dish' arrived in the post. I love this magazine!! When it first started I thought it was pretentious and a bit 'wah wah'...so to speak, as all it seemed to do was to be an advertisement for her cookshop (the name of which alludes me at this early hour of Saturday morning). I guess it was fair enough as it kind of went hand in hand that she would want to promote her business as well. As time has past the cookshop has gone and this is the focus she has (she being Catherine Bell), and very quickly this magazine became my most favourite. I'm one of those people who can't say no to cooking magazines and cookbooks. I subscribe to quite a few and buy the ones I don't get in the post. At this time of year it gets a little overwhelming as I have so many recipes around that I get confused or else want to make everything. As well as that there are the new and old cookbooks and the ones I get out of the library to see if they are worth buying. Needless to say my coffee table is now a sea of books and magazines and my mind is a messed up web of recipes.

I spotted this recipe in the Dish immediately. I love fresh fruit compotes and as we eat a lot of nice yoghurt as well as my homemade granola, and I do make crepes or pikelets when the boys are home on my weekends off, I thought this would go nicely. It's a very easy recipe but I think  I may have overcooked it a bit as it is quite jammy. It does, however, taste amazing. Strawberries are so cheap at the moment and after the immediate rush of eating them as they are because of the novelty of having them at all is so fresh, after awhile yo want to do something different with them. This is so lovely and well worth a go. I think I may even make it for Christmas morning breakfast as it would go well with granola and yoghurt, and would even be nice with the pastries I always buy from Sabato.

Without further ado here is the recipe:

Roasted Strawberry and Rhubarb Compote (from issue 33 of Dish magazine)

500 gm strawberries
350 gm rhubarb
finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
1/3 c caster sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Oven to 180 C

Hull the strawberries and cut the big ones in half. Cut rhubarb into 6 cm lengths and combine all ingredients into a baking dish that will hold them snugly (this is important so the syrup doesn't catch.

Roast uncovered for about 40 mins stirring every 10 mins until the liquid is reduced and syrupy. Stir carefully so the fruit doesn't all mush up.

Store in the fridge.

Fruit unadorned and looking beautiful

Ready for the oven

Out of the oven for the last time

YUM!

Baking for Nightshift- Blueberry Crumble Cake

One of my most favourite food writers and cook is Annabel Langbein. I have all of her cookbooks and added her latest one to my collection the other day. She has a new show on TV called 'The Free Range Cook' which I watch and record avidly and this book ties in with that. I held off getting it for about a week but could stand it no longer and made the purchase. I don't think it needs to be said how wonderful it is. Her writing and cooking has that fantastic non-pretentiousness about it yet is not just all homely either. It has that cross-over ability where it is both good for home and for entertaining. She also has a wonderful screen presence which makes you want to cook her food and I love her emphasis on seasonal cooking. Here is her book....

As I am about to start nightshift again tonight having only just finished yesterday morning, I thought I would relax today by doing some baking to take to work tonight. This recipe was one I knew I wanted to make as soon as I saw it. It is very versatile and can be made with all sorts of different fruit on top. I was very easy and made a nice big 25 cm cake- perfect for the girls tonight as it should feed us all. Of course I had to try it so I could comment on it here but this is the hard luck of the cook I suppose. The cake itself is a simple vanilla and yoghurt cake. I used frozen berries as we aren't quite there seasonally to get them fresh but you can use any fruit you like really. The topping is a crumble she uses for fruit crumble and other delicious desserts. I only made half the quantity of the crumble topping as the recipe only calls for 1 1/2 c of it. Now I have some extra in the fridge for something else or I could, as she suggests, put it in the freezer to have as a standby. Such a good idea I thought!

The cake once cooked taste delicious. The cake serves as a platform for the fruit and the crumble which I think is the star of the cake. So if you can, get the book. I plan on using it extensively but watch this space as good intentions can often be forgotten in the busy bustle of life.



Looking very rustic I think