Easy like Sunday morning.

Maybe it's just me, but a warm, baked breakfast is pretty much the best thing ever.  I do love to head out to a sweet little cafe for weekend breakfast, but when you can have these lovelies baked and ready to eat in less time then it would take you to get ready and get in the car, why would you?  The gorgeously sweet cinnamon scrolls went down a treat with my morning English Breakfast and were a lovely treat for my beautiful family. Weekend perfection.

Sweetest Cinnamon Scrolls

Scroll Dough

2 cups plain flour, sifted

2 tsp caster sugar

2 tsp baking powder, sifted

1 1/4 cups thickened cream

Filling

30g unsalted butter, melted

 2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Icing

1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp milk

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.  To make the dough, combine all your dry ingredients before mixing in the cream.  Knead the dough until nice and smooth before rolling it out into a large rectangle (about 3-4 cm thick) on a floured bench or silicone mat.  Use a pastry brush to distribute the melted butter over the rectangle of dough.  Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and then sprinkle evenly over the top of the melted butter.  Leave a 1 centimetre edge free of cinnamon sugar on the long edge of the rectangle.  Roll from the other long edge of the dough to make a log.  Cut the log into 8 scrolls and place, swirl up, on a lined baking tray.  Give each scroll a little 'squish' to flatten them slightly.  Bake for 20 minutes or until just beginning to brown.  While scrolls are beginning to cool, make your icing by combining the icing sugar and milk.  Drizzle around a tablespoon of icing as artistically as you like over the top of each scroll.  Don't wait for these to cool before you tuck in!

F. x

It's a date, darling!

How fantastically wonderful are dates?  They are versatile and so incredibly good for you.  Not to mention, sweet and 'caramelly' and decadent.  Today's recipe is brand new and incorporates - you guessed it - dates!  This Caramel Date Loaf is based on a very old recipe from one of my favourite 'research' cookbooks.  (Yes, my cookbooks have categories!)  It's called "Jim Fobel's Old-Fashioned Baking Book: Recipes from an American Childhood" and is an insightful reference to how it should be done.  We take so many short-cuts and use so many convenience ingredients, these days.  I think it's wonderful, when you have the time, to immerse yourself in baking and do it the 'right' way.  So with Jim as my inspiration, I've tweaked his Date Loaf recipe (from the coffee cakes chapter of the book) and it's fantastic!  My Caramel Date Loaf is dense, but not dry...sweet but not sickenly so....perfect to share with friends, or to slice and freeze to have a little every day, all for yourself.

Caramel Date Loaf

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup fresh dates, chopped

1 cup boiling water

80g unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a loaf tin.  In a bowl, dissolve sugar in water before adding the dates and butter.  Leave to soak for around 15 minutes.  Sift in your flour and baking powder and mix.  Stir in the egg and vanilla.  Pour your batter into the lined tin and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the tin before transferring to a cooling rack. 

Caramel Glaze

1/2 cup brown sugar

50g butter

2 tbsp milk

1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted

Place the brown sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan over a low heat.  Cook, stirring, for a few minutes until the sugar has dissolved.  Continue to stir and allow to thicken slightly.  Remove from the heat, sift over icing sugar and beat to ensure no lumps.  Drizzle over the loaf while the loaf is still warm.

F. x

Peachy keen.

There isn't a meal better than afternoon tea.  It's perfection.  Not a super heavy meal, usually of the sweet variety (my favourite), involving rather large amounts of chatter, and it's completely acceptable for it to go on for more than a few hours.  This week, I baked this fabulously light cake in the morning for an afternoon tea catch-up with friends.  It has a consistency much like a tea cake and the lemon comes through to save it from being overwhelmingly sweet.  

Lemony Peach Cake

175g unsalted butter, softened

165g caster sugar

3 tbsp lemon rind, finely grated

3 eggs

150g plain flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

70g natural yoghurt

2 peaches, sliced

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celsius and line a 25cm round, springform tin in readiness.  Beat together the butter, sugar and lemon rind until light and creamy.  Gradually mix in the eggs, one at a time.  Add your flour, baking powder and yoghurt, stirring until just combined (much like you would do with muffins).  Pour your batter into the prepared tin and even out the top with a spatula.  You now have two options for adding the peaches.  My preferred choice is to neatly arranged them on top in a circular formation.  Otherwise, you could take a more rustic approach and plop the peaches into the batter.  Both work well.  Bake the cake for 50-55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.  Allow to cool before dusting with icing sugar and serving with whipped, thickened cream.

Happy afternoon tea-ing!

F. x

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

After the craziness of the end of the school year, it's been lovely to be back at home with my family.  This basically means loud chatting, baking, copious cups of tea, shopping trips and lunches out.  I always take advantage of staying at my mother's house because she has two ovens...yes, two.  It's absolute heaven.  This necessity arose when I was a teenager and poor Mum would always have to compete to use her own oven.  She'd be wanting to cook dinner but we'd have a batch of something-or-other baking that just couldn't wait.  So the solution to that problem has served me well and I can have TWO different things baking at TWO different temperatures.....it's the best.

I only ever make biscotti at Christmas time.  Not sure why, exactly but it just feels right.  Biscotti, or biscotto, means "twice-baked" and this scrumptious, crispy little biscuit holds its own against a strong cup of coffee and loud family chatter.  I love this particular recipe because it's not too sweet.  The sugar, chocolate and roasted almond crunch complement each other perfectly.

Chocolate and Almond Biscotti

270g plain flour, sifted

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

30g dark cocoa powder, sifted

165g caster sugar

3/4 cup blanched almonds

3 eggs

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celsius and line a flat baking tray.  Mix together the flour, baking powder, cocoa, sugar and almonds.  Add the eggs and the vanilla and combine to form a dough.  Your dough consistency can range between smooth and sticky depending on the size of your eggs, but don't add any more flour.

Divide the dough in two and lightly knead each piece on a floured surface until smooth - this won't take long.  Shape the logs and flatten slightly.  Place on your pre-prepared tray and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Use a serrated knife to cut the log into 5mm slices.  Place back onto your baking tray and bake for a further 15 minutes until your biscotti are crisp.

Happy baking,

F. x

Ultimate problem solving.

Let me set the scene...
Every Sunday, I bake for the week ahead.  What I bake will change from week to week except that I always bake a batch of biscuits for lunches and a sweet treat.  Those who know me well, know that in my life, routine is key and I do not like to deviate from my routines unless absolutely necessary.

Today, I had quite a dilemma.  After all of the week's baking, I didn't have enough butter to whip up a batch of bikkies! So I thought and I thought and I searched and I searched (just in case there was some more butter hiding in the nooks of the fridge where butter tends to hide).  After my thinking and much searching I was left standing in the kitchen with a block of Philly cream cheese.....lightbulb!

Here is the recipe for my Chocolate Chip 'Lightbulb' Cookies.  Oh, they are amazing.  These will be becoming a regular part of my Sunday bake routine!

Chocolate Chip 'Lightbulb' Cookies

120g unsalted butter

75g cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup caster sugar

 2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cornflour

2 1/4 cups plain flour

200g chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Cream the butter, cream cheese, sugars and vanilla.  When we//-creamed, mix in the egg.  Sift in the baking soda and flours.  Mix well and then give the dough a quick knead until smooth.  Use a spatula to incorporate the chocolate chips.  Roll into tablespoon sized balls and push to flatten a little.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until cooked to your liking.

Wishing you many a successful Sunday bake!

F. x

Winter + White Chocolate

Think about it...
It's a cold winter evening and you're snuggled on the couch with a lovely knitted blanket over your knees.  What could make this a better picture?  Only biting into a warm white chocolate chunk cookie!

Heaven!  You see, white chocolate and I...well, we have a bit of a 'thing'.  But please don't allow this to hold you back from experimenting with this recipe!  Instead of white chocolate, you could use ANY type of chocolate, chocolate bar, nut or dried fruit.  This is the wonderful cookie recipe of my childhood and you really can do anything with it.

White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

250g butter, unsalted

70g caster sugar

70g brown sugar

1/2 can condensed milk

2 tsp vanilla essence

350g S/R flour

80g plain flour

200g good quality white chocolate, chopped roughly

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.  Cream the butter and sugars until well combined and lightened in colour.  Mix in the condensed milk and vanilla before adding your flours. When your mixture has come together, add the chocolate.  Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place onto baking trays, allowing room for spreading. Bake for 15 minutes or until lovely and golden.

This recipe makes a whole lot of cookies so you could halve the mixture but what would be the fun in that?

F. x

Blondes have more fun.

In Blackwater, this week, the weather has been a tad bleak.  It's been cold and overcast and wet.  While this weather doesn't suit itself to outdoor pursuits, it is perfection for baking.  In fact, I have woken up each day this week and thought "pastry weather" and so, am devastated that I haven't found the time to create the particularly stunning chocolate tart that I've been giving the eye.  But you know me, I don't wallow for long and I found myself the perfect baking opportunity last night.  The inclement weather called for comfort food and there, in my pile of recipe clippings, I found it. It was exactly what I was looking for and didn't even know it.  A blondie.

White chocolate is, and has always been, a particular favourite of mine - on its own and as an ingredient in any baked good or dessert.  Pair it with fruit and you have a match made in heaven.   I was in a wonderful world of my own...just me, the kitchen and melting chocolate.  The only thing better was what came out of the oven forty minutes later.

Black Cherry Blondies

100g unsalted butter, chopped

180g white chocolate, broken into squares

3/4 caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup SR flour

3/4 cup plain flour

1 cup tinned, pitted black cherries

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and prepare a 19x29cm (or thereabouts) slice tin. Melt butter and chocolate together in a saucepan over a low heat. Allow to cool slightly before stirring in sugar, vanilla and eggs. Sift in flours and combine using a folding motion. Pour the thick batter into the tin, top with the cherries and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Edges should crisp and golden. You can (should) allow to cool before you slice but we can never leave this alone that long!

This is beautiful served warm with icecream or cooled for morning tea.  We sliced it and enjoyed steaming hot with a sweet cup of strong tea. 

F. x

Sweet tooth...satisfied!

Tonight, we are madly packing for a flying trip to Brisbane for my father's birthday.  Despite this, I just had to try out this recipe that I've been turning around and around my head for days!  These cupcakes are sweet and rich and divinely fudgy.  Delicious chocolate morsels are a sweet surprise inside these heavenly cakes.  There isn't much better - except maybe for the choc-hazelnut buttercream with adorns these beauties.  Cupcakes for grown-ups...a indulgent hit of whisky means that no kiddies will be licking this bowl!

Fudgy Chocolate Mudcakes

175g good quality dark chocolate

175g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

80 mL whisky

200g brown sugar

200g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

110g chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Melt chocolate, butter, vanilla and whisky together until smooth and glossy (I do this in the microwave).  While the mixture is still hot, beat in the sugars.  Add the eggs and combine well before mixing in the sifted flour, baking powder and salt.  When batter is well-mixed, stir through the chocolate chips.  Distribute batter into baking cups and bake for 20-30 minutes.  Baking time will depend on the size of your baking cups.  When cooked, cupcakes will have a hard crust and a skewer, inserted, will be mostly clean.  Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Choc-hazelnut Buttercream

125g unsalted butter

3 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp nutella

3 tbsp cocoa, sifted

Beat butter and sugar together for 10 minutes until almost white.  Mix in vanilla, nutella and cocoa. 

F. x

Delightful, darling!

Buttery, crumbly, rich, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread.  This is it. 

This week, I squeezed my baking fix into 20 minutes after pulling a few easily accessible ingredients from my fridge and pantry. This recipe produces quite a 'grown-up' custard shortbread that is buttery and gorgeous but not sickly sweet. The drizzle of rich dark chocolate across the top perfectly compliments the creamy biscuit which could only be improved with an accompanying cappucino...delightful, darlings!

Chocolate-Drizzled Custard Shortbreads

250g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups plain flour, sifted

1/2 cup custard powder, sifted

dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line two baking trays with grease-proof paper.  Cream butter, sugar and vanilla. When colour lightens, mix in flour and custard powder.  Roll teaspoon sized amounts of the mixture into balls and place on the trays.  Press each ball down a little before putting in the oven.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  When cool, drizzle melted chocolate across the top of the biscuits.

F. x

Quiet time

Baking is the ultimate stress reliever.  No matter how sleep deprived, busy or cranky I am, I always have time for cooking up sweet treats.  There is truly nothing better than the mechanics of baking - the chopping, stirring, folding, melting, beating - to slow the mind.  This recipe is perfect for this.  The initial chopping of the chocolate, cranberries and pistachios calms you as you focus on the beautiful constrasting colours - creamy white, deep ruby red and jade green.  The best part, though? The almost instant aroma of baked goods filling the house.  Pair one of these monsters with a tall iced coffee and some quiet time shared between you and a good book...heavenly.

Jewelled Jumbo Cookies

250g unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups demerara sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

3 1/2 cups SR flour

1/2 cup white chocolate, roughly chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped

1/2 cup pistachio nuts, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Beat together butter, sugar and vanilla.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing well in between.  Sift in flour and combine to form a crumbly dough mixture.  Fold through the chocolate, cranberries and nuts.  Use 1/3 cup to scoop out cookie dough.  Push together in hands and form into a thick disc.  Space cookies 5cm apart on lined baking trays and bake for 15 minutes.  Makes 15 cookies.

F. x

Sweet treats

It's no secret that my favourite dessert is Sticky Date Pudding. In fact, I display an abnormal compulsion to order it should it appear on a menu. It's perfection in all its juxtaposing facets: spongy in texture and dense in flavour. Who can go past its sickly sweetness and deep amber colour?

This recipe is slightly more versatile than one I have previously shared. It is baked as a cake and easily prepared in the food processor. You can serve large squares of this incredible pudding cake with warm caramel sauce and ice cream and stick to the traditional, or (as I have done today) cut it into "two-bite" sized bars with a smear of caramel for a light afternoon morsel. No one is going to accept a bowl of hot pudding and ice cream for afternoon tea but they'll be all over this is a jiffy.

The secret to getting neatly cut bars is to put the cake (once cooled) in the freezer for half an hour before cutting. This firms it up and takes off the stickiness that makes slicing difficult. Once out of the freezer, use a serrated-edge knife to portion the cake as you wish. These little bars suit me because you never feel quite as guilty stealing a second one! If you are serving in this way, also set aside your sauce for a couple of hours to cool (and thus, thicken sufficiently). This naughty sauce is a perfect one to have stashed in the fridge for topping ice cream, drizzling over cakes or shortbread (the sweetness cuts through a tart cheesecake remarkably well) or for attacking with a spoon when no one else is looking.

Sticky Date Cake

315g fresh dates

375mL boiling water

1 1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarb)

150g unsalted butter, softened

175g brown sugar

3 eggs

225g SR flour, sifted

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C. Place dates, water and bicarb in the food processor with the cutting blade. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.  Pulse the processor 3-5 times to roughly chop the dates.  Change to the mixing blade before adding butter and sugar. Process until well combined.  Mix in eggs and flour until just incorporated. Pour mixture into a greased and lined 30cm square slice tin. Bake for 30 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in tin for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Sticky Caramel Sauce

150g unsalted butter, chopped

250mL single cream

265g brown sugar

Place all ingredients into a saucepan over a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.  Bring to the boil, keep stirring and cook for 8 minutes.  Caramel will thicken as it cooks.  Serve hot for a thin sauce or at room temperature if you prefer it thick and gooey.

Don't you wish you were at my house for afternoon tea today?

F. x

Afternoon Delight

The brilliant thing about a brownie (well, one of the many brilliant things about a brownie) is that even though it's aesthetically ugly, the uglier, the goey-er, the browner....the better! There's absolutely no fussiness in serving them up.  They are a guilty comfort which should look homemade and rustic.  Having some gorgeous ladies over this afternoon meant that I simply had to bake something.  Not sure how much time I would have (if only babies worked around our schedule!) my decision was based on ease and people pleasing.  Who doesn't love a brownie?!

These brownies are quick and easy but also have a yummy twist - coconut.  I, however, cannot take the credit for this addition after being inspired by my mothers groups' recent obsession with Summer Rolls (hence the name of these delights).  You know, that delicious chewy nougat covered in chocolate and coated in coconut - heaven!  As a result, I have also rekindled my lost love with the humble Summer Roll which has obviously now filtered in other aspects of my culinary existence.  Prepare yourself for mouthfuls of chocolatey goodness as you bite through the crisp exterior to reveal a molten and decadent core.  These glorious things are appropriate for all levels of entertaining, be it accompanying a coffee as you steal a quiet moment at home to yourself, or as a dessert served warm with icecream and a dusting of cocoa as you entertain.  And all put together in 10 minutes before you set the oven timer and forget about it until your house fills with the devine scent of warm chocolate baking.  It's too much!  Do yourself a favour...bake these!

Summer Brownies

175g unsalted butter, chopped

175g dark chocolate, chopped

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup plain flour

1/3 cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. Melt butter and chocolate together in a microwave safe dish, stirring every 30 seconds.  Set aside to cool slightly.  Sift together flour and cocoa.  In a different bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, coconut and vanilla.  Fold through chocolate mixture and combine well before adding flour and cocoa.  Ensure all ingredients are combined and pour mixture into a pre-prepared 20x20 baking tin (or a slice tin).  Bake for 35 minutes.  Top will be crisp but inside will still be soft.

This will become your 'go to' brownie recipe, I am sure of it!

F. x

Cookie Dough-oh-oh

My lovely bun is now baked and out of the oven.  Anna Mae arrived on the 15 December 2012 at 10:20pm and has been making my life sweeter ever since! Now that my mini muffin has vacated her lodgings of the past nine months, my sweet tooth (and energy) have well and truly returned.  And so, my lovelies, here is my first post of 2013. 

It is well known that pregnancy places certain limitations on ones ability to consume particular delicacies...one of which is raw batter.  This has been (not over-reacting) quite devastating for moi, and today, I suddenly realised, "if I want cookie dough, I can eat cookie dough!" Hallejulah moment, right here!  And eat cookie dough I did.  I even saved enough to put in the oven to have cookies at the end of it...just.  It was a beautiful moment of guilt-free batter consumption that I just had to share with you.  As always, though, I must also share this gorgeous recipe with you.  It just wouldn't be fair otherwise. 

White Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies

125g unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 baking soda

3/4 cup macadamia nuts

180g white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cream butter and sugars.  Add egg and vanilla.  Sift in flour and baking soda and mix well to combine ingredients into a dough.  Roughly chop the macadamias before adding to the batter with chocolate chips.  Stir well to distribute.  Space tablespoon-sized dollops of the batter on baking trays and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

These are definitely worth the restraint required for them to make it into the oven!

Bliss in a biscuit.

F. x



Tea Time Tempter

I have found the perfect tea time cake.  Now, I understand that this sounds like quite a claim but it's completely true!  In fact, I have made this cake twice this week.  Initially, the desire to make this cake came from the gorgeous fresh oranges that were taking over my fruit bowl and filling my house with the scent of citrus.  I took it along to a morning tea with my ladies, warm from the oven and all agreed that it was perfection.  It could be described as a dense cake, delightfully moist and yet at the same time, it is not at all heavy.  It's not overly sweet at all and a big, fat wedge goes down a treat with a freshly brewed pot of English Breakfast. 

As I said, the first time I baked this cake, I served it warm from the oven with a sweet drizzle of orange juice and caster sugar.  My husband was very pleased that some cake actually made it home from our morning tea, so I decided to make another one for him to take with his lunch.  This time though, I wanted to finish the cake with a thick swirl of light buttercream and some finely grated rind.  It just looks so delightfully homely - I adore it and just couldn't help but 'test' my creation straight away.  I just know that this cake is going to become a firm favourite.  Perhaps, it already has.  My dear friend, Emma, is today baking this cake and intends to whip up an orange cream cheese frosting to finish it off. 

I just can't help but sing the praises of this darling cake and have missed the biggest positive of all - it is all blitzed together in five minutes with the food processor.  Could it be any more fantastic?  No, it could not.  This recipe comes from the beautiful Janelle Bloom and can be found on her amazing web site, along with a myriad of other quick, fabulous recipes.

Whole Orange Cake

220g chopped navel oranges (this was 1 and a half oranges for me)

185g unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

2 1/4 cups S R Flour

Pulse the chopped orange 3 - 4 times in the bowl of a food processor.  Add butter, sugar and extract before pulsing until combined.  At this stage, the mixture may look curdled but is fine.  Pop the eggs into the bowl and pulse before adding flour.  It is important just to pulse until flour is incorporated and not over mix.  Pour the batter into a prepared 23cm springform tin and cook in a 170 degree oven (lower for fan-forced) for 60 - 70 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.  Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Whipped Orange Buttercream

145g unsalted butter, softened

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

3-4 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Beat butter for 5 minutes until colour lightens.  Mix in 1 cup of icing sugar well before adding the orange juice.  Beat for a minute.  Add last cup of icing sugar and beat with an electric mixer on high for 8-10 minutes.  Buttercream should be light in colour and texture.  You can add more icing sugar or orange juice until it reaches your desired consistency.

F. x

For the love of cake.

Last week marked yet another wonderful Wednesday at Blackwater North State School.  Apparently the intrigue began as early as 8am as to what was 'inside' the cake that lay on the table. 

Mud cake?
No.
Carrot cake?
No.
White chocolate cake?
No.

It was Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake: the smooth, moist centre in stunning contrast to the sweet cream cheese outer.  As soon as this beautiful cake was cut, it was a fight as to who could get a piece before it ran out and it was completely and utterly worth the fight.  This cake is impressive to say the least, and yet a one pot wonder (yes, I did say pot).  All of the ingredients are combined and whipped up in a large saucepan before entering the oven.  It's certainly minimum effort for maximum effect.  I recommend that this be the next wonder to come out of your oven.

Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake

250ml Guinness

250g unsalted butter

75g cocoa

400g caster sugar

1 x 142ml pot sour cream

2 eggs

1 tablespoon real vanilla extract

275g plain flour

2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line the bottom of a 23cm springform tin with baking paper.

In a large saucepan, place your guinness and butter and stir over a low heat.  When the butter has melted into the guinness, add the sugar and cocoa.  Separately beat the eggs, sour cream and vanilla together before whisking into the dark guinness liquid.  Finally you can stir in the plain flour and bicarb until combined.  Pour the batter in the cake tin and bake for an hour. 

I literally baked this cake twice within a week.  It freezes beautifully if you want to slice it up, as I have, for my lovely husband to take in his lunch; it is simply sublime with custard or icecream as a dessert; or you can frost it, as I have here, with my divine Cream Cheese Frosting and adding some chocolate coated strawberries.

F. x



Lest we forget.

ANZAC Day holds a special place in the heart of all Australians.  I spent this morning (as did most of the Blackwater community, so it seems) at the local war memorial for a rememberance service.  It is so touching to see that this important aspect of our Australian culture is being preserved: not in a glorification of war but as a celebration of those who have and who continue to serve our nation in the armed forces.  I also hold close the cultural values that ANZAC day represents - mateship, determination and pride.  As such, it would be wholly UN-Australian to bake anything today that wasn't an ANZAC biscuit. 

In addition to a recipe, I also thought it incredibly important to include the history of the ANZAC biscuit.  This is a recipe that stays true to that which was cooked in the kitchens of our great great Grandmothers during WW1.  It is heartwarming to know that the love that these women demonstrated for our soldiers lives on in our kitchens today.

During World War 1, the wives, mothers and girlfriends of the Australian soldiers were concerned for the nutritional value of the food being supplied to their men. Here was a problem. Any food they sent to the fighting men had to be carried in the ships of the Merchant Navy. Most of these were lucky to maintain a speed of ten knots (18.5 kilometers per hour). Most had no refrigerated facilities, so any food sent had to be able to remain edible after periods in excess of two months. A body of women came up with the answer - a biscuit with all the nutritional value possible. The basis was a Scottish recipe using rolled oats. These oats were used extensively in Scotland, especially for a heavy porridge that helped counteract the extremely cold climate.

The ingredients they used were: rolled oats, sugar, plain flour, coconut, butter, golden syrup or treacle, bi-carbonate of soda and boiling water. All these items did not readily spoil. At first the biscuits were called Soldiers’ Biscuits, but after the landing on Gallipoli, they were renamed ANZAC Biscuits.

Source: http://www.anzacday.org.au/

ANZAC Biscuits

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

125g butter

2 tbsp golden syrup (or treacle)

1 tsbp water

1/2 tsp baking soda

Combine all of your dry ingredients.  Place butter, syrup and water in a saucepan and stir over a medium heat until butter has melted.  Stir in the baking soda before combining wet and dry ingredients.  Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and press firmly to flatten. Bake in a 160 degree oven for 15 minutes. 

This recipe gives you biscuits with a crunchy outer and a soft middle.  If you prefer you ANZAC biscuits really crunchy, flatten them more on the tray before they go in the oven and cook for 20 minutes instead of the stated 15.

F. x

In a whizz...tizz

This week marked the first week back at school after holidays.  Please don't take my lack of postings during the week as I didn't have time to cook.  Oh no, lovelies.  I just didn't have time to post!  And now you reap the benefits of this as you are about to be in absolute sweetness overload.  I begin with Sunday night... 

During the working week, dessert in the evening is not a regular occurrence - despite what my lovely husband would prefer.  However, weekends mean baking time, cookbook reading time and....dessert time!  Sunday night mean soft, sweet Sticky Date Pudding.  While the dish itself oozes effort and time, in reality, it was whizzed up in the blender in about five minutes and cooked in the oven while we were eating dinner.  This is the easiest Sticky Date Pudding recipe you will ever come across.  You can just cook these in your muffin pans for perfect individual serves or in a dariol mould, as I did, for presentation. What you end up with is a delightfully moreish sponge pudding which becomes dense and sickly sweet with the addition of the warm butterscotch sauce - oooohhhh yes!!!

Sticky Date Pudding

200g dried dates, roughly chopped

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cups boiling water

60g unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup S R Flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and grease your chosen moulds.  Put the chopped dates, bicarb and boiling water into the blender jug and leave to soak.  After around 5 minutes, add the butter and sugar before pulsing 2 - 3 times.  Any more and your dates will be mush.  Tip in the flour and eggs and pulse again until just combined.

Use an icecream scoop to divide the mixture between the moulds.  This will ensure even distribution.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven.  You want a few crumbs on the skewer when tested.  Remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before turning out.  While they are resting, you can get on with your butterscotch sauce.

Butterscotch Sauce

1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar

300mL single (pure) cream

125g unsalted butter

Put all of your ingredients into a saucepan over a low heat.  Stir continuously as all ingredients melt in together.  Put into a pouring jug to serve with your puddings.

Don't forget the Vanilla Bean Icecream!

F. x