Pizza Puffs

In your world these might also be Cheese Puffs but I call them Pizza Puffs as I like to include more veggies.  I often add odds and ends from the fridge too and things that go well are diced olives, corn, diced mushroom, left over meat, feta or anything else that is not too watery.

Pizza Puffs

1/2 cup milk
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups cheese grated
1 cup self-raising flour
2 bacon rashers diced
3 Spring onions chopped

1/2 Capsicum finely diced

pinch of salt

Ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 200C.
Combine eggs and milk in a large bowl.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and drop golf ball size blobs of the mixture onto the tray.
Place into oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly golden on top.

A Wonderful Long Weekend

We just had a wonderful long weekend where we not only got to catch up with friend and do stuff at home but we also found time to relax, perfect long weekend combo.

We had lunch with friends out where we used to live and then spent a day and a half with other friends Liz and Pete at their farm and checking out the renovations at their second property.  They are doing an amazing job and are making good progress. Unfortunately Jessie managed to catch her shoulder on a barbed wire fence (well we think that is what happened).   She never let on she had hurt herself and it wasn't until Saturday night when we saw her licking her shoulder we noticed the cut. 

It is not the first time she has had a run in with barbed wire but this time it does not even seem to be sore.  She is a bit of a sook and normally crinkles her nose and shows her teeth if you get close to a sore spot but this time she let me clip all the hair away without blinking an eye.  The main reason I clipped the hair back is to stop it poking into the wound and irritating it (which stops her licking so much) and so I could have a good look and wash it out with saline solution.

So that it can heal we are trying to stop her from licking it too much.  We could have gone to the vets and gotten a cone today but a rolled up towel and a nappy safety pin do exactly the same job and she is not bothered at all.

I also cooked up a big batch of Chilli Beef and some Biscotti.  Most of the Chilli Beef went in the freezer as I am trying to make sure we have a good stockpile of precooked meals for when the baby arrives.

There was also some time for books and cuddles in bed.  Yes she is a very spoilt little dog.

How did you spend your long weekend?

Sugar Free Cinnamon Tea Cake

This was a really easy cake to make and it was very buttery so lovely and moist. I am not a huge fan of cinnamon and I think if I made this cake again I would use cardamon instead but if you like cinnamon then this is for you.

Sugar Free Cinnamon Tea Cake

200 g Unsalted Butter - chopped and softened
1 1/2 c Dextrose
2 tsp Vanilla Essence
3 Eggs
1 1/2 c Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 c Sour Cream

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (160 fan forced) then grease and line a 22 cm spring-form cake tin.
In an electric mixer beat the butter, dextrose and vanilla until pale and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time mixing well between each one. 
Fold in the dry ingredients and sour cream then spoon into the lined cake tin.
Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.  Cool in the tin for 5 mins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Sugar Free Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Brownies

This was such an easy recipe and just as tasty as other brownies I have made in the past although no where near as sweet.  It is something I think you could serve to sugar lovers and they would never know the difference unless you told them.  This brownie is more cakey than gooey but still hits the spot.

Sugar Free Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Brownies

2 c Dextrose
4 Eggs
250 g Unsalted butter - Melted and cooled
1 1/4 c Flour
1/2 c Cocoa
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
100 g Macadamia - Chopped and toasted

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (160 fan forced), grease and line a 22 cm square cake tin.
Beat the eggs and dextrose together until light and fluffy.  Gently mix in your melted butter then sift in your flour, cocoa and baking powder and stir to combine.  Finally fold in your macadamias and pout the batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until cooked in the middle.  Cool completly in the tin before removing and cutting into squares.

Serve with another dusting of cocoa and whipped cream.

The Weekend Kitchen

This weekend saw quite a bit of action in the kitchen with preserving, baking and meal planning in action.
Our little lemon tree was loaded with lemons this year and I have made some preserved lemons and used lots in baking but there were still heaps on the tree so I picked a bucket full to make some cordial which barely made a dent.

I also made a couple of date loaves one for this week and one for the freezer.  We are heading off to New Zealand for most of September, and October looks like being a very busy month for us, so I have also been stocking the freezer with meals and baking ready to just heat and eat.

Saturday night I made dahl and kashmiri chicken curry (recipe later this week) and I had 3 portions of each for the freezer after dinner.  I now have 2 weeks worth of meals ready to call on when we get back from New Zealand.

Even after making 3 x 750 ml lemon cordial concentrate (recipe below) I still have heaps of lemons left so now I have to come up with another plan.  I think I might just throw them in a bag and freeze them.  The juice will be fine once defrosted but I am not sure about the rind.

Lemon Cordial

This recipe is very tart which is how I like it but you might want to cut back on the acids

9 Large Lemons

3 Cups Sugar

9 Cups Boiling Water

6 Tsp Tartaric Acid

6 Tsp Citric Acid

6 Tsp Epsom Salt

Zest and then juice all off your lemons into a stock pot,  Add all of you other ingredients and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Bottle in sterilised bottles and store in a dark cupboard.

How was your weekend?

Date Loaf

This recipe is an oldie but a goodie.  It is something I remember my mum cooking for us when we were kids and when I found some quite old and dry looking dates in the pantry I decided to turn them into this loaf.  The recipe calls for walnuts which work really well as they are quite bitter and make a nice contrast to the sweet loaf.  I used 50/50 walnuts and almonds as I did not have enough walnuts and the almonds still worked well.  I doubled this recipe and froze one. loaf and they freeze well

Date Loaf

1 Cup of Chopped Dates
1 Cup of Boiling Water
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tbs Butter
3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
1 Beaten Egg
1 Cup of chopped Walnuts
2 Cups Plain Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder

Put your dates, butter, baking soda and water into a large bowl and stir until the butter is melted and then set aside  for 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c and grease a 22 cm loaf tin.
Beat your sugar, egg and walnuts into the date mix and the sift in the flour and baking powder stirring until just combined.
Pour into your loaf tin and bake for 35 - 45 mins.
When cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 mins before turning onto a cooling rack.

The Weekend Kitchen And Using Our Christmas Gift

Over the weekend there were a few things going on in the kitchen.

One of the longer jobs I tackled was making some Camembert Cheese.  It is not a recipe that I have tried before but so far things are looking really good and as you can see from the photo below the yield from 8 litres of milk is pretty good.  I currently have the cheeses set aside ripening and once they have had time to mature and I have taste tested them I will give you an update.

I have made 2 small and one large round so I can compare the flavour.
The big one has a flat side as it got got pressed up against the side of the
container.  I am sure the flavour will be fine.

I also baked a Madeira cake which brought back so many memories of my child hood.  Madeira cake was my Grandads favourite and my granny used to bake them on a regular basis for him.  When ever we visited it was a treat to have some of 'Grandads Cake'.  I did not realise it was so easy and there are no fancy ingredients so it was done in no time at all.  In case you have never tried Madeira I have posted the recipe below.

And on Sunday we finally got to use our Christmas gift to each other of tickets to the latest Cirque Du Soleil 'Totem'  It was as usual (we have been twice before) and amazing show.  The skill of the acrobats was amazing and had us hooked from the second the show started.  If you ever get to go to one of their shows it is so worth it.

Maderia Cake

175 g Butter, Softened
3/4 Cups of Sugar
1/4 Tsp Grated Lemon Rind
1/4 Cup Milk
3 Eggs
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder

Line a 20cm square baking tin and heat your oven to 180 degrees.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then stir in the lemon rind.  Mix in the sifted flour and baking powder and the milk until combined.  In a separate bowl beat the eggs until thick.  Add to the creamed mixture in 4 equal amounts folding each portion in so that the cake mix becomes looser and wetter.
Spoon into your cake tin and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until the cake springs back when touched lightly.  Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 mins before turning out on a wire rack.

What did you get up to  over the weekend?
Have you ever been to a Cirque Du Soleil show?

Simple And Delicious - Good Old Sponge Cake

Sometime the best recipes and the tried and tested ones that are handed down through generations.
This is one of those recipes.  It is just a simple sponge cake but it is easy to make and always impresses those I serve it to.  I like it plain so that how we mostly have it as it is not too sweet but every so often (or when we have guests) I add jam and cream.

Sponge Cake

3 eggs

Pinch of Salt

3/4 Cup of Castor Sugar

1 Cup Plain Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

50 g Cooled Melted Butter

Grease and line a 20 cm round spring form tin and heat your oven to 190 degrees,

Beat the eggs and salt  then add the sugar and beat until thick and pale.  Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold into the egg mixture.  When the flour is 90% combined fold in the melted butter until just combined.  Pour into your cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cake springs back in the middle when touched lightly.  Leave in the tin for 10 mins then turn out onto a cooling rack.

Once cool the cake can be cut in half and spread with jam and filled with cream or just eat plain.

Weekend Celebrations And Rememberance

Over the weekend we spent the weekend in Brisbane and remembered Hubby's grandfather who served in WW1, and mine who served in WW2, spent quality time as a family and celebrated the birthday of a good friend.

Hubby, his dad and brother attended the dawn ceremony in Brisbane and later we had a BBQ lunch and toasted the diggers.  Yesterday Hubby and I had a few jobs to do in the city so we returned to the Shrine of Remembrance and it was nice to get to read some of the notes left with the wreaths.

The that night we celebrated a friends birthday and I made him a Chocolate Silk Cake which is not for the faint hearted.  It is a chocolate almond cake with a chocolate mouse filling covered in chocolate ganache.  It is the kind of cake to be enjoyed as a small slice with a good coffee.  I am from New Zealand and Hubby is from Australia and our friends girlfriend is Turkish so we really did have the full ANZAC contingent in attendance.

It was a great weekend and it was lovely to spend it with family.  We are making the most of these opportunities as we know that once we move to New Zealand we will really miss these family moments.

Orange And Almond Biscotti

This is such a great recipe and once these are baked they keep for ages, so although you may think you only want to do a half batch make the whole thing as it is much easier to do it all at once.
These biscuits get baked twice once as a log and the second time as individual biscuits.  They can end up quite hard (depending on how long you bake the second time) so you need to be careful eating them so you do not break your teeth, but this makes them perfect for dunking.

Orange and Almond Biscotti

2 Eggs
2 Egg Yolks
1 Cup of Sugar
The Grated Rind of 1 Orange
2 2/3 Cup Plain Flour + 1/3 Cup Extra Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Cup Raw Almonds

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
In an electric mixer beat the eggs, sugar and grated rind until it is thick and pale.  Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix till almost fully combined then add the almonds then mix till well combined.
Turn mix onto lightly floured surface and knead lightly as you shape into 2 logs.
Place one log on each tray and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 15 - 20 minutes.
Reduce the temperature of your oven to 140 degrees.
Using a very sharp serrated knife slice the logs into 5mm slices and place all but the end pieces (these should be cooked enough already and are ready to enjoy while the rest finish cooking) back on the tray are return to the oven to finish cooking.
Bake for another 20 - 25 minutes (or until dry and crisp) turning half way through cooking time.
When cooked cool on a wire rack.

I like to use a mix of grated and zested rind.

The shaped logs ready for baking

The baked logs cooling waiting to be cut.

These are the just cut biscuits ready for their second baking.
As you can see, from the darker patches, they are still a bit raw in the middle.

Notes:
I find that if there are some smaller slices these cook quicker and need to be removed sooner.
I use a Victornox steak knife that is really sharp and you need to use a sawing motion trying not to press to hard and let the blade do the work.
Because these are really dry they keep really well in an air tight container.
Warn people before they bite into them you do not want broken teeth on your conscience.

The Weekend Kitchen

It is going to sound like I was joined at the hip to the stove over the weekend but strangely I actually found time to do a whole lot of other things as well.  Now that I look back at how much I got done this weekend I am quite surprised since I was fighting off a migraine all weekend and had an afternoon nap on Saturday for a few hours.

I started this relish on Friday night as the vegetables need to be salted and drained overnight.  It is a new recipe to me that I found to try and use up some of the zucchini glut we still have.  I will post the recipe once I have tried it an I am happy with the result.

I used some lovely meaty bones from our recently killed cow to make some beef stock.

I made a test batch of Orange and Almond Biscotti which I will be giving to a few people as gifts this Christmas.  I was pretty happy with the recipe, which I adapted from my original one, and it is really easy so I will share it later this week.

I also had a go at making a Christmas cake.  I normally make a Very Boozy Christmas Pudding but this year I decided to have a go at a Christmas Cake.  I should have phoned my mum for her recipe as she makes a great Christmas Cake but I decided was too impatient and used one online.  It made a very very tall cake and it took ages to cook.  As I am still dousing it in alcohol I can't give you the verdict yet but I am hoping it will be ok.  I used the dried fruit I had on hand rather than go out and buy more because that was what the recipe indicated.  This allowed me to use up some dried fruit that I had on hand that was a bit dry and crystallised but I figured since the fruit was going to be soaked in alcohol it would plump up just the same and it did.

Mixed dried fruit that was a bit chrystallised.

The dried fruit I had on hand sultanas, currents, apricots, mixed fruit and cranberries

The cake ready to go into the oven

I also cooked up some very tasty sticky chicken wings for dinner.  These are so easy and very tasty.  I just marinade them for an hour in 1 1/2 cups of the BBQ sauce I make each year and added a table spoon of fennel seeds, 2 table spoons of brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.  Then I tipped the whole lot into a baking tray and covered with foil and baked at 200 degrees for 35 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes (or until sticky) basting with the sauce and turning after 10 minutes (or every 10 minutes until done).

And finally just for Lynda who I have been promising a low carb recipe, I made some baked egg cups.

I do not follow a recipe for this as I use what ever I have on hand but the basic idea is the same.

Baked Egg Cups

Grease some muffin tins and line with a ring of streaky bacon (the thin end) and then add a filling of beaten egg, salt and pepper, grated cheese. diced asparagus, finely chopped parsley and spring onions and pour into the lined muffing tins.  Bake at 180 degrees until set in the middle.

This weekend I also lined some of the muffing tins with thin strips (about 3mm thick) of zucchini and I added the bacon diced up in the middle along with a mix of creamed corn, egg, grated onion, grated cheese and parsley.

You can modify this recipe to include what ever you have on hand including diced cooked veggies and cooked meat.

What did you get up to in the kitchen this weekend?

Gingerbread Biscuits

At this time of year many people are baking gingerbread biscuits and I thought I would share my recipe.  This one uses ground cardamon as well as the ginger and I sometimes bake these during the year as well not just at Christmas. During the year I just use a non Christmas shape cutter but at Christmas I like to make these into Christmas trees.  This recipe is easy to double and the cooked biscuits freeze well.

Gingerbread Biscuits

125 gm Butter
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/4 C Golden Syrup
1 egg Yolk
1 3/4 C Plain Flour (Sifted)
2 Tsp Ground Ginger
1 Tsp Ground Cardamon
1 Tsp Baking Soda

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Cream the sugar and butter until the mix is pale and creamy then add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients and mix well then tip out on your bench and knead till smooth.  Roll into a large ball and wrap in cling wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the fridge.
Remove dough from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured bench to about 5mm thick.  Cut out your shapes  and bake for 10-12 minutes.  When cooked allow to stand on the tray for 5 minutes before moving the biscuits to a wire rack to cool.
You will need to roll out all the dough scraps as you go and if the dough gets too soft to handle just place back in the fridge for a few minutes.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

So what do you bake when you have truckloads of zucchini? Well Chocolate Zucchini Cake of course.

This is a really easy recipe and my friends kids loved it although I never told them what was in it, I just called it chocolate cake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

115 gm Butter or 1/2 Cup Olive oil
2 Cups of Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp salt
180 gm Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp Instant Coffee dissolved in 2 Tbs of water
3 Large Eggs
350 gm Unpeeled Grated Zucchini
160 gm 70% Cocoa Chocolate roughly chopped or chocolate chips.

Pre Heat your oven to 180 degrees and grease a 25 cm round or 22 cm square cake tin.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In another bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then add the eggs one at a time mixing well between each egg.  Then mix in the vanilla and coffee.
Add the grated zucchini and chocolate to the dry ingredients and mix together so that the zucchini is well distributed and not clumping together.  Fold the zucchini mix into the batter and mix until just combined,(the mix will be quite thick).
Pour into the cake tin and bake for between 40 and 60 minutes (it will depend on your oven) until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Transfer the tin to a rack and cool for 10 minutes then run a knife around the edges to loosen before turning out.

Buttery Orange Cake and Peanut Brownies

As mentioned in my Slow Living November post these are a couple o sweet treats I whipped up in the last week.  The peanut brownies recipe is a modified version of my Nans recipe and the orange cake is a new one that I tried.  
The orange cake is very buttery and it needed more orange flavour in my opinion so next time I will add all the orange rind from my oranges as well.  
The peanut brownies have less sugar (and I still think they could do with a bit less) that my Nans recipe, more cocoa and uses salted peanuts in their husks.  Both recipes are really easy and I made them both on the same day one after another to save having the oven on twice and so that I only had to soften 1 block of butter.

Buttery Orange Cake

250 gm Soft Butter
1 1/4 Cup Castor Sugar
4 Eggs
1 2/3 Self Raising Flour
3/4 Cup o Orange Juice
All the orange rind from your oranges
2 Tbs Boiling Water

Preheat you oven to 160 degrees and grease a 28 cm round spring form tin then line the base with baking paper.
Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time making sure they are well combined.  Fold in the sifted flour orange rind, orange juice and boiling water.
Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 35-45 minutes or until cooked.  Stand the cooked cake for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.


Peanut Brownies

250 gm soft butter
1 1/3 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
3 Cups of Plain Flour
2 Tsp Baking Powder
A Pinch of Salt
4 Tablespoons Cocoa
1 1/2 Cups of Salted Peanuts (husks on)

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and beat well. sift in the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa.  Mix until fully combined then add the peanuts and mix until evenly distributed.
Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on a lined or greased baking tray.  Flatten with a fork then bake at 180 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes.

Slow Living November 2014

Linking up with Linda who is now our gracious host having taken over from Christine in hosting the Slow Living Nine.  I love joining in each month and reflecting on what I have achieved, it is also great to hear what everyone is up to and share in their achievements.
We spent just over 2 weeks of the month in NZ leaving house sitters to look after Jessie, the chickens and the garden.  We had a great trip and I have lots to report so I will include a little here but most of this post will be about what else happened in the month.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
We spent half of the month away but we are still drowning in zucchinis and eggs. Our house sitters made a big batch of pasta from our eggs and left us some along with some pancetta so we would have a quick and easy meal on our return.  Teamed up with some of our tomatoes, basil, capsicum, garlic and spring onions from the garden it was indeed a tasty and delicious meal.

There have also been a few sweet treats like this Buttery Orange Cake and Peanut Brownies during the month.

And I used up yet more zucchinis in the chocolate zucchini cake which I took along when we helped friends move house.  It was a hit even with the kids.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe later this week.

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.

This month we finally filled our freezers with meat from Freezer 2.  Such a huge amount of meat 379kg in all.  There will not be much else getting stockpiled in the freezers for a while as they are full to the brim.  We are even storing meat at Hubby's parents house.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.

I have been reducing the clothes I own and sending them off to the op shop for someone else to enjoy.  

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
Just the usual happening on this front.  

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

The garden is producing lots of herbs, we are inundated with zucchini, there are spring onions, beetroot, lettuce, tomatoes, capsicum, cucumber and eggplant.  I have dill and coriander going to seed which I collecting for replanting and for use in cooking.

Yesterday's harvest

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

The past month has been way too busy for anything creative but hopefully I will have some time over the next month.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.

I have finally through a couple of books I started last month and thanks to our holiday they are finished... well almost.

Enhance - Community

Nothing to report on this front in Australia but on our trip to NZ we have started to build relationships in and explore the community that we will live in.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

My parents and I

November's trip to NZ was full to over flowing of get together's with family and friends.
We meet our new niece and had time to enjoy our other nieces and nephew as well.
We celebrated my Pops 87th birthday and my sister in laws 36th birthday.

Me with my Granny (Dad's Mum)

My nieces helping their mother blow out the candles

Then they helped their great grandfather (my Pop) with his candles

My brothers three girls including 2 week old baby Alice with their great grandfather

Me and my Nan and Pop (mums parents)

It was especially nice to spend time with my grandparents who are now all in their mid to late eighties.

What have you been up to?

The Weekend Kitchen

It was a long weekend here and boy did we pack it full.  We caught up and went walking with one friend on Saturday morning then went out for lunch and did some shopping (something that we have been putting off for ages since we are not fans of shopping).  Then we went out for a farewell dinner with my youngest brother and his girlfriend who are off to Korea for the next 2 years.
Sunday morning we caught up with Hubby's best friend and his wife and kids for brunch then it was back to Hubby's parents for lunch with them his brother.  We got home at about 4pm and had a early night.  Monday morning was spent doing jobs around the farm and finally in the afternoon I did some baking,  All in all it was a busy weekend.

I did make a carrot cake using my recipe that is super easy.  This time I topped it with a cream cheese icing flavoured with orange rind and it was a very tasty combination,

I have also been making a lot of juices lately with all the beetroot and oranges we have.  I like to include all the beetroot leaves plus ginger, mint, parsley, carrots and cucumber with a bit of orange juice.  It makes a great mid morning pick me up.

What did you get up to in the kitchen on the weekend?

The Weekend Kitchen - Herman Style

Over the weekend I finally got to make my first Herman the German Friendship Cake.

When reading the recipe I suspected that the cake would be too sweet for our tastes but I thought I should make it as per the recipe to start with and modify it from there.

Well I was right it was too sweet for my liking but that is not to say it is not tasty because it is.  In fact the cake really moist and the inclusion of the fruit made it much more interesting.  I used plain yogurt to tone down the sugar but I will make some adjustments next time I make it.  I also cooked mine for longer at only 160 degrees fan forced.

Overall I thought it was very tasty and I really liked the big chunks of apple.  I am looking forward to experimenting with some of the other flavour combinations.

What flavour do you make?

Herman The German Has Come To Stay

Over the weekend we caught up with some friends for lunch and when we left my friend gave me some German Friendship Cake Starter also know as a Herman Cake.

Herman the German Friendship Cake is a sourdough cake starter that has been passed for person to person and works in a similar way to a chain letter in the fact that you pass it on to others.  You can read all about it Wikipedia or on this website.  Herman even has his own facebook page.

Herman in his bowl

So I brought Herman home and since he had been stored in my friends fridge (some of the instructions say not to, but then on another page of the same website it says you can) I poured him into a bowl and covered him with a tea towel secured over the bowl with a rubber band.
Because my friend only gave me a small portion I only fed it a 1/4 of what was recommended, I also fed it on the first day to get it going and then I will start counting the 10 day cycle from there (I am sure it will be fine in our warm climate to do this).
So in just over a week from now I will be doing my first bake.  I will also be on the look out for some friends who might a portion of Herman.

Have you ever made a sourdough friendship cake or been involved with passing Herman on?

Orange and Almond Cake

There are lots of different recipes out there for Orange and Almond Cakes but I like this one as it is moist and not overly sweet.  It takes a while to make but is not difficult and keeps really well.

Orange and Almond Cake

2 Large Oranges
6 Eggs
1 Tbsp Orange Liqueur
1 Cup Castor Sugar
300 Gm Ground Almonds
1 Tsp Baking Powder

Orange Syrup (Optional)

2 Cups of Orange Juice
3/4 Cup Castor Sugar
1/4 Cup of Sweet White Wine

Boil your oranges in water for 2 hours in a covered pot.  Once they are very soft drain off the water and puree the oranges in a food processor, blender or with a stick blender then cooled the pureed oranges.
Grease and line a 23 cm round spring form tin.  Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Separate your eggs being careful not to get any yolk in the whites.  Place the yolks in a bowl with the castor sugar and liqueur and beat until the mix is pale and frothy.  Then add you orange puree, ground almonds and baking powder and mix until combined.  Mean while in a clean bowl beat your egg whites until they are stiff.
Take 1/3 of your egg white mix and add it to the orange mix and stir through to lighten the orange mix.  Repeat with the second 1/3 and then the final 1/3 folding through so you retain as much air and lightness as possible.
Pour into your tin and bake for 1 hour.  Remove from the oven and cool completely in the tin before removing.

To make the syrup heat all the ingredients in a pan over a medium heat.  Once the sugar has dissolved simmer for 30 minutes or until the syrup has reduced by half.

Once you have made your syrup serve up a slice of cake with a drizzle of the syrup and a dollop of greek yogurt.

Lemon Myrtle and Macadamia Nut Shortbread

This is just a basic shortbread recipe with the addition of the Lemon Myrtle powder and Macadamia Nut pieces that have been chopped up into small pieces.  You can adjust the amount of Lemon Myrtle to suit your tastes and swap the Macadamias for a different type of nut if you choose.

Lemon Myrtle and Macadamia Nut Shortbread

250 gm Butter (softened)
3/4 Cup Icing Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
1/2 Cup Cornflour
2 Cups Plain Flour
Pinch of Salt
4 Tsp Lemon Myrtle
200 gm Chopped Macadamias

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line two trays with baking paper.
Cream your butter and sugar in a mixer until the butter is pale.  Add  you vanilla essence, lemon myrtle and macadamia nuts and mix through.
Sift in your dry ingredients and mix together using a bread knife.  Once you mix is combined make truffle sized balls of mix and flatten on your tray.
Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until the bottom of the biscuits just start to brown.

This mix is very short and crumbly are a slightly green colour and are perfect with a good cup of tea.  They freeze well and defrost quickly so are great to have on hand in case you get surprise visitors and want to offer up something a little bit special.