Magic cake

Well, not magic exactly, but it disappears in a flash. Boom boom (sad in Basil Brush stylee).
The son was helping run a cake stall today that his class had organised to raise money for a trip to the zoo later in the term. I made caramel slice, which has always been a sure fire winner for adult and child alike. The kids did really well with the sale - raising over $500 for their trip!

Caramel slice
Makes 16 pieces

1 cup plain flour
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup soft brown sugar
125g marg or butter, melted
1 tin condensed milk
30g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
100 g chocolate melts


Preheat oven 175C. Line a brownie tin with baking paper.
Put flour, coconut and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Melt 125g marg, and pour on the dry ingredients. Mix well, and tip mixture into brownie tin. Press down well.
Bake for ten minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the condensed milk, 30g marg and syrup into a large strong saucepan. Heat the ingredients over a medium heat - stirring all the time - until melted. Keep on the heat for 5 minutes, still gently stirring all the time. Take the pan off the heat.
When the biscuit base has cooked for 10 minutes, take out of the oven. Pour the caramel mixture over the biscuit base. Spread well so all of the biscuit is covered with caramel.
Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Take out of the oven, and allow to cool completely.
Top with thin layer of melted chocolate.
Cool, and cut into 16 pieces.

All day fast food

I made this easy peasy slow cooker recipe today. It took about 5 minutes to prepare, and was deeeeelish!

Apple Mustard Chicken
8 chicken drumsticks
1 packet soup mix (I used mushroom)
2 large apples, cored and grated
1 tbsp grainy mustard
1 cup water

Place all ingredients into crock pot, and stir. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve with rice. Enjoy.

Nutty as a fruit cake?

I found this recipe in a back issue of a Julie le Clerc magazine, and thought it would be an ideal morning tea or after school snack for the kids. It's cake afterall - so should satisfy the kids, and is full of fruit and uses oil not butter, so healthy enough to satisfy Mum!
The recipe in the magazine called for walnut - but I didn't have any. So I made a substitution of chopped apricots. Not entirely similar, but I much prefer apricots anyway, so no matter! It's also very easy to measure out, as no weighing required.

Caramel apple cake
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 unpeeled apples, cored and cut into 1cm cubes
1/2 cup chopped apricots
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 170C.
Beat together sugar, oil and eggs. Add flour, spices, salt and soda. Then add the chopped apple and dried fruit.
Spoon batter into a 23cm spring form round tin. Bake for 1 and 3/4 hours, or until skewer comes out clean.
Cool on a cake wrack. Ice with cream cheese icing and drizzle with caramel sauce when cake is completely cold.

Cream cheese icing
250g cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
30g melted butter

Place all ingredients in a bowl and beat until fluffy.

Caramel sauce
50g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cream

Melt butter in pan over moderate heat. Add sugar, and cream, and bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Turn down heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes until mixture is syrupy. Remove to cool.

How corny!

I picked up a copy of Donna Hay's latest magazine last week. One of the features was about 'the English classic' corned beef. Until I came to New Zealand, I only came accross corned beef in a tin. I remember being invited to a friend's boxing day dinner the first year we were here. She told me they were doing a buffet of hot meats - turkey, lamb, ham and corned beef. I remember privately thinking that it was a strange combination to have tinned meat along with roast joints! She was of course refering to a joint of silverside. Corning apparently refers to the method of preserving the meat using 'corns' or grains of salt.

I loved corned beef hash as a child, but my mum's version was quite different to these rosti. They were a huge hit with The Family - even The Daughter enjoyed them, which is no small success I can assure you! I used the left over of a joint of silverside that The Husband had cooked earlier in the week. I guess that a tin would work ok too.

Corned Beef Hash

500g starchy potatoes, peeled & grated

250g corned beef

1 onion

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tbsp mustard

2 tbsp olive oil

20g butter

Squeeze the grated potato to get rid of the water, and pat dry. Place the corned beef with an onion and mustard in a food processor, and whizz until shreaded. Mix well with the egg and grated potato.

Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan to a high heat. Cook 1/2 cupfuls of the mixture, pressing to flatten. Cook 4 minutes each side, or until golden and crisp.

Hummingbird Cake

Wow. And WOW! I've never made to his cake before. In fact, until a couple of weeks ago I don't think I'd even heard of Hummingbird Cake (and why is it called hummingbird cake exactly?!). This recipe was the alternative choice in our baking challenge this month. I have to say I thought that pineapple and banana sounded a slightly odd combination, but certainly worth a whirl. I had a huge bag of bananas from the reduced section at the supermarket, so made one cake for home and another to take to work. The compliments flowed (always lovely to be appreciated) and two of the boys *may* have gone back for thirds!!

Hummingbird Cake
3 cups plain flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple, well drained
1 cup chopped pistachios
2 cups roughly mashed banana

Cream cheese frosting
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 tbsp butter
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp each lemon zest and lemon essence
Half cup pistachios, chopped, to sprinkle on the top

Preheat oven to 170°C. Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together into mixing bowl several times. Add eggs and salad oil to the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until ingredients are moistened. Stir in vanilla, pineapple and 1 cup pistachios. Stir in the bananas. Spoon the batter into 23cm round tin lined with baking paper. Bake for 60 minutes,or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.

Slice and Bake Cookies

I'm taking part in a monthly recipe challenge to try out new baking recipes with group of online friends. This is one of the recipes for our first month. The recipe has been kindly reproduced from the http://smittenkitchen.com/ blog. I'd never made cookies using this method before, and I was pleased with the result. They produce a softer crumbly cookie, that is similar to short bread in texture. I did find I had to add a bit of extra flour and icing sugar to the recipe as the dough was just too sticky to form into a ball when first going into the fridge. I added half a cup of chopped apricots, and half a cup of slivered almonds.

Slice-and-Bake Cookies
Makes about 50 cookies
230 g butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup icing sugar
2 large egg yolks
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract
2 cups plain flour

Options:
Grated zest of 2 oranges and 1/2 cup dried cranberries
Grated zest of 2 lemons and 1/4 cup poppy seeds
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots and 1/2 cup finely chopped pistachios
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Swap ¼ cup of flour for unsweetened cocoa

Beat butter until smooth, and add icing sugar until smooth and silky. Beat in egg yolks and any dried fruits, zest, nuts or seeds. Add flour until just mixed. Turn the dough out bench, wrap dough in plastic wrap or place in lidded container, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Form each piece of dough into a log that is about 2.5 to 3cm thick. Wrap the logs in glad wrap and freeze for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
While the oven is preheating, roll cookie logs in any coatings of your choice. Then, using a sharp slender knife, slice each log into cookies about 10 mm thick. Place cookies on baking sheets, leaving about 1.5 cm space between them.
Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, or until they are set but not browned. Transfer the cookies to cooling racks to cool to room temperature.

Arrrr, Matey!

My friend's wee boy was 5 today, and she asked me to make his cake. He had a pirate themed party (which was fab) and wanted a pirate ship cake to complete the theme.

The cake was the best chocolate cake recipe I've ever tried. It's ideal for a birthday cake as it's dense, moist, and keeps for ages. Thanks to Tracie for the recipe!

Chocolate Mud Cake

200g butter/marg

2 cup sugar

3 cup plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 ½ cup plain unsweetened yogurt

1 tsp vanilla essence

¾ cup cocoa

1 ½ cup hot coffee

Preheat oven 180 C.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add all other ingredients, apart from hot coffee.

Slowly add hot coffee, and mix until mixture is a smooth batter.

Pour into a greased and lined 23cm tin, and bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean.

I made double the above quantity in a large oblong roasting tin, and baked it for an hour and a half. The cake was cut in half lengthways, and the end third was cut, with one piece for the front and one piece for the back. The cake was sandwiched with chocolate buttercream, and chocolate finger biscuits decorated the outside of the boat.

I used Lego pirate characters to complete the ship.