Lemon polenta cake with lemon verbena syrup

It was a beautiful sunny winters day when we visited Lake George over the June long weekend. It was also my mums birthday.

I made her this cake.

The recipe came from a magazine in the waiting room at the doctors clinic. It sparked my interest so I took a photo with my phone back in March. I found it a couple days before mums birthday while looking through photos and decided it was the perfect time to make it.

The cake travelled well on the dash of the car. While it's supposed to be served with yogurt, on this occasion I threw a can of cream in the esky. The kids were happy, and so was everyone else, the cake went down well after our BBQ lunch.

Lemon polenta cake with lemon verbena syrup

Lemon polenta cake                                                              Lemon verbena syrup

125 gr butter                                                                           100ml lemon juice

2/3 cup caster sugar                                                              ¼ cup caster sugar

2 eggs + 1 egg yolk                                                                 lemon verbena sprig, leaves removed

100mls milk

1 cup SR flour

3 ½ tablespoons fine polenta

Rind of 1 lemon

Pinch salt

1 tablespoon icing sugar to dust + Greek yogurt to serve


Preheat oven to 175C. Grease a 26cm x 22cm tin.


Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add egg yolk and mix until combined.

Stir in milk and flour alternatively, then polenta, lemon rind and salt. Pour into tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.

While cake is baking, place lemon juice, sugar and lemon verbena leaves with ½ cup water in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat to dissolve sugar. Boil for 3-4 minutes to thicken syrup. Strain syrup to remove leaves and keep warm.

Remove cake from oven and using a skewer poke about 20 holes in cake. Pour syrup over cake.


Serve warm or cold, dusted with icing sugar and a dollop of Greek yogurt.

Because it was so delicious, I remade it for a lunch dessert at home with a friend a week later. This time I served it with a dollop of Greek yogurt, and threw a couple rosemary flowers about. Still delicious!

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Muddy puddles and snow balls - birthday nibbles

My girls turned the ripe old ages of three and five, a week ago. 

Summer wanted a Frozen cake, and Isabel, a Peppa Pig cake. 

Isabel's cake was easy. I made the same cake she had for her third birthday. At first she asked for a Barbie cake, and then changed her mind and wanted Peppa Pig. 

Summer's cake was a square chocolate cake, covered with buttercream icing and edged with white chocolate. I did order Frozen figurines for this cake, but they never arrived from China in time. Of course, a month later they are still not here. 

I did find these 3D printable dolls from this fab website. They did the job and aren't too hard to put together. It's the cutting out that is the hard bit.

Seeing it was a joint Frozen(slash)Peppa Pig party I also made some absolutely delicious nibbles to go with the theme.

The snowballs, were made from the cut off pieces of cake, left over after cutting out the Peppa Pig cake. 

I crumbled the cake, and then added coconut milk. Add the coconut milk a bit at a time, until the cake crumbs can be moulded into a ball and hold that shape. 

I refrigerated the balls while I melted white chocolate in the microwave at 50%. Then coated the balls, sprinkling with dessicated coconut and then leaving them to set on baking paper in the fridge. I used a skewer to hold the balls while I dunked them in the chocolate. Chuck the chocolate back in the microwave if I starts to get less runny while you are on the job. 

You could use any type of cake, any type of liquid. Think fruitcake and grog(hick!), or chocolate cake and orange juice. Banana cake and coconut milk. OMG. You could use other types of chocolate too. 

I found this recipe on Taste for these little fellas. I left out the fellas bit, and just made the biscuit and chocolate bit. I even heard one of the dads comment on how 'wicked' the muddy puddles were. They were pretty awesome!

I didn't have the right tray, but just put the biscuits in the oven on a flat tray and then moulded them, cupped in my tea towelled hand and making a bowl shape with my fingers. Not hard, but oh so yummy.

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Water works and birthday parties, with bit of snot thrown in.

Ah shit. What do I know this week?

Well I know that the man hanky is still in use with young men, well one young man, aged about 30. To me that is young. I was at a 50th a few weeks ago and spotted him pulling it out of his pocket, probably lined with crusted snot, and going the wipe.   

Haven't seen one in use for donkeys dicks(a long time). It makes me wonder. How does one go about washing such an item? Is it a soak and then in with the rest of the wash? Surely you wouldn't go bunging it in with a normal wash, in fear of having snot streaked clothes on the line? The mind boggles(and the body shudders at the thought). Do you know a man that uses man hankies? Ask him how he(moreover his wife, poor woman), washes them.

In other goings on, I have just divided my garden irrigation into four sections. I am a legend. Our new pump cannot produce the pressure to cope and I have had to take legendary measures. It takes a woman to do a mans work. Well the logic of a woman. 

I waltzed, as you do, into our local hardware and spent eighty dollars on stuff to do the job. In my flasho rubber boots no less and a two year old in tow.

I knew Boggy would chuck a hissy fit, and did. I couldn't have cared less. This garden is all I have got and I will not sit back and let it die.He can go and suck on rotten eggs!

After more or less putting it on me to fix the problems with the bore, because it's my garden, and if I don't do something about it, my garden will die. This is typical man, being typical arsehole. I used mum and dads ute to go pick up a water tank, a fire fighter pump to clean out the bore. The ute has a top speed of 80 clicks and is so old, I was too chicken to put the sun visor down in case there was a big spider living there.

After my brother, an ex driller, helped us clean out the bore, turns out there was nothing wrong with it.

It's just that the new pump wasn't strong enough to pump the pressure we I needed to water the garden in two stages. I needed to divide it into four stages. Which I did. Job done, Bobs your uncle. Fanny's your aunt. 

Alicia is a big fat, get the job done, legend. 

I had no guilt walking into that hardware store and spending what I had to, to get water back on my garden. No guilt. I don't smoke, play pokies. I don't insist on getting my hair done every other month. February was the last time I went to the hairdresser. I'm not off to the shopping centres spending up on clothes, shoes or whatever else every other week. I live pretty frugally, most of the time, which I don't mind. But there is no way in hell, I will let my garden die!

We had a couple of little girls birthdays over the weekend. Izzy turned five and Summer three. 

My boy turns 22 today. I've baked him a chocolate and date cake. I hope he likes it, because I just might make it a regular thing every year. My SILs mum died a few years ago. One thing she misses,  is the same cake she made her every year on her birthday.

Summer wanted Frozen, and Izzy, Peppa pig. It's the same cake I made for her third birthday. It must have been THAT good :)

Linking with Ann for Things I know

Lemon butter

Lemon butter or lemon curd, whatever you want to call it, is one of my childhood faves. I could just eat this stuff by the spoonful, straight from the jar.

I love getting free lemons. I love getting free anything, but my favourite is fresh produce that I can make something out of. Something to cook with to make delicious food.

You can substitute the lemon rind and juice, for any other citrus, like oranges or lime.
This recipe will make three small jars. Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water, then place in a 160C oven for 10 minutes, removing just before you place the hot lemon butter in them.

Lemon Butter

3 lemons
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175 gr butter

Finely grate the rind from the lemons, making sure not to get too much of the white pith just under the skin.

Juice the lemons, then sieve to get rid of the pulp and pips.

Place the juice, rind and sugar in a medium saucepan, on a low temperature. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the eggs and butter, continue to stir until the butter has melted.

Turn the heat up to a simmer and stir until the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes.
Place hot lemon curd into hot sterilised jars and seal.

Ways to use your lemon butter -

• mix with yogurt, mascarpone cheese, or cream cheese for a tart filling
• on toast
• on pancakes
• a glaze for a cake
• spoonfuls straight from the jar when no one is looking
• thinned down for an easy lemon sauce. Add in herbs, chilli, ginger, garlic etc.

This is how I used some! You will need -

A pack of 2, unfilled sponges

300 mls of cream, whipped with a half a teaspoon of vanilla essence

1 small jar of lemon butter

Cut each sponge in half. Spread the bottom layer with lemon butter, then spread with some whipped cream. Place the other half of sponge on top. Repeat layering the cake like this. 

Place the last, and top section of cake.

Mix about two teaspoons of lemon butter with the remaining cream, just so it is swirled through.

Place a thin layer of the lemon cream on the outside of the entire cake. This will ensure the crumbs are held in place. Spread the rest of the cream evenly over the outside of the cake. 

I made some decorations on the top with lemon butter. Decorate it how ever you would like. You could use strawberries, toasted almond slivers, coconut or grated chocolate for example.

Have you tried lemon butter?
What homemade goodness do you remember loving as a kid?

Apple and roasted quince cake

I found this recipe on Kidspot. I've changed it to suit what I have in my fridge and pantry like I usually do. The original had buttermilk and butter, which I am not in the habit of buying. But you could use if you do have them.

What I had was quinces given to me. This is a great way to use up fruit that is ripe and in need of being used.

Due to my oven being a total cow, well the oven door which won't close properly to be exact, I cooked the cake for a bit longer than the 40 minutes. When I gently push the middle of the cake and it springs back up, I know it is done.

125 grams margarine
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup apple puree
1/2 cup roasted quince puree*
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
250 gr plain flour
1 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup of milk

Cream butter and sugar.
Beat in eggs, puree and vanilla.
Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and bicarb of soda. Fold through flour and milk alternatively.
Bake at 180C for 40 minutes.

*Peel, core and quarter quince, cut quarters in half. Place in a pan, sprinkled with sugar and dotted with margarine. Squeeze over the juice of 1 orange. Cover with foil and bake for 2 hours at 150C.

Alternatively you could use 1 cup of any pureed fruit you want. I have used pear and a mix of apple and passionfruit.

It is a lovely cake which is so beautiful with just a dollop of cream.

Feijoa and Apple crumble cake

My sister in law stood in my kitchen, smelling the feijoas sitting in a bowl on the bench. As I picked up toys in the lounge I called over "They're feijoas". She knew what they were, taking in the beautiful scent, she told me she had a tree in the yard of their old house.

I thought it was only in New Zealand where just about every yard had a feijoa tree, and if they didn't they knew someone who did have, probably the next door neighbour! 

Mum had some given to her by a friend. It happens every year, and I don't say no when she in turn, palms some off on to me. 

If you're a My Kitchen Rules fan, you may remember when New Zealand couple Simon and Meg, made apple and feijoa crumble. I took it one step further and made this delicious cake. It is something special and sure to impress.

Fruit layer

4 apples and 4 feijoas, peeled cubed and stewed with 1 dessert spoon of sugar for about 5 minutes.

Cake ingredients

110g margarine

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups SR Flour

3/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon milk

1/4 cup custard powder

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Crumble

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

50 grams margarine

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Line and grease a spring form cake tin.

Make crumble by rubbing all ingredients together until it resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Melt margarine, mix in all other cake ingredients for about three minutes until light and fluffy.

Pour into tin, place apple and feijoa on top in even layer and press down slightly.

Sprinkle crumble layer on top.

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Serve warm or cold, with cream, custard or ice cream.

It really is delicious.

Easter jaffa cake

Izzy wanted to cook a cake. A brown cake. By this I assumed she meant a chocolate cake. I have some oranges to use up, so we combine the two and made a jaffa marble cake.

Marble Jaffa Cake

2 eggs

cream

1 heaped teaspoon orange zest

1 cup SR Flour

1 Tblspn cocoa

orange food colouring

Crack 2 eggs in a 1 cup measure. Fill to top with cream.

Add zest and flour, stir to combine.

Divide mixture in half. Add cocoa to one half, and orange food colouring to the other.

Add half of the cocoa to a lined cake tin in blobs here and there. Add all of orange and then add rest of cocoa mix on top.

Bake for 30 minutes.

My sous chef/bowl licker!

I iced our cake with just icing sugar, cocoa and water. Then went about making grass, carrots and a bunny with fondant we had left over in the freezer, from a Cake to the Rescue cake. This is what ours turned out like, pretty darn good if I say so myself!

A blustery days baking

Yesterday was as blowy as buggery and the rain pelted down. The thunder and the lightening clapped and cracked the night before. I heard the thunder, it woke me long enough to hear it, I had no idea of the lightening though.

As we left for kindergym early yesterday morning, it poured. I was thankful for the trees covering the gate and I didn't get too wet. By lunchtime when we returned, I was quite wary that the tree branches may come down on top of me, and the car as I opened the gate. The wind was really forceful. A big branch had come down in the library car park and the SES truck siren wailed past as we left. Someone was in a bit of a fix. Luckily no cars were damaged, an hour before the car park was full, probably a good thing, because I may well have parked there. A friend that  joined us for baby bounce was one car park away from having a squashed car. Lucky!

Before we left for kindergym, I filled the bread maker with ingredients to make dough for hot cross buns. By the time we got home from the library it was done.

I have a Sunbeam bread maker, Brett bought it for twenty bucks at a garage sale a couple of years ago. I am not really an appliance freak, but we do get some use out of it. I do bake the occasional loaf of bread and is great for making all sorts of doughs, bread rolls, foccacia or pizza dough . This is more or less the same recipe that I used. I substituted the sultanas for choc chips. They were good!

We made this cake too. It's a blimin' cracker of a cake, I have blogged how to make this one before. Make sure you use something else than bourneville cocoa, it isn't any good for this cake. You will see it doesn't look as good in my previous post here, plus it doesn't have finger holes as well...yet.

I took some of both today for morning tea at playgroup. Usually we just have cut up fruit for morning tea. Silly me just assumed with it being the week before Easter, and a Friday, it was the last week of term. It wasn't! We always have party food the last Friday of term. I took it on a panic and a whim. My usual party food take is popcorn, easy as a bag of microwave popcorn! The kids loved it anyway, and at least one of the adults couldn't resist chocolate cake. Looks like I will be making popcorn in a couple of weeks, when it really is party food day.

Chocolate and Zucchini cup cakes

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup milk

1 1/4 cup plain flour

2 Tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup grated zucchini

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg.

Add milk, vanilla and sifted dry ingredients. Stir in zucchini.

Keeping in mind there is no raising agent, fill 16 cup cake cases and bake for 15-20 minutes at 160 degrees.

You could double this recipe, pour it in a tin, and bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 160 if you wanted a big cake.

The girls loved these and ate their little hearts out, unbeknownst to them, the vegie goodness. Sucked in!

Jewish Coffee Cake

This cake has nothing to do with coffee, apart from the fact that you may eat too much while drinking one.

I've been mulling over this cake for a while, I have it in one of my tattered books and always overlooked it. The recipe I had called for a packet vanilla cake mix and an instant pudding pack, which I didn't have, so I went to my good friend Google. The recipe I found was completely different, and when I saw the mouth watering photo, I was determined to make it.

Again ingredients I didn't have....sour cream and walnuts. I'm always one for substituting and experimenting, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Instead of sour cream, I used the three quarters of a cup of cream I had in the fridge with a teaspoon of lemon juice in it, and added some yoghurt to make up the cup. I used choc chips instead of walnuts, and didn't do the final layer on top, just the melted butter. It worked, the possibilities of that middle layer are endless, however I will have to try the recipe as it is one of these days.

Jewish Coffee Cake

1/2 cup butter                                  1 cup sour cream

1 cup sugar                                     1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs                                             1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups flour                                     1/2 icing sugar

1 teaspoon bi carb soda                2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder            2 tablespoon melted butter

Preheat oven to 175. Grease and flour a 22 cm tin.

Cream together the sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Add the flour, bi carb and baking powder and beat. Lastly, mix in the sour cream and vanilla.

Mix together the nuts, icing sugar and cinnamon.

Spread half the cake mix into the cake tin. Sprinkle most of the nut mix over, then top with the remaining cake mix. 

Top with the remaining nut mix and spread the melted butter over.

Bake for 1 hour, until the top springs back lightly.



My ever faithful cooking companion

  

Cake, tea cups and feathers

Not the best of days, Isabel was naughty central ALL day, mainly giving her sister the shits, which in turn gave me the shits. I did get a fair bit done, despite her pushing me just about every second of my day, the naughty chair got a work out. I had tears at one point, and the little bugger brought me a tissue, redeemed herself with a  heart melt moment.

I baked.

Complete with finger holes, Isabel climbed onto the bench while I was hanging out washing

 Boiled Chocolate Cake

 120gr butter
   3/4 cup sugar 

1 cup water 

   1/2 tsp bicarb soda

3 Tbsp cocoa
 1 1/2 cups SR Flour
2 eggs, beaten

Boil butter, sugar, bicarb, water and cocoa for 2 minutes. Let cool.

Add flour, then egg.

Bake in a moderate oven for 45 mins.

I fixed up an old chook house.

My dad got it at a clearance sale, he frequents them a lot since he retired a couple of years ago. He bought it for mum, she didn't want it, along with half the crap stuff he comes home with. Most of it is actually good, I love this picture he got with a bulk lot, it's hanging in my kitchen, I like tea cups.

I'd been thinking about chooks for a while, so after I finished patching up holes in the wire, we went and picked up two chooks from this old fella round the corner. Isabel was very excited, and has exclaimed since to everyone we have seen, "We got CHOOKS!". Funny. She loves to feed her uncles chooks and collect the eggs, now we have our own, yet to be named girls. I'm thinking Henny Penny and Chicken Licken.

Look what I found in the morning!!!

Sultana Loaf

I have no idea where this recipe come from, but I have it written down in my own recipe book, a school exercise book.

Most of the recipes are handwritten, and lately, printed and stuck in with whatever is closest at that time, sticky tape or glue! 

It's pages are very discoloured with butter, flour, egg, you name it!! It is written there as currant loaf, obviously I didn't have them and changed it to sultanas. I haven't experimented with other teas or fruit...yet!

I'm not a coffee drinker and wouldn't really make it with coffee in it, but it may work. It is important to let the mix cool, because I haven't before and its turned out a completely different cake, not a better one! It could do with some more flavour such as orange zest or mixed spice.

It's a great cake, without eggs or butter, especially when I find myself short of these things. 

I always line the bottom of my cake tins, in this instance, I had used the last of the sugar, and cut the paper bag to line the tin. Recycling at its best!

Sultana Loaf

1 cup sultanas

1 cup sugar

1 cup hot tea

Mix together to dissolve Sugar. Let cool.

Place 2 cups of SR flour in a bowl.
Gradually stir in tea mixture to make a smooth batter.

Bake in loaf tin at 180 deg for 45 mins.