Banana cake

For our picnic at Araluen this weekend I made my favourite banana cake recipe. It is from the Australian Women's Weekly Cafe Cakes.

125g butter
3/4 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup (120g) sour cream
1/4 cup (60mL) milk

Preheat oven to moderate. Grease 15cm x 25cm loaf pan, line base with baking paper.

Beat butter, sugar and spice in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until combined. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, stir in sifted flour and soda with remaining ingredients.

Spread mixture into prepared pan; bake in moderate oven about 50 minutes. Stand cake in pan 5 minutes; turn onto wire rack to cool.


Notes
- I used wholemeal self raising flour for a bit of extra texture.
- I cooked the cake for 45 minutes. It is usually a very moist cake, this time around it was quite dry. I believe it was because I used frozen bananas, and had poured the liquid off once they had defrosted before using them.
- The recipe includes passionfruit icing. For our picnic I thought it would be nice - and easier! - to serve the cake with mascarpone cheese. I had visions of serving up a warm cake, however it was ready over an hour before we left, and cooking on the barbecues took forever...

Picnic at Araluen

This ANZAC Day we had a picnic with friends at Araluen. The coordination was simply for everyone to bring a salad; everything else was to be own supply. Amongst us we had enough food for a small army, and we managed to sort out plates, cutlery and cups for everyone! About all may have been in short supply was beer... the boys commented that they had not brought enough beer with them to take into account the slowness of the barbecue.

Noone had mentioned dessert... so of course all three ladies made something sweet! KC made the traditional ANZAC biscuits and L made a Jaffa cake. I chipped in with banana cake. We definitely did not go hungry.

Dessert spread.

The loaded barbecue.

There were many chilli plants around, full of fruit. C tasted a few of the chillis. He said that he was trying to compare the heat of the fruit.


More photos here.

Notes to self (barbecue/picnic etiquette)
- Always take extra cutlery and plates, just in case.
- Make sure that you have enough beer!
- Pack a hat and sunscreen.
- Consider BYO barbecue if the venue allows it. You might get your food quicker!

AWW High Tea

Oh wow, two of my favourite things combined in one book! An Australian Women's Weekly Cookbook, on the topic of High Tea!

I am going to have to go book shopping!

Update: I bought a copy today for myself and also a copy for my sister. It has several sections devoted to different high tea goodies, including finer sandwiches, pastries, scones and macarons. So many inspiring recipes, I feel like organising a party.


Image here

Tagine - new territory!

My future sister-in-law gave us a tagine and cook book as an engagement present. We have still to give using the tagine a go! I was a little worried after reading the cook book that she gave us, it warns that some tagines are good for using directly on the stove top, whereas others are purely decorative and you use them only to serve!

Online research has only confused me, as some web sites that I have read also say that you should use a heat diffuser. I am a little worried about using it as I would hate for it to crack at the first go. Unfortunately there were no instructions in the box it came in...

I have also learnt that you should season a tagine before you use it; here are some instructions.

Lime tart

We currently have a few limes on our tree. Mum and Dad gave it to me for my birthday three years ago and it has finally given us fruit. On our quest for recipes using limes we were lent the "marie claire flavours" book (by Donna Hay!) by another neighbour.

This tart was made with fresh limes from our tree and eggs from our neighbour's chickens.

Pastry
2 cups plain flour
155g butter, chopped
iced water
Lime Tart
1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
1 cup cream
1 cup lime juice

Place the flour and butter in a food processor and process until the mixture has formed fine crumbs. Add enough iced water to form a soft dough. Remove the dough from the food processor and knead lightly. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling to prevent shrinkage when baked.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Roll out the pastry to fit a 25cm removable base tart tin. Prick a few holes in the pastry and line with non-stick baking paper. Fill with rice or baking weights and paper and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the baking weights and paper and bake for a further 10 minutes. This process is called blind baking and will keep the tart shell crisp when filled with a wet filling.

To make the lime filling, place the sugar, eggs, cream and lime juice in a bowl and mix to combine. Skim the top of the mixture to remove any bubbles or foam. Pour into the tart shell, reduce the oven to 160C and bake for 20-25 minutes of until the filling is just set. Refrigerate the tart until firm.
To serve, cut into wedges and serve with thick cream or ice cream.


Notes
- The filling was nice and tart and tasty. There just was not enough of it in ratio to the pastry!
- The amount of pastry in the recipe is too much for the tin. The tart recipe refers to the generic short crust pastry recipe in the book. The quantity of 2 cups of flour seemed high, however I was cooking in a new tin (28cm) and thought that I might need the extra. Once I rolled it out it seemed quite thick, but I perservered. Sadly, the pastry let the filling down, and I will use a different recipe next time.
- I had about twice as much filling as I could fit in the tin, so I used circles cut out of puff pastry. I baked them at the same temperature as the large tart, and the puff pastry did not cook properly. I should have puffed it up first too! I will know for next time.
- If I had a jug big enough for the filling I would mix it up in the jug. I would leave the tart shell on the oven shelf and pour the filling directly in. My oven shelves pull out so I am able to do that.

Plat Belge

Today C and I had a lunch date. He came into the city to do some shopping and we had lunch at the Belgian Beer Cafe. I was very tempted by the mussels, as a reference to when E and I travelled through Belgium and ate Moules et Frites. I settled on the Plat Belge, or tasting plate.

It was a curious mixture, mini beef wellington, pumpkin dip with toasted turkish bread, prawn cocktail, pork belly with apple and (I think) stuffed chicken. The beef wellington was tasty, and we both enjoyed the zing of the dip! The prawn salad was nice and fresh and tasty too and I am a sucker for pork belly.

There was definitely enough food for me for lunch; I struggled but managed to finish my meal!

A flood of potatoes

One of our neighbours owns a chicken farm... and they laid these potatoes!

No, just kidding. One of her chicken farm neighbours has given her lots of fresh potatoes. We are lucky that she has shared some with us, we have been given two bags of them and you can see the excess amount we have to cook with. For just the two of us we normally only buy six potatoes at a time so it will be a challenge to come up with potato recipes. So far we have made a potato bake and vegetable soup.

I am not a big potato fan so it will be a challenge!

The Perfect Chocolate Biscuits

N made some yummy biscuits and brought them over during birthday week. I have no decent photo - they were all eaten too quickly!

The original recipe was clipped from a newspaper, so the source is lost for now. I will have to try one day to see if I can do it justice. N used orange flavoured Lindt dark chocolate and it gave the biscuits a lovely flavour.

125 g good quality dark choc (can be flavoured)
125g butter
1 egg
175 g brown sugar
175 SR flour, sifted

Melt chocolate and butter in bowl over hot water, stirring until smooth.
Separately blend egg and brown sugar and then stir into chocolate mix.

Work in the flour until the dough is smooth and thick and then refrigerate dough in bowl for 20 mins.

Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of dough, which will have thickened in the fridge, into balls and place on baking tray lined with baking paper.
Cook in pre-heated moderate oven (180C) for 8-10 mins until the biscuits have flattened out, firmed up and the tops have cracked.

Biscuits will continue to harden as they cool.
Experiment with the baking time if you prefer chewy over crunchy biscuits.

Eating in Tasmania (part one)

I was on holidays, so eating out was the order of the day for most of my time in Tasmania. I am very pleased to report that I never had a bad meal! I was a litle surprised as some of the places that I was eating at were quite touristy, and I was expecting plastic food. On my first full day in Tasmania I drove up to Launceston.

I stopped at Ross to learn some history and decided to have lunch at the Ross General Store Bakery and Tea Rooms. I bypassed the pies and instead went for the Ham and Pea Soup with some apple juice. It had been raining that morning so I was in a bit of a wintry mood. The soup was very tasty, with lovely chunks of ham. The apple juice that I ordered was nice and crisp! After eating that I thought that I should try something with a pot of tea, so I ordered a lemon tart. I have to confess to being disappointed with the tart. As you can see from the colour it had a few too many artificial colours and possibly flavours in it for my liking.



Dinner that night was in Launceston at Fish 'n' Chips at the Old Launceston Seaport. It was a lovely setting at the Seaport, and not very busy. I ordered fish, and was a little surprised to be asked if I would like to order some chips as well. My $20 only bought me fish! I ended up ordering a greek salad and half dozen fresh oysters. The oysters were lovely and plump, and I got seven in my half dozen! The fish was nice and juicy and rilled to prefection, and the salad was quite large. I am sure that two people could have quite comfortably managed one portion of fish with a serve of chips.


Banana pancakes with Tasmanian honey at The Basin Cafe, Cataract Gorge.


Spinach and Ricotta scone with cream cheese, smoked salmon and salad at the tearooms at Clarendon. The scone was lovely, so light and fluffy and full of flavour. I also had Cascade Apple Juice.


Tomato soup at the Museum Coffee Shop at Port Arthur. To be honest I was not expecting much considering it was a tourist cafe but the soup was very tasty and there was texture from the tomatoes!

Fair trade for Cadbury

Cadbury has launched its Fair Trade Dairy Milk Chocolate product in Australia. It is very exciting that a main stream chocolate producer is embracing Fair Trade principles.

Click here for more information on the process and to learn about Cadbury and Fair Trade.

Hopefully this is just the start and they will eventually offer their entire line as Fair Trade certified!

Image belongs to Cadbury

A flying bunny

How cute is this bunny? This was the chocolate with my meal on the flight on Easter Sunday from Hobart to Melbourne. I thought that it was a lovely detail!

Donna Hay Magazine

I was gifted a subscription to Donna Hay Magazine by my friends M&C+S. Thank you! The very first one arrived this week, and it turned out that it was the 50th ever issue of the magazine! I felt doubly special.

I have not read through it in depth as yet but my favourite item so far is the section of chocolate cake recipes. Yum! I am already thinking about making one or two of the recipes, and whether or not I have the right cake tins...

Image here

Eating in Sydney

Sydney... so much to see, only so much energy in the legs to carry me there! I had an unremarkable breakfast at a cafe,

Lunch was at the Paddington Markets at, I think, the Paddington Market Cafe. I had a lovely silver beet with other vegetables pie. It was extremely tasty. The salad too was fresh and it seemed surreal to be eating such lovely food using a plastic fork. Ah well. They had all sorts of other tasty vegetarian and gluten free treats there just waiting to be sampled. It was a difficult choice.


Dinner was at the China Grand Restaurant at Market City. They had many tanks of live seafood, including fish, crayfish and abalone, and we sampled fresh scallops, along with more traditional dishes including roast duck, sang choy bau and chinese brocoli.


Dinner was topped by dessert at Passion Flower, serving asian inspired ice cream dessert extravaganza! They had more traditional ice creams, but I had to try something a little more exotic - the Double Happiness with two scoops each of grean tea ice cream and azuki red bean ice cream served with azuki red bean paste and glutinous balls. I had to try it.


After all of this eating I needed to have a bit of a break, and the next morning I went in search of a simple breakfast with a view. I found it in the form of porridge and a pot of tea at Portobello Caffe, and the view was of the Sydney Habour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. How magical! I was expecting the food to be vastly over priced but I got breakfast for under $12 with some lovely fresh strawberries.


My breakfast view...

One thing I do not understand is pots of tea with TEABAGS!!! I mean really. Pot + Leaf + Strainer = TEA!!

Yummy sandwiches

I am a little fussy about my food, and one thing that has never really taken off for me is to pay to make my own sandwich!  I would much rather pay and have someone make it for me.

Near the office that I am working in is a sandwich place called Just Eat. They boast that their sandwiches are made "by hand and with real imagination, using only the very best natural ingredients".

The sandwiches are tasty, and they use some interesting ingredients. Today I am eating their "just raosted" sandwich: rye & sunflower seed bread, slow roasted tomato, grilled capsicum, grilled eggplant, rocket leaf, feta cheese and their own justpumpkin spread.

Yum!

Sandwiches are sold on the day that they are made, and you can go in for a late lunch and see the bare shelves. They also sell baguettes and wraps, as well as fruit and snacks and fruit juices and fruit crushes.

Sweet decorating

Some tips on decorating biscuits and cupcakes:

Buttercream frosting, and more importantly how to pipe a rose!

How to make Sugar cookies. These techniques would apply to similar biscuits.

Decorating your biscuits.

Finally, packaging them up all nice and pretty!

Image here

Simple dinner

A simple dinner tonight.

It was put together similarly to this lunch, using chorizo instead of bacon and with the addition of some diced red onion. I also had run out of basmati rice, so served it with Coral Red Jasmine Rice from Alter Eco and similar to the Purple Jasmine Rice that I tried at Christmas.