Upside-down pear and ginger cake

Hello poppits'

i've got another recipe for you today , this time it's a supper nice pear and ginger upside down cake!

There's no supper amazing picture of it because we were out on a picnic and how really wants to wait around hungry whilst somebody takes picture ?? not I that's for sure.

the cake was really easy to make and because of the golden syrup it gives it a lovely dark cakie colour and scrumptious taste!

oh and the pears are truly delightful ! they are moist and infused with all the spices that are in the cake ! 

oh and a few picnic snaps :)

Recipe: Donna hay issue 56

Cake:

1 cup (350g) golden syrup

1 cup(175g) brown sugar

3/4 cups(180ml) milk

1 2/3 cups (250g) plain flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

125g butter, chopped

1 egg

5 pears, peeled and checks removed 

Pre heat you oven to 180c 

put the golden syrup, sugar and milk in a saucepan and heat over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and set aside to cool.

place the flour, baking powder, all the spices and butter in a mixer and beat until the mixture looks like bread crumbs. now you can add the golden syrup mix with the mixer running until you have a smooth mix. 

now place your egg in and mix until combine. 

line a 20x30cm tin with backing paper and place the pear checks  cut side down and pour the the cake batter over them. bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 

let cool for 10 minutes or so and then turn out onto a cooling rack or just eat it now and then !


TTFN,
Lilixx
P.s Enjoy !!!

Amazing toffee and Almond slice

Hello Poppits 

How have you been? long for a sweet nutty snack, well here is your answer in one !

I stumbled across this recipe in one of my favourite cooking books Belinda Jeffery mix and bake.

Everything I've ever cooked out of it has turned out Amazing! and this was no exception. Sweet nutty and crunchy, with a lovely shortbread texture base without being too rich or heavy like some bases can be. The nut topping was so so yummy and moreish  everyone was very sad to see the last two slice gone to our lovely old hairdresser and his wife, but they enjoyed it so much and that made the slice even more enjoyable and memorable.

 oops those sticky crumbs 

RECIPE: belinda jeffery Mix and bake 

Base:

250g butter at room temperature

1 cup (220g) Caster sugar

2 egg yolks 

1/2 tsp vallina extract 

2cups(300g) plain flour 

1/2cup(75g) sr flour 

1/3(40g) custard powder

1/2 tsp salt

Topping:

1 cup (220g) brown sugar 

2 TBS honey 

180g butter

1/4 tsp salt

250g flaked almonds 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Pre heat your oven to 180c

For the base:

in a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy, now add in one egg yolk at a time until well mixed in, then add i your vanilla.

When this is all nice and mixed you can add in your flours, custard powder and salt, sift them if you like but i never bother and mix everything until nicely combined. 

scrape the dough into a lined slice tin , pat out evenly with you're hands and then role a small glass over to compress the base. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and puffy. 

Meanwhile for the topping:

put the brown sugar, honey,butter and salt in a heavy base pan over a low heat string until the sugar is dissolved and the butter melted. Now stop stirring and simmer the mixture for ten minutes. Add the almonds and the vanilla and mix well.

When the base is ready remove form the oven and let the base cool slightly so that the base doesn't cave in when the almond mix gets put on. pour the topping onto the base and working quickly spread the mix to completely cove the base and until smooth. return to the oven for about another 15 minutes but keep an eye on it. Remove when the topping is slightly golden and bubbling.

Leave to cool, once almost cool turn out onto a chopping board and cut into scrummy bits !

Enjoy.

TTFN,

Lili xx

Eccels

Hello poppits ,

I just had to share this yummy treat with you, sadly I no longer have the recipe for these scrummy Eccles in my possession but you can find it in this amazing book called Ladies a plate . This book is a must have for anyone who love a little something sweet and slightly old fashion, the recipes range form gypsy cookies through to curried eggs( bit weird but you get the gist) let my say it again Amazing 

Th Eccles were so so yummy It was  a sad time when they where finished off with a nice hot drink, but all good things must come to an end at some point in time ...

Basically for this recipe you need to find a recipe for flakey pastry and make up and currents, spice and apple mix and you'll by flying but maybe to be on the safe side have a look for a recipe...

Hope you try them really soon.

TTFN,

Lili

BEE sting cake

 Hello Poppits,

Just a quick post about a fabbitiy dabbity cake ( wow I haven't done a food post of ages ... my bad) that I made recently that goes buy the name of a Bee sting cake how wonderful is that ??? 

This cake was amazing it was lush and light and filled with a scrummy custard which we all love. 

This is a must try if you a) love nutty flavours b) love custard and c) love a darn fine bit of cake!

I found the Recipe @ Cuisine I followed the recipe pretty much to  a tee but i'll give you the recipe any way :) ( copy and paste hehehe)

• Cake
• 75g unsalted butter, soft
• 75g castor sugar
• 1 egg
• 250g self-raising flour
• a pinch of salt
• 6 tbsp milk
• Topping
• 100g whole almonds and hazelnuts75g unsalted butter100g castor sugar
• 1 tsp milk
• 1 heaped tbsp honey
• Custard filling
• 30g custard powder
• 250ml milk
• 50g sugar
• 
  
• 100g butter, soft

Chef: Brigitte Hafner Photo: Marina Oliphant Source: The Age Tuesday June 7, 2005 German, 45 mins plus, Dessert

These are my mother's recipes. Save them for a birthday or special occasion, as they aren't your simple throw-everything-together afternoon cake.

Method

For the cake 

Preheat oven to 170C. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and thick. Beat in the egg, then gently fold in the sifted flour, salt and milk. Combine until you have a soft dough. Grease and line the bottom of a 26cm spring-form tin. Spoon the mixture into the tin and level it. Don't expect a high cake - even with the topping and filling, this cake is all about the custard and nuts and is fairly thin.

For the topping 

Grind the nuts until quite coarse. In a frying pan, gently heat the extra butter, sugar, milk and nuts together. Stir until the butter has melted and everything is combined. Remove from heat and stir in the honey. Allow to cool slightly then pour over the cake batter and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

For the custard filling

In a small bowl, combine enough milk to dissolve the powder and make a liquid paste. Now combine the custard, milk and sugar in a small saucepan and cook, stirring, until it thickens and boils. Cook for another minute, remove from heat and allow to cool a little. Beat butter until creamy and when the custard has become lukewarm, whip it with the butter until combined and fluffy.

NOTE - the custard should not be too warm as it will melt the butter.

To serve 

When the cake has cooled, slice through the middle and fill with the custard. Put back together and serve.




Enjoy like I did,
TTFN,
Lili xx

Chocolate Custard Pie

Hello Poppits,

This was an amazing combination find of mine.

So if you in need of a slight need of a chocolate fix you'll find it here, that's for sure.

 I had left over chocolate custard form the Brooklyn blackout Peanut butter  cake combo that I made for my brothers birthday at the end of April. 

I left the custard in the fridge for about a week trying to work out what I could do with a whole heap of custard, some of it went into hot cross bun, by the spoon and pretty much every other way you can think.

 I had been talking about making this for a few days before I got around to making it so it was much anticipated. And Boy did it do the job . It was not overly rich with the chocolate and the biscuit crumb base complimented the textures .  

Finely I toped it off with some grated white chocolate to contrast the darkness of the chocolate custard.

Recipe:

Biscuit base:

1 pack of milk coffee biscuits or any other that you like wizzed into a crumb 

100g of butter melted 

Chocolate Custard: For a full batch ( It's pretty massive )( recipe from humming bird bakery)

500g cater sugar 

1 tbs Golden syrup

125g cocoa sifted

200g corn flour , Sifted 

85g butter, cuber

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

For the base mix together the two ingredients and then press into a pie pan. Put into the fridge and leave to set until needed.

Custard:

Put the sugar, golden syrup, cocoa and 600ml of water into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, over a medium heat . Stirring  to make sure it doesn't catch on the bottom.

Mix 120-200mls of water with the corn flour whisking briskly whilst adding the water. The mixture should be a glue consistency, add more water if needed but don't go past 250mls of water.

Gradually mix into the cocoa mixture in the pan over a low heat, bring back to the boil whisking constantly. Do this until you have a thick mixture, being careful not to let it catch on the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat and mix in the butter and vanilla until melted then cover with glad wrap and put in the fridge until luke warm.

Now pour the the custard into the curst and leave to  cool before eating it. Top with white chocolate shavings.

Now you only need about half of this custard if that so you'll need to either half the recipe or just eat the rest... I know what I would do.

Enjoy !

TTNF,

Lili xxx

Peanutbutter choc chip cookie pies ???

Hello Popitts,

How's your evening going ?

I'm writing to you from the suggly land of my bed, where I've just had a nice hot drink and am almost off to bed but thought of this scrummy treat that I made a few weeks back and thought of you.

They are an amazing little discovery that I stumbled across the idea on this nifty blog and knew straight away that they had to be made !

  As I thought they were amazing (well my brother and my self thought so... The rest of the family not suck cookie dough fans as us.) The crisp outer shell of the biscuit that has been baked just right, followed by the warm but not cooked cookie dough... what else can be said! Oh plus Ice cream mmmmmm yum!

I used my own cookie recipe that is tried and true, there was even enough dough after 5 of these little treats to make a decent batch of cookies.

Which we ate the following night this time with hot fudge sauce and Ice cream.... This was a better hit with the rest of the family as they are more fond of a cooked biscuit. No picture of this version though sorry :( 

All in all this is a must try for any cookie monster ....

TTFN,

Lili xx

Zucchini cake with frosting!

hello Poppits, 

What a lovely week we've been having with lots of nice Autumn weather and lovely food !

Here's a little bit of summer for you though ... I made this cake a good while back but had for gotten to pots about it, my bad again!

I stumbled across it on Pinterest yet again... I spend so much time looking on there during night feeds :)

The Recipe was originally meant to be made in a thermomixer but I don't have nor want one of these so I just used my kitchenaid instead. I'm a sucker for cream cheese frosting so I also added it to this cake and it was just the right thing to do in my opinion.

I know some of you may be thinking ewwww zucchini cake with frosting ! What is this girl thinking ! But let me assure you it tastes pretty much like a carrot cake minus the carrot cake, and because zucchini has little flavour once cooked you can hardly notice it. 

It was from what I remember a very easy and yummy cake but I think the edges may have been a little dry ??? But other than that It was a moist, nutty, frostingly scrummy cake , that tasted like a carrot cake with out the carrot. 

Recipe originally from thermomix-er

Ingredients:

3 eggs

400 g sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

60 g oil

150 g walnuts , plus extra for the icing  

600 g zucchini or there abouts grated

375 g Self-raising flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1tsp nutmeg

1 tsp allspice 

Icing:

125g cream cheese, chilled

250g sifted icing sugar

50g butter, at room  temp

walnuts 

cinnamon and sugar

Method:

pre- heat over to about 150°C if your oven in fan force, and grease and line the bottom of a large loaf tin.

Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil on medium speed until well combined.

now add in the flour, baking powder, salt and spices and mix until just combined.

Now gently mix in the grated zucchini and walnut and mix though until evenly mixed, then pour mix into your pre-paired tin and cook in the oven for around an hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to set in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out onto cooling rack.

When the cake is cool to touch ice and decorate with walnuts and the cinnamon and sugar.

Icing:

beat the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy then mix in the chilled cream cheese am mix on high until nice and light.

You can also add flavours like vanilla, lemon, almond ect to the icing if you want!

eat up !

TTFN,

Lili xxx

 

Chocolate Brownies scrummy dummy dum

Hello poppits,

In need of your chocolate fix ??? well you can't go wrong here! this will be your supper chocolate pick me up, saying that though it's not so super chocolatey that you think your going to be sick from eating it !

As some of you might know i'm a bit of a fan of pinterest it's just so much fun browsing everyones different find. Anyway back to my point I found this recipe on there one day and though it would make a nice weekend treat!

and boy oh boy did it fill that spot!

It was nice and nutty, with a crunchy top and fudgey centre 

The original recipe came from Exclusively Food and I stuck to it pretty much other than adding some extra nuts cos boy do I like nutty food and some spear milk choc chips that were floating around in the pantry! So if your keen to make some chocolately goodness head over to their web site and make these brownies and have a bit of a squis at some other recipes!

TTFN,

Lili xx 

The hungry girls Almond, Apricot spice cake... retold by ME yes me and my little fingers...

Hello Poppits,

How's your day been ??

Mines been pretty good, even though it's only wednesday! I had a lovely day today with catching up with my mothers group in the afternoon and then ... I resigned from my job !! It feels so good to know that I don't have a deadline with Edie. YAY

Now onto the cooking part...

A few weeks ago ( oh k well maybe it was more like 6 weeks) I made this cake..It's from The Hungry girls blog, they have lots of super yummy recipes, all with yummy looking photos unlike my dodge ones.

As you may have guessed I love cooking and will do at a drop of a hat and this cake was no exception. We where having a outside movie night( you have to watch "My family and other animals" a truly fabby movie!) and I thought this cake may just do the trick and it sure did.

This cake was lots of fun to make because of all the little jobs that there are to make the cake, so I roped in mum and Romi to help me cook it!

  This cake is lovely and moist with a slightly bitter but complex taste. I served it up with custard ( yes the photo looks like poo but it tastes so good) the apricots were a bit under ripe so I think this recipe would work better with ripe ones.

All in all this cake is scrummy yummy and I would make this again quick smart !

Recipe (From The Hungry Girls)

150 g butter

60 g (1/3 cup) brown sugar

about 500 g apricots (reserve 8 stones)

3 tablespoons golden syrup

125 ml water

6 cardamom pods

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ nutmeg, grated (or ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg)

100 g ground roasted almonds (or almond meal)

85 g self-raising flour

Line a 20 cm cake tin with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180°C. Melt the butter in a saucepan and drizzle 1 tablespoon over the base of the tin. Sprinkle with a few pinches of the brown sugar. Open the apricots and remove the stones, and lay the halves over the base of the tin open-side up. Squish as many into the tin as possible.

Add the remaining brown sugar to the saucepan of melted butter, along with the golden syrup and water.

Crack open the reserved apricot stones in a mortar to reveal the kernels inside. Crush the kernels to a paste. Stir into the butter mixture. Crack the cardamom pods, discard the husks and grind the seeds to a powder. Stir into the butter mixture along with the ginger and nutmeg. Stir in the ground almonds and flour until smooth. Pour the batter over the apricots and bake for 30–40 minutes, until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool before turning onto a plate.

TTFN,

Lili xx

A little smackrel ... Pear or should we say Apple, Rhubarb and custard cake

Hello Poppits, 

How is everything today ?? It's a lovely day here today and I'm lapping up the sun out on our veranda, Edie's enjoying it as well and is in her swing having a lovely time whilst I'm writing this and listening to like a version 6  it is defiantly a good buy! Now onto this cake...

This cake was a very good one indeed hence there being half a cake in these photos because I forgot to take one when we were eating it first time around ! oops

I had some new season apples in the fridge ( I had been waiting for what seems like months fro these to come back to the fruit shops instead of the old scabby, wrinkly ones that had been hanging around like a bad smell)So I took the opportunity to use them in this scrummy cake, instead of the pear that was suggested! The rhubarb wasn't a problem at all to get for me because we have about 5 plant around the property, but if you have a problem getting it, then try any of the fruits listed at the bottom of the recipe. This cake would be a delightful treat in the middle of winter, to remind you of the summer and spring that is on its way!

Recipe...(original recipe from Women's weekly Cakes ) 
125g butter, softened
3/4 cups caster sugar 
2 eggs 
a splash of vanilla 
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour 
1/2 cup almond meal 
2 TBS custard powder 
1/2 cup milk
250g rhubarb, sliced 
330g pear, peeled and sliced thinly 
1/2 cup of warmed apricot jam


Custard...
2 TBs custard powder 
2 TBS caster sugar 
1 cup milk
1tsp vanilla extract 
20g butter 


Instructions...
start off by making thee custard because it has to come to room temp before you use it !!


Custard...
Combine the custard powder, sugar, vanilla and around 2 TBS of the  milk in a medium saucepan to form a paste, then add in the remaining milk and stir over a medium heat until the custard has thickened.
Remove from the heat then stir in the butter, mixing until the butter is melted. Then cover the custard with glad wrap(push this down until it is touching the whole surface of the custard, this will help to prevent a skin forming)


Time for the cake...
First off you better pre heat your oven to a moderate temp, plus line a 22cm cake tin( sprigform if you have one).
Beat you sugar , butter and vanilla until light and fluffy, then add your eggs in one at a time making sure to mix well after each addition and to scrap the sides of the bowl down.
Next add in the flour, almond meal and milk and mix until just combined.
Now for the fun part! pour half you cake batter into your lined tin and top with half your cut fruit and all the custard  you need to spread this out and yes it will disturb your nicely placed fruit, but this doesn't matter because your just going to eat it and put make cake batter on it !). Now top with the rest of the batter and make a pretty pattern with the remainder of your fruit.
Place into your oven and bake for about an hour or until a testing implement comes out clean( you will smell it when its done like any good cake). Leave it to cool slightly for about 5 minutes then take the cake out of the tin and spread with the warm jam!   


Serve with Ice cream, hot custard and maybe some raspberries !( I think thats what I topped it with ???)


YUMMMM & Enjoy 


Variations: 
Try using different fruits like, Firm strawberries, raspberries, any other berry pretty much and apples or nashis would be nice.
You can also try different jams and nut meals!


TTF, 
Lili xxx