BANANA BLUEBERRY CAKES

This recipe comes from my well used copy of Australian Women's Weekly Home Baked. There are plenty of recipes in this book for cakes, muffins, pastries and biscuits, such as Orange Poppy Seed Syrup Cake, Chocolate Butterscotch Cake and Hummingbird Cake.


An independent coffee shop near to where I live, make lots of cakes from this book, and there is nothing nicer than to go in for coffee and cake, knowing I recognize the cakes from this book. The cake lady, as I call her, always loves to discuss the recipes with me. The downside is, lots of the recipes are cafe size cakes, but they can easily be frozen in slices for another day.

You will need that last over-ripe banana from the fruit bowl for this recipe. These taste delicious warm and served with a dollop of whipping cream.

You will need:

125g butter, 125ml milk, 2 eggs, 200g caster sugar, ½ cup mashed banana, 225g self raising flour, 75g frozen blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cases.
2. Place the butter and milk in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the butter melts - cool.
3. Beat eggs with an electric mixer until thick and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating until dissolved between additions, stir in the banana. Fold in the sifted flour and cooled butter mixture, in two batches.
4. Divide mixture between the muffin cases, only fill three-quarters full.
5. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes , remove from the oven, press the frozen blueberries into the tops of the cakes. Return to the oven and bake for a further 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

PINEAPPLE HIBISCUS CUPCAKES

Australian Women's Weekly books are always a source of inspiration and this recipe came from The Complete Book of Cupcakes. I seem to be in cupcake mode again............

The flowers are made from thinly sliced pineapple slices which have been coated in sugar syrup and dried in the oven. I think the flowers are really pretty.

The pineapple carrot cake recipe they gave for the cupcakes wasn't great and I think a lemon sponge cake recipe to fill 12 cupcakes would be a better option, then simply top with lemon cream cheese frosting.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

30g unsalted softened butter, 80g softened cream cheese, 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind, 240g icing sugar, lemon juice

1. Beat the butter, cream cheese and rind in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, gradually beat in the sifted icing sugar. Add enough lemon juice to make a soft frosting.

Pineapple Flowers:

1 tablespoon caster sugar, 1 tablespoon water, 12 wafer thin slices fresh pineapple

1. Preheat the oven to 120°C/100°F Fan. Stir the sugar and water together in a small saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved, boil 1 minute.
2. Brush both sides of the pineapple slices with the sugar syrup. Place the slices in a single layer on wire racks over oven trays.
3. Dry pineapple in oven for about 1 hour. Immediately remove the slices from the rack to prevent sticking.
4. Carefully shape into flowers by pinching the centre of each slice, dry over an upturned egg carton.

Cupcake

COFFEE AND CAKE!

I thought I would share with you, one of the surprise presents my husband so thoughtfully bought for me last Christmas. I had been hinting I would love to be the owner of a set of these in white for ages.
For both of us he bought a beautiful coffee mug and saucer each. They are part of the NewWave collection by Villeroy & Boch.


I even made a banana cake with passion fruit icing to match my lovely coffee cup and saucer! This is an Australian Women's Weekly recipe from the book Home Baked - one of my favourite baking books.

This week I met Jan from What Do I Want To Cook Today, a fellow food blogging friend, and we decided to make a trip to Birmingham. Whilst we were looking at the the Villeroy & Boch NewWave collection in Selfridges, it reminded me that I ought to post about my lovely mug and saucer. Jan and I both love kitchen gadgetry, pots etc, and it is a real joy to look around with her. Thank you Jan for another really enjoyable day out.

Hopefully, sometime in the future, I will manage to post about our coffee machine, grinder and where we source our fresh coffee beans. The foam on top of the coffee in the photograph is light years from what we are achieving now. We now know how to surf and texturise the milk to make micro foam. My husband has all the makings of a fine Barista, but alas, I am still a Barista in training. Unfortunately, latte art is still not achievable by either of us!

BEROCCA BLOGGER RELIEF PACK


As I have dared to mention the word Christmas, perhaps you are now thinking you can't possibly find the time to blog, and just how stressful it can get, with cooking, posting and commenting.

How about sending for a Berocca's Blogger Relief pack. I first saw this last winter on a blog, applied for the pack and last week received mine. The pack consists of Berocca tablets which is an effervescent orange drink full of vitamins and minerals, a pen holder, bubble wrap keyring, a glass, a USB panic button, stress ball and a pen!

Well, we all need some fun sometimes, don't we?

APPLE GINGER CAKES WITH LEMON ICING

I love ginger cake and came across this recipe from Australian Women's Weekly. To quote from the book 'it's the fabulous fusion of flavours that makes these little cakes unique'.

The tin they were cooked in, I believe, is called a 6-hole mini fluted pan or you could use a texas-style muffin pan which is 180ml capacity. You can buy these from eBay or TK Maxx. I'm sure other online stores also sell these.

I greased the mini fluted pan with Cake Release from Lakeland, this helps them to come out of the pan cleanly.

WOMEN'S WEEKLY HOME BAKED

ISBN 1863964118 - Page 225

Makes: 12

You will need: 2 six-hole mini fluted pans or 2-six hole texas muffin pans, well greased.

250g butter (softened), 330g dark brown sugar, 3 medium eggs, 90g golden syrup, 300g plain flour, 1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda, 2 tablespoons ground ginger, 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, 170g coarsely grated apple (unpeeled weight 200g - a large apple or 1½ average size apples), 160ml hot water.

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4.
2. Beat the butter and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beat until well combined between additions. Stir in syrup.
3. Transfer mixture to medium bowl, stir in sifted dry ingredients, then apple and the water.
4. Divide mixture among prepared pans, smooth tops.
5. Bake in oven for about 25 minutes. Stand cakes in pan 5 minutes, then turn onto wire racks to cool.
6. Drizzle lemon icing over cakes.

Lemon Icing

320g icing sugar, 2 teaspoons softened butter, 80ml lemon juice (approx 2 lemons).

Stir icing sugar into medium heatproof bowl, stir in butter and juice to form a paste. Place bowl over small saucepan of simmering water, stir until icing is a pouring consistency.

LAMB SHANK STEW WITH CREAMY MASH

I have been working my way through various cookery books over the last year or so to find a lamb shank recipe that I have been really pleased with, and this is it. The Australian Women's Weekly cookery books suit my style of cooking. Fearing whether or not a recipe is going to work just isn't an issue with these books - all the recipes I have used in the past have been wonderful. I am looking forward to trying other lamb shank recipes now from their books.

THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY -
FOOD WE LOVE

ISBN 186396477-0

LAMB SHANK STEW WITH CREAMY MASH
- PAGE 71

Serves: 8 people (but can easily be scaled down).

Skill Level: Moderate.

Taste Test: The meat was meltingly tender and the sauce was rich.

This recipe lends itself to being made in the slow cooker - it only takes 5 hours on high. If you do use a slow cooker you will have to dice the vegetables finely otherwise they won't cook.
I made this for two people and so the recipe had to be scaled down accordingly, but I kept the 500ml of red wine in and used half a litre of chicken stock.
It says in the recipe to strain the pan juices and then discard the solids (what a waste!!). I strained the pan juices and served the diced vegetables separately, after all they were cooked in red wine.
I made the mash but left out the cream and I didn't use all of the butter it states in the recipe. Buttered spring cabbage was served with this dish.
The sauce and meat were fabulous - what more can I say but try this recipe for yourself and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Kitchen Equipment Used: Alligator Vegetable Dicer.