Orange Cake

I went searching for an orange cake I could make without almond meal and found one written by a fellow blogger, Rhonda on Down to Earth. The recipe appeared to be quick and easy. It certainly was! I changed the recipe slightly and here it is:

2 small whole orange, washed well

3 eggs

180 g melted butter

~1 cup white sugar

1½ cups self raising flour, sifted

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Process oranges in food processor until there are no large chunks remaining. Transfer to a bowl. Add all other ingredients and mix through. Transfer to greased loaf tin and bake for about 40 minutes.

I kind of lost track how long the cake was in the oven for. I think it might have been closer to 50 minutes, rather than 40. It did brown on top very fast so I had to cover it with foil about 25 minutes in to the cooking time.

When it came out of the oven and was served up it was delicious, moist and very enjoyable. I plan on making this again very soon, before my abundant collection of oranges go off.

Chocolate Weet-Bix Slice

It was my turn to take morning tea to work on Tuesday so I decided to make a chocolate Weet-Bix slice. I stopped by the local milk-bar to pick up some icing sugar and cocoa but as my luck would have it, they didn't stock cocoa! Arrgh! I rushed home and turned to my trusty search engine for an alternative. Milo was a suggestion and thankfully I had a large tin of that in the cupboard. I knew the Milo would be a poor substitute but I had no other option. So, in the recipe below I used Milo instead of the cocoa and a greater quantity than suggested. While the slice wasn't a blow-your-mind delicious, it was nice (but would have been better with cocoa).

Chocolate Weet-Bix Slice 
Ingredients

• 12 Weet-Bix, finely crushed
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 200g butter, melted
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• chocolate icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 18cm x 28cm (base) slice pan. Line base and sides with baking paper, allowing 3cm overhang on all sides.
2. Combine Weet-Bix, cocoa powder (Milo), sugar, butter, coconut and egg in a bowl. Press mixture over base of prepared pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until firm to touch.
3. Meanwhile, make icing according to packet instructions. Using a hot knife, spread icing over base. Set aside for 2 hours or until firm. Cut into squares. Serve.

I also made my regular muesli slice (with a little more sugar than usual).

Delicious Gluten-free Biscuits

This is a favourite biscuit recipe of mine. I especially love the texture, because the recipe calls for rice flour rather than standard flour. The original recipe uses nuts but I add a variety of dried fruits too, or you could add choc chips. It is a pretty flexible recipe.

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 firmly packed cup (100g) brown sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs natural yoghurt
• 1 cup (150g) rice flour
• 1 cup (150g) unsalted mixed nuts with sultanas, roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Using electric beaters, cream butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and thick. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat to combine. Fold in yoghurt, flour and nut mix. Roll slightly rounded tablespoons of the mixture, flatten and place on trays. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool. Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Simplicity Chocloate Cake (not so simple!)

My family recently got together for Grandma's birthday and it was my job to take afternoon tea and cake. I cheated a bit. Afternoon tea was store bought dips and biscuits as well as super simple tomato, cheese and kabana bites. I also made a beetroot dip using baby beets (from a can), 200g chickpeas, lemon juice and cottage cheese. It sure didn't look pretty but it was healthy and well received.

I put all my effort into the cake. Simplicity Chocolate Cake was the recipe name. Simple it was. Cake, not so much; it was more crumble. As the picture suggests, it didn't turn out so great!

It was Friday night and the last thing I wanted to do was bake, but I couldn't let Grandma down so I tried a different cake recipe. Nigella's Old Fashion Chocolate Cake was perfect because I needed to use some sour cream I had in the fridge. My luck was not so good this Friday night. Cake number two turned out quite flat. I cannot quite convey just how frustrated I was with my cooking but I chose to stick it out and do what I could with my two 'cakes.'
I covered Nigella's cake with Nutella and salvaged what I could of the Simple cake to make a top layer.

The layered cakes

Next I made the frosting. I didn't have quite enough icing sugar so the icing was runny. Atleast it tasted nice. I stuck a few TV Snack biscuits on top. I was so embarrassed by the cake but at least Grandma would know lots of love went into the preparation

My brother said it looked like a cow pat. He's not wrong!

Any way, I apologised to my family, we sung Happy Birthday and then served up the cake. I held my breath while waiting for a response and I guess the saying is true; don't judge a book by it's cover (or a cake by it's cow pat appearance).
This is what the layers looked like once cut into.

Simplicity Chocolate Cake

• 2 eggs
• 75g butter, melted
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 150g milk chocolate, melted
• 1/2 cup milk
• Nutella for icing

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees C. Thoroughly grease 20cm round cake tin.
2. Beat all ingredients together by hand for 3mins. Spread into tin.
3. Bake for about 45mins or until cooked. Allow to cool in tin before turning out.
4. When cold spread Nutella over cake. Serve with Cream.

Nigella's Old-fashioned Chocolate Cake

Follow this link for the cake recipe

Morning Tea at Work

***Sorry about the crazy fonts. I don't know what's going on!

It was my turn to supply some morning tea for the staff at work today so I busied myself yesterday and the day before making a range of goodies. 

I made:

• Mini Toblerone Muffins 

  

  These were packed with chocolate. I used dark, normal and milk Toblerones.

• Mini Cumin and Pea Muffins

  

  I thought these were lacking something but there were none left after morning tea!

• Snickers Brownies

  

  This was a winner! I was even asked for the recipe.

• Hommus Dip

  

The hommus I have now made many times before and the recipe is already on a previous blog post.

Mini Toblerone Muffins 

I added a little extra chocolate and used wholemeal flour.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 60g butter, melted, cooled
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 100g Toblerone milk chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease two 12-hole 2-tablespoon capacity mini muffin pans or line with paper cases.
2. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre.
3. Whisk butter, milk and egg in a jug. Pour into well. Add chocolate and gently fold until just combined. Three-quarter fill muffin cases with mixture. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand muffins in pan for 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Cumin and Pea Muffins

I used wholemeal flour and added a little curry powder. The first batch was also sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Before baking the second set I stirred through some tomato sauce and fresh coriander.

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 brown onion, grated
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 80g butter, melted
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk

Method

1.     Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease twelve 1/3-cup capacity muffin holes.

2.     Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until onion is soft. Add cumin and peas. Cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Allow to cool.

3.     Sift flour into a bowl. Combine butter, egg and milk in a jug. Mix well. Pour into flour. Stir gently until almost combined. Fold in pea mixture. Spoon mixture into muffin holes until three-quarters full.

4.     Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Serve warm.

Snickers Brownies

I found this recipe on another blog. It was originally for Mars Bar Brownies. I used a loaf tin which was definitely the wrong shape but all my other tins were too big. Because of the tin I used my brownies took much longer than 20mins to cook. The author of the original recipe used a 8"x8" tin.

Ingredients

½ cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa powder
½ cup all self raising flour
3 Snickers Bars, chopped

Method

1. In a saucepan melt the margarine, remove from heat.
2. Add the brown sugar and stir until smooth. Check to make sure that the mixture is now cool enough that it won’t cook the egg, if it is too warm let it sit for a minute.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla, mixing until smooth.
4. Add the flour and cocoa powder, mixing until just mixed.
5. Pour just enough batter to cover the bottom of your pan, make a layer of Snickers and top with remaining mixture.

6. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes, they will still be very gooey when removed from the oven, don’t worry about it. Let cool in the pan for 5 -8 minutes them remove to a wire rack (I like the parchment paper for this as you can just grab the sides and pick the brownies out of the pan.).
7. Once the brownies are cool, cut into pieces.

Choc-chip Cookies

I baked a batch of choc-chip cookies today to give as a gift to friends of ours who are new parents. The recipe was a straight forward Basic Butter Biscuit Dough with the addition of a cup of choc-chips.

Hopefully they like the sweet treat!

The mixture made 21 cookies; 20 for them, 1 for me!

Oaty Tahini Cookies

I now have plenty of tahini in the cupboard after buying a jar to use for the hommus recipe. The brand of tahini (Mayver Tahini) I bought actually provides a free recipe book online so I went searching for something else to cook containing this new and interesting ingredient. I came across a cookie recipe that looked straight forward so I did a little baking.
The recipe was for Oaty Tahini Cookies. The book link can be found on the Mayvers website and contains about 20 recipes.

Unfortunately I didn't have as much coconut in the cupboard as I thought so I had to substitute most of that for more flour and oats. By choice I also used less sugar. I wasn't watching the clock closely so the biscuits came out a little darker that they should have (oops!). They tasted ok, but if I had have followed the recipe exactly I'm sure they would have been very nice. They really are just ANZAC biscuits with the addition of tahini.

Country Pear Cake

My Grandma's pear tree was still producing plenty of fruit the week before last so I had an abundance of pears that I needed to find a use for. I went searching and came across a lovely looking recipe for Country Pear Cake. I decided to give it a go with a few small changes to the original recipe.

• I didn't have enough walnuts so added some pepitas too
• I used less sugar and butter, adding a splash of oil to the mix
• Pear juice was swapped for another juice I had in the fridge
• Wholemeal flour was used instead of plain

Country Pear Cake

Ingredients

• Melted butter, to grease
• 150g butter, at room temperature
• 270g (1 1/4 cups) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 225g (1 1/2 cups) plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 60ml (1/4 cup) pear juice
• 3 (about 450g) packham pears, peeled, cored, coarsely chopped
• 55g (1/2 cup) walnut halves, coarsely chopped
• 65g (1/3 cup) sultanas
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 2 tbs honey 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Brush a round 20cm (base measurement) cake pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line the base and side with non-stick baking paper.
2. Use an electric beater to beat together the butter and sugar in a medium bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition until just combined. Sift together the flour and baking powder over the butter mixture and gently fold until just combined. Add the pear juice and fold to combine.
3. Add the pear, walnut, sultanas and mixed spice and stir to combine. Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in oven for 1 1/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
4. Brush the cake with honey. Set aside in the pan for 10 minutes to cool slightly before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into wedges and place on serving plates. Drizzle with extra honey and serve with creme fraiche, if desired.

 
When I added the pear to the cake mixture I was more than a little worried because there appeared to be far too much pear! Due to the enormous amount of fruit in the cake, I was also unsure if it would need the whole 90minutes cooking time the recipe called for. In the end I cooked it for probably about an hour.
When it had cooled slightly, I drizzled plenty of honey over the top and enjoyed a nice warm piece of cake.

The cake truly is delicious. It's bursting with pear and is fabulous hot or cold. I'm keeping it in the fridge so I can enjoy eating it all week long.
Next time I have a few excess pairs, this will be the first thing I make. It is fabulous!

Tomato Tart

I finally made the tomato tart I was looking forward to and it was received well by my family.
I wanted to make a bigger tart than original one in recipes + and I couldn't be bothered making my own pastry so this is  my recipe:

• 1 1/2 sheets puff pastry
• 250g tub ricotta cheese
• 250g tub flavoured cottage cheese
• 5 eggs
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 tbs capsicum & eggplant stir through pasta sauce (pesto would be better)
• 6 button mushrooms
• handful of spinach
• range of tomatoes (I used cherry, roma and some of my grandma's tomatoes)

1. Preheat oven to 160 and place tart pan in there to warm up. 
2. When pan is warmed up, lay in the pastry and return to oven for approx 10mins. (I did this because I usually find the base of puff pastry just goes soggy, rather than crisping up. Cooking it a little in the pre-warmed pan seemed to work.)
3. Saut'e mushrooms and wilt spinach.
4. In a bowl whisk ricotta, cottage cheese and eggs. Add parmesan and pesto.
5. Chop tomatoes.
   Remove tart base from oven and line bottom with mushrooms and spinach.
6. Pour egg and cheese mixture into base and arrange tomatoes on top.
7. Place in the oven and bake until set. (I wasn't really paying attention to the cooking time but I think it was between 30 and 45 minutes.)

If I were to make this again I would definitely add more kick to the egg mixture, it was rather bland. Perhaps some chilli and Worcestershire sauce, maybe some basil and a good quality pesto would have made this more exciting. That being said, I do like strong flavours but my family prefers more subtle tastes and they enjoyed this.

It didn't look too pretty once it was served up but straight out of the oven I thought it looked appealing, quite rustic.

Muffins using Pear and Apple Puree Take ll

I realised after eating my way through last week's batch of muffins that the Apple and Pear Puree Muffins recipe is pretty damn tasty. It just seems that the muffins are nicer when there not warm and straight out of the oven. I had plenty of puree remaining so I cooked up a second batch using more sultanas and walnuts.

 
I made 12 this time and might send T to work with some to share.

Mmmm, yum!

I froze the remaining puree so I can make these tasty treats some time again soon.

Muffins using Pear and Apple Puree

I decided I'd bake muffins to use some of the puree I prepared earlier today.

I went in search of a muffin recipe using apple puree and yoghurt, I couldn't find the perfect one so I adapted. Here is my recipe:

1 cup wholemeal SR flour
3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
1/4 cup plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
<1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oats
handful of sultanas
handful of walnuts
1 1/4 cup natural yoghurt (+ a few drops of vanilla essence)
1/2 cup pear & apple puree
2 eggs
100ml light olive oil
***consider adding cinnamon for a little extra flavour

Preheat oven to 180°C and spray muffin tins with olive oil.
Sift flours and baking powder. Add sugar, oats, sultanas and walnuts. Stir together.
In a seperate bowl mix yoghurt, eggs, oil and puree.
Add wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine.
Transfer mixture to muffin tins and bake in oven for about 25mins.

11 muffins minus the one I ate

I made 11 muffins, some of which were heat shaped, though you can't really tell once the muffins have risen.
They were nice but not very flavoursome. A stronger flavoured yoghurt, extra walnuts, sultanas and some cinnamon would've made these fabulous. Next time.

Coco Pops Oaty Cookies Recipe

I found two tiny packets of Coco Pops so I went in search of a recipe that wasn't Chocolate Crackles. I found this recipe; Kellogg's Coco Pops Moons and Stars Oaty Cookies. I used regular Coco Pops and roughly converted the weights to cup measurements because my scales are a little tricky to read. Probably due to my rough conversions I needed to add an egg which the original recipe didn't call for. I also used a combination of butter, margarine and oil because I didn't want to use up all my margarine. Here is what I baked:

• 50g (~1/2 cup) rolled oats
• 50g (2 single serve packets) Kellogg’s Coco Pops
• 80g (~1/2 cup) wholemeal self raising flour
• 50g (~1/4 cup) sugar
• 80g butter/margarine/oil combination
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Crush Coco Pops.
Combine Coco Pop crumbs with oats and flour.
Melt butter/margarine/oil and sugar in a saucepan over a gentle heat stirring until sugar has dissolved.
Take off heat and add to dry ingredients, stir, add egg and thoroughly mixing together.
Press mixture into balls (approx 1 tbsp) and space well apart on baking tray, flattening slightly.
Bake in oven at 180°C for approx 10 minutes or until lightly golden.
Leave on tray to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

They are tasty, quick and easy cookies.

Banana Bread Recipe

This is definitely my favourite recipe for using up over ripe bananas.

I have made this recipe many times and often add some extras like dates, sultanas, sunflower seeds, pepitas or walnuts. I have the recipe in a magazine but it is also available on taste.com.au.

• Melted low-fat dairy spread, to grease
• 1 3/4 cups self-raising flour *I use wholemeal flour
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup, firmly packed brown sugar *I always use less sugar
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 50g butter, melted, cooled
• 2 overripe medium bananas, mashed

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease loaf pan.
2. Sift the combined flours and cinnamon into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Place the milk, eggs, melted butter and banana in a medium bowl, and stir until well combined. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes *it always seems to take longer for me or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices to serve.
   

It is especially enjoyable straight out of the oven!

Oven-Baked Corn Omelettes

In addition to making Weet-Bix Cookies today, I made some savory muffin-like snacks. I found a recipe for Oven-Baked Corn Omelettes while searching for a healthy snack to take to my parent's house.

As usual, I changed the original recipe to suit my own tastes and what I had in the fridge. Here is my modified recipe:

• 1 red onion, finely sliced 
• 6 button mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 tomato, finely diced
• 1/3 cup red capsicum, finely diced
• 400g cans corn kernels, well drained
• 3/4 cup grated tasty cheese
• 8 eggs
• chives
• tomato sauce (to taste)
• Worcestershire sauce (to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease or line an 8 x 1/2-cup capacity muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onions then mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Remove from heat. Stir through corn, tomato and capsicum. Cool for 10 minutes.
3. Stir cheese into corn mixture. Spoon evenly into muffin holes. Beat eggs in a jug with a fork until well combined, add chives and sauces and beat a little longer. Pour evenly over corn mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or until light golden and set.
4. Stand for 5 minutes in pan. Carefully lift out.
   
   This is what the inside looks like.
   
   
   
    
   **I actually added two more eggs, so that I would have a few mini muffins aswell.
   
   

   

   10 eggs made 12 smallish muffins and 12 mini muffins (I ate a mini one before taking the photo).

   
   
   

Weet-Bix Cookies Recipe

 I found a recipe on the Woolworths website titled Chocolate Weet-Bix Cookies and was inspired to make some biscuits of my own but I changed the recipe a little.

The original recipe calls dried apricots and choc bits but I omitted the chocolate and used sultanas instead of apricots. I also used half a cup of loosely packed sugar rather than 100g. I wasn't impressed with the finished product, I didn't find them very morish and won't make them again but hey, it's always good to try out a new cookie recipe!

• 4 Sanitarium Weet-Bix, crushed
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• ¾ cup wholemeal plain flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup sultanas
• 3 Tbsp margarine
• 2 Tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1/4 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 160ºC. In a bowl mix Weet-Bix, rolled oats, flour, sugar and sultanas until well combined.
2. Place margarine and golden syrup in a small saucepan and heat gently until melted.
3. Mix bicarb soda and water together then pour into margarine mixture. Add to dry ingredients and stir to combine.
4. Roll tablespoons of mixture and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on tray before serving.

Muesli Bars Recipe

Here is the recipe for a snack I make every week; nutritious and delicious! I wrap the bars in foil and take them to work for a mid morning snack. 
 
Muesli Bars 

• 2 1/2 cups oats
• 1/2 cup sultanas 
• 1/4 cup pepitas
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup nuts of your choice (I usually use almonds & walnuts)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 100ml light olive oil
• 1 egg
• 50ml honey

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line baking tray/pan with baking paper.
2. Combine oats, sultanas, pepitas, sunflower seeds, nuts and spices in a bowl. Whisk oil, eggs and honey together in a jug. Stir into dry mixture.
3. Transfer to prepared tray/pan. Press mixture firmly into pan. Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool in pan for a few minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Cut into pieces. Enjoy!

*I usually make these bars without exact measurements and adapt the amounts according to what i have in the pantry. Add ingredients to suit your taste too, try coconut, dried apple or apricots.
**You can absolutely use less oil and an additional egg to bind the ingredients.
***If the mixture is too crumbly, you could add 1/4 cup flour to help it stick together better.

Brekky Bars

I’m a big fan of healthy baking (recipes that are low in fat & sugar and full of natural goodness) and my very favourite cooking website is www.taste.com.au .

Today I searched for a recipe that required dried apricots and sultanas and came across Brekky Bars:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/20357/brekky+bars

I followed the recipe as is but added an over ripe mashed banana to the milk and egg.

The finished product is delicious!

Just look at all the yummy bits!!

This will absolutely become a regular recipe in our house.