inner pickle

banana devil muffins

No, not as in devilishly naughty. Laced with devil may care brandy? Nope. Not even a crack about wickedly excellently tasting. Couldn't tell you that. 

Because I HATE BANANAS. 

Kind of like I hate spiders. And the overwhelming smell of nasty chemically deodorant in a lift. And people who don't wave when you slow your car down to let them into your lane. And the cold wet drip down your neck of a wet showercap. 

Did I digress?

Oh, bananas. 

It's a sign of my undying love for my children that I regularly mash or peel that evil, evil fruit for them. 

They are my Achilles heel. Well, bananas and the dreadful habit I have of cutting my own fringe.

Have you ever noticed the complete absence of bananas from this blog? 

THERE'S A VERY GOOD REASON FOR THAT. 

I have whole friendships based on a deep shared hatred of bendy yellow fruit. 

So what's this recipe for then?

Sometimes I have to slow down on the consumption of baked goods. You know, if there's an iced coconut cake in the pantry, it just calls me. I cannot hear the apple in the fruit bowl, I cannot hear the hummus and carrot stick calling. I hear the chocolate brownie. The Anzac biscuit. The currant muffin. 

So every now and then I crack out these for the sake of my bum. And, er, because the rest of the family love them!

 

Banana muffins

Ingredients

1.5 cups mashed banana

half cup of oil

1 cup milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp maple syrup

2 cups self-raising flour

 

Method

In a jug, mix up the oil, milk, egg, vanilla and syrup. In a bowl, stir the mashed banana into the flour and pour the wet ingredients over. Mix well. 

Makes a dozen muffins, or two loafs, or a ring tin, or a nice sized 20cm cake. 

Bake in a moderate oven (170deg) for approx 25 minutes. 

 

Totally inedible of course, unless you're a banana eater and then I understand it's lovely. Moist, tasty, low fat, super easy. 

And if you leave the house while they're actually cooking the smell won't hang around your clothes. Just the damn kitchen. Pooey. Rotten stinking fruit. 

xxx

how not to cook lamingtons

It's Australia Day here today. For about a year Henry has constantly asked (when eating just about anything), 'is this Australian food? Can we eat it on Australia Day?'

I woke up with other things to do today but how could I not make lamingtons? Never made them before. Not only quintessentially Aussie, but country Aussie too. Am now (surely) aspiring country show entrant, so MUST make award-winning lamingtons!

I used this recipe. 

Not sure what I did wrong. 

But the resulting cake uncannily resembled a wettex.

Nothing like a cooking failure to wreck my mood. I dove straight back in though, and mixed up a batch using a recipe from this week's Good Living (in the Sydney Morning Herald.)

It was looking pretty good, although I wondered a bit about the "pour into pan" instruction as I spooned it in and smoothed it down. It was only once it had been in the oven for ten minutes that I remembered the eggs. Four of them. On the bench, not in the cake. 

Dear me. Two failures, one after the other. 

Adam said something encouraging like, how 'bout pavlova? It's idiot-proof, right? then got a slightly shocked look about him as he backed slowly out of the kitchen. 

Good Living had also printed a recipe for pavlova. Using four eggs. Which I had! (No butter left though - used my whole weeks' butter budget in two cakes I probably can't even use for trifle. Pfft.)

When it was cooling in the oven we packed up and went for a bit of an explore and onto the beach for an early dinner. Cooked by someone else.

For dessert:

And because I obviously should have handed the apron over today, I managed to beat the cream on top almost to butter. Am a culinary genius. 

A third attempt at lamingtons coming soon. 

Happy Australia Day! Did you make anything/eat anything special? 

And do you have a trusted lamington recipe I could have? Please?!

xxx

Recipe for utterly awesome chocolate cake

Er, am I allowed to say things like that?!

I'm not blowing my own trumpet. I didn't create this recipe, just tinkered with it a bit. 

It's Australia Day here tomorrow and while my mind is wandering to Lamingtons and Pavlova, here's one I made before the move which DAMN I wish I had a piece of right now to go with my cardboard boxes and my where-the-heck-should-this-live? routine. 

 

Like it? 

It's a thing of beauty, right? 

You know this blog is not about fancy food. If you want amazing looking food that's innovative and smart and genuinely talented go see Lemonpi or Mowie. Over here you get the down-home version. Usually triple tested, always photographed with a bunch of sticky fingers just outside the viewfinder.

Truly, this cake rocks. My friend Anne-Marie made it last year and I begged the recipe. It was, in turn, her friend Carol's recipe. I reduced the sugar and the oil and upped the cocoa and here we are.

A gloriously chocolately chocolate cake that doesn't need chocolate which is convenient because it's a lot harder to snack on a box of cocoa in the pantry, than on a block of 70%. Or budget cooking chocolate.

Everything that looks good at three in the afternoon. 

 

Utterly Awesome Chocolate Cake 

Ingredients:

1½ cups sugar

¾ cup oil 

2 eggs

1 cup (hot) coffee

1 cup milk

2 cups plain flour

1 cup cocoa

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp bicarb soda

 

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 165 degrees celcius.

Mix together:  sugar, oil, eggs, coffee and milk. 

Sift together: flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, bicarb soda. 

Add dry ingredients to wet mix and beat well. 

Pour into cake tin (I make 2 x 20cm pans, the recipe suggests this or one large tin or three loaf tins.)

Bake for approx 35 mins on fan forced, (longer on regular oven.)

 

For the chocolate cream I used:

2 tbsp soft butter

2½ cups icing sugar

½ cup cocoa. 

Mix well and spread onto cold cakes. 

 

(With abject apologies to Fran if she's still sipping vegetable soup and trying to look away.)

xxx

 

 

Simple Butter Cake recipe

We had another birthday cake here today. 

The first one, on the actual birthday, didn't include her best friend.  So we made another one. 

Any excuse for butter cream.

 

Amidst story-reading (all by himself, gulp), and crafting, we all made a butter cake. 

That's what I love most about this cake. It can be made by a four year old (with a six year old who can read a recipe card.)

 

 

Simple Butter Cake

125g butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour (or all-purpose and add 4 tsp baking powder)

1 cup milk

 

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat. Add one cup flour and mix. Then half a cup of milk. Then the other cup of flour. Then the other half cup of milk.

Cook on 180 deg C for approx 25 mins. 

I baked this one in two 20cm tins for 20 mins only. But it makes one larger cake or ring tin or bundt or cupcakes or whatever you fancy!

It's a recipe you need to memorise. It's so quick to make and as cakes go, foolproof. Or four-year-old proof. 

This recipe works with gluten-free flour too, if you need to. 

 

Butter Cream

100g butter, softened

2.5 cups icing sugar

1 tblsp milk

food colouring, a few drops. 

 

To make icing, I actually don't tend to use pure icing sugar. I don't use enough of it, it goes hard and lumpy in the pantry. Too much sifting required. I tend to buy "icing mixture" (sold right next to the icing sugar) which has 96% sugar and the rest is tapioca starch which keeps the sugar very soft and super easy to use. No hard lumps to beat out. 

For the butter cream, mix the butter and the sugar well then add the milk. Add the colouring last and blend evenly. 

Spreads best on a cold cake with a metal butter knife.

Best eaten with friends. And licked off fingers. Life's too short not to eat cake. 

xxx

 

 

looking for my mojo

I'm sure it's around here somewhere. 

Hello? ... Mojo?

Dammit I need it. And totally do not have it. 

Right when it's all systems go, I seem to have hit the wall. Which could have something to do with about four weeks of religiously interrupted sleep (not just the six month old I must add. We could be running a good Catholic establishment here - up for Compline, Matins, Lauds. There's a bit of invoking the Lord's name on Adam's part which I guess might disqualify us.) 

Two. Weeks. Left.

As I am perennially guilty of burying fairly major news at the bottom of posts, may I refer you to the bottom of the previous post on Emily and the Wiggles?

Yep, we're moving to a distant green hill.

And seriously, I'm not kidding about the tiled orange bench top. You wait. 

But after catering Christmas and keeping up the energy through a gorgeous celebratory New Year with friends, we seem to have ground to a halt. Well, I say "we" but actually I can smell the chemical not-home-made cleaner which Adam has just attacked the oven with. Plus he de-spidered all the outdoor furniture today ready to move it. And he has a Master List. And a clipboard. 

Obviously, notwithstanding my lethargy, I'm in good hands. Lucky!

Meanwhile, shall we have cake?

Here's one I made earlier. For Tilly's last day of daycare, actually. She wanted to take cupcakes, but has a couple of severely allergic kids in her class. So the cook gave me her "allergy-free" cake recipe and actually it's pretty good! 

I fiddled with it a bit and reduced the sugar, but it rises well and tastes like cake. (Doesn't have the heart of a good butter and eggs cake, but sometimes you need something different.)

Egg-free, dairy-free and you could easily sub in gluten-free flour, which I didn't need to for this group. 

I made vanilla ones (above) for daycare but was pretty impressed with the simplicity of the recipe so made a chocolate batch for the next gathering of kids at my place to see how they went down. Quickly! Enthusiastically! 

 

 

Egg-free, dairy-free Cupcakes.  

INGREDIENTS
3 cups self-raising flour

2 cups warm water

1.5 cups sugar 

Half cup vegetable oil

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract (don't use imitation if you're making these for really sensitive kids)

 

METHOD

Prepare cupcake tins -either butter and flour them or use cases. My mix makes (weirdly) 23.

Combine all the ingredients together and whisk well until smooth then pour into pans. 

Bake at 160C (or 150 fan forced) until cooked and golden (approx 12 mins).

ICING: I mixed pure icing sugar and water to a paste and just piped it from a ziplock bag with the corner cut off. 

 

Right. Maybe my mojo is at the bottom of a cup of camomile tea. Better be somewhere. There is a giant bookcase waiting to be culled by 25% tonight. Yep, much smaller house, no built-in bookshelves. Adam is standing next to me with a determined look and a big box. 

P.S. If you find my mojo, please send it home? I'll send you back cupcakes with grins?

xxx 

the family fruitcake

How did fruitcake become a byword for twit?

I'd really like to know. 

There is nothing stupid about a good slice of fruitcake. Perfect with a cup of tea. In fact, a small gathering of Reading Between the Wines members tonight polished it off with a selection of herbal tea, coffee and shiraz. It's the cake for every mood. 

And THIS one. This one is Special. 

This is an adaptation of my Mum's recipe the origin of which was Diabetes Australia Magazine I think, but I'm not sure. 

It has no fat in it, and only the sugar from the fruit. So it's kind of a noble cake. 

Plus, it's AWESOME.

Don't take my word for it, make it. Truly. It's so quick. And delicious. 

Obviously it doesn't have the depth or the longevity of a good rich fruit cake (and rest assured there'll be one of those appearing here in the next four weeks) but did you see my earlier point about noble? 

And awesome?

 

AWESOME FRUIT CAKE

Ingredients:

1kg dried fruit

1 cup pitted prunes, chopped

1 big teaspoon mixed spice

2 cups pear juice

2 cups self raising flour

 

Method:

Soak all the fruit and the spice in the juice for at least four hours, or overnight if you've timed it right.  

Then stir through the flour. 

Bake for approx 1 and three quarter hours at 150 degrees in a 20cm square pan (or a smaller pan for a higher cake. I know you don't need me to spell this out. You're smart.)

That's it. 

Enjoy. 

Mum's recipe calls for one and a half cups of prune juice and a quarter cup of orange juice, so you could always try that. I like pear. And I have multiple family members who are allergic to orange juice.

Next time I make this I'm adding nuts. 

Because if you're going to be fruity you might as well go nuts. 

Right?

xxx

Gluten-free orange and almond cake

It's rare for me to seek out a gluten-free recipe. I am a dedicated full wheat bread baker (and eater.) Pasta, too. And pizza. You could in fact call me Fiona Gluten Walmsley. 

I'm baking for a school cake stall this weekend though, and apparently the gluten-free options are big sellers.

I also coincidentally happened to flick past SBS's Food Safari last week and saw these fabulous Jewish ladies making orange and almond cake. A quick web search found the recipe. 6 EGGS?!!! That's way more than my baking budget allows per cake. Besides I just can't seem to follow instructions. 

Here's my version.

Orange and Almond Cake

based on this recipe by Batia Slater

Ingredients:

2 oranges

4 eggs

200g (1 cup) raw sugar (or use white - I ran out)

200g almond meal

1 tsp baking powder

 

Method:

Wash the oranges and cover them with water (skin and all) in a saucepan and boil for 1.5 hours. Set aside to cool. 

Preheat oven to 190°. 

Crack your eggs into a big bowl. Use a slender blender if you have one, and whizz. Or whisk. Add the sugar and whizz. Put the whole oranges into the bowl and whizz with the slender blender. If you don't have a hand blender, you'll need to process them in a food processor. Or normal blender. If you live in an Amish community and have no electric kitchen gizmos whatsoever, then bash up the oranges, taking out your frustration with these people who insist on posting recipes requiring equipment for heavens sake. Then chop as finely as you possibly can.

After the oranges and eggs and sugar are all beautifully combined, stir in the almond meal and baking powder.

That's it.

Too easy.

Pour into a 20cm round springform tin if you have one. Or not. It's not going to fail if you bake it in a ring tin. It might not work in cupcake tins but knock yourself out. 

Mine took 45 mins. 

Henry has decided it's his favourite cake in the known universe so I might have to knock out a 3-egg version, will let you know.

I don't think I've ever been as happy in my whole life as I am right now. And I'm not entirely referring to that empy plate. 

Hope you're feeling awesome today.

xxx

Lemon and Passionfruit Cupcakes Recipe!

Here is the recipe I promised yesterday. It's a minor variation on the good old butter cake, but the yoghurt makes it so moist and light and the passionfruit flavour is delicious. They really don't need icing but a cream cheese icing or lemon icing does nicely too!

INGREDIENTS

125g butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups self raising flour

2 tablespoons vanilla yoghurt

2 tablespoons passionfruit pulp

½ cup lemon juice

METHOD

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in yoghurt and passionfruit and then sift in the flour and mix well. Add the lemon juice and that's it! Bake as cupcakes (makes 12) or in a ring tin or bundt pan or whatever you like. Next time I'll make it as 2 loaves and freeze one I think.

Oh, um, bake at 180°C for approx 20 mins or until golden and springy.

Other things happening around here today:

:: I made yogurt!! From scratch! And gosh it was yummy. Will post about this soon!

:: I am so inspired by the yogurt making, am looking into cheese making and wishing I could go and scoop several litres of raw milk from the vat in Dad's dairy. Sigh. Anyone know anywhere around Sydney to buy raw milk?

:: I am admiring Henry's Lego skill. Seriously. The little dude can build.

:: I am snacking on small desiree potatoes baked in their skins in a slow oven in good olive oil. With a smudge of sea salt. SO good.

:: I am still besotted with my no-knead bread recipe (a fresh loaf today and a container-full squatting in the fridge, ready to go) and am overdue to post about bread. I love bread. Maybe I could go right now and just have one small piece of toast with peanut butter...

:: I have cut a pattern from the dress Ivy was wearing yesterday (no I didn't make that one, it was a gift from a friend who didn't make it either, although she has plans to pimp it once Ivy's outgrown it and give it back to me in a new form!) Anyway, it's a simple pattern and I have plans for that sweet birdie fabric from Tilly's skirt...

:: I am busy making my first Book Week parade costume for Henry, who wants to be the Gruffalo. So that's not very hard at all. For heaven's sake. The Gruffalo??! Although no Julia Donalson would have been easy and they're all his favourites: Stickman, Tiddler, Snail and the Whale...

:: I am throwing a small splash of eucalyptus oil in with my washing after reading this tip on Fox's Lane, (a delightful blog) and cheering the idea, it just makes the whole wash smell lovely.

:: I am all inspired after Adam and I went to the Organic Expo at Darling Harbour on the weekend, and am dreaming of becoming an organic vegetable farmer. Or producing organic snacks for kids. Or at least keeping chooks and having a lovely vegie garden.

What are you doing 'round your place?

xxx

cake stall

Hello! Big election weekend in Australia - if you missed it, we just exercised our democratic right to elect the federal government. 'Cept (hang it, you all know I'm a feminist leftie) people actually voted for a Coalition government (I would never have believed it) headed by a backward thinking right wing jack rabbit. I might have to move to New Zealand. We're looking at a hung parliament at present. Come ON postal voters, do your thing! Come ON Julia - negotiate!

It's all very depressing.

What's not depressing is CUPCAKES!

For the P&C stall at the polling booths at school on Saturday.

I took: all organic apple cakes;

 

and really very delicious lemon and passionfruit cakes!

While I was making the cakes, I put the lovely Ivy down just outside the kitchen on her rug:

And being a self-sufficient third child, she took advantage of the peace and quiet and made it nap time.

Also while I was baking, Tilly decided to make herself a dress.

Needs more sticky tape, Mum.

 

And after witnessing Henry's crestfallen face as I boxed up every last one of the lemon and passionfruit cupcakes, I made some more.

I'm delighted with this recipe, was even happier with the second batch, but am in between a late night bath for smallest Walmsley and doing some very late night bookkeeping for a friend's business so will come back and post the recipe for these tomorrow!

Hope you had a tasty/relaxing/creative weekend!

xxx

 

 

stuff I learnt this week

: Turns out some newborns do just eat and sleep. I thought that was something people just claimed. We're not naive enough to know this may not all change tomorrow, but we're super grateful for Ivy being so chilled out right now. (And not feeding two-hourly through the night like her sister used to!)

: Having a newborn makes your older kids look ridiculously big and grown up.

(Henry and I having some downtime in a cafe this week over hot chocolate and gingerbread men. Gamer-boy preoccupied while I was breastfeeding.)

: Friends are awesome. This week ours took our older kids away and sent Ad and I out for lunch, they brought cake, they brought/sent/made amazingly thoughtful gifts and came around with champagne and lots of laughing. 

: Sydney Aquarium rocks.  

: It's a bit of a shame to go to the aquarium with a flat camera battery. (The iPhone doesn't really cut it.)

: Sydney Aquarium has a pretty proficient lost child procedure.

: Note to self: dress Matilda Daisy in bright colours, preferably fluorescent, when taking her to fascinating places with hundreds of other people amongst whom you can easily lose sight of a waist-high person in search of the turtles; thereby saving us ten minutes of rising panic wherein we each shed ten years off our lives. 

: My brother, visiting from the US this week, is superbly talented (no bias here. Absolutely objective.) New demo CD. He rocks. 

: My friend Vanessa, mum of one of Henry's besties at school, is super clever. Check out these cupcakes she made and brought over yesterday!

  

 
Amazing, right?

: Adam can cook. I don't mean to sound surprised, but I don't mean whip-up-scrambled-eggs-and-bacon cook. He's been cooking all week, and we had friends round for dinner last night and he made fabulous gourmet burgers (yep, a bit of meat is back on the menu here - more on that in another post) with haloumi and chutney, served with crispy and fluffy twice-cooked potato chips and a divine, light passionfruit flummery for dessert. Damn I hope this doesn't mess up our I cook/he cleans arrangement. I am seriously crap at cleaning. 

: It's illegal to bury someone without a coffin. My friend Ben (who appears in post comments here as Benoss) and Adam were cheerfully discussing funeral options, as you do, and Adam was saying he wants to be buried in a completely compostable (preferably cardboard) coffin, preferably with worms included. (Could you be any more green, baby?) Anyway, Ben suggested doing away with the coffin and so we sent another friend (the other Vanessa) who loves this stuff, off to call up a few funeral homes and find out the deal. Deal is: gotta use a coffin. No shroud only option. But she's making more calls so will update you as news comes in. 

: The weirder the better. And if you can come up with REALLY weird, send it over to Kate at Picklebums, OK?! (Everyone's going way too easy on her so far.)

xxx