How do your flowers grow..

I made this one this afternoon.
(Chicky Babe as model, and a lovely model too!)

A came to visit with her too little ones. They are just too cute! Lively and funny. We had a good long chat and spent some time sitting in the sunshine while the kids played. (Poor old Pablo had to have a little lie down after they left. He had makeshift alfoil balls to chase and was covered in vinigar and water spray -my next remedy for aphids.)

I baked this cake and it's yummy.


Almond, Coffee Crumble Cake
(An adaptation of one by Gordon Ramsay)

Crumble topping
Rub together 40g butter with 60g of plain flour and 40g brown sugar. Mix in about half a cup of flaked almonds (omitted from the one in this photo as I had none in the pantry. But they do add a yummy crunch.)



Cake.
set aside and alow to cool one third of a cup of good strong expresso.
Cream together 170g butter and 170g raw caster sugar. Beat in 3 eggs one at a time. Mix in a tspn of good quality vanilla extract or paste.

Mix in half of the coffee with a large metal spoon. Mix in 100g of almond meal.



Sift together half a tspn of baking powder with 100g of SR flour and then fold it into the mixture.



Fold through the remaining coffee.



Spoon into a lined, greased spring form tin, sprinkle crumble mixture on top.
Bake for about 50-60mins at 170degrees celsius (150 if you have a fan forced oven)
Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve. (Nice warm or cold)

Teacup Tueasday - holiday projects

This is my afternoon tea and today's teacup. Pretty isn't it? The cake is my creation a plain vanilla cake with crasins (dried cranberries) added the icing is a butter icing with rosewater flavour.

Cranberry vanilla cake with rosewater icing.

125 g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tspn vanilla bean paste
3 eggs
3 cups SR flour
1/2 cup milk
About 2/3 cup crasins

Cream the butter and sugar beat in the eggs one at a time. sift the flour and add to the creamed butter an sugar alterating with the milk, folding in with a large metal spoon. Mix in cranberries. Spoon into prepared cake ring tin and bake for about 40 mins in a moderate oven. (aprox 180'C)

icing:
about 75g butter
about 1cup pure icing sugar
about 1 tspn of rose water

cream butter and icing sugar together add the rose water. if the icing is too thick add a tspn of milk at a time until desired consistency is achieved.
( I just had a thought that coconut milk in the icing and a sprinkling of coconut on the top would also be good. Being allergic to food colourings, I might try the juice of the preserved wild hibiscus flower that we put in champagne to give the icing a pink colour.)

I've been out of blogging action as we had used up all of our downloads and I was terrified of being charged outrageous ammounts for the excess.


This was supposed to be my holiday project!!! This is as it looked prior to the cleaning lady came. It did get tidied a bit but it is still not too good.

Some people from the council came yesterday and I think my studio is safe!! So once the letter arrives I will be able to continue with that and somewhat declutter the living areas of the house- although this is what I do and enjoy and house is where you live and do the things you love and enjoy so perhaps my whole house should be my studio! New thought I will ponder that a little more........




This is the house after the cleaning lady had been......Ahhhh, lovely!

I've actually had two of them in the last tree weeks. The first lady came and then she said she couldn't do it but she had a friend who could. I didn't mind I just wanted some help. It turned out that the 'friend' was her son's girlfriend who has come over from Thailand to be with her boyfriend who has been transfered back to Australia. Her English is not good enough for her to work as a personal assistant here yet so she is cleaning. Lucky for her I am a "Random Talker" (see previous post for definition) I can help her with her conversational English.

Over the holidays I have caught up with friends, done some baking

The ingredients...

mix them all together...

press them into the tin and bake...

Yum, Cammy's Father's Favourites!

I've crocheted some flowers that will end up on a floral fabric panel on a bag and done some sewing. I've made a skirt for a friend, like the one Chicky Babe modeled for me but purple not green and Ive made a wrap dress for me....

Have I said I love paisley before???? It's tricky taking pictures of yourself! Although I quite like the angle of it. Chicky Babe is at work and Bantam Boy is at the library studying on the holidays! I'm so proud of him!!! Proud of them both actually!!! They have grown up well - and I did it myself! (well... with some help from my friends and family)

I have another dress almost finished, another wrap dress but this time in black. I'll be off now to get back to it!

Teacup Tuesday - on Wednesday!

It's Teacup Tuesday on wednesday because Bantam Boy hogged the computer until it was too late to start, particularly as it was a school night and it would have been wednesday anyway.



I love this tea cup. It was my grandmothers. She gave it to me on my birthday just before she passed away. It is a lovely connection to her, best used when drinking tea and eating 'burnt butter biscuits'. Something she always had on hand being so easy to make and delicious, although I grant you the name doesn't sound too promising. It refers to burning or rather browning the butter before mixing in the other ingredients. Shortbread was her other specialty, OH and 'fathers favourites'- a yummy slice made with dates and apricots. And her sponge cakes were divine. I have never managed to make them although I have her handwritten instructions. She passed away 13 years ago this last week. Actually it wasn't until I sat down to write this that I thought of that, I didn't consciously choose the teacup for that reason. It was the first one my hand went to.... Funny that.

I remember because it was my Mum's birthday and she was having a big party for her 50th and Cammy (my grandmother) had made her famous sponge cakes and frozen them ready for mum's party because she was going into hospital to finally have her heart surgery she had been waiting for. She didn't make it through the operation. So mum didn't have her party and the cakes were sitting in the freezer and we had them at Cammy's wake! A bit strange to cater your own wake but entirely fitting as Cammy catered for all our special occasions with her sponges or fruit cakes for christenings and weddings.
Here are a couple of Cammy's recipes.

Cammy's Burnt Butter Biscuits
1/4 lb butter, brown and when cool add a good 1/2 cup sugar, mix in 1 beaten egg and 1 cup SR flour. (all of this is done in the saucepan you have used to brown the butter!)
Roll tspn fulls into balls, press half an almond on each and cook in a moderate oven for 10-15 mins. Leave room for them to spread
For a Change: Add 1/2 cup of dessicated coconut to the mixture and leave off the almond. (I actually like to add the coconut and put a whole almond on!!! Cammy didn't write it here but I recall her pressing them lightly with a fork especially if they didn't have the almond on them.)

Cammy's Father's Favourites
1/4 lb butter (melted)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup coconut
1 cup SR flour
1 cup chopped dates
Place all thesein a bowl and mix. Then add 1 beaten egg. Put in an oblong tin (she would press it gently into the tin using her knuckles- giving the surface a unique ripple.) Bake in a moderate oven for20-30 mins (the longer it is left the dryer it becomes it is more chewy if cooked for only 20 minutes, play with it until you find what you prefer, as Cammy got older she preferred it dryer, I like it chewy!)
For Variation: add dried apricots and walnuts (I prefer pecans myself)

It is almost the end of school term. I think I might have to dust of my baking trays and get back into making these things. I used to bake a lot in my old house. I think it may be the working full time thing or perhaps I've just got out of the habit. It is nearly time to host a high tea, maybe a holiday high tea, mmm, sounds good.

Ohh! I'd nearly forgotten her spinach cakes made using the stalks of the silver beat in a batter seasoned batter and fried like savory pikelets. She pickled her own olives too, I must try that too.... Maybe one day in my spare time I'll make one of those blogger books that you can have published using her recipes and photos of her and of the food. Not to publish for the world just for us as a family.

What a lot of thoughts from just one little tea cup!