The Pinnacles cake

A lovely cake that we have renamed "The Pinnacles" - can you see the likeness?
The banner is a great idea for people like me who are cake decorating challenged!

Another Market

We had another market, a few weeks ago. This time Marion was there to help me.

There weren't as many 'shoppers' around this time, as it wasn't a long weekend. I wish I could say that it's me wearing the shorts in this photo but I would be lying! I had my 13yo niece doing 'work experience' with me for the week ....."how to bake and prepare for a market"!!!

The macarons, in particular, looked very pretty!

Marion even made bread and rolls which we enjoyed eating at quiet times with some brie cheese.

Market Baking

The new season for the Stansbury Seaside Market has begun, with the first market last Saturday. After having a couple of years break, we decided it was time to earn some pocket money again. Marion is still on holidays so I tackled this one myself....boy was it hard work! The next one will be much better now I am in the swing of it again. Here are the biscuits ready to be packed up - Empire biscuits, Rock Buns, Puffed Wheat biscuits, Gingernuts, Custard Creams, Monte Carlo's, Peppermint Creams and Afghans.

This was my pie baking day - Chunky Chicken ( using 4kg chicken and 3 kg vegetables) and Chilli Con Carne. To finish off that day, I made 4 trays of Vanilla Slice - it was good for the arm muscles stirring 4 litres of thick custard!

I ran out of time to take other photos but I also made mixed trays of slices, boxes of mixed macarons, and Roast Almond Tarts.

The boys helped me on the stall and they sold some of their old movies plus polka dot biscuits, caramel slice, rocky road, flavoured fairy floss and bottled water. What a team!

Emerging from hibernation

It really can't be nearly 2 months since I did my last post, I'm sure there is a blog post thief out there somewhere.
I haven't been sitting around doing nothing all that time though, I've been making costumes for the school concert next week and - I have been trying out some new recipes for the upcoming market season like the toffee apples.

And mini lemon meringue tartsMarion celebrated her birthday a couple of days before she left on an overseas trip - she of course, made her own birthday cake - as you do!

I know you want to see a better photo of her cake................... It was huge - about 8 layers with a tempered chocolate flower on top.

Marion is currently in Venice - poor her!

My eldest cherub turned 12 a few weeks ago and instead of a traditional birthday cake, he asked for a macaron tower! At the time I couldn't think of anything to fill in the gaps with - if he had been a girl, I would have used flowers but since have thought that I could have used strawberries or marshmallows.

His friends didn't seem to notice the gaps and were quite impressed.

Colours

I spent some time on the weekend baking macarons (after my class in Paris) - it took a while to get the oven temperature and timing just right but now I am happy with the results. The dark purple and pistachio ones were a bit undercooked and lavender ones a bit lumpy, whilst the other 3 batches were pretty good.

Even when you don't get them looking just perfect they still taste lovely.

The pink ones were filled with a strawberry champagne buttercream, the mauve and purple ones with lemon butter, the brown ones with salted caramel and the teal ones with a honey and maple syrup caramel with bacon.

I did another batch of the pistachio green macarons, trying to keep my piping size even. There were a few 'oops' - es. This batch turned out perfectly and they were filled with mint chocolate ganache.

Important thing to remember is that when using food colours to watch where else it can spread to.......this is partially cooked chicken with some blue spots!

And there was also the case of husband's white shirt......yes I was doing the washing in between baking!

My "Favouritist" Cake

The "Lemon Feather Cake" is my favourite cake to bake and to eat.

I don't make sponges very well but this cake is lighter than that and almost foolproof. It just needs a good sprinkling of icing sugar before you serve it. (the photographed cake was for my sister-in-law to take to her workplace, and she gave it the sprinkling, before it was cut).

The top of the cake forms a nice crust, so there is no need to top it with anything other than the icing sugar (or powdered sugar)

6 eggs (separated)

275g castor sugar

zest of 2 lemons and juice of 1 lemon

150g potato flour or cornflour

Beat egg yolks with sugar until thick and nearly white. Add lemon zest & juice and flour. Whip egg whites and fold into the yolk mixture.

Grease cake tin or tins if you prefer to bake in 2 tins..........and bake for 50-60 mins at 180C (350F)***** You need to check it earlier than this as sometimes the cake is cooked a lot quicker**********

Turn out and cool on rack - if you have just baked the one cake then cut in half and fill with lemon cream. Otherwise join the 2 cakes with the lemon cream

Lemon Cream: Whip 300ml cream and add 255g lemon butter - fill cake and dust top with icing sugar.

**The photographed cake is a large one in which I used 10 eggs and used 600ml cream and 430g lemon butter for the filling------yumm!!!!!**

Just like Mam used to make!

I have been searching for a Rock Cake recipe for ages that would be similar to the ones that my Scottish grandmother - known to everyone as Mam - used to bake.

Finally I have found one - thanks to Treann (she will get a surprise if she reads this)........

Treann had shared the recipe in the "Nana's Recipe Book" section of the

'Enchanted Things Primitives ' website.

8 oz of SR Flour

2 oz of butter

3 oz of sugar ( I used brown)

1 egg

pinch of salt

4 oz mixed fruit

Milk to mix
Sift flour and salt. Rub in butter to resemble bread crumbs and add all other dry ingredients.Mix well and add the beaten egg and enough milk to make a stiff mixture. Place dessertspoonfuls of mixture onto tray and sprinkle with raw sugar. Bake in a hot oven until golden brown......

Also on the website are some other old favourites - like Lamb Fritters and Golden Syrup Dumplings......brings back lots of memories.

Why don't you make yourself a batch of Rock Cakes this weekend - I made the ones in the photo last Saturday as it was my parents 56th wedding anniversary. Perfect to have with a cuppa.

One minute later...

Marion arrived on our doorstep with 3 freshly baked cinnamon scrolls - light as a feather, still warm and oozing goodness. One minute later, there was only one left. Husband was lucky that our willpower was strong and we didn't eat it before he got home. Can you imagine how good they tasted??

This is the yarn that I had used in my 'yellow' strip of knitting from the previous post. I have 3 spare balls so if you would like one to play with, let me know. One ball already has Julie's name on it.I'm packing today - leaving very early tomorrow morning to fly to Sydney for the long weekend.

More about THAT next week.

Review

The cake, the cake, what about the cake? Yes it was quite nice after all - the review was quite right though I had overcooked it a bit. I should have taken it out of the oven when it was still soft on top. Served with cream and strawberries, it was yummy.
Recipe is:
185g unsalted butter (chopped), 200g dk chocolate, 1 1/2 cups caster sugar, 3 eggs, 250g plain flour, 1/3 cup cocoa, 200g packet jersey caramels (halved).
Combine butter & chocolate in medium saucepan, stir over heat until chocolate melts. Transfer mixture to large bowl, stir in sugar and eggs then sifted flour and cocoa. Spread half the mixture into a 23cm round or slab tin that has been greased and lined with baking paper. Top with the caramels and then the remaining mixture. Bake in moderate oven for approx 50 minutes. Cool and dust with extra sifted cocoa.
I am quite excited about the prospect of this piece, I love the look of the small artworks within a a larger one and I can use some of my special bits and pieces in it....but I think I might see if I can buy a longer frame and a couple of more little canvases. It is inspired by one that Connie Govea Stuart has featured in the new Somerset magazine - Somerset Apprentice. Instructions are given for creating one of your own - why don't you make one too?

Circles everywhere

(graphic from dryicons.com)

There seems to be a bit of a bias towards circles in today's post.
This was some weaving that the cherubs started during their
holidays - very simple but so effective.
I have been busy crocheting circles and they are waiting expectantly

to be all joined together in harmony!!!Another circle : a cake - this is the filling before it was topped with more mixture and then baked. I hope the jersey caramels have melted and are all goey. And the cake is for .........
Kirsty.......she will be here late tomorrow for cake, so I will let you know if the recipe is worth sharing with you or not. This photo was taken at the retreat on the last morning, before classes had started - what dedication! I thought her husband might be interested in seeing this photo just to prove that she did work sometimes.

Happy Birthday Kirsty!

I have almost forgotten....

...how to do a post on the blog - it is 20 days since the last one and you get out of the routine of it very easily, but here goes.....

April was quite busy - Easter saw Marion producing the goods with this lovely basket of hot cross buns ( I think a couple disappeared before I managed to take a photo). Her basket was returned to her full of spinach, beetroot, parsley and an apple from our garden.
Not much of an exchange but if she can't eat sweet things it was about as good as I could do and I also made her a basket of egg shaped bacon & chive scones.Easter Saturday, husband and I went to check out a shed filled with secondhand goods and junk. I came home with a basket full of old knobs, chain & door hardware, the old metal dish with handle and 2 unused very old ledgers. The dolls head and salt shakers were ebay purchases.

I love these! Frozen German dolls heads and salt/pepper shakers in their original box.

As I said, April has been busy......we've had 4 family birthdays in April - 2 nieces, my father and my brother in law - and husband and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary.

To celebrate, we went to see a movie - appropriately - this one!!!!

We went to the drive-in (in Adelaide) with the cherubs and while they sat in the front seats so they could see better, husband and I sat in the back.

We have finally had rain. This was the scene from our balcony last Saturday - the golf course was nearly covered in water. The rain continued for a few days, off and on, and now we can see green grass sprouting.

Well what would you do?

........when a friend turns up on your doorstep with a basket of warm freshly baked hot cross buns and needs you to taste them to see if they are 'passable'! As if anything that Marion makes wouldn't pass the taste test! Unfortunately for Marion, she isn't able to eat anything sweet without feeling ill so she relies on us and her family to be her tasters. I can just imagine the day that I step foot into a Weight Watchers meeting and they ask why do you need to lose weight and I can honestly say "It is all Marion's fault"! I have to report that they were delicious and you can't really judge by the photo but they were really big ones - about 4 inches high. My sister-in-law was pretty happy that she was here visiting at the time and of course my husband - you could just about see him drooling.

I've just finished this box and bunny - it's a long time since I used pink in anything.....

Smellavision

We have so many other gadgets that we can add to our blogs and websites, surely the brainiest of brains could come up with a smellavision thingy!

Marion has been shopping with some of her Christmas money and bought this lovely wok/pan

You can almost smell it, can't you?

And then this was a lovely wire food/cake cover that she received for Christmas from a friend.

A day for presents

Today was our youngest cherub's 8th birthday. He was pretty excited and this was shown by him arriving in our bedroom at 1.30am and announcing "it's my birthday but I know it's still night and you will tell me to go back to sleep". He ended up in our bed as he was having problems going back to sleep. I moved into his bed a bit later and then he arrived at 3.30am saying that it was getting closer to the time that he could open his presents. Guess who was excited - not me! He went back to his bed and I went back to mine and finally at 5.30am we all got up so that he could open his presents! It has been a long day for some of us.......
Happy Birthday N. Marion has been baking - don't you love the candy canes. Reminiscent of Martha Stewart's biscuit decorating.

A couple of parcels left the house today, looking like this. I love the striped teatowels, they make wonderful wrapping. Even better if your initials are "SB" (embroidered on the teatowel)

And this parcel is my Christmas Care Swap winging its way to Erica in Queensland. And if you love the metal birds as much as I do, you can contact Lisa at Inn Country, she has lots of gorgeous things in her shop.

Yawn - time for bed - at last!

We are home

Yes we are back home, had a lovely time away - but have now hit the deck running. We have a school BBQ and presentation night so I've been making salads, pavlova rolls etc for that. Marion is also baking - she made 17 dozen fruit mince pies over the weekend and has just started some more plus other baking.
I'll be back tomorrow with a more decent post (I hope)

PS I feel a giveaway is not too far away - nearly at our 100th post!

The Weekend

The weekend has passed too quickly, now there is only 2 more weekends before Christmas! We had the Youth Group from church here today on a progressive lunch so I made Pavlova Rolls again. The berry syrup was seeping a bit too much so I had to plug the ends with extra whipped cream!! Last night I made a button Christmas Tree. I still need to fill in the gaps but wouldn't one all in white buttons and white pins look great?
Marion was borrowing my 3 tier cake stand today and I had it out ready to take to her so I decided to fill it with gold baubles while the lunch was happening. What an easy centrepiece!

I love my new spotted bowls from Myer too, just need some yummy things to fill them. You see the funniest things when you are busy doing Christmas decorations! A brown nosed Rudolph????

I buy a new Christmas decoration every year for the boys, so that when they are ready to leave home, they will have some of their own decorations - and they will already have a story behind them. As N loves cats, this is his.

And this is B's - to signify the year that he got Spike.

I'm off to Adelaide again tomorrow, this time for a girls shopping trip -with Marion and Kirsty - and we are having a sleep over!!!

A couple days break

It has taken a couple of days to recuperate after doing the previous post - I'm not used to talking THAT much!
On the weekend we both did a spot of baking....I desperately wanted some scones to eat whilst watching the Christmas Pageant on TV so I made these. 2 cups self raising flour, 1 tablespoon caster sugar, 50g salted butter, 1 cup milk,1 tablespoon raw sugar,1 teaspoon finely grated nutmeg, 1 medium red apple
METHOD
Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar; rub the butter into the flour and sugar to breadcrumb stage. Gradually stir in the milk — the amount you need depends on the flour. The mixture will be moist and stick to the fork or knife that you use to stir in the milk. When combined, tip out onto a floured bench top.Using your hands or a rolling pin, flatten the mixture and shape it into a rectangle about 2 cms thick, approximately 22 X 28 cms. Sprinkle with the raw sugar and nutmeg; grate the apple (skin and all) over the sugar and nutmeg; spread it evenly and right out to the edges of the scone dough.Roll the dough, longwise, around the filling and cut into 8 even rounds using a floured knife.Pack the rolls, cut side up, into a greased and floured 21cm diameter (4cms deep) cake/sponge tin. They can be touching but they will come together as they cook. Cook in a preheated 190C oven for 20 — 30 minutes. Fan force oven will take less time. The tops will be crisped and golden browned.

I doubled the recipe and used some cinnamon combined with nutmeg. These scones seem to be a bit 'cakier' and would be lovely with a thin icing drizzled over the top.

This is what Marion made - one of my husband's favourites - and he declared it the best Baklava that he has ever tasted and he has spent some time buying them on a discovery to find the best. Up to now it was a market in Melbourne that got his number one vote, but all has changed - he just has to go around the corner to Marion's market....!!!