I made this for Sarah’s birthday dinner last night

Ingredients for torte

125g hazelnuts

4 egg whites (I hope you like making egg custard, otherwise that’s a lot of leftover egg yolks)

1 cup + 1 tablespoon castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon vinegar

 

Ingredients for topping

450g raspberries (frozen will do)

3 tablespoons castor sugar

1 cup cream

vanilla to taste

sifted icing sugar

 

Method

Spread the hazelnuts on a tray and toast them for about 6 minutes in a hot oven. (This is inexact – just keep checking them.) Cool. Then grind them (not too finely) in the whizz.

Beat egg whites. Add in tablespoon of castor sugar, beat in and then gradually add the rest.

Add vinegar and vanilla.

Fold in the ground toasted hazelnuts.

Spoon into 2 x 8 inch cake tins (lined or sprayed with cooking spray) and cook in a moderately slow oven for 40 minutes.

 

Assembly

Beat cream, sugar and vanilla until thick. Spread tops of both torte bases with cream, then sprinkle over the thawed raspberries (or other berries of your choosing).

Lift one base and place it on top of the other to create a layer-cake. Sift icing sugar over the completed torte before serving.

 

This quantity serves about 8, but it’s my go-to easy dessert for a crowd so I just multiply the ingredients and use bigger tins.

Last night I was cooking for 10 and wanted generous servings, so I doubled the recipe and used a large and a small springform pan to create a tiered look to the birthday ‘cake’.

 

Maximum effect – minimum effort!

(and you can cover your mistakes with cream. Just saying )

A tale of two teas (Part 2)

A little known sub-clause of Murphy’s law says that if you plan to throw your home and garden open to an entire church congregation for afternoon tea the chances are pretty high that the Lord will decide to bless your garden with rain.  Lots of it.

Yep, you guessed it.  The heavens opened the following Sunday when we farewelled our Assistant Minister Ben, his wife Michelle and children Chas and Coco as they prepared to fly out to a new parish in Perth on the other side of our vast country.  Undeterred we simply moved the proceedings inside.

These poppies on the table were the closest we came to sunshine, but everyone crowded in and we had a great time, sad though it was to see our Undies family leaving after almost 5 years here.

Scatterday Challenge for September - Food #3

We had a big morning tea / lunch with friends one day last week, and I made pizzas - Weight Watchers pizzas. They looked wicked - but weren't!

Tomato and Cottage Cheese Pizza

Serves 6 - Points value per serve 2 1/2

Ingredients:

Cooking oil spray

2 Lebanese bread

2 tablespoons bought basil pesto

3 tomatoes, thickly sliced

12 drained, pitted green olives, halved

30g grated mozzarella cheese

250g Weight Watchers Cottage Cheese

12 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degreec C.

Coat 2 oven trays with cooking oil spray.

Place bread on prepared trays and spread with pesto.

Arrange tomatoes and olives over each base.

Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

(I also sprinkled oregano on top)

Bake in oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden.

Dollop with cottage cheese and sprinkle with the chopped parsley.

Cut into wedges to serve.

Scatterday Challenge for September - Food #2

My darling daughter had a birthday yesterday, and here's the cake we enjoyed at our family birthday dinner - in all its sparkling splendour!

Hyacinth Bucket, eat your heart out

A get-together of the ABCs (quilting buddies) at my home today gave me the opportunity to use some special pieces of Royal Doulton "Pansy" china that belonged to my grandmother, and which my mother has only recently handed down to me.

I love the vibrant colors of these pansies dancing on the sandwich plate, and the elegant angular shape of the cups and saucers. The height of 1930s sophistication.

A brie-licious salad

Three times a year, over a 4 week period, our church's Assistant Minister, Ben, runs a course Exploring Christian Marriage for some of the couples who are soon to be married here. As part of this, after they've been to the evening church service, they all come back to our home (the rectory) where Ben, Boak and I host a sit-down dinner, which has proved a great way to get to know them - and for them to get to know each other.

Cooking creatively for up to 18 can sometimes stretch my imagination and skills, especially as we try to vary the menu over the 4 weeks that we do this. Tonight, the first week of a new course, we served beef, oven-roasted on the barbecue, accompanied by tiny chat potatoes and this melon and brie salad which is a new one I've been trying out recently. Dessert was chocolate panforte (just a sliver), with home-chopped fruit salad.

I thought you might be interested in the salad recipe...

Melon and Brie Salad

(The quantities depend on your own personal taste)

Toast flaked almonds in a pan with a spray of olive oil, tip into a dish and leave to cool. Slice up and scatter bite-sized pieces of honey-dew melon and brie, and halved cherry tomatoes, over a bed of baby salad leaves on a platter. Just before serving drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the salad and grind some black pepper and rock salt over as well. Then top it all with a sprinkling of the cooled toasted almond flakes. Yummm!

Back to work

It's official. My lazy days of summer are over, and it's time to get back to the normal routine. That was the shortest January I can remember!

Yesterday was a huge day for both of us, beginning with 8am church. All the children's activities during the 10am service started up again, including the Creche which I look after, and the children seemed to enjoy themselves. I had washed all the toys on Friday, made a fresh batch of play dough, and bought a new table for the little ones to sit at.

In the evening we hosted a BBQ for the 5.30pm congregation (around 40 folk) in our garden and it looked so pretty when we'd set up that I had to take a photo of part of it. By the time they all arrived after church, with the citronella flares lit, it resembled the set of "Survivor" - except that there were no mozzies, we ate a delicious meal (roast pork), there was no grumbling and when the time came they all left voluntarily. Just in time for us to watch the last few exciting deliveries in the one-day cricket.