I made these cupcakes for my first grandchild’s baby shower. There is no gender reveal until the big arrival so I made pink and blue. I used the butter cake recipe that is used for the Jammy Plummy Cakes and a butter icing.
Category Archives: Sweet Treats
Jammy Plummy Cakes
I first made these about a week ago and due to popular demand have made them 3 times since. I like them hot with cream but they get eaten hot or cold and really quickly disappear. Because we are a gluten free household I use gluten free flour but this can be replaced with ordinary flour. This recipe will make six big cakes. For smaller cakes you will need more plums.
Ingredients
3 plums – not too ripe or they will just go mushy. I like the tartness of using quite unripe plums that are really firm
Jam – I use any jam we happen to have in the house
125 grams butter
3/4 cup of caster sugar
2 eggs beaten lightly
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
2 cups of self raising flour
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of yogurt
Making the jammy cakes
Butter the insides of a cupcake or muffin tin and then line the cake moulds with baking paper as well – now here I cut the baking paper from the corners to near the middle so the sides will fold into the moulds without creasing.
Place a dessertspoon of jam in the bottom of each mould.
Halve the plums and put each half into the bottom of the mould, pressing down so the jam spreads around the plum.
Now make the batter. Cream together the sugar and butter until fluffy. Add the beaten eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Add 1 cup of flour and stir in, add the milk and stir in, add the next cup of flour and stir in then add the yogurt and stir into the batter. Finally stir in the vanilla essence.
Place enough batter into the cake tin to cover the plum, you may need to spread it around. Next place a dessertspoon of jam over the batter and spread it around. Add another layer of the batter and spread it around to finish off.
Bake in a moderate oven for 25 minutes.
Remove the cakes but leave them in the moulds for 5 minutes.
Remove the cakes by turning them upside down on a wire cooling rack or on a tray and remove the baking paper. Serve the cakes upside down.
Matcha Impossible Pie
Impossible Pie is an oldie but a goodie. It’s called Impossible Pie because it’s impossible to stuff up. If you cook it too long it becomes a cake and too short and its baked custard. I’ve bought it into the modern era by adding Matcha.
There’s only one step to this pie. Usually I whizz everything up in a blender but you can mix it all by hand.
Ingredients
2 Cups of Milk or Coconut Milk
1 Cup of desiccated Coconut
4 Eggs
1/2 Cup of Self Raising Flour
125 grams (4 Oz) of butter
3/4 Cup of Castor Sugar
3 Teaspoons of Matcha Powder (Green Tea Powder)or 4 for a stronger flavour
To Make it
Whizz all these ingredients in a blender or mix well by hand. Pour into a greased and floured baking dish. Bake at 175c for 60 minutes. Turn the oven down if the top is getting too brown.
When cool place in the fridge to set and serve cold with cream.
Options:
Use vanilla for normal impossible pie, add extra matcha for stronger flavour, sometimes I use coconut milk instead of cows milk – this gives an extra coconut flavour but also makes it a bit heavier. Some times I use half milk and half cream for extra creaminess, decadence and extra calories.
Carrot, Maple & Macadamia Cake
It was a scorching 35 degrees celsius in Townsville and so what did I decide to do to stay cool – I decided to bake. Really I was trying to avoid looking at my manuscript which is due back at the publishers in just a few weeks because I am filled with trepidation – no I lie – I am filled with utter panic that I’m not up to the task. So instead of writing why not bake. My Peter has declared this his all time favourite cake. It was influenced by Pete Evans – all kudos and bowing to Pete Evans but I’ve made a few changes to his wonderful recipe (sorry Pete) to suit our tastes. But if you want his version of this cake which included dried fruit that My Pete can’t eat and less nuts and more eggs you can find it in his book Healthy Every Day. This is a dense nourishing cake so don’t expect light and fluffy. I like it served hot with cream, Pete liked it cold with ice-cream. Its super easy to make. I posted my original how-to-stay-cool-while-Australia-burns-carrot-maple-and-walnut-cakes to Facebook and some of my friends asked for the recipe but as I never measure I had to bake another cake – seen above so here is the recipe.
Ingredients
4 cups of grated carrot
100 grams of chopped macadamias
100 grams of chopped walnuts
125 mls (1/2 cup) of maple syrup
125 mls (1/2 cup) of coconut oil
2 teaspoons of Vanilla essence
2 teaspoons of Cinnamon ( Being a cinnamon lover I usually spill a little more cinnamon in)
2 teaspoons of ginger
125 grams Self Raising Flour Gluten Free or use 125 grams of any other flour and add 1 teaspoon of baking powder
6 large eggs or 8 smaller eggs
Mix all this together and bake at 175 degrees, 20 minutes for smaller serve cakes (which is what I baked) and 60 minutes for a large cake or until a skewer comes out clean
Raspberry and Banana Muffins
I am a bit of a fussy muffin eater – they have to be moist and full of fruit and flavour. I have tried so many ways to make them but family feels I have hit the jackpot with these ones.
These are our favourite muffins – super yummy – super moist and they never last longer than the day they are cooked.
We love them for breakfast but they are also great for afternoon tea. I hope you love them as much as we do.
Ingredients
1 and a half cups of S.R. Flour
1/3 cup of oat bran (if you can’t get oat bran ground oats will do)
3 eggs
3/4 cup of dark brown sugar
200ml container of any yogurt (3/4 cup). I use a nice Jalna berry one
1/3 cup of cocoanut oil
1 cup of fresh or frozen berries
1 large banana, split down the middle and cut into thick slices
Cinnamon Sugar
For Cinnamon sugar mix 1/4 cup of cinnamon with 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar – you will use this to sprinkle on your hot muffins
Making them
gently combine all ingredients
ladle the mix into muffin tins lined with baking paper. I make six large muffins but you could do 12 small ones
Bake the 6 large for about 20 minutes at 180 C or 350 F. If you make 12 small ones probably about 12 minutes will do it. You can tell they are ready when they are springy on top.
Remove from oven when cooked and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
Heavenly Hash with a Dash of Sin
My Aunt used to make this dessert every Christmas and I loved it. She was a strict Baptist so she never added the sin bit that I’ve put in – but my attraction to sin always did make me the black sheep of the family.
Its super quick to whip up.
Combine
500 grams of chopped strawberries ( don’t make the pieces too small) halves is usually okay unless they are those enormous G.M strawberries that the supermarket shelves are now full of.
1 sliced banana
1/4 cup of liqueur , – there’s the dash of sin. I used limoncello but cointreau would work, as would grand marnier, brandy, champagne etc. If you don’t want the alcohol you can omit it.
Leave this to marinade for about 1 hour in the fridge
Add
2 cups of chopped marshmallows
1 cup of grated eating chocolate, I used Lindt Dark Strawberry Intense, but Toblerone would be great or Lindt Dark Chilli Chocolate.
300 mlx of thickened cream whipped
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh mint
Gently combine this with the fruit.
Serve in a glass and sprinkle fresh mint on top – voila – a kinda healthy dessert – well it has got fruit in it so that means no calories right?
Bliss Balls
Perfect for school lunches
Remember school – for me it was just like the movie “Mean Girls” where the bullies always seem to get everything they want and the good girls (that was me – super goody goody) get trampled on. All my kids are the good kids and I always tell them that it turns around when you’re adults but I don’t know that’s really true or we wouldn’t need all those workplace bullying laws.
Anyway school can be tough. And what do us mothers do when we can’t solve our kids problems for them – we feed them up instead so that at least they will stay strong. So I made these for my daughters lunch box, a nice cheer up treat that is also super healthy for any work or school lunchbox – AND – They are super easy to make, I think all up it took me 10 minutes to throw these together.
These Bliss Balls are fruit free because like many people my kids really hate dried fruits.
Ingredients
1 cup of ground almond meal or other ground nuts (almond is technically not a nut but a kernel)
2 tablespoons of coconut flour
1 teaspoon of treacle or golden syrup or honey (make sure its a very generous teaspoonful)
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
3 tablespoons of coconut flakes or shreds
3 tablespoons of chia seeds
125 ml of tahini or peanut butter (tahini is a good option because peanut butter is not allowed at some schools due to allergies)
3 tablespoons of coconut oil
1 generous tablespoon of cocoa powder
toasted shredded coconut to roll. (to toast the coconut I pop it into a fry pan and gently heat stirring occasionally till it starts to brown. You have to watch it though because once it browns it will do it quickly and will continue to brown after you remove it from the heat)
Making the Bliss Balls
Throw everything together in a food processor and blitz till it holds together.
With wet hands roll mixture into balls and roll to cover in the toasted coconut and refrigerate.
And your done 🙂
Lemon Fruit Tart with Coconut Shell
Lemon Fruit Tart with Coconut Shell
So I had a really crap week, really bad, I felt really screwed over by someone I cared about and I may have spent several days lying around with tissues and ice-cream or not :).
Then my friend Louie set me a challenge, could I make a gluten free fruit tart?
There is nothing better when you feel like crap than to cook something that is celebratory and forces you smile just by looking at it and fruit tarts are such bursts of colour.
So I took up Louie’s challenge.
The first two efforts went in the bin, despite using flour assured by the manufacturer, was perfect for gluten free pastry. The outcomes were like most gluten free pastry, rubbery enough to re-tread a tyre.
So I then I had a light bulb moment and here is what I came up with for Louie.
And if you live in Cairns and want to try the real thing – the actual tart I made, you can do so at the gorgeous Louie’s gorgeous café – Tosca’s at Earlville. (P.S thanks Louie for cheering me up)
https://www.facebook.com/toscasespresso
I made this with a lovely zingy lemon filling but I will also give you the recipe for a chocolate
filling.
Ingredients
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups of shredded coconut
butter for greasing
fresh fruit
mint leaves
2 tablespoons of marmalade jam
for lemon filling
250 mls of cream
250 gr of cream cheese
100 gr of lemon curd/butter
for chocolate filling
250 mls of cream
1 cup of chopped chocolate good quality
To Make the Tart Shell
You will need to really grease with butter or margarine a pie/tart tin.
The best to use is one with a removable side.
Now you can’t grease this enough. Its really important every part of the tin is well greased.
Separate 3 eggs. Put the yolks aside (don’t tip them out you will need them) and mix the egg whites with one and a half cups of shredded coconut.
Gently spread this over the bottom and sides of the tin. It will be quite a thin layer. But egg white is an excellent binder. Artists used to use it as a medium to paint with by mixing egg whites and pigments.
Put it in a slow over around 160C until it browns. Leave to cool.
To Make the Filling
Lemon Filling
In a saucepan mix together 250g of cream cheese, 4 generous tablespoons of lemon curd/butter and 250 mls of cream. Stir this together over a low heat until there are no lumps and it is runny or alternatively mix it all up in a blender. Continuing over a low heat mix in the 3 egg yolks. Continue stirring over a low heat until you see the first sign of reaching a boil. Its important to keep stirring, you dont want the egg to cook, you dont want the filling to catch on the bottom of the saucepan and burn or create lumps.
Remove and leave to cool a little.
Putting it altogether
Pour the filling into the pie shell and pop it in the fridge to really cool.
Once cool decorate with fresh fruits and glaze.
To Glaze
Bring to the boil 2 tablespoons of marmalade jam/jelly.
With a pastry brush gently brush the hot jam over the fruit.
Decorate with fresh mint leaves.
Chocolate Filling
Melt together I cup of chopped dark chocolate (good quality) and 250 mls of cream Add the egg yolks Stir continuously until the first sign of boiling as above.
Salted Caramel Scones – an ultimate comfort treat
My daughters class gobbled these up
I made these for my daughter’s class when she had to take morning tea to share. She said the kids loved them and ate them before the junk food. I make them for the ultimate in comfort food on a cold afternoon in front of a movie, or afternoon tea with friends.
The recipe is actually based on an old school text book from the 60’s and 70’s called ‘Cookery the Australian Way’. I wanted to do Wood-work but only the boys were allowed so I had to learn to make exciting dishes like fried liver, junket and arrowroot custard – then one day we got to make butterscotch scones and they were delicious.
I have changed the recipe quite a bit to accommodate gluten free flours but these goodies owe their heritage to a falling apart school text book.
Ingredients
125g butter (not margarine)
125g dark brown sugar
salt
3 cups of Self Raising Gluten Free flour
300g Sour Cream
2 Eggs
Making the Salted Caramel
1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy – add salt to taste and set aside
Making the Scone Dough
1.Combine the eggs and sour cream and add to the 3 cups of flour. Mix well and then with floured hand knead into a ball of dough.
2. Place the dough on a floured sheet of baking paper. Sprinkle some flour on top and place another sheet of baking paper over the top.
3. Roll the dough out between the two sheets of paper into a rectangle approximately 40cms long, 25 cms wide and .5cm thick (5mm).
4. Spread the caramel evenly over the dough
5. Roll from the long side into a 40cm long roll (like a long sausage)
6. With a sharp floured knife slice into 2cm thick slices and lay flat on a baking tray
7. Bake in a hot oven of 200o Celsius for about 10 mins
8. Wait till they have cooled a bit before removing from tray but they are hard to resist and usually get eaten as soon as they are cool enough for fingers to grab
3 cups
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