A Pacific Wedding Cake

This little cake is going on a flight today with friends who are attending their son’s wedding. A short flight thankfully to the Great Barrier Island which lies just off the East coast of Auckland (20 mins by plane maybe, I have only been by boat). It’s a beach wedding and the request was for something ‘untraditional’ to match the mood and venue.  Looking at the weather forecast for the next few days it will be Pacific sunny days too.

The cake has a chocolate fudge base and lemon yoghurt top, no recipe today sorry just a pic. As I started to place the flower motifs onto the cake I thought..OMG, it’s going to look awful, nothing like the picture they showed me but once all together I think it looks pretty good. It’s a gift from the parents of the groom and the wedding couple haven’t seen it yet, I hope they like it.

Christmas Mince Pie Pops

As we hurtle towards Christmas I feel like a spectator on the sideline watching everyone in a frenzy of shopping, pre Christmas gatherings, work functions etc. I would normally take part, I love Christmas with it’s trees and decorations, carols, yummy treats and families coming together. This year has been different, I don’t seem to be able to muster the enthusiasm but instead just find myself bobbing along with the flow of things. It’s been an exhausting year, endless travel with quite a stressful and busy job. Making far too many people redundant as the business down sizes only to have my own employment in the balance next year. Keeping positive, perhaps the universe is telling me it’s time for a fresh start, time to do something else? So instead of revving up I find myself slowing down, putting my feet up, taking time out for a lazy surf and chilling at the beach. The Christmas menu hasn’t even been thought of but it will happen…no worries as we say here. Hardly a Christmas treat has graced my ovens let alone my blog (except for the 47 Christmas cakes I have baked and sold but that’s part of a business). As we prepare to kiss 2012 behind and relish new beginnings in 2013 I leave you with a small treat, Christmas Mince Pie Pops.

I first saw pie pops over at Linda’s beautiful blog Call Me Cupcake, only then to find I am so behind and they are common knowledge in other countries. They even have pie pop makers, oh my goodness which rock have I been hiding under! So here is my version of pie pops, filled with a sweet Christmas fruit mince and chocolate. You can use your favourite Christmas pie filling or try mine. My shortcrust pastry has a little more butter in it than the regular half fat to flour. A tip from a French chef I worked with. It guarantees a short crust but if you have ‘hot’ hands’ I recommend you use a food processor for the crumb rather than the old fashioned way. It’ll keep the butter from melting.

So hows your year been and what are you hoping for next year?

Wishing you all a wonderful festive season where ever you are and however you celebrate and I will see you back in 2013!

This is also my submission to our monthly Sweet New Zealand challenge which is hosted this month by Lydia over at Lydia Bakes where you will find a lot more Kiwi sweet treats.

Ingredients – makes 12

300g sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe here)

200g sweet mince pie filling (recipe here)

12 pop sticks (bake proof not plastic)

Method

Pre heat oven to 180C

Roll pastry out to 1/2 cm thick

Using a cookie cutter approx 8cm diametre, cut out 24 pastry rings. Re-roll any bits and pieces to make more circles.

In half the circles cut out a star shape (or whatever mini cutter shape you have) for the lid of the pie.

Take the other half of the circles and place a teaspoon of mincemeat in the centre.

Wet the outer ring with a little water so the base and lid will stick together.

Lay the pop stick half way across the pie and fruit and press slightly into the pastry.

Place the lid on top of the pie and press the edges together, particularly around the pop stick so it will hold when baked.

Place on a 2 non stick trays and bale for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from tray when cooled. If any pie filling oozes out onto the tray loosen pie pop from tray before it cools so it doesn’t stick.

Malaysian Egg Curry & Return of The Gannets

Where have you gone my lovely sunshine? For one day you graced us with your presence and back into hiding you went, all you left behind was a glowing red line across the back of my neck, evidence that you truly had visited . Our beautiful Gannets were happy as the sun shone, they played on the blustery sea air, swooping and diving, showing off to their mates, they are home again for the season. When the wind blows onshore we can hear their calls from our deck, they know summer is on it’s way even if the sun doesn’t always play it’s part in the deal.

As the weather changed again the salads went to the back of the fridge and a quick spicy Malaysian curry made an appearance for lunch. The recipe is slightly adjusted from Alice Hart’s book, Vegetarian to suit the ingredients I had on hand, it’s one of my favourites because it is so quick to prepare and full of fragrant flavours.

Ingredients – 4 portions

Serve with Basmati or Jasmine rice

8 soft boiled eggs

1 Tbsp coconut oil

4 spring onions, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic

2 inch fresh ginger, grated

1 tsp cumin seeds, ground

1 tsp coriander seeds, ground

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 chili, chopped

400ml chopped tinned tomatoes

2 Tbsp tamarind paste

100ml coconut milk

1 Tbsp brown sugar

salt to season

large handful fresh coriander, chopped

Method

In a large frying pan heat the coconut oil over a medium heat.

Add the spring onions, ginger and garlic and saute for 2 minutes.

Add the ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili & tomatoes to the pan and saute for 5 more minutes.

Stir in the tamarind paste, coconut milk and brown sugar, season with salt to your taste.

Simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken and then add the boiled eggs.

Cook for a few more minutes to warm the eggs through.

Scatter with fresh coriander and serve with rice

The Asparagus Table – La Vignarola – Italian Spring Soup, Wholemeal Asparagus Tart and Egg Asparagus Soldiers

Some of the simplest things in life are best, how often have you heard that remark?  The long awaited asparagus season is here in New Zealand and keeping it simple with asparagus certainly highlights the veg at it’s best. My favourite way to eat asparagus is just lightly steamed served with eggs ‘anyway’ and lashings of butter,  try a fun quirky way of serving the spears with your soft boiled egg using them as ‘dunking soldiers’. As I was eating the asparagus and boiled eggs my mind had already wandered onto truffle oil drizzled into the shell…watch out shopping bill, truffle oil may well be in the next basket.

The Italian spring soup La Vignarola is perfect for show casing not only asparagus but also lovely spring vegetables of podded peas and broad beans. If you can’t find them freshly podded and don’t have them sprouting away in your garden, snap frozen are pretty convenient and taste great too. A simple tart of asparagus with sour cream and mustard is easy for anyone to whip up, I made a wholemeal pastry but you can always buy pre bought if you are short on time or don’t have ‘pastry fingers’.

La Vignarola – Spring Soup

Ingredients

4 spring onions, sliced

2 bunches asparagus

200g frozen peas, defrosted

200g broad beans, podded (you can use frozen)

200g jar marinated artichoke hearts

3 cloves garlic

2 cups vegetable stock

Large handful each of parsley & mint, finely chopped

Zest and juice 1 small lemon

100g shaved Pecorino to serve

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Method

Cut the woody ends off the asparagus spears and discard, then cut spears into three.

Place a little olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.

Add the spring onions and garlic and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the asparagus, podded broad beans and stock to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Add the peas, artichokes juice and zest of the lemon to the saucepan and season with salt & pepper.

You can add some of the artichoke marinade to the soup also if you wish, tasting as you do.

Add the parsley and mint.

Bring the soup to the boil then remove from the heat and serve immediately, you want the veg to be crisp and green.

Serve the soup with shaved pecorino and crust bread

Asparagus Tart – serves 6

Ingredients – pastry
110g butter

180g wholemeal flour
1 egg

2 Tbsp iced water

pinch of salt

Method – Pastry

Place flour, butter and salt in the bowl and whiz until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and water and knead together briefly to form a dough.

Rest the pastry in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Roll pastry out to fit tart tin and press into place, trim edges off pastry.

Ingredients – Tart Filling

1 bunch spring asparagus

250g sour cream

2 large free range eggs

2 heaped tsp whole grain mustard

salt & pepper to season

ground black pepper

Method – Tart Filling

Pre-heat oven at 180C & grease & flour a 20cm loose bottom tart tin.

Remove the woody ends from the asparagus and cut spear in half.

Whisk together the sour cream, eggs and mustard and season with a little salt & pepper.

Pour mixture into the pastry base.

Lay the asparagus half spears on top of the mixture in pastry case, alternating tip and base as in picture.

Grind some black pepper over the top of asparagus.

Bake in oven on a lower shelf (to crisp pastry base) for 35-40 minutes until tart is set and golden.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing tart from mould.
Serve warm of chilled

Microwave Lemon Curd, Lemon Victoria Sandwich Cake, Lemon Shortbread Biscuits

My friend and neighbour asked her children to pop down into the garden to pick some lemons off their tree, keep them entertained while dinner was being prepared. I suppose the trick with young children is you need to be specify exactly how many lemons you want them to pick otherwise it turns into a game and they merrily pick away all the lemons within reach which is what happened and why I was the receiver of an armful of beautiful, thick skinned, very large juicy lemons. We use a lot of lemons and limes in a week but this was even a little too many for us in our every day cuisine so I decided to make lemon curd. When you lead a busy life and are permanently rushed for time, standing over a pot stirring and waiting for curd it to thicken could be hit and miss, if like me you are attempting to multitask at the same time.  I decided to give the microwave method a go and hoped I wouldn’t end up with lemony eggs as I wasn’t sold on the idea apart from the time factor. I was amazed how easy it was, with no scrambled egg in sight, as a result I will never toil over a stove again to make curd. The key is to cook the mixture in short bursts in the microwave and whisk in between every burst of cooking time. I normally treat my curd like gold and if you get a jar you are honored indeed when it takes so long to make I tend to hide it at the back of my cupboard but this method was so quick I gave all the jars of curd away with the same speed it was made, knowing I can whip up a batch any time.

Once you have a batch of lemon curd, the dessert table beckons you to bake, easy shortbread turns into delightfully special treats and the traditional Victoria Sandwich Cake becomes a little more royal.

This is also my submission for our monthly blogging event Sweet New Zealand which is being hosted by Sue over at Couscous and Consciousness

Microwave Lemon Curd

Ingredients -4 x 200ml jars

4 lemons, juice & zest

4 eggs

100g sugar

100g butter

Method

Sterilise your jars & lids by boiling in water for 10 minutes.

Whisk together the lemon juice, zest, sugar and eggs in a plastic bowl, I use plastic because it doesn’t heat as much as glass or ceramic (less likely to get scrambled egg).

Add the butter to the bowl.

Place bowl in microwave on high for 1 minute , remove and whisk. The butter will only be partially melted.

Heat again for 1 minute in microwave, remove and whisk. If the butter has already melted and the liquid is getting warm start heating for 30 seconds bursts only and remove from microwave in between each 30 seocnds and whisk before heating again.

Once the lemon curd has thickened it is done. Pour into sterilized jars and seal with lid.

Lemon Curd Shortbread Biscuits – makes 12 minis

Ingredients
50g sugar

100g butter

150g plain flour

1/4 tsp vanilla paste or seeds of 1/2 bean

Method
Pre-heat oven to 200C

Place sugar, flour, butter into a food processor and whiz them until they resemble breadcrumbs.

Then pulse slowly until the mixture comes to a dough, do not over mix at this stage.

Remove biscuit dough from the food processor and place between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper.

Roll the shortbread out to 1/2 inch thick and use a biscuit cutter to cut out circles. With half of the biscuits cut out a smaller whole in the centre, I used a large piping nozzle. Re-roll the scraps of dough and cut out further biscuits until all the dough is used.

Place on a non stick baking tray with a little space between biscuits and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown, remove from the oven and allow to cool.

To serve, add a dollop of lemon curd to the base biscuit and top with a ‘wholy’ biscuit. Biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for a week without their curd filling. I recommend adding the curd before you serve them.

Lemon Victoria Sandwich Cake

Ingredients
250g SR Flour

250g butter

200g sugar

4 free range eggs

1/4 tsp vanilla paste or seeds of 1/2 bean

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C

Butter and line with greaseproof paper the base and sides of 2 x 20cm cake tins

Place the butter, vanilla bean seeds or paste and sugar in a large bowl and beat or whisk together until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time  beating well between each addition.

Fold in the flour with a large metal spoon, taking care not to knock out too much air.

Spoon the mixture into the tins and smooth the top.

Bake cakes in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes, do NOT be tempted to open the oven before this time is up as this sponge cake is sensitive and likely to sink if not fully cooked. Cake will be golden brown when cooked and spring back when touched.

Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin and transferring to a cooling rack.
Allow to cool completely before filling with lemon curd and whipped cream.

Filling & Assembly
Whip 300ml of whipping cream to soft peak

Spread 200ml of lemon curd over the base sponge and top with whipped cream

Place second sponge on top of cream and dust top with icing sugar

Vanilla Roasted Strawberries with Cinnamon Meringues & Thumbprint Shortbread Biscuits

You know it is strawberry season in our house, not by the abundance of strawberries in the fridge or fruit bowl but by the morning wake up call. As the season approaches the wake up call on hubby’s IPhone changes and sings out ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, by the Beatles. The strawberry fields are calling him back to work, spring is here and its time to sell these little ruby jewels into market. it’s also a little ironic that I am a Liverpudlian and he chooses a Beatles song. Do you have a favourite alarm call and does it change with your mood? When things have been a bit tough I have been known to have Lily Alan playing in the morning, her songs always make me laugh but also drive everyone bonkers all day singing them.

Continuing on with my roasted strawberry series from last week, here are two other recipes to use your roasted strawberries with. Serving them with cinnamon meringues and whipped cream is the perfect summer dessert or make a thumbprint biscuit a little more decadent, instead of using jam add a roasted strawberry to the biscuit after they are baked.

Cinnamon Meringues
Ingredients
3 Egg Whites
100g icing sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
Method
Pre-heat oven to 120C and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Place egg whites in a clean large bowl with a pinch of salt.
Whisk egg whites to soft peak.
Sift in icing sugar gradually while whisking.
Once the meringue is whisked to stiff, sprinkle the cinnamon over it in the bowl.
Taking a dessert spoon, scoop out a spoonful of meringue covered in some cinnamon and drop onto the lined baking tray.
Each scoop will have varying amounts of cinnamon but this adds to character.
Bake in the oven for 50 minutes. They should be crisp on the outside and soft/chewy in the centre.
Allow to cool and serve with cream & strawberries.
Store meringues in an airtight container.

Thumbprint Biscuits
Ingredients
2oz or 60g sugar
4oz or 120g butter
4oz or 120g plain flour
2 oz or 60g ground almonds
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla paste or seeds of 1/2 bean
Method
Pre-heat oven to 200C
Place sugar, flour, butter, ground almonds into a food processor and whiz them until they resemble breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and pulse slowly until the mixture comes to a dough, do not over mix at this stage.

Remove biscuit dough from the food processor and divide 12 equal portions.

Roll each portion into a ball and place onto a nonstick baking tray and pres the centre down with your thumb, almost all the way through.

At this stage you would add a blob of jam for thumbprint biscuits but I have baked mine naked so I can top them with strawberries.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown, remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Top each one with a roasted strawberry and some of the strawberry syrup from roasting.

Eat immediately otherwise the strawberries will make the biscuit soft. Store biscuits separate to strawberries if not eating them all at once!

Roasted Strawberries in Vanilla Syrup with Scones

Roasting fruit is the perfect cooking method that allows the fruit to retain it’s colour, shape and flavour. I always roast my rhubarb and making the strawberry tarte tatin last week I was wishing for more baked fruit but not necessarily in a pastry case. Jamie’s method of cooking fish ‘en papilotte – in a parcel’ came to mind and I decided this should give the strawberries the same texture and flavour as the tarts. I just use vanilla syrup to sweeten the strawberries slightly, if you don’t have syrup, use seeds from a vanilla bean or half a teaspoon vanilla paste and a tablespoon of sugar. It’s a great alternative to jam for your cream teas, less sugar and still the full aroma of the fresh strawberry.

Ingredients

1 chip/punnet strawberries (approx 12 small)

2 Tbsp vanilla syrup (I used Equagold)

Method

Pre heat oven to 180C

Wash & hull the strawberries and place in a bowl with the vanilla syrup, toss the strawberries through the syrup.

Take enough greaseproof paper to make a parcel to hold your strawberries.

Place the strawberries on one half of the greaseproof paper with the vanilla syrup. Fold the other half over the strawberries and then fold the three open sides over twice to make a parcel. Click Here for a YouTube demo, it’s done a little differently and I make my parcel round the fruit but it gives you the idea.

Place strawberry filled parcel onto a baking tray and roast for 12 minutes. Strawberries should just start to soften but hold their shape still. Don’t over roast or you will end up with a ‘mush’.

Allow to cool and serve with scones and cream

Ingredients – scones

200g Self Raising Flour

50g butter

1 Tbsp icing sugar

150ml milk

Method for Scones
Preheat oven to 200C degrees centigrade.

Place flour, butter and sugar into a bowl.

Using your fingers, rub mixture together until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Or use a food processor.

Form a well in the centre of bread crumb mix and add the milk, kneed gently to form a soft dough.

Transfer scone dough onto a floured board and press the dough out with hands (rather than using a rolling pin) until it is about 2cm thick.

Use a round cookie cutter to cut out the scones or slice the scones, it should make 8

Place on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. If you tap the bottom of one they should sound hollow when cooked.

Simple Strawberry Tarte Tatin with Vanilla Syrup

It may be a tad early for strawberries, most currently in the shops are still from overseas but rumour has it from the man in the know at Best Berries (my hubby) is that they are just about to pick their first crop. I have been doing a bit of photography for him to glam up their website site a bit, hubby even pilfered my camera to take shots of their new swanky strawberry chariot.

To kick start the season off, here is a very simple recipe with few ingredients, I have been experimenting with Equagold Tahitian Vanilla Syrup which was one of our generous Conference Sponsors this year. Thank you Equagold, I am enjoying using your product.

But before I dive into the recipe, congratulations to Kirsten and Lucy who won the double passes to Taste of Auckland! It going to be a splendid event and I hope to see you there. For those not as lucky as our two winners you can still grab some early bird tickets on line.

Ingredients – makes 6

1 large punnet/chip strawberries or 18-24 small/medium strawberries (enough to fit 3 to 4 in each muffin tin base)

2 Tbsp Equagold Vanilla Syrup

100g ready bought puff pastry or 1 sheet

Method

Preheat oven to 180C, fan bake

Wash & hull the strawberries and place in a bowl with the vanilla syrup

Toss the strawberries through the vanilla syrup.

Using large muffin tin (6 per tin normally) place 3 to 4 strawberries in the base of each tin

Roll out the puff pastry to 1/2 ich if not using a ready rolled sheet

Using a large cookie cutter, slightly larger than the top of your muffin tins so there is enough pastry to tuck down the sides, cut out 6 pastry circles and place each one on top of the strawberries

Tuck the pastry down the sides with a butter knife around the strawberries to make a little shell that will hold the strawberries once turned out.

Bake in the oven on the top shelf for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.

To turn the tarts out, use a rubber spatular and slide it under the pastry and strawberries and turn the whole tart over.

I tried turning the whole tin over but that didn’t work so it is best to remove them one by one.

Serve warm as they are or with whipped cream

Warm Roast Vegetable & Lentil Salad with Zahtar & Sundried Tomatoes

A few weeks ago I was busy creating, styling and photographing salad recipes for Vicki’s Spring Nourish Magazine, which has just gone to print. If you are fortunate to live in the Waikato or Bay of Plenty areas you will be familiar with their beautiful, almost organic feeling magazine with its quality mat paper that feels so right for promoting seasonal produce, farmers markets and vibrant food recipes. You can’t help but brush your hand across the pages when leafing through it, almost feels like the vegetables will spring out in your hand.

It was an interesting exercise preparing dishes for an edition a couple of months in advance when all the produce is not yet available, I really wanted to use asparagus…oh how I crave asparagus season which is still a few weeks away. instead I opted for beans, cauliflower and root vegetables which will carry us through from now until October. As well as this salad I made a Mexican Style Coleslaw which will be perfect for those burger and BBQ days, a Vibrant Three Bean salad and Cauliflower, Anchovy & Caper Salad for the magazine.

Ingredients
200g baby beetroot, peeled and halved
200g baby carrots, scrubbed and stalk removed
400g tinned lentils
4 sun dried tomatoes
Handful fresh parsley
Handful fresh coriander
1 tsp zaatar spice
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper

Method
Pre heat oven to 180C
Drain the tinned lentils, then place in a large bowl.
Place the beetroot and carrots on a roasting tray and coat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. keep the beetroot and carrot separate if you don’t want the beetroot to turn the carrots pink.
Roast for 20 minutes, they’ll still be a little crunchy, then add to the bowl of lentils.
Blend together the sundried tomatoes, parsley, coriander, zahtar, balsamic and olive oil to a thick dressing.
Add the dressing to the bowl with the lentils & roasted vegetables and mix through.
Season with salt & pepper to taste and serve warm or chill in the fridge to serve later cold.

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Sticky Crunchy Apple Flapjack Tart

While pondering on this recipe and what I was actually creating, the old Superman saying came to mind, ‘is it a bird…is it a plane…no its…’ Well it’s a Heinz 57 cross breed with a flapjack which is a British oat slice and and a desire to have an apple tart with a difference. If you aren’t familiar with the flapjack it a moreishly sweet, chewy centre and crispy outer oat slice. If it wasn’t for the ton of golden syrup or brown sugar that goes into it it would be rather good for you. I have sandwiched apples in between my slice, pressing the bottom layer into a base and crumbling the the second layer over the top. It has proved to be quite versatile this week as a dessert hot with ice cream or yoghurt and the left overs made a great lunchbox slice and even a substitute breakfast crumbled in a bowl with yoghurt. Of course you could substitute pears or stonefly it when it is in season.

Ingredients
150g rolled oats (finer flakes)
150g whole oats
50g wholemeal flour
150g butter
100g soft brown sugar
3 large granny smith apples
2 tsp cinnamon

Method
Pre heat oven to 180C and grease a 22cm tart tin with a loose removable bottom.
Core the apples, and chop into approx 1 inch pieces. If you read my blog regularly you will know I don’t peel apples and pears but you can if you prefer.
Put the sugar and butter in a pan over a low heat. Once melted add all the oats, flour and cinnamon and stir to combine.
Press two thirds of the mixture into the prepared tin with a metal spoon, if the mixture sticks to the spoon, rinse and use the wet spoon to continue pressing.
Bake for 15 minutes and remove from the oven.
Cover the part baked base with the chopped apples.
Cover the apples with the rest of the mixture by crumbling it over the top.
Bake for another 30 minutes.
Serve warm with ice cream or yoghurt. Stays fresh for a week.