priorities

recently, i was asked about which cookbook was my favourite. my all out favourite is probably not the sensible person's choice, but i have a soft spot for the AWW quick mix cakes cookbook. baking a cake was one of those things i had always wanted to do well. whether it had anything to do with my mother not being able to bake, i don't know, but it was important to me. i wanted to be able to bake something for my children. you'd think that knowing how to cook a proper meal would be way ahead on the list, but no, cakes were by far, more important. i know i have my priorities right - i'm right there with marie antoinette when she said "let them eat cake"...now, there's a woman who had her priorities straight! imagine the ball the two of us would have had on baking day!

another reason why i like my thermomix...

not only is it fast, but flour doesn't fly all over the place when i use the thermomix when i make cake. this is actually a big plus for me when i make cake.

ack dack's first cake

today is acka dack's birthday, and it's hard to believe time has flown so quickly.

pineapple carrot cake

this is a recipe from the australian women's weekly.....august 15, 1979......
this first time i made this was a couple of years after that (it is rare for me to make something really soon after i see the recipe; it does happen, but it is rare). at the time, i wasn't a very experienced cake maker and just wanted something i could make that was at the very least half decent. and this helped me on my way. it was easy and moist. moist was important to me; i had spent a large part of my formative cake making years making cakes based on recipes from margaret fulton, and the butter cake recipe she had in her cookbook wasn't very encouraging because it was very dry. then, i came upon this recipe, and here was a cake that was moist and would stay moist for a couple of days. i was on my way.
i also love this cake because it's so quick and easy to mix - all you need is a bowl and a wooden spoon; there's no need for a mixer, so washing up is easy, too.
to test to see if a cake is done, you can either insert a skewer into the middle of the cake and if the cake is done, the skewer will come out clean, that is, without any batter or cake stuck to it; the other way to test a cake for doneness is to lightly press the centre of the cake and if it springs back, it's done; it will stay depressed if the cake is not yet done.

3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup finely grated carrot, lightly packed (about 1 large carrot)
450 can crushed pineapple
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line two 25cm x 8cm bar tins with baking paper.
combine the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl.
add the carrot, pineapple oil and lighty beaten eggs and mix well.
pour the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for 45 minute or until done when tested with a skewer.

three star butter cake

remember the pound cake recipe from 1977? i had misplaced it for a while and was in a wilderness trying to find it. i remembered it was from the SCC, however my attempts to find the recipe were in vain. i scoured second hand book shops for any cookbooks i could find put out by the SCC, but none of the books i found had that pound cake recipe, and it is because of this that i tried this recipe. in 1991.
this was in one of the pamplets the electricity company (by this stage, the sydney county council had gone name changes which i was losing track of) sent out with their bills - kind aren't they? here's your bill, and by the way, here are more ideas on how you can use more elecrticity. now that i think of it, i made the SCC pound cake in a gas oven. ironic, huh?

2¼ cups self raising flour
½ cup custard powder
2 cups caster sugar
1 cup milk
4 eggs
250g butter
2 tspns vanilla

line a 23cm square deep cake tin with baking paper.
combine all ingredients in a large mixer bowl, beat on medium speed 8 minutes.
pour mixture into prepared pan.
bake in a moderately slow oven 160°C for 1-1¼ hours or till cooked when tested.
stand cake 5 minutes in pan before turning out.


variations

coconut cake

heat the 1 cup milk (from the ingredients above), pour onto 1/4 cup coconut, stir well.

stand aside till cold.

follow method as above.

chocolate cake
sift 1/3 cup cocoa with the flour, custard powder and 1/8 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.
follow method as above.


orange/lemon cake
beat 1½ tablespoons grated orange or lemon rind with other ingredients, complete mixing.
follow method as above.

sponge cake

the first time i remembered having a freshly made sponge cake was back in september 1971 and i think it was a sunday. if it wasn't, then it was a saturday, but in my mind it was a sunday. my parents and i were at echo point park and we bumped into one of dad's architect friends, tony, and his wife, megan.
from echo point park, you could see this piece of land we had in castle cove. all we ever did when we first bought the land was just look at it. then the years passed and the novelty of looking at it wained. but i digress....
one thing led to another and we ended up at tony and megan's place and we had afternoon tea there. megan (who is jeff wiggle's sister....i know, small world...i also know jeff wiggle's mother) whipped up a sponge cake and dressed it with strawberries and cream.....can't remember if there was jam, but there definitely were strawberries.
i remember being so impressed that someone could just whip up a cake just like that while guests were there. i knew then and there i wanted to be as clever as that when i grew up. i thought i wanted to be able to just whip anything up at short notice. more recently, i did bump into megan, and she's still the very beautiful, tall, stylish and slender lady she was then. amazing how she hasn't changed. i did tell her about how inspirational she was; she didn't remember the occasion, but i'm glad i did.
this isn't megan's recipe, it's actually a recipe for a sponge roll which i use, and it's very quick and easy. the thiness of the cake really speeds things up so it's quick to bake, quick to cool and fill and ultimately quick to get onto the table.

3 eggs separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup wheaten cornflour
2 tablespoons hot milk
1/2 cup jam
300 millitres thickened cream
fresh berries


preheat oven to 180°C. line a 20 x 30cm swiss roll pan with baking paper.
using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar until pale and thick.
sift self raising flour and cornflour over egg mixture.
drizzle boiling water around edge of bowl.
use a large metal spoon to gently fold ingredients together (don't over-mix).
pour mixture into prepared pan.
bake for 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
sprinkle an extra 1/4 cup of sugar onto a sheet of baking paper.
turn sponge straight from oven onto baking paper.
gently roll up sponge in paper. wrap in a tea towel.
set aside to cool.
whip the cream.
unroll sponge and remove paper.
spread jam, cream and berries on sponge.
reroll and slice to serve.

alternatively, slice the sponge in half lengthways and fill with berries, cream and jam and sprinkle with icing sugar. this is my favourite way of serving this cake - since you don't have to roll it, there can be lots of filling with not too thick layers of cake. yum.

pound cake revisited

pound cake again? yes, pound cake again. this time it's a blast from the past. back to 1977, in fact.
in 1977, i was still in high school and every school holiday, i would always make an effort to get myself down to the city and make my way down to the sydney county council building on george street and collect recipe sheets. i actually remember that on this particular occasion, i was with julia and anna and one stephen o'leary and we were on our way to see star wars. my friends were good, weren't they? allowing me to detour and get my recipes sheets. well, they were eventually rewarded by a piece of cake, so there was really not too much to complain about. they did have to wait until the following year, i think, before i actually made it for them to try, because i remember taking it to musical rehearsal - we were doing bye bye birdie and i remember bringing it along and offering it around. i still remember my costume, and i have a scary feeling that it may still be somewhere hanging in someone's wardrobe.....it was a very bright yellow, so it shouldn't be too hard to find if i wanted to find it. but i digress....
barbara lynch and doreen andrews presented switched on living monday to friday at 10am on channel ten, and these recipes would be the ones they demonstrated. i loved them. and i loved this cake. it was a cake that worked and tasted good.
this is from the issue week commencing 5th december 1977, "gifts from the kitchen" part I. i hope there are still many of these treasures tucked away in someone's files or drawers or massive piles of things - i find this so comforting and relaxing....can a recipe be relaxing? well, it gives me a warm sort of fuzziness...or something.... i hope i continue to discover other pound cake recipes.

2 2/3 cups flour
1/4 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 level teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 level teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 1/4 sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
8x50 grams eggs
1-2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

sift first 4 ingredients.
cream butter and sugar very well, add vanilla essence.
add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
add flour mixture all at once and mix at low speed till smooth and well blended, add rind.
place into a well greased, lined and floured 23 cm (9") tube pan.
bake in moderate oven 180 degress celcius for 1 hour and 40 minutes or till cooked. cool in tin for 5 minutes before turning out.

honey picnic cake

this post comes courtesy of my friend liz. in an odd way. odd because i suddenly thought to call her out of the blue for no reason, or so i thought.

liz was trying to make this cake, from memory, beacuse she couldn't find her cookbook. the recipe was in one of those little murdoch cookbooks....sour cream...honey...

did you google it? i asked.

yes. couldn't find it.

and so we continued chatting while i went to my disarray of recipes and pulled out family circle's step by step quick and easy cakes. this is a different publication from lizzie's, but still published within the murdoch stable. went straight to the index and found it.

now, i could understand it if liz rang me to ask if i had the recipe, but how do you explain my calling her to give her a recipe she needed?

anyway, liz says this loaf cuts well and has made it several times, so there is your recommendation.

honey picnic cake

300 grams sour cream
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups wholemeal plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons honey, warmed
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

preheat the oven to slow 150 degrees celcius. grease a 22 x 12 cm loaf tin and line the base and the two long sides with baking paper. blend the sour cream, sugar and egg in a food processor until combined.

add the flour and baking powder and process until well blended. add the honey and process until mixed. add the nuts and process just long enough for them to mix through.

spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake. leave in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

pound cake by whisks

does this title sound boring? i guess it does, but a good pound cake has been one of those elusive things in my life. it's a simple cake, but it isn't....a good one that is. then, there's always this thing called "personal preference" - for me, i want a pound cake to be fragrant, comforting and have a mouth feel that's...that's...velvety, smooth....i don't know, it's hard to explain exactly....i must lack the eloquence, especially in between mouthfuls.
i've tried making this cake in lots of different ways - i've tried it where i don't beat until the sugar's dissolved, i've tried it where i beat it until the sugar's dissolved....i've even tried baking it with half plain flour and half self raising flour (no, i didn't run short of either - i just wanted to experiment) and permutations of these and other methods. all methods were delicious, but perhaps the one where i used half self raising flour and half plain flour and dissolved the sugar was my favourite. that said, this is a favourite cake in all its permutations.....maybe because it's so deliciously buttery and fragrant....something old fashioned and comforting....bliss.... go ahead and try making it - it's almost foolproof, and wonderful to eat.


125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
2 tablespoon powdered milk
1 tablespoon corn syrup
juice of half a small lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg


cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
add eggs one at a time and mix well.
add in flour, powdered milk, and corn syrup.
beat each in well.
add the lemon juice, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, and mace.
make sure everything is well combined, and pour into a greased loaf pan.
bake 180 degrees celcius for 45 minutes, checking for doneness by inserting a toothpick and seeing if it comes out clean. try not to over bake this - it's much nicer when its just done.

chocolate cake in a mug

apparently this recipe has been doing the rounds on the email circuit (although no one has sent it to me yet....), but i thought it might be nice to add it here just for the fun of it. it works quite well, and since you know what goes into it, it's got to be better than those packet mixes for cake in a mug. i don't see how this could be any more difficult than a packet mix, and since there aren't any odd ingredients, the average pantry should have what one might need to achieve this instant gratification. well almost instant....3 minutes isn't that long to wait.

remember to use a large mug and only mix the ingredients until just combined as over mixing microwave cakes can make them rubbery. it's better to undercook, than overcook microwave cakes. if you aren't sure about what your microwave is like, err on the side of caution and cook the cake for 2 minutes, then check to see how it is. allowing the cake to rest after cooking is also important because microwave cakes continue to cook even after the power has stopped. oh, and it mightn't be a bad idea to put the mug on a plate in case the cake overflows.

just for the record, a tablespoon is 20mls, if that helps

4 tablespoons self-raising flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
1 mug

place flour into mug, add sugar and cocoa; mix.
crack in 1 egg; mix.
pour in milk and oil; mix until just combined.
put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum/high power.
wait until it stops rising and sets in the mug.
tip contents out of mug onto saucer and enjoy!

cinnamon streusel cake by whisks

this smells so good whilst baking in the oven and tastes so good when it comes out, warm or at room temperature. what more could a person want?
i made this in little loaf tins and miss k took slices of this to school and shared it with her friends and all they could think about was cinnamon loaf....don't you love it?

cake ingredients:

125 grams butter
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup white sugar
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch salt

cinnamon mix:

3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 dash allspice

streusel mix:

60 grams butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup plain flour

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

put all the cake ingredients in a medium sized bowl and beat all cake ingredients together with a electric mixer (i like to use a hand held mixer) and spread half of the mixture in a deep 28 centimetre round pan lined with baking paper. i like using a springform tin to bake this cake because it makes the cake easier to remove from the tin. just make sure your springform tin holds the base of the tin securely - you don't want the bottom of the cake tin to fall out when you're transfering the tin to and from the oven. something like that would make me want to cry. i know this happened to my friend janet and she said that's how she felt.

mix together the cinnamon mixture in a small bowl and sprinkle over first layer.

dollop on remaining cake batter as evenly as you can (it doesn't have to be perfect) and use a knife to swirl the cinnamon through the batter. as fun as this is, try not to overdo it - just a quick zig zag through the batter is all that's needed - it's nice having the distinct cinnamony lines going throught the cake when it's finished baking.

roughly mix the struesel mixture together (it's fine if it's lumpy) and sprinkle it over the cake mixture.

bake the cake at for 45-50 minutes or until done. to check for doneness, insert a toothpick in the centre of the cake and when you take it out, if there's a wet batter on it, leave the cake in the oven for another 15 minutes, then check again. if there's a moist batter on it, leave it in the oven another 5 minutes, then check again. if the toothpick comes out without any batter stuck to it, the cake's ready.

if the cake's ready, take it out of the oven and put it on a cake rack to cool a little. if you try to take it out of the tin when it comes straight out of the oven, it might just fall apart because it hasn't had a chance to stabilise. this cake is quite moist, that's why it needs a bit of time. just be patient and leave the cake to settle down for a little bit - give it at least 15 minutes - it will still be warm even after 30 minutes or longer. i know...and it smells so good. if you don't mind what your cake looks like, then go for it.