When I saw this recipe on ‘Food In A Minute’ (watch it here) it instantly grabbed my attention. Being so hot here in the antipodes at the moment, tropical fruity flavours are very appealing. And no frosting either – again, with all my experimenting in the kitchen we are a bit over frosting too.

My USB cable for my camera is AWOL so I cant pos’t a photo, but mine actually looks just like the one on FIAM website. TRUELY!!!

So here we go. You will need…

125g softened butter
½ cup caster sugar
¼ cup lime marmalade
2 eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups self raising flour
½ cup pineapple juice
2-3 tbsp poppy seeds

Syrup
½ cup pineapple juice
½ cup caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 20 cm round tin.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and marmalade.

Fold in sifted flour alternately with pineapple juice. Lastly stir through poppy seeds.

Spread mixture in cake tin and bake for 40 – 50 minutes.

For the syrup place pineapple juice and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, simmering for two minutes.

The original recipe said to pour hot syrup over the cake straight out of the oven while it is still in the tin then remove from tin when cool. However I didn’t read the recipe and took cake out of tin straight from the oven, put it on a plate and stabbed it all over with a toothpick before pouring the syrup over the top. And it was still good!

Mainly I did that so I could have a slice while it was still warm.

I have no patience.

Happy Baking

1. I dont have any white sugar in the house.
2. I have a tub of sour cream that needs to be used pronto.
3. I haven’t made carrot cake for at least a week month year.

This carrot cake is a lighter one. I don’t mean light in calories though… light in texture.

I used to have a very good recipe for a microwave carrot cake that had a whole tin of crushed pineapple in it. Unfortunately, when I sold my microwave before leaving Australia I gave them the instruction book with it… which had the recipe inside! I have recently been given a couple of similar recipes but I have to test them first.

Probably multiple times.

Then I will phone Jenny. (Have you phoned Jenny yet?)

Here we go…

Preheat your oven to 160 C. Grease a 22 cm round tin and line with non-stick baking paper

2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 cups grated carrot
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil

Sift flour and spices into a bowl. Stir in the brown sugar and break up any clumps. Add grated carrot.

In another bowl mix eggs, sour cream and oil until combined.

Add wet ingredients to the flour and carrot mixture and mix until well combined.

Spoon into prepared tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Cover with your favorite cream cheese frosting and devour!

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Place all ingredients in a mixer and beat until smooth. If you like a bit more tang, add a small amount of finely grated lemon rind.

Beat cream cheese, butter, orange rind and juice until light and fluffy – Much easier with electric mixer

Beat in icing sugar until smooth.

Melt chocolate and cream in small saucepan stirring constantly over low heat. Cool slightly. Add cream cheese and icing sugar. Beat well until smooth.

2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup sugar

75 g butter
1 cup milk
1 egg
grated rind of 1 large or 2 small lemons

1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar

Mix flour and sugar in bowl.

Melt butter, add the milk, egg and lemon rind. Beat well with a fork to combine.

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until ingredients are only just dampened. Do not overmix.

Divide the mixture between 12 greased muffin cups. Bake at 200 C for 10 minutes.

Stir together the lemon juice and sugar and drizzle over the muffin as soon as they are removed from the oven. I like to prick the top of the muffins with a toothpick so the flavour soaks in more. Leave to stand in the pans for only a few minutes as the syrup will harden and stick the muffins to the pans.

Preheat oven to 180 C

Grease square cake tin and line with non-stick baking paper

Beat butter, essence and sugar until light and fluffy. beat in eggs one at a time.

Stir in coconut, sifted flour, sour cream and milk in two batches.

Spread mixture in tin. Bake for approximately 40 minutes.

** I have also been told this mixture makes lovely cupcakes. Haven’t tried it yet though.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Grease a 4cm deep, 22 cm x 28 cm base pan. Line bottom and two sides with non-stick baking paper.

Combine butter and chocolate in large heatproof microwave safe bowl. Microwave uncovered on Medium High for 3-4 minutes, stirring every minute, or until almost melted. Add cocoa and whisk until smooth.

Add sugar and mix well. Add one third of egg and stir to combine. Repeat with remaining egg. Sift the flour over chocolate mixture . Stir gently until just combined.

Pour mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle Mars Bar over batter and press in slightly. Bake for 60-65 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre has moist crumbs clinging.

Cool completely in pan (this is the hardest part of the entire recipe! It requires great self control not to devour it immediately) then cut into squares. Very nice on its own, or served slightly warm with whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C

Place potato in large pot of cold salted water. Bring to the boil and cook for three minutes. Drain well.

Melt butter in large frypan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, thyme and speck or pancetta, and stir for 5 minutes.  Stir in wine, cream, potato and most of the cheese.

Transfer mixture to large baking dish and sprinkle remaining cheese over top. Cover with baking paper and then foil. Bake 20 minutes then remove baking paper and foil. Bake for a further 20 minutes until bubbling and golden.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Brush a 17 x 27cm tin with melted butter to grease and line base and two sides with non-stick baking paper.

Combine flours, oats, coconut, sugar, sultanas and choc its in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the melted butter and egg. Stir to combine then spoon into prepared pan. Use back of metal spoon to smooth the surface.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting into squares.

This slice will keep for up to 4 days in an airtight container out of direct sunlight. Experiment and try different ingredients. eg using dried apricots in place of sultanas is delicious.