Honey Loaf

Recipe from NMAA Cooks
Images by Yasmin

This is a sweet treat and a quick fix (cooking time takes a while though). It is very easy to prepare and is very satisfying.

Ingredients:

• 250ml milk
• 125g raw sugar
• 125g runny honey
• 280g wholemeal self-raising flour

Method:
Heat oven to 180'C fan forced. Grease a loaf tin. Heat half quantity of milk and stir in sugar and honey. Add rest of milk. Fold in the flour. Bake 45 mins -1 hour. Delicious with butter when fresh, and honey later on if it ever gets to that stage!!

Hard Work Continues!!!

Hello Everyone,

Thank you so much for your support and lovely comments. It was a great feeling to come back to many familiar faces and some new ones as well! I loved reading all of your feedback.

I have had a lovely holiday and even went whale watching for my birthday! Some of the many photos I took are below. The first one is a dolphin and it travelled right underneath our 12 seater, dingy, speed boat! I haven't had the chance yet to crop some of these photos. We had to stay at least 100m away from the whales as not to disturb them in their natural environment. The last photo is a little hard to see but it is a photo of the whales tail in the air.

At one stage I saw a whale (and I caught it on film!) flapping its tail 5 times in a row against the surface of the water! Then I saw the usual tricks, such as waving and flipping. I had so much fun and I would recommend this experience highly. I also recommend not to watch from a big boat, such as the Steve Erwin tour boat, but from the smaller boats with less people, because you are able to see everything with 360 degree views and can talk/hear everyone, especially the tour guide. Our boat was a 12 seater dingy type boat, the fastest boat in the area, from Liquid Getaway. It was so much fun, even if you don't see any exciting whales, the fast ride out and in is definitely a highlight!!! Here is their facebook website for more photos from other trips: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Liquid-Getaway-Mooloolaba-Ocean-Adventures/219270121425346

I hope everyone had a good holiday if you were lucky enough to have one at this time. Wishing everyone all the best for the second half of the year,

Cheers,

Yas

Holiday Break!

Hello everyone!

I would just like to inform you all that I am going away with my family for a week so I will be unable to post any new recipes whilst away. I have a tone to post when I get back so don't forget about me!!!! I hope you all have a lovely week and I will be up and running again with full steam ahead in one weeks time.

Best wishes and safe journeys for those who are also travelling at this time.

Cheers,
Yas

Coffee Square Slice

Recipe from Rae Barr (friend)
Photos by Yasmin

This is a recipe from my Grandma's friend. It is a combination of a coffee cake and a fruit cake. Delicious idea, perfect with coffee and friends. My sister went to Japan recently and she brought me back some mini hello kitty cake tins. So in this cake I transferred some of the mixture into these pans and put the rest in a lamington tin. They turned out so cute!

Ingredients:

• 180g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 350g mixed fruit
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp garam marsala
• 2 cups walnuts
• 1 cup milk, thickened with juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp bi-carb soda
• 1 1/2 cups flour

Method:

Into a saucepan put butter, sugar, fruit, spices and walnuts. Simmer for a few minutes, then cool. In a separate bowl, add milk, lemon and bi-carb soda. Add to saucepan and combine.

Bake in a lamington tin for 35-45 minutes at 180'C fan-forced. Ice with lemon icing and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Coconut Loaf with Passionfruit Sauce

Modified from NMAA Cooks
Images by Yasmin

This is a beautiful, citrus delight! Coconut and Passionfruit mix divinely together! However, the passionfruit sauce is optional. Enjoy! This recipe is very simple and quick to prepare (it takes a while to cook). I have had so many morning and afternoon teas with friends this week and have made about four of these loaves! It is sooo simple and easy; with only four ingredients this loaf is a winner!!! I am posting this recipe for Britany who enjoys cooking as much as I do! Thanks for the wonderful memories!

Ingredients:

For Loaf:

• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup Self-raising flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup milk

For Sauce:

• 170g passionfruit pulp fresh or from a can
• 50g water
• 60g sugar

Method:
Heat oven to 190'C fan forced. Mix all ingredients together and cool in well greased loaf tin for 40-45 minutes (don't over cook, it will go dry).

For sauce, place ingredients in a small saucepan and cook for 7 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Coffee-soaked Gateau

Recipe from Cakes, Pastries and Breads
Images by Yasmin

This cake was served as a 53rd birthday cake for my father. He is a very happy man who loves his coffee. This cake matches his personality perfectly; strong (flavoured), handsome (appearance), hearty (dessert), and an all round (shape pun intended!) lovely man (cake). This cake I am told tastes like Tiramisu, but I wouldn't know because I have never tasted one. But I can tell you that this cake tastes delicious and has a strong coffee/liquor flavour! This post is dedicated to all those hard working fathers who need to be thanked and given a treat to commemorate their birth, which is definately something to celebrate. I love you dad! Happy Birthday!



Ingredients:

For Cake:

• 185g butter
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 3 x 60g eggs, lighty beaten
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

For Syrup:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups water
• 3 tblsp strong black coffee
• 3 tblsp rum

To decorate:

• 1 1/2 cups cream, lightly whipped
• cocoa, to dust

Method:

Well grease a 20cm cake tine and line the base with greased greaseproof paper. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a tablespoon of the flour with the last amount. Sift in the flour, then fold in carefully. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and level off. Bake in a moderately hot oven for 45-50 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes.

While the cake is cooking dissolve the sugar in the water and coffee in a pan over a low heat and add the rum.

Turn the cake out of the tin on to a serving plate. Pierce it all over with a skewer, then pour over some of the warm coffee syrup. Leave this to soak in, then pour over some more and continue to do this until the cake has absorbed all the syrup. Leave the cake to stand for at least 6 hours.

Spread the whipped cream all over the top and sides of the cake and decorate the top with a dusting of cocoa. Serve with coffee.

Pasties

Recipe and Images from Yasmin

This is a very simple dinner to prepare when live is hectic and there are many busy and late nights. This is a meal perfect for when you don't feel like making something that takes a while to develop a great flavour, is filling and healthy. If there are any left over puff pastry sheets to fill with the meat filling, simple sweet pasties can be prepared as well. The list of fillings possible for this pastry design is endless, so have a go at mixing your favourite sweet and savoury flavours to produce something simply delicious. If serving this meal as a dinner, be sure to serve with a beautiful garden salad. I apologise in advance for this inartistic photo of the meal, we were in a hurry to eat and I couldn't prepare a decent setting for the meal. It is eaten so quickly it is hard to capture it on camera!!!

(cooked savoury pastie)

Ingredients:

For Savoury:

• 1-2 carrot
• 1-2 zucchini
• 1 sweet potato
• 1 potato
• 1 cup green beans
• 1 cup corn kernells
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 300-500g minced beef 

For Sweet:

•  2 -3 dessert spoons of jam
• 1 apple, thinly sliced and cored
• 1 cup dried fruit (of choice)
• 1/2 cup coconut 

 (Uncooked Sweet Pastie)

Method:

Take frozen puff pastry sheets out of freezer and separate, allowing to defrost on the bench.

While pastry is defrosting, prepare savoury filling. Into a large bowl, grate carrot, zucchini, sweet potato, potato, beans and corn. Add partially defrosted minced meat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Using bare hands, thoroughly combine the savoury filling. 

Using a sharp knife, divide the mostly defrosted pastry diagonally, to create two triangles. Place a small handful of the uncooked mixture in one end of a triangle piece of pastry. Mold this to fit into the triangle shape, leaving about 1-2cm room around the edges to allow room to fold the pastry. Grab the other corner of the triangle and drag it over the filling to match the triangle shape, this is symmetrical. Press down on the folded pastry to seal the triangle shape pastie. Fold over the edges of the triangle and press again to secure (this should make sure that the pastie won't open and the contents spill). Lastly, twist the ends of the triangle, as it is just excess pastry.

Continue until all filling is used. As each pastie is made, place it on an oven tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Cook for 20-30 minutes on 180'C fan-forced.

If there is leftover pastry either cut it into triangles, as done for the savoury pasties, or leave it as a square to then fold into a rectangle (as shown in picture). Prepare a sweet filling. Smooth jam over pastry. Cover with coconut, thinly sliced apple, currants, sultanas, dried apricots and/or dates. Fold symetrically, using the same method as before, whether it is a triangle or rectangle, except, for the rectangle, cut a few slits in the sides (as shown in the photo).

Cook for 20-30 minutes at 180'C fan-forced.