I have a dilemma: in Australia we call round, sweet treats served with tea biscuits, or bickies. In America, where many of you lovely people are visiting from, they are called cookies, and biscuits are what we call scones. Sigh. The English language is fraught with dialect difficulties. Continue reading
Caramel is a favourite flavour in the Hungry House. I’ve always been a fan and Misses 6 & 8 adore it, too. I made these cupcakes and instantly knew I was on to a winner when Miss8 told me there was no way she would be trading this cake for one of her friend’s lunchbox treats. Trust me – my gal trades home-made cakes and cookies most days in exchange for mass-produced, supermarket-bought, multi-national owned treats #theHorror Continue reading
Nothing says fresh and zingy like passionfruit. Those who know me know that I have a dislike of fruit bordering on the pathological but for some reason I do enjoy passionfruit in baked goods. Misses 6 and 8 are my opposite – they adore fresh fruit, but actively dislike passionfruit in baked goods. Sigh. Continue reading
Does anything spell afternoon tea more than a madeleine? These pretty little delicacies never fail to impress, although they are embarrassingly easy to make. I’ve got a few madeleine recipes on my site as I love making them and they are always well received. To make the real McCoy you will need a traditional pan, readily available from home ware stores. Continue reading
I am utterly enamoured with my mini donut baking pan. The holes are teeny tiny, resulting in a fairy-sized morsel that it irresistible. Whenever the baking urge strikes I often start with the pan and work backwards, searching for a worthy recipe. I have now found my ‘go to’ recipe for mini chocolate donuts, thanks to the lovely blog mysanfranciscokitchen.com
Recently, well actually several months ago, my lovely friend Jane had a birthday. Jane had requested a Tim Tam cake [for my non-Aussie friends, Tim Tams are our national treasure chocolate biscuit] but I spied a recipe in my beloved book ‘Lily Vanilli’s Sweet Tooth’ that I knew she would love. And boy, was I right.
In the book it is referred to as margarita drizzle cake but I am calling it simply margarita cake. Or, as many of my work friends commented after sampling it, the best cake I’ve ever made. Or, tequila cake with lime, if we want to keep things simple. All are true. Trust me on this – you NEED to have this cake in your life. Continue reading
I was unaware of the tarty deliciousness of lemon bars until about a week ago. I had seen umpteen recipes on international blogs but it wasn’t until my mother-in-law presented me with a bucket filled to the brim with lemons from her tree that I decided to make them.
Hello, tastebuds. Continue reading
It is so cold in Sydney at the moment that I’m spending most of my time in the kitchen baking. Standing in front of a lovely warm oven is the best way to while a way a bit of time. The downside is I’m burning through flour, milk, eggs and butter at a rate of knots! Oh well…
Recently I flicked through some of my so-huge-it-needs-to-be-culled cookbook collection and landed on a recipe from The Australian Women’s Weekly book, The Baking Collection. This marvellous book is, as they say in certain circles, all thriller – no filler. Page after page of tempting bakes to make and I could think of no happier way to spend a day than creating some of these treats.
I chose the recipe for raspberry and walnut slice, though I used ground almonds instead of ground walnuts. I think any ground nut [or nut meal] would work here so feel free to experiment. The recipe called for ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon but I am such a lover of this scented spice that I just freehanded a massive amount.
GATHER:
150g butter, diced and softened
2/3 cup icing sugar
1 ¾ cup plain flour
at least one teaspoon ground cinnamon [more if you prefer]
½ cup ground almonds
300g frozen raspberries
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm x 30cm rectangular slice pan.
In bowl of electric mixer beat butter and icing sugar until pale [you may need to scrape down sides of bowl a few times]
Stir in sifted flour, cinnamon and nut meal until mixture is crumble [do not over-mix].
Set aside one cup of crumble mix, then place the rest of the crumble mix in the pan and use the base of a glass to firmly pat down. Sprinkle over raspberries, then sprinkle over remaining mix.
Bake for around 20 minutes or until golden.
Inhale – the smell is amazing.
Allow to cool in tin before slicing into squares.
With a glut of lemons beckoning from our oft-neglected but much loved lemon tree it was time to get baking. Lemon shortbread. Lemon and yogurt loaf. And this delicious cake that will make your mouth sing of all the pretty things. I discovered this recipe on the BBC site, which I find to be a wonderful resource when baking. It is from Paul Hollywood, who is quite the hero baker in his native Britain. I tweaked it a bit, switching his plain flour/ baking powder mix for straight self-raising flour and reducing the sugar. Considering the cake is finished with two different types of sugar I would even suggest minimising the amount of sugar in the recipe proper if your tooth isn’t overly sweet. Continue reading
the hungry mum 