retro sultana cake

Just noticed I’ve already clocked up 35,000 words in my blog document. How quickly they add up. On Day 1 a few months back, I saved my word doc as ‘Blog Ramblings’. Thank you so much for reading and following my ramblings and recipes. I’m as chuffed as a ‘nearly 5yr old’ getting her 1st prep certificate for student of the week (well done pumpkin!)

But it’s early days yet, at school and My Farm Kitchen.  With only 56 recipes baked and one full season past, I’m getting excited about sharing my fondest winter recipes with you. MFK friends in the Northern Hem, please don’t despair.  Our mild Queensland Winter is much like your Spring that’s finally sprung. There’ll be plenty of goodies to bake for all seasons.

This cooler weather is perfect for old fashioned heart warming loaves. I’ve tested many sultana (and date) loaf recipes over the years. No doubt you’ve tried lots too. This one's from my Mum’s oldest recipe collection and it's particularly fab.  Not sure of its origin but it's certainly a creation from the 50/60’s. I’ve renamed it retro but it belongs in the boiled fruit cake category.  And currently fights for top billing with that other quick Low Fat Healthy Loaf shared a few months back.

Ingredients

4 cups plain flour ❤ 1 teaspoon bi carb (baking) soda ❤ 1 teaspoon mixed spice ❤ 1 teaspoon ground cloves ❤ 2 cups caster sugar ❤ 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened ❤ 2 cups warm water ❤ 500 grams Australian sultanas, rinsed and drained (or a combination of sultanas and chopped dates if you like) ❤ ½ teaspoon sea salt ❤ 1 tablespoon of marmalade or finely chopped citrus peel 

Makes 2 medium sized loaves 22cm x 11cm or 1 x larger loaf + 1 x small loaf

Method

Preheat oven to moderate 180°C (350°F). Grease two loaf tins and line with baking paper.

Sift flour, spices, baking soda and salt together twice into a large bowl.

Combine sugar, butter, water and sultanas in a medium sized saucepan. Bring to the boil. Turn heat down and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove from stove top and allow to cool completely.  Add the sultana mixture to flour and fold through with a large metal spoon.  Fold in marmalade or chopped peel too. Careful not to over mix at this stage.

Spread into prepared loaf tins and bake for 50 minutes - 1 hour or until centre springs back when lightly touched. Great toasted and spread with butter if desired.  Or just enjoy fresh and plain straight from the oven. Keeps well in an airtight container. Just as well it makes 2 loaves, has a shocking habit of just disappearing. 

If you've got a minute, please join in the discussion - the best retro kitchen tips list - on the new MFK Community Page.  Or start a new discussion thread of your own. Until next time..

little lemon and rosemary syrup cakes

Recipe

❤  Limone e Rosmarino piccole torte 

I‘ve made lots of little syrup cakes over the years, with (you guessed it) citrus. Top favourites include; gluten free lemon polenta cakes, a luscious lemon ricotta square and many 100’s of light lemon syrup friands.  Each recipe is moist and more-ish, thanks to an even and generous soaking of sweet syrup.  Do you have a favourite? 

In case you haven’t tried infusing your lemon syrup with herbs, especially freshly picked rosemary, thought I’d best share this subtle little secret with you. 

Ingredients

225 grams (8oz) unsalted butter, softened

230 grams (8 ¼oz /1 cup) caster sugar

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 free range eggs

150 grams (5 ½ oz/1¼ cups) self raising flour, sifted

250 grams (9 oz/1 cup) sour cream

The syrup

3 large rosemary sprigs + extra for decorating plate

finely grated zest of 2 lemons

125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) lemon juice

125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) water

230 grams (8 oz/1 cup) caster sugar

Makes 12 to 15 mini cakes or slices.

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Lightly grease 24 cm square tin or 16 x 26cm rectangular tin or individual mini tins, lining base and sides so cake/s can easily be removed. 

Beat butter, lemon zest, vanilla extract and sugar with a pinch of salt in a medium sized bowl until light, creamy and pale.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in sifted flour and sour cream in two batches, mixing until just combined. Fill tin/s with mix, smooth over and bake for 25-35 minutes depending on cake size or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Best to make the syrup while the cakes are cooking. Combine lemon juice, sugar, rosemary, water and lemon zest in a small saucepan. Stir mixture until sugar dissolves and comes to the boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Once slightly thickened, take off the heat.  You could use mint (if you prefer to rosemary) in the same way to infuse flavour into syrup.

Poke small holes into the slice top using a fine skewer.  Pour over the hot syrup in small amounts, allowing syrup to be absorbed fully before adding more.  Stand cakes for 15 minutes in the tin, allowing all the syrup to seep through. Cut into pieces and top with double cream if desired.

Travel Tale

I can’t pour syrup over a warm cake without thinking of one hilarious Sunday spent with my Mum in the crazy corrupt capitol of Naples, Italy. 

Sprawling Naples, with its formidable reputation and 4 million residents can’t help but shock and delight you all at once. The city is a conundrum of life’s best and worst. The full comprehension of which rests firmly with its residents.

For those of us just passing through, the “real” Naples is allusive and jumbled. Perhaps found somewhere between Mt Vesuvius and ancient palazzi, in extraordinary traffic jams, amongst treasure filled museums or under great piles of uncollected rubbish.  We are left to eat the world’s very best pizza and ponder...

The Bay of Naples!  That would be my answer. The bay is where Naples really shows off all her beauties.

Before racing to Sunday lunch with our surrogate Napolitano family, Mum & I just HAD to make a quick stop at one of the cities famous open air flea markets. To satisfy our appetite for fashion, electronics and...anything really, legal or otherwise. We had our sights set on the dealers of contraband designer labels; Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, Louis V and more.

The scene unfolded (or perhaps unravelled is a better word) after we picked up ‘a great bargain’. A new mobile phone and video recorder for an unheard of price back home. But very soon and for quite some time we were being followed by a stranger through the tale end of the market. Once out in the street and with pure terror in our faces, the stranger approached.  He asked us to open our bags and boxes to check. And said he had only hoped to warn us of the great Napoli ‘switcheroo’ taking place as our money changed hands. Our boxes were filled with water bottles.

The comfort and relative ‘safety’ of Sunday lunch overlooking an active volcano became an urgent need. And so we were happy to sit down and begin what became one of the best, longest and largest meals of our lives. I always kept a diary during my years in Italy but looking back I haven’t recalled this meal in detail. It was superb and included all the Italian staples; green salad, risotto and lots of local seafood. Veal, chicken, baked vegetables and plenty of freshly made pasta and homemade sugo.

It is the dessert course (surprise, surprise) that I remember well. The moment when tall glasses of limoncello liquer were poured and the cake was presented. It was nearly 4pm!  Mum and I couldn’t move. We had seriously over eaten. And our zealous hosts still wouldn’t take ‘no grazie’ for an answer.  They soaked an enormous Baba Cake with almost an entire bottle of Rum and cut two giant slices.  A potent finale to a remarkable day in Naples. And the reason why I still prefer citrus to alcohol in most desserts. 

chocolate butterfly cakes with raspberry cream

Recipe

❤  Chocolate Butterfly Cakes with Raspberry Cream

These little chocolate morsels have kept my girls content for a good few hours today - School Holiday baking fun.  They adore cutting circles and butterfly wings, whipping cream and dusting copious amounts of icing sugar... everywhere. Not to mention scoffing the whole batch with a few friends in record time.  I’m just enjoying no rush out the door, no lunches to pack or uniforms to iron. I’m sure you are too! 

What I’ve always liked about butterfly cakes is their dress up or dress down appeal. There aren’t many cakes (or outfits in a wardrobe) quite so understated.  Perfect for afternoon tea in the backyard. Yet also ideal for a swish Wedding Cake dessert. How’s that for versatile.  This one is inspired by Donna Hay from her Simple Essentials Chocolate book. Chocolate with a hit of Raspberry, always the perfect match.

Ingredients

125 grams (4oz) butter, softened

¾ cup (165 grams/5 ¾ oz) caster sugar

2 free range eggs

1 ¼ cups (190 grams/6 ¾ oz) self raising flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

½ cup (125 ml/4 fl oz) milk

100 grams (3½ oz) milk chocolate, melted 

Raspberry Cream

125 grams (4oz) fresh or frozen raspberries

1 ¼ cups (300 ml/9½ fl oz) double cream

1 tablespoon icing sugar, sifted

(Makes a dozen)

Method + Tips

Preheat oven to moderately slow 160°C (325°F). 

Place butter and sugar in a medium size bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes - or until mixture is light in colour and creamy.  Add eggs one at a time and beat in well. Sift over the flour and cocoa powder and beat until combined.   

Melt chocolate on high in the microwave for 20 second bursts until smooth and glossy. Fold the milk and chocolate gently through using a large metal spoon. 

Spoon the mixture into muffin tins lined with paper patty cases. These Easter pink & white ones are available at Wheel & Barrow. Bake for 25 minutes or until firm to touch in the centre. Cool on a wire rack. 

To make Raspberry Cream, place the raspberries in a bowl and lightly crush with the back of a fork. Fold through the cream and icing sugar.   Cut the tops of cakes and fill holes with the berry cream.  

Top Tips: Wait until cakes are completely cold before using a fine pointed serrated knife to cut circles from cake tops. Cut about 1cm from edge and about 1 ½ cm down into patty cases.  Fairy Cakes are traditionally topped with the whole cut-out circle once filled.  Butterfly Cakes are topped with two semi-circular halves, placed at an angle to resemble butterfly wings. Piping filling inside the cuts is often easier and neater, especially if doing a big batch. Unfilled cakes freeze well.  Cakes can be prepared a day ahead and filled next day for an occasion.  Keep unfilled cakes in an airtight container. If making Vanilla Butterfly cakes, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to this recipe and omit melted chocolate and cocoa. I use 3 eggs.

Other great fillings to use: Homemade Jam, Citrus Curd or Chocolate are all good. One cup of these is generally enough to fill one batch. Jam and Curd is lovely topped with whipped cream (300ml carton for one batch) and dusted with icing sugar.

For Chocolate filling - 85 grams/3oz butter, softened, 175 grams/6 oz icing sugar, 25 grams/1 oz plain chocolate, melted. No cream required, sweet enough, just fill, dust with icing sugar or cocoa if desired.

I hope you are enjoying MFK Easter Inspiration Week. Please let me know how your baking is going. I’ll be back tomorrow with a traditional Easter Biscuit over three centuries old. A little Easter favourite with coffee or tea that’s light and very more-ish. Until then, thanks for reading.

My favourite Butterfly Wedding + Forget cream or fancy garnish, just give em a beater on the side and watch their little faces light up!

simple special sponge

Recipe

❤  Simple Special Sponge for Easter

I must admit to having mixed results over the years with sponge cake. I blame a very old family legend about a ridiculously high sponge.  Neighbours would come by just to lay eyes on it. Those lucky enough to eat it always said “it’s as light as a feather!".  I never managed to replicate it.

Sponge recipes confuse me. The only common denominator between great sponges seems to be 4 eggs, sugar and cornflour. All other ingredients and methods are up for grabs. Water sponge, butter sponge, sponges with custard powder, cream or milk, ‘true’ sponges, brown sugar sponges ... the list goes on. Miss Schauer  has 27 sponge recipes in her iconic Cookery Book.  The oldest sponge recipes were often made with warm sugar syrup or warmed milk, slowly added down the sides of the bowl while beating. Got a sponge secret to share with us?

I eventually stayed with this easy-to-make light sponge that works a treat.  I suggest filling it with freshly whipped chantilly cream and citrus curd.  Or the classic Chocolate Blanc Mange recipe below for Easter afternoon tea.

Ingredients

For Sponge  

4 eggs

¾ cup (165 grams) caster sugar

2/3 cup (100 grams) wheaten cornflour

¼ cup (30 grams) custard powder

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda (baking soda)   Serves 8 

School Holiday crazies : A no-time-to-bake store bought plain unfilled sponge can be jazzed up beautifully using the same fillings and method below. Don't tell them you bought it!

Chantilly Cream Icing

800ml thickened cream, enough whipped to cover sides, top and middle layer of sponge

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

½ cup of icing sugar, sifted

Method + Top Tips

Preheat oven to moderate 180°C (350°F) and grease a deep 22cm (9inch) round or square cake tin and line with baking paper . 

Beat sugar and eggs in a small bowl for 10 minutes or until thick and creamy.

Transfer to a large bowl.

Sift cornflour, custard powder, cream of tartar and bi carb soda onto a sheet of baking paper. Then sift from the paper over the egg mixture. Fold dry ingredients in lightly. Spread evenly into prepared tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Turn immediately onto a baking paper covered rack to cool, top-side up.

Top Tips:  Sifting flour mixture onto baking paper makes it easier.  If you use a bowl to sift into, flour mix will just stick to the bottom and become messy. The paper is a quick tidy way to sift the dry mixture and not loose any on the benchtop or sides of the bowl. Always beat eggs and sugar for 8-10 minutes until mixture is thick, pale and tripled in volume. Should be like whipped cream, but even lighter. The flour mixture must be folded in gently using a large metal spoon. When baked and cooled, a serrated bread knife or electric knife is best used to split and cut sponge neatly and evenly. Trim edges if necessary to make neat. Sponge is best eaten on the day it’s made. Unfilled sponge freezes for up to one month if necessary.

Your choice of 2 classic fillings - 

 Passionfruit or Lemon Curd  - click my lemon curd posting. For passionfruit curd, just omit the lemon rind and use lemon juice only - plus the fresh pulp/juice of two passionfruit

OR

Chocolate Blanc Mange

2 cups full cream milk

strip of lemon rind, free from pith 

2 level tablespoons caster sugar

pinch of salt 

2 tablespoons cornflour

a little spare milk (for dissolving cornflour)

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

¼ cup boiling water

teaspoon of vanilla extract 

Bring milk, lemon rind and sugar to boiling point in a saucepan over moderate heat. Mix cornflour and spare milk in a teacup and stir until lump free.  Dissolve cocoa powder in boiling water and teaspoon of vanilla. Remove saucepan from the heat and add pinch of salt and cornflour mix and stir continually until smooth. Now add cocoa mix too.  Return to the heat and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until mixture simmers gently for 2 minutes. It will set to a spreadable custard consistency off the heat.

Optional: ½ cup Boronia Marsala (for brushing on the cut sponge with a pastry brush) for extra flavour and a little grated dark chocolate for decoration around the top edges if desired 

Method for icing and filling

Slice sponge in half with serrated or electric knife. Brush Marsala on both cut sides with a pastry brush if making Chocolate Blanc Mange version. 

Spread an even layer of cream on one cut side. Spread an even layer of curd or chocolate blanc mange on the other side.

Sandwich the two together. Cover sides and top with prepared chantilly cream

For chocolate sponge: grate chocolate flakes over sponge top

For curd sponge: pipe extra cream around sponge edges and fill centre with curd.

Chocolate Swirl Ciambella

Recipe

❤ Chocolate Swirl Ciambella  

Easter Inspiration Week is here! And I can’t wait any longer to hatch my Easter treats.  First up - Chocolate Swirl Cake - adapted from a recipe by Anna Burki. Anna owns Brisbane’s landmark Pasta Manufacturer, Pasta al Dente, in West End for over 34 years.  She comes from the fairytale town of Alberobello in Puglia, Southern Italy. This cake is perfect for family and friends dropping in for a cuppa over the Easter long weekend. No fancy icing or fuss required.

Ingredients

250 grams caster sugar

300 grams self raising flour

200 grams unsalted butter, melted 

4 free range eggs, beaten well

½ cup full cream milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cocoa &/OR  if making this after Easter use any left over Easter Eggs chopped up

finely grated zest of 2 oranges 

2 tablespoons of Boronia Marsala, a sweet fortified wine rich and creamy, not expensive and available from most bottle shops 

Method + Top Tips

Preheat oven to moderate 180°C (350°F). Grease and flour two small baba tins or one large baba tin (also known as kugelhopf with a hole in the centre).

Melt butter gently on the stovetop and allow to cool a little.

Beat eggs with an electric mixer.  Add sugar, vanilla, milk, butter, marsala and orange zest and mix until combined.  Add sifted flour and stir to combine with a large metal spoon. 

Pour ⅓ of the mixture into a separate bowl and add cocoa. Stir well to mix in. You may need a touch more milk added for consistency. Pour ½ of the original vanilla cake mix into the tin. Pour cocoa cake mix on top of this layer. Then finish with a layer of the remaining vanilla cake mix. e.g 3 layers - vanilla, choc, vanilla

Bake small cakes for approximately 30 mins and large cake for approximately 50 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly.

Place on wire rack to cool. Turn out of tin when cooled and dust with icing sugar or cocoa, as you prefer. Serve with whipped cream or mascarpone if desired.

Seasonal Jotting

 What a great time of year. Perfect outdoor weather. Spring in the Northern Hemisphere & Autumn in the Southern, this change of season makes me feel revitalised and fortunate in so many ways. 

Easter at Weka Weka means the citrus trees are loaded with new fruit, just waiting for the cold weather. We can finally bring some firewood inside the old Queenslander. Frosty nights won’t be too far away.

Freshly laid sugar cane mulch in the Orchard will keep up the moisture over our dry, sunny Winter.  And hopefully stop those pesty weeds.  The paddock is still lush and the lawn has finally stopped growing while we watch it. Mudgeeraba Creek is flowing fast and if we stop long enough on the edge a local platypus might pop up. The cold spring water running down from Springbrook Mountain is very refreshing. The snakes must have gone into hibernation. I didn’t even meet our resident carpet python this past Summer. 

The veggie patch is happy to farewell Summer and grateful for all the beautiful rain we’ve received. The baby cherry tomatoes, chillies and last of the passionfruit are delightful. I made a batch of Passionfruit Curd and Sweet Tomato Relish for the MFK Preserves Club today, both incredibly fragrant. Preserving is the best kind of therapy.

Update on March 30, 2012 by Susie

A reader asked via email about chocolate icing for this one.  I would suggest drizzling it over after cooling and chilling abit. This way the icing clings on and makes perfect drips too - very pretty.  Just a basic Choc Icing is best in this case - 2 cups (300g) of sifted icing sugar with ⅓ cup sifted cocoa powder (40g) and 2 tablespoons of boiling water - all stirred until smooth.

If you wish to swirl the cake mixture in the tin with a knife for a more marbled vanilla/choc effect that's great too.