Chocolate Beetroot Cake For the cake 50ml cream or evaporated milk 60g dark chocolate, broken into pieces or dark choc melts 2 eggs 200g sugar 125ml milk 220g self raising flour 30g cocoa ½ teaspoon baking powder 90g butter, melted 80g finely grated fresh (raw) beetroot or 80g pureed cooked beetroot (you can even use … Continue reading Chocolate Beetroot Cake

Busier than busy times at the moment. Always time for baking and preserving though. Here's a few snapshots of the past week or two. For the two Wednesday morning teas that have gone by, there were jelly cakes one week, hastily prepared and a bit topsy turvy on the platter, increased by the fact that … Continue reading Baking and Preserving – what’s not to like this time of year?

Wednesday morning tea yesterday, peaches and cream cup cakes - on a tray on their way up the road. These were simple little lemon butter cakes, slightly hollowed out and filled with lightly poached freestone peaches and a swirl of lemon infused custard cream.

A little savoury baking this morning. Zucchini, corn and tomato quiches large and small, the daily bread and sausage rolls. I do like to have a little something on hand to share when people drop in for a cuppa.

Here is the recipe for that old fashioned cooling summer drink, ideal when you have a glut of rhubarb from the garden. (Recipe is from my book "A Year in a Bottle" or "Complete Preserves". Sparkling Rhubarb Makes 4.5 litres, approximately 875g rhubarb, diced 875g sugar 1 lemon, chopped 4.5 litres water  200ml white or … Continue reading Sparkling Rhubarb Drink

I've had loads of requests for this recipe after my last post, so here it is. Hope everyone enjoys making, baking and tasting it. Zucchini, Raisin and Date Cake with Coconut Caramel Glaze 1 cup raisins ½ cup chopped dates 1 cup water 1 cup sugar 1 cup coarsely grated zucchini 2 tablespoons butter or … Continue reading Recipe – Zucchini Raisin and Date Cake with Coconut Caramel Glaze

Couldn't make it to the morning tea today. However I did manage to bake a cake to send along - of course it had to be a new recipe, a little challenge I've set myself for each week.Today I suggested the morning tea-ers guess the mystery ingredient. It was ...... zucchini!! A cupful of it, … Continue reading New Cake Day (for Wednesday morning tea platter)

Wednesday morning tea platter offering earlier this week. I’ve set myself the task (aka fun) of creating a new recipe each time. This was a baking dish chocolate cake, hollowed out and filled with chocolate rum custard with a hint of almond, this latter a tip of the hat to the flavour of the almond … Continue reading Apricots and Blackberries

Finally here is the recipe for that Apricot Tray Bake Cake that uses bottled (preserved) apricots, though you could use fresh of course. Apricot Tray Bake Cake • 2 eggs • 1¼ cups sugar • Rind 2 lemons • ½ cup lemon juice • 1 cup preserving liquid from jar of preserved apricots, made up … Continue reading Apricot Tray Bake Recipe

Apart from the bottling of some very large and luscious cherries, there's been a change of gear from bottling fruit today - two batches of sparkling rhubarb have been prepared and now left to stand the requisite 48 hours before straining and bottling. In about two weeks, maybe less, there will be several litres of … Continue reading Fermenting time – sparkling rhubarb!