Orange Babycakes

Orange Cake

1 Cup self-raising flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
90g softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup of caster sugar
2 eggs
Juice and zest of one orange

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl, add orange then eggs. Sift in dry ingredients. Mix. Pour into cupcake tray, lined with patty cases.
Bake at 180 for 20 -30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Icing
30g butter
1 ½ cups of icing mixture
Zest of an orange

Cream together, top with more zest.

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Bake with Garlic and Sage

Peel the sweet potato and cut into cubes. Cut cauliflower into small florets. Place in a casserole dish.


Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic, a handful of sage, a sprig of rosemary, and oregano.

In a saucepan melt 3 tablespoons of butter
Add garlic herbs and salt
Mix in ¼ a cup of flour
Cook off for about 5 minutes stirring continually

Very slowly add 2 cups of milk. Add about a tablespoon at a time, stirring well, until a smooth sauce.

Add Salt, pepper and any spices to taste.

Pour over vegetables and top with cheese a mix of cheddar and parmesan is good.

Bake at 180 for 30 minutes until vegetables are soft and top is golden brown

End of the Week Cous Cous

Mix together two cups of dry cous cous, spices, salt, a tablespoon of olive oil add two cups of boiling water

mix cover and set aside for 3-5 minutes

Fluff cous cous with a fork, and set aside

Gather together all the vegetables in your fridge that are starting to look a bit sorry for themselves. Cut into smallish pieces.

I ended up with

String Beans
Corn cut off the cob
Pumpkin
Mint
Coriander
And Carrots

In a large non-stick thick bottomed pan; fry off the vegetables until cooked. Starting with the ones that require the most cooking such as pumpkin and adding one by one until you finish with the ones like corn that only take a moment.

Lower heat and add cous cous and any herbs. Toss together and serve.

Baked Cheesecake

I used this recipe:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/Cheesecake.html

Topped with whipped cream, with a little vanilla and suger. Strawberrys, kiwifruit, passionfruit and cherries. Starfruit placed on the plate, as a garnish.

Mushroom Tartlets

Anyone can buy the ingredients and follow a recipe. What’s exciting is when you’re faced with a pile of random ingredients and you make something, of which you have no idea if it will work or not. When it does its good and when it doesn’t you quietly throw it in the bin and try to wash the taste out of your mouth. Ice cream works well, preferably chocolate with brownie pieces and nuts, but I digress.

I made 8 little tart things from these amounts. I had some button mushrooms which where looking a little sorry for themselves, so I washed and peeled them. Cut out bread circles to create croutons.

In a bowl mix
1 clove of crushed garlic
Two heaped tablespoons or a small handful of finely chopped salami
6 finely chopped black olives
Half a cup of grated cheese
Salt and pepper
A large tablespoon of butter

Make it into a goop and pile it into the mushrooms. Sprinkle with polenta.

Place the bread rounds into a lightly greased cupcake tray, place a mushroom on top and bake at 180 for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with Chilli Chutney, just cuz its good.

You could put pretty much anything you happened to have lying around in these little guys. Very good finger and beer food and ridiculously easy.

Scones

I made scones the other day. The ones in the picture aren't mine, I didn't take a pic, but they looked very similar. It all started with pancakes. I had bought a packet of frozen mixed berries and heated them with some sugar, so we could enjoy the ooze purplish goodness. I simmered what was left down to a jam like consistency. It was very strong, put seemed like it would be perfect for scones. I had never made scones so I was interested to try a recipe that seemed too simple to work.

2 Cups of Self-raising flour
1 cup of cream
1 cup of lemonade

Mix together, roll out, cut out circles and bake for 10 minutes.

Of course being me I added the following
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 knob of butter - crumbed into the flour

The secret of scones is to mix the ingredients with a knife, until just mixed. You want to handle them as little as possible. try to roll the dough out only once defiantly no more then twice. This means you have to get tricky when cutting out your circles. You can place the rounds on the tray just touching each other. Brush with milk, egg or melted butter and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with jam and cream.

These only last a day, and not only because everyone scoffs their fluffy goodness.

Potato Salad topped with Green Beans

The dressing is half a good mayo and half greek yogurt with mustard, pickles, salt, capers and a splash of lemon. Easy, classic and yummy.