Madeleines (3 sorts)

I have been wanting to make these for such a long time, and finally last week I managed to buy the proper baking tray. Then it was a hunt through Google to find that perfect recipe, and I found it finally on http://www.taste.com.au Thank you Dixie Elliott.

Ingredients...

3 Eggs
1/2 cup Caster Sugar
1 Lemon, rind only, finely grated
1 large Lime, rind only, finely grated
3/4 cup plain Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
60g unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
Icing Sugar, to dust

Method...

Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a 12-hole Madeleine baking pan. Place eggs, sugar, lemon rind and lime rind into bowl. Using an electric hand beater, beat mixture until thick, pale and doubled in volume. Gently fold in flour, baking powder and butter using a metal spoon.

Place tablespoons of mixture into prepared Madeleine moulds. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden and cakes spring back when pressed in the centre. Cool slightly before removing from moulds. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar. This is for the Citrus Madeleines.

For the chocolate Madeleines, I left out the lemon and lime rind. I replaced 1 tablespoon of flour with Cocoa powder and added some grated cooking chocolate. Then when cooled I dipped the Madeleines in melted chocolate.

And for the Cinnamon Madeleines, again I left out the citrus and added 1 teaspoon of Cinnamon and when cooled I dusted with Cinnamon sugar.

Chocolate Madeleines dipped in
Chocolate.













Cinnamon Madeleines.













Citrus Madeleines.

Lemon and Lime Cheesecake (Australia Day)

I made this today to celebrate Australia Day (26-01-09)

Ingredients
85g Original Lemon

½ cup boiling water

500g cream cheese, softened

125g (½ packet) Marie biscuits, crushed

150g melted butter

85g Original Jelly - Your Choice (I used LIME)

450ml additional water

Method
Dissolve the Lemon Delicious Jelly in ½ cup boiling water.

Allow to cool slightly, then whisk with cream cheese until smooth.

Combine the crushed Marie biscuits and butter and press into the base of a 30cm round or square pan.

Pour over the cream cheese filling, then spread evenly to cover the biscuit base.

Prepare additional Jelly according to the pack instructions. Allow to cool to an egg white consistency, then gently pour over the filling. Set until firm, then cut into slices.

Thank you to http://www.aeroplanejelly.com.au/ for yet another lovely recipe. What could be more Australian than this green and gold dessert?

Lemon Butter Cake.

This cake is so delicious, that it deserves two pictures. And if you make it, I am sure you will not stop at one slice only. I didn't.

Lemon butter cake has got to be the easiest and quickest cake to make. From heating the oven to tasting was exactly 40 minutes. So ideal to make when you have guests coming and want a quick cake.

You will need....

250g BUTTER.

250g SOFT BROWN SUGAR.

250g S.R.FLOUR (sifted)

3 EGGS (beaten)

1 LEMON.

Method....

Melt butter in microwave on 50% power.

Stir in sugar, then the flour, add the eggs

and the zest from the lemon. (Keep the juice from lemon for later)

Pour into a shallow tin which you have greased or lined with parchment paper. And bake in oven at 180c for approx 20 - 30 minutes.

Mix juice from lemon with enough caster sugar to form a paste, and spread on cake while still hot from oven.

As I have only two slices left of this delicious cake, I shall be making it again at the weekend. I wonder what it would be like with orange, instead of lemon. Hmmmmm.

Gateau au Yoaout.

This is a delightfully tasty, moist and very easy cake to make. It comes from the blog of dear Pi, who has now gone to feed the angels. http://pistachioenlacocina.blogspot.com

Gâteau Au Yaourt

2 eggs
1 cup of whole milk plain unsweetened yogurt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder (1 envelope)
1 teaspoon vanilla paste/extract
1 tablespoon light rum

Preheat the oven to 180° C (350° F), line the bottom of a round ten-inch (25cm) cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides. In a large mixing-bowl, gently combine the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla, oil and rum. In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the flour mixture into the yogurt mixture, and blend together -- don't overwork the dough. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Let stand for ten minutes, run a knife around to loosen, and turn out on a rack to cool.

The chances I made..
Used Rice Bran Oil instead of vegetable oil.
Used Greek yogurt instead of plain yogurt.

And I iced the cake with a simple butter icing with lemon essence.
This is a MUST try cake. ( Forget you not Pi)

Spicy Orange Slice.

This is just perfect with a cup of tea in the afternoon, when you have to think of making dinner. Munch on this spicy, fruity cake and sip on your tea, and think of far away places. Then, when it's finished, you might be inspired to do some thing special. ( I shall be making a vegetable curry. The veggies are good for you and my day dreaming took me to the spice markets in India)

Enough of that, on with this slice.

You will need....

1/2 cup softened BUTTER.

3/4 cup RAW SUGAR.

2 EGGS.

Grated peel of 1 ORANGE.

1 tablesp. ORANGE Juice.

1 1/2 cup of PLAIN FLOUR.

1 1/2 teasp. BAKING POWDER.

1 teasp MIXED SPICE.

1 teasp GROUND CLOVES.

3/4 cup SULTANAS.

3/4 cup chopped WALNUTS.

Method.

Cream butter until smooth and gradually add the sugar until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and orange rind and juice. Sift in the dry ingredients and blend in to the mixture. Fold in the sultanas and walnuts.

Spread in to a greased tray (about 29cm x 19cm) And sprinkle some more raw sugar over the top before baking in the oven (180c) for approximately 30 minutes. Cool slightly after removing from the oven, and cut in to fingers or squares.

You could, if you wanted to, put some orange icing on this slice, just remember not to put the raw sugar on top before baking.

Do hope you enjoy.

Spring has sprung.

And the garden is alive with new shoots, citrus blossom, wisteria is showing a little colour in it's buds, the roses have their bronzed new leaves appearing. Lets hope we can keep the bugs off them this year. Daffodils a plenty in the shops, but not in my garden, as I don't have any. The jasmine is in full flower and making me feel a little giddy with the gorgeous perfume.


The birds are singing and making eyes at each other, they will soon be nesting. My parrots are looking for nesting material too, so must get some together for them. They seem to like my *old mans beard*. Thankfully I have loads. So won't miss it.


This is just the best time of year in the garden, so many things are happening. And there's not enough hours in the day to get everything I wish done.


We are having our pool renovated at the moment too. We are going from a pale (boring) blue, to a bright and happy colour called WISTERIA. Which should look very good as we have the plant growing along the back fence of the pool area.


Would love to show you some pictures of the flowers I picked today,some I bought from the florist, some of my parrots, and a few others of the garden. Which I am very proud of.

That is a pic of my Tibouchina, fantastic isn't it? The parrot is a blue Princess parrot and the two together is a green Princess parrot and a female King parrot.

Spring has sprung The grass has riz I wonder where the boidies is The boids is on the wing! Don't be absoid! Da wings is on the boid!

Attributed by many to Spike Milligan of the BBC's "Goon Show"

Lemon Yogurt Cake

We are lucky enough to have a new magazine in this country. A really good and informative Foodie magazine full of interesting articles and some truly delish recipes. Lemon Yogurt Cake was submitted to the mag by one of it's readers and I would like to thank Karen from Victoria for doing so. It is a very tasty and light cake and delightful served with cream.

Here is her recipe.

1 3/4 cups Caster Sugar.
2 Eggs.
1 cup Rice Bran Oil.
1 cup Yogurt (plain)
Grated rind of 2 Lemons.
2 cups S.R. Flour (sifted)
2 tbsp Lemon juice.
Icing sugar (to dust)
Thick cream (to serve)

What to do...

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and line a 20cm round cake pan with baking paper.

2. Whisk together sugar, eggs, oil, yogurt and lemon rind. Fold in flour and 1/2 tsp salt, then stir in lemon juice. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes, until skewer comes out clean.

3. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a

wire rack to cool. Serve with a dusting of icing sugar and cream.

The cake I made is at the top. Then Karen's

recipe as it was shown on page 26.

Then, last is the front cover of our lovely new magazine.

Lemon Butter/Curd

Following on from my Citrus crop posted a few days ago, and from the Lemon Butterfly cakes. Thought I better put up the recipe for Lemon Butter/Curd.

You will need...

Clean sterilized glass jars.

1 large glass bowl for going in microwave.

330mls of fresh lemon juice (I used 7 large lemons)

8 ozs Butter.

1 lb Sugar.

8 eggs well beaten.

In the large glass bowl stir the sugar into the lemon juice. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the bowl.

Finally, pass the beaten eggs through a sieve, pushing through with a wooden spoon. Throw away the yukky stringy bits from the eggs.

Microwave on high, for a minute at a time, stirring each time too. Until the curd is fairly thick ( it took me 8 minutes in all. Don't be alarmed if it looks a little thin after this time 'cos it does thicken when set in the jars)

Place the hot Butter/Curd into the jars and label.

Will keep for a few months in the fridge, once opened.

This recipe was given to me by a lovely Scottish lady called Rita. (Jaygirl from Violet's Pantry)

Thank you Rita.

Lemon Butterfly Cakes

Cakes:

2 cups S.R. Flour.
3/4 cup Castor Sugar.
2 Eggs.
3/4 cup of Milk.
1/2 cup softened Butter.

2 teasps of Lemon zest.

Fillings:

Lemon curd.

Raspberry jam.

Marmalade.

To finish:

Icing sugar.
Lemon jelly sweets.

Small M & M's.

Method:

Cream the sugar and butter together, add eggs and mix again.
Now put in the milk and mix a little and then slowly,
a little at a time, add the flour. I used my hand held mixer.

Stir in the lemon zest with a spoon.
Place mix into cupcake cases and cook in the oven for
20-25 minutes at 170c

Allow to cool before doing next step.

With a sharp pointed knife, cut out a circle

but not too deep. Cut the circle in half to form

the wings.

Fill the hole with Lemon Butter or as I did, some

raspberry jam and some with marmalade.

Place the wings, and dust with icing sugar.

Now add your decorations.

Done. Enjoy.

Today's Citrus Crop from the Vegie Garden

We are so lucky where we live. We don't have frosts,

although the temperature does drop to around 3c

in winter. But in the summer, it often reached the

high 30c's and one Christmas not so long ago, it

was 52c on Boxing Day. Yes, we melted that year.

Anyway, what I am getting at here, is we are in an

excellent position for growing Citrus. Hot and long

summers, and all we have to worry about is keeping

the water up to them. We do have two water tanks

in now, so that should help us this summer. With

heavy water restrictions here on the coast, we can't

just go and turn a tap on. Much as I would like to

some days.

What do we have in?

Imperial Mandarin. (gave us 23 in second year)

Grapefruit. (second year gave us over 50)

Lime. (third year, too many to count)

Valencia Orange. (third year and over 50)

Meyer Lemon. (hundreds)

Lemonade Lemon. (again, hundreds)

Now I am in a bit of a dilemma, having harvested

today. What do I make?

Fed up of making marmalade and the like.

So will be juicing a load and freezing it.

Orange and Lemon muffins.

Self saucing Lemon pudding.

Lemon chicken, are just a few I have thought of.

That is a Meyer Lemon I am holding, sorry about the picture quality, but my arms weren't long enough to get it in focus properly. LOL, LOL.