The stand in Blogger...

In Cheryl’s absence, I have taken it upon myself in the name of continuity to submit a baking blurb. Emma her authorised offspring, did offer, but due to the fact that she “has a life’ has been unable to deliver….

My life’s baking work this week was a batch of plum and kiwifruit muffins. A strange mix? *Plums had been defrosted and were begging cooking and the kiwifruit was ripe as and ready to rhumba. *Last of the plums from the tree that had been unceremoniously removed from our neighbouring section this year.

The fruit was drained as previous batches that were too sloppy ended up soft after cooking too. The recipe was my stock standard fresh fruity muffins page 48 in my handwritten recipe book I have had for over 20 years.

As always I was in a rush to go somewhere so left the removal from the oven and muffin pans to the eldest offspring. Torn between her inexperience and my need to leave, I opted for the latter in an effort to enhance her cooking skills. It wouldn’t take much to beat mine and we returned later to some distorted, almost blackened remnants. They tasted okay but weren’t too pleasing to the eye.

I can vouch for the nutritional value but the eating pleasure was more on a, “Geez, isn’t there anything else to eat?” basis.

Come back Cheryl, I’m hungry!

Week Twenty Three.....Bill the Pom

Well yesterday was Bills birthday....for those of you who don't know, Bill is married to my sister Sharyn, (yes she's the older one!). He turned 50 so on Thursday night I went to bed armed with recipe books and proceeded to plan his cake. I came across an interesting chocolate cake with vodka infused cranberries and thought it sounded delicious and a little different. After noticing that the cranberries had to be soaked in the vodka over night, I leapt out of bed and rummaged through the liquor cabinet for some vodka....found some mango vodka (sounds gross ay!) and made the preparations for the making of this birthday treat. My Friday was shaping up to be extremely busy with ten million things to do for our impending trip away, so I laid everything out on the bench so that I had a head start in the morning.

As the cock crowed the next day, I was frantically melting chocolate and whipping up a treat.

It really did sound like a lovely cake, but I made the biggest mistake of all. I set the timer for 15 minutes too long and out came an extremely dry looking, slightly dark chocolate cake.

Feeling very annoyed with myself, I smothered it with chocolate icing and hoped for the best. Took it around to Bill last night, who had just a few of his nearest and dearest around to celebrate the big 5 0. I escaped long before the cake was cut and I am still awaiting the verdict on the taste.............

We head off tomorrow for a while so Mother Maderia is taking a break from making cakes and leaving it in the very capable hands of Emma. So she can write this blog for you all to follow over the next few weeks. Bye bye for now...take care...xxx

P.S Bill just called with his view on how the cake tasted. A tad dry when it is cut but after putting a piece in the microwave for a short moment, it was exquisite. How cool is that!

Week Twenty Two....Queens Birthday

Even though it is the Queens birthday this weekend, my cake (or cakes) have an Italian theme, which is great as we will be in that general vacinity next week!

Daughter Emma came home from work on Friday with two recipes given to her from a colleague so I thought I would make them both. The first one is titled 'Ciambella'. " A traditional cake baked in a ring tin, made by housewives throughout Italy for centuries, adding different ingredients depending on the desired flavour. In this version the combination of chocolate and orange is delicious." (so the article says)

The next recipe was called simply 'Mama Mia'. "Regular diners at Il Felice restaurant in ChCh will be mouthwateringly familiar with this trifle-style cake. Its been a hot favourite on the dessert menu for about 10 years."

What a wicked dessert! Very rich ingredients and I think it will go very well along side the Ciambella Cake.

We were invited to our very hospitable friends' place for the ChCh SBS marathon after match function yesterday, so I came armed with my two creations and later proceeded to dish out huge quantities on to plates for those who ran in the marathon. I felt they deserved the calories!

The Mama Mia didnt set too well and looked like a large dollop of whipped cream but the taste was something else. It had a rum, chocolate, cream cheese flavour with a hint of coffee.

Well done to those who ran in the Marathon and many thanks to Greg and Julie for such a lovely afternoon.

We take off for Europe on Sunday for three weeks, time for one more cake before we go. Have a great week.

Week Twenty One

Two weeks to go until we head away for the best part of a month to cycle through, up and down the mountains of France and Italy. The wet week that has just been, has put a damper on our training regime and had us lugging our bikes around to our lounge for a spin class. Was a lot of fun but we are chomping at the bit to get out in the fresh air! And fresh it will be!

But that has absolutly nothing to do with this weeks cake idea. I noticed rhubarb in the vege section of our local New World, so rhubarb cake it is.

The baking recipe book had four rhubarb cakes on offer, one with custard, another with ginger. I opted for the plain Rhubarb cake and it is very moist and delicious. There is only 60gm of butter in this creation, low fat yoghurt, brown sugar and of course rhubarb providing the roughage!

We will try it tonight with a little yoghurt on the side.

This weeks cake keeps very well, so should you be out and about and find me at home, then come on in for a taste!

Week Twenty...Happy Birthday Trudy

I thought of doing a rendition of our wedding cake since it was 27 years this week since the first one, but that would have been as corny as it sounds! The suggestion came from Emma, our first born. That lead me to recall how the top layer of our wedding cake was kept in an air tight container and bought out and re iced for her christening. I took it to a lovely lady to have it iced and she had to break the news that the cake was totally ruined and smelly.......so much for that great idea and a new cake was made for the occasion.

Anyway, back to the present.....Our very dear friend Trudy, turned another year older today and her favourite cake of all time is carrot. There is a very simple butterless recipe in one of the many cake books I have, so we took it around this morning and stayed for a sample. Very nice, if I do say so myself!!! So Happy Birthday Trudy, it is lovely to be able to make YOU a cake for once as you are the queen of catering and have turned out many a delicious cake over the years for us.

I ended up coming home with another recipe book. I have been trying to get my hands on this book for quite some time ..... 'Fuel for your Family The Waihi Cooks'. I notice there are 9 cake recipes in it so I will try one for next week. Until then, take care.

The Nineteenth Week

I did not have any idea what to make this week.

There was no major event that happened this week that warranted a cake, and no funny story that triggered a cake idea. So I sent a text to a couple of friends and Kerry was the first to answer, 'something low in fat'. After telling her not to be so boring I actually thought that was a good idea. To me, low in fat is using less butter. I consulted what is proving to be one of the best cake recipe books I have, 'A Treasury of New Zealand Baking', and found on page 212 a Sweet Orange Angel Food Cake which has no butter at all.

Sunday morning while everyone else was sleeping as the much needed rain fell, I made this cake. Was fun to make as the base is a pavalova consistancy. Resulting in a very light spongy textured cake. Friends arrived at 4 and I served the cake with whipped cream and vanilla yoghurt. I recommend a glass of bubbles on the side.

Sorry there is none left to share!

Week Eighteen

This week has given me so many reasons to make a cake. Daughter ran her first half marathon in a brilliant time of 1.51, eldest son took off on his life experience to South America and beyond, and it was mothers day!

So I went with Emmas choice from this months Cuisine magazine and called it 'Marathon Farewell Mothers Cake'.

Not very original really is it?

It tastes quite lovely really, served with blackcurrent couli and marscapone.

We awoke this morning to a text from Adam in Miami on his way to Ecuador and is bag is still in Washington! Ha brilliant! He has been flying since leaving here on Saturday and should get to final destination tea time tonight our time.

Back to the cake....that is pear quarters on the top of the cake and the main flavour is almonds.