Orange Poppyseed Sponge Cake with a Blueberry Glaze

School has been a choccerz term and I have exams next week. Pause. Why is it that whenever I post I always talk about school work or just school in general? Wow. School has taken over my life.
I seriously need to go out and do something. (In baking language that means stay in the kitchen and bake away my sorrows!)

I have exams next week and I haven't done as nearly as much as I should have to prepare for them. Lol, I feel so guilty...
No I don't.

Yeah I do.

Do you know what I like about this cake? You can eat it straight from the pan. No need for those things people call knives and forks.. so fiddly, and so 10 years ago. I prefer to go in with my hands. Totally joking, but with this cake, trust me, it's hard to resist.
I made this for mothers day which we celebrated last week because my family is weird and we got the dates mixed up (I have no idea how considering there are adverts and posters everywhere advertising mothers day.) Hmmm.

But yeah, we celebrated a week early. Last year it was 2 weeks early, I have no idea how. So my theory is that next year we will get it smack bang on the right day. It's a hard concept for my family to grasp..
Um. So anyway, about this cake... the sponge is as light as a feather and it only has 2 eggs. I.e. you don't need to use 20 dozen eggs to make a fluffy sponge cake. You. only. need. two. T W O. 2. two. I don't know how else to say it. Two eggs = you need to make this cake asap.

And also, theres only 50 grams of butter in this cake. 50. grams. of butter. FIFTY. 50. Five-zero.

This is the time when you are supposed to be off your seat jumping for joy because you are able to freely stuff your face to your hearts content knowing that you've only consumes 50 grams of butter for the entire cake! How crazy is that!?

Crazy good.

Oh, and can we also talk about this crazy pool of blueberry madness? Yeah. Blueberries, milk and icing sugar as a glaze heated over the stove and poured straight onto that spongey, feathery, light, heavenly tasting cake. *Wipes drool off chin*

I need to stop ranting, and you need to go make this cake ploise.

Orange Poppyseed Sponge Cake with a Blueberry Glaze

- 50g unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon finely grated orange rind
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- 2 tablespoons poppyseeds
- 1/3 cup reduced-fat milk
- 1/2 tsp of vanilla beans -or- 1tsp of vanilla extract -or- 1/2 vanilla pod

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease a 6cm-deep, 19cm square cake pan. Line base and sides with baking paper.

Place butter, orange rind, sugar, eggs, flour, poppyseeds, vanilla and milk in a large bowl. Stir to combine.

Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Smooth top. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean (cover cake loosely with foil if over-browning during cooking). Remove from oven. Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes.

Blueberry Glaze
- 1/4 cup tinned blueberries (a couple of Tb of juice if you're feeling funky)
- 2 Tb milk
- 1 cup icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)

Place blueberries in a large bowl and smash until juice from berries is out and until berries are left in relatively large pieces. In a seperate bowl, whisk together icing sugar and milk. If mixture becomes too thick, add more milk. Pour in blueberry mixture to icing sugar mixture.
Heat over a stove until mixture begins to bubble, keep a very close eye as it can burn easily. Once ready, take straight off heat and pour straight onto cake that is still in pan.

Quick Coconut Bread Slice

Okay, this took me literally 2 minuites! How often is it that you find a recipe that takes 2 minuites to throw together? Zilch. None. Okay.. very rare. But seriously, there is 4 ingredients in this bread/cake.
And I can eat it. (Whoo!).

Enough with the celebration, and time for the eating.
I just typed in 'coconut bread' into Google, and up came recipes calling for 2 eggs. But I only had one egg. Yea.. Awkward.

So I scrolled down this time (I'm not ususally one for scrolling down the Google pages.. because let's be honest.. you only look at the Top 5 results shown) and came across this little beauty. I really shouldn't be praising this bread just yet, because it's actually still in the oven.

It takes 40 minuites to cook, which kind of makes up for that 2 minuites rush of prepping the thing.

Talking about 4 ingredients, theres actually a book/show of two Australian women who have devised the most amazing recipes out of just 4 ingredients. The website is amazing, and all the ingredients are in the pantry or in the fridge. Frickin' bonus!

I just took it out, and tried it, and it tasted really raw inside, so I just threw it back into the oven to cook a bit more inside...aaand that didn't really cook inside. So I just gobbled it up before anyone could notice.

Coconut Bread Slice
- 1 cup of dessicated coconu
- 1 cup SR flour
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 3/4 cup milk

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius
Combine all the dry ingredients together, and mix. When all combined, add in the milk and stir. The mixture should be a very thick coconutty mixture. Throw the mixture into a greased loaf pan and cook for 40 mins until a knife comes out clean.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

My new year resoloutions start off with a bang. I'm totally ontop of things, on top of the game. Then March comes by, and I tend to get a little slack. By the time April comes around the corner, don't even bother asking.


I suck at keeping resoloutions and goals for myself. I never ever ever in the history of this planet gone for a jog, let alone attempted a sit up. Forget that.

But this year it's different. The tables have turned, I AM going to stick to my resoloutions this year. I'm going to live by them, and learn from them. Hahahah I can't beleive I'm saying all this, by the time Feburary says hello, I'll be exactly the same: lazy and slack.
New Years Resoloutions
1. Do well in school
2. Get a Boyfriend
3. Get fit, and finally go for a jog without breaking down after 2 minutes of running.
4. Be a healthy freak

What are your New Years resoloutions? Make sure you stick to them and don't follow in my lazy footsteps. I don't want to be the one dragging you down.


Carrot cake anyone?

I nearly would of been able to eat these healthy/scrumptious morsels, but the vanilla essence totally ruined it for me.

Urggh! Don't even ask about this picture. I absoloutley suck at putting mixture into patty pans. A simple job for an everyday baker- yet for me, totally different story. Huge globs managed to splat all over the muffin tray and onto the sides of the case, resulting in an ugly looking, but definate crowd pleaser.

Carrot Cake, you know you love it.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

- 2 Eggs

- 1 cup of grated carrot (approx. 2 large carrots)

- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

- 3/4 cup plain flour

- 1/2 tsp bi-carb sodsa

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1 cup of oil (Use any oil, I used sunflower oil)

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Beat together the sugar and eggs until creamy

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes

How many ways are there to describe this chocolate mud cupcake?
I think 4? 
1. Moist
2. Chocolatey
3. Fluffy
4. Did I say Chocolatey?
Yes, I had another baking session on this fine Sunday afternoon, and I fattened up my household.
On another random note..I believe I haven't introduced my little budgie to you have I? How rude of me.
Everyone this is Georgie.

Georgie, this is Everyone.

He's gorgeous isn't he? 

He's a mad chirper and sings like all day everyday. No joke. literally, it gets annoying after a while.


Chocolate mud cupcakes
100g dark chocolate
1 cup water
125g butter, softened
255g brown sugar
3 eggs
225 SR flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 cup of cocoa powder


Method
Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. 
Combine the chocolate and water in a saucepan and stir over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and let cool.
In a separate bowl, cream sugar, butter and eggs until light and fluffy. Add the flours, cocoa powder and the warm chocolate mixture. Stir until all combined.
Spoon evenly into patty pan cases and bake for 20 mins or until skewer comes out clean.
Ice if desired. Or just gobble it all up..

Nice and Iced Chocolate Cupcakes

Hello, I bet you've been missing me..

No? Okay.. what about cake?

Yes. I though that would be the answer.

Here we go: I've started at a new school and all, and there is this Arts day, where anyone can bring got do to with dancing, cooking, photography, painting, drawing, singing.. and the list could go on forever and ever.

But you know me..

First thing I jumped at was cakes. Yessss I had this in the bag, and I was pretty certain I was going to take out first place .... along with second and third of course.

So, everyone has their cake in their hand with the theme of 'chocolate by death' and we're all huddling together, though very cautiously so we dont absoloutley squash our cakes.
This girl was standing next to me, and her cake was incredible.


Understatement.
It was out of this world.


I was so tempted to give her knock so she 'accidently' smooshed her icing all over herself, her uniform and the blue carpet.


But I thought better of it. As I looked around the room in horror, I realised I hadnt put any effort atall in to my cake. I had a really bad cold the night before you see.. so thats the only thing that stopped me producing some sort of chocolate wedding cake that would blow your mind and have you jumping out of your seats.


But no, dissappointment.


I will make a WOW one next year, promise?
Okay, as long as we're both even


p.s please praise my artistic photos, I tried the best I could with that dodgy camera of mine!



Nice and Iced Chocolate Cupakes
-125g butter (room temperature)
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3/4 cup of Caster Sugar
- 2 Cups SR Flour
- 3 heaped tablespoons of Cocoa powder

Method
Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. The butter should be as white as possible. Add the eggs and beat until light and fluffy again. Stir in the sifted flour and milk with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.
Place mixture into patty pans, 3/4 of the way full so they don't totally expand, blow up and mess up your oven with chocolatey goodness..
And bake for 10-15 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean and the top is springy.

Eggless Cinnamon Sponge

Eggless cakes always seem to never work out, they always seem to dry, moist and the taste of bi-carb soda seems super over- powering.
This cake? Never.

Interested? Keep reading and get ready to be delighted

Simple, easy and soo tasty. Sprinkle over the top with cinnamon and your in for a major treat. I was going to go with the trick with slicing the cake in half horizontally and piping in some fresh whipped cream and some strawberry jam.

Nah, the cinnamon worked perfectly.. result!

After all the cake is a vanilla cake, and everything goes well with vanilla.

  Eggless Cinnamon Sponge

Ingredients
- 1 cup of Plain Flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 55 grams of unsalted butter
- 3 Tbs of Caster Sugar
- 1 cup Milk
- 1tsp Vanilla Essence
- 200g of Condensed Milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Cream together the butter and gradually add sugar until light, creamy and fluffy. Blah.. Blahh... Please bear with me, I'll post the recipe soon Okay?

I'm being a lazy bugger today, and I can't seem to bother to do anything.

Hmph.






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