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.

Toasted Almond Granola

There are barely any pictures of this delicious breakfast/snack/sweet amazing stuff, because the process is so easy. 3 steps. Chuck in bowl, melt stuff, throw into bowl, bake. Okay.. there's actually 4 steps, but whatever.

I'm eating this right now, for breakfast. At precisely 10.40am in the morning. I'm kind a weird like that. And this stuff is actually pretty sweet. I would definatley tone down on the sugar next time, I'm starting to get a high, maybe thats a good thing, because I'm so tired after last night. I went to a 21st party, which I totally shouldn't have done for 2 reasons;

1. I have a shit load of homework to do, all due tomorrow. Chemistry.. HELP.
2. I'm feeling tired and because of this massive sugar hit, I'm nervous about getting diabetes.

Anyway.. make this, but totally tone down on the sugar if you want to get your chemistry questions done. And your math, and your English. Cool... I'm so organised.

Toasted Almond Granola


makes 8 cups
adapted from Martha Stewart


4 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup slivered raw almonds
1 cup whole raw almonds
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


Method
Place a rack in the upper third and middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line one large or two small baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Whisk together oats, whole almonds, slivered almonds, sweetened coconut cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, melt together butter, oil, honey and brown sugar until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture begins to boil. Carefully whisk together so it’s well incorporated. Add the vanilla extract. Pour the warm mixture over the oat and almond mixture and toss together with a wooden spoon, ensuring that all of the oat mixture gets moistened by the sugar and oil mixture.

Spread mixture onto prepared baking sheet(s) and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, removing the oats to stir and toss on the pan twice during baking. Remove from the oven, let cool and store in an airtight container for up to two weeks. Granola is delicious with milk, yogurt or over ice cream. Yum!

Whole Wheat Molasses Bread

Did you know that Honey is the only food in the world that will never spoil? Yep. Honey was found in tombs in ancient Egypt and was consumed by archeologists. Bizarre.

Did you know that the oldest peice of chewing gum is 9000 years old? Gross, but cool.

Did you know there are more then 10,000 different varieties of tomatoes? Wow. I only thought there was two, the simple red tomato, and the occasional green tomato that I had a glance at as someone was buying it at the grocery market.

Did you know that combining whole wheat flour combined with molasses and yoghurt produces the thickest batter ever? And it pulls muscles in your arm while trying to combine the little shit together? True fact.

Did you know that the Brisbane Floods are so bad that they reached up to 4.7 metres this morning? Horrific.

Thick, eh? Yeah, this is the reason I can barely type any more.. the pulled muscle.

P.s In France people eat approximatley 500,000,000 snails per year. PER YEAR. I think I'm going to hurl.

Whole Wheat Molasses Bread

Adapted from Joy the Baker
makes one 8×4 or 9×5-inch loaf

- 1 2/3 cups buttermilk or plain yogurt
- 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup molasses


Method
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8×4 or 9×5-inch loaf pan. Non-stick baking spray works well too.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt and baking
soda.
In a small bowl whisk together buttermilk or yogurt and molasses.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold to combine. The batter will be slightly thick, but not dry. Spoon batter into prepared pan and place in the oven. Bake loaf for 45 minutes to an hour. Depending on how evenly your oven bakes, you might want to rotate the loaf in the middle of baking. Be careful though. Don’t manhandle it too hard or it might deflate.

When a skewer inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, remove the loaf from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes in the loaf pan. Run a butter knife along the sides of the pan and carefully invert onto a wire rack.

Loaf will keep, well wrapped at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Serve with cream cheese, jam, salted butter or nutella.

P.ps.  Lemons contain more sugar then strawberries.

Butter Roasted Vanilla Sugared Almonds

I haven't slept properly in like 3 nights in a row. It's getting to me. Badly.

A tiny thing will totally set me off. Like Friends, it was scheduled to run at 10.30am. I sat there for two whole minutes waiting for Joey's face to appear.

No such luck. Okay two minuites does not sound like a long time, but trust me, when you are so cranky and irratible it's like... urgghh I don't even know how to explain.

 Friends was not scheduled to run today. The TV guide was wrong.

Don't you hate that? I am in such a fit right now. Honestly, if you could see me right now, you would see how much harm I'm doing to this poor innocent laptop by punching the keyes as I type.

Oh well, tough tits. i'm tired, bored, irratible and way way way to overtired to even bother to have a nap.

But on the other hand, by nibbling on these morsels every few minuites kinda gives you a sugar rush and little bit more energy then sleeping in for a couple of more hours. And remember, your energy is way different from my energy. Chronic Fatigue.. duh!

If you magically happen to be in the same boat as me right about now. Don't fight the angryness inside you, make these now and do a favour to those around you prone to your lash outs of rage of not getting a goodnights sleep.

                                                   

Oh and... the monthly visit of Aunt Flo does not help either. Sugar, vanilla and almonds with a hint of butter.. goodbye back, stomach and neck pain. Hello surge of energy.

Butter Roasted Vanilla Almonds

- 1 cup of raw almonds

- 3 Tb Icing Sugar

- 2 Tb Butter

- 1 tsp vanilla essence, or 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste.

Method

Place the almonda in a large saucepan and cook ovver moderate heat. Stir constantly until the nuts become browner and it is clear that they have been roasted. Also.. bite into some to check it out. Throw in the icing sugar and keep stirring until sugar is melted. Add the vanilla and butter and keep stirring. The end result should be roasted almonds with a caramel-ly sugary finish and a vanilla hit. The butter is not entirely necessary, it just gives the nuts a little shine and glossyness.

Blueberry Granita

The original recipe calls for blackberry, hence the name blackberry granita on Joy the Baker's blog.

But you know me, being rebellious like that, changing the berry type.

"Apparantly" the granita tastes like a slushy with a hint of berry, according to my sister. Well.. seeing as the whole flavour was blueberry I wouldn't be to surprised if there was a berry flavour. :/

I'm totally hooked on the series "True Blood".. so good! I usually hate all that vampire stuff, like twilight. I seriously do not get the craze that all the fans have. But True Blood on the other hand, now that is a totally different story. It's kinda like Desperate Housewives mixed with vampires.

 Totes. Hooked.

I am in love with that colour! Tha deep purply pinky puree tastes even nice then it looks. Seriously. Your in for a real treat. The crunchy ice berry crystals are SO designed for summer. Instead of ice-cream at shops, wh ydon't they sell more granita? I want a granita shop to open in every city around the world.

More icey crystals and less creamy stuff.

I love ice-cream, but c'mon, even the sight of this is enough to make you drool on a hot summers day.

Pretty much a few ingredients, a splash of lemon and a dash of sugar creates a cool fruity summery pleaser. And the bonus is, you probably have all the ingredients already in the kitchen!
 
Except that vodka that you finished on New Years Eve, you should probably buy some more of that...
 
 
Blueberry Granita
                     Adapted from Joy the Baker
 
3 cups water
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 heaping cups frozen blueberries (un-thawed)
juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons vodka (optional)
whipped cream (sweetened as much as you like)

Method
In a medium saucepan heat water and sugar until sugar dissolves. Add frozen blueberries and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes over medium heat. Stir to break blackberries up a bit as they cook.
Once blueberries are broken and cooked, place half of the blackberry and liquid mixture in a blender. Pulse and blend until a berries are broken down into a puree. Place a fine mesh strainer over the pot containing the other half of liquid and berries, and strain the puree into the pan. The end result is berry pieces, whole berries, blueberry liquid and the juice from the puree.
Add lime and vodka (if using). The vodka helps the mixture not freeze so solid, but is not entirely necessary.
Place mixture into a 9×13-inch pan and place in freezer. Set timer for 1 hour. After 1 hour, scrape any ice crystals that have formed towards the center of the pan. Set timer for another hour and again scrape the ice crystals towards the center of the pan.
Continue until all of the liquid has formed ice crystals.

**You can use any type of berry you want! Don't even stop there, go even further, experiment with seasonal fruits and tantalise the taste buds.

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

Ginger Walnut and Coconut Luncheon Biscuits

Made these last night at about 7'oclock because I was craaaving something sweet.

These aren't too sweet, too buttery, or too unhealthy. So, it's a pass for me, something I can eat. And I'm happy about that, who wouldn't be? A walnut crunch and a ginger hit. And if your lucky bits of shredded coconut stuck between your teeth as an extra bonus.

So healthy, so perfect and so versatile. Seriously. The recipe says to put in sultanas. Screw that.

I'm going to do it my way.

My way involves stepping in to the pantry. Looking at the first ingredient you lay your eyes on, Ginger powder. Second ingredient. I decided to wander my eyes up to the second shelf of the pantry, the nut shelf. Welcome walnuts. And I didn't see the coconut, but decided to throw it in anyway for a bit more flavour.

Ginger Walnut and Coconut Luncheon Biscuits

- 2 Tb softened butter

- 1/2 cup of Caster Sugar

- 1 Egg, well beaten

- 1 cup Sultanas (I used 1/2 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup of coconut, dessicated)

- vanilla essence, to taste

- 1 cup of Self Raising flour

- Pinch of salt

- 1/2 tsp of Ginger Powder

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. And grease a baking tray.

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, then fold in the sultanas (walnuts and coconut), vanilla and sifted flour. Add the pinch of salt and the ginger powder, and place heaped teaspoobs of the mixture on to the prepared tray. Cook for 10-15 mins until golden brown.

Pumpkin Scones

Okay, looking at my last post, these I have tried. About 2 minutes ago. I was totally stuffing my face.

These scones are really hard to describe. I'm not even sure we should call it a scone, in reference to the picture above (by the way, how good is my photography!) it looks kinda like a Pumpkin Bun.

It all starts off with a questionable Pumpkin.

Getting the skin off the Butternut Pumpkin was just about the hardest thing I have done.. no joke. The skin was like trying to peel bark off a tree.

Pumpkin in the steamer, butter measured, flour measured and egg cracked.

Job finished. Jobe done. Result? Mmm, not that great but still a tummy filler if you like to heat huuge amounts but don't want to eat anything fattening because you don't want to gian weight. Like me.

Pretty sure I just popped the last one in my mouth like 30 seconds ago. Umm...

Pumpkin Scones

- 60g Butter

- 3/4 cup Pumpkin

- 1 Egg

- 1 Tb sugar

- 2 cups of SR Flour

Preheat oven to 220 degrees celcius. Chop up some pumpkin and place into a steamer. Mash when steamed so your left with a pumpkin puree. Sift flour and sugar into a large bowl, and combine well. Rub butter into your fingers in a motion that seperates it and combines with the dry mixture. Make a well in the middle of the mix and crack an egg, and place the warm steamed pumpkin into the well. Stir with a butter knife, and do not overmix. In the oven for 10-20 minuites or until brown.

Caramelised Peaches

Fruit isn't really my thing. You know how people have ice-cream and fruit?

Yea.. I hate it. I can't mut enough emphasis on it.

Ew.

But I guess we're not really talking about Ice-cream and fruit, as you can see from the title of this post..so this is kinda awkward for mee.  I just wanted to make a point

Okay, a useless point.

I have often heard of caramelised figs, how they go all gooey and ooey inside, releasing a fruit burst when you bite into it. The caramelisation on top of the fruit also gives a sort of chewy taste.

Try this.

Caremelised Peaches

- 2 Medium sized very ripe peaches

- 2Tb of brown sugar

- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder

- 2Tb Dark rum, or Bacadardi

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius, or preheat the grill

Wash Peaches and cut into sixths. Place on a slice pan that is greased with butter.

In a small seperate bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon powder, combine and spoon over the peaches in the pan.

Be sure that all the peaches are covered with the mixture and sprinkle lightly with the rum.

Leave to marinate for 10 minuites, then grill and serve when peaches are slightly charred, and the sugar is totally caremelised.

Homemade Bread

Not everyday is great...for example, I've got 2 exams tomorrow.. negative.
I'm feeling tired and unmotivated to study... negative.
And I'm craving something sweet, even though I haven't even had dinner yet...Definate negative.

I'm stressing so badly for tomorrows exams. Chemistry and Biology. Mmm.. Biologys not too bad, but Chemistry? Kill yourself, ecspecially if your studying Organic Chemistry.
I can't even hear what the teachers saying half the time, it seems to come out in a totally different language, and when she makes eye contact with me, I just give a quick nod as if to mean that I understood everything she just said.

Which I totally didn't. Now I'm regretting not trying to understand her scientific language.. because if I didn't already say.. I'VE GOT AN EXAM TOMORROW!

To other news.. a couple of days ago I made a Cinnamon Date loaf of bread, and forgot to post, because I was studying Chemistry. Note the sarcasm.

Anyway, I'm trying to cheer myself up by listening to some Glee songs, and a few Dana Glover hits.

Yes, sad I know, I'm totally self loathing.. but what am I supposed to do?

My Chemistry teacher is going to hate me forever.
On a lighter note.. try this.

Please, do it for me and my Chemistry exam. I'm so not motivated to study.. soooo.. Facebook? Gosh I'm so slack.

The recipe will be posted soon .. but til them I'm enjoying the freedom of not having to study for exams!