Hummingbird Cake

Hummingbird cake is a favourite of mine. It's most and luscious, and perfect for afternoon tea. Hummingbird cake was created in the American south, where ladies lunches and afternoon teas were once a way of life. The cake will keep for several days in an airtight container.



Ingredients:

450g can crushed pineapples in syrup

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon bi-carb soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon grund ginger

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 cup mashed banana

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup vegetable oil



Cream Cheese Frosting:

40g butter, softened

150 g packaged cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup icing sugar



Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 and grease a 23 cm cake pan

2. Drain pinapple and extract syrup, keep 1/4 cup syrup aside. Also, roughly mash some pineapple, about 1/4 cup.

3. Sift flours, spices and sugar in a bowl.

4. Stir in 1/4 cup syrup, cocunut, banana, egg and oil and pour in pan.

5. Bake, uncovered, for about 40 min.

6. Stand cake for about 5 min then turn onto a wire rack.

7. Make cheese frosting (I combine them into a small blender and mix them together)

6. Spread cake with frosting (make sure it's cold so it doesnt melt!)



Pic's coming soon!

Abbotsford Market

It was a nice sunny day on Saturday in Melbourne. I love September Spring days in Melbourne. We decided to head down to the Abbotsford Convent Slow Food Market. For all you fellow Melbournians, you would agree with me that the Convent is so pretty and the gardens are superb. After having a stroll around the market, we found ourselves a little hungry. 'Lentil as Anything' is situated within the convent. The concept itself of this eatery is entirely different to anywhere that I have eaten before. You basically pay what you think the meal was worth. So, you order, eat, and then leave money in the honesty box! The place itself supports refugees. The food consists of mainly Indian and African cuisine. For the first time I tried African Dhal (yummy), and I also had Indian Dhal, rice and salad. The Abbortsford Slow Food Market is on once a month.

strawberry and ricotta muffins

These muffins are soooooo yummy! Had some fresh ricotta in the fridge, and have been wanting to use ricotta in a sweet / baking dish for a while now. Found this recipe on Taste, I dusted the muffins with icing sugar once they were baked. These muffins are perfect for an afternoon tea with the girls :)

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
375g (21/2 cups) self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
150g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
2 eggs
60g (3 tbs) unsalted butter, melted
250ml (1 cup) milk
1 cup full-fat ricotta
250g punnet strawberries, washed, hulled, quartered

icing sugar, to sprinkle

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Line a 12-hole muffin pan with 12 muffin cases.
Sift the flour and cinnamon into a large bowl. Add the caster sugar and stir to combine.
Place the eggs, butter and milk in a jug and whisk to combine. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Stir three-quarters of the ricotta and strawberries into the mixture. Place heaped tablespoons in each muffin case.
Top each muffin with pieces of remaining strawberries and a little of the remaining ricotta.
Sprinkle top of each muffin with demerara sugar. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Some of my favourite ingredients!

Just took some random pics of ingredients that I use often! My pantry is always stocked with these ingredients - most of them are essential to many of my dishes. It also helps when I'm not really prepared and have to come up with something straight away. I use Sesame oil in most of my Asian dishes - just a few drops gives it that nice taste. I always use it within my spring rolls. Balsamic Vinegar is a god send. I absolutley love it - in salads, as a mariande for chargrilled veggies.... yummy. Soy Sauce, well what can I say - this is definatly an essential ingredient. Bail paste for when I can't make my own pesto, seasoning, salt and pepper.....