This pudding is so easy to whip up in a flash: all the ingredients are basic pantry staples that can be thrown together when you want a dessert (without going out to buy extra ingredients). But don’t be fooled, this is one delicious dish! For something a little different, add some chopped nuts to the batter. Serves 4 – 6

P.S. Apologies for the photo, it turned out really, really orange. The pudding is not that orange in real life! I had to take the pic on DH’s phone, the camera didn’t have any battery charge left.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C and grease a 1 litre oven dish.
2. Combine sugar and flour. Add the wet ingredients (the milk, butter, egg and syrup) to the flour and sugar and mix to a smooth batter. Pour batter into baking dish.
3. For the sauce, combine sugar and cornflour and sprinkle evenly over the pudding. Mix the golden syrup and the boiling water together until the syrup has dissolved, then pour evenly over the sugar mixture.
4. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes or until the cake forms on top of the sauce and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

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We are a little bit spoilt here in Queensland. We’re at a crossover point at the moment where the strawberry season is just about to finish and mango season is just starting. The fruit in this salad is all local or close by, even the honey is Australian wildflower honey. And the taste is sublime. Recipe for one.

Method

1. Combine
2. Eat
3. 

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I found this recipe at Tammy’s Recipes (who got it from A Mummy’s Blessings) after a reader recommended Tammy’s website. This slice made it to our family favourites list without any discussion, it was immediately loved, and I’ve made it dozens of times in the last few months (Hmm, I think I’ll go and make some now).

I baked this slice and froze it when I was still pregnant, in order to have something to give guests after the little fella was born (it defrosts well by the way). After tea one day, I watched my dad surreptitiously transfer the leftover pieces to his own Tupperware container while he thought nobody was watching. Later, he gave me back our container saying ‘Here. I washed it up for you!” Hmm, thanks. It’s a popular slice.

I’ve altered the recipe a little bit to suit our tastes (and I’ve written it up here in metric and Celsius). I use wholemeal flour, raw or rapadura sugar (if I have it in the cupboard) as both have a much nicer flavour than white sugar, and I chop a chocolate bar rather than use choc chips. Choc chips are less work and still taste great, but choc bits that you cut yourself are smaller and mix through the slice better. And then there is all the chocolate crumbs that make the whole slice yum.

This looks like a ‘health’ bar as some people have commented when I’ve served it. You will notice that it has quite a lot of sugar though, so not exactly healthy, but we eat it a lot anyway and at least it’s got real ingredients in it.

Check out Tammy’s Kitchen for the original version of this recipe and lots more great recipes.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a lamington tray with a little butter.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Sift in flour and baking soda. Add the meal left in the sifter and combine.
4. Stir in the oats and the chopped chocolate. This is a pretty stiff mixture, too stiff, I think, for electric beaters. A wooden spoon is good for this job.
5. Press the mixture into a lamington tin spreading evenly over the base of the tin.
6. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until golden and set in the middle.
7. Cut into 24 squares and cool (or eat).
8. Hide leftovers.

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These little cakes are dense and moist, more of a desert cake than a morning tea cake. I usually make one large cake, but because they are so moist, it can take a long time to cook, so mini cakes cut the cooking time.

Any berries will do: raspberries, blue berries or in this case mixed frozen berries. Alternatively, use fresh berries if you can.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). Grease 12 muffin holes or a standard cake tin.
2. Cream butter. Add sugar and vanilla and beat well.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add sifted flour and mix well, then add the sour cream and lemon juice and mix until combined.
4. Fold in berries.
5. Spoon into muffin holes, filling 3/4 of the way. Alternatively, spoon into prepared cake tin. Bake muffin sized cakes for 30 minutes or until golden and cooked though, or cake for 40 minutes to 1 hour until golden and cooked through.
6. Invert, cool and dust with icing sugar to serve.

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The wonderful thing about living in this part of the world is that despite being winter, the strawberry season has just started and will continue until November. Even the early strawberries are tasting great, the ones pictured came farm fresh from a local grower not far up the road.

This recipe was one bought to my attention by a friend and the original can be found at the Taste.com website. As their recipe suggested, I substituted lemon juice with liqueur (I don’t need much prompting to use a bit of grog in my cooking) and I also changed the granita biscuits for choc ripple. I made the cheesecakes the day before and the biscuits went a little soggy, but in a good way, the choc flavour mellowed and went really well with the strawberry filling. I also use raw sugar (I think it tastes way better than white sugar). To make it ‘castor’ give it a quick wizz in a coffee grinder or blender.

The recipe is for six, but I found I could get eight out of this recipe, nine if I hadn’t licked the spoon, although I think I used regular sized muffin tins. I don’t have electric mixers, I found this recipe only takes five minutes even beating with a wooden spoon.

Method

• Mix the strawberries, liqueur and sugar well, dissolving the sugar. Set aside in the fridge to macerate.
• Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 6 large muffin holes with a paper patty case each.
• Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and liqueur until light and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time.
• Place a biscuit at the base of each muffin hole, pressing down firmly. Top with cream cheese mixture.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until slightly risen and just beginning to crack on the surface. The cheesecakes will sink a little on cooling.
• Set aside to cool completely. Refrigerate for one hour or until chilled. Top with strawberries, a drizzle of the marinade liquid and serve with a dollop of cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

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This is a slice recipe I found in an old magazine. I made this for Mother’s Day. My mum reminded me that she used to make this all the time, but with peanuts, which is probably why I can’t remember as I’m not a fan of peanuts in deserts.

This slice is very sweet (anything that involved a can of condensed milk is going to be sweet), but quite moorish nevertheless. And it got gobbled up before I got a chance to take a picture.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F). Grease and line a 26cm x 16cm lamington pan
2. Combine butter, vanilla and brown sugar in a bowl, sift flour and baking powder and mix with butter mixture.
3. Press the mixture into the pan with your fingertips. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden. Let cool for 5 minutes.
4. Roughly chop the chocolate. Sprinkle chocolate and almonds evenly over the cooked base.
5. Drizzle condensed milk evenly over chocolate and almonds.
6. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until golden. Cool completely and cut into squares.

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Creating Hours: Time Management For Busy Parents

Creating hours isn’t the usual time management strategy of calendars and schedules. Instead it provides tips and tricks that help you gain control over your time so that those extra minutes here and there add up to extra spare hours over the week, spare hours to read, relax, do hobbies or whatever you please. More than that, this downloadable eBook is tailored to parents who have to deal with the ‘unscheduled’ everyday little emergencies that happen when raising children. For more information click here.

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This was one of my Christmas day contributions, an old fashioned English Trifle. Always a hit, there are endless variations to a trifle, basically it’s just layers of yumminess.

I nearly did morrello cherries and kirsch, but stuck with the traditional after all.

Make this one day ahead to allow for the liquid to be absorbed by the cake.

Method

1. Make jelly according to packet directions and pour into a shallow dish and refrigerate until set. Cut into bite sized cubes.
2. Line a 1ltr glass bowl with cake. Sprinkle cake with sherry (or whatever you have on hand) and brush with peach syrup.
3. Pour half the custard over the cake, top with the jelly and then about 2/3 of the peaches and then the remaining custard.
4. Top with remaining peaches, whipped cream and grated chocolate. Refrigerate overnight.

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Love to indulge in chocolate? Yep, me too! And what better desert for Valentine’s Day than a rich and creamy mousse. Sorry about the lack of photo, I was going to make this again for Valentine’s Day, but forgot I’m not supposed to eat uncooked egg at the moment.

To get the best flavoured mousse, splurge on the best quality chocolate you can find. Valrhona is a popular brand when it comes to making these things, but I’ve never seen it anywhere (I don’t think it’s a supermarket staple) so I use Lindt when I want good chocolate. And don’t spoil it by using any non-fat light cream stuff! Use the real deal.

Vary this mouse with the type of liqueur you add (or leave it out altogether (DH is not a rum fan). Cointreau or it’s alternative will give a nice Jaffa flavour, whiskey actually makes a nice accompaniment to chocolate, Tia Maria or Kahlua will give a mocha flavour, or Frangelico for a hazelnut flavour. Alternatively, you could use white chocolate instead of dark (I’d probably ditch the added sugar though).

Method

1. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl that has been set over a pot of simmering water. Ensure that the bowl isn’t touching the water. Leave to cool. You want the chocolate cool enough so it won’t scramble the eggs, but still runny.
2. Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is thick, pale and increased in volume. Electric beaters are good here (it takes about 5 minutes) but a whisk works fine (and works your arm).
3. Using a metal spoon, fold the chocolate and the rum into the eggs, leave the mixture to cool further.
4. Gently fold in the whipped cream until just combined.
5. Spoon into ramekins or desert glasses and refrigerate for for 2 hours or until set.
6. Serve with extra whipped cream and garnish with grated chocolate.

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I threw this quick apple crumble together the other night while I was cooking dinner, had it in the oven in 10 minutes and it was ready just after we had finished dinner. Cooking from scratch doesn’t need to take a long time or be complicated. And of course it tastes better and is healthier than the store bought alternative.

The measurements are given as a guideline but I didn’t measure as I cooked this so taste as you go and adjust to suit how you enjoy your crumble. You may need to adjust the sugar level with the apples anyway depending on what variety of apples you have and how naturally sweet they are. If you don’t have lemon leave it out, it adds an extra dimension to the flavour, but isn’t necessary, substitute the cinnamon for nutmeg or cardamom or allspice if you prefer.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
2. Core, peel and chop the apples. In a saucepan add apples, sugar, lemon and cinnamon.
3. Simmer apples until soft or to the texture that you prefer.
4. Meanwhile combine the flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon and rub together with your fingers to get a ‘breadcrumb’ like consistency.
5. Pour apple mixture into greased oven dish or individual dishes, sprinkle with crumble mixture and bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden.

Variations

• Add sultanas or other dried fruit for variety
• You can use any fruit that you have on hand like berries (fresh or frozen) pears, peaches, plums etc.
• To make this dish even quicker, use tin fruit. No need to cook just drain.
• Add rolled oats or crushed nuts to the crumble mixture for more texture. You may need to add a little extra butter to get the right consistency.

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Method

1. Line a pie dish or flan tin with pastry. Blind bake and cool.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar until well combined. Add cream and whisk to combine. Add lemon juice and zest. Whisk well to combine.
3. Pour into prepared pastry base. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes at 150°C.
4. Cool and serve

The bigger the tart tin, the thinner the filling, but it is a very rich and ‘tart’ tart so a little goes a long way. Using a store bought pastry case will mean that this dish will take less than 5 minutes to prepare.

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