Some Sweetness & Some Light

Little things, delicious things, thoughtful things and wonderful things that have brought some sweetness and some light to life this week. It began with rainbows...

A magical double rainbow.

Not one but two beautiful rainbows arching over a lush green paddock. Just one rainbow is a wondrous thing so two made me feel ever so fortunate to be standing in this particular spot on this particular morning. 

Pink icing & sugary flowers on Mothers' Day.

A little vanilla cake, simple and sweet, for a Mothers' Day afternoon tea. It was purchased from a little local bakery that we want to support in our community. A slice served with vanilla ice-cream, fresh raspberries and one of those little marzipan hearts was such an special treat!

An old toffee tin that arrived in the post.

I 💗vintage tins! This one is an old toffee tin. Holding seeds for me and foreign coins for my collecting boy, it arrived in the post during the week. Such a sweet gift from a very dear friend. (It seems that Molly Bushell, featured in the logo on the front of the tin, began making toffees in 1753!)

 A cluster of tiny yarrow flowers.

Feathery green leaves and tiny white flowers with mustard-y yellow centres. Yarrow is such a pretty plant. It's just coming into bloom in my garden now. The bees and I are ever so happy!

Homemade chocolate chip slice.

An afternoon tea slice homemade with simple ingredients. A newly discovered recipe that's quick and easy to bake and that is equally as good with a glass of icy cold milk as it is with a hot chocolate. (I'll post the recipe soon.)

A little green frog atop a rock in my birdbath.

Seeing my week included both rainbows and a little green frog, a gift from my boy on Mothers' Day, there is one more lovely thing to share with all of you. Here is the very unique sound of that ever-so-famous Muppet, Kermit-the-Frog, and his song, Rainbow Connection. I hope it brings you a smile. 🌈

Meg

Simple & Sweet Chocolate Fudge

A sweet, homemade fudge makes a lovely gift. This one is so simple; just a few ingredients melted together form a creamy, chocolatey treat. No candy thermometer required!

A little box of homemade chocolate fudge...

with peppermint crisp shards on top!

There are just a few simple steps to making this creamy chocolate fudge. I followed the recipe, for 3 Minute Chocolate Fudge, from the Chocolate, Chocolate & More website. It really does only take a few minutes!

Here's how to make it:

Put 400g condensed milk (one tin) & 2 cups dark chocolate chips 

into a microwave safe bowl.

Melt on high in microwave for one minute. Stir gently to combine.

Heat for another 30 seconds if needed to melt all chocolate chips.

Add one teaspoon vanilla extract & stir until well combined.

Cut up or crush topping for your fudge.

Carefully pour fudge into lined slice tray.

Sprinkle topping on & gently press into surface of the fudge.

After an hour or so in the refrigerator, your simple and sweet chocolate fudge should be set and ready to cut into squares. Keep in an airtight container and try to resist sampling too many pieces before packaging up your homemade fudge. 😉

To make my fudge that little bit more special, I topped it with the minty shards of a peppermint crisp. For a festive fudge, you could top with a crushed candy cane or some chopped dried fruits or nuts. 

Packaged up beautifully it makes a sweet, homemade gift for birthdays or Christmas. 

Meg

A Simple Sponge Cake

We had a bit of a celebration here over the weekend and I made this simple sponge cake, filled with jam and iced with unsweetened, fresh cream and a circle of tiny chocolate buttons. Simple and soooo good!

A slice of a simple &  scrumptious sponge cake.

Iced with fresh cream, tiny chocolate buttons & a flurry of chocolate flakes.

The recipe for the sponge cake is just a doubling of the base cake for this cheesecake sponge. You need eggs, sugar, plain and self raising flours, cornflour and lots of whipped air! 

Here's the adjusted recipe for the sponge:

Grease and line a medium-sized round cake tin. Preheat your oven to 180C. Beat 4 eggs until thick and creamy. Gradually add 2/3cup caster sugar while beating until sugar dissolved. Gently fold in 4 Tablespoons each of sifted plain flour, self raising flour and cornflour. Spoon mixture into prepared cake tin and spread evenly over base. Bake for approximately 20mins. Remove from oven when lightly golden. Rest cake for a few minutes before turning out cake and cooling on a wire rack.

Beat eggs 'til very frothy.

 Beat in sugar until pale and creamy.

Sift three flours into whisked eggs & sugar. 

Fold flours gently into  

 Pour mixture into prepared cake tin.

Bake until lightly golden.

Once the sponge cake has cooled, you can make it into something special in lots of different ways. I chose that classic combination of strawberry jam, cream and a little chocolate for my cake:

 Cut cake carefully in half and spread with jam.

Spread reassembled cake with very thickly whipped cream. 

Grate dark chocolate over the cream & add a ring of tiny chocolate buttons.

Sponge cakes, all light and airy, are just perfect for special celebrations. Instead of icing with thick cream, you can dust them with icing sugar as Cheryl, over at A Simply Good Life, did for her birthday high tea. Or perhaps, instead of strawberry jam, you'd rather fill them with slices of fresh strawberries to make a strawberry sponge cake like the one Rhonda, over at Down to Earth, enjoyed for her special birthday this year. Next time I make a sponge (...I'm just waiting for any excuse...), I think I will fill it with cream and drizzle tangy passionfruit icing over it to make this delicious looking Passionfruit Sponge I found over at SBS Food. How utterly indulgent!

The next "excuse" for sponge cake here will coincide with an almost-80th birthday to be celebrated in July. Best save some passionfruit pulp in the freezer for that occasion!

Meg

Apricot Jam Drops

Jam drops, those little biscuits with a fingerprint-sized puddle of jam in the middle, have been among my favourite biscuits since I was small. Batches of them, round and filled with jewel-coloured jams, would be baked in the old stove ready for morning and afternoon teas. They were always hard to resist; I could never wait for the jam to be cool enough before sampling one and so regularly burnt my mouth on them. Dangerous biscuits! 

My favourite jam drops are those filled with golden, tangy apricot jam. Oh, how I love apricot jam! Of course, you can fill the fingerprints you press into the little balls of biscuity dough with any or all of your favourite jams ~ strawberry, raspberry, plum, blackberry or any other jam you fancy. For me though, apricot will always be the best!

Homemade apricot and strawberry jam drops.

Kathy, over at Our Simple and Meaningful Life, recently made these delicious jam drops and I felt a batch at our place was sorely needed for I haven't made them in awhile. In the recipe my mother made, and that I learned to cook, the butter and sugar are creamed together. The recipe I make now, and which I adapted from one by Deborah Wray (founder of Wray Organics) begins with a different process. Here is how I make our jam drops now:

Apricot Jam Drops

80g coconut oil (heated very gently if not already in liquid state)

50g coconut sugar (or brown sugar)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups white spelt flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

apricot jam (or any favourite jam)

1.   Preheat oven to 160C.

2.   Line two biscuit trays.

3.  Beat coconut oil, coconut sugar and eggs until mixture is thick and creamy.
     (Make sure your coconut oil is not too hot so that you don't cook the eggs in it!)

4.  Sift spelt flour and baking powder.

5.  Add sifted flour to coconut oil mixture and mix well to form a soft dough.

6.  Roll tablespoons of dough into balls, placing them on biscuit trays.

7.  Press your fingerprint into the top of each little ball of biscuit dough to make a place for

      puddles of jam.

8.  Fill each fingerprint with apricot jam.

9.   Bake for 15mins or so until biscuits are lightly golden.

10. Leave to cool slightly on baking trays before using an egg flip to transfer to wire rack to 

       finish cooling.  Store in airtight container in the fridge (particularly if you live in a warm
       climate).

Creamy coconut oil, coconut sugar and eggs.

Adding flour to form a soft biscuit dough. 

Fingerprints waiting to be filled!

Little puddles of apricot jam. Mmm ...

Delicious!

Remember to wait for the biscuits to cool before sampling any of these little jammy treats...otherwise you may end up burning your mouth on one too!

Meg

A Different Kind of Chocolate Cake

From a tin of red kidney beans, found floundering in the pantry and not quite out-of-date, came this scrumptious chocolate cake. Gluten free, moist, dark and chocolaty! The red kidney beans replace the flour one would normally incorporate into a cake batter. After it's been baked though, you'd never know!

Different but soooo good!

The recipe for this different kind of chocolate cake was developed by Sarah Wong over at Clever Cook.  I'm not sure what inspired her to make chocolate cake with red kidney beans ... perhaps she had a tin of these beans that needed using up too! She calls her creation the Magic Bean Cake. I think that's an apt description of the alchemy that happens while this cake bakes.  There's no trace of those kidney beans (and believe me, my son would soon uncover them if they were there).  

While her recipe is written for the Thermomix, it would be very easy to make this cake with a food processor. The red kidney beans just need to be whizzed up well with water, egg and vanilla until smooth. The butter and sugar can be creamed with a simple hand mixer or by hand. And a bowl and wooden spoon would work just as well for mixing in the dry ingredients.  Add a luscious icing, like this easy and velvety Chocolate Fudge Icing, and you have a cake worthy of doing birthday cake honours!

Adding the finishing touches!

(With candles it was even more special!)

I hope there's a piece of cake waiting for you somewhere in your weekend. I'd share a slice of this one with you but the only evidence left by birthday boy and his friends were their smiles ... and a few crumbs!

Meg

Chocolate Chip & Coconut Cookies

The chocolate chip cookies I favour the most are those made with nuts.  (I'm sure it's just me but they seem a little healthier if there's a macadamia or a walnut in the biscuit somewhere!) I can't bake nutty biscuits for my son's school lunchbox though because his school, along with many others these days, is a nut-free zone.  As we are preparing to go back to school next week, school baking for the freezer is underway. So, these simple chocolate chip & coconut cookies are a delicious alternative for an occasional lunchbox treat. 

Delicious!

The recipe that I tinkered with is one I came across on the Kidspot website.  The biscuit dough is made in the typical way with the creaming of the butter and sugar, beating in of eggs and the addition of the dry ingredients. I changed the recipe by using a blend of white and wholemeal spelt flours, reducing the sugar and substituting coconut sugar for brown sugar. As always, I used dark chocolate chips because they are our favourites but any chocolate-y chips will do!  Here's how they came together in my kitchen:

Chocolate Chip & Coconut Cookies

125g softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup white spelt flour

1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup dessicated coconut

1/2cup dark chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to moderate 180C.  Line biscuit trays.

2.  Cream butter, sugar and vanilla with a mixer until pale and fluffy.

3.   Add eggs, one at a time. Mix each egg in well.

4.   Add flours, baking powder, coconut and chocolate chips. 

5.  Mix well until thoroughly combined in a soft dough.

6.  Place tablespoons of mixture onto lined biscuit trays.

7.  Bake until just golden.  Cool on a wire rack then store in an airtight container.

Ssh!  Scrumptious!

As soon as they are cool enough, pour yourself an icy cold glass of milk or make yourself a cup of tea and sample one of your freshly-baked cookies before anyone else discovers them!

Meg

An Indulgent High Tea for Three

In the expansive grounds of the historic Sydney home, Vaucluse House, there are lovely tearooms where one can enjoy an old-world "high tea" just perfect for special occasions. Spending time with two of my oldest and closest friends on a weekend get-together in Sydney, a rare occasion and a treasured time, was all the excuse we three needed to indulge ourselves. 

Together with glasses of bubbles, to toast our long-lasting friendship (of course;)  and pots of warming teas, we relaxed and reminisced as we sampled each tiny treat of our high tea. One of everything and two scones!

Tiers of indulgent treats for our special high tea.

The tearooms were built in the 1930s.

 Beautifully laid tables inside the tearooms.

The tempting menu and a pretty teacup.

Something savoury ... a tiny & perfect pumpkin tart.

(My favourite!)

Somethings sweet!

(I would recommend the little doughnuts with elderflower cheesecake filling.)

We oohed and aahed as we tried each little treat from our tiered cake stand. Unhurried and happy! My friends expressed similar delight at their pots of spiced and flowery teas. While I am not normally a tea drinker, I sipped a marsala chai and quite liked its cinnamony notes. 

Just a few crumbs left!

After such a delicious time, a long walk was in order, if for no other reason than to assuage the surprise at having eaten so much. Hence, we set off for a long and leisurely stroll around Vaucluse House and its beautiful grounds. Those photos another time ...

Meg

"Cheesecake" Sponge

Creamy, sweet "cheesecake" on top and light, airy sponge cake underneath makes for a divine dessert! 

A very special treat!

This is one of those recipes that I left home with; scribbled down on a scrap piece of paper and tucked into an old folder that was, at that time, my recipe book. I've been making it for special occasions ever since though I don't know why it's called a cheesecake when there is no cheese in it at all!

Homemade sponge cake for the base. 

For the sponge:

Grease and line a springform pan. Preheat your oven to 180C. Beat two eggs until thick and creamy. Gradually add 1/3cup caster sugar while beating until sugar dissolved. Gently fold in 2Tablespoons each of plain flour, self raising flour and cornflour. Spoon mixture into prepared pan and spread evenly over base. Bake for 20mins. Turn out cake and cool on a wire rack but return to your re-lined springform pan when you are ready to pour topping on.

 Smooth, lemony "cheesecake" mixture.

For the "cheesecake" topping:

Beat 300mL of a thick cream until soft peaks form. Fold in one tin of condensed milk and then generous 1/4cup of lemon juice. *Topping should thicken as you fold in the lemon juice.* Pour over the cooled sponge base and smooth out evenly. Carefully cover the top of the springform pan with a plate and place in fridge for topping to set which takes several hours.

 One on top of the other!

Ready to set in the fridge.

Once your "cheesecake" sponge is ready, after you've removed the side of your springform pan and lining paper, you should be able to carefully slide it onto a serving plate with the aid of an egg flip or two. 

You can jazz up its creamy topping with fresh fruit like berries or passionfruit which have a tang that balances out the sweetness of this dessert. When I made it for Fathers' Day last weekend, I popped some little raspberries on top and served it with a dollop of homemade passionfruit butter.  A small slice is plenty but you might want to hide any leftovers!

Do you have a dessert that you save for special occasions at your place?

Meg

p.s. Over on her Down to Earth blog, Rhonda has a recipe for making your own condensed milk at home. 

Simple Cereal Slice

Another weekend ... another simple slice! Just a few basic ingredients, together with crushed wheat breakfast biscuits (and the saved crumbs from the bottom of the cereal packet) is all you need to make this Simple Cereal Slice. Afternoon tea will be ready in a jiffy!

Squares of Simple Cereal Slice.

This is another slice my Mum would make often and that I learned to cook as a young girl. The recipe comes from my well-used copy of "Day to Day Cookery" with a few of my 'adjustments' here and there. Here's how I made it:

Simple Cereal Slice

1 cup flour (white spelt or plain)

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 wheat breakfast biscuits + saved crumbs from bottom of cereal packet)

1 cup dessicated coconut

1/3 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar

150g melted butter

1.   Preheat oven to 180C. Line a slice tray.

2.   Sift flour and baking powder together into a mixing bowl.

3.  Crush wheat breakfast biscuits under a rolling pin until fine crumbs. Add to mixing bowl.

4.   Mix coconut and brown sugar in to other dry ingredients.

5.   Melt butter over gentle heat in small saucepan. 

6.   Make well in centre of dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and pour in melted butter.

7.  Mix until slice ingredients well combined.

8.   Press mixture firmly into bottom of slice tray.

9.   Bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned.

10. Cool before icing. (You can make a simple lemon icing or melt a little white chocolate to

      spread over the top.)

11. Cut your slice into fingers and share with everyone ☺

This is such a quick and easy slice to make. It's great too for using up those crumbs left in the bottom of the cereal packet that may otherwise go to waste. A little icing too and something quite plain like this becomes quite delicious. 

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Meg

Simple & Sweet Chocolate Slice

A sweet chocolate slice, made from a few simple pantry ingredients and some butter, is quite a nostalgic treat here. My mother made this, from her trusty and somewhat splattered "Day to Day Cookery" book, when we were small and I remember it being one of the first things I learnt to cook. I make it rarely now, but when I do, it's a happy treat that disappears very quickly!

 Pieces of deliciousness!

My Mum gave me a copy of the "Day to Day Cookery" book when I left home and, I'm proud to say, my copy is now just as splattered as hers! I've tinkered with the original recipe to reduce the sugar in the slice by half so it's a little less sweet ... that's just my way. Here's how I make it now:

Sweet & Simple Chocolate Slice

1 & 1/4 cups white spelt flour (or plain flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons raw cacao powder (or cocoa)
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
125g butter
1 egg

1.  Preheat oven to 180C.
2.  Sift flour, baking powder and cacao into a mixing bowl.
3.  Melt butter in a small saucepan.
4.  Beat egg.
5.  Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the melted butter. Begin to 
     combine with dry ingredients and then add the beaten egg. Mix well.
6.  Press mixture into a slice tray.
7.  Bake for 15 minutes.
8.  Cool before topping with a simple chocolate icing and a sprinkling of coconut. ❤

 Simply yummy!

You can make a simple chocolate icing by mixing together 1 cup of icing sugar and 1 Tablespoon of cacao powder (or cocoa) with a little hot water. Just sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl so there are no lumps and then mix with hot water, a little bit at a time, until you get the consistency you want. You can then flavour with vanilla essence too before spreading thinly over your freshly baked slice. 

Disappearing quickly!

There is nothing fancy about this slice. Just simple ingredients and a little icing and you have a delicious treat for afternoon tea! 

Meg