Cake # NINE - Ginger & Chocolate Muffins

Okay...... I must confess. Today's cake challenge has been slightly downgraded from cake to muffins. I had forty minutes to prepare something for an impromptu morning tea visitor and a last minute pregnancy photo shoot booked for this afternoon. Something had to give and muffins are much quicker than cakes. It's tough when work gets in the way of baking. Still, I had a fantastic afternoon with a lovely couple who are expecting their first baby very soon.
These are ginger and chocolate muffins - now you can't go wrong with that combination. For a slightly more decadent treat I added some cream cheese ..... mmmm - delicious.
The best thing was that there were some left over for the girls when they arrived home from the school bus! Hot chocolate and warm muffins.....a great start to the weekend.

Have a great weekend!!

Lisa xox

Recipe
(adapted from Alison Holst's Marvellous Muffins)

2 cups flour
1t baking soda
1 cup sugar
2t ginger
2t cinnamon
Lots of chocolate chips

2 heaped T golden syrup
100g butter (melted)
2 eggs
1 cup milk

In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients.
Melt the butter, add syrup, remove from heat and cool slightly before adding the milk and eggs.
Without over mixing add the liquids to the dry ingredients and lightly mix.

Fill lined muffin trays with mixture and bake at 200 degrees celcius for about 15 minutes.
If you are after a slightly more decadent treat then add a dollop of cream cheese to the middle of your muffin mixture.

Burning Down The House

At the weekend our neighbours enlisted the local fire brigades to burn down an old house on their property. A couch was set alight to get things started and the fire took hold of the house in an incredibly short time. A vivid reminder to us all of the importance of having smoke alarms in houses.
I am, as always, in awe of firemen and the risks they take in their work. A truly amazing and yet very frightening morning!
I managed to capture the progress of the fire, but cannot do justice to the blistering heat it created.

Winter Baking Challenge. Cake # Eight - ORANGE CAKE

Due to the abundance of oranges in our house an orange cake seemed like the perfect option this week.
Filled with Vitamin C it must be healthy.....right? Or does the sugar and butter cancel that out, I hope not!!

RECIPE - ORANGE CAKE


(Adapted from Edmond's Cook Book Cupcake Recipe).


125g butter
1tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup sugar
2t grated orange rind
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2t baking powder
1/4 cup milk
juice of one orange


Cream butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. Fold flour and baking powder into the creamed mixture. Add orange rind. Stir in milk and orange juice and mix until combined.
Spoon into a greased ring tin and bake at 190 degrees celcius until cake springs bake when lightly touched.


Cool and ice with orange icing.

Cake # SEVEN - Chocolate Cake.

Well my baking challenge is starting to pay off. I have just made my very first chocolate cake that doesn't have a great sink hole in the middle of it that I have to disguise with extra icing. I am pretty excited about that!!  I am off to town for the day to take the kids to the movies so it's just a very quick blog today. Hope you've all enjoyed the school holidays.

Thought my favourite soup bowls would make a great cup for hot chocolate!


Recipe to follow when I'm not in such a rush - courtesy of Annabel Langbein.

Cake # 6 - Hummingbird Cake.

Happy July everyone! Jack Frost has been very busy at our place this week - frozen pipes, no water, and burst pipes to troughs in the paddocks. One problem after another....
My husband is the best!! Today, instead of getting frustrated over yet another burst pipe delaying his fencing job that he's been trying to get to all week, he calmly comes back to the house and tells me to bring my camera and grab my gumboots. My gumboots have been hijacked by the kids (the problem with having such small feet) and I have to clomp across the paddock in a pair of Rob's boots - very classy I must say, but a good workout. I love that he can spot a photographic opportunity in the midst of his busy day.

I did tell you it's been cold out here this week! Who would have thought that frozen grass could look so amazing.

Back into the warm and on with the cake baking for week SIX. This week it's a Hummingbird Cake, chosen for it's very cute and quirky name.....yummy and fruity and filled with banana and pineapple.

The worst part of baking is all those dishes....

The best part of the school holidays is having little helpers who do the dishes for you...
Four weeks ago I had a plan....and it's such a good plan. At school the girls can collect house points in a House Competition, so I decided to do something similar at home. I can dish out points for all sorts of things, making beds, pulling curtains, not calling out once you're in bed, being nice to your sister, winning the cross country, .... and so it goes on. At the end of the week each 1000 house points you've collected earns you $1.00. The girls are REALLY getting into it now and they are just loving how helping out around the house can earn them points...and money!

This silver teapot has been polished especially for todays photos...it's not usually quite so shiny or so silvery. This is a shame because it's actually very precious to me and is part of a set that my grandfather won at golf on my fifth birthday. Now many years later, he has passed away, and I have been given the teaset. He had it engraved when he won it - To Lisa with Love. Special isn't it?

Speaking of special people....my Nana, was responsible for these teacups - a present for me on my 21st. I am so blessed to have such beautiful things to remember my grandparents by.

I also have a very special friend, Nadene, who happens to live just up the road. She spoils me something terrible and a lot of the most beautiful things I have in my house are courtesy of her. This week Nadene surprised me with a beautiful cake plate - just perfect for my cake baking challenge. I LOVE it!!

The Recipe
(found at taste.com.au)


Hummingbird Cake

250g Self Raising Flour
1tsp coriander
1 tsp cinnamon
270g Brown Sugar
440g can of crushed pineapple
50g desiccated coconut
2 ripe bananas mashed
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250ml sunflower oil

Cream Cheese Icing

100g Cream Cheese
50g butter
1tsp vanilla extract
225g Icing Sugar

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius. Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add sugar, pineappple, coconut, banana, walnuts, eggs and oil. Stir to combine.
Spread into prepared cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until cooked through (this took me longer than 40 minutes). Place on a cooling rack until cold.
Ice with cream cheese icing and garnish as you wish. I used finely chopped dried apricots, walnuts and shredded coconut.