Honey Feijoa Cake

Well - what to do with all those feijoas?? Seems that despite our neighbour cutting their feijoa tree down we still manage to obtain hundreds from somewhere. At the moment there are lots of Feijoa recipes in the NZ Herald from Amanda Laird. Here is one that caught my eye...

Makes one 22cm cake

80g softened butter
3/4 cup honey
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mashed feijoas
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vanilla sugar
1/2 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped

1 - Preheat oven to 180C and grease the cake tin.Cream the butter and honey until pale. Add eggsone at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla.

2 - Fold the feijoas into the mixture. Sieve the flour,baking powder, baking soda and salt. Fold through the milk. Combine the vanilla sugar and almonds.

3 - Spoon the cake mix into the tin, bake for 15minutes then sprinkle the sugar and almond mixover the top of the cake. Return the cake to the ovenand continue cooking for another 20-25 minutes or untilan inserted skewer comes out clean.

Brenda's Brilliant Brownies

I used to think the Ghiradelli brownie, made from the packet, was the BEST but then I came across this recipe with obscene amounts of butter and sugar. Yummo!

250g (80z) butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/3 plain (all purpose) flour
3/4 cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 170 C (325F).

Beat the butter, vanilla, sugar and brown sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. (It helps to start with soft butter.) Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder over the butter mixture and fold through. (The resulting mixture is quite dry, not runny.)

Plop the mixture into an 20cm (8in) square cake tin base lined with baking paper and bake for 40-50 minutes or until set. Cool in the tin. Cut into squares and serve warm or cool.

Simnel Cake

Well, I've had to have helpers come over to help me eat the trial run of Hot Cross Buns, and a friend came over with some Simnel Cake that we could help HER eat! This scrummy cake is found in the Edmonds cookbook and is also an Easter tradition in the Wong household. Placed around the edge, are eleven marzipan balls to represent the true apostles of Jesus; Judas is omitted. (I notice that Wikipedia tells us there is also a layer of marzipan icing on top, but Kay did not ice it this time)

350g Marzipan
250g butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup sultanas
1 1/2 cup currants
1/2 cupmixed peel
1/2 cup glacé cherries, chopped

Roll out marzipan on greaseproof paper dusted with icing sugar to fit a 22cm round cake tin. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour and baking powder together. Mix in sultanas, currants, peel and cherries. Fold into creamed mixture. Place half the mixture in the greased and lined cake tin. Cover with marzipan layer then the remaining cake mixture. Smooth top. Bake at 150 degC for 2 hours. Reduce heat to 130 degC and bake a further 1/2-1 hour or until an inserted skewer comes out clean when tested. Leave to cool in tin.

Biscotti

Ingredients:

• 3 C flour
• 1 C sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 D anise extract or sherry
• 1 1/2 D vanilla essence
• 2 D anise seed
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 C oil
• 1 C mixed chopped almonds, apricots, crystallised ginger/zest of 1 orange

Method:

1. Mix sugar, eggs, anise, vanilla and aniseed.
2. Add 3 C flour and baking soda.
3. Add oil and dried fruits/nuts
4. Place parchment paper on cookie tray.
5. Divide batter in half and spread with hands to make logs 3" wide and 1/2" high.
6. Bake 350 F for 20-25 minutes until golden.
7. Remove from oven and cut diagonally.
8. Put every other biscotti on another tray to dry out in turned off over or at least 2 hours or overnight.

NB: Can be dipped in chocolate at one end.

Rhubarb Muffins

Most of my flats have had a random Rhubarb plant in the garden... thanks to Mum for this childhood recipe - it's one of the best ways I know of to make rhubarb taste good.

1/4 cup firm brown sugar
1/2 cup plain oil (eg salad+cooking oil)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cup diced rhubarb
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

> combine the following for topping <
1 tablesp melted butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

• combine sugar, oil, egg, vanilla essence, milk. Beat well
• Stir in rhubarb and nuts
• in seperate bowl combine dry ingredients
• stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients
• spoon into muffin tins 3/4 full (makes 12 to 20?)
• spoon on topping
• bake 400F for 25 mins (200C)

I can't remember ever being that fussed on the muffin itself as a kid, the topping was so great.