Lemon And Bay Cake

I made this cake in Winter, so it has taken me a while to write it up - but here it is at last!  I love citrusy flavours, and this cake really fits the bill.  So being a citrus lover, I've upped the zingy citrus flavour by adding lime juice, lime zest plus some lemon zest to the glaze.  You can never have too much tang!

This recipe is from apples & elderflowers (a kitchen in Tasmania's far south), by Julia Matusik.  She moved from England (as a child) to Brisbane to Tasmania a few years ago - lucky gal!  Her cookbook reflects the produce and seasons of that fabulous Aussie state.

We have several friends down there, and have visited often.  We took our niece and nephew there to see the snow (being Queenslanders, they had never seen it), and the children of friends for their first snowy experience on Mt. Wellington.  And wow, can it get cold up there even on a summer's day!  Don't forget your jumpers when you head there.  

And speaking of snow, Mr P.'s first sighting was in Central Park, New York in our backpacking days!  It was a public holiday, so not many people about, and we ended up at MoMA to check out the Monet Water Lilies.  (I just Googled it, and saw that the original held there was destroyed in a fire in 1958!)       

Serves 8-10:

ingredients:

For the cake:

175g./6 oz white or caster sugar

zest of 1 lemon

2 fresh bay leaves

225g./8 oz plain yoghurt

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla paste

125g./4.5 oz butter, melted and cooled

225g./8 oz plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)

For the Syrup:

juice of 2 lemons

150g./5.3 oz sugar

2 bay leaves

For the glaze:

60g./2.2 oz icing sugar

2 Tbs lemon juice

1-2 dsp (dessertspoon=2 tsp) lime juice 

1 tsp lime zest

1 tsp lemon zest

Method:

Whack on your oven to 170C/340F to heat up

And butter up your 23cm (9 inch) x 13cm (5 inch) loaf tin, then line with baking paper

Whizz up the sugar, lemon zest and bay leaves in your blender; if no blender, you will have to use brute force (in a mortar and pestle maybe?) :=)  (though Julia suggests with your fingers!!)

Take out any bits of bay leaves that are still lurking, and not broken down well

Tip this sugary mixture into a medium bowl, and add the yoghurt, eggs, vanilla and melted butter

Give it a darn good stir till well-mixed and smooth

And put the flour, baking powder and bi-carb into another bowl and whisk well

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry, and mix together well

Spoon/pour the batter into your prepared loaf tin, and bake for 45-50 minutes till it bounces back when pressed lightly in the centre

Let it cool on a wire rack in the loaf tin, while you:

Make the syrup, by adding the ingredients to a small saucepan, and heat over a medium flame/burner, while you stir the sugar till it's dissolved

Bring to the boil, and simmer for about 4 minutes till the syrup is a wee bit thicker, and clear

Take out the bay leaves, pour the syrup over the warm cake, and let it all get right cool

Now you're going to make the glaze, my dears, by:

Putting the icing sugar in a small bowl, adding the lemon juice and lime juice, and mix till smooth - this will be runny, not thick - then stir in the 2 zests

Drizzle/pour the glaze over the cake when it's as cold as a snowman's nose (nah, just cooled right down)

You can add some lemon or lime zest over the glaze, if you feel inclined  see Notes 

Store the cake in an airtight container for a few days, if you don't eat it all at once!

Notes:

Julia suggests making candied lemon slices to decorate, but ... nah, buy some I reckon:=) or use more zest on top

ingredients gathered

blitz the sugary, herby stuff

whisk the dry

smooth and eggy

stir it all together

beautifully golden-brown on top

make the syrup

simmer away

pour the warm syrup over the warm cake

I added the glaze over it - really!  It just went all runny and funny!

For some reason, the glaze just disappeared into the cake.  Not sure why - maybe too much juice, and not enough icing sugar once I added the extra juice and the zests.  Anyway, still tasted great.

 

c. Sherry M.

Grilled Peach Salad With Burrata And Green Peppercorns

Happy New Year, folks!  Hope your festive season was fabulous.  Ours was! :=)  So, just to make life even more fun in 2025, I have joined another online Cookbook Club.  I chose a recipe from Salad for Days by Alice Zaslavsky.  Here in sunny Queensland, stone fruit only grows in very limited areas (if at all), so it has to be sent up from down south.  And of course, that means they send it when it's hard as a rock. 

Alice's recipe using grilled peaches means that they are softened and caramelised, adding a wonderful flavour to this fruity, herby salad.  We ate it with leftover homemade fish cakes, and a small, chickpea salad.  All very delicious, and good for you.  

Is it sacrilege to confess that neither myself nor Mr P. had ever eaten burrata before?  And to be honest, we are both very happy not to eat one again.  I mean, it was fine, but nothing amazing.  I am not a cheese eater anyway, and the weird skin on the burrata was a wee bit offputting to me, and to Mr P.  Oh well, you have to try everything in life ... even chicken hearts, or tripe or pasta with tomatoes.  IYKYK!

Serves 4-6:

ingredients:

6-8 firm ripe peaches   see Notes

1 Tbs EV olive oil, for the grilling

Green Peppercorn Vinaigrette:

1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed a wee bit  (Mr P. banged it with his fist)

1 tsp green (or pink) peppercorns

2 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp honey

1 tsp mustard (I used wholegrain but Alice says Dijon)

1/4 tsp sea salt flakes

a few grinds of black pepper

1-2 dessertspoons EV olive oil (optional)

Final bits & bobs, (says Alice):

2-3 burrata balls, drained (weighing about 120g./4 oz each)  see Notes

1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped or torn (or leave whole, à la Alice)

2 Tbs chives, snipped or chopped finely

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

a good splash of EV olive oil over the whole shebang

Method:

Slice the peaches in half (down the seam), then rip out the stone

Brush each half with a wee bit of the olive oil, then place the fruit cut-side down on your nonstick grill pan - over medium heat - and let 'em sit and caramelise for 5-10 minutes (Mr P. did the grilling, and he said 10 minutes)

Turn them over, and allow them to warm briefly on the other side

Now on to the vinaigrette: put all the ingredients into a small bowl, and whisk away till well-mixed (yes, this is a tiny amount of dressing, but it does the job).  I added olive oil to it (Alice doesn't), to help it emulsify

Place your grilled fruit halves - sunny-side up - on a nice platter, then plop on the burrata, spoon the dressing over sans garlic clove, and scatter over the herbs, salt and pepper, and a big splash of EV olive oil

Notes:

I halved Alice's recipe for myself and Mr P., but I have given her quantities here for the full recipe

I bought the peaches when rock-hard, placed them in a brown paper bag for a couple of days to let them soften up a bit, then grilled them (after microwaving for 30-60 seconds)

Alice says to put alfoil and baking paper on the pan when you grill the fruit, but I didn't bother, and it was fine

Use nectarines instead of peaches, if you fancy

I didn't buy enough burrata, so I added some buffalo bocconcini too

ingredients gathered

split and de-stone the fruity halves

whisk up the vinaigrette

caramelised peaches!  Thanks Mr P.

throw on the herbs, after the EVOO goes on

I added a chickpea salad too

and a leftover homemade fish cake

c. Sherry M.

In My Kitchen - January 2025

Yay!  We did it; we survived Christmas!  And what a lovely day it was, with family and friends.  We had Christmas lunch with the family on the Broadwater, with a beautiful breeze blowing.  We had the nephew staying a couple of nights; we visited friends, and went out for lunch with a few more.  A fabulous time of it was had by all.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas/festive break also.  I am wishing you the very best in 2025!  I am planning to do more writing of short stories, more drawing, and more of the good stuff :=)  I have had a tough couple of years health-wise, so I hope that is a past story now for me.  Onwards and upwards, dear friends.

the new Kangaroo Point pedestrian bridge over the Brisbane River

We took our visiting nephew here last week.  This bridge opened December 15, and in just 10 days, over 100,000+ people had been over it.  It is an aesthetically pleasing, and marvellous piece of engineering.  We plan to take all our guests here, so be warned :=)

In My Kitchen:

gorgeous ceramics from our friend Ms. Mandy (by Renee Jeffery Ceramics)

I got another freebie Smeg knife from Coles (supermarket)

I made my annual batch of mango chutney

and jaboticaba jam from our crazy, fruity tree

our Persian friends gave me this cute glass (love that gnome!)

I made chocolate Rice Bubbles truffles

Mr P. gave me this gorgeous fishy scoop, and a Japanese plate

I bought myself this fab Debra Hood Uni of Queensland (my alma mater) tea towel

the cuz sent me this one for Christmas! Luckily our next book for Cookbook Club!

mushie spoon from the niece, wee spoon and the small, wild oregano plate
from me to me

the annual garlic haul from Elmswood Farm

the curveball: a handpainted graffiti apple by Starr Art called A Million Dreams

c. Sherry M.

c. Sherry M.

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Nigella's Christmas-Spiced Chocolate Cake

I love chocolate and I love spices, so what's not to love about this cake?  And of course it's from one of Nigella Lawson's cookbooks Nigella Christmas so a winner for me!  Do I have all her books?  Mm, I think so.  I love her prose voice, though I was amazed to find that one of my (male) friends dislikes her heartily (from seeing her on the telly I guess).  He thinks she's a bit snooty.  But he's jealous of her charm, I reckon :=)

Some of my fave Nigella tricks are: using scissors for cutting herbs, melting chocolate in the microwave, baking rather than frying, and ... well, there are heaps more.  I have made so many recipes from Feast for instance, and they have always worked.  And this one is a beauty!  I tried a small piece, but couldn't stay away and kept grabbing another wee piece and another ...  

caramelised almonds on top!

Gives you 10-12 slices:

ingredients:

For the Cake:

150g./5+ oz dark chocolate, chopped

150g./5+ oz butter, at room temp.

6 large eggs

250g./9 oz caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g./3.5 oz almond meal/ground almonds

1 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of ground cloves

zest of an orange or similar fruit (we don't have her suggested clementine/satsuma stuff here in Aus, plus it's Summer here!)

4 tsp instant espresso powder (I used Lavazza Prontissimo Espresso)

For the Topping:

juice of the zested fruit

15g./1 (U.K.) Tbs butter

1 Tbs caster sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

50g./1.8 oz flaked almonds

Top with: 300 mL/10 oz of double cream, or whipped cream, to which you add 2-3 Tbs of your fave liqueur, stirred in

Method:

Have everything at room temp. before you start making the cake (says Nigella)

Whack on your oven to 180C/350F to heat up

Grab your 23 cm./9 inch springform tin, butter the sides, and line the bottom with baking paper

The chocolate and butter go into a heatproof bowl in the microwave - watch carefully so it doesn't burn - try 30 second bursts till melted

Let it cool for a few minutes, while you beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla till thick, pale and mousse-like - till doubled or even tripled

Now fold in the almond meal, spices, zest and espresso powder - gently!

And then fold in the chocolate/butter mixture (also gently) into the batter

Pour/spoon into your cake tin, and bake for 35-40 minutes - you want a firm top, and a slightly! gooey interior

Sit the tin on a cake rack, with a tea towel over it, and let it cool right down

In the meantime, you make the topping by putting the juice, butter, sugar and cinnamon into a small non-stick frying pan, melt together, and let sizzle for a minute or two, before adding the almonds

Nigella says to tip the pan to keep it moving, so that you end up with the liquid gone and you have shiny, thinly-coated, fragrant nuts

Let 'em cool, put the cake on a serving platter, and spread the flavoured cream over the cake.  I stirred some roast coffee spiced-rum into double cream, whacked it into the freezer for 20 minutes to firm up ('cos this is Queensland, and it's hot and it's humid), then I spread it all over the cake, and topped with the orangey, spicy nuts

Mr P. buttered and lined this tin for me, as I don't have a 23cm springform pan

ingredients gathered

beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together

gather your dry ingredients 

fold everything in - gently!

pour the batter into the cake tin

it's baked!

make your nuts!

my nuts are done

wanna try a piece? :=)

(Joining in with Jo from the Brookford Kitchen Diaries (BKD) Cookbook Club this month!)

c. Sherry M.

Pickled Beetroot AKA Beetroot for Salads

I have turned into a pickle fiend lately.  Don't know why, but there it is.  I pickled some chillies that I snipped off a bush outside Reception at some holiday apartments, and I finally got around to pickling some beetroot.  There was actually a beetroot shortage last Christmas, and you just could not buy them - the ones in tins and jars, I mean.  So now I am prepared!  And they are delicious!

This is a recipe from the PWMU cookbook, first published in 1904!  That is the Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union, in case you are not familiar with the acronym - 'cos I wasn't :=)  And it's such a fab cookbook.  I made half the amount so just double it if you are really keen.  They just blithely say you need a bunch of beetroot; so I figured that might be about 1 kilo, so I halved it for my recipe.

c. Sherry M.

Makes 1 x 680g./24 oz jar:

ingredients:

1/2 bunch of beetroot - around 500g./1.1 lb  see Notes

for the brine:

1-2 cm/half an inch or so of fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped

300 mL vinegar (I used white wine and apple cider vinegars)

100g./3.5 oz sugar (I used caster sugar)

1 tsp sea salt flakes

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

1/4-1/2 tsp of mountainpepper berries (optional) and of 

coriander seeds and of allspice berries   see Notes

Method:

Chop up the beetroot and pile into your clean, sterilised jar

Place the ginger, vinegar, sugar, salt, and all the other spices into a small saucepan

Bring to the boil, turn down and simmer for 5 minutes

Let the mixture cool down a bit, strain it over a bowl, and MAKE SURE you collect the vinegar mixture

Pour the liquid over the beetroot in the jar, whack on the lid and into the fridge it goes!

Notes:

You can buy raw beetroot, boil it for an hour, cool it and peel it OR be sensible - just buy the vacuum-packed, cooked, and peeled stuff

The extra spices are my idea; they just went for salt, pepper and mustard - probs not easy to get mountainpepper berries and coriander seeds back in 1904 :=)

c. Sherry M.

And for those of you who don't come from Australia, I have to tell you about our iconic Aussie hamburger 'with the lot', as it's known here.  You add a fried egg, and a slice of pineapple, the meat pattie of course, plus fried onion, and a thick slice of beetroot!  It ain't a burger with the lot without the beetroot!

ingredients gathered

simmer your brine

chop up the beetroot and into the jar(s)

the (mostly) strained brine ready for the jar  (I do love me some mustard seeds)

and ready for the fridge

all done!

c.  Sherry M.