COFFEE WALNUT CAKE

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1 tablespoon hot water

preheat oven to 180 c.  grease and flour bundt tin. (or grease and line bottom of round or square tin)

dissolve coffee in hot water.

place everything except walnuts into a medium bowl and beat well with an electric mixer.

stir in walnuts.

pour into tin.

cook for 35 - 45 mins (depends on tin) or until a skewer comes out clean.

cool completely.

ICING

2 cups icing sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1 tablespoon hot water
1 tablespoon butter, softened
enough milk to make spreadable.
walnuts, chopped

dissolve coffee in hot water, mix everything together, adding milk a little at a time until you have a spreadable icing.

spread over cake and sprinkle with more walnuts.

Another Saturday bites the dust.  It was supposed to be my parents 60th wedding anniversary lunch but the hostess got diagnosed with chicken pox on Wednesday so that was the end of that.  No chicken pox here thanks because........

I'm going to be a nanny again. Congrats miss Tash and number five.  The chunky one won't know what hit her.

Today started off well with a bit of a sleep in, no grandkids today. I did a bit of shopping, had a leisurely lunch then figured I needed to start cooking for tea tonight It's a miserable day out side so I don't mind heating up the kitchen a bit.

First off, because I have some almost dead bananas, I'm  going to make muffins. But I want something different to just plain old banana muffins, so I'm going to add some caramel top and fill  and see how they turn out. I'm going to stick to a somewhat basic muffin recipe, all mixed in one bowl, not much mess.
So beat together flour, brown sugar, pinch salt, oil, milk,eggs then some mashed banana. Half fill patty pans, spoon in some caramel top and fill, add a bit more mix and cook for 20 mins. Cool completely.

 Miss Tash arrived just in time for a taste test so I dusted them with some icing sugar and topped them with some banana chips and cut one in half to try. Yum nice hidden surprise of gooey caramel. So banana, caramel surprise muffins it is.

I'd been thinking  about what else to have for dessert tonight and I wanted to do something cakey, but because I still had quite a few bananas floating (these ones weren't dead) and some strawberries, I thought I might play around with some ideas while I had a quick coffee.

I decided to cheat and use packet mixes because some chocolate cake recipes are quite dry but the Duncan Hines devils food cake  is a lovely moist cake and turns out the same every time. I'm going to make two because I want to do some layers and quite frankly if you're going to have cake, it might as well be big.

Any way, make the cakes according to the directions on the packet. If you have your own recipe that you like, make it, as long as at the end of the day you have two cakes.  Cool them completely and store till just about ready to serve.

So now it's 4.30 pm and I better move my butt because I have to make some scalloped potatoes and put some seasoned chicken pieces and some barbecue pork rashers on to cook.

So I chop up what feels like a million potatoes, layer them in a dish with bacon, garlic and cheese, pour over some cream, cover them up and bang them into the oven. In about an hour I'll uncover them and sprinkle them with cheese and cook them for another 1/2 hour.

Everything's in and cooking so I set the table and await the arrival of family.  6.15 pm arrives and I uncover the potatoes and they are still a bit hard. Damn,  they won't be ready when everything else is. So out of the oven they come. I tip them into a microwave bowl, cover them and zap them for 5 minutes.  Perfect. Back into the original dish, sprinkle with cheese and back into the oven to brown.

We eat and I hurry back into the kitchen because now I have to put the cakes together. My thoughts were....fresh strawberries, strawberry cream, fresh bananas, banana cream and chocolate ganache. I melted some chocolate with some cream and put that aside.  I then whipped some cream with nestles banana quik and more cream with strawberry essence and pink food colouring. Chop some bananas and strawberries and put it together. I cut both cakes in half, levelled the top of one and layered the cake with banana cream and sliced bananas, more cake, strawberry cream and sliced strawberries, more cake then finished it  with the chocolate ganache and more strawberry and banana slices I wasted one piece of cake because I didn't want any more layers.

Just in case it doesn't turn out I decorated a store bought pav with cream and crushed peppermint crisp. Number five son will be happy. He loves pav and loathes strawberries.

I cut into the cake and it looks good. I have a sneaky taste.  MMM tastes good too.

I'm happy to serve it.. So we eat cake,  its that big we may be eating it for a week. Number five eats half a pav, we have a cuppa and everyone goes home.

So here I sit, it's 12 .16 am and I'm feeling a bit weary. So I think it might be bedtime.   Next Saturday will be here before I know it so until then............

...STRAWBERRY BANANA CHOCOLATE CAKE...
               DESSERT



2 packets duncan hines devils food cake
2 x 300 ml bottles thickened cream
3 tablespoons nestles banana quik
3 teaspoons strawberry essence
3-4 drops pink food colouring
2 tablespoons icing sugar
2 large bananas
large punnet of strawberries

GANACHE
250 grams dark cooking chocolate
125 mls thickened cream

make the cakes according to directions.

(or make 2 of your own recipe)

cool completely.

In a heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water, melt the chocolate and the 125 mls cream, stirring till smooth.

remove from heat and put aside to cool.
stir occasionally

whip 300 mls cream with the 3 tablespoons banana quik.

in  a separate bowl, whip the other 300 mls cream with the strawberry essence, food colouring and icing sugar.

slice the bananas and strawberries.

cut cakes in half and level off the top of one.

place bottom of cake onto a plate.

cover with banana cream and sliced bananas.

place levelled  cake top on top of bananas.

cover with strawberry cream and sliced strawberries.

cover with the top half of the second cake.  (you either eat or throw out the bottom section)

stir the ganache well, then spread over top of cake, letting some drizzle down the sides.

decorate with more bananas and strawberries.

Note:
best  filled  and iced just before service so bananas don't go brown.
refrigerate left overs.

BANANA,  CARAMEL SURPRISE MUFFINS

2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup brown sugar, packed
pinch salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
3 large bananas, mashed
1 can caramel top and fill

preheat oven to 180c.  line  muffin tins with large paper patty pans. makes approx. 18 large muffins.

in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the flour, sugar, salt, oil, milk and eggs together until well combined.

beat in bananas.

half fill each patty pan with mix.

place a teaspoon of top and fill into centre of mix.

cover caramel with more mix till each patty pan is 3/4 full.

cook for approx. 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

cool completely

dust with icing sugar and top with banana chips.

What a long, hot weekend. It was so hot Saturday and I was so tired that this post has become hellooo Sunday.

I knew we were heading for 41 c on Saturday so I had planned ahead for the man to cook a barbie for dinner.  Yay me,  cool kitchen.  Friday night became my let's make dessert night and because it was 35c or something close to that, I made ice cream, again.  I love this basic recipe of cream and condensed milk.
This time, because I have lots of strawberries and some very ripe bananas, I'm making chunky strawberry and banana. Just have to figure out how I'm going to do it.  If I can make a strawberry cream cake with strawberry essence and pink food colouring, why not ice cream?  Ok, beat the cream and condensed milk, add in 2 tablespoons of strawberry essence, quick taste, another tablespoon of strawberry essence, some pink food colouring and 2 chopped punnets of strawberries, into the freezer and hope for the best. Now for the banana, while I was fossicking through my cupboard, I found some nestles banana quik, sounds good so beat more cream and condensed milk, mash 4 bananas add 3 tablespoons quik beat some more and in to the freezer with this too.  Have to wait till Saturday night to find out whether it works.

So Saturday comes, the air conditioners roaring, it never got below 30c during the night so the house was hot from the get go. I don't have the kids, but number five, miss Tash and the chunky one arrive really early because they have no air conditioning, so we all sit around staying cool for a while and then being the idiots we are, we decide to go shopping. Thank goodness for air conditioned cars and shopping centres. So we filled in a couple of hours, even though I only needed bread, and came home.  After sitting around for a while longer, I decide I need to make a cheese cake, just in case the ice cream doesn't work. But because I start late, I don't know whether it will set, so I'm going to start with the recipe for my lemon lime cheese cake, take out the lime, add in lemon zest and to help it a long, add in some gelatin. So this recipe is cream cheese, condensed milk, whipped cream , grated zest of 2 lemons and 1/3 cup lemon juice. Add in 1 teaspoon gelatin mixed with 2 tablespoons hot water and tip into a biscuit crumb base.  Fingers crossed that it sets.

I sit down with a cuppa and watch a cool change blow in, wind and rain and a 10c drop in temperature. At least the man now won't cook while he's cooking tea.
We eat, have a couple of drinks and I wander into my still cool kitchen to fix dessert.  I decided on banana splits. I reckon banana with strawberry and banana ice cream and flavoured topping sounds good. I get the ice cream out of the freezer, have a taste...Yummo.  Proud to serve it

Unfortunately the cheesecake didn't set in time, which was a good thing because we couldn't have fit it in anyway.

But we did manage to try it tonight. I put some lemon curd over the top of it and served it with cream. Because it had lemon zest, juice and curd, I call it triple lemon cheesecake.  Its just the right amount of tang. Delicious.

So that's my week, come and gone.  Next week it's my parents 60th wedding anniversary and I get to cook for that. So until then......

TRIPLE LEMON CHEESECAKE...no bake.

250 grams cream cheese, softened
250 mls thickened cream, whipped
1 can condensed milk
1 pkt milk arrowroot biscuits, crushed
130 grams butter, melted
zest of 2 large lemons, finely grated
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons hot water
lemon curd to decorate

grease sides and line bottom of a 22 cm springform tin.


mix crushed biscuits and melted butter together.

press biscuits into bottom and half way up the sides of the springform tin.

refrigerate while making filling.

with an electric mixer, beat cheese until creamy.

add in condensed milk and lemon zest. beat well.

add in whipped cream. beat well.

add in lemon juice.  beat well.

mix gelatin with hot water till dissolved.

beat gelatin into cheese mix.

pour mixture into biscuit base. smooth top.

refrigerate till set.

spread top of cheese cake with lemon curd just before serving.

SHAZZIE'S HOME MADE ICE CREAM

chunky strawberry and awesome banana



CHUNKY STRAWBERRY

2 x 600 ml bottles thickened cream
2 x cans condensed milk
2 punnets strawberries
3 tablespoons strawberry essence
1 teaspoon pink food colouring

you will need a  3 litre freezer container.

roughly chop strawberries.

using an electric mixer and a large bowl, beat cream and condensed milk together until starting to thicken, about 5 minutes.

add essence and colouring and beat a couple more minutes.

stir in strawberries.

pour into container. freeze overnight or until set.

AWESOME BANANA

2 X 600 ml bottles thickened cream
2 x cans condensed milk
3 tablespoons nestles banana quik
4 ripe bananas, mashed


you will need a 3 lt freezer container.

in a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat condensed milk, cream and banana quik until thickening. about 5 minutes.

add mashed banana and beat another couple of minutes.

pour into container and freeze overnight or until set.

serve as a banana split....yumm