Cakes for the School Fair

We have had a great weekend, with the highlight being yesterday's long awaited school fair. Little Miss 5 and her school buddies were positively bursting with excitement at all the fun fair activities on offer. With both of us busy helping out, our little blossom got to spend some quality time with Nana; then later some close friends of ours took over, so she had twice the fun of the fair! 

I made some cakes to go with the Devonshire Tea tent's bill of fair. This Chocolate Mud cake is always a favourite! For this one I made a chocolate butter cream, instead of the Toffee icing. The Passion fruit and fresh cream sponge roll sold out. With so much to do prior to the fair, the tutorial for this one will be coming later! 

I actually sold the Gluten Free Spiced Apple Cake in the first picture as a whole cake. The lady that brought it was so impressed with the piece of GF Chocolate Mud Cake she had, that she got the other cake as well. I left the walnuts out of the one for the fair: always worried about the nut allergy thing.

 My food class at school helped out by making these Chocolate truffles. 

This is the Gluten Free Chocolate Mud Cake. This cake received high praise from the people who tried it. I was so pleased they liked it. It's always a pleasure to make great cakes for the gluten free among us. No one should miss out on good cake. I used the GF Chocolate Mud Cup Cake recipe, but baked in a round tin at 170deg. C for 1 1/2 hours. Worth the wait, as the texture is amazing. I frosted it with the Toffee Frosting boiled to only 135deg so it stayed white. The Carrot Cake in the back ground is a good old classic standby recipe that I make all the time for so many occasions. It works just as well as cupcakes. 

Needless to say today has been a quiet day in our house! Thanks so much to all the amazing people that worked so hard to make the fair happen, and all the people who helped me out on the day. You were all stars! xx 

Not-So-Secret Admirer Morning Tea

Oh the last day of the school term. The excitement, the exhaustion, the anticipation, the unfinished to-do list, the last minute jobs.

I have heard it said that there is no dilemma in life that can't be softened by a good custard square. Although flippant, this speaks to the feelings of togetherness and emotional and physical restoration that the sharing of food brings to people and their communities.

One of the lovely rituals of the last week of term 1 is a round of Secret Admirer: names are drawn, and admirers smuggle gifts and tokens of appreciation to their recipients. Having missed the deadline for putting our names forward, three of us decided to be everyones' not-so-secret admirer by providing a delicious homemade morning tea to our lovely colleagues. 

We all made a few favourite recipes that altogether made for an impressive spread. Sarah made Lemon Cupcakes, Salted Caramel slice and Chocolate Brownie. Rebecca made Citrus slice, Angels on Horseback, Sesame Lavosh with blue cheese, and Hummus with french bread. I made Sausage Rolls, Sticky Lemon Slice, Date Scones, gluten-free Rice Bubble Cake, and Carrot Cake. Follow the high lighted links to go directly to the previously blogged recipes.

Some of you have requested the Sausage Roll recipe. This one is always popular with our friends and family. It has a couple of extra ingredients that make them extra special.

Prudence's Sausage Rolls

1 finely sliced onion
4 thick slices of white bread - made into fresh bread crumbs using the kitchen whizz
3 Tablespoons tomato sauce
3 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper
2 eggs
2 x 450g tubes of sausage meat

6 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
12 rashers rind less streaky bacon
250g tomato relish - I used Barkers Sun dried tomato and olive

1 beaten egg for glazing

Mix the onion, bread crumbs, tomato sauce, sweet chilli sauce, seasoning, eggs and sausage meat until thoroughly blended together.
Put the sausage meat mixture into the fridge while you prepare the pastry.

Cut each pastry square in half and separate the bacon rashers. Leave the plastic sheet attached to the pastry as it will help you to shape the sausage rolls.
Lay the pastry sheets out over the bench; Spoon an even amount of sausage meat along each pastry sheet. It should be about 2cm in diameter.

Top each sausage meat row with a strip of bacon and spoon some relish along side the meat. Roll the pastry over the meat and leave with the seam facing down. Again, leave the plastic sheet on the pastry until your ready to bake the sausage rolls. They can be stored in the fridge for 24 hours or freezer for later use.

When your ready, cut each roll into evenly sized portions.  Glaze with the lightly beaten egg and bake at 200deg. C for about 25 minutes. They should be golden brown and crispy once cooked.

 The not-so-secret-admirers - thanks ladies for making this a morning tea to remember when we all needed an end of term pick me up.

Good Old Fashioned Morning Tea

Nothing says 'I appreciate you' or 'thanks so much for what you have done for me' more than putting on a good old fashioned morning tea.

After a recent electical fire related misadventure in my teaching room at school, we were relocated into a neighbouring classroom; thus displacing some of my colleagues. Now the repairs are done and we are back to normal in our new beautiful Textile Room, it was time to say a really big and heart felt thank you to everyone who gave up their teaching space and generally helped me in my hour, or rather month, of need.

One furious Sunday spent in the kitchen resulted in delicious Chocolate cake with butter cream icing, Mini Citrus Cheesecakes, Carrot Cranberry Cup Cakes with cream cheese icing, gluten free Rice Bubble Cake, Sticky Lemon Slice and Home Smoked Salmon with creamy caper dip. 

Everyone was overjoyed with the morning tea. It added a celebratory atmosphere to Teacher Only Day and  helped to lighten a long day of professional development.

Here is one of my tried and true recipes. These are an old favourite that always go down well. They can be cooked as a cake - just bake at 160 Deg. C for approx 30-40 minutes. 

Carrot  and Cranberry Cup Cakes

1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup oil (flavourless oil like canola or grapeseed)

Beat the sugar and eggs together, then beat in the oil
Add 1 1/2 cups of grated carrot and 3/4 cup dried cranberries
Sift together      1 heaped cup flour
                          1 teaspoon baking soda
                          1 teaspoon cinnamon
                          1/2 teaspoon salt
Fold all the ingredients together and place into individual cup cake cases
Bake for 10 minutes at 170 degrees C until a cake tester comes out clean.

When cold ice with the following:
250g cream cheese
80g butter 
1 1/4 cups icing sugar
Rind of 1 lemon
Beat the ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Use a star nozzle to pipe onto the top of the cooled cup cakes.

There is nothing that quite matches a good old fashioned show of gratitude. Happy Cooking!