Six ripe peaches

Six ripe nectarines

Mascarpone

Vanilla sugar

Slice the peaches and nectarines and place them in a baking dish.  Sprinkle some [to taste] vanilla sugar over the pieces and bake at 200 c until soft.  Place the baked fruit and resulting syrup into small ramekins and allow to cool.  Next, sweeten some mascarpone cheese with vanilla sugar and place on to of the cooled fruit.  Serve.

200g ground almonds

200 g butter – melted

1 tablespoons peanut butter

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

100 g coconut

3 eggs

500 g mixed raisins

250 ml orange juice

200 g cherries

100 g mixed nuts – roughly chopped

100g milk chocolate – roughly chopped

Soak the mixed raisins in the orange juice for a few hours before mixing all the ingredients together.  Place in a lined cake tin and bake at 180C until done, about 1 – 1.5 hours depending on the oven.  The edges should be browned but the centre should still be gooey with the look of being uncooked.  As the cake cools it will become firmer, wait until it is completely cool before removing from tin.

Sponge:

4 eggs separated

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

6 tablespoons cold water

3 tablespoons cocoa

Whisk egg yokes, sugar and water until light and creamy.  Add shifted flour, cocoa and baking powder.  Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the flour mixture.  Pour into  30cm x 25cm oven proof dish and bake for 30 – 45 minutes at 160C.

Custard:

560ml milk

55ml cream

4 egg yolks

2 teaspoons cornflour/potato flour

2 tablespoons cocoa

30ml sugar

60g dark chocolate

Whisk yolks, cornflour/potato flour, cocoa and sugar together.  Add to warm milk cream mixture and simmer until thick – do not allow to boil.  Turn off heat and add chocolate, whisk until chocolate has melted.

Trifle:

1 tin black cherries – keep syrup

10g gelatine

40ml water

250ml cream

40ml sugar / vanilla sugar*

Drain the cherries and set aside.  Heat the syrup – not hot but warm – and add the gelatine, once dissolved add the water.  Pour the jelly over the hot cake, fresh from the oven.  Toss the cherries evenly over the cake.  I like to press the cherries into the hot gooey cake, and allow to cool.  Once cool, pour over custard.  I usually leave the trifle like that for about 4-6 hours before adding the cream.  Whip cream with sugar and spoon onto trifle.  Top with grated chocolate and you are done.

*vanilla sugar – I keep a jar of sugar with two or three split vanilla pods inside for baking use.  The sugar can be used for coffee as well.

130g flour

100g sugar

100g butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons cocoa

2 eggs

about half a cup of milk

2 tablespoons apricot jam

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and milk.  Fold in flour, baking powder and cocoa until smooth – more milk may be added.  Spoon the batter into a muffin tin and bake at 180 C for 20 – 25 minutes.  Warm about two tablespoons of apricot jam and spoon a small amount onto the hot cupcakes as they come out the oven.  Use the back of the spoon to spread the warm jam evenly over the cupcakes – leave to cool.

Yesterday I baked some rum and raisin muffins, however, the rum was more than a little over powering.  [Basic muffin with a cup of rum soaked raisins - pour off excess rum before adding to batter.]  I used the rum muffins to make a tropical trifle, I lined a dish with the muffins (sliced in half) and poured tropical flavoured jelly over them slowly.  I added a tin of drained fruit cocktail and pressed the fruit into the damp muffins – left the jelly to set.  Once set, poured custard into the dish and cover it all with whipped cream.

570ml milk

60ml cream

1 vanilla pod

4 egg yolks

30g sugar

2 teaspoons cornflour/potato flour

Slice the vanilla pod lengthwise and place in a heavy based saucepan with the milk and cream – bring to a simmer.  Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour/potato flour in a bowl.  Add half the hot milk mixture slowly to the egg mixture while whisking.  Return the milk egg mixture to the saucepan and simmer until the custard thickens, whisk gently and continually to ensure no lumps form.

Chocolate custard can be made by adding two tablespoons of cocoa into the egg mixture – sometimes I add about 60g – 80g of milk chocolate to the custard as it is thickening but it is not necessary.

Cake:

125g flour

125g sugar

125g butter

1 large egg plus the two yokes from the meringue mix

1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream butter and sugar together, beat in eggs.  Shift flour and baking powder, fold into mixture – the batter will be quite firm.  Spoon into lined cake tin and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 C.  Turn out and allow to cool.

Lemon Curd:

3 large eggs

80ml lemon juice (not from bottle)

1 tablespoon lemon zest

¾ cup white sugar

4 tablespoon butter

Whisk eggs, sugar and lemon juice in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water – do not let the water boil or the curd will crystallize.  Whisk continually for about 10 minutes until curd thickens, remove from heat and add butter and lemon zest – keep whisking.   Spread curd onto the cake (there will be left over curd).  Cover with cling wrap and store in the fridge.  Curd will thicken slightly as it stands.

Meringue:

2 large egg whites

½ cup white sugar

Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water until egg whites are silky looking and form soft peaks.  Spoon meringue onto cake and grill until golden brown.

This recipe can also be used to make individual cupcakes as the batter divides into twelve nicely.

1 ½ cups flour

125 g butter

3 tablespoons peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

Cream the sugar, butter and peanut butter until smooth.  Add the egg followed by the flour and baking powder.  Roll small amounts of mixture into balls and place on a baking sheet; flatten slightly with a fork and bake for 15 -20 minutes at 180C.

Sometimes I use crunchy peanut butter so there are bits of peanut in the biscuits but you can add a handful of chopped peanuts into the mix.  I have on occasion added choc chips – just as tasty.

2 cups flour

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

100g butter (melted)

1 cup milk

1 large egg

Mix the melted butter, milk and egg.  Fold in sugar with shifted flour and baking powder until flour is cover but mixture is not smooth.  Spoon muffin mix into muffin tin and bake for 12-15 minutes at 180C.

Variations:

Chocolate – add 3 tablespoons cocoa to flour mix.

Fruit – dried and fresh fruit can be added to butter milk mixture but fresh fruit muffins don’t keep as long.

Jam middle – spoon some batter into muffin tin followed by half a teaspoon of jam; spoon more batter on top and bake.

Lemon –  add three tablespoons lemon juice [and perhaps a tablespoon of poppyseeds].

Nuts – add roughly chopped nuts when adding the flour.

Cheese and herb – grated strong cheese such as cheddar with fresh or dried herbs.  Feta also works but does not keep as long.

Experiment – you never know what you might discover.

200g milk chocolate

200g butter

100g walnuts, broken into pieces

100g milk chocolate, cut into large chunks

100g white chocolate, cut into large chunks

175g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

300g sugar

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas3.  Put the milk chocolate and butter in a large bowl, place over a pan of simmering water and allow to melt – do not stir until completely melted.  Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl, add nuts and chocolate chunks, mix and set aside. Remove the melted chocolate from the heat and stir in the sugar. Add the eggs. Fold in the flour, nuts and chocolate. Be quick so that the chocolate pieces don’t melt. Pour the chocolate mixture into an oven proof dish.  Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. The top should be firm but the inside should feel soft when cooked. Allow to cool in the dish (about 12 hours). Cut into squares and remove the brownies from dish.