Upside Down Apple Cake

MONT's heading off to the country to work this coming week...so I thought I'd bake him a cake to take.

This is a variation on the cherry and raspberry cake I made recently.

The cake batter recipe is basically the same, but instead of raspberries and cherries, I peeled and sliced 2 apples and layered the slices on the bottom of a sugared, lined baking tin. I then peeled and diced another granny smith and folded that into the cake mix.

This is what it looked like when I turned it out of the tin....

...and this is the final result...

Luscious!

Recipe

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125 grams butter, softened
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup almond meal
large dollop of yogurt
3 granny smith apples

2 tbls brown sugar

cream, custard or ice cream to serve

Preheat oven to 180*c. Grease a 20cm, round cake pan and line it with baking paper
Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well after each one
Sprinkle the brown sugar onto the bottom of the lined cake tin and peel and slice two apples and place the slices in the bottom on top of the sugar

Add the flour and almond meal to the cake mixture and fold through, then add a large dollop of yogurt and fold it through. Peel and dice the third granny smith apple and fold it through the cake mix then spoon it over the apples and bake for 35 to 40 minutes....
....or until a skewer inserted into the middle, comes out clean

You need to let this sit in the tin for about 5 minutes to let it settle before turning out onto a wire rack or plate. You also need to insert a spatula or knife down the sides of the cake to help ease it away from the sides of the tin, otherwise you'll end up with a broken mess when turning it out onto the plate.

Upside Down Cherry and Raspberry Pudding

This is a recipe I found on Taste.com when I was looking for something easy to make and easy to carry to a dinner party we were going to recently.

I tweaked it a little though...adding some raspberries and yogurt to the mix.

It's a cake but also a pudding and delicious served with cream, custard or ice-cream...also scrumptious cold with a coffee in the afternoon.

You'll need:
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1 680gr jar pitted cherries
1 cup frozen or fresh raspberries
125 grams butter, softened
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup almond meal
large dollop of yogurt
cream, custard or ice cream to serve

Preheat oven to 180*c. Grease a 20cm, round cake pan and line it with baking paper.

Cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well after each one.

Drain the cherries

Place them and the raspberries in the bottom of the cake tin


Add the flour and almond meal to the cake mixture and fold through, then add a large dollop of yogurt and fold it through.


Carefully spoon the cake mix over the berries and bake for 35 to 40 minutes....

....or until a skewer inserted into the middle, comes out clean.

Now, a word of warning. You need to let this sit in the tin for about 5 minutes to let it settle before turning out onto a wire rack or plate. You also need to insert a spatula or knife down the sides of the cake to help ease it away from the sides of the tin, otherwise you'll end up with a broken mess when turning it out onto the plate.

That's it...eat and enjoy!

Winter Lusciousness

I love winter for the food...pure and simple. Winter is the pudding and casserole season, while Summer is for salads and steaks and fresh fruity deserts...

So here's another pudding to beat away the Winter chills. This time a delicious, dark, self saucing chocolate pudding that is full of flavour, but not too sickly sweet.

Again, I played around with an old recipe adding bits and pieces here and there.

OK, Preheat oven to about 180 degrees and grease a casserole dish.

Into a bowl place 1 cup of self raising flour

1/2 cup castor sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder.

Swirl them around until the three are combined.

Place 50 grams of butter into a heat proof bowl or jug and melt in the microwave for about 20 seconds until it's very soft, then add

1/2 cup of milk and

1 egg and mix together, then pour it into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until combined.

At this stage I added a handful of chopped dark chocolate and a half a cup of Morello cherries I had in the cupboard. Fold together and pour mixture into the greased casserole dish

To make the sauce:

Mix together 3/4 cup brown sugar and

2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sprinkle it over the cake mixture, then gently pour 1 1/2 cups boiling water over the top

It will look kind of messy at this stage, but it will be OK. Trust me.

Place into the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.

When you take it out of the oven, let it cool for a couple of minutes before serving with cream or ice-cream. Or both!

I guarantee, this will be devoured!

It must have been good because this is all that's left of it after last night's dinner.

ENJOY!

Luscious, sticky heaven in a bowl

We had friends over for dinner recently, so I thought I'd make something I haven't done in ages...a Sticky Date Pudding...and it turned out rather well.

I'm not one to stick religiously to a recipe, so I hunted out a couple of them and combined them to see how it went. I checked out my Donna Hay Mags as well as Taste.com. Donna Hay has a Sticky Date Pudding in it this month and the Taste website also has a number of recipes for the pudding....so....

Here's what I did.

Combined 250 grams of chopped pitted dates in a bowl with a teaspoon of bi-carb of soda and a cup of hot water. Let it stand for about 15 minutes, then blended it in a food processor

Added 100 grams of chopped butter and 1/2 cup of brown sugar and gave it a whizz, then put in two eggs and gently processed it

Poured it all into a large bowl and added 1 cup of Self Raising flour and gently mixed it all together.

I used a 20cmx20cm cake tin lined with baking paper and put it in a 180 degree oven for about 30 minutes. When it came out of the oven it was as light as a feather.

To make the caramel sauce...

I put 150 grams of butter, 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of brown sugar in a small saucepan and brought it to the boil...then let it simmer for a minute.

I put the cooled cake onto a plate and pierced the top with a skewer, then spooned some of the sauce over the top...the rest of the sauce was put into a jug and served it with the pudding.

That's it! It was so easy and absolutely delish!

What I am going to have to do though is get me one of these babies!

DROOL!

The KitchenAid Food Processor is magnificent!

I bought myself one of their stand mixers last year and it's been fantastic! Time to upgrade my old processor methinks