Baked cinnamon ricotta drizzled with honey and berries

This was super easy to make and very tasty. Lovely little morning or afternoon tea dish. The ricotta would also be fabulous for breakfast served on toast. I made half the recipe and I easily got four servings out of it. I have noticed this a lot lately, that the suggested serving sizes are massive. Most of the time I can halve a recipe and still get plenty of food out of it. If it wasn't that bit more difficult I would start quartering recipes but it takes that bit extra work and sometimes when I have taken the time to work it out the end result isn't that great. Some recipes just aren't meant to be made in such small quantities. This one probably wouldn't have been too bad. I find that recipes with eggs are the hardest. 

I would recommend making this one. I really enjoyed it and will make it again.

Blueberry sour cream bundt cake

I was looking for something to make to take to a bbq with friends a few weeks ago. I had some blueberries in the fridge that had been there for a little while. They were still fine but thought that I would use them up in a cake. I also had some sour cream that was marching toward its use by date so went searching for a recipe that I could use both in. I hadn't used my bundt pan in a long time so I thought that it would to give it another work out. While searching I came across Martha Stewart's Blueberry lemon bundt cake. I reduced the sugars by half and it only too about 50 minutes to cook. I made a lemon glaze to put on it. I used the new CSR LoGiCane icing sugar. I was just going to make a plain white glaze but this icing sure isn't pure white and it turned into a grey murky colour so I added in, a little too much, yellow colouring paste. 

It tasted really good, it was dense though. When I first cut into it I thought that it wasn't completely cooked but it wasn't doughy like I thought it was going to be. Several people went back for seconds and that is really the mark of how good it is right?

Happy 2nd Birthday - Coconut Tres Leches Cake

Happy 2nd birthday to my little blog! I forgot the first birthday last year but I was determined not to forget this year. I am so pleased that I started up blogging. I know that did blog as much last year as I did in my first but I am hoping to do more this year. I am trying to keep on top of my diet this year. I did manage to lose 15 kg last year which I was so very pleased with but I still have plenty more weight to lose. I do refuse, however, to starve and/or seriously deprive myself. I know myself too well and know that if I do those things that I just rebel. So will I hope to have more healthy and lighter recipes on here this year there is still be some desserts and indulgent and luxurious meals too. 

For a birthday you just have to have a lovely dessert and this one is a wonderful one. I had made it before about 3 or 4 years ago and just love it. I had a bbq with friends on the weekend and it was requested that I bring a dessert. Actually I am always requested to bring a dessert, lol. Not that I mind at all, I so love to make desserts. This one was a huge hit, everyone just raved about it and pretty much every one had seconds. The first time I made it I topped it with sliced mango and shaved fresh coconut. I think it was better with the strawberries, blueberries & kiwi fruit.

Coconut Tres Leches Cake

Ingredients

6 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup plain flour
400 g can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups cream
Fruit to top (eg berries, kiwi fruit, mango, passionfruit)
Shaved coconut (optional)

Method

Heat oven to 160 C (140 C fan-forced).

Grease 32 cm x 22 baking dish.

Beat yolks and sugar on high speed until pale yellow and fluffy.

Whip egg whites to peaks. With rubber spatula, stir about 1/3 of egg whites into yolks and then gently fold in remaining whites.

Sift flour over egg mixture and using a rubber spatula to gently fold in until there are no more white flour streaks being careful not to over mix.

Bake until puffed and golden and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan, 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove from oven and place pan on a wire cooling rack. With a toothpick, poke holes all over the cake. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

In a jug combine the milks and vanilla and then pour mixture evenly over cake. Continue to cool cake for another 45 more minutes and then cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Turn cake out onto a serving plate, you may need to use a spatula to lift around the edges and then tap on the bottom of the pan, it will eventually come out. (I had the centre of the cake stick but I just lifted it out and stuck it back in place...shhh)

Whip cream and cover cake with it then top with desired fruit and coconut, if using.

Blueberry Pie

I just love pie, both sweet and savoury, but sweet most of all. Pie always reminds me of my Gramma. In summer there was all kinds of fruit from their orchard and berries from their vines. My two favourite fruit pies would have to be Gramma's fresh raspberry pie and the other saskatoon pie. Saskatoons are a lovely wild berry that looks similar to a blueberry. I guess they have a similar taste but there is a definite difference. I find them to be sweeter and definitely tastier. I remember going saskatoon picking with my Gramma when on holidays. It wasn't easy work although a lot easier than picking raspberries or blackberries. Plus the bonus is that you are in Canada and don't have to worry about poisonous Aussie spiders hiding in amongst the trees/berries, which I have had occur when picking blackberries. 

Another pie that my Gramma used to make was a Sour Cream Raisin pie and it is just to die for. There is one huge but when it comes to this pie. I have tried to make it myself and I discovered what the but is. It just doesn't taste the same without proper sour cream. By that I mean that my grandparents (and uncles) milked their own cows and separated their own milk producing wonderful natural untouched cream. I have to admit that there is nothing better than fresh milk and fresh cream. Gramma would allow the cream to sour naturally. Not so much that it was bad of course but just enough that you didn't want to dollop it on top of a bowl of berries. That is when you make the sour cream raisin pie. It is just not the same using the homogenised, pasteurised and cultured sour cream that you buy in stores. I would love to be able to buy real milk and cream. Alas I do not know anyone who milks their own cows (with the exception of my uncles, but they are in Canada not Australia), not that I really blame them, owning milk cows is hard work. Another problem is that it is illegal to sell so called "raw" milk for consumption. Ah, I guess that I will just have to make another trip to Canada so that I can make a sour cream raisin pie. 

Now that I have waxed lyrical about my favourite pies I am going to tell you that I made something completely different. Blueberries are as close as it gets to saskatoons here and since I had a yen for pie I decided that it would be a good idea to try making one. After a quick google search I came up with this delectable looking Blueberry pie recipe over on Simply Recipes. I couldn't wait for it to cool down so the filling did run a bit when I cut into it but it was worth it to eat this wonderful pie. I didn't make the pastry recipe linked to in that recipe. I instead made my Gramma's recipe like I do for almost all pastry items that I make. It is a wonderful recipe. My Gramma made it with lard. I make it either with shortening (if I have it) but more often that not just with butter. It is best made with lard though. 

Shortcrust Pastry

Ingredients: 

2 c (220 g) flour
1 tsp salt

2 tbsp caster sugar (for sweet pies only, which is my addition)
2/3 c (150 g) lard, shortening or butter
1 tbsp vinegar
1 small egg
water

Combine flour, salt and caster sugar. Cut in lard using a pastry cutter, or use a food processor. 

Place egg in a 1 cup measure and lightly beat, add vinegar and top up with water to 3/4 cup. Add to flour mixture and little at a time until you have a soft pastry (you probably won't need all the liquid). 

Blueberry Butter Cake

Sigh...it is late and I have a full day at work tomorrow and here I am doing a blog post. I had gotten a couple of good nights sleep and, of course, now I am here wide awake at midnight when I really need to be sleeping. Oh well I guess it gives me a chance to get another post done. 

I am also sitting here watching old episodes of my favourite show Spicks & Specks, which is kind of a music quiz show. It is finished up at the end of this year and I am going to miss it terribly. I have a number of dvds full of episodes that I have recorded over the years so they should at least keep me happy for a while. 

I made this lovely cake of Bill's last weekend. It was a really nice little cake. I didn't want a full 23 cm cake so I halved the recipe and cooked it in an 18 cm pan. However that pan was still a bit small. I would like to try it again but I would divide the recipe by 3 and try it again. I do know that the reason my blueberries sank is that the tin was too small and the mixture almost rolled over in the tin. I thought for a while that it was going to actually go over the side of the tin, thankfully it didn't. The cake part of it was so nice. Lovely and smooth and dense. It is a perfect dessert cake. I am also looking forward to making it with fresh rather than frozen blueberries. 

Blueberry Butter Cake

For the Topping:

• 1 c brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 c plain flour
• 75g unsalted butter, cold

Method:

• Place brown sugar and flour in a bowl, add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Set aside

For the Cake:

• 2 c plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 c caster sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 c sour cream
• 2 c blueberries

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 C.
• Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. 
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs beating well to incorporated. 
• Add the dry ingredients, alternating with sour cream, mixing well after each addition.
• Pour the cake batter into a greased 23 cm spring form cake tin. Sprinkle with blueberries and topping mixture.
• Bake the cake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
• Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack, top side up.