Some Things I Have Been Doing......

 ......in pictures......

......embroidery, baking, taking photos, painting, paint & collage,  cutting painted papers to make a bird collage, reading about art: the decorated journal by gwen diehn
(raylee).

Apple Cakes "Easy Peasy Recipe"

ingredients:
150g butter, cubed
1 tspn vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 cups wholemeal self raising flour, sifted
1 tspn cinnamon
3/4 cup milk
3 red apples


1. preheat oven to 180 degrees c, put 12 paper muffin cases in a 12 hole muffin tin.
beat butter, sugar & vanilla in a  small bowl with electric  mixer until pale & creamy.
add eggs, beat between each addition.

2. transfer to a large bowl. stir in flour,cinnamon, & milk until smooth.
peel & grate the flesh of  1 apple into mixture, stir until combined.
spoon mixture into paper cases, 2/3 full.
quarter & core remaining apples, then slice thinly.
put 5 slices on top of each cake.

3. bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden & a skewer inserted into cakes comes out clean..
cool on a wire rack

i found this recipe in a "home journal" magazine. their recipe used unsalted butter & white flour.
to find more Easy Peasy recipes look at mezzmakesstuff
(raylee).

Sponge Cake

I baked a cake!!!........so what?.... anyone can bake a cake.
not just a cake ......a SPONGE cake!!
i remember afternoon tea at aunties & nana's eagerly awaiting the cutting of the Sponge cake. no other cake tastes like it, the sweet strawberry jam , homemade of course & the cream fresh from the cow that very morning.
the oohing & ahhing about the taste , the texture, the lightness, the golden colour from the fresh laid eggs collected from the chook house in the backyard, & don't forget the bowls, the utensils,  the heat of the oven ,what kind of wood to burn to get the correct heat & the ingredients. it went on & on & on.
all of these things made me scared.....very scared.......when it comes to baking i don't have a lot of patience. so i have procrastinated for years......& years, but i finally got up the courage to have a go at baking a Sponge cake.
i don't have a vast array of baking utensils, some cooks would cringe in horror if they looked in my kitchen cupboards, some probably have & were too nice to say anything!
anyway i did it! ......i followed the recipe exactly , just  that was an accomplishment for me, until the part about separating the mix into two cake tins......i only had one.... so one it was. one of those tins where the bottom is supposed to come out with the pull of the thingy on the side of the tin so the cake is easy to remove once it is cooked,...... yes that worked about twice.....never again.
so i poured all the mixture into my one cake tin with the non removable bottom........kept a close eye on it as i wasn't  sure how long to leave it in the oven........it came out ok!!
now what to cool it on......not owning a cake rack i turned the dish rack upside down, put some paper over it & carefully placed the cake still inside the tin upside down on the rack to cool.
then put a cold wet dishcloth over the tin just to make sure it would come away from the cake cleanly, someone was watching over me ...it worked! i put the cooled cake in the freezer for about ten minutes then cut it in two.

i didn't have any strawberry jam so mixed the pulp of a passion fruit from my garden with some apricot jam & heated them in a small saucepan, when it was cool spread it on one half of the cake, added the whipped cream, placed the other half on top & iced it with passion fruit icing.....yes i do like cream!!! (raylee).