As requested: my recipe for lumberjack cake

As you know, I love cooking for others and, missing cooking for a family, often cook cakes and biscuits for friends and my husband's colleagues.  Apparently, with all the packing I have been doing for our move to Brisbane, I  have been a bit remiss, according to  the recipients, in the supply of home cooked treats,  so I whipped up this cake.  It proved to be so  successful, I have been asked to give the recipe.  Here it is, dedicated to DJ, with thanks from liberating me from packing:

Lumberjack Cake

Ingredients:

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored, with the flesh diced.
1 cup of sugar
 185 g dates, diced
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
125 g butter
1 egg
1 cup boiling water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup plain flour

Ingredients for topping:
60g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup milk
 60 g shredded coconut

Method:

Combine apples, dates, bicarbonate soda and water.  Cool to lukewarm.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and beat well.  Beat flour and salt alternatively with the fruit mixture.

With my wonky oven which bakes very hot, I cooked the cake for 40 minutes at 160 degrees, then spread the coconut mixture on top and baked it for a further 15 minutes.  I used to cook it at 170 degrees in my old oven for about 50 minutes and then allow 20 minutes for the top.

Turn out when cool.

(By the way, I love the topping, so often double the recipe to get more of it!)

As for what we have been eating while we are going through the packing, we have had

Beef cheeks in red wine

Cold beef cheek salad

Lots of take-always


and a meal at Ole in South bank:

Bouquet ones of anchovy

a racion of gambas y chorizo

Croquetas de Bacalao

And pulpo y chorizo.

Plus, a glass of red wine sangria.  As usual, good food, nice waitresses, and free people watching.

 

 

Feasting on a freshly caught snapper, scones and home made warm salad.

So what have we felt like eating at home lately?

 

Prawns, pickled seaweed, edamame, noodles with a seaweed garnish and a soya sauce dipping sauce:

 

Grilled lamb steaks, baked sweet potato, plantain and zucchini chips with corn:

Pork and vegetable jungle curry on rice:

Grilled chicken with mashed taro and jungle curry:

Lamb ribs and boiled vegetables:

Grilled chicken drumsticks with boiled vegetables:

  

my other half's new invention, Chai chiller:

 

 and this week's recipe,

Warm Seafood and Vegetable Salad 

 

Ingredients:

 

4 small Pontiac potatoes, thickly sliced and boiled with skins on in salted water until just cooked.

4 large stalks of kale, sliced

2 large shallots, cut into large chunks

1 large clove garlic, sliced

1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

2 cups frozen marinara mix

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

 

Method:

 

Prepare the potatoes, drain and put aside.

Heat oil and sauté garlic and onions until tender.  Stir in the seafood and the kale  and stir until seafood begins to thaw.  Add tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar and seasoning to taste.  Just before seafood is cooked through, gently stir in potato.  Remove when the potato is heated through. 

Heat some olive oil.

 

We also visited the Box Hill market in Melbourne to satisfy a craving for rice noodle rolls (chee cheong fun, in Chinese) and  Sticky rice dumplings (zongzi in Chinese, and apparently known by other, less poetic names in Jamaica, according to a friend, due to them looking like drawers/underpants).

 

 

We were also lucky enough to be invited to dinner after my fisherman son-in-law caught a 3 kg snapper.  He baked it in the oven with a roll of foil inside to spread the heat and it was sweetly delicious and tender, with lovely crispy fins and tail, which Mister Nearly 3 liked the best!  Can't wait til his daddy goes fishing again! Thius was the best snapper I have had, but I can't wait to see what he does with a different species!  Fresh is definitely best!

 

As well as home cooked meals, I have been taken out for meals.

In Melbourne, I was introduced to Miss. Chu and had a brilliant meal of spicy beef and rice noodles.  Lots of ticks for this establishment!

 

 

In Brisbane, the cakes were good at French Twist's Newstead café, but goodness me, the surliness of the staff was not very appealing.  I was met with irritation when I attempted to obtain water, and didn't get one smile, thank you or sign of anything except resentment by the waitress. There are too many nicely mannered and friendly staff in Brisbane for people to put up with that sort of attitude!

 

 

 

IN Mt.Tamborine, Queensland, at the beautiful home of some friends, we feasted on brilliant home made cheese scones with cream, strawberry jam, butter and /or fresh sweetly tart strawberries and freshly brewed tea or coffee.  And, it was all so pretty!  I felt I had died and gone to heaven!