Tortilla Wrap Recipe.

500g Flour

4Tb sp cooking oil

250ml warm water. 

Combine flour and oil. 

Add water and kneed for 5 min till smooth.

Rest for 15 min. (With a glass of wine.)

Divide into 12 balls.

Roll flat.

Med-high heat dry fry pan.

Cook 1-2 min on each side.

Keep warm, wrapped in clean tea-towel. 

This will keep them soft.

Can be reheated in microwave 10-15 sec.

Keto Cupcakes......CAKE!!!!

OK, so the sprinkles aren't keto.....live a little.

Zucchini Cupcakes


1 Egg.
1Tbsp granulated sugar substitute
100g Grated Zucchini.
60g Ground Almonds
1tsp Baking powder
1tsp Vanilla


 - whip eggs and sugar substitute till its light and fluffy
- combine zucchini with egg mixture
- combine remaining ingredients
- whip it up





180*C for 25 min.      Makes 6


Ice with whipped cream or...

Cream Cheese Icing.

1 part butter, 2 parts cream cheese.
Vanilla and granulated sugar substitute to taste.
Whip it, whip it good.

Cooks Tips:

Mix can easily be doubled, tripped, quadrupled, you get the picture.

Peal the zucchini if you don't want green cakes....I'm just lazy, but pealing definitely makes them prettier and slightly softer in texture. But my kids like green cake , so....

Freezes really well. Defrosts within half an hour. Ice when you get it out of freezer, by the time it's defrosted it will be perfect.

3 Ingredient Rocket Cake...AKA Swiss Roll

This is totally my go to cake when I am pushed for time. It's also the perfect shape for a rocket!

It's also brilliant if you are short on butter or icing, or the fridge is low but you've got guests arriving in 30min and you want to make it look like you're some domestic goddess, but in reality you're just keeping the zombies at bay....


Here it is, don't be put off by all the words, it's literally 3 ingredients and no more than 30 min including washing up!







Swiss Roll....AKA Rocket Cake

3 eggs
100g (1/2 cup) Sugar
100g (3/4 cup) SR Flour
1TBsp optional extras...coffee, chocolate, dash of cinnamon...whatever takes your fancy

• Whip the eggs and sugar till it's light and fluffy. The beater should leave a trail when you lift it out.
• Sift in the flour (and any optional extras) and gently fold to combine the mixture. Try not to loose all that lovely air you've just whipped into it.
• Line a baking tray with paper (no need to grease). I use the roasting tray that came with the other oven.
• Spread the mixture as evenly as you can but don't obsess over it...it's just a cake! It's gonna be less than 1cm thick covering the tin.
• Bake 180*C for 10 minutes. (Not a minute more otherwise it become dry and too hard to roll...don't ask me how I know this ).
• While you're waiting for the timer to go off, hide away the evidence!
• Let the cake cool just slightly.
• Carefully upend the cake onto a bench sprinkled with sugar, and peal the paper away.
• Cover the whole thing in jam, and cream if you like.
• Starting at the shorted end roll it up into a nice Swiss roll. Don't try and get it too tight at the beginning of the roll, just get the roll motion started. As you get toward the middle you can make it tighter.

This was my babies 1st birthday cake....now he's 3!

I usually then wrap it in glad wrap and kind of firm up the roll a little (give it a gentle squeeze). Then I throw it in the freezer till I need it, unless guests are already at the door, then I pop it on a plate and put the kettle on.

Depending on the weather this won't take half an hour to defrost if it's been in the freezer for any length of time.


You can also make this into a traditional cake shape by rolling it slightly differently, as seen in this photo, but I will show you that another day.

Baking Bread....a wonderful sensory experience.

Ahhhh the smell of fresh baked bread, there is nothing like it.  I love making bread with my little helper.  Especially kneading the dough.  We rarely play with playdough anymore as we've pretty much got a batch of bread dough on the go every other day. It smells wonderful, tastes pretty good and the texture is just so lovely to work with.  As far as sensory play goes this one's definitely a winner in my book.

I usually just halve the dough and each of us work with our half and chat and laugh and swap and taste test and laugh and swap again until we think the dough is ready for a rest.

Later we come back to see how much it has grown.  My little helper is always amazed at how much the dough has risen. Then there is nothing but pure joy on his face as he pushes the blob back to the bottom of the bowl.




Versatile Loaf

500g flour
2tsp yeast
2tsp sugar
2tsp salt
300ml luke warm water

*Combine yeast, sugar and water.
*Leave this to sit for no more than 5 min.
*If it's all bubbly,  yeah! If not, it's dead, throw in away and start again.
*Add yeast mixture to dry ingredients.
*Kneed for 10 min or so.
*Leave in draft free place to rise, it should double in size.
*Push back down, kneed briefly and place in loaf tin to rise again. Only about half an hour, just so the dough is 3/4 to the top of the tin.

Bake. 180*C . 20min.

You can add saltanas or any other flavour you like to this base.

Fruit cake, not just for Christmas.

So, the general rule is that when you have a baby your mum comes to visit.  However you may remember we live in a teeny tiny itsy bitsy studio apartment. There is barely room for a Moses basket let alone a Nanna. So you can imagine my sheer panic when I get the phone call to say "I've booked the flights, I'm coming to see my new little grand child."

Luckily I am very blessed and have wonderful friends, some of whom are giving up their whole apartments or front rooms for set periods so Nanna can come visit. I can't thank you enough.

So, my Mum is coming from the other side of the planet. It will be nice to have her visit. Mum loves fruit cake so this is an excellent excuse to make my favourite Christmas cake. It's rich and moist and really you don't need an excuse to make it, but it helps!


CHRISTMAS CAKE

1kg Dried fruit     You could use raisins and sultanas with .... yawn....
                           Be adventurous try  apples, pears, apricots, cranberries, prunes
                           All chopped to the size of raisins.

1 portion of alcohol      There are no hard and fast rules
                                    If you don't like alcohol use your favourite juice.
                                    I used sherry, rum, port, red wine, angostura bitters, sloe gin, brandy

Combine the fruit and the alcohol and soak for about a week. You want the fruit to be nice and plump soaking up all the alcohol. So check on it every now and then, give it a good stir, add more liquid if you think it needs it.

One week later.....

1/2 tsp Cinnamon                   * Combine everything together
1/2 tsp Nutmeg                      * Pop in fully lined and greased tin
1/2 tsp Ground cloves            * Bake 140*C for 3 hours
250g SR Flour                       * Cover with baking paper continue to bake for 1 hour
250g Brown sugar                  * Skewer will come out clean when done
250g Butter
4 Eggs

                   * Don't forget to feed the cake every few days with a spoonful of brandy.
                      This will make the cake even more moist and irresistible.

                  * I Used 2 x 20cm round tins this time, usually I use 1 big tin.
                     I think I am going to continue using two tins.
                     The cake seems to last a little longer this way, but not much longer!

Mars Bar Slice Make-over - pretending to be a domestic goddess

So with Easter fast approaching and time limited due to feeding, burping, bathing, not to mention looking after a baby,  I needed a quick and easy Easter treat that also looked smart enough to drop in to work, as a little thank you for looking after me during the previous nine months of nausea. Of course having everyone think I am amazing, 'Where does she find the time?' ...Oh it was just a little something I whipped-up...OK back to reality.

So I rehashed the old  mars bar slice, giving it a little makeover. Having made all three slices in less than an hour...including washing up, I was suitably impressed.

Dark and white chocolate marbled

Crushed hazelnuts

Mini Easter eggs, smashed with a hammer

These were of course delivered to mine and handsome mans work places before the arrival of the Bunny. Pity it took me a little longer to get it to the web page!


So next I'm going to use the base of this for millionaires slice.....mmmm, I think it would work well with cherry ripe slice too.

Give Pecan Pie a Chance.

I've never really been a fan of the pecan pie. I don't really know why but I've always thought it was a bit naff. Don't ask me where such prejudices come from, I have no idea. I guess I have never actually had a good one. In my mind they are dry and stale and nutty. May be I had a bad experience somewhere along the way and it has tainted my opinion forever....well until now anyway.

So as I am up for new things, I decided it was about time I gave pecan pie a chance. the reason being two fold 1) its pecan pie and 2) I really need practise at pie pastry.

I turned to 'Aunt Delia' for advise....as all the other cook books were of no help whatsoever. Not even 'Sweet Baby James' could help me. But I have come to learn to trust Aunt Delia, she hasn't lead me astray yet, and the one time I didn't believe her and went off on my own...disaster! You have been warned.


PECAN PIE

For the PASTRY....

170g P. flour                      *combine together to resemble bread crumbs
1Tsp icing sugar 
75g butter

1 egg yolk                               * incorporate into mixture

cold water                               * gradually add until dough starts to come together

                                               * rest in the fridge for 30 min
                                                * roll out and line pie tin
                                                * no need to blind bake


For the PIE......

1 egg                                     * gently whisk till foamy
1 egg white

100g brown sugar                 * combine all this with the egg mixture
200g golden syrup                * pour into pastry case
170g chopped pecans           * pop a few whole pecans on top for decoration
40g melted butter                 * bake at 180* for 25-30 min


*even almost a week later it is still sticky yummy nutty goodness.
* OK Aunt Delia does say to use 3 eggs....but really??? I just don't see the need.