little birdy teacup

I love this cup. Thrifty Tim found it in his travels and bought it home for me. I think it is perfect with it's delicate yet strong pattern and the beautiful striking colours. I think tea tastes best in a beautiful fine china cup. And as I tend to use all but my most precious teacups regularly on a daily basis they tend to get chipped or broken and it becomes a lovely chance to find another favorite teacup!

burnt butter biscuits

Cammy catered for all our special occasions with her sponges or fruit cakes for christenings and weddings.


Cammy's Burnt Butter Biscuits
1/4 lb butter, brown and when cool add a good 1/2 cup sugar, mix in 1 beaten egg and 1 cup SR flour. (all of this is done in the saucepan you have used to brown the butter!)
Roll tspn fulls into balls, press half an almond on each and cook in a moderate oven for 10-15 mins. Leave room for them to spread
For a Change: Add 1/2 cup of dessicated coconut to the mixture and leave off the almond. (I actually like to add the coconut and put a whole almond on!!! Cammy didn't write it here but I recall her pressing them lightly with a fork especially if they didn't have the almond on them.)

Cammy's Father's Favourites
1/4 lb butter (melted)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup coconut
1 cup SR flour
1 cup chopped dates
Place all thesein a bowl and mix. Then add 1 beaten egg. Put in an oblong tin (she would press it gently into the tin using her knuckles- giving the surface a unique ripple.) Bake in a moderate oven for20-30 mins (the longer it is left the dryer it becomes it is more chewy if cooked for only 20 minutes, play with it until you find what you prefer, as Cammy got older she preferred it dryer, I like it chewy!)
For Variation: add dried apricots and walnuts (I prefer pecans myself)

Cammy's Teacup

I love this tea cup. It was my grandmothers. She gave it to me on my birthday just before she passed away. It is a lovely connection to her, best used when drinking tea and eating 'burnt butter biscuits'. Something she always had on hand being so easy to make and delicious, although I grant you the name doesn't sound too promising. It refers to burning or rather browning the butter before mixing in the other ingredients. Shortbread was her other specialty, OH and 'fathers favourites'- a yummy slice made with dates and apricots. And her sponge cakes were divine. I have never managed to make them although I have her handwritten instructions. She passed away 13 years ago this last week. Actually it wasn't until I sat down to write this that I thought of that, I didn't consciously choose the teacup for that reason. It was the first one my hand went to.... Funny that.

Cammy's Fathers Favourite.

Holiday baking

The ingredients...

mix them all together...

press them into the tin and bake...

Yum, Cammy's Father's Favourites!
(Cammy was my grandmother, Christina. As her first grandchild I christened her Cammy because I had trouble saying Granny and it stuck...almost everyone ended up calling her Cammy!)

Cranberry, vanilla cake with rose water icing.

This is my afternoon tea and today's teacup. Pretty isn't it? The cake is my creation a plain vanilla cake with crasins (dried cranberries) added the icing is a butter icing with rosewater flavour.

Cranberry vanilla cake with rosewater icing.

125 g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tspn vanilla bean paste
3 eggs
3 cups SR flour
1/2 cup milk
About 2/3 cup crasins

Cream the butter and sugar beat in the eggs one at a time. sift the flour and add to the creamed butter an sugar alterating with the milk, folding in with a large metal spoon. Mix in cranberries. Spoon into prepared cake ring tin and bake for about 40 mins in a moderate oven. (aprox 180'C)

icing:
about 75g butter
about 1cup pure icing sugar
about 1 tspn of rose water

cream butter and icing sugar together add the rose water. if the icing is too thick add a tspn of milk at a time until desired consistency is achieved.
( I just had a thought that coconut milk in the icing and a sprinkling of coconut on the top would also be good. Being allergic to food colourings, I might try the juice of the preserved wild hibiscus flower that we put in champagne to give the icing a pink colour.)

Red teacup

My current favourite morning coffee cup. I recently bought a coffee machine and coffee grinder so am treating myself to a delicious morning flat white.

Oven Dried Tomatoes

I tried making oven roasted/ semi dried tomatoes. they were delicious. Roma tomatoes were on special at the local vegie shop. I sliced them in half drizzled over a bit of olive oil and a tad of balsamic vinegar, seasoned them with salt and a bit of sugar and popped them in a hot oven until they looked about right (40 mins I suppose) Fantastic on crusty Italian bread with feta.

Not clarice cliff tea cup

This tea cup is not, although it does remind me of one, a Clarice Cliff. I love it none the less.

Holiday High Tea

I made an Apple and Rhubarb Crumble Cake.


I used the basic vanilla cake base from this cake but added 3/4 of a cup of milk rather than 1/2 a cup to make a less dense cake. I topped the batter with about 1 and 1/2 cups of stewed apple and rhubarb and topped with a crumble mixture
2 tble spns raw sugar
3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
1tspn (or a good shake) of ground cinnamon
60g of butter
1/2 cup of chopped almonds

Rub butter flour and sugar together. Add almonds sprinkle over cake mixture. Bake about 50 mins in moderate oven until golden and skewer comes out clean.

Enjoy with organic clotted cream!

I also made Caramelized Onion and Fetta Tarts
These are so easy and very yummy! (Don't let on how easy they are as people think you are very clever!)



Caramelized Onions
3 or 4 spanish onions sliced
a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to cover the base of a frying pan
about 2 tble spoons of brown sugar
a good splash of balsamic vinegar
a good pinch of sea salt

Gently fry the onions in the olive oil as they start to go translucent add the sugar and balsamic vinegar continue to cook until they are soft well coated. Add salt.
At this point you will need to taste the mixture to see if more sugar or vinegar is required to get the balance right.

Tarts
Caramelized onions
puff pastry sheets
your favourite fetta (or blue cheese for a yummy variation.)
chopped rosemary

Cut pastry into squares and pop into patty pan or muffin tins.
Top with onion mixture, crumble over cheese and sprinkle with chopped rosemary. Bake in a hot oven until pastry is crisp and golden.

Coffee and Almond Crumble Cake

I baked this cake and it's yummy.


Almond, Coffee Crumble Cake
(An adaptation of one by Gordon Ramsay)

Crumble topping
Rub together 40g butter with 60g of plain flour and 40g brown sugar. Mix in about half a cup of flaked almonds (omitted from the one in this photo as I had none in the pantry. But they do add a yummy crunch.)



Cake.
set aside and alow to cool one third of a cup of good strong expresso.
Cream together 170g butter and 170g raw caster sugar. Beat in 3 eggs one at a time. Mix in a tspn of good quality vanilla extract or paste.

Mix in half of the coffee with a large metal spoon. Mix in 100g of almond meal.



Sift together half a tspn of baking powder with 100g of SR flour and then fold it into the mixture.



Fold through the remaining coffee.



Spoon into a lined, greased spring form tin, sprinkle crumble mixture on top.
Bake for about 50-60mins at 170degrees celsius (150 if you have a fan forced oven)
Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve. (Nice warm or cold)