Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients :
90g cream cheese, softened
45g butter, softened
210g icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Method :
1. Beat cream cheese and butter until creamy.
2. Add sugar in batches and beat well.
3. Add lemon juice and beat until well combined, and frost cake.

Banana and Coconut Cake

Banana and Coconut Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients :
125g butter, softened (if using unsalted butter, add 1/4 tsp salt)
330g sugar
280g very ripe, mashed banana
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
100ml buttermilk
225g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup dessicated coconut (this is optional - only my addition to the recipe)

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 160 deg C. Grease and line a 22cm pan or line a muffin tin with cupcake pans.
2. Mix butter, sugar, banana, vanilla and eggs until well blended.
3. Add buttermilk and pulse to combine.
4. Sift flour, salt (if using), and bicarbonate of soda. Add to the banana batter and mix well.
5. Fold in coconut.
6. Pour onto baking tin or muffin tin. Bake for 50-60 minutes if using a baking tin, or 25-30 minutes if using a muffin tin.
7. Leave cake to cool before icing with cream cheese frosting.

Chocolate Cheesecake Brownie

Chocolate Cheesecake Brownie (Makes approximately 16 slices)

Brownie

Ingredients :
185g butter, melted
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour, sifted
Cheesecake
285g cream cheese, softened and chopped
4 1/2 tb sps caster sugar
2 eggs

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 160 deg C. Line a 20cm (8in) tin with non-stick baking paper.
2. Mix butter, cocoa, sugar, eggs and flour together until smooth. Pour on prepared tin.
3. On a separate bowl, process cream cheese, sugar, and eggs until smooth.
4. Now, I didn’t follow the recipe which said to put spoonfuls of the cheesecake mixture on top of the chocolate mixture and swirl with a butter knife. I just placed the whole motherload of cheesecake mixture on top of the chocolate and popped it in the oven.
5. Bake for 45-50 minute. Cool in tin.
The second cake is a good old Banana cake with dessicated coconut, topped with lemon cream cheese frosting

Cider Apple Christmas Cake

Cider Apple Christmas Cake

Ingredients :
600g raisins
375g dried figs or prunes, chopped
350g glace cherries
2 small dessert apples (120g) peeled, cored and grated
700ml scrumpy (or other cider)
4 level tsp mixed spice
200g unsalted butter, softened
175g dark soft brown sugar
3 large eggs
150g ground almonds
275g plain flour
2 level tsp baking powder

Method :
1. A day before baking the cake, preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F.
2. Put the fruit, scrumpy and spice in a casserole, cover with foil and bake for an hour and a half. Remove the foil for the last 15 minutes.

3. Cover, and leave on a worktop overnight. You should be left with plump fruit and little juice.

4. Next day, double or triple line a 20-25cm square deep cake tin with baking parchment.
5. Beat the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, then fold in the fruit and nuts.
6. Sift the flour and baking powder, and beat through.
7. Spoon into the tin (decorate the top with nuts if you like).

Cover with foil and bake at 160C (150C fan-assisted)/325F for 40 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for 40 minutes more until a skewer comes out clean.

Christmas Cake Notice

Christmas Cake Notice

Ingredients :
2 pounds pitted prunes
2 pounds raisins
10 oz currants
11 oz mixed peel
13 oz glazed cherries
1 (750 ml) bottle dark rum
1/2 bottle (375 ml) sweet port wine
1 + 1/2 cups brown sugar

Method :
1. Grind/blend the fruits along with the sugar, in batches, using the rum and wine to moisten.
2. If you are using a blender, pour some of the liquid into the blender first before adding fruits, this way, the fruits would start grinding immediately and not clog up the blade. Use the pulse button. If you find that your fruits have become really thick in the blender and not moving, add more rum so that it will move easily or consider taking out some of the fruits. It is very important not to over crowd your blender as this forces the engine to work harder and can burn out.
3. If you are using as food processor, do the opposite, add the fruits first then the liquid. You can opt to start whizzing the fruits and then pour in the rum and wine through the opening at the top of the food processor.
4. Feel free to add some extra rum or wine to the entire mixture before bottling it.
5. Store in a sterilized glass or plastic bottle with an air-tight lid and place on your counter top or a cupboard.
6. Adding more prunes to the mixtures enables your cake to turn out really dark without having to add burnt sugar or any other dark coloring as many people do. However, do what makes you comfortable.

Raw Tuna Sushi

Raw Tuna Sushi

Ingredients :
* 1 cup almonds
* 1 clove garlic
* 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
* 1 dash cayenne (or as much as you want)
* 1½ tablespoons lemon juice (or juice of 1/2 a lemon)
* ⅛ cup nori shreds, soak in the lemon juice
* 1 slice large sheet of nori
* 1 cup buckwheat sprouts, soaked, sprouted and allowed to dry
* ¾ cup cauliflower
* 1 teaspoon nama shoyu (i used tamari)
* ⅛ cup dates (i used about 3 dates)
* 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
* 2 pinches salt
* 6 slices avocado (about 1/4 avo)
* ⅛ cup rocket salad/rucola/arugula

Preparation :
So, for the ‘rice’, you need to first blitz in the food processor or blender the buckwheat sprouts. Make sure they’re dry so that it turns into a chunky buckwheat flour. Put that into a bowl. Then do the same with the cauliflower. Put that in the same bowl. Now put the dates, vinegar, salt and soy sauce in the blender and try to blend it to a paste. Mine stayed quite chunky but it’s fine. Add the date mixture to the buckwheat and cauliflower and mix well. It should be quite sticky. If not, add more vinegar or soy. That’s your rice.

Now for the tuna. This recipe is basically the tuna recipe created by James the raw (http://www.goneraw.com/recipes/1908-tuna-salad-sandwiches-) You blitz up the almonds till they’re quite fine. Then add the garlic (chopped), the nori shreds with lemon juice, salt, cayenne, and…that’s it. Whizz it all up. You will probably have to use a spatula to get it all in and mixed around. So, that’s the tuna.

Now, assembly. I’ve never rolled sushi b4 so this is just how I did it and can surely be done better. I first put the rice onto the large nori sheet and spread it over the whole sheet, not right to the edges though. Then layer on the rocket salad and also the avocado. Add a dash of soy sauce also. Then sblodge on the tuna. Roll up the nori roll and dab the edges with soy sauce so that it sticks. Turn the big fat nori roll so that the edges are underneath and slice ‘bite size’ chunks with a sharp knife. I say bite size in quotes because they don’t fit into MY mouth. It may be better to halve the nori sheet and spread the rice and tuna only half as thick. But, I’m just telling y’all how I did it. Anyway, they come out looking like California Rolls.

Vietnam Food Recipe

Beef Pho

Ingredients :
1 kg (2 lb) Beef shin bones
350g Gravy beef
6 cm Thinly sliced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Salt or to taste
2.5 liters Water
2 tablespoons Fish sauce
400g Thick fresh rice noodles
150g Rump steak, thinly sliced
3 Spring onions, finely chopped
1 medium Onion, very thinly sliced
Herbs & Spices
6 Peppercorns
1 Cinnamon stick
4 Cloves
6 Coriander seeds

Toppings
Chopped red chilli, bean sprouts, fresh purple basil leaves, chopped spring onion, thin lime wedges, fresh coriander leaves.

Method :
Place the bones, gravy beef, ginger, salt and water in a large pan.
*Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer very gently, uncovered, for 3 1/2 hours.
*Skim off any scum that forms on the surface.
*Add in the herbs & spices like peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds and fish sauce. Then cook for another 40 minutes.
*Remove the gravy beef and set it aside to cool.
*Drain the stock, reserving all the liquid and discarding the bones and spices; return the liquid to the pan.
*When the gravy beef is cool enough to handle, cut it against the grain into very fine slices. Set aside.
*Close to serving time, plunge the noodles into a pan of boiling water and cook them for about 10 seconds only, otherwise they will soften and fall apart.
*Drain the noodles well and divide them among large individual soup bowl.
*Arrange the toppings on a platter in the center of the table.
*Bring the beef stock to a rapid boil. Place some slices of the cooked meat as well as a few slices of the raw steak into each bowl of noodles.
*Ladle the boiling stock over the top, sprinkle over the spring onion, and onion slices and serve.
*Each diner chooses their own toppings and can also add sauces such as sweet chili sauce and hoisin sauce to their dish.