Tag Archives: almond

Aug24

Amy Heap’s Lemon Bread

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Lemon Bread

Since blogging about my prolific lemon tree lots of friends have sent me their winning lemon recipes, and so I’ve been enjoying the process of trying them out as needed, photographing and blogging about them (sorry I’m not faster at it… life doesn’t generally afford me the fun of cooking just for the sake of it!). Next cab off the lemon rank is Amy’s Lemon Bread, which she tells me is probably the cake she’s made more than any cake ever, and the one she still makes most often. This lovely loaf took little time and only a few dollars to make, lasted a good week in my take cake keeper and worked well with cream as dessert when needed. Thanks for sharing, Amy.

For the cake:

  • 90g of butter
  • 1 cup castor sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 dsp grated lemon rind
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup almond meal

For the lemon syrup:

  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup castor sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
  2. In a small saucepan or microwave jug melt butter and mix in the sugar. Transfer to a large bowl, and add eggs one at a time, mixing well as you go.
  3. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk and then fold in lemon rind, juice and ground almonds.
  4. Pour into a greased or lined loaf tin and bake in moderate oven for 50-60 minutes, though start checking earlier if you’re oven is hottish or fan-forced.
  5. While cake is in the oven, prepare the syrup by stirring lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves.
  6. When cake is cooked and still hot and in the tin, gradually spoon over the lemon syrup. Allow to cool completely in the loaf tin.
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Feb16

Mary Berry’s Jolly Good Apple Cake

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The first time I made this cake, my husband was away and my delightful friend Catherine was staying for a few nights with her delightful children. As is not unusual for me, I was trying to do too much in the kitchen at once – baking a cake, cooking dinner and parenting my own kids all at the same time. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised (but I was!) when I loosened the cake from the spring-form tin and the whole thing went frisbee-like, straight into the nearby sink of dirty washing up water! But I persevered and made it again because this recipe is thoroughly deserving of its title: it’s the best tasting apple cake I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating, it’s quick to prepare using the food processor, it’s rich in flavour and quite good to look at without any real effort. If you’re not a fan of marzipan, don’t be put off by the small amount required – it melts all through the cake upon cooking and contributes to the sweetness and nuttiness of the cake without leaving isolated bits of it in your mouth. And do feel free to use tinned apples in this cake, though fresh ones taste a fair bit nicer and are not much work at all if you can use a slinky apple machine to do the hard work of peeling and slicing for you. Costing just under $6 to make, this cake serves 12 people and is delightful on its own for morning or afternoon or becomes a wonderful dessert with a dollop of cream or icecream. Thanks for sharing this one Nicola, and thanks for inventing it, Mary Berry (whoever you are!). 

  • 225g grams flour
  • 1 level teaspoons baking powder
  • 225g sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • half teaspoon almond extract
  • 150g butter, melted
  • 250g apples (approximately 3 medium sized), cored, peeled and sliced
  • 50g marzipan
  • 25g flaked almonds
  • 2 tablespoons raw sugar for the top
  1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees or 160 degrees for fan-forced. Grease and line a deep, loose bottomed tin. 
  2. In a food processor or mixer, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, almond extract and melted butter for 1 minute. Spread half the mixture in the bottom of the pan. 
  3. Slice apples and lay them on top of the mixture, dice and scatter marzipan over the top of the apples. Spread the remaining cake mixture over the top of the apples and marzipan, trapping them inside. Scatter the flaked almonds and raw sugar on top. 
  4. Bake for 1.25 to 1.5 hours, though start checking earlier. Cake is cooked when a skewer comes out clean of batter but moist from the apples. Cool in the tin and dust with icing sugar if doing so appeals. 
Aug4

Gluten Free Raspberry Slice

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You’ve got to love a gluten and egg free recipe that works just as well as if it weren’t, tastes just as good as its gluten-full counterparts and doesn’t cost the earth to make. That’s exactly my review of my friend Mim’s Gluten Free Raspberry Slice. This very simple recipe looks far more impressive than the minimal effort it actually requires – so don’t be put off by the creaming of the butter and sugar – everything else is so jolly simple, it’s really not a deal-breaker. Serve this up to all your guests as a dessert with cream or icecream or simply as a an eye-pleasing morning or afternoon tea. Finally, this yummy number can be done with berries of your choice (mine pictured above is mixed berry) and regular flour should you not require freedom from gluten. Either way, will only set you back around $4. Thankyou Mim, I can tell I’m going to be making this again and again.

  • 200 g butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup caster sugar
  • 1 cup almond meal
  • 1 1/2 cups of gluten free flour
  • 2 cups frozen raspberries
  • 1/3 cup flaked almonds
  1. Line lamington pan with baking paper.
  2. Beat butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in almond meal and sifted flour.
  3. Press 2/3 pastry into base – reserve rest for crumbling on top.
  4. Bake uncovered in moderately hot oven (200) for 10 minutes until lightly browned.
  5. Sprinkle raspberries over the top.
  6. Sprinkle remaining pastry (crumbled) and flaked almonds.
  7. Bake 35 minutes, or until brown.
  8. Cool in pan. Lift whole slice out using baking paper. Cut into squares, dusting pieces with icing sugar.
Oct7

Super Simple Biscotti

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I do love homemade biscotti so was very excited when this simple and yummy recipe landed in by inbox from my friend Soph, who found it on a friend’s blog. Needing to provide dessert for dinner with friends this week, I decided to give these a go because they were able to be made ahead of time, and Soph’s super do-able serving suggestion of dipping in chocolate fondue grabbed me immediately. Don’t be turned off by the two stage cooking process – this recipe is still dead easy and really nowhere as labour intensive as it might seem. I have never succeeded in making biscotti wafer-thin, but having tried, failed and still enjoyed eating chunkier homemade versions of it, I’ve decided I’m okay with it. This winning recipe costs less than $3 to make. Thanks Soph, for this terrific contribution.

  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla essence
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup cranberries
  • 3/4 cup roasted almonds (Woolworth’s homebrand are terrific and cheap!)

1.  In a mixing bowl, mix together the sugar and oil until combined.

2.  Add eggs and vanilla essence and mix thoroughly until combined.

3.  Add flour, baking powder and salt to the egg mixture, and stir to form a dough.  When all the flour is almost incorporated, add in the cranberries and almonds.  Continue stirring until all the flour is incorporated and a dough has formed.

4.  Take half the mixture and using wet hands, form it into a log.  Place the log onto a tray lined with baking paper and pat into a smoother log shape.  Repeat with the remaining dough

5.  Bake at 300F/150C for 35-40 minutes until the logs are slightly golden.

6.  Remove from the oven and cool.  Reduce oven heat to 275F/135C.

7.  Once the logs are cool enough to handle, slice into slices.  Place sliced biscotti back onto tray and bake for 8-10 minutes until crisped.