Lemon Tart

And on yet another occasion, my dinner is also my dessert. I hate food waste and so I have to eat the food that I'm not able to harangue others into doing so. Not that I mind, but I do need to maybe go for a run or something. I have ridden my bike to work a bit, I suspect though that the distance isn't as far as it needs to be in order to burn off this increasing cake gut. It's OK I guess, given my upcoming birthday, I will blame the ageing process for my 'cuddliness'. 

So, new job is pretty busy and will become more so as time goes by, I really do need to hurry this cookbook along while I have the time to pay proper attention to it. Another thing that is taking up time is how much I am loving being back in Melbourne, there are so many people and places to catch up with, it's both very wonderful and a little tiring for an introvert such as myself. I have to pace myself and my visits with people have to be carefully balanced with time by myself — I know I have neglected some people so far, if you are one of these, please know I am working my way through my list of people I adore and I will get to you SOON. 

Things I am loving about Melbourne do include the weather. Even though this current heatwave is pretty damn warm, I am happily aware that a cool change will only be a few hours or days away. While the Brisbane weather is beloved by many (and I get that, I do), the idea that the next cool change won't happen until April is a little alarming to someone who really isn't great in hot weather.

It is probably a good time now for me to segue to the fact that I have a swimming pool? Well, not me personally, but the complex in which I live has a swimming pool and a tennis court. This is an excellent thing and I will continue to avail myself of the coolness that is but a few metres from my front door. It's so wonderful, and I feel terrific after I've dog-paddled a few laps. My new place is, I may have mentioned in a previous post, a little cosy, but with a lot of storage space and it is feeling homely in a good way. New housemate and I are working out well apart from that one time we realised we were wearing the same outfit. Not creepy at all. 

But anyway, as you can see, this is a delicious looking tart, and I urge you all to cook it. It's not bad, and smothered with fruit and cream, well...you know how great those additions make anything.   

Lemon Tart

1½ cups water

2 small lemons, grated rind & juice

½ cup sugar

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. cornflour

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 150°C

Into a saucepan, place water, grated lemon rind and juice, sugar and butter. Bring to the boil, add the cornflour whisking it to ensure no lumps, then boil for another 1 or 2 minutes until it has thickened. 

Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg. 

Pour into prepared pastry cases (see below) and bake for 20 minutes.

Decorate with fruit, or cream, or meringue (check out the topping for the Apricot Custard Tart) 

Shortcrust Pastry

⅔ cup plain flour

pinch salt

120g. butter

cold water to mix (in hot weather, use iced water)

Sieve dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, and rub in the butter very lightly using your fingertips.

With a knife, mix rubbed in ingredients with just enough cold water to bind the pastry together. 

Finish mixing with your fingers and press into pastry moulds.

bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly cooked and firm. You can also roll the pastry if you're concerned about evenness of the crust. 

Tip: to ensure the pastry doesn't go out of shape, make sure you place baking paper and baking beads in the mould.

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking.

One Minute Sponge

This is the second cake I've cooked since moving into my new place, and I feel like that I've finally settled in — the long weekend just past ensured I had a bit of time to rearrange my wardrobe, do lots of washing, other exciting chores AND catch up with and hang out with lots and lots of friend people. The best weather imaginable made it also feel like a mini-holiday, I feel totally relaxed. 

So, my new house: I can't deny that it's cosy, but my housemate and I have arranged the furniture and placed things just so, and we can truthfully say that cosy does equal comfortable in this instance. There is a lack of practical storage space in the kitchen and bathroom (and no linen press, my god why are houses built without linen presses?!), but there is a a very strange attic storage room that is pretty big, so it doesn't feel cluttered or crowded. With a cot bed, it could also be a terrible pitch black spare room for guests we don't like.

Back to the cake, unlike past efforts, this cake was prepared whilst fully sober, although given how utterly simple this cake is to make, I could probably have cooked it after a night out. See also, Orange Peel Jam... It is aptly named, literally taking only one minute to mix all the ingredients together in one bowl, ready to cook. This cake was made, baked and cooled ready for tasting within half an hour. Amaze. 

One Minute Sponge

1 cup plain flour

¾ cups sugar

3 eggs (unbeaten)

3 tbsp. milk

1 tbsp. melted butter

1 tsp. cream of tartar

a few drops of vanilla essence.

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Place all the ingredients into one mixing bowl, then mix well for one minute.

Pour into greased cake tin and bake for 15 minutes.

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking.  

Mrs Williams Sponge Cake

I don't know Mrs Williams, I'm sure if I ask enough family members I could find out who she was — a friend, neighbour, maybe a fellow churchgoer of my great-grandma? Actually, I'm pretty sure she wasn't a fellow churchgoer as my family's history of churchgoing is pretty sketchy at best. Who knows. Anyway, here she is, immortalised forever and ever in these photos of fruity indulgence and creaminess. 

This recipe has such a small amount of flour, it felt like I was making a meringue, and it smelled so eggy I wasn't sure it would taste any good. I thought it was going to be a disaster when I took the two cakes tins out of the oven, and saw how rubbery the cakes were, like two really large inflated pancakes. They even deflated a little upon cooling. So with a bit of cream and some fruit to messily dress the cake, I set about photographing it, and decided I needed to taste it just to see what it was like. I ended up having two pieces, and then had some friends over to have a piece, then helped myself to a third.  

Mrs Williams Sponge Cake

4 eggs, separated

¾ cup sugar

½ cup cornflour

2 tsp. plain flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

½ tsp. bicarbonate of soda

Cream and fruit for decorating, if desired

Preheat oven to 160°C

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar, then beat again until egg whites become glossy.

Fold in the lightly beaten egg yolks, then sift the cornflour, flour, cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda into the mixture.

Pour into greased round cake tin (or 2 shallow cake tins) and bake for 15 minutes.

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking.

Christmas Cakes, Mince and Pudding update

Now, you all may remember that I cooked some many many months ago a number of xmas cakes, a pudding and some fruit mince. I finally have been able to taste them all in their various forms, and I thought you might all like to see how they turned out. 

Mandy's Xmas Cake

Was very nutty, and tasty and rich. The best kind of christmas cake. Best with custard. 

Christmas Pudding

Now, the pudding travelled with me on my drive to Melbourne from Brisbane, and then from Melbourne to Adelaide in my checked in luggage in readiness for family christmas. Once at my brother's place, I popped it into the largest boiling pot I could find in his kitchen, and in good Cooking with Nanna tradition, it took quite a few hours. The great reveal, gave us...this...buttock shaped food. 

What? It's true. LOOK at it. Buttock shaped. 

Anyway, it tasted all right according to everyone who had some, I personally found it not as rich as I was hoping for, but it was a lovely dessert on which to finish a very nice christmas lunch.

Fruit Mince

I only made one little pie out of the mince I'd made, as I gave all of the mince away. It was (insert false modesty here) very very yummy and I don't know why I waited all my adult life to make this. I may even make this again, even at non-christmas times. Maybe I'll make some today. 

So far so good, I'll update this entry once I find photos of the Pineapple Christmas Cake, and Roberta's Rich Christmas Cake.