Boozy Cherry, Plum and Almond Cake

Recently I have been working on a magazine titled NZ Lifestyle Block, which features stories about self-sufficiency, organic gardening, orchard care, herbs and my favorites, cheese making, preserving and cooking from your home garden. Its a great read, edited by a passionate woman called Nadene who in my eyes, is definitely living the dream. 

Of course, I  imagine her starting her day looking out her bay windows in her self built home (TRUE  but with her dad's help!), at the lambs who are prancing around in the front garden, whilst she decides shall I have free range duck eggs on homemade crusty bread for breakfast and wondering if her homemade wine has fermented sufficiently for wine o'clock.

However the truth is she works a hell of a lot harder than that, and booze is actually not her thing which from time to time works in my favor. Being an editor she receives a lot of different products to try and this week she received Morrello Cherries seeped in Kirsch by a company called schnappdragon. To be honest, I just fell in love with the name and decided there and then I was going to make something with these boozy cherries (20% alcohol to be exact). 

Now, if you remember I may have mentioned, Vanessa and I are currently 8 months pregnant, so alcohol is a not on the menu, however used in cooking, we decided it was ok as the alcohol would be absorbed in the baking process, but still retain the kick. A big thank you to Nadene for the treats x


What is Kirsch?
Kirschwasser is a clear, colourless fruit brandy traditionally made from double distillation of morello cherries, a dark-coloured cultivar of the sour cherry. The cherries are fermented complete (that is, including their stones).

Boozy cherry, plum, and almond cake
Serves 6-8 (or 2 very pregnant woman!!!)


What you need
4 eggs
150g caster sugar
125g butter (soft)
300g almond meal (ground almonds)
50g flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 - 3 Black Doris plums (sliced)
2 Tbsp Boozy Cherries (I used Morello Cherries seeped in Kirsch from Schnappdragon) - you could also use blueberries, raspberries, or load it up with plums.


How to make
Set oven temp to 180C. Grease a 25cm quick release cake tin and line the base with baking paper (I cut baking paper into a circle and placed into the bottom of the tin). Beat eggs and sugar together until pale. Add butter. Fold in almonds, flour and baking powder. Scoop mixture into tin. Fan out plum slices around tin. Add boozy cherries between plum strips (up to you how many, I used 2 Tbsp). Bake for 35-40mins. Dust with icing sugar (optional). Serve with cream, greek yoghurt or marscapone.

Mango and Avocado Salad

This salad is so refreshing, so easy and sure to be a hit at your next BBQ.

At the recent Pirate party our Mum Val turned up with the most amazing salad I have had in a long time. It was so refreshing and full of my favourite ingredients such as mango, avocado, coriander and lime. Mum doesn't usually bother with fussy and complicated food and she said that this was really easy. Her only problem was she couldn't find the "Thai fish sauce" at her local supermarket.
She said she found the recipe it in an old magazine and thought it sounded nice.


The following day I attempted to re-create it, a quick phone call to get the recipe ended up being a list of ingredients without quantities. No problem, I like to do it my way anyway!
The quantities are my version and as always "taste, taste, taste" to adapt it to suit. I do like things quite tart and zesty so you may want to cut back on the acid.


What you need
I 120g bag salad greens, mescalin, rocket or baby spinach
1 firm mango
1 firm avocado
Dressing 
50mls vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
2 teaspoons sweet chili sauce 
50mls lime juice 
( I had a drama here because the bloody limes had no juice! I managed to get a minimal amount out of them and a bit of flesh but substituted it with regular white vinegar) 
1 teaspoon Asian fish sauce
(Mum couldn't find it and I actually forgot it so I am going to say you actually don't need it but I have added it just in case you want to give it ago. The fish sauce will be the salt element. Despite loving salty food I don't think it's needed)
A hand full of chopped coriander
A hand full of chopped mint


Lay the mango and avocado on a bed of salad greens, mix all the dressing ingredients together and shake well. Drizzle over the salad and serve with a couple of wedges of lime.
Simple but perfect

Mango and Avocado salad

I used any additional dressing the following evening and made a basic lettuce, tomato and avocado salad, once again it was perfect especially served with a tasty scotch fillet steak.

Pirate Party Food

Four years ago, our extended family was childless - Four years on there are three kiddies, with two on the way. All of them so far boys. I am having another boy and Ingrid wants a surprise, if Ingrid has another boy too, that will be five boys four and under - fun and games!!!

The kids having a ball with swords!!!

Our mum is a great organiser and loves to have fun. Christmas has featured a Santa Claus and helper for the last 3 years, clearly it's now extended to other family get togethers. The recent one was a pirate and fairy party - everyone was told what to bring and to dress up!
I was down for sandwiches and a salad. To be honest I was a bit over making sandwiches, having made them the last 2 weekends for kids get together so decided to do a kid friendly nibbles.
Wanting to keep things easy and healthy I opted for the following...
Meatballs
Potato and smoked fishballs
Maggi dip with cheesy sticks (not so healthy!)
Cheese and pineapple sticks

Perfect kid friendly food

Meatballs 
Add to a bowl, 500g mince (I used beef), a few squirts of tomato sauce, a chopped onion and any leftover  chutney/relish you have lurking in your fridge.
Add salt and pepper and a few tablespoons of flour to help bind it.
Roll into balls and place on grease proof paper. I put mine in the fridge overnight as I wanted to cook them on the day so they were still warm but you can cook them straight away.
Instead of frying them, I just baked them at about 180 degrees for about 15-20 minutes - EASY!

Smoked Fish Balls
Boil about 6 large Agria potatoes and mash with a generous dollop of butter. In a food processor blitz a couple of handfuls of smoked fish. You could use tinned tuna/salmon. Combine and add salt and pepper.
Roll into balls and then roll the balls in semolina. (or breadcrumbs)
Once again place on baking paper and bake in the oven. I baked them both at the same time and the fish balls really did crisp up without adding any oil!  

Seriously easy party food

Maggi onion dip and cheesy sticks  
If you are a kiwi or maybe an Aussie you will know this one. Its so easy and really delicious.
Mix in a bowl one tin of reduced cream, one packet of instant powdered onion soup and a tablespoon or two of either vinegar or lemon juice. Mix and chill. I served it with some crunchy cheesy sticks I found in an Asian supermarket. Make a double batch - this wont last long.

Cheese and pineapple sticks 
A homage to the 80s, easy as, delicious in a naff kinda way but hey, its for the kids!!!
Place on a toothpick a cube of cheese (I used tasty) and a chunk of pineapple - that's it!
ridiculously delicious and moreish!

Kiwi onion dip - loved by everyone! 

So give it ago, host a pirate and fairy party, dressing up compulsory and have fun with the kids. Great photos and fantastic memories...

Thanks Val Opera,  Glenys Cannin and Charlotte Graydon for all the hard work with the decorating and organising - one to remember
 XXX

Banana and Weetbix muffins

I love it when you feel like doing a spot of cooking or baking and you have next to nothing in the cupboards, but you pile all the odd bits of this and strange end bits of that and somehow you have a recipe! This is what happened one weekend en route to a mum and bubs coffee group. I didn't have much time, so I always fall back on muffins as they are so easy to make and take only 12 mins to bake. 

Best eaten when still warm, with melting butter.

The only trick to making muffins work (and I'm always learning the hard way) is NOT to over mix them - in fact you bearly mix the ingredients if you want them light enough not to break your molars.

So ripe(ish) bananas it is, and a few weetbix made a very nice combo for our morning tea. The only problem was, clawing my 2 year son away from them (He had four before I realised the crumbs around his mouth and the look of gluttony peering up at me). The pictures show the muffins before I took them to our morning tea, and before a little boy mouse had nibbled little scallop shapes around the top. Enjoy. Ingrid

Banana and Weetbix muffins

Makes 12

What you need

1 cup self raising flour 

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup of sugar (brown, white or raw - whatever you got)

4 weetbix (crushed) or 1 cup bran

1 Tbsp golden syrup

1 Tbsp butter (or margarine)

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup milk

1 egg (beaten)

2 bananas (ripe, mash one)  Slice up one banana for garnishing

Golden syrup for drizzling

How to make

Set oven temp to 220C.

Sift flour and salt into bowl, add sugar and weetbix.

Melt golden syrup and butter together. Dissolve baking soda into the milk, add beaten egg.

Mix wet ingredients together and add to dry ingredients. Mix only to combine. Don't over mix. Add mashed banana. Grease muffin tins and spoon mixture evenly. Add sliced banana to the tops and drizzle golden syrup. Bake in oven for 12 mins or until golden.