Mum's Sultana Cake

Intro

The first pages in my recipe notebook are all written in my 11 year old handwriting and are all my Mum's. She is an amazing cook and gets enormous pleasure nowadays from preparing beautiful evening meals to share with her new husband, my step father Graham, and also glorious dinner parties for friends and family.

This is all a far cry from the family cooking that Mum used to do at the time I was copying out her recipes. I left home when I was 19, and as the eldest of 4 kids, Mum still had many years of family cooking ahead of her and making good, nutritious meals on limited income. I remember Mum going through her recipe book choosing recipes we were able to bake on the basis of how economic they were: how much butter, how many eggs. We were beginner cooks and I guess to there was a better than even chance that it would be a disaster! She identified, quite rightly, that the more ingredients a recipe has the higher the cost.

I have kept Mum's recipes back until now because they are really special and I didn't want to share them until it felt right.

This light sultana cake is a staple that mum regularly made. I remember it being yellow and lightly studded with moist sultanas and whenever we went on picnics - which we did often - we always took a square tin containing a sultana cake. Our favourite place for picnics was Mount Victoria in Wellington, we spent hours in the pine forest having raucous pinecone fights, but Red Rocks was memorable too with towering rock cliffs to scramble up.

Recipe

• 1 pound sultanas (450g)
• 1/2 pound butter(225g)
• water
• 3 eggs
• 1.25 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon essence
• 12 ounces flour (3 cups)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Place sultanas in a saucepan, cover with water then boil for 5 minutes. Strain then add the roughly chopped butter. Set aside to cool.

Beat together eggs and sugar until thick and pale then stir into the cooled sultanas and butter. Add essence, flour and baking powder.

Bake in a greased, floured and paper lined square tin for about an hour, or until a skewer comes out clean, at 350 degrees. Watch the top so it doesn't burn the sultanas (might want to put a square of paper on top after 40 mins).

*Can add spice if desired.

Peppermint Crunch

Intro

Every summer my primary school, Titahi Bay North School, walked over 'The Farm' to Shelley Bay for a picnic ... and we needed food and drink. I remember one particular trip Mum had flavoured our drink bottles with peppermint essence! It was so yummy and surprising and special I have never forgotten it and I always associate this recipe with that memory.

Later, on the day of 6th form accreditation, we ended up here celebrating our good fortune to have UE accredited. I remember Mum coming to collect a load of us teenagers packed into the Holden station wagon like sardines and she took us back home to continue celebrating - safely.  

Shelley Bay is now known as its more appropriate Maori name, Whitereia Park, and is still a very cool picnic location.

Recipe

• 5 ounces flour (140g)
• 3 ounces sugar (85g)
• 3 crushed weetbix
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 4 ounces melted butter (125g)

Mix everything together, press into a greased slice tin (swiss roll tin) for 15 minutes at 375 degrees fahrenheit (180 degees celcius).

Ice with peppermint essence flavoured icing. Its nice with chocolate or green coloured icing, or for a treat 2 layers of icing: 1 white peppermint flavoured and a chocolate icing on top.

ANZAC Biscuits

Intro

I have just come back from attending the local ANZAC Day service at the RSA Bowling Club at Waitarere.It was pelting down with rain but, as usual, the club was crammed packed. Old soldiers and their families, locals, and servicemen of every 'flavour': army, airforce, navy, police, fireservice plus the local scout troop. All beautifully dressed in full uniforms. We attend year after year because it is a part of being a Kiwi. I love joining with my community, the backpipes, Binyin's lines, the Dedication, the laying of the wreaths and listening to the haunting strains of the last post.

As long as I can remember I have been attending ANZAC ceremonies. First with my parents, then as a Brownie, Girl Guide and Ranger. I remember marching behind the solidiers in the freezing early morning darkness for the Dawn Service at Titahi Bay, then as a young bride we supported the Father in Law. Now I go to support my children who are Scouts. Today Connor laid the wreath for the Scouts, but Millie has done it in the past, and I am very proud that they conduct themselves with such decorum.

ANZAC Day is a very special public holiday in New Zealand. and Australia too, to honour our soldiers who fought and died at Gallipoli in 1915, but also other soldiers and theatres of war. Gallipoli was a disaster. The campaign took nine months, we lost a third of our soldiers, Kiwis made up a quarter of those who died at Gallipoli and it had no influence on the outcome of WWI.

What we celebrate on ANZAC DAY is the Kiwi spirit that was defined on that beach: bravery, tenacity, practicality, ingenuity, loyalty to King and comrades. We emerged as a Nation, even as we fought unquestioningly on the other side of the world in the name of the British Empire.

Anzac Biscuits

One of the food items that women in both Australia and NZ sent to soldiers during the First World War was a hard, long-keeping biscuit that could survive the journey by sea, and still remain edible. These were known as Soldiers' Biscuits, but after Gallipoli they became known as Anzac Biscuits.

The traditional Anzac Biscuit is hard and flat but newer versions are soft and chewy. There are many recipes for Anzac Biscuits. Common to most is the inclusion of rolled oats, coconut, butter and golden syrup - but never eggs which were in short supply during the First World War.

I remember making these with my Grandmother when I was just a little girl, John Imber's Mum made them for us to take tramping when we were teenagers and I make them now for the kids lunchboxes. They are delicious, indestructible and get better over the week.

Recipe

• 125g flour (4 ozs)
• 150g sugar (6 ozs)
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup rolled oats
  
  
• 100g butter (3.5 ozs)
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (soda bicarb)
• 2 tablespoons water

Mix together the first 4 ingredients. Melt butter and syrup together in a largish saucepan. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water in a cup - then pour it into the melted butter and syrup. It will fizz up - stir it in - then stir it into the dry ingredients.

Place spoonfuls on greased baking trays and cook for 15 - 20 minutes at 180 degrees celcius (350F).

Photograph: http://www.flickr.com/photos/australian-war-memorial/3461453199/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Fruit Anzacs

Intro
The most popular recipe on my blog is Caramel Anzac slice and when I posted it I said I would also share a recipe for Anzac Biscuits. These fruity Anzacs are the ones I cook most often nowadays, rather than the traditional ones I remember cooking with my Grandmother.

When we were teenagers John Imber's Mum always gave us a big batch of Anzacs to take hiking with us. They are good energy food - its all that sugar and rolled oats!


Recipe

• 2 cups organic rolled oats
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup raisins
• 2 cups coconut
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 175 g dried apricots, sliced

• 285g butter
• 6 tablspoons golden syrup
• 4 tablespoons boiling water
• 2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcuis. Butter a couple of cookie sheets or line with baking paper.

Mix the first 7 ingredients together in a large bowl - this recipe makes lots!
Melt the butter and syrup together in a fairly large saucepan.
Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water in a cup,then tip this mixture into the butter. It froths like mad - just stir it in - then tip it all into the dry ingredients.

Mix together then roll into walnut sized balls, place on trays and flatten with a fork or fingers. Don't put them too close and cook 1 tray first to see how far they will spread. Sometimes they spread heaps and are thin and chewy but other times they don't spread much and are a bit cakier. (Depends on humidity on the day, flour etc.)

Cook for 12 - 15 mins at 160 celcius - watch them closely they burn easily! When they are nicely golden remove them from the oven, allow them to cool on trays for a few minutes to firm up then cool on wire racks. They get better and better for a few days and keep well in airtight tins.

Nancy's Astrid Biscuits

Intro

The first bloke's Mum was a Very Good Mummy and always had home baking for her 3 hungry sons. Nancy had a core repertoire which she whipped up every Friday using 1 bowl and a wooden spoon: either a chocolate or a banana cake (always iced with chocolate icing and decorated with coloured sprinkles), little cheesecakes (pastry shells with raspberry jam, sponge cake filing and a pastry twist on top) and these yummy crunchy biscuits. I very wisely got the recipe before the Bloke and I parted ways but whenever I want to do something really nice for him (like after he's brought me firewood or fixed my pump ... again) I'll send #1 son down the road to his house with a freshly cooked batch.

Recipe

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla esence
• 2 cups flour
• half a teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• half a teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coconut
• 2 cups cornflakes

Cream together butter and sugar until pale. Add eggs and vanilla essence.

Add the rest of the ingredients, place teaspoonsful on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Fruit Muffins

Intro

Having made this recipe twice in as many weeks it is clearly time to get up online. This is one of my sister Jackie's recipes and is totally adaptable - use any fruit you fancy :) 

Recipe

Sift together

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• quarter teaspoon salt

Stir in

• 1.5 cups fruit (tinned, fresh, frozen or dried)

Mix together

• 100g melted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg

Add liquid to dry ingredients, stir quickly and lightly then spoon into greased muffin tins. Cook 12 - 15 mins at 220 degrees celcius. Variation: half fill muffin tins, make an indentation in the mixture, put a teaspoon of Lemon Honey in middle and then fill the muffin tins. Sprinkle crumble on top then bake as usual.

Banana Cake

Intro

As a child bride I never made banana cakes after the first one because it was greeted with "Its not as good as Mums". The marriage didn't last (there is a lesson in there lads). So each time I bake I still aim for the Ultimate Cake and take my time and sieve and measure and beat and cream and test carefully. 

I struggled with Chocolate Cake for years but have got it sorted now. I have never managed the perfect Madeira Cake, still strive to get that one hammered, but I make a jolly good Coconut Cake and Banana Cake. 

Duck eggs changed everything. One year Bloke #2 and I went to a poultry show and lord knows how, but we left with 2 black Cayugas, 2 white Pekins, 2 guinea fowls and 3 fluffy rabbits. (Not my idea). Luckily we had a third of an acre, an unused paddling pool and a spare shed.... Anyway one day one of the Pekins came proudly out from under the shed with 8 wee babies waddling behind her - the same day that Bloke #2 brought home 8 more baby ducklings a friend of his had hatched under his chickens. That was a nice surprise ... So 4 became 20, our backyard became trashed and we had eggs coming out our flippin' ears! 

Duck eggs are just gorgeous for baking. They have huge yellow yolks, are bigger than hen eggs and result in light, fluffy yellow cakes. I use the same number of duck eggs as hen eggs - and the recipes work just fine. I don't have Bloke #2 or the ducks anymore, thankfully, but I can buy duck eggs from the local market garden whenever I want them. 

Recipe

• 125g butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• half cup chopped walnuts
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs 1 at a time beating well after each. Add a teaspoon of flour if needed to stop the mixture splitting. Add the lightly mashed bananas and vanilla. Stir in walnuts, then the sifted flours and soda in 2 batches. Mix well. Pour into a greased and floured ring tin and bake in a moderate oven for 40 minutes or until cooked when tested. (no icky stuff on a knife poked in).

Coconut Ice Slice

Intro

I think this is another one of Verna's recipes but Its one of my oldest ones - dating back to when I was 9 years old and wrote it in my notebook so I can't be certain!

Recipe

• 4 oz butter
• 4 oz sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• vanilla essence
• milk

Cream together butter and sugar. Add flour, coconut and baking powder. Add 1 teasp vanilla essence and just enough milk to make a spreadable soft consistency (stiffer than a batter and softer than a dough).

Spread into a greased swiss roll tin and bake 180 degrees for 20 minutes. When almost cold ice with coconut topping.

Topping

Melt together:

• 2 cups icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup coconut
• cochineal

Marshmellow Slice

Intro

I was talking to an older friend last week about how hard it is to find a cafe serving nicely sized slices, proper savouries and club sandwiches. It is increasingly hard these days to buy 'polite' servings when eating out. Huges wedges of thick slices and palm-sized shortbread are simply overwhelming for many people and older people in particular. She has a point. This is the baking of my childhood; slices were cooked in swiss-roll tins and cut into 24 neat squares, savouries were 2 inches across and comprised a thin layer of savoury mince encased in flaky puff pastry and pikelets, as served by Nana Wilson, were tiny pillows of lovliness.

This slice is one of my Mums and I don't remember it being made terribly often. I remember it usually had toasted coconut sprinkled on top but sometimes it had a thin layer of chocolate icing. Nowadays I double this recipe because my favourite tin is a bit bigger than a standard swiss roll tin and  we like our slices a little more generous in size than this recipe from the 1960s.

Recipe

• 3ozs butter
• 3 ozs sugar
• 1 egg
• 5 ozs flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Cream the butter and sugar until light, pale and creamy. Add the egg then fold in the sifted dry ingredients.

Spread into a greased swiss roll tin, prick all over and bake 15 minutes at 350f. Remove from oven, pour marshmellow over the top and sprinkle with coconut or ice thinly with chocolate icing when cold.

Marshmellow topping

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 dessertspoon gelatine
• 1 cup icing sugar
• few drops red food colouring

Dissolve the gelatine in the cold water in a saucepan, add sugar and bring to the boil. Simmer 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes, add icing sugar and food colouring then beat for 10 minutes until thick and creamy.

Coconut Cake

Intro

A good, basic coconut cake that is weighty and moist.

Recipe

• 5 ozs butter 
• 5 ozs sugar
• 2 eggs
• 6 ozs self raising flour
• 2 ozs coconut
• a few tblsps milk

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the eggs 1 at a time, add sifted flour and coconut and add just enough milk until mixture drops from a spoon.

Bake in a greased 8 inch round tin for an hour or so at 350 degree F.

Optional: finely grated rind of a lemon.

Cardamom Almond Cake

Intro

I can't believe I havn't shared this recipe already! It is hands down my favourite cake. Kids hate iced cakes so I usually don't ice this one either. It is a bit special and can taken out in public if you just lightly dust it with icing sugar. It improves over a few days too ... oh and I usually double the recipe and make it in a meat dish ... unless it is going to sit on a cake plate and look pretty.

Recipe

• 185g butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1/4 cup ground almonds
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup golden syrup

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, beat in the eggs one at a time (adding a tablespoon of flour with the second one). Melt together the milk and golden syrup in a saucepan and add to the butter mixture along with half the sifted flour, the spice and almonds. Stir to combine then add remaining flour.

Bake for about an hour or until done in a greased 20cm tin in a moderate oven.

For a special occasion ice it with Caramel Icing.

Caramel Anzac Slice

Intro

This is, without doubt, the very best of my recipes for slices. It has all my favourite flavours: coconut, caramel and rolled oats. These are reminiscent of Anzac biscuits - a great Kiwi classic (yes - I will give recipes for these too).

Recipe

Base

Cream together

• 200g butter
• 150g sugar

Add

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Press mixture into a greased swiss roll tin. Cook 10 minutes at 175 degrees celcius.

Filling

Melt together

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 25g butter
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup

Pour over the partially cooked base then add the topping..

Topping

• 70g butter rubbed into
• 1 cup rolled oats (organic oats are worth it - truly)
• half cup coconut
• quarter cup flour
• quarter cup brown sugar

Sprinkle over the topping and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees celcius.

Shortbread

Intro

When I have been poor, especially at Christmas time when the bambini expect things like Christmas presents and a Christmas meal, I have given gifts of food. One year I made Cashew Fudge packed into Christmas tins, another year Chocolate Truffles packed into small timber boxes which the kids dad made me out of pine offcuts which I washed green with watered down paint. Another year I made shortbread which I wrapped in cellophane and tied with red and gold ribbons. Tomato Relish, Tomato Sauce and Lemon Honey and also good gifts which people liked receiving.

Recipe

Cream together until white and fluffy

• 1 pound (454g) of butter
• 250g icing sugar

Sift together then fold in to the butter mixture in 2 or 3 batches:

• 400g flour
• 100g rice flour
• 110g cornflour

Form into 2 logs, wrap in glad wrap, greaseproof or tinfoil and refrigerate until firm.

Slice into 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick slices, put onto a greased baking sheet and mark tops with a fork making 3 rows of evenly spaced prong marks. Sometimes I use a wooden scottish shortbread mould with thistle marks.

Bake slowly at about 140-150 degrees celcius for at least 30 minutes, maybe 45 - maybe longer. They do not want to be coloured at all and are best when quite dry.

Cheese Puffs

Intro

Another one of Nancy Ransom's recipes, this one was brought home by Des from Te Kowhai which was THE wedding reception lounge in Horowhenua - back in the day. He was a chippie by trade but was surprisingly good at baking. Apparently he was the cook when he was stationed in the Pacific as a young man during WWII - which explains why a man of his generation, working in a macho industry, living in traditional, conservative, small town NZ in the 60s actually knew one end of a wooden spoon from the other! 

Recipe
Sift together:

• 1 cup flour
• 2 and a half teaspoons baking powder
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cayenne

Combine together then add to the dry ingredients above :

• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk

Then fold in:

• 1 and a half cups grated tasty cheese

This should be a wet, lumpy, sloppy-scone consistency. Put tablespoons of mixture into greased patty tins and cook for about 5 minutes in a very hot 400 degrees fahrenheit oven. Serve immediately.

Lemon Coconut Slice

Intro

This is a slice I 'invented' in the process of trying to replicate a lemon slice I tasted while staying at The White House, a ski lodge in Ohakune. I never did get it right but my slice is pretty good. Everyone grows lemons in Levin - except me - so whenever I get given too many to use quickly I make this.

Recipe

Pastry

Cream 60g butter then add 2 tablespoons sugar beating until just combined - don't overmix or it will be tough. Add 1 lightly beaten egg then fold in 1 cup plain flour and 2 tablespoons self raising flour. Knead very lightly then rest in fridge in 20 mins. Press into a swiss roll tin - it will be thin.

Filling

Spread over a half quantity of lemon honey.

Topping

Mix together then sprinkle evenly over the lemon filling:

• 2 eggs
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 and a half cups of thread coconut

Bake for 25 minutes at 180 degrees until the top is lightly browned and the base is cooked through.

Chocolate Cake

Intro 

So this one has to be first up because having just baked one, William has eaten about 1/2 of it and its barely cool enough to hold in bare hands! We don't usually ice it because the kids aren't big on sweet stuff but the original recipe had icing so I've included it. 

I found this recipe back in 1985 when I was living in Tin Can Bay, Queensland. We were working 12 hour days, 7 days a week and cashing our pay cheques and doing grocery shopping was a nightmare. We were living in a fully furnished holiday flat with only the bare essentials of kitchen equipment and a daggy wee bench-top stove. This recipe fit the bill because I could whip up something yummy from the pantry really quickly with a wooden spoon and cooked in a meat dish. 

Recipe

Preparation

• Turn oven to fan bake 180 degrees.
• Prepare either 2 small cake tins or 1 big one (a roasting dish is fine) by greasing with butter or lining with baking paper (my favourite).

Method

Sieve together:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 and half cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Beat lightly together with a fork: 

• 2 eggs
• half  a cup milk

Boil together:

• 4oz (125g) butter
• 1 cup of water
• 3 and half tablespoons cocoa

Once the butter and water mix comes to the boil pour it into the flour mixture and stir it together, tip in the egg mixture when its about half mixed. Tip the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. 

Icing

Melt together:

• 2 oz butter (65g)
• 1/3 cup water (should be milk but I use water)

Add:

• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 500g icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence.

Beat until smooth adding more liquid or icing sugar as required. Ice cake while slightly warm.