Apple and Custard Tea Cake

Another yummy recipe I've just discovered.... this time from the June issue of Super Food Ideas magazine.... Apple and vanilla custard tea cake!  I

Ingredients

185g butter, softened                                                                    Custard

2/3 cup caster sugar                                                                     2 tbsp custard powder

1 tsp vanilla extract                                                                      ¼ cup caster sugar

3 eggs                                                                                         1 cup milk

1 cup self-raising flour                                                                  1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup plain flour

1/3 cup milk

1 red apple, quartered, cored, thinly sliced

20g butter, melted

1 tbsp raw sugar

Extra ½ tsp raw sugar, to serve

Method

Make Vanilla custard: Combine custard powder and sugar in saucepan over medium heat. Gradually stir in milk until smooth. Cook, Stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Cover surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Cool.

2

      Preheat oven to 180oC/160oC Fan-forced. Grease a 7cm deep, 20cm round cake pan. Line base and sides with baking paper.  

      Using an electric mixer, beat butter, caster sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Sift flours over mixture. Fold until just combined. Add milk. Fold until just combined. Spoon half the mixture into prepared pan. Whisk cooled custard until smooth. Leaving a 2cm border around edge, spread custard over cake mixture. Dollop small spoonfuls of remaining cake mixture over custard. Carefully spread to completely cover custard. Smooth surface. Arrange apple slices, slightly overlapping on top of batter. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with raw sugar.

     

      Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted in centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 10 minutes. Turn, top-side up, onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, sprinkled with extra sugar.

Enjoy

Thimbelina

Slow-Roasted Lamb Shanks with Caramelised Onion

I made this recently while we were at Mum and Dad's and it was a huge hit.... we served it with Mum's best 'Bashed' potato and green beans.... it was seriously good! The recipe is a Women's Weekly one from their 'Food we Love' cookbook.

 

This is the actual meal I cooked...

not one stolen from the cookbook... looks too good doesn't it??

INGREDIENTS

 

1 tablespoon olive oil
8 french-trimmed lamb shanks (about 1.2kg)
1 tablespoon sugar
1½ cups (375ml) dry red wine
2 cups (500ml) beef stock
3 cloves garlic, crushed
20g butter
1 small brown onion (80g), chopped finely
1 trimmed celery stalk (100g), chopped finely
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped coarsely

Caramelised onion
40g butter
2 medium red onions (340g), sliced thinly
¼ cup (50g) brown sugar
¼ cup (60ml) raspberry vinegar

METHOD

Preheat oven to 150°C/130°C fan forced.

Heat oil in large flameproof baking dish; cook shanks over heat until browned all over. Stir in sugar, wine, stock and garlic; bring to the boil. Roast lamb, covered, in oven, about 4 hours, turning twice during cooking.

Meanwhile, make caramelised onion.

Remove lamb from dish; cover to keep warm. Pour pan juices into large heatproof jug. Return dish to heat, melt butter; cook onion and celery, stirring, until celery is just tender. Stir in flour; cook, stirring, 2 minutes.

Add reserved pan juices, paste and rosemary; bring to the boil. Simmer, uncovered, stirring until it boils and thickens; strain sauce into large jug.

Serve lamb with sauce and caramelised onion, accompanied with pureed white beans, if desired.

Caramelised onion

Melt butter in medium saucepan; cook onion, stirring, about 15 minutes or until browned and soft. Stir in sugar and vinegar; cook, stirring, about 15 minutes or until onion is caramelised.

 

Enjoy!

Thimbelina

 

 

My Name is Thimbelina and I'm addicted to Cookbooks

I've always liked to cook.... which is probably thanks to my Mum who as far as I can remember has always been a great cook. I do tend to get bored with the same old recipes though and love to make new things. I especially love to cook with my Mum and daughter and we recently did some cooking classes together that we really enjoyed.... since they've finished up we've had a few nice dinners together for birthdays and such where we try all new recipes. We often google something and have found a few nice recipes that way but I do really love a nice glossy cookbook.

Hence, my cookbook addiction .... it all started with culling my cookbook collection and getting rid of all the cookbooks that I owned and had never used or had used but wasn't pleased with the results so wouldn't use again. I delivered a great big bag of them to the local St Vincent de Paul centre which made a good bit of room on my shelf. I have since filled what space I made and now have a large stack of them elsewhere as well. I've been choosie with the new books I've purchased and stuck with familiar authors whose recipes I've used before with success.

These are a couple of my new favourites.... and I'm pleased to say that I've used them all with great results.

I'm intending to share a few of my new favourite recipes over the next little while and would welcome hearing about any of your favourites or any suggestions you may have... they don't have to be fancy as I love a good everyday go-to recipe just as much (maybe more).

Cheers

Thimbelina

Show Stuff

Not one to be left out..... Master 11 did some sewing of his own for the show and came how with several first placings himself. He was pretty chuffed.

An apron....made from camo of course!

A pyjama bag with machine applique

A sock frog

A pencil case

He also entered quite a bit of cooking. I especially loved his gingerbread house....

he spent hours on this one & his class certainly enjoyed helping him smash it after the show!

Cheers
Thimbelina

Our 18th Anniversary

Look what was waiting for me on my desk at work last Monday morning......

 flowers from Hubby - aren't they lovely!

Since our anniversary was on a Monday this year and we'd only been out to our favourite restaurant two days beforehand to celebrate my Dad's 60th, we decided we would stay home this year instead of having our usual dinner out. Sooo...... Miss 13 conspired with Master 10 (yes... they worked together... I'm still in shock over that!) and they planned to cook us dinner at home instead. They did absolutely everything by themselves from the planning to the shopping and preparing.... we had menus, a waiter and dined alfresco surrounded by fairy lights and candles.... it was just perfect!

Entree' - Chicken and chorizo croquettes with garlic aioli

Main - Spinach and ricotta Chicken wrapped in bacon

and served with garlic sweet potato mash & asparagus

Dessert - Churros with caramel sauce

It was all so delicious and we were blown away by the presentation and quality of food they prepared, especially when they hadn't cooked any of these dishes before.... so proud!

Cheers

Thimbelina

A busy fortnight

I've stitched so much in the last two weeks that my fingers have been almost continually numb.... unfortunately I can only give you a sneak peak at this stage as I don't want to ruin the surprise!

As well as stitching I've made almost three dozen jars of Green Tomato Pickles.

These are a favourite in our household..... Yummo!

Hard to believe tomatoes this green could taste good isn't it??

I also made a delicious carrot cake with cream cheese icing for one of my husbands workers who has now retired..... we had a bit of a send-off for him last Saturday night.

 I was very pleased with how it turned out (my icing skills are definately improving.... Yay me!).

Cheers

Thimbelina

Lego Birthday Party

This week saw me busy preparing for Master 9's Lego themed Birthday party.  Birthday party's only happen once every few years in our household so they're sort of a big deal. The lego theme was lots of fun and thanks to all the clever people out there in blogland I had lots of great ideas to work with. Needless to say....no sewing happening here at the moment! :)

First there were invitations to be made..... I used the instructions from Spotted Canary

Followed by Lego man cookies..... tutorial courtesy of SweetSugarBelle

Lego head cake pops....thanks to Amy of Living Locurto

And of course, a Lego cake.....it looks better if you squint a little as the cake was a bit crumbly and was awkward to ice, lol.  Inspiration for the cake was from here only I used melted chocolate set in tealight candle surrounds to make the bumps which worked really well!

Inside was multi-coloured too......

Party loot boxes.... thanks to Deliah creates

More cookies..........

all packaged up to go in the loot boxes along with some lollies and of course chocolate!

And lastly.... the decorations.... tissue paper pom-pom's hung from the roof of our deck.

These are really quick and easy and you can find the tutorial here.

Thanks to all of you who generously shared your ideas..... It was a great day and certainly made Master 9 very happy. He's still grinning!

Until next time.....