Sponge Cake

There's something strange about how I test an oven. I can tell how an oven cooks by how it cooks a sponge cake. And its always the same sponge cake recipe.
And since we've just moved house, I was required to test the oven.
So, here's the recipe... (adapted from the Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union Cookbook - a recipe book that my mother got as a teenager at school)

4 eggs
250g caster sugar
250g self raising flour
1 tablespoon (approximately 20mL) boiling water

Preheat oven to 180C
Lightly grease and line a 20cm round cake tin

Separate eggs, retaining yolks in a small bowl.
Beat egg whites until stiff.
Slowly add caster sugar and continue beating until dissolved.
Mix in egg yolks, one at a time.
Fold in flour and boiling water until just incorporated.

Pour gently into cake tin, and bake for 45 minutes.

Chocolate coconut muffins

I've written before about the muffins I make, so I figured I'd explain about how I ended up making chocolate coconut muffins.
See, I was going to make my normal double choc muffins, until I realised that I didn't have enough vegetable oil, and I had no chocolate chips. I did, however, have butter. And coconut. So here it is.

2 cups self raising flour (or plain flour and a tablespoon of bicarbonate soda)
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup milk
1 egg.

1. Combine all dry ingredients
2. Stir in the melted butter
3. Combine egg and milk, then stir through the flour mixture

Measure out into muffin cases (I usually use cup cake cases and a cupcake tin) and bake in moderate (180C/350F) oven for 25 minutes until just cooked.

Cool in the tin.

I have no idea how long these are meant to last. I made a batch yesterday, and there are only 5 left tonight.

Spaghetti with prawns in a tomato and bacon sauce

Wow. I haven't written anything in a while, but I had to blog tonights dinner.
The Infoxicated Man is at band tonight, Miss K is at school camp, so the only people I had to please were myself, Miss B and Miss M.

So, here goes.


Pasta to serve (I cooked leftovers for Miss B for school tomorrow)
1kg prawns from the freezer
Small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tin tomatoes (whole. Dice them yourself. Tins of diced tend to be more fluid filled, and almost slimy)
2 rashers bacon, rind removed (cook it separately to eat yourself later ;) ) and diced.

Cook of the bacon, onion, garlic and a splash of olive oil in a frying pan.
Add the tin of tomatoes that you chopped in the tin with your knife.
Simmer, then throw in the defrosted prawns until they're warm.
Stir the whole lot through the pasta and serve with garlic bread.

Cheesey muffins

So, I'm sure I've found the easiest cheese muffin recipe ever.
It took 40 minutes to make, maybe 45 considering the extras I put in, total.

• 2 cups SR flour
• 2 cups full cream milk
• 2 cups grated cheese
• any other flavours you may wish to add (I added 2 cups of diced onions and bacon mix, fried off, and 2 heaped teaspoons mustard powder)

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F fan forced (200C/390F)
2. Grease and line muffin tins well - this mixture sticks
3. Combine all ingredients in a bowl (I used a fork)
4. Spoon into muffin tins
5. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until golden on top.

Allow to cool, and enjoy!

Chocolate porridge

Have I ever mentioned that I love chocolate? I mean, my kids love it more, but chocolate is one of the 5 essential food groups in my house (along with cheese, pasta, sausages and chicken... I can make an unbelievable amount of foods with cheese, pasta, sausages and chicken, with one or two other ingredients). But this. This is a recipe I threw together one morning because Goose (the 9 year old) decided she didn't like porridge. Apparently, the oats have little to no flavour. So here it is.

• 1 mug instant oats
• 1 heaped tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 heaped tablespoon cocoa powder (as dark as you can get it)
• 2 mugs milk

1. Stir all the ingredients together in a large microwave-able jug.
2. Mix in the milk.
3. Microwave on high for 1 minute, stir.
4. Microwave for a further minute, stir.
5. Divide into 4 bowls, serve with cream or milk as preferred.

Snickerdoodles - The Infoxicated Version

The girls school has a strict "no nuts" policy, and that pretty much means no muesli bars, too (just in case), so I end up baking almost every weekend, just to make sure I adhere to the policy (well, that and I like to try new recipes, and I like knowing with the kids are eating). I'm always after a new recipe, and this weeks was snickerdoodles. For the non USAnians among my readers, snickerdoodles are a very sweet, chewy, cinnamon coated cookie (biscuit), similar in mouth feel to a very chewy shortbread. Think of a crispy outside, chewy inside, cinnamon donut flavoured cookie, and you've got it. Today, I went looking for a recipe, and it turns out that The Australian Woman's Weekly BAKE! has the recipe in it. I (of course) don't have the book (though I'm told it's very very good), but some kind soul had copied the recipe out for someone and placed it online. I also didn't have all the right ingredients, so I adapted it slightly... Actually, I used a known substitution. I didn't have brown sugar, but I know I can use 1.5 cups caster sugar per cup brown sugar, so I did the maths, and we've ended up using 3/4 cup caster sugar in place of the 1/2 cup brown sugar. Anyway, here's the recipe :

• 250g softened butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar (this is where I used 3/4 cup caster sugar)
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 3/4 cups plain (all purpose) flour
• 1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 eggs

• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Beat butter, extract and sugars in a large bowl until creamy. Beat eggs in one at a time.
2. Sift the flours, nutmeg and bicarb soda into a separate bowl, then add slowly to the butter/sugar/egg mixture.
3. Refrigerate covered for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 180C/350F (160C/320F fan forced)
5. Mix extra sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl
6. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls
7. Roll balls in cinnamon sugar and place on ungreased (I lined mine) baking trays, approximately 7cm(2 3/4in) apart
8. Bake for approximately 12 minutes
9. Cool on trays.

I have to admit, I forgot the eggs, and they still turned out wonderfully - more shortbread like in texture. They just weren't as easy to handle when rolling into balls, too "short", to use the bakers term.

Garlic crushed white beans

So for those of you who don't know, I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to lose some weight. This is my alternative to mashed potatoes, and it works!


2 (400g) tins white (butter) beans
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil


Drain the tins of beans well, and tip into a small saucepan with the oil.
Heat over a medium heat until warm, and then add the garlic.
Mash well until smooth.

Serve in place of mashed potatoes.