What we've been up to lately

A school show was performed in - and plenty of backstage helping done

Getting Made up for Mulan Jr - photo by Matt Hopkins

Ensemble - Emma bottom right- photo by Keryn Christensen

A birthday was celebrated with the best vegan chocolate cake ever!!!!

Happy Birthday Hubster
we couldn't get enough candles on it coz they kept melting too fast....

My brother and his family came over from Australia for a few days

Me, my other nephew, Dan, Max the dog, my brother and his three Aussie kids

Cousins together for the first time in 4 years

PJ's Vs School Uniform craziness

 That's about it for now.

Barbs x.

The Luckiest Mum in the world

Yep.  That's me.  Mother's Day today and I am spoiled.

I joked with my kids yesterday, saying that since daddy was going away to see his mum, they would have to cook me dinner for mothers day.

No rolled eyes, no groans.

 A resounding "YES" came from them.

"I'm making my famous fudge cake" said the big boy.

"I'm doing the main course" said Emma.

"I'll do the starter" said Bear.

Hubby took them off to the supermarket for a special shopping trip.

Before heading down to see his mum in Raglan, Hubby cooked me my favourite breakfast - pancakes with bacon and fruit salad washed down with some good strong coffee.

After brekkie I went off to read my book whilst the big boy busied himself cooking not just one fudge cake, but a secret second one as well.

After a quick walk around North Head, we decided that Bear's starter could actually be lunch before we headed out to do some errands.

When we returned Emma got busy making the main course.  Individual mince pies with some of my favourite veggies.  She busily chopped and stirred and rolled out the pastry (with just a little help from me), then she filled them and put them in the oven.  

Perfect wee pies

Meanwhile the big boy was secretly decorating his double layer cake.

Double layer choc fudge and choc banana cake 

And before I knew it dinner was served.

Pies and veggies (plus mushrooms that were added later)

The big boys double layer chocolate cake.

And all this yummy food was safe for Emma to eat and prepared lovingly by my gorgeous kids

Hope you had a fantastic mothers day too.

Barbs x. 

For the love of Feijoa's

If you're a kiwi you'll know what I'm talking about.  Feijoa's are synonymous with Autumn here in NZ.  Love 'em or hate 'em, nearly every house has a tree.  And for a few short weeks in April, Feijoa's are everywhere.  For those of you who don't know, Feijoa's are a firm green fruit on the outside with a pulpy center.  They have a really distinctive fragrance that gets stronger the longer as they age.  We eat the inside only, but some people eat the outside too.  Each to their own.

The real problem with having a feijoa tree is what to do with all the feijoa's?  Today we had a bit of a production line and cooked up a batch of feijoa's to go in the freezer - some say you can put them in raw, but we found they went brown and yucky, so we always cook them first.

A day's worth

Some people get a little side tracked!

But what else to do with all the fruit......?

Some got pureed and then dehydrated to make our own super yummy and completely natural fruit leathers.  And lots got frozen so we can use it in crumbles later in the year.

But there was still more - so I thought I would make a feijoa cake.  I used my basic vegan cake recipe and made a few adjustments and added a yummy crumble topping

Here is the recipe I created

1 1/2 C Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 C Sugar
1 1/2 C feijoa pulp

Mix it all together well and then pour into a cake tin lined with baking paper

25g Olivani
1/4 cup Oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp Brown sugar

Melt Olivani and add other ingredients - add more oats if needed to cover cake.
Sprinkle over cake
Bake for about 40 minutes @ 180 C.

This cake was so yummy and I think even those that aren't great Feijoa lovers will enjoy this and there is no fat in the cake, only in the topping so it is semi-healthy.  And the allergy kid absolutely loved it.

I hope you are enjoying your feijoa's too.

Barbs x.

Crazy Cake

After this weeks hiccup, I need to get back into both this blog and my baking.  Allergies really do rule the roost here, and this is our standby, make in a couple of minutes cake that we all love.  I got the recipe from the dietitians at Kids First way back when Emma was first diagnosed with multiple food allergies.  And it really is crazy that a cake made from these ingredients can be so good.

1 1/2 c plain flour
2 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 c sugar
1/2 cup oil (I use Rice Bran Oil)
3/4 c water
2 Tbsp Vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 190C
Sift dry ingredients together, then add wet ingredients
Mix well to a smooth batter
Pour into greased or lined tin (about 20 cm square or makes about 10 muffins)
Bake for about 30 minutes for cake or about 15  for muffins until cooked
Allow to cool int in before turning onto rack.
You can just serve as it is, or top with icing sugar, or ice - whatever you feel like for the occasion!

We use this recipe regularly and everyone loves it.  It is so quick you can whip it up for school lunches first thing in the morning.  It is such a moist and tasty cake and I have never had a failure.  I have made it gluten free and even though it was quite flat, it still tasted good and the kids all gobbled it up.  I have even made it sugar free (by accident) and it still tasted good.  It really is the bomb!

Cupcake Fun

My lovely girls decided to make cupcakes for Dan's miniball team last night. 
We used this super easy chocolate cake recipe
2 1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Cocoa
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 C Sugar
2 C Warm Water
1/2 C Canola Oil
2 Tbsp Vinegar
2 tsp Vanilla

Sift and Mix the dry ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk well until smooth.
Bake at 180 C for @ 15 minutes for cupcakes / 30 minutes for cake.

This cake doesnt rise very much and has a real fudgey texture.

The cupcakes were a hit with all the team and supporters and the kids had lots of fun making them. And licking the bowl....

The best cake ever!

Yesterday I was looking for some new recipes on the net.  I find that the vegan websites have some great recipes and this was seriously one of the nicest cakes I have ever had.  It is chocolatey and not too sweet and fudgey and yummy.

Chocolate Blueberry Cake

225g sugar

4 dessertspoons cocoa powder (mine were really heaped)

pinch salt

225g white flour

85 g wholemeal flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

170 ml oil (I use Rice Bran oil)

2 tsp vanilla essence

4 tsp vinegar (I used Malt)

340 ml cold water

115g frozen blueberries (can use fresh)

1. place the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Add the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly but do not beat.

2. Gently stir in the blueberries and pour into prepared tin.

3. Bake at180C for about 30-40 minutes.  Cool in tin (Very soft cake, mine broke when I took it out)

4. Can also bake in sandwich tins and add chocolate spread/icing/jam to sandwich together.

I served it dredged with icing sugar and with Apple puree on the side and a couple of blueberries to garnish.