Glorious Plums

I just love all the plums we get at this time of year.  Our tree has some beautiful Omega or Black Doris Plums - never quite sure what the difference is actually.  And my mother-in-law has 2 prolific trees.  We made some jam, some dessert topping and froze plenty for later.

With friends coming over for dinner, I decided to try and make a plum cake for dessert.  I found this recipe for German Plum Cake (or Pflaumenkuchen) and being risen with yeast rather than eggs, I didnt have to make any changes for the allergy kid.

I have never made a yeast risen cake before, and I must say kneading the dough was a great stress reliever.  Both the girls joined in the fun.

Sticky dough

After waiting for the dough to rise, we pushed the halved plums into the dough and sprinkled the struesel topping on to it and into the oven.  It sure smells good.

Just out the oven

The cake was really nice, not to sweet and the plums were really tasty.  But I think I need to work on my dough making skills.  For a first attempt I got rave reviews from hubby & the friends we shared it with.

Enjoy

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. 

Allergy Friendly Ice-Cream!

One of the hardest things about having a dairy and soy allergy is not being able to have ice cream on a hot summers day.  I mean doesn't this look yummy?

Banana-Berry Ice Cream

You'd never guess it has no dairy or milk substitutes in it all, would you?

Yup, this dairy free ice cream is really good and so easy to make.  All you need to do is to whizz up frozen bananas.  I know it sounds kind of weird but when you stick frozen bananas in the food processor something quite magic happens.  First they turn into crumbs and when you do it the first time, you think that it is just an old wives tale and it wont really work.  But then you keep the food processor going and soon you see a smooth and creamy looking paste.  At this stage you can add other things to it if you want, like a spoonful of honey or some dairy free chocolate chips, or some berry puree.  Alternatively you can add other frozen fruit with the bananas and whizz them all up together.  Then when you have your ice-cream just how you want it, you need to pop it back into the freezer until it is frozen again. Then serve with your favourite dessert, or just on it's own.  It will keep for a wee while in the freezer, if you don't scoff it all on the day you make it.

The real bonus is this dessert is actually just fruit (unless you add the extra's) so it is a treat that you can have as often as you want and the family will love you for it.

Delicious Dessert

Having a house full of visitors, I decided to try out a couple of new recipes I found on the web and created a fancy dessert of Chocolate Brownie and Feijoa Sorbet.

The Sorbet was so easy to make, but it does take a while to set.  Firstly bring to the boil 1 Cup of water and 1 Cup of sugar and boil for about 5 minutes until all the sugar is well dissolved.  Then mix in 2 cups of Feijoa and the juice of 1 lemon.  I used my stick blender to puree it all up, then it goes in the freezer.  Every couple of hours give it a mix then when it is frozen ( I left it over night) put it in the food processor and whizz it up.  Then it goes back in the freezer until hard and then whizz it up again.  It has the texture of ice cream and tasted fantastic.

The Brownie recipe was also really easy

2 Cups Apple puree
1/2 C cocoa

1 1/2 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

11/2 C sugar

1/2 C choc chips

Gently mix the sifted dry ingredients into the apple puree, then fold in the chocolate chips gently.

Bake 150C Fan Bake for 20-25 minutes. ( I turned the oven off after 20 mins and left it in for 5 mins)

Everyone thought the dessert was fantastic and the flavours really complemented each other.  You couldnt tell it was egg and dairy free.  The brownie was moist and chocolatey