Broccoli & Beetroot tart

One evening last week, I was struggling with time ( story of my life!) and wanted a quick simple dish, with ingredients in my fridge/freezer.
I had been in a dr's waiting room and saw this recipe in a women's magazine, a quick and simple weekday meal, you can substitute with other vegetables if you want.


A can of beetroot (drained and dried well)
2 sheets of frozen puff pastry
1 small head of broccoli cut into florets
2 eggs
1/4/ cup sour cream
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1 Tbl flaked almonds

1. Pre heat oven to 200c, light grease a 20x30cm  slice tin
2. Join pastry sheets together, overlapping, creating a seam. Using a sharp knife score a 1cm edge around the pan, bake for 8-10 min and lightly golden
3. Reduce the oven to 180, blanch the broccoli in boiling water and drain and dry.
4. Whisk the eggs, parmesan and sour cream in a jug and season well, pour over the pastry.
5. Top with broccoli and beetroot and bake for 15-20 min until just set, sprinkle with almonds and serve, you can have this warm or cold.

 

Enjoy!

 

Till next time

 

Ashia

Coffee and Walnut cake

This very simple, gorgeous recipe was given to me by a friend in the UK, you can bake it in a 20 cm tin like I did or alternatively you can divide it into smaller tins (they have to have upright sides) and they ill take less time in the oven 12-15 min, make sure they spring back when touched and the skewer comes out clean.

175g Salted butter
175g Golden caster sugar
3 Eggs beaten
175g Self raising Flour
1Tsp baking powder
100g chopped walnuts
2 Tbls cooled strong coffee
Butter Icing/Frosting and walnuts to decorate

1. Preheat oven to 180
2. Grease and line 2 (20 cm) cake tins or smaller tins if you prefer
3. Beat butter and sugar until  pale & fluffy, gradually whisk in the eggs one by one until blended, add the coffee making sure it all come together
4. Sift in flour and baking powder and fold the mixture with the walnuts
5. Bake for 20-25 min, or until cooked

Leave to cool, sandwich with coffee flavoured butter icing 200g butter, 400g icing sugar and 2 tbls strong coffee. Decorate with walnuts....divine. Thanks Susan hart for the lovely recipe.

 

Enjoy!

 

Till next time

 

Ashia

Adam's 13th birthday

Well another year has passed, it's been another busy one. As always, deciding to make yet another birthday cake, more challenging as they get older, but this time with help from Adam.
He chose the colour and designed the cake.
I started with making my no fail chocolate cake, works every time, it's moist and keeps well. I made two 23cm cakes.
I then made butter cream to sandwich and crumb coat the two cakes. I usually ice with buttercream but this time Adam wanted fondant. ( He has a bit of a sweet tooth!)
He chose the colour, but I couldn't find it in any of the cake shops, so I ended up using white fondant and colouring it with gel colour. It was perfect. We then cut out strips and spots out of black fondant and using edible glue stuck them on the cake.

The result was great!

Enjoy!

Till next time, hopefully sooner than this post.

Ashia