Aussie-style Rustic Date Scones

Scones, freshly cooked and served still warm from the oven, with lashings of butter, jam and cream, are one of my favourite treats. Scones shouldn't be fussy to make. They need to be mixed quickly, baked quickly and then enjoyed. These scones only need to be eaten with a good quality butter to be enjoyed, however if jam is your jam and you have a sweet tooth then by all means eat them with jam and cream. They are at their best straight out of the oven, and are crispy on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside and full of dates. As I took these out of the oven, I had visions of them being baked on an Australian sheep property for the shearer's smoko, or on a cattle property out west, and then seeing them devoured in one sitting by everyone. I cooked these in time for brunch this morning, I ate one, MR. HRK ate ??, well let's just say he ate more than me. Delicious with a cuppa.

Gorgeous German Plum Cake

Ripe blood plums are in season at the moment, however in North Queensland unfortunately they aren't available for long.  Inspired by a delicious Plum cake we ate at the Groove cafe in Annerley on a visit to South Brisbane, and because I was entertaining my Mahjong friends who love a good cake, I made this very special plum cake. The recipe was originally created  by Stephanie Alexander, and she called it Mieze's Plum Cake, after a German friend of hers who introduced her to this cake. I think this would be a perfect cake to bake over Easter, for a special meal.

This is a large mixture, capable of serving 12 people for dessert, if it is baked in a 28 cm spring form tin. If you aren't feeding a crowd, just halve this recipe and use a smaller spring form tin.

The less cake mixture in the base the better, so only filling the cake tin a quarter full with the cake mixture is the preferable way to make the cake. It rises so well. I have also baked this in a smaller 23 cm tin and used the extra batter to bake a smaller cake for Mr. HRK. That kept him happy until the other one was served up a day later.

Ingredients:

275 g softened butter
250 g sugar
200 g plain flour
200 g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
100 ml milk
1 cup ground almonds or fresh breadcrumbs
20 ripe blood plums, halved and stoned

TOPPING

125 g butter
200 g sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 180 deg C and lightly grease a 28 cm spring form tin. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in flours and salt. Add eggs and milk to make a soft dough ( the mixture should drop easily from the spoon.) Spoon batter into prepared tin (it should not fill more than a quarter of the depth of the tin as the cake rises a great deal) then sprinkle over the ground almonds. Arrange the plums, cut-side up, on top,starting around outside edge and working towards centre. (Have one yourself as they are delicious.)

To make the topping, melt the butter and stir in the sugar and cinnamon, then allow to cool. Whisk eggs well and stir into cooled butter mixture. Spoon over and around plums on top of cake. Bake for 1 hour, and test with a skewer that the cake is cooked in the centre.

Serve warm with cream or ice-cream. Any leftover cake can be warmed up, wrapped in foil in the oven at 180 deg. C for 15 minutes. There won't be much left over though, I assure you.

Thanks Stephanie Alexander, this is a brilliant recipe.

Best wishes

Pauline

The Queen of Sheba's Chocolate and Almond Cake

Mahjong resumed yesterday, and to launch the event our hostess cooked a delicious and extremely light chocolate cake, modified from a recipe originally published by the amazing Stephanie Alexander. The egg whites create a beautiful crusty topping, which sets this cake apart from many others.