Blueberry Yoghurt Cake

I have had a request for a recipe that was mentioned last week.  This recipe is a handy one to have for those people who are allergic to eggs.  Any flavour yoghurt can be used, when I am using a fruit flavoured yoghurt I don't usually add fresh fruit as well. 

Sift 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt into a large bowl.  Add 1 cup of plain yoghurt and 1/2 cup vegetable oil.  Mix well, then stir through 1 punnet of blueberries.  Pour mixture into a greased cake tin.  Sprinkle with a generous coating of cinnamon and sugar (try to form a thin crust on the surface).  Bake for about 30 minutes in a moderate oven or until done when tested.

Enjoy!

The Frog Party

Yesterday we celebrated our sons 7th birthday.  As we had got him two green tree frogs for his birthday, we decided to have a frog theme.  We gathered some decorations with frogs on them and I found some frog plates for the kids.  We had green cordial for the kids to drink.  I made a "pond" cake (simple vanilla cake with blue food colouring swirled through the batter prior to baking), decorated with blue butter icing, marzipan lillypads and icing sugar flowers).  Two purchased Balfours frog cakes (these are a South Australian icon) were placed on top of the pond, then I surrounded it with lilly pad decorated apple cupcakes (for recipe see "What to do with fruit pulp").  Other cakes included my orange yoghurt date cake (for recipe see "Oranges, Lemons (and Grapefruit)"), a blueberry yoghurt cake, chocolate cherry coconut cupcakes and my mum made some green jelly slice.  I also made "frogs in the pond" for the kids.  If you want further details for the recipes mentioned here that haven't been published in previous posts please let me know via the comments and I will post them next week.

I had every intention of playing some froggy games, such as who can jump the highest, who could croak the loudest as well as singing "Hoppy Birthday to you" and "Who let the Frogs out" - but the kids were having so much fun running around the garden and playing on the trampoline that we didn't get around to it.

We had a really fun day and our son had a fabulous birthday,

Impossible Pie

A lot of you would already have a variation of this recipe.  An impossible pie is where you mix all of the ingredients together and when it cooks it settles into layers.  This is a very easy way to throw together a quick lunch or easy dessert and you should have most of the ingredients already in the pantry or the fridge.

Savoury Pie:

Mix together 1/2 cup self raising flour, 3 eggs and 1 1/2 cups milk in a bowl.  Add 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 3/4 cup shredded cooked chicken, 1/2 finely chopped brown onion, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh basil.  Spray a pie dish with cooking spray, pour mixture in and bake in a moderate oven for 30 - 40 minutes or until set.

Variations: Replace chicken with ham, bacon, tin of pink salmon, tin of flavoured tuna, cubes of fetta or brie.    Replace brown onion with spring onions, red onion or caramelised leek.  Add baby spinach, slices of fresh tomato or finely chopped semi sun-dried tomatoes, roasted capsicum, small pieces of roasted pumpkin or sweet potato, chopped olives, sliced mushroom.  Instead of fresh basil, you could use parsley, thyme, oregano or chives.

Sweet Pie:

Place 4 eggs, 125 grams butter, 1/2 cup plain flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup castor sugar, 1 cup dessicated coconut and 400 ml coconut milk in food processer and blend until smooth.  Pour into prepared pie dish and cook for approximately 1 hour in a moderate oven.  When cool, cover in whipped cream and decorate with glace cherries and toasted shredded coconut.  I don't normally make any variations to this pie, but you could put a layer of banana slices, berries, fresh mango or any other fruit that goes well with coconut on top of the pie and then cover in whipped cream.