Chocolate Sticky date cake

3¾ cups (600g) coarsely chopped dates
3 cups (750ml) water
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
180g butter, softened
2¼ cups (450g) firmly packed brown sugar
6 eggs, beaten lightly
3 cups (450g) self-raising flour
½ cup (60g) coarsely chopped walnuts
½ cup (60g) coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 cup cocoa powder 

Butterscotch sauce
2 cups (400g) firmly packed brown sugar
600ml thickened cream
375g butter, chopped coarsely

NOTE: This recipe can be made two days ahead. Close to serving, wrap cake in foil and warm through in a moderately slow oven for approximately 20 minutes, or microwave individual servings.

METHOD

Preheat the oven to moderate (180°C/160°C fan-forced). Grease a 25cm x 35cm rectangular baking dish. Line base and sides with baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above edges of dish.

Combine dates and water in a medium saucepan; bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add soda; stand for 5 minutes. Blend or process until smooth.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined between each addition. Stir in the sifted flour and date mixture spread into prepared pan; sprinkle evenly with the nuts. Bake in a moderate oven for about 1 hour or until cooked when tested. Stand cake for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.

For the butterscotch sauce, combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan; stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Simmer, stirring, for 3 minutes.

Brush surface of hot cake with ¼ cup of butterscotch sauce, then serve with remaining sauce.

Suitable to freeze. Butterscotch sauce suitable to microwave.

Enjoy 

Lemon Syrup Cake

Its been ages since I have baked and today was such a lovely day in my kitchen. The sun was beaming through the window and it reminded me how much I do really enjoy being in the kitchen baking. The lemons are in season and I had a few to use up, you will use about 5 small lemons for this recipe. For the buttermilk I used 1 cup of soy milk with a tbs of lemon juice. You can use other milks to create buttermilk such as Almond etc.  For this cake you will need the following. 

Ingredients

250g butter
1 cup caster sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

2 cups self-raising flour

Lemon Syrup
1/3 cup lemon juice
¼ cup water
¾ cup caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to moderate (180C). Cream the butter and sugar, add lemon rind and then beat in eggs one at a time.

2. Gently fold in buttermilk and flour.

3. Bake for 45 mins, or until cooked. You may want to cover cake with foil if it starts to brown too much on top. 

4. To make lemon syrup, combine lemon juice, water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, simmer for 2 mins and pour over the warm cooked cake.

Juices & Smoothies

I've been drinking a lot of juices and smoothies lately. I find it's the easiest and quickest way to get a high volume of nutrients. I start my day with either a green juice or fruit smoothie, I add superfood powders and sometimes natural sugars. Most of these can be found in a health food store or chemist warehouse. Below is a bunch of photos of my morning smoothies. The ingredients are listed and adjust amounts according to taste and size of blender. 

Banana & Raspberry muffins

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of plain flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 mashed banana
1/2 cup raspberries fresh or frozen


Pre heat oven to 160.
Mix all dry ingredients together. Whisk eggs in a separate bowl add milk and coconut oil. Mix wet ingredients into the dry. Then mix through mashed banana and raspberries. Spoon into greased muffin tin and bake for approx 20 minutes.
Enjoy.

Breakfast Smoothie

This smoothie recipe contains just 3 simple ingredients, almond milk, dates and banana. 

2 cups of Almond Milk 

15 Dates chopped

2 Bananas 

I just put all ingredients in the blender and blended for approx 2 minutes. I had some frozen banana in freezer so added one fresh and one frozen to get the smoothie chilled. Otherwise you could use ice to chill it a bit. I put oats/nuts on top when serving. 

Green Smoothie

I was beyond excited when Tracy bought a Vitamix this week and she was happy to have me bring a bag full of fruit and vegetables to her house to play with this high powered blender. I did a bit of reading to try and find the best recipes as this surely could taste very bad if done wrong. Most people encourage 2cups green such as Kale, spinach etc, 2cups liquid such as water, coconut water or milk and 3cups fruit. You can also put powdered super foods in for that extra boost of nutrients. At the moment if been researching foods for fertility and have come across Maca. Maca supports hormonal balance and contains 31 different minerals including being a great source of iron. It also helps with mood regulation by improving serotonin levels. I'm keen to give it a go. 

 I hope to post other smoothie recipes here in the future. 

Green smoothie recipe

1 cup Spinach 

2cups water 

1 banana 

2 oranges 

2 pears

Slice of lime

1 teaspoon Maca 

Ice 

Put all ingredients in blender in this order blend on high for approx 1 minute or until smooth. Pour into glass and sprinkle with Chia seeds. Enjoy x

Auction time

I've only just started to get into auctions and now I'm totally obsessed. The thrill of the biding can be quite overwhelming as you make a quick decision to bid higher or stop. This auction was huge it was one persons life collection and they had great taste. It was a pleasure to be amongst it and hear the regulars talk about this man and what he was like. These are the pieces that Melissa and I liked and the pieces we won.