My kids have been asking me for ages to make this cake. They are young enough to think it is both weird and cool that carrots can be in cake! Oh to be young again with all the mystery of the world still to discover! And yes, obviously, we don’t get out much! I will say, the recipe I used ( was given to me by an old, dear friend I used to work with) makes for alot of cake so you could always make a half batch or as I did, make little cupcakes and freeze them and one large cake.

What You Need:

For the cake:

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 2 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 2 teaspoons bi-carb soda
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 cup walnut pieces
• 3 cups grated carrot
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the icing:

• 250g cream cheese
• 250g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup walnut pieces

What You Need To Do:

Cake:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and grease and line your prefered baking tins. The larger cake tin is a 25cm square number.

Get the kids lined up along the bench and hand out the vegetable peelers and put them to work, peeling the carrots. Grate them into a large bowl, or, if you have one of those fancy food processors that make life easy, you could use that.

While they are toiling away, you can sift the flour, sugar, bi-carb, cinnamon and salt into a very large bowl. Add the walnuts and give this a good mix.

Whisk the eggs lightly and add to the oil and vanilla. Pour this on top of the flour mix and add the grated carrot. See, I said you would need a very large bowl!

Mix it all up and pour the batter into your chosen tins.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean.

Icing:
Leave the cream cheese out overnight so it is nice and soft. All you have to do is whisk the cream cheese and the butter together until it is really smooth and then gradually add the icing sugar and lemon juice until you get your desired balance of sweet and sour. Spread the delicious creaminess over the top of the cooled cake, sprinkle with a few of the walnuts and you have made a decadent treat!

Do you ever have those lazy, drizzling with rain, Saturdays when not much is happening, even the dog is asleep on its bed and it is 2pm before you know it, and you want to eat something warm and comforting.  This is it!

What You Need:

• Bread
• Bacon
• Baked Beans
• Cheese

What You Need To Do:

Step one is to extract yourself from the lounge, open your tired, half asleep eyes, unwrap yourself from the blanket and shuffle toward the kitchen.  Turn on the grill and let it heat up while you cook the bacon.

Put the bread in the toaster and cook to your desired burnt-ness and then top with the baked beans.  Drain the bacon for a bit and then put it on top of the beans.

Lastly place slices of your fave cheese on top and grill it until golden and bubbly!

When all done, go and find that lovely spot on the lounge again and finish watching the tv show/movie you were watching before, with half asleep eyes, so now you can totally rest those eyes!  Oh, and of course later you will be going for that 5km run so don’t worry about the calories!!

I make this a lot because it makes enough for dinner for four, and then sandwiches for 3 for a few days, so it goes a long way! It’s very simple to put together and is one of those recipes where you can use just about anything you have in the fridge.

What You Need:

• 1kg beef mince
• 200g pork mince (optional)
• 1 small carrot
• 1 onion
• 1/2 zucchini
• 2tbsp tomato sauce
• 2tbsp soy sauce
• 2tbsp worcestershire sauce

• 2 eggs
• 10 bacon rashers
• salt & pepper

What You Need To Do:

First of all grate the carrot, onion and the zucchini into a bowl. If you dont have zucchini, you can use squash or sweet potato or you can leave it out. It just adds a bit more flavour to the mix. As I said, you can substitute with whatever you have.

Add all the sauces and the beaten egg to the bowl and give it a little stir. Put all of the meat in and season with the salt and pepper. Now, using your hands, mix all of the meat and veges together. Yes, it will be freezing to your fingers, so I use one hand at a time, just so the other can thaw out!!

It will seem a bit sloppy at first but if you keep mixing it will come together and be able to be shaped into a loaf to fit into your baking pan. I use my bread tin because it is non stick and about the right size.

Now for the fancy bit! Trim the bacon slices so they are neat long rectangles and lay them over the top of the loaf. Using a weaving pattern, criss cross the slices so they cover the whole loaf. I brushed a little seeded mustard on top, again for more flavour and a little glaze for the bacon.

Bake at 170 degrees, for about 45 minutes, until the bacon is brown and sizzling and the juices of the meatloaf should run clear. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before you cut it otherwise it will just break up. We have it with mashed potatoes and honey carrots for a filling dinner.

This is a very impressive looking cake for not much effort.  You can serve it with a cup of tea or go the whole hog and have it with icecream when it is warm out of the oven!  It’s one of those recipes you can make when you don’t have alot of ingredients in the cupboard.

What You Need:

• 185g butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of self raising flour
• 2/3 cup of caster sugar
• 1/2 cup of plain flour
• 1/3 cup of milk
• 2 medium apples
• 2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
• 1/3 cup marmalade warmed

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius and grease a 23cm round cake tin.  I used a springform tin just to make it a bit easier to get it out and lined the bottom with some baking paper.

First of all cream the butter and the sugar and when all light and fluffy, beat the eggs in, one at a time, until just combined.  Its a really quick and simple recipe,  all you have to do now is sift half of the flour and pour half of the milk into the butter mix and stir with a wooden spoon.  When it is smooth, add the remaining sifted flour and the rest of the milk and stir until that is smooth too.  Spread this mixture evenly into the prepared baking tin.

Now for the impressive part!  Peel, core and quarter the apples. You need make cuts into the rounded side of the apple, slicing about three quarters of the way through.  Now, before you give up (because that is way too hard when you are trying to quickly make a cake before the visitors arrive!) there is a easy trick to getting this right.

Grab a wooden skewer and pierce through the apple piece, about 3/4 of the way down the cut face, so you have the rounded side of the apple (that you will be cutting) facing up.  Then carefully slice through the apple so the knife hits on the skewer and doesn’t go all the way through to the bottom. If you make lots of these cuts close together you end up with a lovely decorative apple slice that will impress everybody with your expert knife skillz!!

Now, place these beautiful quarters, round side up, around the edge of the cake.  Cook for about 1 hour until cooked when tested with a skewer.  Stand the cake for about 5 minutes before turning onto a rack, right way up!

Brush the warm marmalade over the hot cake and let cool.  To serve, dust with some icing sugar and a big dollop of cream!

I suppose you all think we only eat sweet biscuits and cakes here, but sadly we do not. We do like savoury just as much! These are a great snack, or for in the lunchbox, we even had them for tea the other night with some roasted veges and cous cous. The husband was dubious about the meat content of that meal, or lack thereof, but was pleasantly surprised by how tasty and, more importantly, how filling they are!

What You Need:

• 2 cups chickpea flour
• 2 large potatoes (about 600g)
• 2 large brown onions (about 400g)
• 100g baby spinach leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
• 1/4 cup water
• oil for frying

What You Need To Do:

This is a great recipe because it is easy, quick and more importantly only uses one bowl! So, grate the potato into a large bowl, add the thinly sliced onion, spinach leaves and the garlic. Give it a little mix, trying not to break the spinach up too much.

You can sift the flour and spices over the top of the mix. Add the water and, using your hands, combine all the ingredients. (cue telephone!)

Shape 1/4 cups of the mixture into little patties using wet hands (cue child who needs help with something!). It helps to stop the mix sticking to your hands. This amount should make about 15 but you can make them any size you like! You can shallow fry them in a pan, or if you have a large pot or wok, you can deep fry them.

Cook them for a few minutes and then turn them over when they are golden in colour. Drain them on some paper and sprinkle a little salt on them while they are still hot.

You can have them with a little salad with some yoghurt and cucumber or just eat them for an afternoon tea snack.

Have you ever been to a coffee shop and ordered one of those big, beautiful looking biscuits they have in fabulous glass jars on the counter?  Thinking you might just savour it with your double shot cap.  Oh! the disapointment when it arrives on the tiny white plate.  It is tasteless, and either too dry and hard or crumbles into million pieces when you try and daintily break a bit off, never mind trying to dip it into your coffee!  These biscuits are tasty, sweet and chewy, but a little crunchy, so you can dip them if you like, or you can eat it without looking like a mess!

What You Need:

• 175g caster sugar
• 110g brown sugar
• 225g butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 450g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bi-carb soda
• 1/4 cup crushed macadamia nuts
• 1/4 cup white chocolate bits
• pinch salt

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 200 degress Celcius.
I always use butter in my cooking.  I think it performs better than margarine, so make sure you let the butter almost come to room temperature so it will cream better with the sugars.  So, obviously that is the first step, cream the butter with the sugars!

Whisk up the eggs with the vanilla and add a little of the egg to the mix and beat in well.  Keep doing this until you have added all of the egg.   This is practically the same recipe as the Jam Drops, but I changed a few things, so with this one you don’t have to freeze the dough, so therefore, eating biscuit time comes quicker!  This is great news for when the hungry hordes (insert names of various children/spouses here) come home from school/work!

Next, sift the flour, soda and salt over the mix and add the nuts and chocolate.  Carefully fold the mixture until there are no lumps of flour left.  Roll about a tablespoon size lump of dough into a ball and place onto a tray, lined with baking paper, leaving a space between as they will spread a little.  If you have any helpers at this stage, especially 4 year olds,  make sure that more mixture is rolled into balls than is going into the mouth!

Bake them for about 8 minutes or until a pale golden colour.  I like them chewy so I take them out just as they are starting golden and leave them to cool on the tray for a bit.  This mix makes alot of biscuits so you can sit the dough in the fridge while you are waiting for the others to cook.  It will firm up a bit but it is a little easier to roll if you want perfect, round, smooth looking biscuits.  Actually, I would love that, but my lot don’t care for fancy they just want to eat them NOW!

I was actually after a recipe for kids healthy muesli bars but I didn’t really have all the ingredients for them so I decided to sort of make my own recipe. So, I used an oatmeal slice base and just added what I thought would be yummy, but they are not as healthy as I would have liked! The girls sort of helped me make these by telling me what they wanted in them, mostly honey and sugar and not much else and definately none of those sultanas! Well I only had muesli in the cupboard, and honey and dates, so in they went! (they don’t realise that muesli is full of sultanas, shh!)

What You Need:

• 50g butter
• 1/4 cup raw sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 1/2 cups muesli
• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• 75g wholemeal self raising flour

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celcius and line a 20cm tin with baking paper. This is so quick to make so get this out of the way first!

Melt the butter, honey and sugars over a medium heat. You want the sugar to dissove and the mixture to be smooth. Don’t be tempted to taste it because it’s that hot it will take your tastebuds right off! (not speaking from experience or anything) Set it aside to cool a bit before mixing into the dry stuff.

Mix the flour through the muesli and dates then add the melted honey and sugars. You might need to use your hands because the mixture is quite thick. Knead it all together and then press it into the baking tin.

Bake it for about 20 minutes or until it is golden on top and then let it cool in the tin before cutting into pieces. It will still be soft when it is done but it will firm up as it cools. I like them a bit chewy but if you want them crisper leave them in for a bit longer.

Oh, and a big Thankyou! to my precious 4 year old for her expert hand modeling work!

I was watching Jamie Oliver on the TV today and he was chucking everything in the bowl – as he does- and I thought I might go and make something. We only had the crust left of the loaf of bread so i thought i would try and make some bread.  Being late in the afternoon, (not used to daylight saving yet!) to make a loaf might be a bit adventurous so I thought I would try a flat bread and so came a cross a recipe for foccacia.  With my bread making efforts previously a bit well, err, umm, not so good, this seemed easy enough.  Chuck it in the bowl, a la Jamie, mix, knead and wait.  Well it is in the oven now and the smell is divine so go and make some for tea tonight to have with a steak and salad or a nice bowl of soup.

What You Need:

• 3 cups plain flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon fresh parmesan cheese

What You Need To Do:

Grab a large bowl, metal or ceramic is better than plastic, and sift the flour and salt together.  Sprinkle in the yeast and the mixed herbs.  I use instant dried yeast, the same as the little packets you get, but it is in a 250g container.  You can get it at the supermarket and just store it in the fridge.  Mix it all together so the yeast and herbs are even throughout the flour.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the water and the oil.  Mix it all up.  Get your hands in there and knead it for about  (is it sounding Jamie Oliver-ish?!)  3 minutes to form a soft dough.

Place it back in the bowl, cover it with some glad wrap and put it in a warm place for about and hour or so until it doubles in size.  I actually put mine in the office right next to me on the desk because it is quite hot in here with the computer going!

When it has doubled in size you punch it down so it deflates and then knead it for another 3 minutes until it is quite smooth.  I think this is great, any bread I have made has at least 10 minutes of kneading so this is really quick and easy on the arms!

Roll it out to a rectangle shape to fit a tray about 36cm x 26cm and poke a few holes into the dough but don’t go all the way through.  These will catch a bit more of the toppings. Scatter the onion, some more herbs, salt and the parmesan.  I also sprinkled a little more olive oil over the top just to help keep it a bit moist and brown up.

The smell is amazing as it is cooking and you will want to devour it as soon as it is out of the oven!!!

Well for the first recipe back from the rather extended break, I thought I would let the kids take over the kitchen!

Insane I know, but I was rather surprised that there was only a few cupfuls of flour and sugar on the floor!! But I think the end result rather speaks for itself.  I am quite proud of the 9 year olds ability to cook and the 4 year olds ability to spill things ( but I already knew she was talented in that department!).  These are easy to make, so are a good school holiday activity, as long as you walk away and don’t witness what goes down during a kids cooking class!

What You Need:

• 225g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 110g brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp vanilla
• 450g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
• 55mL milk
• pinch salt
• jam

What You Need To Do:

I get the kids to measure everything out first so all the ingredients are layed out in front of them because there have been a few times when things have been left out!  So first of all you have to cream the butter and the sugars.  Keep going until it is pale yellow and nice and light.

Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl with the vanilla and add it to the sugar mixture a little bit at a time and beat it between additions. This just helps to stop it curdling which sometimes happens if you add the eggs all at once.

Sift the flour, soda and salt over the mixture and carefully fold until there are no lumps of flour.  Now is the time to walk away, no run, if you want to keep your sanity, cos things get pretty messy!

Gradually add some of the milk until a soft dough forms.  You probably won’t need the whole 55ml, depending on your flour, because you don’t want the dough to be too sticky.

Roll the mixture into 2 logs, wrap them and put them in the freezer for about an hour.  You can use this time to hose out the kitchen or sit back and relax while the kids do it.  As I said earlier, if sanity is important…….its up to you!!

When the mixture has set hard, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius, and cut discs from the rolls about 5mm and place on baking trays lined with baking paper.  Leave a space between each disc because they will spread out during cooking.

To make the jam drop centre, I used a 1/4 teaspoon measure to press into the centre of the disc to make the hole for the jam to go into.  Drop the same amount (1/4 tsp) of jam into the mark and bake for 8-9 minutes or until golden.  let them cool on the tray for a few minutes because they will be soft and then transfer them to wire rack to cool.

Have fun making these with the kids!!

We have finally moved into our new house by the beach.  It is so lovely, and I can’t wait to do some cooking in my new kitchen.  It is heaps bigger than my last one so I have more bench space to make more mess on!!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year.  We were in the middle of moving so it was very chaotic, with boxes everywhere and frantic unpacking looking for stuff!  So much fun!  We managed to get organised, a bit, and had a wonderfully relaxing day with the family.

Thanks for keeping in touch, and I hope to post lots of recipes this year that you will like and more importantly, cook!!

Jo.