Saturday 13 January 2018

HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

One of the most complicated cakes I have ever made ..... the hummingbird cake. Not difficult just has a few more steps than the usual cake that I cook. My niece requested this cake on her recent visit so it was only fair that I insisted that she act as my apprentice. Like everything I cook I think you can add more or less of things like nuts, bananas a pineapple to suit your own tastes. As I source a wider variety of bulk pantry items from new stores my waste list decreases. This makes me very happy as I move more and more towards my goal of creating less rubbish in the world.





HUMMINGBIRD CAKE
Waste - paper bags from flour, sugar. Tins from pineapple. Butter paper. Cardboard and foil from cream cheese.
Composted - banana skins, egg shells

CAKE
1 450gram tin of pineapple
3 cups of plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon bi carbonate soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 cups of sugar
3 eggs
1 cup of olive oil
3 ripe bananas
1 cup pecans chopped (or I used walnuts as I had no pecans this time)
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

METHOD

1. Drain juice from pineapple tin and put into a small pan and reduce it on a low heat until it becomes one cup
2. Pull or cut the pineapple flesh up and put aside in a bowl until later
3. In a bowl put flour, baking powder, cinnamon and bicarbonate soda
4. In a different bowl combine the sugar and eggs. Whisk them together. Add the oil, pineapple, pineapple juice, nuts and banana.  Mix through.
5. Combine the wet mixture with the dry and beat together.
6. Divide the mixture and pour into two tins.
7. You can make two cakes or a double decker cake depending on what you want.
8. Bake in a moderate oven until the knife is pulled from the middle of the cake clean and the cake is slightly brown. Takes about 45-50 minutes.




ICING

140 grams of butter
2 cups of icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250 grams of cream cheese
Nuts to decorate the top.

METHOD

Put all of the above ingredients into a food processor and mix until smooth and creamy. If you are making a double decker cake you might want to double the icing mixture to put it in between the layers. I find this amount will generously ice two cakes. Decorate the cake with nuts either pecans or walnuts.

I think this cake needs to be cooked a few time to find out if you would like more or less of the banana, pineapple and nuts.  A big thanks to my apprentice and her friend for their help, As usual our cake was eaten with people I love and a nice cup of tea . Thanks for stopping by ......... Eco Granny.



Tuesday 2 January 2018

CHERRY PIE


Part of trying to live waste free is avoiding food waste. Realising that food takes a lot of resources to bring food to our tables. I think we take for granted that we just go and get the food we want. I often think about those people who do not have access to food and that their attitude towards the waste of food would be much different to ours. I heard Geraldine Cox (who runs an orphanage in Cambodia)  speak once and she told the story of one of the children who she brought to Australia for medical treatment. He could not believe that we did not want to eat fresh food when it was so readily available, he could not understand why you would willingly buy processed food. The other thing he said was he couldn't understand why we cooked more than we needed and had leftovers in our fridge. He thought that was wasteful. When I heard this story years ago it resonated with me. Long before my Eco journey I did think about food waste and how food is valued more by those who don't have it (naturally) and how we as a society just take it all for granted. Anyway with this all in mind, the cherries that were starting to go soft were taken out of the fridge and given a new lease of life in the form of  Cherry Pie.




CHERRY PIE
Waste - paper bags from flour and sugar and butter wrapping paper
Composted - Egg Shell and cherry pips


CHERRY PIE FILLING
600 grams of cherries
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons of cornflour
1/3 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

METHOD

1. Take all the pips out of the cherries
2. Place cherries, cinnamon, sugar and lemon juice in a pan and cook until the cherries are soft and squishy.
3. Add the cornflour and stir and it thickens.
4. If it is thicker than you would like just add a bit of water until it is the consistency that you desire
5. Set aside to cool

PASTRY

1 1/3 cups of plain flour
1/2 cup of self raising flour
1/4 cup of custard powder or icing sugar or (I used organic plain flour as it has a sweet taste)
1/4 cup caster sugar
150grams of butter
2 tablespoons of iced water
1 egg

METHOD

1. Place all dry ingredients with butter in a food processor or bowl and mix through until the butter is      mixed through. Like fine breadcrumbs.
2.  Add the egg and the iced water and mix through
3. Put onto a floured surface and knead it until it is smooth 
4. Roll it and wrap it in a beeswax wrap and place in the fridge for up to 30minutes
5. Take out and divide into two. One bit larger than the other. 
6. Roll out and put into pie dish
7. Add the cherry mix
8. Roll out the other piece of pastry for the top. You can make a lattice top or a flat top depending on        what you like.
9. Use milk or egg and use a pastry brush to glaze over the top of the pastry. You can also sprinkle          sugar if  you like.
10. Bake in a moderate oven until the top is golden brown.





My mouth was actually watering as I took this photo and I can assure you it tasted as good as it looked. Thanks for stopping by .......  Eco Granny.