berry swirl ice cream cake and raspberry swirl butter cake

It's summertime in Australia, which means desserts are inevitably berry-laden in celebration of the season.
Raspberries are one of my absolute favourites. Their tartness breaks through any overt sweetness in a dessert and add a different dimension entirely.

As my Christmas gift to you, here are a couple of recipes, so delicious, you will be basking in their reflected glory all Christmas.

Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream Cake

You will want to name your firstborn child Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream Cake after eating this.

It is ridiculously simple to make and your guests will think you a domestic goddess of the first order for making your own ice cream.

The only draw back is that they will ask for the recipe and then find out how simple it really was.

First you take four cups of cream. Pour it into the bowl of your electric mixer.

Add two cans of Nectar of the Gods.

{that's sweetened condensed milk....as if I had to tell you}

Whisk together until dollopy (soft peaks). As above.

This is the fussiest part. I am a spaz when it comes to lining things, so I had to use pegs.
You'll do it much better.
Use plastic wrap then baking paper.
I used a 20cm (8 inch) springform pan.

Dollop it in. You have to readjust your bra for this part, otherwise it won't drool in as lusciously as you'd like. It's a Nigella-inspired physics theory I'm working on. I promise it's true.

Smooth it out....then lick the spatula.

Take some frozen mixed berries and thaw them out and put them in the blender.

{I forgot to do that before I took this photo}

I just nuked them in the microwave and then blitzed them.

More dolloping.

Use a skewer to make your very own masterpiece. This part was super-fun. Almost as fun as licking the bowl.

All done.

Pop it into the freezer overnight.

I actually made this a few days ahead.

Then dress it with fresh berries.

Cut into wedges.

I served this with brownies....it was a deeply spiritual moment.

I'm sorry I don't have better close-up photos, but we had 20 people for lunch today waiting on this dessert and it was all I could do to keep Mr Magoo from licking it.

For those of you currently experiencing winter.....I would serve it with warm chocolate fudge sauce. It might make people cry though.

Ingredients:

4 cups full-fat cream

2 x 385g tins of condensed milk

100g frozen berries (whatever you have on hand) you could also use mango, passionfruit etc.

Note: If you only need to serve 8 - 10 people, you could just halve the quantities and use a smaller springform pan.

Mimi's Raspberry Swirl Butter Cake:

This is a quick way to give your butter cake recipe an extreme make-over.

Use your favourite butter cake recipe and divide into two bowls.

{If you don't have a favourite, email me and I'll send you one.}

Take 150g of frozen raspberries and let thaw for a few minutes.

Crush with a fork

Stir it through one of the mixtures.

Prrrrrrrr.

Spoon it Jackson Pollak style into your tin. Again, you should probably adjust your bra for this part...just to be safe.

Smooth out slightly and with your trusty skewer, run it through.

Then bake according to normal cooking instructions for your butter cake recipe.

Make your favourite butter icing.

Divide by two.

Make one pink with food colouring.....and swirl like you're Fancy Nancy.

Just a thought.....cream cheese icing...divide in two....run raspberries through one half...then swirl?

Maybe I should start a "Pimp my Butter Cake" series. What fun!

loving this week...

I'm so ready for it be Christmas Day....

I told a poor sales assistant in Myer's the other day that "I'm going home before I lose the will to live". I didn't realise that I'd said it out loud until he put his head to one side and said "Oakey doakey then...good luck with that". I really have to stop doing that.

Still haven't had Santa photos done.

I can't remember what I've bought the kids and I'm pretty sure I haven't bought anything at all for Bugsy.

I haven't lost any of the weight that I was convinced I was going to lose by Christmas.....there's only so long I can blame my "generous curves" on baby weight....I think I've passed the line and the only way I can claim that it's baby weight is if I ate him.

Here's what I'm looking forward to:

• Seeing what everyone got from Santa and watch their little faces as they lose themselves in the magic of Christmas morning.
• Spending the day with my whole family where we delight in each other and the birth of baby Jesus. For the first time in a long time we're having Christmas lunch with both my brothers and their beautiful families. I could cry.....in a good way.
• Toasted brioche with fresh mango and ham...it's our Christmas breakfast tradition. Our family LOVE breakfast. We rate hotels by the standard of their bircher muesli. If we could choose between going out for dinner or breakfast, we would hands-down choose breakfast every time.
• A cup of coffee in bed and an hour by myself to read (this would take a Christmas miracle)

But here's what's been fun around our house THIS week:

Before we go any further....

you need to know that I keep a framed photo of a Laduree patisserie next to my bed.

In the interest of transparency, I felt that you should know that about me.

I also keep other things next to my bed which I hope paint me in a more favourable/less shallow light.

I spray the lavender linen spray so I can tell myself that the linen doesn't need changing just yet. If you ever stay at my house and smell lavender linen spray on your pillows...well, you've been warned.

Hang on, I'm meant to be painting myself more favourably here....

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is one of the funniest books ever written. This author is a card-carrying genius.

I read this aloud to the little ones until our tummies hurt from laughing.

I shopped with a mouse this Christmas, which was much more fun than it sounds....

Every day for the last two weeks, I've had these parcels arriving on my doorstep.

It's like Christmas every morning....even though they're not for me, I still get super-excited.

I love trying to guess which books are inside and how many more I'm still waiting for...

Gifts are unashamedly my love language...

None of the recipients of these presents read my blog....so it's safe to share.

As I emptied this mesclun salad mix into a bowl it struck me how perfectly gorgeous they look just all by themselves. Then I felt sorry for the humble iceberg lettuce and how cruelly it's been overlooked since these smug leaves hit the food scene. I think perhaps I identify much more closely with the faithful, dependable, no frills iceberg. I also need a bit of special dressing to be at my best. Am I having an existential moment over lettuce? I really need to get out more.

I've hit that point where I don't count how many pieces of bread I need to make lunch for our family.
I count how many loaves.

Missy Moo sent out this invitation for us.....8.30 meant 8.30 AM!

True to her word she woke up early and set up craft in her room for us all to do.

Black paper and pale crayons to draw the nativity scene.

She even prepared a jug of water with cups in case we got thirsty.

God bless them, the older kids absolutely encouraged her and told her what an awesome job she did.

I didn't want to alter the dynamics by taking photos.

I just wanted to be in the moment....and I was....totally.

Thank you God for this child.

I love Christmas. We saw Santa on the way to our work Christmas party. I was driving the Bongo Bus with some of our staff in the back. Dave had just popped a bottle of champagne, so they all drank a toast to Santa....it was a PERFECT start to the evening.

We love these guys. They work really hard and always wear a smile. As you can see they're also incredibly glamorous and fabulous. This was the tamest photo of the evening....it went a bit wild after this and as it's a G-rated blog, I'll have to leave it there. For Christmas they gave Dave and I the gift of a weekend away for the whole family at a country B&B. I cried....we hugged....I cried some more.

" Throw me the orange pods. I'm sure Mum won't mind if we pick the orange tree bare"

"Then I'll roll them down"

"And we'll count how many go through the hole"

This is what kids resort to when they don't have a Wii. I almost felt guilty. They spent ages trying different trajectories and strategies to get the perfect shot and became quite obsessed about it.

On my way to bible study supper.

It's not mandatory to drink red wine while studying bible theology....but, well you know, sometimes it helps.

and a wicked lemon meringue helps even more....

speaking of baking...

Mimi's new book which she's been loving

You know that yummy raspberry and cream mix you saw on the last post? This is it.

Mimi made it and cruelly took it to a friend's house.

She wouldn't even let me cut into it to show you the swirls on the inside.

I begged, told her much we all really needed to see the inside....no dice....I told you she was mean sometimes. No matter, I've got another Raspberry Swirl recipe coming up next week to show you instead.

She loves you guys though. She reads your comments and thinks you are all crack-ups.

I just love our country Christmas angel and Irish silver Santa.

Not crafting, but still nude.

What I'm loving especially can be found to the right of my screen on my sidebar under "Blogs I love". Also under "comments". I quite smugly like to think I have the best commenter's in blogland. There's not one of you whom I don't feel some sort of connection with. You guys are awesome. Just so you know.

Hope you're all better organised than I and aren't scaring sales assistants.

Have a great weekend!

p.s. if you get a chance, I hope you listen to the Christmas song of the week. It's one of my all time favourite songs, Christmas or otherwise....

Linking today with The Inspired Room's Holiday Series....you should pop over, it's full of Christmas cheer.

wordless wednesday

armenian nutmeg cake

While not traditionally a Christmas cake, I just adore this cake at this time of year. The smell that emanates from the kitchen while it bakes, due to the nutmeg, brown sugar and walnut, seems (to me anyway) to be intrinsically Christmas-y. If you're not a lover of nutmeg, I'm sure you could use cinnamon or ginger or allspice instead.

It was also my late Auntie Maureen's signature cake. Every time I bake it, it brings back vivid childhood memories of her arriving on our doorstep, dressed in a groovy 70's kaftan for a cup of coffee, with her Armenian Nutmeg Cake on a smoked glass platter.

The original recipe can be found here:

But I have my own hand-written copy from Auntie Maureen that I cherish. (I've since had to type it up because it's become so splattered with batter and butter)

First you take an enormous amount of brown sugar at least 2 cups....you just know already that it's going to be good.

Then, in my case, you appoint your eldest child to do the rest because you want to play with the camera....and also, because you have a sneaking suspicion that she might be a better cook than you are and that should definitely be encouraged.

Then murmur approving words of praise as she sifts the flour and baking powder together.

Chop up 125 g butter (4 oz) of butter and add to the mix, ready to make the crumbly base.

I love this part....it's just good for the soul.

Maybe we should get the leaders in the Middle East to do this in preparation for peace talks.

It would, like, totally work. For shizzle.

{Give me a break... it's school holidays. This is how the kids talk ... ALL. THE. TIME.}

See, everyone just loves this feeling.

I think we just needed one more shot of crumble. My gift to you.

Take just half of the crumble and press it firmly into the base of an 8 inch tin.

Try and press it so the mixture is a little way up the sides if possible.

You should really use a spring-form tin for easy release once it's cooked. But mine had made the ultimate sacrifice in the dishwasher....so I used this one instead.

They looked so lovely sitting there........hello, my lovely little dependable spoons.

Mimi added bi-carb to the milk and let it sit while she......

added nutmeg to an egg and then she.....

beat it together until it looked like this.

Then she poured the milk mixture into the egg/nutmeg.

Here's the other half of the crumble. Just add it to the wet ingredients and mix.

{Yes, I know we should have used the cake beater but I'm far too lazy for that. We've talked about this.}

Mix it until it looks like this.

Then pour it over the crumble base.

Hooray! Time to whip out my mezzaluna. I had first dibs on this part. No one gets between me and my mezzaluna.

Mimi made me step away from my chopping zen so she could sprinkle the walnuts over the cake.

She's really mean sometimes.

Then into the oven for about 45 mins.

{Depending on your oven}

Why, hello there gorgeous.....

Oh my. Check out that crust.

Fire up the coffee machine!! This is cause for celebration.

The original recipe calls for you to leave it for 24 hours before you eat it.

Yeah, like that's going to happen.

I took a bite out of it, while it was still warm.

My joy was unconfined.

I could have wept tears of happiness.

However, it's not a cake you have just for your own selfish delight.

Its nurturing qualities really demand that you share it with loved ones. So I rang up my sister-in-law and told her to put the coffee on, we were coming over with cake.

Well....cake, minus one piece.

I wasn't even embarrassed.

She loves this cake and completely understood.

That's the sort of person you need to share this with.

Here's the recipe as per my Auntie Maureen:

Armenian Nutmeg Cake

2 cups brown sugar

2 tspn baking powder

2 cups plain flour

125g butter (4 oz)

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 tspn nutmeg

1 tspn bicarb soda.

Combine brown sugar and sifted baking powder and plain flour. Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.

Spread half this mixture evenly over the base and a little up the sides of an 8 inch cake tin.

Dissolve bi-carb soda in milk. Beat egg and nutmeg together. Then add milk/soda mixture.

Then add the remaining half of the crumble mixture.

Pour over the mixture lining the cake.

Sprinkle with walnuts.

Bake for 45 mins in moderate oven. Allow to cool in tin.

loving this week....

You might want to grab a cup of coffee.
This is a long post.....long enough to make your retinas bleed.
That is not my goal, obviously.
But I guess lots of stuff happens at this time of year.

Here's how it unfolded:

You can tell I've been flat-out....hardly had a moment's peace.

Oh, hello! I don't know why I took this, it just winked at me I guess.

It's all about the basket. For the love of Pete....does anyone else have this problem? There are more, but I was too ashamed to include them.

Missy Moo printed this out and left it on my desk. Rain dears and fat Santa's....I love Christmas.

There should always be room for an extra pair of hands.

My crazy cow again. He pops up all over the place. There's just something about him....he just speaks to me.

This has also been speaking to me this week.

In fact, I could swear that when I open it "Joy to the World" starts in full flight.....

I adore this wrapping paper. It was on special and I bought about 50 hundred rolls of it.

You'd think I would have used it on this gift wouldn't you?

This was a little cheer-up gift for a friend who's just had an operation and somehow the wrapping paper seemed too fussy.

Well, that just looks plain silly.

Lucy & Missy Moo blu-tacked Christmas decorations to their ears.

Their mean mother has forbidden ear-piercing until they're 12.

They're starting to get desperate.

This was at Mum's place and she had to ask for them back at the end of the night. They were loving themselves sick in these.

I actually can't tell you how much I love these goofballs.....I've got a lump in my throat.

This amazing man and our three beautiful boys.

They make me feel all sparkly from the inside out.

{Kiwi friends, please note Dave's choice of headwear}

Down at Balmoral Beach {famous Sydney picnic spot}

We took two cars so we could include some extra friends.

JD was the first off the jetty. The girls just screamed.

Until Dave pushed them in.
We didn't tell our friend's mothers that bit.

Missy Moo and her BFF

Mimi & Annie

This is a great story.....

Annie is the youngest of 11 children.

Her eldest sibling, Jane, is my oldest friend.

{as in I've known her FOREVER, not the she's old. She's the same age as me, which is ridiculously young}

Annie is one of Mimi's oldest friends.

I love that.

JD at cricket.

He looks like such a boy-man here. My baby.

He gallantly killed a spider for me yesterday by dropping a stack of House & Garden magazines on it.

"How big is it JD?" I asked.

His gruff voice replied, "Not big at all anymore, Mum"

That reminds me....note to self...."wipe spider juice from decorating magazines"

It wouldn't be a Friday post without a bit of nude crafting from Mr Magoo.

He sends his love.

Linking today with The Inspired Room's Holiday Series....you should pop over, it's full of Christmas cheer.

dreaming of a white (and beige) christmas

It's Day 2, Week 1 of holidays.

I feel like nailing a sign from Dante's Divine Comedy "Abandon Hope all Ye Who Enter" above my front door.

Watermelon rinds and juice from one end of the house to the other.

Muddy footprints post-pool throughout.

Ice blocks abandoned mid wrestle on couches.

Wet beach towels strewn over railings and stair balustrades.

Bear with me while I take a tour into the land of pristine living. I like to tell myself that these rooms only exist in cyberspace and shelter mags, so if your house looks like this, please be gentle with me and tell me another time when I'm feeling more generous. I'll let you know when that is.

Dreaming of white, sheer loveliness, with tastefully arranged Christmas decorations.

If this room had a bar fridge, I would never leave.

The rug! The wing-back chair! The sheer white, unmarked perfection of the couch.

Not only white, but beautifully arranged. This wouldn't last five minutes in Chez Joy.

It's a bit Miami Vice I suppose, but I can't resist these squishy, white couches.

This room actually brings me out in hives....the floor alone....then, the chair legs just waiting to have scuff marks down them...but, my, what divine white loveliness...how much do you love the chandelier?

Bliss....

Open shelving and white.....talk about living on the edge.

So zen...
{Not actually, entirely sure what zen means, but if it has something to do with "I haven't been this at peace since I was in the womb" I'm sure this is it}

The Aga, the subway tile....

Oh, yes please....so handy to have two...once I've worn a dent in one, I can swap to the other.

White wood flooring.... I've got chills....they're multiplying...

Please, just maybe, God, in this lifetime?

This is how adults must dine. I hear it's quite lovely.

If I had a backyard shed, this is how I would decorate it.

images: 1,2,3,6,7,12 Country Living; 8 colour consulting sydney; 4,5,14 apartment therapy; 9 Atlanta Living; 10 Coastal Living; 11 Domino;15 Atlanta Bartlett styling.

Silk Purse Fish

I'm trying to avoid a couple of loads of laundry at the moment, and I'd much prefer to share this recipe with you instead. It's a family favourite. Care to indulge in some diversional therapy? If anyone asks what you're doing, you can honestly say that you are researching a recipe to help with the family budget.

One of the reasons for the name of this dish will become clear in the next image...

I'd love to be able to buy the most succulent, fresh fish available. But, I'm a gal on a budget and lots of mouths to feed, so sometimes I just have to make "a silk purse out of sow's ear".

The cheapest fresh white fish at our local fishmonger (I love that word, so Ye Olde English) is about $18/kilo....so, with thoughts of ballet lessons and 6 litres of milk a day to pay for, I opt for the cheaper, frozen option at the supermarket.

This is also why I call it "silk purse" fish....because we're going to make little purses for our fish, for added flavour, but mostly, so we don't have to wash up afterwards. Fish juice...blech...

Grab a few zucchini and dice

dice the tomatoes....I use Italian tomatoes because they're easier to cut and you don't have to take the end off them. My bone laziness surprises even me at times.

Slice (not dice) a couple of Spanish onions.

Try not to do as I do and have to swap bowls when you realise you've used a bowl that's too small....again. I'm forever doing this....Dave says when God was handing out spacial awareness, I was off having a manicure.

Life's too short to be soaking beans. Go wild and buy cans. Just make sure you drain and rinse them.

Add olive oil. Can you pick something odd about this picture?

Hint: look in the background

Then squeeze the lemon, avoiding any papercuts you may have which will cause you to let out a stream of colourful language more often heard down at the docks.

Chop your parsley. Any excuse to whip the mezzaluna into service. Readjust your bra and pout your lips whilst doing this so as best to channel the full Nigella.

Add to mix.

With less onion and using cucumber instead of, or as well as, the zucchini, you could use this as a salad.

But we're giving our fish a make-over....so let's stay focused.

Place one piece of fish in the centre of your baking paper & foil and top with mixture.

Tah-Dah!! One silk purse.

Lickety-split, bing, bang, bong.....a few minutes later you will have a whole row of silk purses.

Because I use frozen fish, I prepare this before picking the kids up from school and put it in the fridge.

By the time I'm ready to put it in the oven a couple of hours later, the fish has defrosted in the fridge and only needs about 25 minutes in a moderate oven.

Ready to serve...

Serve it with golden mash ( a mixture of pumpkin and sweet potato/kumera).

It is flavoursome, filling for hungry mouths and if you have a budget conscious husband, he will kiss your feet for being so frugal. This would now be a good time to discuss any handbag or glittery-shoe related purchases.

I hasten to add, even if you are not catering for ravenous children and husband, you should still make this as a present to yourself. The parcels would freeze beautifully, and every time you pulled one out of the freezer and baked it, you would glow with pride at your fiscally responsible ways. Then, guilt-free, you could go book that facial you so deserve.

As usual, with my recipes, they are super-sized, so you might want to half the quantities.

Silk Purse Fish - Serves 8

8 pieces of fish (about 1 kg)

3 zucchini

2 Spanish onion

1 handful of parsley

4 tomatoes

juice from 2 lemons

3 - 4 tablespoons olive oil

2 cans lentils, drained and rinsed.

Method:

Prepare eight alternated sheets of baking paper and foil ready to wrap fish.

Dice zuccchini and tomatoes.

Add sliced Spanish onion and chopped parsley.

Pour in oil and lemon juice.

Finally add lentils and mix ingredients together.

Place fish in centre of baking sheet and wrap baking paper & foil together to form a parcel.

Place in oven on moderate heat for 25 minutes (ovens vary wildly, so check at the 20 minute mark)