For the first time ever, I dropped a whole cake.

I’m actually rather accident prone and I tend to break things, spill drinks, burn food and fall over my own two feet. Today was no exception.

I made a beautiful orange cake this afternoon and followed the recipe, step by step without skipping a beat. I removed the cake from the oven and allowed it to cool on a wire rack. I then had to invert the cake tin onto the cooling rack to remove the cake. I’ve done this hundreds of times before and each time has worked like a charm (the key is to get a really long tea-towel so you can wrap it firmly around the base of the tin whilst holding the rack at the same time – then invert!).

But I digress… I flipped the still-warm cake onto the rack and expertly placed it onto the kitchen bench. No dramas yet. The tea-towel was still under the rack and as I stupidly pulled it, the cake and rack tumbled onto the kitchen floor :( I dropped it. That’s right. I dropped the cake.

Not sure why, but I just stood and stared at the cake and didn’t move (damn you reflexes!) My 10 year old sister Rosie came rushing into the kitchen to see what had happened (but more likely to see if our mother would yell at me) and asked me innocently ‘Why is there a big cake on the floor?’ followed by ‘MUM!! Linda dropped a cake!! Come see!’ (bloody little sisters).

After Rosie helped me out of my cake-dropping daze, I quickly picked it up, did a quick inspection and the damage was minimal. It was only smooshed on one side with a large split on the base. A big chunk also fell off from the bottom, but you couldn’t tell the difference once it was inverted. Phew!

And another thing, before you germ-phobic people write to me and complain, the kitchen floor was squeaky clean. The cake was fine. Really, it was!

Easy Orange Cake

(adapted from a recipe by Belinda Jeffery in ‘Mix and Bake’)

450g plain flour, sifted

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

3 eggs

400g caster sugar

250g unsalted butter, softened and cut into small chunks

25oml buttermilk

zest of 3 large oranges

juice of 1 orange

Easy Orange Icing

150g icing sugar

4 tablespoons orange juice

zest of 1 small orange

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Grease and flour a large Bundt or fluted ring tin (about 25cm in diameter).
2. Combine the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine eggs and sugar until well mixed using a whisk (or alternatively, use a food processor – I don’t because I hate cleaning the damn thing). Add the softened butter and mix until smooth and creamy. Add the buttermilk, juice and zest. Add reserved flour mixture and mix using a spatula until just combined.
4. Spread the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for approximately one hour or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
5. For the orange icing, combine the icing sugar, juice and zest until you achieve a runny consistency. Place the cake on a wire rack, with a tray underneath to catch any drips. Pour the icing all over the cake and let it run down the sides into the grooves. Let it set.

If you want your cake to look extra fancy (who doesn’t?), you can make your own sticky orange rind to decorate your cake.

 

Sticky Orange Rind

1 small orange

40g caster sugar

40ml water

1. Remove the rind from the orange using a knife or a very sharp vegetable peeler and finely cut into strips.
   
2. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring to the boil. Bring the syrup to a low simmer and add the orange rind. Simmer for 10 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and allow the strips of orange rind to cool in the syrup.
   
3. Once cool, drain off the excess syrup and toss the strips in caster sugar. They are now ready to use as you please!

“If you don’t get rid of those disgusting bananas in the freezer, I will make you eat them all!” screeched my mother this morning, as she was cleaning out the deep freeze. I have a habit of storing overripe bananas in the freezer and my mum hates them (she doesn’t hate bananas, she just hates the fact that there is less room for her ‘essentials’, such as meat and frozen peas). If there are ripe bananas happily decomposing in the fruit bowl on the kitchen table, I look at them once and it breaks my heart to throw them away.

Overripe bananas are best to use in cakes and pancakes and keeping them in the freezer is a great way to have them on hand when you need them. Simply leave them out overnight or defrost them in the nuking machine microwave.

To make my mother happy, I decided to bake a cake with a few blackened bananas that were taking up her precious freezer space. Hummingbird Cake is a moist cake with bananas, pineapple, coconut and walnuts. It is one of the easiest cakes to prepare and it is delicious on its own, but paired with Cream-Cheese Icing, this cake is the perfect choice for afternoon tea or for a birthday party.

Hummingbird Cake with Cream-Cheese Icing

(adapted from a recipe by Valli Little found in Delicious magazine April 2003)

250g self-raising flour, sifted

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

250g brown sugar

50g dessicated coconut

50g walnuts, finely chopped

440g can crushed pineapple, well drained

2 very ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs

200ml vegetable oil

Cream Cheese Icing

100g cream cheese, at room temperature

50g unsalted butter, softened

225g icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 22cm (9 inch) square cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour and cinnamon. Add the sugar, coconut, walnuts, pineapple, banana, eggs and oil and give it a good mix.
3. Spread the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. The cake should spring back when lightly pressed in the middle.
4. Allow the cake to stand in the tin for 5 minutes. Invert onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely.
5. For the icing, combine the cream cheese, butter, icing and vanilla extract in a bowl. Using a hand-held mixer, beat until smooth. Spread on top of the cooled cake.

After last month’s nasty incident (see here), yesterday I finally managed to visit the Collingwood Farmers’ Market with my great friend Bree. The market is held at the Collingwood Children’s Farm and it’s a good place for young children to interact with the herd of animals that call the farm home. The children are able to feed the animals, milk the cows and search for eggs in the chicken cage.

The market is rather small, but there is plenty of produce to buy. Fruit, vegetables, cheese, eggs, bread, meat, poultry and more – just don’t forget to bring your own bags/baskets to carry it all home.

Shown below are a few of the goodies that are available at the market:

Free-range eggs and the menu for the ‘Farmer’s Breakfast’.

Homemade biscuits made by Michel’s Fine Biscuit Co. Castlemaine were absolutely delish! I was very close to buying a packet of pistachio white chocolate biscuits, but I knew that if I did, we would have eaten the whole packet before we got back to the car! The company also produce a gluten free and savoury range of goodies.

Dawson’s Honey had four types of honey on offer and they were more than happy to let us sample them all. I purchased a 500g tub of Yellowbox honey at the bargain price of $4.50 (1kg tubs were $8.50 each).

Parsley and Swiss brown mushrooms from CERES. CERES host their own organic market every Saturday and Wednesday in Brunswick East.

Mountain River Berries’ jams to taste (and thank you to my lovely hand model, Bree). My favourite was plum and raspberry.

I was tempted to purchase a few herb seedlings to grow my own herbs at home, but I don’t have a big pot as yet, so I will have to buy these next time. The Tiny Tim tomato variety was so cute!

After a busy morning browsing the stalls at the market, we went to Brunswick Street, Fitzroy in search of a good coffee and picked up a loaf of bread from the always busy Babka. I know I could have purchased a loaf at the market, but the yeasty parcels of goodness from Babka are simply magnificent. Babka produce several types of bread, from white sourdough to multigrain, rye and more. I went for the classic casalinga – with a crisp and chewy crust and beautiful crumb on the inside, these loaves are fantastic! The wait for breakfast can become very long on the weekend and the queue often snakes its way out the door! Their shoo-fly buns are a must too. Full of currants and oranges, they are perfect with a cup of Earl Grey tea. :) If you’re after a good feed and need to pick up a few loaves of bread, Babka is one of Melbourne’s best bakeries/cafes.

How to get there…

Collingwood Farmers’ Market

• Located at the end of St Heliers Road, Abbotsford.
• The market is held between 8am and 1pm every second Saturday.
• It is located only 5km from the CBD and there is plenty of off street parking available. To get there by train, you will need to catch either the Epping or Hurstbridge line trains and depart at Victoria Park. It is a short 10 minute walk from the train station (the train timetable can be found here).

Babka

• 358 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.
• The bakery/cafe is open from 7am to 4pm, Tuesday to Sunday.
• It is located just over 2km from the CBD and the easiest way to get to Babka from the city is by public transport. You will need to take the 112 tram and get off at the Johnston Street intersection and walk (the tram timetable can be found here). If you’re taking your car, let me warn you that parking can be difficult to find on weekends!

One last thing… My lovely friend Bree kindly offered to pose for me and yes boys, she is single. If you would like her number, just send me a quick email and I’ll see what I can do! ;) Haha!