Ma Petite Vie...my little life...one perfect thing

 

Captured just this minute, on a glorious Autumn day here.

 

This butterfly alighted on my gardenia shrub, before fluttering right toward the camera lens, and dancing between me, the shrub, the frangipani tree in the background and back again, about a dozen times.

 

She's still there...

 

One perfect thing.

 

What's on your Tray of Bliss today?

Delectable Orange Cake...

There is nothing like a home baked cake, straight from the oven, redolent of fruits or spices or loveliness of other kinds, to make the heart swell and feel rich.

I used to adore helping my Nanna cream the butter and sugar, adding the eggs, relishing the different textures in the batter, before sifting in the flour to make what I knew was going to be a mouth watering afternoon tea.

This moist and fragrant Orange Cake is my Nannas recipe...enjoy!

250gm butter, softened

1 cup caster sugar

Grated rind of 2 oranges

4 eggs

2 cups Self Raising Flour (gluten free is fine)

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1/2 cup orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a ring tin or two loaf tins generously and dust with flour. Line with baking paper if you prefer.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the orange rind and mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.Sift in the flour and combine lightly. Add the coconut and the orange juice and stir, then tip into your prepared tin.

Bake for 30-45 minutes depending upon the tin you're using, testing with a skewer for done-ness. When the cake/s spring back when lightly touched, and a skewer inserted into the very middle, comes out clean, they're done.

Stand the cakes for a few minutes before turning out of the tin.

Dust liberally with icing (confectioners) sugar and serve with a steaming cuppa.

Enjoy!

Autumnal Scents....Cinnamon Apple Roly Poly

 

It's a glorious Autumn day here today. So after a stroll through one of the lovely parks nearby with my doggie, I think I'll bake.

Autumn to me, says steamed pudding, melt in the mouth slices, cinnamon laden teacake, gingerbread that's soft and squishy and smells like my Nannas house, and pears and apples added to pastry for roly poly and crumbles.

Here's my Nanna's recipe for Cinnamon Apple Roly Poly. My house always smells like Autumn when I cook with cinnamon, and this one scents the entire house for the rest of the day :)

Cinnamon Apple Roly Poly:

1 cup Self Raising Flour (GF is fine too)

A pinch of salt

2 level tablespoons margarine or butter

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup caster sugar (normal sugar will do) mixed with 1-2 teapoons cinnamon depending on how much you like cinnamon

2 apples, grated

Also for syrup:

1 cup hot water

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon margarine or butter

Casserole dish for baking

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Make the pastry by sifting the flour and a pinch of salt, and rubbing the margarine through with your clean fingertips. This only takes a minute or two. Add most of the water and work into a dough, using what's left of the water if you need it. Form into a ball, and roll out thinly. If this is all too much trouble, I've successfully used Wraps or Tortillas or Crepes to make a Roly Poly.

Sprinkle the pastry with the cinnamon sugar blend, and spread the grated apple evenly over the surface. Roll it up like a sushi roll, and arrange it in a circle in a well greased casserole dish.

Make the syrup by combining the water, sugar and butter in a small saucepan and bringing it to the boil, and pour this over the roll in your dish. This makes the most delectable sticky, toffee like edges on the roly poly :)

Slash some slits in the surface of the roly poly and sprinkle with a bit of extra sugar or some flaked almonds for crunch. Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes.

Serve hot with custard, cream or icecream.

Very yummy :)

Backlit Clouds...how pretty!

I take time to admire the setting sun as often as possible.

This was snapped at about 5:45 the other evening.

A bunch of retreating rain clouds, backlit, as if by torchlight, by the setting sun.

Too pretty not to share.

What's on your Tray of Bliss today?