Month: December 2015

Raspberry & Lemon Shortcakes

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Baking has always been something I love doing. Especially to bake for people I love and just being able to see the smiles on their faces after they take a bite, warms my heart. So I try to bake something whenever I have the time and especially when there are special occasions or during the festive seasons! The house always smells the best during festive seasons, right? hehe

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I am always excited to try new products in the market, and when I was asked to try the new Anchor Cream range, I immediately said yes! The new Anchor Cream range is made with 100% Australian dairy (only the best across 34 dairy farms across Victoria) and have a few innovative features that would be helpful when cooking.

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It comes with a screw top lid which would help with easy storage and less messy drips & leaks! Also, the side of the bottle has measurement markers  that would help you with more precise pouring and easy measurements! Less wastage as you don’t have to pour into a measuring cup and also less to wash! WIN!

There’s 3 types of creams in this range which would suit every occasion of cooking or baking – thickened cream, thickened light cream and pure cream! They come in unique size bottles, with exact one cup (250ml) or 2 cups (500ml) which would help when following a recipe, hassle free!

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Walking the aisles of the supermarket, I was thinking about what I could make with these beautiful creams and found these huge, fresh and beautiful raspberries! So I decided to make some raspberry and lemon shortcakes!

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This recipe uses the pure cream in the shortcake and also the whipped thickened cream sandwiched in the middle. So it was a perfect recipe in my books! Hope you will enjoy it too!

Raspberry & Lemon Shortcake (Adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes)

2 cups plain flour

1 tbs baking powder

2 tbs packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

115g cold butter, cubed

3/4 cup pure cream

1 lemon

2 punnets of fresh raspberries

1/2 tbs packed brown sugar

1 tbs honey

1/2 cup thickened cream

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Steps :

1) Preheat the oven to 210 degrees celcius. In a large bowl, add the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cold butter. Using the tip of your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture until a sandy mixture is achieved. Don’t worry if there are still a few lumps of butter.

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2) Slowly add the pure cream into the mixture and using a spatula, mix the cream until the dry mixture is just moistened.

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3) Zest the lemon. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and add the lemon zest. Lightly knead the dough till it comes together.

4) Pat the dough till about 1 1/2cm thick and using a 6cm scone cutter, cut the dough into the 7/8 portions. Place them on a lined baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the tops are browned.

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5) Transfer them to a wired rack to cool.

I made the shortcakes two different ways. One with just the fresh raspberry as it is, and one with a tangy raspberry coolie almost. I liked both, but the coolie gave it a very refreshing touch and the tanginess made you go back for more! So try both, or either (whichever you prefer!) and would love to hear what you think about them!

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6) To make the raspberry coolie : In a small pot, place 1 punnet of raspberries, brown sugar, juice of 1/2 lemon and honey. On a low heat, stir the mixture till the raspberries are about to break down. Remove from heat and sit it in a bowl of ice water (to cool it completely before platting). This could be done a day before, keeping it in a jar in the fridge.

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7) In a medium bowl, place the thickened cream and vanilla bean paste and whisk till stiff.

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8) To serve : Cut the shortcake into half and place the whipped vanilla cream onto the top and place the fresh raspberries or raspberry coolie, serving with the other half placed on top. Best served immediately!

Enjoy! (:

Have a great week ahead everyone! It’s the season to be jolly, so go grab yourself some of the Anchor Cream and make this for the festive season! hehe

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Remember to always bake and cook with love! xx

PS: Do note that the Anchor Cream range is only exclusively available at Woolworths Nationwide!

PPS : Thank you KeepLeft PR for the opportunity to try out the Anchor Cream range. All thoughts and opinions are based on my own experience. Thank you again for this wonderfully opportunity!

Food For Families Campaign

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The Wesley Mission Victoria is holding it’s 24th annual flagship appeal to help Melbourne families that are in crisis. They help by providing nutritional food and household essentials during Christmas and throughout the year!

I’m happy to be part of this meaningful campaign and we should all try to do a little bit for those in need. Pay It Forward if you will! So what can you do? There are a few ways which you can go about helping out in this campaign!

  • You can register to receive a donation box for your workplace, school or community group. Your participant pack, including box/es is delivered and collected by a Wesley volunteer before Christmas. 
  •  Items that are most popular with families that visit the Wesley pantry include ready to eat meals, pasta/noodles and sauces, cereal, baby food and UHT milk. A full list of items is available on our website.
  •  If you are unable to contribute to a collection, you can also help by making a donation. Visit wesley.org.au.
  • Monetary donations are used to purchase fresh and frozen foods, including fruit and vegetables, to supplement the donated non-perishable food supplies.

If you want to know more please don’t hesitate to jump onto wesley.org.au for more information about the appeal and the different ways you can get involved!

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As a new mum, it is always a joy to see the little man enjoy his food, and I wish that every mum/parent could do the same!

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With your donations (be it food or money), you will ensure that families experiencing tough times can put food on the table this Christmas and throughout 2016!

The Wesley Mission Victoria is aiming to collect 30 tonnes of non-perishable goods to distribute to the crisis centres nation-wide! And you will be surprised to know that you can cook nourishing meals from non-perishable food items alone!

I was lucky to receive the recipe from the ambassador of Wesley Mission Australia and ex-Masterchef 2015 contestant, Sara Oteri! Of course, I’m going to share with you one of them that I am going to try it for myself! Sounds too yummy to give it a miss, plus it’s always been something I want to try and make for breakfast!

Overnight Oats (Soaked Muesli) (Recipe by Sara Oteri)

Ingredients:

OATS

2 cups Oats

2 cups Soy milk or long life milk

2-4 tbsp honey

¼ cup passionfruit pulp

5- 10 prunes roughly chopped

Mixed seeds

TOPPING

Desiccated coconut

Tinned peaches (or any tinned fruit of your choice)

MuesliING

Steps :

  1. Put all the ingredients to make the muesli into a bowl, mix well, then leave covered in the fridge overnight.
  2. In the morning you should wake to a beautiful soaked muesli with just the right amount of moisture. If for whatever reason it’s too dry for your liking, simply incorporate a touch more milk.
  3. Finish with coconut flakes and some tinned peaches or any fresh fruit/frozen berries you have lying around.

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Easy, simple and nutritional! Best way to start your morning. So hop onto the website and help in any way you can! This would ensure that everyone can start their morning right and bright!

P.S. Thank you for this opportunity Wesley Mission Victoria, to help those people in need. This is something, indeed, really close to my heart and a campaign I really believe in.

Photo credits – Wesley Mission Victoria