Basic Home Cooking

Everyone has their secret guilty pleasures and (putting eating aside) one of mine is walking down every aisle of the supermarket. These days, budgeting is a big factor when deciding what to cook. A lot of the time we are more likely to grab that box of frozen raspberries rather than the fresh plump ones at $6 a punnet in the fresh food section. Of course a lot of the time frozen food like berries and peas are extremely useful, and a lot more convenient than the fresh type. But sometimes there ARE alternative ways to saving money. When I hit the fresh fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket, I go round once to see what’s on special. If you have plans for a cake, don’t plan what you might put it in. Think about what might be useful.  Soft ripe bananas are perfect for banana loaf, bags of apples for a warm apple crumble or pie and tomatoes for chutney. Fruit is best at its ripest so if you’re planning to cook with it on the same day, you can’t really go wrong.

These following recipes are just a few examples how you can make the most of your dollar with no risk of losing flavour or satisfaction! And remember, if you’re not keen on these ingredients you may choose to swap them, for example bananas with fresh apricots or apples with pears, it’s your choice, so don’t be scared to experiment. 

Banana loaf (Granny’s)

I can’t be 100% sure where this recipe came from. My mother got it from her mother, so I’ve always known it as my grandmother’s recipe. Never the less, it is a great simple recipe with very few ingredients, which means it won’t break the bank if you need something to quick fill some hungry little mouths.

Preheat your oven to 180˚C. You will need a loaf tin.

   4oz (125g) butter (room temperature)
   ½ cup castor sugar
   2 eggs
    ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
    ½ teaspoon bicarb soda dissolved in:
    ½ cup milk
    2 small bananas mashed
    2 cups self raising flour

Cream together the butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time, beating constantly til combined. Stir bicarb into the milk. Fold in the flour and milk half at a time, stir well til completely combined. Grease your loaf tin well and line with baking paper.
Place into the oven and bake for 45 minutes. All ovens are different so check it at about 35 minutes.

This little loaf is super yummy sliced and smothered in butter soon after it’s out of the oven. So indulge in some afternoon solitary relaxation and sit down with a good book and a slice of banana loaf. Unfortunately don’t expect to be alone very long, as the smell of this delicious loaf will no doubt attract a couple more appetites!

Apple and jam cake

Have you recently opened your refrigerator only to find what seems a colossal amount of jam jars? And of course they always seem to be down to their last 3 teaspoons. I actually love using jam in cooking, I think it’s a fantastic way of adding flavour to your dish. Whenever I’m at a market or deli, I always look for different types of jam. Try not to use cheap ones that have a lot of gelatine or thickeners in them. The other ones may be slightly more expensive but if you are only using them for cooking, you really are saving money, especially if you substitute raspberries for raspberry jam for example. So have a look what you may have in your fridge or pantry. Marmalade is also good too, so don’t be afraid to work in different flavours, think about what might work together. Remember you can always add icing to a cake if you need that extra sweetness too.

Preheat oven to 180ºC. 18cm Ring tin or a small Googlehoff cake tin. Any tin with a jelly shape type mould is perfect really. Just remember to grease it really well.

125g butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1 ½ self raising flour
1/3 milk
3 cooking apples
juice of half a lemon
Apricot jam
Peach jam

Peel, core and thinly slice apples into half moon shapes. Place into a bowl and pour over the lemon juice. This is just to keep the apples from going brown, so don’t add it to the cake.

Cream butter and sugar together til light and fluffy, add vanilla and then one egg at a time, beating constantly. If the mixture curdles, add a little of the flour. Add half the flour and half the milk til combined. Add the remaining flour and milk, mix well. Grease tin extremely well as fruit and jam are more likely to make the cake stick than a cake without any. Add a third of the mixture to the tin and spread around evenly to the edges. Add a layer of apples around the tin, slightly overlapping each other. Add another layer of cake mixture, spread to the edges being careful not to disrupt the apples too much. Using a teaspoon put a layer of peach jam, do not spread just draw a loose line around the ring. Place on a layer of the apples, then a layer of the apricot jam and then remaining mixture. Place in the oven for around 20 minutes or til skewer comes out clean. Wait about 10 minutes, use a cake spatula to loosen the edges around the tin and then turn out onto a cake rack.

This cake is best eaten hot out of the oven but should keep for 2 or 3 days in an airtight container. Any cake with fruit in it or moist cake is best eaten within this timeframe. Or if you living in a small household, you can always freeze half the cake like my mother does.

Summer fruit cake

Preheat your oven to 180˚C.
Grab a 18cm round cake tin. The reason I’ve used this size, is because I want a slightly higher cake, that way you’ll get a nice big cross section of the beautiful luscious fruit inside when the cake is cut. Also the fruit does hold down the mixture a bit when rising so you need to allow for that.

125g butter (room temperature)
½ cup castor sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup self raising flour
1/3 cup milk

2 apricots
2/3 cup raspberries (frozen or fresh)
3-4 strawberries
juice of ½ an orange
1 tablespoon honey

Start off by the chopping the apricots and strawberries into 1-2cm cubes or closest to, doesn’t really need to be perfect. Combine with the raspberries, honey and juice of the orange in a bowl, mix lightly so you don’t break up the raspberries too much.
Beat together the butter and sugar with a whisk, add the vanilla then one egg at a time beating well in between. Grab a wooden spoon and add the milk and flour alternatively til you have a lovely thick mix. Pour in fruit and FOLD through, once again you want to keep the raspberries as much in tact as you can. You might find that the mixture looks a little curdled from the moisture of the fruit, do not worry, just spoon the mixture into the cake tin and level the surface. Put into an oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean or the top bounces back. 

You can top this cake with a lemon icing if you like. 

Icing: 40g butter (room temperature)

         1 1/2 cups icing sugar

          juice of 1/4 lemon, depending on how runny you want it.

Spread it on and put it the fridge to set.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my tips and recipes for this entry. I look forward to putting together the next one as I will be focusing on chocolate! Cookies, brownie and more.

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