Strawberry custard cake

This is a cake that has it all - vanilla cake, custard, fresh strawberries, and the taste of strawberry jelly. It is gorgeous! I have not tried it with other berries, but they'd be worthwhile trying!

Cake 

1 tablespoon butter

6 tablespoons milk

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 celcius.  Place butter in a spring form ring pan and place in oven just until butter melts. Remove from oven and use a brush to evenly spread butter around the bottom and sides of the pan. 
Place the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat till light yellow and fluffy. Add in the milk and vanilla  and beat to combine.
Combine the flour and baking powder and sift into the egg and sugar mixture.  Stir gently to combine along with the vanilla.
Pour into your greased flan or cake tin and place in centre of oven.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre.

Cool, then turn out onto a serving platter. 

Custard Layer

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

2 egg yolks

1 1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons butter

Mix the sugar, cornflour, egg yolk, vanilla and milk in a saucepan and stir with a whisk to remove lumps.  Place over a low-medium and stir with a whisk until it thickens. It should be quite thick.

Add in the butter and stir to blend.

Cool until it is room temperature and then spread over top of the vanilla cake layer.

Topping

3 punnets of strawberries
1 tsp rosewater (you can omit if you don't have this)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornflour

1/3 cup water

Arrange 1 punnet of strawberries on top of the custard. If they are large strawberries you can cut them in half.

Put the remaining 2 punnets of berries in a food processor and process until they are crushed but still have texture (you don't need a fine puree)

Put the sugar, cornflour, rosewater, water and pureed berries into a saucepan and bring to a boil. 

Cool and then pour over the fresh berries on top of the custard. 

Note: you can sieve the berry glaze to remove seeds and to make it finer. I usually don't because I quite like the texture. It's up to you though!

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Raspberry Jam - in the Microwave!

Yep. Jam. In the microwave. This is a sure-fire recipe to make berry jam. I've made blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry jam this way. I'm guessing you could probably do stone fruits this way as well but I haven't tried it. It is most useful for small batches where you don't want to go to all the trouble of stove-top jam. Make sure you use a container that is large for the amount of fruit - so the fruit comes no more than 1/3 of the way up the side - as the jam will boil vigourously.

Raspberry Jam

200g of raspberries
100g of sugar

(or any amount - just the same ratio ie twice the amount of fruit to sugat).

Put in a microwave safe container. Microwave on high for 5 mins. Give it a stir. Test for jell point and then microwave for 1 minute at a time until jell point is reached. Pour into a warm clean jar and cool.

I have to admit, I usually just microwave for 7 minutes and it usually works out fine without testing - but if you want to be absolutely positive it will work test it.

Jell point testing - put a dish in the freezer. To test for setting put a small dollop of the hot liquid on the plate. Leave in freezer for 40 seconds until it is cool and then push at it with your finger. If it leaves wrinkles on the surface of the jam, it is ready.

Peach tart

This is a little fruit tart that is quick to whip up and pretty forgiving on quantities. Basically you are making a very thick batter, pouring that into a pie dish, and covering it with fruit slices. This makes a dryish sort of biscuity base, which is quite nice but I think needs something to help it along. If you use fruit from a tin I suggest that you pour some of the tinned juices over the tart when it comes out of the oven. You can also make the optional syrup and pour that over the hot tart - gets very sweet and sticky. You can also use any other type of fruit on top - whatever takes your fancy!

Peach tart
3/4 cup plain flour
3/4 cup of almond meal
75g butter
5 tbs sugar (or to taste)
1/3 cup milk - (or enough to make a thick batter)
2 eggs
1 tin peaches or 2 large ripe peaches

Cream the butter and sugar. Whisk in the eggs. Add in the flour, almond meal, and milk and combine till it forms a thick batter. Pour into the bottom of a pie dish. Arrange slices of fruit around the top. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Cook at 180 degrees for 30 mins or until the cake has set.

optional syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water


Bring the water to a boil.. Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water, stirring constantly. Pour some over the hot tart when it comes out of the oven.