Queen Victoria Sponge from Jamie's Great Britain.

My Mum is the easiest to please when it comes to birthday cakes. She likes a plain sponge cake. Super easy and it's always nice having a forgotten favourite now and again. Sponge cake is never something I think of often when I want to bake something sweet but every time I make it I always think, why don't I make this more often. They are great afternoon tea cakes and you can dress them up or down and fill them with anything you want. They make a lovely birthday cake too, letting you experiment with fillings, flavoured oils, icings and syrups. It's like a blank canvas for you to make your own!

There are probably thousands of sponge cake recipes and I know the sponge cake I made at TAFE was completely different to this recipe. This one is much more of a pound cake but I think these are a little tastier and have a bit more guts to them. And the fact that to make a traditional sponge you need to whisk the eggs for about 10 minutes... there is that 'I don't have a stand mixer' problem again. So I went with this recipe from Jamie Oliver's Great Britain cookbook. It was quite fitting since Mum's an Essex girl originally but I think she's a true blue Auzzie now, being here more than 40 years.

I made this during the madness of Spiderman cupcakes and finished it off at my mum's place where we celebrated her birthday. Every time I walk into mum mum's kitchen I just wish it was mine. It's so lovely and new with large, wide benches that aren't blue and ... a dishwasher!! Luxury!

I split the mixture into two sandwich tins and baked them for easily 40 minutes but please don't go by this time. The oven I have is from the 60's and bakes things odd if you haven't already read about my oven disasters. I will put the time Jamie's uses below and go from that as a guide.

When they were cool I put whipped vanilla cream in the centre and fresh strawberries. Jamie says to add rose essence and orange zest to the cake but I knew Mum wouldn't be a fan of that and raspberry jam and fresh raspberries in the centre but the raspberries were $9 a punnet and the strawberries were $1.50 a punnet so I went with more strawberries over a tiny amount of raspberries.

I did try and crystallise rose petals but they turned out terrible and went straight in the bin. The reason... I don't have a pastry brush at home. I will try them again another time and let you know how they go and put a better description than brush egg white on them, dust in sugar and bake. Hmmm there has to be more to it or everyone would do it all the time. I will get back to you on this.

So some simple dusting of icing sugar over the top and a strawberry in the middle was my final touch and boy oh boy ... YUM.

Happy Birthday for last Friday Mama. I hope you had a wonderful day, love you x

Queen Victoria Sponge from Jamie's Great Britain.

serves 10

(recipe below adapted -  find original recipe here.)

250g unsalted butter, softened

250g raw (golden) caster sugar

4 large eggs

250g self raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

250mL pure cream

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped

300g strawberries, washed and halved

To make the cake - 

- Pre-heat your oven to 190 C or 375 F.

- Grease two 20cm cake tins with butter, line the bases then dust with flour. Make sure you line and make your cake tin non-stick properly. It's so disappointing to put all that effort in then have your cake stick and not come out of the tin.

- Cream butter and sugar together until pale and creamy with electric hand held beaters (or by hand - there is nothing wrong with a bowl and wooden spoon). Add vanilla and combine well.

- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

- Fold the flour through by hand half at a time until it is all incorporated.

- If you mixture is really thick at this point (mine was) add 2 tbsp of milk and mix it in to loosen it up.

- Spoon the mixture evenly into the two prepared tins and spread with a pallette knife or the back of a spoon to even out the surface.

- Bake for 20 - 25 minutes (mine baked for 40 - so make sure you kinda know your oven).

- The cake should be cooked when a skewer is inserted and comes out clean. Allow to cool in tins slightly then turn out onto a cooling rack.

To decorate the cake - 

- Once your cakes are completely cool you can assemble them.

- Whisk cream, sugar and vanilla together until fluffy peaks (you don't want to create butter so be careful).

- If you're cakes have domed alot you may want to trim the top so you can stack them on top of each other. Choose which one will be the base and which one will be the top.

- On the base, cover the top with about half of the whipped cream then scatter the strawberries on top (you may not need all of them, just use enough to cover the top). Add the rest of the cream then place the second cake on top.

- Dust the top with icing sugar in a sieve and the most beautiful strawberry you can find.

- Store in the fridge if not eating straight away, otherwise... DIG IN!

Jamie Oliver's Shepherd's Pie vs Milkman's Pie from Jamie's Great Britain.

I don't think I'm having a good cooking week this week and it's only Tuesday.... I will explain in tomorrow's post... #dinnerpartynightmares eeekkk

Last nights dinner was Slop pie... sorry I mean Shepherds Pie. My mum always made Shepherds pie when I was a kid and used her recipe of beef bolognese sauce and added mash potato on top. I was never a huge fan of mash, my dad always says potatoes give him a headache even though we all know he just doesn't like them, where as mum, LOVES mash potatoes. To her horror I would smother the entire shepherd pie in tomato sauce (ketchup) and sit there wishing I was having pasta for dinner.

It is cold and rainy at the moment in Sydney so I wanted something that meant the oven got to stay on for a while to warm the place up but also something that was cozy and homey.  Choosing from a book I haven't yet blogged about I went to trusty Jamie Oliver. I love his recipes and books! But I think you already guessed that one. I can't wait to make the honey and lavender shortbread from the book!

I thought... cold and rainy.... England is cold and rainy. (Sorry UK readers... I've only ever been to the UK in winter and thats all my mum ever says about England... She got rained out and moved to Australia and never looked back) But I do love a rainy night when you can hear the pitter patter on the roof as you drift off to sleep all rugged up in woollen blankets and sock tucked into your pants. So thats how I chose a recipe from Jamie's Great Britain. Shepherd's Pie vs Milkman's Pie. It was very different to what I would normally call a Shepherd's pie but in a good way. It was creamy and meaty with the soft mash potato on top and a surprise cheesy layer in the middle. Even better for lunch the next day reheated.

But let me explain the slop pie... this is not dissing Jamie at all. When it was time to dollop the mash potato on top I hadn't let it reduce enough so the lovely creamy dollop of mash potato started to sink into the saucy filling which was then starting to rise and flow over the edges of my pie dish. I proceeded to continue dolloping the mash on top thinking it would be ok until it started to look like an upside down shepherd's pie on the verge of over flowing if I didn't stop what I was doing and pour some of the sauce out. As I poured some out, some of the potato came out with it, I had melted stringy cheese over the edges, sauce down the side of the dish, sauce slopped and splashed over the bench.... It was a HUGE MESS. A delicious mess but still huge and a lot of washing up. Given all that I still scraped the pan to not waste any and ate it as entree while my Slop... sorry Shepherd's/Milkman's Pie was cooking in the over.

If I've got any tips.... Let it reduce properly... don't be impatient like me (I blame hunger) and get your self a dishwasher or washing up wench. My wench is still in a sling so he's only a bench wiper at the moment.

I would definitely make this again but would maybe rethink my pots and pans situation...hmmm...

Jamie Oliver's Shepherd's Pie vs Milkman's Pie from Jamie's Great Britain.

serves 6
(recipe adapted slightly)

2 onions, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
olive oil
50g butter
salt and white pepper
8 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
2 bay leaves (I used dry but it says fresh)
500g veal mince
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
1 lemon, zest only
1 chicken stock cube, crumbled
110mL Bitter (I used VB)
800g potatoes, peeled and quarted
splash of milk
150g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
200mL pure cream
50 cheddar cheese, grated

- Fry the onions, carrots, bay leaves, thyme, some salt and pepper in a pan with the olive oil and butter until vegetables have softened. Make sure you stir often so they don't catch and burn.

- Add the veal mince and break up with a wooden spoon while browning it. Add flour once the meat is broken up and the zest of the lemon. Cook it until the liquid which came out of the meat has cooked away.

- Once it it frying again, add the bitter and just enough water to cover the meat (don't add too much here.. I think this is also where I went wrong and added maybe a little too much water). Bring everything to a boil and then reduce heat and allow to simmer with the lid half on for 1 hour on a low heat.

- Meanwhile preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and boil your potatoes until soft and almost falling apart. Drain the potatoes and allow to sit for a couple of minutes so that can steam off any excess liquid. I mashed them with a hand masher with a splash of milk, a dollop of butter and a generous serving of salt and pepper. For someone who doesn't like mash... mmmm mmm yum!

- Let mash sit until your sauce has had its 1 hour cooking then add your mushrooms and cream and simmer until the sauce has thicken considerably.

- Once it is no longer swimming in sauce, pour it into a baking dish and sprinkle over the grated cheddar cheese. Dollop your mash potato on top or use a fork to squash it down and as Jamie puts it - "make squiffs and quiffs".

- Place it in the oven for about 40 minutes or until golden on top and serve with some steamed broccoli or buttered peas.

So so tasty!!