31: My hopefully prize winning recipes

This week I have entered two recipe competitions! 

You know how sometimes you are browsing through websites and something in particular catches your eye - well this week competitions seem to be my thing. 

Somehow I clicked on a link that took me to JustB and wow - they have a competition to win a Kitchen Aid stand mixer - you have to submit your 'very favourite Delicious Treat kinda recipe' and tell them why you love it - well this is my entry.  I've added some photos to this version...

This is my Mum's 3 Minute Chocolate Cake - a tried, tested and treasured family recipe.  This recipe was used for many a birthday cake - when my brother & I were really little it was the chocolate layer of a rainbow cake, but often it was just iced with chocolate icing (just icing sugar, butter and a little hot water beaten together) with candles stuck in the top and we thought we were the luckiest people on earth!
 
When we were teenagers, there were often hoards of friends who would descend on our place - we had a farm so there was plenty of room to ride motor bikes and later we would go water skiing and come home tired and starving - we had a tiny kitchen, but Mum was always able to produce the most amazing home-style food to feed us all, and this cake often featured.  I'm sure she knew the recipe off by heart & could probably have made it blindfolded! 

She passed away just over 20 years ago and I still miss her every day - but this recipe is one of those favourite little recipes that have such fond memories attached to them and the smell of this cake baking brings me back to that tiny farmhouse kitchen and a very special childhood.

And, it's quick, simple and economical!

Pat's 3 Minute Chocolate Cake

2 cups Self Raising Flour

2 tablespoons Cocoa

1 teaspoon Carb Soda

pinch Salt

125 gms softened butter or margarine

1 cup Caster Sugar

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 cup Milk

1 Egg

*  Sift flour, cocoa, soda and salt into large bowl.
*  Add butter, sugars, vanilla and milk.
*  Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.
*  Add egg and beat 1 minute.
*  Pour into a greased and lined cake tin - I generally make it in a 20 cm square pan, but I've made it in all kinds of other pans and also as cup cakes and in muffin liners.
*  Bake in a 180 degree oven for about 35 minutes - a bit less if you are making it as cup cakes or in a couple of small tins (eg 2 small loaf pans).  Test with a skewer to make it sure it is cooked - the skewer should come out clean.

I make a chocolate icing with about a cup of icing sugar and a couple of tablespoons of cocoa sifted together, then beaten together with a large knob of soft butter.  Add a little hot water to get the consistency you like - if prefer it quite thick.  I have also iced it with 'bought' chocolate frosting or fancier recipes using chocolate instead of cocoa, but I keep going back to the simple icing Mum showed me how to make as a little girl.

Mixing up the cake batter - don't you love the vintage
Sunbeam Mixmaster - an "over the fence"
gift from my neighbour John.

Just out of the oven - I baked this batch in
nifty little muffin liners and it made 10 quite large ones.

I used the small bowl of the mixmaster to make the icing

It's Australia Day - so these are going to be Lamington Inspired
little cakes.  I'm icing them with the chocolate icing,
then dipping them in shredded coconut.

And now my finished little beauties -
a tribute to Australia Day & my Mum!

The second competition I entered was for Taste's 5th Birthday and I submitted my Lemony Tuna Pasta recipe - this is a great mid-week dinner recipe - really quick and easy as you can adapt according to what you have on hand or feel like on the night.

1 large can Tuna (I generally use the chunky tuna in oil, but springwater is OK too)

1 med Red onion - diced

3 -4 cloves Garlic

1 bunch English Spinach (or two if you want to stretch the meal a bit futher)

2 - 3 tablspoons chopped preserved lemon

Pasta - whatever shape you prefer

*  Drain tuna and keep oil - try to keep the tuna as chunky as possible (ie don't break it up too much)

*  Put pasta on to cook in boiling salted water. The pasta will probably take longer to cook than the other ingredients, so get it on to cook first.

*  In a large frypan, fry chopped garlic and diced onion in a little of the drained oil from the tuna, or a little oil or butter if using tuna in water.

*  Add your finely diced preserved lemon and heat through - these were the lemons I received as a bonbonierie at the very gorgeous Mitch & Lindsey's wedding in November.

*  Chop English Spinach roughly - I generally chop through the whole bunch in 5cm intervals. Wash well (it can be gritty), shake dry and add to you pan. Cook over medium heat, tossing to make sure the spinach wilts evenly. We like it just wilted, not really soft.

*  When your pasta is nearly ready, add the tuna to the pan and stir through carefully (I like to try and keep the chunks intact, but some brands seem to flake easier than others). You can add a little more of the tuna oil or a squeeze of lemon or lime juice if you think it needs a bit more liquid to coat the pasta.

*  The tuna only needs to heat through, so will only take a couple of minutes and you're ready to drain the pasta - either stir the sauce through the pasta, or put on the top of your cooked pasta.

Depending on what you have in the cupboard or fridge, or what you feel like on the night, you could add some finely diced chilli, sliced semi-dried tomatoes, a dollop of natural yoghurt or sour cream or shaved/grated parmesan.   This recipe is easy to add to if you have a couple of extras for dinner - just add another can of tuna or another bunch of spinach and the leftovers are great heated up in the microwave for lunch the next day!

Hopefully one of these will be a winner and Joey and I will either be off on an "ultimate gourmet trip for 2 to Thailand" or I'll be the proud owner of a KitchenAid and my poor old Mixmaster can go into well deserved retirement.  Wish me luck!