Not sure how often friends ‘drop in for afternoon tea’ these days, but if you get a last minute call to say they’re on the way this quick and easy tea cake might work for you. Although I think I’d take the time to cut the apricots up and not just add them whole to the mixture.
When my children were little I used to make a Chocolate Ripple Cake as the base for their birthday cakes. The recipe I made was the same as this one, but without the spice. The cake always taste good, although when I look back at the photos I can see that my decoration, while enthusiastic, could hardly be described as a work of art……
This is a twist on the old favourite – Macaroni Cheese. I rather like the idea of adding hard boiled eggs and ham. It would really make a meal of it.
When I first read this recipe I thought it was going to be a fairly standard apricot pudding, then I came to the addition of the cocoa and realized it was actually a Chocolate Upside Down Pudding. I then read on to ‘serve warm with custard or cream’ and decided I could eat a piece there and then – yummy.
All I’ve ever known about Eccles cakes is that they are English. So when I found this recipe I thought I’d better find out a bit more about them. Good old Wikipedia tells me that ‘Eccles cakes are named after the English town of Eccles. It is not known who invented the recipe, but James Birch is credited with being the first person to sell Eccles cakes commercially, from his shop in the town centre in 1793″. Any fans of the 1950s Goon Show will also know that Eccles was a character played by Spike Milligan – an amiable, well-meaning man with no wits or understanding, in other words a bit of an idiot. So the humble Eccles Cake has quite a history.
I think this recipe deserves a photo as the jelly topping would look and taste really good. It’s another one from Mum’s bowls club slices recipe book, which sadly has no photos at all. The book would have been put together well before computers and Photoshop. It would have been typed and the cover would have had to have been done at the printers – the good old days……
Recipe four in Scone Week is an Australian classic. Lady Flo was a politician in her own right and wife of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. He was a controversial leader, but she was a Senator for 12 years who fought for women’s rights and recognition and at the same time didn’t see anything wrong with a politician who could bake pumpkin scones. She published a cookbook and is still going strong at 96 – one of Mum’s generation.
As you can see this recipe is from the Keysborough Bowls Social Club Simple Slice Recipe book. I’ve never made it, but I can remember seeing it on the table at a few “bring a plate” events back in the 70s when my kids were little. It’s sort of a fake vanilla slice – the plate was always empty at the end of the event it must taste good.
Seafood at Christmas and Easter has always been expensive not that it’s something Mum would have bought then or any other time. Dad was a very enthusiastic fisherman so we mainly had fish that he’s caught or tinned fish. Tuna Mornay was a family favourite, completely out of fashion these days of course, but still a tasty meal – if you like tinned tuna or salmon that is.
This recipe reminds me of the Sunday night teas that Mum used to make. They were always something quick and easy to make that could be eaten with a fork while watching TV, that new fangled miracle that came into our lives after the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 