Cherry Almond Cake

The blog has been a bit dormant lately so thought I'd kick start it...last weekend I was in the mood to bake but not in the mood to go grocery shopping so I had to improvise with what I had and it turned out pretty good!

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour

3 eggs

2 tbsp butter/margarine

1 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar (i used raw sugar)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup fresh cherries

1-2 tbsp almond slivers

Cream the butter a little with a fork so it's smooth. Add and beat in the eggs. Add the milk. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Fold in the dry mixture in the wet mixture. Pour into a baking dish. Cut the cherries into halves and remove the stones. Top the cake batter with the cherries and the almond slivers. Bake at 375F for 40 mins.

It was so simple and quick but definitely was good - especially warm with a bit of vanilla icecream :)

(On the same day Saugar made this roast lamb - which was un-freakin-believable. Probably the most tender lamb i've ever had...that recipe coming up :)

Banana Muffins

I had an over ripe banana so decided to do some baking yesterday. Again tried to cut down the amount of butter and sugar and I was very happy with how they turned out.

Recipe below makes between 6 and 8 muffins based on the size of the muffins in the tray

1 cup self raising flour

1 ripe banana

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1 tbsp butter/margarine

About 6 tsps sugar (I used brown - the muffins weren't super sweet so increase the sugar if you like)

1/2 tsp salt

handful of chopped walnuts (optional - I added them cause I had them around but all they really added was a bit of texture)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Mash the banana. Beat together the egg, mashed banana and butter.

In another bowl mix/sift the flour, sugar and salt

Mix the dry and wet ingredients

Add the chopped walnuts and the vanilla

Pour into a lightly greased muffin tray (about 3/4 way up) and bake in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 20 minutes.

The whole process took about half an hour so was definitely worth it! (and didnt feel super guilty either because I knew the ingredients that went in)