Saturday, July 22, 2006

Weekend? what weekend?

This morning I got an email from Alice up at A Growing Delight. Her comment that having a good weekend didn't apply to me anymore struck a chord with me, as it's true that it's no longer something to look forward to any more than any other day, now that I'm retired. I am enjoying my days much more equally, and don't feel I have to cram all the good times into a few precious hours. Mind you, not that I'm letting time slip away, what with bookbinding, reading and baking. The latter is very much appreciated by the Man Who Cooks, (aka the Man Who Loves His Cake) and I remarked to Alice that I think I've baked more in the few weeks since I've been retired than I normally would in 6 months. Here is another recipe - I got it from a Sunday newspaper magazine in 2002. It's been scanned in and OCR'd (optical character recognition) so no need to type it up - I forgot about having that capability on the scanner, fax, copier, printer.


GREEK YOGHURT, HONEY AND ORANGE SYRUP CAKE

Preparation 5-10 mins (yeah, right, it takes longer than that, but not much)
Cooking 50 mins

250g butter, softened
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
¾ cup Greek yoghurt
½ cup semolina
2 ½ cups self-raising flour, sifted Note: an all-important 2 was left off this ingredient, thanks to Jude for pointing this out. It should be 2 ½ cups of self-raising flour. Sorry!

orange syrup
3 oranges, zested in strips and juiced
½ cup water
½ cup liquid honey


1. Preheat oven to 175ÂșC. Grease and flour a 22cm ring-mould cake tin.

2. Cream butter, orange zest and sugar until pale. Beat in orange juice and eggs. Stir in Greek yoghurt, add semolina and sifted flour. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

3. For syrup, place orange zest and juice, water and honey in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 3-5 minutes to form a syrup. Pour hot syrup over cooled cake.

Looks a treat too! I used a bundt pan which makes cakes look special.

6 comments:

Jellyhead said...

Yum, Val - that cake looks and sounds delicious!

I love baking, too - it's quite relaxing for me. I started baking and cooking (apart from just the day-to-day 'getting by' cooking, I mean)when I cut down on work to stay home with my kids. There is nothing like having the time to cook a roast dinner, or bake a delectable dessert. Hope you enjoy many more hours of cookery (and book binding, and reading, and and and!)

Susie said...

Val,
The cake looks yummy. I just love to bake and cook. I can't keep it around here much or we'd really be putting on the pounds. So I bake and send it home with the grandkids! (after a small serving for us!)

Val said...

Poppyseeds do add something special to a cake, I've used other recipes with them in the ingredients. Send the recipe down, Jude, if it's not too much trouble. Thanks!

As for putting on weight, I guess I'll have to keep doing my aerobics and walks. Our sons usually eat most of the stuff before we get around to second helpings anyway.

Kali said...

Hi Val ~ this definitely looks like a recipe to keep. My Mum was big on syrup cakes (traditional Greek baking uses it a lot), and I will be sure to get some recipes from her when I visit them in Darwin this September.

Kerri said...

This sounds wonderful. I love anything citrusy! Is Greek yoghurt different than regular yoghurt? I'm wondering about semolina...what is it? I've heard the term, but I'm not remembering ....some sort of grain perhaps? Is is called something else over here, maybe?
My hubby says could you please send him a piece of that cake? It looks delicious!

Val said...

Kerri, semolina is a hard wheat product, and you would find it near the flour in the supermarket. It gives the subtlest crunch to the texture. Greek yoghurt is a style, very thick, not watery. I'm not sure what they'd call it in the U.S.