AUTUMN COLOUR

In our backyard, I enjoy the Autumn colour, the garden is fresh, and the unusual colour from the foliage and flowers makes the grand statement.  I am glad that I live in a world that has four seasons, It is so colourful.  Autumn colour is beautiful.

As Albert Camus said: 'Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.'  Yes, indeed, I agree.

Snapshots of the backyard garden.

Crepe Myrtle

The Roses

Flowers and Foliage

 

Could I say that I enjoy the autumn better than the spring, YES  I  'maybe', as it is a constant reminder of living.  Life is beautiful, it changes, progresses, with a beautiful ending.

Beautiful Autumn Flower Arrangement

Until Next Post

Thank You for Visiting

Susy

Pretty Pink

Today,  the biggest morning tea was held in our club for fundraising.  It was well organised, and people generously brought beautiful food, sandwiches, scones, slices and cakes.  The morning tea was very successful.

Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is Cancer Council Australia’s most popular fund raising event and the largest, most successful event of its kind in Australia. This May mark the 21st  anniversary of Australia's Biggest Morning Tea when people have the teas at work, school and in the community.

I am glad that we could participate, and it was good to see that everyone enjoyed the morning tea and donated money for the course.

The pretty pink cake was dedicated to all women who suffer from breast cancer, I hope with more funding and the intensive research of the experts we will get better treatment and cure.

It's a simple raspberry quick mix which I used for a layer cake and also for the cake pops.

To have the best cake, use all fresh ingredients, also make the cake from scratch.

Pretty Pink Cake 

Preparation of the cake pops

The cake pops are fun to make, on a school holiday you can spend time with the children to make them.  What you need is chocolate block-melted, a cake that you can crumb and mix with cream and other flavours, shape them into small balls - as big as a lollypop and the sticks to hold the cake which is available in the cake shop.

I used white chocolate block, melted and I added the colour, on this occasion I added a dash of pink colouring food.

The picture above is self-explanatory, the process of which you could follow easily.

Another cake which is lovely for morning or afternoon tea is coffee cake, the recipe is in an old post.

Recipe of the raspberry cake is simple, and here it is.


Raspberry Cake

Ingredients
2 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon  bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup castor sugar
125 g unsalted butter-softened
1 cup milk
2 eggs
Pink food colouring
24 fresh raspberry or frozen (crushed)

Method
Put the oven onto 160 degrees C (fan forced)
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl
Mix all the wet ingredients together in a food processor, process it until all combine
Add in the dry ingredients, mix quickly
Add in the crushed raspberry the last, blend to combine
If the batter is too thick, add extra milk to get a smooth and light consistency.
Pour the batter onto two lined and greased 20 cm cake tin
Bake in the preheated oven for 22 minutes
Keep the cake on the tin for a few minutes before turning out, place them on a cooling rack.
To assemble
When they are cold, join them with buttercream.
To make layers: cut the cake into two, so you will have four halves cake.  Then join them with whipped cream or buttercream with raspberry flavour.  I think the buttercream will cut better.




Coffee Cake with coffee buttercream topping, meringue and chocolate topping and the layer raspberry cake with cake pops at the top.

The Pretty Pink Cake
and
Coffee Cakes

The pretty pink is suitable for a birthday cake too.  Enjoy the recipe and happy baking.




Until Next Post
Susy

Green Again

The rain, generous rains bring back my garden to life, it is green again.  The grass, the shrubs, the topiary, the pines are all lush and leafy, and also my potted plants are so green.  The weeping fig's leaves are weeping, cascading to the ground showing off its colour, shiny light and dark green, it is so beautiful to see.
It is lovely now in the garden, green gives coolness and freshness, and the touch of white flowers from the camellia makes it brighter.

Camelia Sasanqua is in flower.

What a difference the rains made, last month the grass was brown, the soil was so dry, and the garden looked so tired.  Even the flowers did not stay for long, they dropped before the buds were open.
I made an excellent decision to fertilise long before the rains, now all the plants are nourished, keeping well and healthy.



The potted weeping fig is lush and green.  it's the scene from inside of the house, (left) Outside the potted weeping fig is looking greener (right)

We are blessed by nature.

The vegetable patch is greener too, but there are a lot of weeds though, but the herbs are there, and the nasturtium is coming back.  We will have a good vegetable patch I hope in the spring.

The  Smaragd pines stand firmly,  bold green and beautiful, which can be seen from outside the gate and the stretch of green grass leads to the backyard clearly.

Potted Green is everywhere, even inside the house, as the other day I put the budding cymbidium orchid there.  Below are beautiful leafy green potted plants, I could not flaw them.                                

 Potted Lily Pili will make Topiary plants.

 Budding Cymbidium Orchids, it is green, looks green so far until the buds are open.

Now in the garden, everything is green, Green is Good.  

I thought it is time to catch up about what is happening in my place, my garden.  Well right now, the green is back, the brownish colour in the garden is no longer there, everything is green absolutely gorgeous.

Until Next Post

Susy

Home Baked Bread (Continued)

It has been a good time for bread making, and my baking of the celery bread was pretty good, unfortunately there was no recipe.  The baking continues, and I am pleased to tell you that I am sharing the recipes with you.  Today is about  'rustic bread'
Rustic bread means unconventional looking, can be round or other shape.  But it has special characters; a heavy crust, chewy inside, but soft crumbs and flavourful.  It uses very simple ingredients.

Through reading and comparing recipes of bread making, today I decided to do country bread with a rustic look.  I learn from a few recipes, one of them that interests me the most was 'proofing the dough overnight-refrigerated'.  It's going to help me better and also helping one who is working during the day.  Prepare the dough at night, continue the process the next day, and you could have the freshly baked bread in your own kitchen.  Here is the recipe.

Rustic Round Bread.

Ingredients

3 cups heap full plain flour

1teaspoon salt

1teaspoon honey

1 packet dry yeast

1½ cup warm water

Method

In a large bowl place the flour, salt and yeast, mix them together

Stir in the warm water and honey

Mix together to make a soft ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.

The next day, take the dough out, and knead lightly, put it back in the bowl.  Keep in a room temperature about one hour.

Knead lightly again, shape the dough to a round and place it in a baking tin

Let the dough rise again about 33 minutes, then brush the dough with water, rub it with extra flour and score it well.

Bake in a very hot oven at 225 degrees C (fan forced) for 25-30 until brown.

(Put hot water on a tray and place it in the bottom of the oven during the baking, the steam helps to form a crusty crust.}

Transfer the bread on a wire rack to cool.  Serve, sliced when it is cold.

Proofing bread in the fridge slows down the fermentation, and the flavour develop better.  Loaves proofed in the fridge hold their shape better when baked, and for the practicality side of it, it is good for one who is working during the day, one could bake the bread in the morning to have fresh bread.

The Process and The Baking

The ingredients are mixed together to make the dough

The dough is ready to refrigerate

The look of the dough in the following morning
(it has risen well)

Punch the down and knead lightly again
The dough is ready for shaping

The dough can be sticky, rub your hand with flour and dust the work surface with flour also for easy kneading.

Knead lightly

Knead until smooth

Shape into a good round then proof it again

After proofing, scoring the dough before baking is essential

Deep scoring the dough 

A beautiful look of rustic round bread
(freshly baked)

Maybe my oven is too hot, I must reduce to 210 degrees C to bake it for 30 minutes.  The bread looks so dark.

We waited until the bread was completely cold to taste.  It is served with butter, and also I prepared sun dried tomato spread.  It's a good bread, crusty on the outside and soft and smooth in side.  The dark crust was no good,  I cut the bread and the dark crust ruined the look, made crumbs and give a little bitter taste.

A slice of the rustic round crusty bread

 The sliced bread with sun dried tomato spread, or simply spread it on with a lot of butter.

The next day, to serve the bread has to be warmed up to get the crust stays hard and crisp.  Heat it up in a hot oven for ten minutes also prior serving.

Hot and crusty - the bread after 10 minutes reheat in a hot oven.

 I cut and slice when it was hot from the oven 

I think the bread making continues, next time maybe crusty rolls, served with hot home made soup.  Stay tuned.


Enjoy the recipe and happy baking.

Until Next Post
Susy