Recipes - Special Sweet Treats
To view our recipes online (english only) click on the link topics below or scroll down.
Celebration Cake
Makes : 1 large cake
Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 8 large eggs
- 525 g (2½ cups) castor sugar
- 5 ml (1 t) vanilla essence
- 500 ml (2 cups) boiling water
- 150 ml sunflower oil
- 490 g (3 ½ cups) cake flour
- 30 ml (2 T) baking powder
- pinch salt
- juice and grated rind of a large lemon (optional)
Icing:
- 125 ml (½ cup) soft margarine
- 500-750 ml (2-3 cups) icing sugar
- 10 ml (2 t) vanilla essence
- food colouring of your choice
- 10 ml (2 t) hot water, if necessary
Meringues:
Prepare 1 quantity of meringue mixture as per (See Small Meringue Cases)
Method
- Preheat oven to 180ºC.
- Whisk eggs and sugar until light and fluffy; add the vanilla essence.
- Mix the boiling water and oil together.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
- Add the water and flour mixtures alternately to the egg mixture. Mix thoroughly.
- Pour batter into a greased 240 x 320 x 10 mm cake pan or oven roasting pan and bake for 40-35 minutes until done. Let cool completely before icing.
- To make the icing: Cream the margarine and icing sugar together. Add essence and mix through. Add water if icing is too stiff. Divide the icing mixture and colour each portion in a different colour.
- To make the meringues: Divide the meringue mixture and colour as desired. Pipe onto a baking sheet and bake as per instructions. (See Small Meringue Cases)
- Decorate cake with prepared icing and meringues as per picture.
Custard Layer Cake
Makes : 1 cake
Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Hint
The cake should be kept in the fridge if not eaten on the day that it was baked.
Classic sponge cake:
- 4 large eggs
- 300 ml (250 g) castor sugar
- 500 ml (2 cups) flour
- 15 ml (3 T) baking powder
- 250 ml (1 cup) full cream milk
- 100 g butter
- 5 ml (1 t) vanilla essence
Custard filling:
- 6 egg yolks
- 180 g (¾ cup) castor sugar
- 70 ml corn flour
- 500 ml (2 cups) milk
- 5 ml vanilla essence
Method
- Preheat oven to 180ºC.
- Beat eggs and castor sugar together until thick and creamy. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold into egg and sugar mixture.
- Heat milk and butter, but do not boil. Add vanilla essence and stir into batter.
- Spoon into 2 x 20 cm greased cake pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes and remove from oven.
- Whilst the cake layers are still hot, use a cotton thread and “cut” horizontally in halve. Place on a wire rack to cool.
- In the meantime, make the custard filling: Beat the egg yolks and castor sugar together until light and foamy. Sift the corn flour and fold into the egg mixture.
- Heat the milk until just below boiling and add, in a thin stream, to the egg mixture whilst beating constantly.
- Heat over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Stir constantly.
- Remove from heat and beat in the vanilla essence. Leave to cool.
- To assemble the cake: Divide custard into 4 portions and use as filling and topping for each cake layer.
- Sprinkle with ground caramel, if desired.
Lemon Curd
Serves : 4
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Hint
Lemon curd will keep for several weeks, but it must be stored in a cool place.
Ingredients
- 45 ml butter
- 200 ml (160 g) sugar
- 2 lemons, juice and grated rind
- 3 extra large eggs, beaten
Method
- Melt the butter. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice, rind and beaten eggs.
- Heat the mixture over boiling water and whisk continuously until thickened, ± 8 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, bottle and seal.
- Use as a filling for tartlet cases.
Lemon Meringue Pie
Makes : 1
Cooking time: 1 hour
Hint
Pastry crust can be replaced with a biscuit and butter crust.
Ingredients
Crust:
- 175 g (310 ml) cake flour
- 30 ml (2 T) castor sugar
- 2,5 ml (½ t) salt
- 125 g butter
- 50 ml water
Filling:
- 1 x 397g can condensed milk
- 125 ml lemon juice
- 4 egg yolks
- 7,5 ml (1½ t) grated lemon rind
- 2,5 ml (½ t) cream of tartar
- 4 egg whites
- 60 ml (¼ cup) castor sugar
Method
- Preheat oven to 160ºC.
- Sift the cake flour, castor sugar and salt together.
- Rub in the butter and add just enough water to make a pliable dough. Place in plastic bag and leave in fridge for 1 hour.
- Roll out pastry to 5mm thickness and line a tart pan. Place foil on pastry and fill with dry beans. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and beans and bake for a further 5 minutes. Leave to cool.
- Mix the condensed milk, lemon juice, egg yolk and lemon rind. Mix well.
- Beat the egg white and cream of tartar until stiff; gradually add the castor sugar whilst beating continuously.
- Fill pastry case with the filling and spoon meringue mixture on top.
- Bake for 20 minutes until meringue topping becomes golden brown.
Small Meringue Cases
Makes : ± 30, depending on size
Cooking time: 1 hour
Hint
The meringue cases can stand for ± 2 hours filled (not
refrigerated) before serving. After this period it will start going soggy.
Ingredients
- 120 g egg whites (± 4 extra large eggs)
- 250 ml (1 cup) castor sugar
- 15 ml (1 T) corn flour
- 2,5 ml (½ t) cream of tartar
Filling:
Method
- Whip egg whites until stiff. Mix in the cream of tartar.
- Reserve 60 ml castor sugar and mix with corn flour. Set aside.
- Add the remainder of the castor sugar, one tablespoon at a time, to the egg white mixture while whipping continuously.
- Fold in the corn flour mixture. Mix well.
- Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a small star nozzle and pipe small nests.
- Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes at 140ºC. Allow to cool.
- Fill with lemon curd and serve.
Small Footprint. Big Impact