Orange Pikelet Stack with Cherry Jam

From Hands Across the Kitchen, Hands Across the Water, 2012.

Whenever I take out this book I get immediately waylaid by reading about the work done by the Hands across the Water charity helping orphan children and their communities. It began to help orphans after the 2004 tsunami but has widened its spread since then.

The book is of recipes supplied by chefs of the meals they enjoyed as children so essentially gives the recipes family members used. The pikelet recipe comes from Dominique Rizzo and was the recipe his mum used.

The pikelets were made by sifting about 200g self-raising flour, 2 tablespoons caster sugar and ¾ teaspoon baking powder into a bowl.

A cup of milk had a good teaspoon vinegar added and two egg yolks were beaten in. The zest of an orange was now added and 45g melted butter.  This mixture was mixed into the flour to make a batter. The two egg whites were beaten until forming soft peaks and then folded into the batter. The batter was poured into a greased pan a tablespoon at a time to form the pikelets. When bubbles appeared they were turned and given a little time to do the second half.

The pikelets were served with a sauce made by heating the juice of an orange with cherry jam (strawberry in the recipe). Though the recipe said to serve with whipped cream we settled for just the sauce for it seemed quite sufficient.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Banana Cake

From Hands Across the Kitchen, Hands Across the Water, 2012.

I began looking through this book at the recipes but found that I became far more caught up with the story of the work done by the Hands Across the Water, a charity group that helps Thai orphans and their communities. It was begun after the 2004 tsunami to assist those that the disaster had affected.

The book is a collection of recipes of top celebrity chefs’ favourite childhood foods. They come with recollections of their childhood. I guess that since they are recipes of childhood favourites they are not the chefs’ recipes but those of the people who made them for them. And I think it is true that foods that you particularly enjoyed as children stay with you as adults as favourites. If you see the book try and get hold of one, though as it was pre-sold before printing to ensure that there was no loss made for the orphans, it may be difficult to get hold on one.

I chose to cook the banana cake that was a favourite of Daniel Vaughan and that was cooked by his mother. It was a very easy recipe. All of the ingredients were basically put into the KitchenAid and beaten for a couple of minutes.

There was ¼ cupof milk with a teaspoon of lemon juice. Two bananas were mashed and put in with a cup of sugar and 2 cups of self-raising flour. Two eggs were beaten lightly and added as well as 60g softened butter. Easy measurements and just a few ingredients.

After beating, the mixture went into a small-sized greased loaf tin and then into the oven to cook for about an hour.

Banana cakes are always winners and this one, because of its easy making, is certainly worth trying. It’ll probably be the recipe I turn to whenever there’s a spare couple of bananas waiting to be used.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔