Putting Up - Plum Jam

Pixie of You Say Tomahto, I Say Tomayto, and Rosie of Rosie Bakes a Peace of Cake, are hosting an event called Putting Up, which apparently is a reference to "putting up" preserves. Pixie chose this event topic because she had not yet made her own jam or preserve when she announced the event on 6 April. She has since then gone on to make several fine types of preserve.

I have made lemon curd before with no worries, but jam is something that has always troubled me. Although I had never tried it, the whole process of cooking fruit and sugar without ending up with a burned, super-glued mess, and sterilising jars without burning myself or exploding the jars, left me in a cold sweat. However, as I am a Daring Baker, I am supposed to be fearless in the kitchen, so this event has squarely laid down the gauntlet for me to step up to the plate and make preserves.

Originally, I had wanted to make rhubarb jam (in honour of my friend Ivy) or quince jam (because I recently had a jar of the most gorgeous quince jelly made by a work colleague, Julien). However, when I went to the market with my friends Charet and Marco to buy the fruit, I couldn't see any quinces or rhubarb - but beckoning me was a huge sign saying "Plums - $1.00/kg". Brilliant - I love plum jam and didn't have any at home, and I figured if it all ended in tears, I would not have wasted a fortune on expensive fruit. Accordingly, I shovelled a kilo and a half of plums into a bag and took them home.

When it came time to make the jam, I felt rather nervous. I had never done this before, and hence had no real idea what I was doing, despite reading Pixie's interview with Rosie, an article in the March edition of Cuisine on sterilising and sealing jars, possessing Amy Schauer's book on preserving (which assumes that I know way too much), and having carefully read the instructions on my packet of Jamsetta, which is a powder made by Fowlers Vacola in Australia that presumably contains gelatine or pectin to give your jam a nudge in the right direction. However, armed with all the information that I could hope to obtain without having my Mum on hand to guide me, I dived in to make my very first batch of jam.

And lo, although I managed to get jam in quite a few places where it didn't belong, particularly when it came to pouring it into bottles, and found out that the lids on my jam jars were definitely NOT microwave safe, I have produced four large jars of set plum jam. (For the record, my non-descript bargain plums were of the yellow variety inside.)

To make jam of almost any kind, there is no magic recipe - everything I read says use equal parts fruit and sugar. My jam consisted of:

1.5kg plums
1.5kg sugar
1 x 50g sachet Jamsetta
1/2 cup water

Cut the plums in half and remove the stone. You don't need to peel them. Place the halved plums and the water into a large saucepan (your final jam should not take up more than 1/3 of the volume of your saucepan) and cook over a gentle heat for about half an hour until your fruit is a soft pulp, stirring from time to time to ensure that the fruit doesn't burn onto the pan.

Warm the sugar by placing in a heat-proof bowl in the oven at 150 degrees Celsius for about 5 minutes. Add the warmed sugar and the Jamsetta to the fruit while still on the heat, and heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat and bring the mixture to the boil. Boil the jam vigorously for about 10 minutes, then put a teaspoonful onto a cold plate and let it sit for 30 seconds. After the 30 seconds has expired, run your finger through the jam on the plate, and if it crinkles, the jam is cooked. If it doesn't, boil for another 5 minutes and try again. Once the jam is ready, take it off the heat and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, before pouring into hot, sterilised jars. Clean the rim and sides of each jar with a damp cloth, then seal each jar.

To sterilise the jars, boil them for 10 minutes, then remove them from the water using tongs, and dry completely. You can microwave the boiled jars to ensure that all moisture is removed, but don't microwave metal lids (basic, but I did it!!). To seal the tops of the jars, use squares of cellophane cut to size, moisten them and place them over the top of the hot jar and secure with a rubber band. The cellophane will shrink to fit the jar. Place the jar lid over the top of the cellophane seal.

As I type this post, my plum jam is still cooling in the jars, but I tasted the jam on the spoons, the saucepan, the spoon rest etc and it tastes soooooo good. If I ever end up with a lot of fruit that I don't know what to do with, or I want to preserve the goodness of one season for another, I would definitely try making jam again with other fruits.

Thanks to Pixie and Rosie for tempting me outside of my comfort zone to try the great home art of jam making. You will be able to see lots of other great preserves by visting the roundup at Pixie's and Rosie's sites after 21 May.

On a different note, my friend Ivy at Kopiaste has awarded me the "I Love You This Much" Award:

Thanks so much Ivy! I appreciate it, and would give it back to you if the rules allowed. I have the honour of being able to give this award to 5 other bloggers. I nominate the following people, who have, along with numerous others, constantly encouraged me in my blogging adventures so far:

Pixie of You Say Tomahto, I Say Tomayto

Rosie of Rosie Bakes a Peace of Cake

Swati of Sugarcraft India

Gretchen of Canela & Comino

Silvia of Magnolia Wedding Planner

Thanks to all of you and to everyone else who drops by to say hi - I genuinely appreciate it.

WTSIM: Dried Fruit and Nuts - Double Apple Bundt Cake

When I saw that this month's Waiter There's Something In My ..., hosted by Andrew of Spittoon Extra, had a theme of dried fruit and nuts, I was in straight away. I love fruit and nuts of all varieties, and when I have the chance to put them into baked goods, the hardest part is choosing what to make!

It is Simon's birthday on Saturday, so my WTSIM entry is also Simon's birthday cake. My choice was Dorie Greenspan's Double Apple Bundt Cake from Baking - From My Home to Yours. This cake is loaded with fruit (both fresh and dried) and nuts - it contains grated apple, apple sauce (which I used instead of apple butter), pistachios (which I used instead of walnuts or pecans) and raisins. It also has lemon icing.

All of the fruit makes it a very moist, scrumptious cake. I got to try it by virtue of making a baby cake for myself, as I will be out of town tomorrow when the cake is served. It also smells heavenly while it is cooking and fresh out of the oven due to the warm apples. I was actully sad that I will only get my one muffin-sized piece!

This cake is not difficult to make, but it is a little time intensive because of the requirement to chop the nuts and peel, core and grate the apples. It also takes the best part of an hour to bake. However, I was easily able to make it from start to finish (including icing) in an evening.

If you want to try this cake, you will need:

2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

pinch of salt

130g butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup apple butter (I used apple sauce and it seemed fine)

2 apples, peeled, cored and grated

1 cup chopped nuts (I used pistachios)

1/2 cup raisins

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a bundt pan and set aside.

Sift the dry ingredients togethr in a bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs , one at a time. With your mixer on low speed, add the apple butter, then the grated apple, and finally add the dry ingredients, and beat until just combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir through the nuts and raising by hand.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan, and bake in the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes. Cool the cake in the tin for about 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once the cake is completely cool, ice with a lemon glaze made from icing sugar and a little lemon juice. Enjoy!

Thanks to Andrew for hosting WTSIM again this month, and I look forward to the fruit 'n' nut roundup, especially with winter coming on.

No Debbie Harry - Just Blondies

I am on a roll with baked goods with lemon icing - but you can never get enough of a good thing! This time, I made Smitten Kitten's blondies , which I spied first at Jessy and Her Dog Winnie. I didn't mess with the recipe - I wanted to try the original first.

I topped these chewy, luscious treats with lemon icing and coconut, which in my mind was perfection. These are another great idea for morning or afternoon tea - or just for the heck of it!

Next time, I think fruit and nuts would be great in these - I'd absolutely make them again. Best of all, they were a cinch to make and can be made quickly with store cupboard ingredients. Perfect!

Ginger biscuits with lemon icing

Bill Granger is one of my favourite chefs. Unfortunately, I don't have pay TV, so I can't see his show. However, I adore Bill's books, of which I now own three. His style of cooking is generally light and flavoursome, with a distinct Asian influence in many of his dishes.

Bill's latest book is Holiday. His recipes are divided into dishes suitable for a number of different holiday seasons.

I chose to make Bill's ginger biscuits with lemon icing for work, which is aptly taken from the Harvest chapter of Holiday, as it is autumn in the Antipodes. These little biscuits are gingery shortbread-style biscuits studded with crystallised ginger as well as containing ground ginger, and are complemented by a lemon icing. The recipe doesn't make a very big batch, so if you are feeding a crowd, I recommend doubling the recipe. These biscuits taste very pleasant, and are relatively small and light, so you can have a couple of these with your morning coffee without spoiling your appetite.

To make these biscuits, you will need:

2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup finely chopped crystallised ginger
200g melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Sift the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl, and stir through the crystallised ginger. pour in the butter and vanilla and mix into a dough. Place tablespoons of dough on baking trays lined with baking paper, and flatten the biscuits lightly with a fork. Place them in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes, then cool the biscuits on a wire rack.

To ice the cooled biscuits, mix one cup of icing sugar with enough lemon juice to make an icing of piping or drizzling consistency. Pipe or drizzle the icing onto the biscuits. Enjoy with your morning coffee.

I have been honoured by being given the Arte y Pico Award by Rosie of Rosie Bakes a Peace of Cake:

Thanks Rosie!

The rules behind this award are as follows:

1. Pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award.

4. Award-winner and the one who has given the award have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. Award winner must show these rules.

Without further ado, I hereby bestow the Arte y Pico award on the following members of the food blogging community:

Aran of Canelle et Vanille

Rita of Mochachocolata Rita

Y of Lemonpi

Emiline of Visions of a Sugar Plum

Laurie of Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska

These are fantastic blogs - do drop by to visit them!

Cake decorating with chocolate and jelly

I attended the last night of my cake decorating course at William Angliss on Tuesday. To finish out the course, we made ready to roll fondant plaques, and decorated them with chocolate and jelly.

The chocolate was both easier and harder than icing to decorate with - easier because it flows more quickly, and harder because it has a nasty tendency to harden in the piping bag tip before you are finished, and if you cut your piping bag tip too large, it flows all over the place.

I loved the jelly overlay, because it was bright, colourful and reminded me of stained glass.

We had to make two plaques, and through sheer luck, I had two useful occasions to make plaques for. I decorated my first plaque for the top of a cake which I made that evening after class for Kane from work. By chance, I had learned that he turned 30 the next day, and I thought what better way to celebrate a milestone by having a special cake:

I used my new piping skills to pipe whipped cream in and around the cake. The chocolate cake itself was the recipe from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook that I have made before, just filled and decorated differently. Kane was very happy with his cake, as he had never had a birthday cake at work before. The feedback was that it tasted good (relief!).

My second plaque is for Mothers Day this coming Sunday:

I am flying home to see my Mum for Mothers Day and taking Monday off so that I don't have to hurry back. I will probably make Mum a plain madeira cake (she doesn't like "goopy" cakes) and stick the plaque on it with very small icing rosettes.

I am so glad that I did the cake decorating class. Although I sometimes didn't feel like going anywhere but home after work (let's face it, do I ever feel like doing anything else?), and we were often under the hammer to complete the various projects within the available timeframe, it was well worth it, as I learned a lot. Cake decorating hasn't been my forte in the past, and I am not a "natural" at it, but I have definitely acquired some skills to make my celebration cakes look

more special (provided that I am not too lazy!!). Thanks to Greg Williams, our teacher, for passing on some of his skills to us, and for his patience with our often none-too-tidy work habits.

Chinese Take-Out Party - Chicken Chow Mein

On 1 May, Mochachocolata Rita posted her 88th post. Number 88 is lucky in Chinese culture, so to celebrate this milestone, Rita is hosting a Chinese take-out party. To come along, it's simple - make a Chinese take-out dish and post about it by 12 May.

I wanted to make chicken chow mein, so after some Googling, I found this recipe on Taste.com.au. It is a little different to traditional Aussie chicken chow mein in a number of respects. First, it isn't a pale, ghostly grey colour. Second, it is not as glutinous as your typical chicken chow mein take-out. And finally, it contains egg noodles, which are not typically found in "Aussie" chicken chow mein. However, for all of these reasons, it tastes so much better than take-away chicken chow mein. Sure, I love Chinese take-out, even with the pale, gluggy chicken chow mein that is bog standard in Australian Chinese restaurants, but as a regular meal, I much prefer this version. It is very tasty and sounds and looks very healthy. Also, it is perfect if you want to be a "lazy bones", because it uses a bought barbecue-cooked chicken, and frozen pre-cut veges work OK.

Thanks to Rita for hosting this event - congratulations on your 88th post! Do check Rita's site for more Chinese take-out ideas here.

President Clinton's Oatmeal Cookies

I have read a lot of good things about Sherry Yard's latest book, Desserts by the Yard. Among other things, Sherry has been a pastry chef at Spagos in Beverley Hills. Accordingly, when I was ordering Sticky Chewy Messy Gooey, I also ordered Desserts by the Yard.


Desserts by the Yard is a beautiful book, and is divided into recipes by the stage in Sherry's career when she learned how to make the various dishes. She has worked in a number of different countries, so a number of different cultural influences shine through in her recipes. Some of Sherry's recipes are way too extravagant for me to ever consider making (for example, her chocolate Oscars creations); however, many of them sound delicious and are things that you could make at home.


One of the "home-ier" recipes is for President Clinton's Oatmeal Cookies. It isn't Bill Clinton's recipe; rather, it is a type of cookie that Sherry made for the then US President that he liked very much. And what is not to like about these cookies? They are chewy, sweet and pleasantly oaty. They also contain alcohol-soaked dried fruit, which I think makes them.


Sherry has helpfully provided the recipe for these cookies here on her website. However, if you are a dessert fan, or just love looking at pictures of well constructed, delicious desserts, then Desserts by the Yard may be the book for you.


Instead of using fat raisins (because I didn't have the ingredients to make them), I poached one and a half cups of sultanas in a quarter of a cup of rum until the fruit had absorbed the rum. Everyone at work liked these cookies, so I don't think that this substitution detracted from the end result. I baked them straight away rather than creating logs with the dough and freezing them, and it worked just fine.


If you like home-style oatmeal cookies with a twist, this is a great recipe to try.