Make an afternoon tea a crafternoon tea – by getting crafty with your friends and enjoying some delectable delights in the process. As seen in issue 19 of Good and extracted with permission from Granny’s Kitchen: Baking, and the Aunt Daisy Cookbook, here are some easy to make crafternoon nibbles.
Ginger & Apple Upside-Down Cake
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced
4 cups flour
4 tsp ground ginger
225g butter
2 cups sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
2 tsp baking soda
11/2 cups milk
2 tbsp lemon juice
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a deep 20cm cake tin with greaseproof paper. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Arrange apple slices to cover bottom of tin. Sift flour and ginger and rub in butter. Add sugar, golden syrup, and baking soda dissolved in warmed milk. Mix well. Add lemon juice and mix again.
Pour mixture over apple slices in tin. Bake at 160–180°C for 1–11/4 hours. Turn cake onto a plate so that the apples are the topping. Carefully remove greaseproof paper.
Anzac Biscuits
Golden syrup and baking soda give these old favourites flavour and crispness.
125g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp boiling water
Preheat oven to 180°C. Gently melt butter and golden syrup together. In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats. Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup. Stir into the dry ingredients.
Place spoonfuls on a baking tray, allowing room for the biscuits to spread. Bake for 15–20 minutes.
Simple Shortbread
250g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
21/2 cups flour
1/2 cup rice flour
Preheat oven to 160°C. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Stir in the sifted flours and mix well.
Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Try not to over-handle, as this can toughen the dough. Roll out to 1cm thick. If using moulds or presses, dust them with flour before pressing against the dough. Cut into shapes and decorate using shortbread presses, if you have them. Place shapes on a lightly greased baking tray.
Bake for 20 minutes, until lightly golden.
–Reprinted with permission from Granny’s Kitchen: Baking, Penguin 2011, $20
Afghans
170g butter
85g sugar
170g flour
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp cocoa
60g cornflakes
Cream butter and sugar. Add dry ingredients and combine.
Roll into balls and cook on a cold tray in a moderate oven (180°C) for about 15 minutes.
Variation:
Substitute 60g cornflour for cornflakes, or 30g cornflour and 2 tbsp cornflakes. Add about 2 tbsp boiling water when creaming butter and sugar. When cold, ice with chocolate icing, and put a piece of walnut on top.
Louise Cake
115g butter
45g sugar
3 egg yolks, well beaten
225g flour
1 level tsp baking powder
Raspberry jam
3 egg whites, very stiffly beaten
170g sugar
85g desiccated coconut
Cream butter and first measure of sugar. Add egg yolks. Add flour and baking powder and combine.
Spread in a flat tin about 26cm square. Spread with jam.
Add stiffly beaten egg whites to the second measure of sugar and coconut. Spread on top of cake and bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven (180°C).
Cut into squares while hot.
Reprinted with permission from The Aunt Daisy Baking Book by Barbara Basham, Hachette 2011, published by Hodder Moa, $37
