The little birds...

If you watch little birds you will see they are busy and happy! Using whatever they can find they create the most gorgeous little nest.
I would be the little bird with some glittery thread in her nest!
We can be like this. Happily working away with the things that are available to us to create a beautiful and happy home.
All the while with a little song in our heart.

Banner by Free Pretty Things for You.

Sunday 25 May 2014

Economical and yummy cake.

Today I want to add a recipe that is a great way to use up left over fruit and yoghurt. Quite often a have a bit of left over yoghurt. I either freeze it in ice cube trays (for protein shakes later or to make this recipe down the track) or use it up in this cake.

It also uses left over fruit. When I have apricots on the tree or nectarines I use some on this cake. It then is a good desert or handy in lunch boxes.... also the whole thing will freeze very well.

You can use fresh fruit like apricots, nectarines, plums (I have used all these but you could try others...) But also you can drain a tin of apricots or whatever and use that. This is what I did this weekend as I had yoghurt in the freezer to use up.

The recipe is very flexible.

It is   250 g butter or margarine, 1 and a half cups fine sugar, 6 eggs, about a cup of yoghurt, even flavoured it doesn't matter, 2 cups SR flour. 

Mix eggs, softened butter, sugar, add in yoghurt and flour. It is quite a runny mix.

Line a baking tray with non stick paper. I use my roasting pan. You could use a lasagne dish. The idea is it is a flat cake more like a slice. This is so you can use loads of fruit to cover it. If using plums, nectarines or apricots I just cut them in half to remove seed and place cut side up all over the cake, this time i used a tin of apricots so it looked like this....



If I had plenty of fresh fruit to use up I would cover every bit of the top, no spaces, but this is what I had. So you can use heaps of fruit. If you had a bit of this and a bit of that use that too and mix it up. The idea is to use what you have.

Bake 180 deg C for about half an hour. I would watch and test when it is risen and golden. To me everyones oven is different let alone your baking dish size etc. Test with a skewer and as soon as it comes out clean it is done.

Now dust it with icing sugar through a sieve. Liberally!


The bits with the fruit sort of soak up the icing sugar... it's really yummy.


To me the more you use up fruit that might be wasted otherwise the better value this is. I have taken a large round one on a tray to someones house as a gift and it was a hit. It's quick and easy and rustic looking.

We have had a lovely weekend. Sunny and beautiful autumn weather. But this week it is the start of winter! 

I had a serious look at some of my goals for the year and also budget this last week. Chloe had commented my mobile phone monthly payment was high. Plus my phone was quite old. Old being three years, that's old these days apparently! I went into my phone company.  And just like that I had a brand new upgraded phone for free and the girl looked at my usage and said my plan could be half what it was. Then as usually I was friendly and chatty with her as I always would be.  I remarked I was trying to get my bills down as the budget would affect us especially with increased costs for medications (Andy has heart related medications and a lot of them). Then she paused and said "just wait, we can get this plan down a bit more" and reduced it again. So I walked out with a new phone, and a massive yearly saving. Nice work! This goes along with what I said the other day. Ask, talk, tell. People want to help you and they often can. I was so pleased! 

At home I decided to set my phone up so I really love it. We have no landline so we save there and my mobile is it for me. It may as well be lovely. I have never really used apps etc much. Very basic. But you know me, love pretty things, love encouraging words, lists, planners, things that help me. Oh my goodness have I made some discoveries!  This week I will share some of the gorgeous things I've found that make over your phone and  also how it helps you. Revolutionary! 

I hope you had a lovely weekend too. xxx







8 comments:

  1. Hi Annabel, I love reading about your stories of collecting and gathering excess fruit and how you use it. I need to take heed and find some mangoes. We live up in Nth Qld so should be able to find some. Also, does this cake freeze? It looks delicious amd I am thinking it will,nobe great for my DH's lunch box. Love, Bridge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Bridge, yes this freezes wonderfully. If you want to do it for your husbands lunch box cut it all into individual serves, wrap and freeze and just take out a chunk every morning.
      If you have mangoes you might be able to pick then go for it! Lucky you! You could also make relish or puree some and freeze fro smoothies throughout winter. Mangoes are expensive here. Good luck! I hope you find some and you never know what else you might come across!xx

      Delete
  2. Thank you so much Annabel. I just love, love, love your blog. Thank you for inspiring me. It reaffirms all my values! Love, Bridge (aka Blueskies on SS)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love hearing from you Bridge, thank you!xxx

      Delete
  3. Okay, that was the best cake I ever made!! Thanks for the recipe :p

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for telling me Mary! I hope you go on to many versions of it. I am so glad you loved it! xxx

      Delete
  4. I have this cake in the oven now, was so easy I thought I must have missed something, but no it is all there. Not a really runny mix though for me??
    I topped it with a jar of apricot halves that I mashed up a little, like stewed fruit consistency, and topped with a little brown sugar (not sure why though). It smells lovely, thank you for your generous blog Annabel.
    tina (SS member)

    ReplyDelete
  5. You've certainly had a rough time with that infection Annabel; and it's thought to be a bite ? Hope you continue to improve and recover. That's sounds like a great deal with your new phone plan...those costs have improved amazingly in recent years, but you have to ask to get the deals don't you? 😉. I bit the bullet and bought my daughter's iPhone 6 last year when she was upgrading. I was a bit scared but I soon came to love it!

    ReplyDelete

I really appreciate your comments thank you! The aim of my blog is the be a place of encouragement and happiness. Very rarely is anyone rude. Actually only twice so far! If you post a rude or aggressive comment I will read it but not publish it, thanks for understanding.xxx

Spam is never published... if you are advertising a product or selling website your comment wont be published. I am inundated with stuff about drugs, horses and weird things! I am not going to publish this stuff! Thank you.