A busy kitchen

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach" is a phrase my mother liked to quote, Its just as well there are other ways too or I would never have got married! My cooking prowess came later!
The sun turned on its strength today and while the mercury outside climbed every upwards past 30 degrees until it changed direction after reaching 35, I was busy indoors with the air-conditioner keeping me cool as I prepared for an on-slaught of visitors tomorrow.

A batch of mini pavlovas were made first, the work is all done with a mixer so they are easy! Tomorrow I will whip the cream to dollop on the top and crown that with some fruit salad. Pavlovas are different to meringues, they have a little cornflour in the mix which keeps them soft inside, meringues are crispy all the way through.

Then it was into the serious cake making! I have a collection of great little recipe books which have been purchased as fund raisers for church ladies or schools or kindergartens and they have real recipes that work in their pages. At Christmas I make a sponge slice that has fruit mince in it. Fruit mince is incredibly sickly sweet, usually, so I add sultanas that have had a sprinkle of lemon juice and microwaved for a minute, to the fruit mince.

The sponge is rolled out like a pastry but it is lovely and soft to handle.

The fruit is spread on the first layer and the other half of the sponge rolled out and quickly plonked onto the top - it is so soft that if I am slow it just rips and falls in a heap as I turn the rolling mat over!

The oven does the rest. All that has to be done now is cut it into slices. (And eat it!)
I hope I have made you hungry!

Colin and I had a sample slice with a cup of tea once it had cooled down, so I know that it is a success!
On Saturday we are having the last meeting day of our photo/video group "Visions" and we are making it a little bit special.

Our Guest of Honour is the bewhiskered gent himself - so I have also invited a few parents with children to come along to meet him. That will give the photographers something to do!
Incidentally, in the afternoon thunder heralded a change in the weather. You aught to have seen the rain come down! We had 30mm in ten minutes. Then it stopped, just like that! Crazy stuff!
AJ