Its all about orange around here. I don’t have a favourite colour – I have continually changing favourite colours and lately orange has been winning my heart…
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Make It Perfect
This slice is my heaven…
Luscious Lemon Slice
base
125g butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups SR flour
1tsp grated lemon zest
topping
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup ground almonds
3 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbs lemon grated lemon zest
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcuis. Grease and line a 16cm x 26cm slice tin.
Beat butter and icing sugar in a small bowl until pale and creamy. Add vanilla, stir in self-raising flour and 1tsp lemon zest.
Press the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
Sift plain flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add ground almonds.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest. Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and pour over base.
Bake for 20 minutes or until firm. Cool in tin.
After reading this post from hop skip jump, I am designating Friday as the day to blog 3 things that have made me happy during the week. Something to help me sum up the week and get ready for the weekend…
1. Lemons, lemons, lemons…the lemon tree out the back has FINALLY started to ripen up and we have been able to start picking and enjoying the golden goodness. Lemons would have to be my most favourite flavour ever, so you can just imagine my excitement. When I picked them, I kept taking them over to Jaron and shoving them in his face, “mmm, smell this one honey – isn’t that soo good?!!” Heavenly…
2. Sewing. Some weeks the sewing groove hits and this week was one of those. Lots of fun little sewing projects going on to keep me entertained. This nappy bag being one of them, a sample for Picture Patchwork made from Amy Butler’s pattern. My nappy bag pattern has had such a work out, I was trying to count up the number of nappy bags I had made from it when I was putting this one together and it must be somewhere around 15! Its a keeper for sure, I don’t even have to look at the instructions anymore!
Also in the sewing pipeline, I have come up with another funky pattern design this week. I am loving it…alot. No peeks yet as I am still tweaking it a bit. Lil has been the lucky recipient of a prototype made from this super cute Little Red RidingHood Japanese print fabric I bought from here. Every time I look at it, it makes me smile.
3. Although it is still pretty chilly around here, the sun has been making a bit more of an appearance and the days are getting noticeably longer. There have even been some days this week that I have been able to turn the heater off during the day and still be comfortable. We have even had a few spring time flowers show their cheery faces out in the garden. It thought of warmer weather around the corner isn’t enough to make you happy, then I don’t know what is!
Feel free to join in and share “3 happy things” too!
P.S. Is anyone else soo excited about the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony tonight, I can’t wait!!!
Couldn’t let the first birthday go by without sharing some cake pics. Lil was thoroughly spoiled, as every one year old should be on her special day. 
Did she approve? I think so!
Colin made an appearance at the birthday dinner. He was pretty cute, didn’t exactly turn out as I planned, but the great thing about novelty cakes and kids is that they love them no matter how they turn out! Be warned, if you give Colin a go (from the Womens Weekly Birthday Cake cookbook) be prepared for copious amounts of food colouring to get the coconut a decent colour! If I were to do him again I would probably opt for coloured icing with matching sprinkles on top.
Another yummy, cheap, vegetarian meal to compensate the extra cash you are spending on petrol…
Chickpea and Sweet Potato Cakes
500g orange sweet potato (kumara), peeled, coarsely chopped
400g can chickpeas, rinsed, drained
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tbs finely grated parmesan
2 tbs plain flour
Finely grated parmesan, extra, to coat
Olive oil spray
Mixed lettuce leaves, to serve
Sweet chilli sauce, to serve
Chop the sweet potato into small cubes. Bake in moderate oven until soft. Alternately, you can boil in a saucepan for 10 minutes. Drain.
Place in a large bowl and mash until smooth. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Mash the chickpeas in a bowl.
Add the chickpeas, onion, parsley, parmesan and flour to the sweet potato and combine. Season with pepper.
Divide the mixture into 10 portions and shape each portion into a patty.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
Place extra parmesan on a plate. Press patties in parmesan to coat. Place on the lined tray.
Spray with olive oil spray. Bake in oven, turning once, for 30 minutes or until golden.
Divide among serving plates. Serve with lettuce and sweet chilli sauce.
