Blueberry Crumble Bars

Blueberry Crumble Bars

by | Feb 8, 2018 | 3 comments

These blueberry crumble bars are short and buttery squares with just enough tartness from the blueberries to make them incredibly scoffable. It’s not a fancy recipe and actually started off with tinned apple and cinnamon filling, which one year, even become fruit mince pie filling for Christmas! The inky blueberries are still my favourite, though. If you’re a fan of the little blue guys, try them in this Blueberry Lavendar Cheesecake or my Blueberry and White Chocolate Marshmallows – so good!

The pastry is dead easy to make with just a little rubbing-in required from your fingertips. My grandmother always taught me to leave one hand clean and flour-free when baking incase the telephone rang or someone knocked on the door. And being as stubborn as I am, I never do, which thanks to Mr Murphy means that someone always calls at the exact point my hands touch the flour. Go figure. You could, of course, swop out the fruit for whatever is in season (strawberries, raspberries, peaches, plums etc.) though they won’t lend the stunning inky contrast the blueberries do. You’re welcome to use fresh blueberries, although I do think frozen blueberries taste better – freezing ruptures the cells and allows all the flavour out. These are AMAZING served with a cup of Earl Grey tea. 

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Blueberry Crumble Bars

Yield: 16-20

Ingredients

  • 210g (1 cup) castor sugar
  • 1 tsp (5ml) baking powder
  • 450g (3 cups) cake flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • drop of almond extract
  • Zest and juice from one lemon
  • 225g butter, cold and in cubes
  • 1 large egg
  • 280g (2 cups) fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 50g (1/4 cup) sugar
  • 2 tsp (10ml) corn flour

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 210 degrees Celcius (190 degrees fan-forced). Line a 20 x 20cm baking sheet with baking paper. Combine the sugar, baking powder and flour with the salt, almond extract and lemon zest and mix well. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs then stir in the egg to form a dough. Divide the dough in thirds and press two thirds into the lined baking sheet. Stir together the lemon juice, blueberries, sugar and corn flour and sprinkle this over the dough layer. Crumble or grate the remaining dough over the berries and bake in the preheated oven 50 minutes to 1 hour or until golden brown. Allow to cool completely before slicing into squares.
  2. TIP Replace the blueberries with any seasonal fruit
https://thekatetin.com/blueberry-crumble-bars/

Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

by | Jan 13, 2017 | 1 comment

Before I go any further, I know you’re looking at this cake and thinking ‘But I’m trying to diet here! Why are you posting cake in January?!’ Well, number 1: If you’re looking for diet recipes then you’re in the WRONG place. Number 2: This IS my healthy food, people! Just look at this ingredient list – it basically reads like a salad bar! Pecan nuts, smashed banana, pineapple, lime – like I said, healthy food 😉

But let me get serious for a minute (since we’re in the month of dieting and eating plans); I’ve never loved the idea of attaching any form of guilt to food, especially when it’s one of the things we need to stay alive. No matter what, each day, we all need to stop what we’re doing to fuel our bodies to survive. Like breathing and sleeping. And to feel guilty about that? To constantly want to be somebody else’s idea of perfect? To me, that’s not my idea of happiness. There is a reason we are born with tastebuds and why we get so much pleasure out of eating – because eating is one of the best parts about life and depriving yourself of that (if you’re a food-lover like me), is no way to live.

Obviously, I’m not saying you should eat cake every day – I certainly don’t! But I believe it’s all about balance (or at least trying to achieve balance), and if you want a slice of cake, if  it’s going to make a crappy day at work better or give you a moment of bliss when things are all getting too much, then I say have it. Eat the cake. I by no means have a perfect body, but I love it – every curve (or bump) is testament to my insane love of baking and if good food makes me happy then bring on the love handles because you know what? My worst nightmare is being hit by a bus and in that moment regretting swopping that decadent slice of cake for a salad. So just eat the cake. Or more specifically, eat THIS cake.

 

 

Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe and image originally created for Food and Home Entertaining Magazine

Serves 12

 

1 cup (250ml) vegetable oil

2 large eggs

4 medium-sized very ripe bananas, mashed

1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract

350g (1 ¾ cups) Natura Sugars Golden Caster Sugar

350g (3 cups) self-raising flour, sifted

1 tsp (5ml) ground cinnamon

1 x 425g tin crushed pineapple, drained well

50g (1/2 cup) pecans, chopped

 

FOR THE ICING

400g (3 ½ cups) Natura Sugars Demerara Icing sugar

150g unsalted butter, (at room temperature)

200g full fat cream cheese

zest and juice of 1 limes

Edible flowers, to decorate

 

Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional). Grease and line two 23cm round cake tins. Whisk together the oil and eggs then add the bananas, vanilla and sugar. Fold in the sifted flour, cinnamon, pineapple and pecan nuts. Divide the batter between the tins and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before turning the cakes out to cool completely. To make the icing, cream the icing sugar and butter until light and fluffy then whip in the cream cheese, zest and juice until just combined. Layer the cakes with the frosting then decorate with edible flowers.