Blueberry and Orange Afternoon Cake

This whole year is rushing past me so quickly, and after five long months of running around, I've decided its time to get very serious.....about doing more of the things I love. Ife I have learnt anything so far this year, it would be that life is fleeting (and beautiful.) So many lovely things happen so quickly that at times I forget what is really really important. For example....dinner parties, and talking to your friends, calling your mum and ranting about boys you go on dates with, eating pastries for breakfast and appreciating how delicious and warm they taste while you walk in the dark to work, and just feeling free.   

(Pretty Mothers Day Cakes we made for days on end for high tea)

Speaking of important things, this week was mothers day! Its such a lovely celebration but I always feel a little sad not to be at home with my mum. The pastry chef I work with, and I spent the two days leading up to mothers day in the kitchen for 12 hours or more without time to stop for anything. We rushed around baking and decorating cakes for the mothers day feast and 200 high teas that were booked to come in. Our organised little kitchen took on this buzzed chaos as we worked away. All the other chefs kept gathering in our little nook to see what we were making, and it was so exciting to see everything come together. When it was finally over everyone seemed so light and joyful. I felt so proud of some of the creations we put out and really loved the little kitchen family feeling that is created when everyone is too busy to stop, but help each other out. I understand why chefs get addicted to the lifestyle. Yes there are downsides (someone looked at me today and said "Wow Cherry those dark lines you have under your eyes are the same as mine. You must be as stressed as me.")but there is also this wonderful community feeling as well, where a group of people work towards feeding a crowd. I like that. 

I've put a recipe in here, that really isn't anything too fancy. Its just a simple 'home cake.' The sort you have sitting on your bench incase you fancy a piece with a cup on tea in the late afternoon. The original recipe comes from a cook book called 'Apples for Jam' but I tweaked it a little because I didnt have all the ingredients and wanted to change a few of the flavours. 

I hope you had a lovely Mothers day. 

Blueberry and Orange Afternoon Cake

You will need:

315g of plain flour

3tsp of baking powder

90g caster sugar

1tsp of cinnamon 

1tsp of allspice

2 eggs

250ml of buttermilk

60g butter

Zest of one orange

150g fresh blueberries (not frozen)

2tbs of Demerara sugar

What to do:

1. Sift together baking powder, flour, sugar, and spices.

2. In a small pot melt the butter and cook until nut brown (this gives it extra flavour.

3. Beat together eggs, zest and buttermilk.

4. Mix wet ingredients (egg mix and butter) in with the dry (flour mix.) and stir until combined. Dont over mix! 

5. Pour into a lined cake tin. I used a baking dish....because I thought it looked prettier. This is really meant to be a rectangle cake not a pretty circle one.....it just changes the feel. Ideally use a 30 x 20 cm one.

6. Poke in blueberries and sprinkle with the demerara sugar. 

7. Bake at 200 degrees for 25 minutes or until a skewer somes out clean when the cake is pricked.