Mixed berry soya milk smoothie

Ingredients (serves 2):
2 cups FairPrice Hi-Calcium Fresh Soya Milk, well chilled
10 strawberries (frozen or very chilled)
1/2 cup raspberries (frozen or very chilled)
3 to 5 tbsp honey, at room temperature (depending on how sweet your berries are)

Method:
1. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
2. Pour into two glasses and serve right away, or refrigerate until the next morning.

Tips:
Recipe uses FairPrice Hi-Calcium Fresh Soya Milk ($1.45) available at all FairPrice supermarkets.

The smoothie in this recipe can be made the night before. Leave it in the fridge and drink it cold in the morning.

You can be creative by adding a banana, or using mangoes and fresh peaches in place of berries. But if you do this, consume the smoothie immediately as bananas, peaches and mangoes tend to oxidise quickly.

Also, you’ll want to vary the amount of honey used based on the sweetness of your fruit. So, start with three tablespoons of honey and add more if needed.

Recipe source: Today newspaper (1 May 2008)

Lemon roulade with raspberry sauce

Make five-course christmas dinner in 2 hours - Part 4.

Ingredients (serves 4):
Lemon cream:
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp custard powder (add a little water to dissolve)
2 tbsp caster sugar

Sponge cake:
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
3 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
125g cake flour

Raspberry sauce:
200g fresh raspberries
2 tbsp raspberry jam
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Snow powder, for garnishing

Method:
1. Whisk all the lemon cream ingredients together until it becomes thick and foamy. Chill.
2. To make the sponge cake, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until it becomes a pale yellow.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff. Fold the vanilla essence and lemon juice into the egg-yolk mixture.
4. Sift the flour into the mixture and fold it in. Gently fold in egg whites.
5. Line a shallow 30cm by 20cm baking tin with baking parchment and pour in the mixture.
6. Bake in a preheated 175 deg C oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn the cake over on a wire rack and remove the parchment. Leave to cool.
7. To make the raspberry sauce, blend all the sauce ingredients in a blender.
8. To assemble, spread the lemon cream on the sponge cake. Roll the cake and cut into 4 pieces. Dust each serving with snow powder and top with raspberry sauce.

Tips:
Snow powder is very fine powdered sugar found in speciality baking stores like Phoon Huat. It sticks better to food compared to icing sugar.

Recipe source: Simply Her magazine (Dec 2007)

Cherry crumble cake

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 60 minutes

Ingredients (serves 8):
80g soft brown sugar
150g plain flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
100g QBB Ghee, chilled
100g QBB Ghee, room temperature
60g butter, room temperature
230g caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp lemon juice
Zest of 2 lemons
1/4 tsp salt
300g self-raising flour, sifted
200ml light sour cream
400g fresh cherries or 300g fresh raspberries, pitted

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
2. Line the base of a 20cm spring form tin with non-stick paper and grease the sides.
3. Place the first 4 ingredients in a mixing bowl. Rub in the ghee until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Keep refrigerated.
4. Cream second portion of ghee, butter and sugar in large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add the vanilla essence, lemon juice, lemon zest and salt. Beat very well.
7. Add the flour and the sour cream into the ghee mixture. Begin and end with the flour. Mix well.
8. Place the batter in the prepared tin. Sprinkle with the cherries.
9. Crumble the prepared cinnamon-mix topping on the cherries to cover it.
10. Bake for approximately 60 minutes. Cake will be done when golden brown, sides of cake pull away slightly from edge of pan and toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
11. Remove pan from oven and cool thoroughly before cutting.

Tips:
For decorative purposes, dust the cake lightly with sifted icing sugar if desired.

Recipe source: Lifestyle magazine (Aug 2006)