Monday, January 19, 2009

Discovering Jubilee Cake on Brophy's road


Melbourne-based Irish-Australian singer and songwriter Vince Brophy sent me this photo of his first attempt at one my favourite recipes - the Jubilee Cake. One of the keen amateur test cooks for The Blue Ribbon Cookbook, Vince usually focusses his energies on making wonderful sauces, relishes and preserves from an impressive backyard veggie patch. But he took time out from adding the finishing touches to his new CD, Brophy's Road, to try his hand at baking with great results.

The Jubilee Cake is a humble fruit cake recipe which originated in South Australia, although there is some debate about which juiblee it was created for. I love it because it requires minimal ingredients, is quick to make and bakes in just 20 to 30 minutes. You apply the runny icing when its warm to speed up the process even more. No doubt it was a farmhouse favourite when neighbours unexpectedly dropped in for a cup of tea and a chat.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Feast in a flash


Country shows are not the only places to test your cooking skills. Adelaide's extremely popular Feast Festival also runs a cookery competition with many of the categories traditionally found at shows. Among the winners in 2008 was professional photographer Rosey Boehm (pictured with her dog Sybil), who won a first prize for her quince jelly and a second prize for her crab apple jelly. If you want to give Rosey a run for her money in 2009 there is a great quince jelly recipe in The Blue Ribbon Cookbook, courtesy of prize-winning Cummns cook, Jan Nitschke, with some great tips from Jan and the judges to help you on your way.

And the winners are...

The Royal Automobile Association of South Australia (RAA) has announced winners of a competition run last year for copies of The Blue Ribbon Cookbook. More than 5300 people entered the competition, the highest for any book competition ever run by the organisation. Congratulations to the lucky recipients - Mrs H Batson, Goroke (Victoria); Mrs S Timm, Goolwa;
Mr S Bressanelli, Broken Hill; Miss J Cockrum, Reynella; and Mrs M Ellis, Pt Augusta West.