Cup Day and Simple Pudding

Last week, we had Melbourne Cup Day.  We had my parents, sister, godfather and godson over for lunch.  I did simple ham and salad rolls, and made a cheesecake.  I am really happy with my cheesecake recipe - I make it quite often.  It's adapted from a recipe from my friend Amy, and is very silky, owing to being cooked slowly in a water bath.  You can find the recipe HERE.

I like a fairly thick crumb base, but the outside appears deceptively thick, due to the crumbs creeping up the sides when I press them in...

I often pile blueberries onto a cheesecake.  It just works.

My godson made a chai cake, which he came up with on his own.  He loves chai - the cake was excellent, nice and spicy with a cup of tea!

Here is Tabitha clutching the name of her horse (drawn from a sweep), watching the exciting race!  It was a photo finish.  She is in her pyjamas, having just woken up - doesn't she look like she's wearing racing silks?  She looked like a little jockey! 

After everyone had left, I made a very large tray of pasta bake.  Tuna with plenty of veggies - the recipe is HERE.  There was enough for 6 very large servings (to the original recipe, I added another medium can of tuna, made the white sauce 1.5 quantity, included a large cup each of peas and corn, and generally bumped up all the other quantities a little too, including another 80g pasta).  This freezes really well.

The next day, we had a visitor - my mother in law's cat, Winston, came for the morning (long story).  I locked up our own cats, so they didn't terrorize him (they happily snored away in our bedroom).  Tabitha followed him around the house trying to hug and kiss him.  He does look anxious, below, but being a British Shorthair, that's just the way he always looks!  He is very soft and cuddly:

I have started making an excellent and easy new pudding.  I must admit that I have NO idea where the recipe is from - I have it hand written (my writing) on a scrap of paper in my recipe book, called "his Granny's hasty pudding".  What a mystery!  Anyway, it is so quick and easy and a new favourite of The Daddy.

All you need to do for this simple pudding is beat together
a tablespoon of melted butter (20g), 1/2 cup of sugar and an egg.  Beat them well, then add a cup of self raising flour, 1/4 cup of milk and a pinch of salt, and beat well to a batter consistency.

Lightly grease a small pie dish (about 2 cup capacity, shallow-ish better than deep, but use what you have.)  Pour in 2 or 3 tablespoons golden syrup, allow to settle evenly, then pour the batter over the top.

Bake for around half an hour at 180 degrees, until a crisp, golden crust forms and the pudding is just cooked in the middle (you can use a cake tester).  I serve it with a drizzle of extra golden syrup, and some cream or ice cream.

There!  So easy, takes less than 5 minutes to prepare, including putting away the ingredients.  Don't even think of bothering to use an electric mixer - it's scarcely worth the effort of twisting out the beater!  I use the same Pyrex jug that I melt the butter in - too easy.