HEIRLOOM: BEST IN SHOW
BOOROWA FOOD BLOGGER LO CORCORAN KNEW HER GRANDMA BETTY’S CAKE WAS GOOD, BUT WINNING FIRST PLACE IN THE LOCAL SHOW PROVED IT.
A food blogger spins a yarn and “adds a little mayonnaise” as she takes home the prize with her Grandma Betty’s delicious carrot and pineapple cake.
WHEN FOOD BLOGGER Lo (Laura) Corcoran decided to enter the baking competition at the 131st Boorowa Show this year, she knew exactly what to make. Along with the decorated hard-boiled eggs and iced Arrowroot biscuits her girls had made, she submitted a carrot and pineapple cake in honour of her grandmother Betty Broughton, who passed away last June.
“I wanted to enter my Grandma Betty’s cake to not only support the show — I think it’s so important for the younger generation to keep it going — but also because I thought it would be a nice thing to do for my mum and her siblings,” Lo explains. “I am a firm believer in keeping the old family recipes from past generations alive, and I share these good, honest, no-fuss country recipes on my blog.”
To Lo’s delight, the cake won first prize in the heritage cake division, where entrants needed to explain why the recipe is special to them. This is her winning entry:
“Michael Delaney, a friend of mine and ultimate storyteller, believes in ‘spinning a yarn’. He thinks it’s possible for anyone to tell a good story; sometimes you just need to add a little mayonnaise to make it better. ‘Throw some mayo on it,’ he says.
“I’ve grown up hearing stories of my Grandma Betty’s life for as long as I can remember. I’ve loved hearing about how she’d help her dad out on the farm as a girl, how they’d have to light the fire, milk the cow and churn the butter all before the recipe book would even come out. About how if it wasn’t found in the vegie patch, it wasn’t eaten, and if something was broken you wouldn’t race out and buy a new one, you’d fix it!
“But to do all of this I’d be spinning a yarn, I’d be ‘putting mayo on it’, because I wasn’t there. I didn’t experience the hardships of life on the land, in the days before electricity, microwave ovens and colour TV. I don’t know what it was like to make a cake without the convenience of a supermarket in which to find all of the ingredients. So instead of writing about what I don’t know, I’m going to write about what I do.
“I do know that my Grandma Betty was a beautiful cook. She made the finest shortbread biscuits, her macaroni and cheese was to die for, and never will you see anyone cut up a barbecue chook with more finesse. She told me that if she’d had a bad day, she’d retreat to her kitchen whereby a batch of freshly baked biscuits or cake, such as this carrot and pineapple one, would bring her joy and satisfaction. Funnily enough, if I think of all of my childhood memories of Grandma, they were always in the kitchen!
“So, as different as we both are — Grandma was an utter perfectionist in everything she did, whereas I’m a little more haphazard — I feel we’ll always have something in common. A love of good food. A love of cooking. A love of sharing recipes. I just wish Bet was still around to see this. I know she would have been proud as punch seeing her cake on display today.” Lo, 34, lives on a grazing and cropping farm at Boorowa, NSW, with husband Tim, 34, and their daughters Charlotte, 6, Annabelle, 4, and Primrose, 1, and their eight-year-old labrador cross kelpie, Blue. Read Lo’s blog at loskitchen.com. au or follow her on Instagram @los_kitchen
GRANDMA BETTY’S CARROT & PINEAPPLE CAKE
Serves 8
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup raw sugar
½ cup sultanas
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup canned crushed pineapple (undrained)
1 cup grated carrot
2 eggs, lightly beaten
100ml vegetable oil extra ⅓ cup walnuts, roughly broken
CREAM CHEESE & LEMON ICING
30g unsalted butter, softened
150g cream cheese, at room temperature 1⅓ cups icing sugar mixture, sifted 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a 20cm round cake tin and line base with baking paper.
Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, sultanas, walnuts, pineapple, carrot, egg and oil. Using a wooden spoon, mix until well combined. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean. Cool in tin for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To make icing, beat butter and cream cheese using an electric mixer until soft and creamy. Add icing sugar, lemon rind and juice, then beat until well combined.
Using a flat-bladed knife, spread icing over top of cooled cake. Top with extra walnuts and serve.
SHARE YOUR FAMILY FAVOURITES Do you have a recipe that has been passed down through generations of your family? Send it to us, the story behind it and a copy of a photograph of the relative who passed it on. Remember to include a telephone number. Email austcountrystyle@ bauer-media.com.au or send a letter to Heirloom Recipe, Country Style,
PO Box 4088, Sydney NSW, 1028.