JAZZING UP A FAVOURITE
FOR A TWIST ON A CLASSIC RECIPE, ROLL UP CARROT CAKE WITH SWEET CREAM CHEESE FILLING AND TOP WITH CANDIED WALNUTS
CARROT CAKE ROULADE WITH CANDIED WALNUTS
INGREDIENTS
¾ cup self-raising flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
3 eggs, at room temperature, separated ½ cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons hot milk
45g finely grated carrots
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
FILLING
375g cream cheese, softened
1 ½ tablespoons caster sugar ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅓ cup Sunbeam Raisins, chopped
CANDIED WALNUTS
⅓ cup caster sugar 20g butter
1 cup Sunbeam Walnuts
METHOD
Step 1:
Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan-forced. Grease a 25cm x 30cm swiss roll pan and line with baking paper. Sift the flour and mixed spice 3 times.
Step 2:
Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until thick and glossy. Add the egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating until combined. Beat for 5 minutes or until thick and pale. Pour the hot milk down the side of the bowl and sift the flour mixture over the top. Use a spatula to gently fold together until just combined. Sprinkle over the carrot and gently fold through. Pour onto the prepared pan and level the surface with a spatula. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden and springy to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Step 3:
Place a piece of baking paper on a clean bench and sprinkle evenly with the icing sugar and cinnamon. Turn the cooked cake out onto the sugar and cinnamon. Peel away the paper that was lining the pan. Carefully roll up the cake, starting at a short side. Set aside on a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 4:
Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese, sugar and cinnamon with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir through the Sunbeam raisins. Set aside.
Step 5:
To make the candied walnuts, place the sugar in a large frying pan over medium heat. Shake the pan over the heat until the sugar melts and becomes golden. Add the butter and swirl the pan until melted. Add the Sunbeam walnuts and toss to coat well. Transfer to a tray lined with baking paper. Set aside to cool. Coarsely chop.
Step 6:
Unroll the cake, spread evenly with the cream cheese mixture and then re-roll. Serve sprinkled with the candied walnuts and cut into slices.
There’s a stigma associated with cask wine being inferior quality wine and for those who overindulge. But what if it actually was the best way to package, ship and present wines? Casks are packaged in lightweight, recyclable materials. The wine stays fresh for four weeks.
WINESMITHS, CHARDONNAY, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, 2020
Made by Yalumba. Fuller bodied and varietal with white peach stonefruit, rockmelon with lemon and grapefruit citrus. Well-structured with plenty of good
Chardonnay fruit and a crisp, clean finish. Rating: 88/100
RRP: $14 (2L)
Alc: 13 per cent
BANTA BOX, ROSÉ, RIVERINA, NV
Newly released from Calabria wines in ecofriendly packaging. No mention of grapes, but flavours of white cherry, white chocolate, easy red summer fruits and light leafy freshness. Dry and savoury with a puckering finish. Rating: 86/100
RRP: $13.95 (2L)
Alc: 11 per cent
GONZO VINO, SHIRAZ, BENDIGO, 2020
This isn’t the cheapest cask, but it may be one of the best value. Ripe Shiraz from central Victoria with blueberry, blackberry, white pepper, walnut and rosewater. Medium bodied, fresh and vibrant. It’s eminently drinkable. Rating: 91/100
RRP: $60 (3L)
Alc: 12.8 per cent
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$175 per person, twin share
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Just 15 minutes south of the Gold Coast
Airport and 30 minutes from Byron Bay, Mantra on Salt Beach is the ideal base to explore the NSW North Coast, surrounding Tweed Valley and nearby Gold Coast Hinterland.
This Kingscliff accommodation is a short walk away from the white sandy beach that provides the perfect location for a family holiday.
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RELAXING RAINFOREST RETREAT O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat
$425 per person, twin share
This package includes five nights in a mountain view room, country style morning and afternoon tea, early morning bird walk, audio-visual presentation and free Wi-Fi.
This Gold Coast hinterland accommodation is surrounded by walking trails, waterfalls and birdlife.
There is so much to experience and explore at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat.
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The team at O’Reilly’s are all about educating visitors about the environment and natural habitat of the rainforest flora and fauna, as well as the history of the area.
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Despite working with diverse groups and individuals across a range of topics, the same themes tend to appear from time to time. A common theme recently has been the topic of time.
Discussions have included time management, managing an increasing workload in the time available, and improving the use of time.
There are many ways that I could approach this topic and it largely depends on the person I’m working with and what they want to work on, however, as with most of our conversations, it all starts with awareness and perception.
So, let’s start with this: time does not exist, it’s an illusion. If you search this topic, there are a lot of articles, TED Talks and research, such as theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli’s book The Order of Time and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
Yet, we must all work within the construct of time and therefore have a relationship with it. For some of us though, time can start to rule our lives.
TELLING THE TIME
Since the gnomon of about 2300BC to the Egyptian shadow clock of about 1500BC, humans have now developed myriad ways to access time.
We don’t even have to wear a watch if we don’t want to because there’s always a clock nearby and some people seem to have an internal clock that can be extremely accurate.
USING TIME
Reflect for a moment on how many times in a day or an hour you check the time — I’m guessing that for many of us it’s way more than several.
So much to do, so little time. Where did that time go? I haven’t got time. Modern life seems to revolve around how much we can get done in a certain amount of time, keeping ourselves busy and cramming way too much into the time we perceive that we have available.
PERCEPTION AND EXPERIENCE OF TIME
No two people view time the same way. Some are structured and methodical in their approach, while others are spontaneous and flexible and thrive on last-minute rushes.
Neither is right or wrong provided it works for you and achieves what is required by you or those you work and live with.
WE TEND TO VIEW TIME IN ADVANCE
If we have a list of tasks that we expect to get through in say four hours, and don’t get them done, we tend to feel like we’ve wasted time.
If instead we choose to view time in reverse — get to the end of the four hours and reflect on what we’ve achieved — we tend to feel better. Though we may not have done what we expected, looking at time in reverse can help us feel like we’ve made a good investment of time rather than wasted it.
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
When we rush through a list of tasks just to get them done, we may focus on quantity over quality, make errors and create more work by having to redo it, which takes more time.
When we work in the moment, paying attention to what and how we are doing things, we bring order and flow, create quality over quantity and add a different dimension to what we are doing and the end result. As a result, it feels like we have achieved something meaningful in a short time frame.
LIFE MOVES IN CYCLES
Another way to view time is cyclic as opposed to linear: a minute, hour, day, week, month, year etc are all cycles.
When we start to move with these cycles, we are more likely to create rhythm, flow and order, which is probably what we were seeking in the first place.
WHAT COULD YOU CONSIDER IF YOUR CURRENT APPROACH ISN’T WORKING?
If you’re cramming too much into the time available, consider what is really important and get rid of what isn’t.
If someone else is expecting you to do more than is possible, have a conversation with them about expectations: yours and theirs.
If you’re getting stuck, walk away from what you’re doing. A quick break, stretch, walk, snack, water or a cuppa might feel like poor use of your time, but it allows you to go back to the work refreshed, focused and ready to continue.
We can’t manage time, but we can find our own way to work with it. If you ever find yourself caught in the time trap, it’s worth pondering what will help you find or regain your natural rhythm, flow and order.