A Jubilee Afternoon Tea, Part Two - Apple Streusel Cake, and Mini Crustless Quiches

If you've been following along, you may recall that I had an afternoon tea a couple of weeks ago in a small nod to HRH Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years of service. That post mainly contained some very half-@rsed recipes for sandwiches, which, duh, and a link to a scone recipe that I first posted quite some time ago.

Today, I will attempt to actually provide you with a meaningful recipe to make ammends for the last one. And then I will post a half-@rsed mini crustless quiche recipe below it. Again, the photos aren't any better than in the last post, but let's face it - eating the food is far more important than taking pretty photos!

APPLE STREUSEL CAKE (from AWW Bake)

1/2c plain flour (plus the below)

1/4c SR flour (plus the below)

1/3c brown sugar, firmly packed (plus the below)

1/2tsp cinnamon

80g chopped butter (plus the below)

200g softened butter

2tsp grated lemon rind

2/3c castor sugar

3 eggs

1c SR flour

1/2c plain flour

1/3c milk

25g butter

5 medium (750g) apples, peeled, cored, quartered and finely sliced

1/3c brown sugar.

Process the first 5 ingredients until they come together (mine came out like fine bread crumbs and I then had to squish it with my hands to make it come together, but even so it was crumbly. But who cares, because it tasted AWESOME). Wrap in gladwrap and freeze 1hr or until firm.

Beat the second group of ingredients until fluffy, then add the eggs, one at a time, until mixed. Do not over-mix.

Add the fourth group of ingredients to the batter in 2 batches (wet-dry-wet-dry), spread in greased, lined, 22cm round tin and bake at 180oC for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter from the last set of ingredients and cook the apples for around 5 minutes, until brown. Add the sugar and cook for 5 minutes more until thickened.

At the 25 minute mark, pull the cake out of the oven and, working quickly, spread the apple mixture across the top of the cake and top with grated streusel mix (mine was more of a crumbly powder which I poured evenly across it).

Bake for around 25 minutes more, stand for 10 minutes in the tin then turn onto a rack (I did this by putting foil over the top, turning it onto the foil then turning it, right side up, onto the rack). Serve warm or at room tempterature, preferably with a little cream. Yum.

Mmm, delicious, crumbly top... *drools* I think it's supposed to be chunkier and crumblier, but I liked mine just fine. Don't be fooled into baking it for longer to try and crisp the top up, because it won't work. It will only dry the cake out. Trust me, I'm a doctor (actually, I'm not).

HALF-@RSED MINI CRUSTLESS QUICHES:

For each batch of 12 or so mini quiches (made in a 12-hole, rounded-base patty pan tin), you will need 4 eggs, a slosh of milk and whatever you want to put in to flavour them. I imagine the more milk (or cream) you put in it, the less eggy the filling and the more... custardy? Quichey?... it becomes.

Spray the tin with oil spray, beat the eggs and milk until of a consistent texture, add fillings such as the following and bake at... gosh, I think it was about 190oC for around 10-15 minutes. Just keep an eye on them, okay? They'll puff up when you cook them, and then fall when you take them out of the oven.

The fillings:

Cherry/grape tomatoes, halved, oven roasted with some oil, salt and pepper. Mix a big squeeze of basil from one of those Garden Gourmet tubes into your egg mix and spoon into the pan, then pop one or two of these puppies on top.

OR

Baby spinach, wilted in a wee bit of olive oil, and some (home made, in my case!) feta cheese, crumbled. Mmm, home made cheese tastes so smug :)

Or, prosciutto, chopped up finely (this picture makes me so happy. As did eating several slices of prosciutto before I reminded myself that I actually needed to use it), and a handful of grated cheddar.

This lot were a little bit on the eggy side, but I guess that's what happens when you don't use a recipe! They were still tasty, though, especially the spinach/feta ones. And so quick, and, compared to the ones with pastry cases, low calorie. Which should balance out that cake with its dollop of cream quite nicely :)