Recipe time

The following is the recipe I use to make Anzac biscuits - these have been stunningly popular with the people I work with and are simple to make. The original source of the recipe was the Australian Womens Weekly.

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain white flour
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup coconut
125g (4oz) butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon boiling water.

Combine oats, sugar, flour and coconut in a bowl. Gently melt butter and golden syrup, stir while melting. Mix soda with boiling water then add to melted butter mixture. Stir into dry ingredients. Place tablespoonfuls of mixture onto lightly greased oven trays, allow room for spreading. Cook in slow oven for 20 minutes (around 150 degrees). Loosen while warm, then cool on trays.

The trick to making them into a chewy biscuit seems to be to cook them slow and maybe add a bit of extra golden syrup. The recipe should produce quite a flat biscuit.

The other recipe that I've made a couple of times recently is for a gooey chocolate cake. This is divine - a nice moist rich cake which is just as good heated the day or two after.

Topping

100g dark cooking chocolate
150g raspberry jam
125ml cream

Cake
30g cocoa powder
60ml milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
90g raspberry jam
115g softened butter
65g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g plain white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of sea salt
80g raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Generously grease a 22cm round cake tin.

For the topping, put the chocolate, jam and cream into a small pan over a medium heat. Stir until smooth, then pour into the prepared tin.

In a bowl, mix the cocoa powder with 125ml boiling water, stirring until smooth, then add the milk, vanilla and jam, whisking to combine.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl. Using a large spoon, fold the dry ingredients and the cocoa mix into the creamed mixture, alternating the two, then fold the raspberries through.

Pour the mixture into the cake time, ensuring you spread it right to the edge and cover the topping completely. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cake is firm. Leave the cake to cool in the tim for 15 minutes. If you're not serving straight away you can refrigerate the cake in the tin, but you will need to warm it in the oven before turning it out.

Turn the cake out onto a plate (be warned - use a big plate as the topping tends to run everywhere!). You may need to scrape some sauce out of the tin and spread it over the top of the cake. I think the cake is best served warm. Also, the last time I made this cake I made it the day before, let it cool, refrigerated it and re-heated it the following night. It was just as good as if we had eaten it the night it was cooked.

The downside of this recipe is the vast number of bowls needed - lots of washing up to do - but the cake is delicious!