Gift wrapping with flowers

I have pastry hands, not origami hands, and this is partly because I have difficulty following instructions for origami.  I seem to get to the half way point in any paper folding activity when things start to go awry.  I have the same issue with instructions for any kind of electrical equipment.  It is all gobbledygook to me.  Fortunately, I have a brother who understands these things and provides tech support for my entire family.  Unfortunately, I don't know an origami master who I can call on. I really like origami and have a beautiful book on how to make origami flowers.  I haven't managed to complete one yet and am starting to develop origami related fear.  However, I have managed to stop this becoming any worse by discovering how to make a really simple flower of a non-origami nature.

Start by choosing a selection of double-sided scrapbooking paper in complementary colours.  You can make the leaves using the same paper, but if green leaves are more your thing, you'll need a sheet of green paper too. You'll also need some floral wire stems and craft glue.

Cut a square of paper, about 13 x 13 cm.

Either draw a spiral in pencil on the paper or, trust yourself, and start cutting.  It doesn't have to be even.  Nature isn't.

Roll the paper up until you reach the centre and then let the paper unravel in your hand.  It should now resemble a ranunculus.

Glue a floral stem onto the back of the flower.

Cut out a leaf shape and glue it over the top of the stem.  I used a lilly pilly leaf as a template.

Make a whole bunch.....

....and place it on a present for your Mum.

Banoffee Pie

Today is the Queen's Birthday holiday in Western Australia, and it seems fitting that I mark the occasion with the final post in my baking series to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, aka the Jubilation series.  I'm finishing with the great English classic from the 1970s - Banoffee Pie.

The first time I ever heard of Banoffee Pie was in the movie "Love Actually" when Juliet, the character played by Keira Knightley, knocks on Mark, the art gallery owner's, front door, and asks "Banoffee pie?"  You see a tantalisingly short glimpse of a slice of pie in a white box, but the pie isn't mentioned or seen again.  Over the years, I've often thought of that Banoffee Pie and wondered what it is.  And today is the day I found out.  

The pie was created in 1972 by the chef at The Hungry Monk restaurant in East Sussex.  The word  "banoffee" is a combination of the words banana, toffee and coffee to reflect the original ingredients of banana, soft caramel toffee (made from boiling cans of sweetened condensed milk), and coffee flavoured whipped cream.

I've gone semi-traditional with this recipe. Rather than boiling cans of sweetened condensed milk for 3 hours, I've made the dulce de leche, another first for me, using the oven method.  In the process, I've discovered that dulce de leche would make the perfect break-up food. It's gooey, sweet and comforting, but should only be eaten in small quantities otherwise you'll end up feeling a bit sick and a bit sad.

I also haven't flavoured the whipped cream.  The coffee on top of all that sweetness would have made my head, actually anyone's head, explode. Instead, I've decorated the top of the pie with a Flake.

Banoffee Pie

Pastry

250g plain flour
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g pure icing sugar, sifted
2 eggs
pinch salt

Dulce de Leche

2 x 395g cans of sweetened condensed milk

Filling

1 quantity of dulce de leche
2 medium bananas
juice of 1 lemon
600ml thickened cream
1 Cadbury Flake bar

Method

Make the dulce de leche first. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees celsius   Pour the sweetened condensed milk into an ovenproof dish and cover tightly with foil.  Put the dish into a roasting pan and fill with hot water until half way up the dish.

Place in the oven for an hour and a half, checking the water level every 40 or so minutes and topping up, if required.  (I used one can at a time as my baking dish wasn't big enough so the cooking time may change if you use both cans at once).  The dulce de leche is ready when it has an overall caramel appearance. Take the dish out of the water and whip the dulce de leche until smooth.  Cool and then store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.

Make the pastry by putting the flour, icing sugar, salt and butter into a food processor and pulsing lightly until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the eggs one at a time and pulse until combined.  The dough will come away from the sides and form a ball.  When it does this, stop, and tip the contents onto a floured surface.  Form the dough into a disc shape and refrigerate for an hour.  Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out flat.  Gently lift it into a tart tin, and refrigerate for at least an hour.  When ready, blind bake the pastry shell at 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes.  Remove the pastry weights, and bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown.

When the pastry shell has cooled, you can start putting the pie together. First, spread the dulce de leche into the tart tin.

Cut the bananas into thin slices and toss them in the lemon juice.   Top the dulce de leche with the bananas.

Whip the cream to soft peaks and spread over the bananas.  Crumble a Flake over the top.

This is such a Seventies dessert, and someone in the UK probably ate it in 1977 to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee.  You can just see batwing sleeves with every mouthful.