Anna Sultana’s Halloween Barmbrack, The Orionid Meteor Shower & The Full Hunter’s Moon

Can you believe it? 

October is more than halfway gone.

That means it’s almost time for Halloween!

The holidays, especially the ones late in the year, were a hectic time for Ma.

Not only did she have a ton of Maltese recipes to prepare, but she also had to include recipes that we had learned from our neighbours and her co-workers, as well as those recipes that had become a part of Maltese traditions by way of Napoleon and the British navy.

Yes, Napoleon. 

Recipes used every way they could to find their way into Ma’s recipe files.

One such recipe, along with its Halloween traditions, is Barmbrack, an Irish tea bread filled with raisins and dried fruits.

It was a popular item to enjoy at 4 o’clock in Malta, where it was served as toasted slices with butter, along with a nice hot cup or two of tea.

Barmbrack also has a Halloween tradition attached - the loaf is baked with small items mixed into the batter, and they are supposed to foretell a person’s future:

• a bit of cloth meant bad luck or you would be poor
• the coin meant you would enjoy good fortune or be rich
• the ring meant you would marry within the year
• the pea meant you would not marry that year
• the stick meant you would have an unhappy marriage or be in disputes
• the medal, usually of the Virgin Mary, meant you would be going into the priesthood or convent (The medal isn’t usually included any more.)

Hopefully each person’s slice would have one of the items.

Of course there was always the risk that a nice thick slice could hold a weird combination - such as both the pea and the ring - or nothing at all.

Well, cooking and holiday customs are not exact sciences!

Hints:

You can use just raisins (your choice as to kind) or a mixture of raisins, currants, cherries and citrus peel. 

This is a great recipe for using up bits left over from baking a fruitcake. 

The dried fruit should marinate for 8 hours or longer.

You can prepare the fruit the day before and bake the next afternoon for your tea time.

Some dried fruits absorb more liquid than others so you might need to add more tea. 

To be ready, have some extra cold tea on hand.

It also works fine replacing the egg with a tablespoon of applesauce.

Barmrack is best served fresh and warm but will last for up to five days.

I remember noticing that the grownups would often brush their slices with a syrup that wasn’t offered to us kiddies.

Our parents would also add a drop or two of the syrup to their tea.

Well, they needed some fortification for the upcoming holidays!

         Whiskey Syrup

Place in a saucepan

1/4 Cup water

3/4 Cup granulated sugar

Juice from 1/2 lemon (about 2 Tablespoons)

Heat over a medium burner. Do not stir. 

Swirling the pot occasionally, boil the mixture until it’s a dark golden brown. 

When the mixture is dark, remove from heat and add 

1/2 cup cold water 

2 Tablespoons whiskey

Bring the mixture back to a boil. 

Cook for 1-2 minutes, until everything is combined. 

Lightly brush slices of bread with the syrup and add a nice spread of good butter.

It's also delicious in a cup of tea or coffee.

If there was time, Ma made this special butter for us kiddies.

         Honey Butter

Place in a small bowl 

3 Tablespoons salted butter at room temperature

1 Tablespoon liquid honey

Mash together until well combined.         

                                   Barmbrack

Place in a bowl

1 1/3 Cups dried fruit 

1 1/4 Cups cold strong black tea

Place the bowl in the fridge and let the raisins soak 8 hours or overnight.

After a few hours you could check to see if they need more liquid.

Grease well an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan

Preheat the oven to 350° F

Combine in a large bowl 

2 Cups flour

3/4 Cup brown sugar 

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 teaspoons baking powder

the cloth, coin, ring, pea, stick and medal (optional) 

Stir in

the marinated fruit

Add

the tea left from marinating the fruit

1 egg

Stir together. If the batter looks too dry add a bit more cold tea.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350º F for 1 hour. 

If the top is browning too quickly, place tin foil lightly over the top. 

It is ready when it’s golden brown on top and sounds hollow when tapped.

Serve warm with butter and/or jam.

Don’t forget to make a pot of your favourite tea or coffee.

About the sky, thanks to the folks at The Farmers' Almanac…

October 21 & 22 - The Orionid Meteor shower peaks! This shower is the cosmic dust from the most famous comet, Halley’s comet. The meteors appear to emanate from a point near the Orion-Gemini border in Orion’s upraised club, hence the name. View overhead from 1 to 2 a.m. local daylight time until dawn; you may see 20-25 meteors per hour. 

But the waxing gibbous Moon may interfere with viewing.

October 24 - The Hunter’s Moon will be astronomically full at 12:45 p.m. In this phase, the entire disc of the Moon is fully illuminated by direct sunlight. Though the Moon is only technically in this phase for a few seconds, it is considered “full” for the entire day of the event and appears full for three days so you can get out and enjoy it! Learn more about how this Moon got its name in our short video.

October 31 - The second of two Last Quarter Moon phases this month, at 12:40 p.m. In this phase, the Moon looks like a half-Moon in the sky. One-half of the Moon is illuminated by direct sunlight while the illuminated part is decreasing, on its way to the New Moon (invisible) phase.

The Last Quarter Moon is at perigee (twice in one month!) at 4:22 p.m., meaning it’s at its closest point to Earth in its orbit. The reason we’re seeing the second Moon at perigee is that the lunar calendar is 29.5 days long, which is shorter than our Gregorian calendar.

Anna Sultana's German Oven Pancake & Yorkshire Pudding / The Autumnal Equinox & The Harvest Moon

I recently posted the recipe for Yorkshire Pudding.

It’s been around a long time, and I really think it has inspired a few variations.
Cousin recipes, if you like.

German Oven Pancake is similar to Yorkshire Pudding.

But you can make a meal of it and serve it as a brunch.

You can also serve it as a dessert

Ma got a recipe for German Oven Pancake from a neighbour, whom, I’m sure, got it from another neighbour, who got it from her mother, and so on...

So it goes with good old recipes.

Ma made a change so that she could save some time.

But she still called them German Oven Pancakes.

It would’ve been confusing if she called them Maltese Oven Pancakes.

Well, that’s what Ma said when she served them.

Hints:

If you are feeding a crowd follow Ma's example.

She found the recipe easy to multiply and that it could be baked in pie plates.

If your plates are glassware, as Ma’s were, reduce the temperature by 25º F to 325º F.

Here’s how Ma made her pancakes:

Have on hand 4 9-inch pie plates

In each pie plate place

2 Tablespoons butter

Place the pie plates in the oven to melt the butter.

Place in a large bowl

8 eggs

2 teaspoons salt

Beat together.

Add

1 Cup flour

Beat until smooth.

Add 

2 Cups milk

Beat to blend.

Remove the plates from the oven and jiggle them to spread the melted butter.

Pour one quarter of the batter into each plate.

Return the plates to the oven and bake 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven, loosen, fill, roll up and place each pancake on a platter.

About the filling... you’re going to need more filling than in the recipes below.

Double or triple the recipes, or choose two or three and give your family a choice.

If you’re in a rush, canned pie filling can also be used.

The Apple Filling can also be made using peaches, nectarines or berries.

If you're using blueberries in the Berry Filling use lemon juice instead of orange.

If you want the pancakes to be more of a meal, they can also be served in the pie plates - either as is or rolled - one per person, with your choice of filling.

                                   German Oven Pancake

Preheat oven 350º F

Place in medium bowl

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat together.

Add

1/4 Cup flour

Beat until smooth.

Add 

1/2 Cup milk

Beat to blend.

Melt in a 10 inch oven proof skillet

2 Tablespoons butter

Pour in the batter.

Bake 25 minutes.

Remove from oven, loosen and place the pancake on a platter.

Add filling, roll up, cut into portions if you wish to, and serve.

                                   Filling Ideas

Jam Filling

Spread on a cooked pancake

1/2 to 3/4 Cup plum jam (or another jam, such as strawberry)

Roll up and top with

1/4 Cup sour cream

2 teaspoons sugar

2 Tablespoons toasted walnuts

Slice and serve.

Apple Filling

Melt in heavy skillet

1/3 Cup margarine

Add 

4 Cups peeled apple slices

Cook 5 minutes.

Combine in a small bowl

1/3 Cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the cooked apple slices.

Cover and simmer another 5 minutes.

Uncover and cook 5 minutes more.

Spread the fruit over the cooked pancake.

Roll up and sprinkle with

1 Tablespoon sugar

Slice and serve.

Berry Filling

Thaw in a saucepan

1 package (about 10 ounces) frozen raspberries or strawberries

Mash with a fork and heat.

Combine in a cup

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

2 Tablespoons orange juice

Add to raspberries and continue cooking, stirring until thick.

Spread on the cooked pancake

1 Cup sour cream

Roll up and pour the cooked berries over it.

Slice and serve.

Dairy Filling

Spread on the cooked pancake

1 Cup sour cream or ricotta

Roll up and top with

1/2 Cup sour cream

4 Tablespoons toasted walnuts

1 Tablespoon sugar (regular or vanilla sugar)

Slice and serve with lemon wedges.

Back to the Yorkshire Pudding…

Thanks to a misunderstanding with Napoleon, after which Malta became a part of the British Empire, English recipes became popular in Malta.

Of course Ma had her own way of making Yorkshire Pudding.

She had developed her own money-saving way of making it.

Yorkshire Puddings can be made even if you haven’t just cooked a large roast.

Really.

Bacon fat, lard, rendered chicken fat, and vegetable oil can also be used. 

The different fats will give different flavours:

Bacon fat will give your pudding a salty, mildly smoky flavour

Beef drippings or lard will add a beefy flavour 

Chicken fat will give a more delicate, yet still meaty, flavour

Vegetable oil is perfect for when you’re serving something vegetarian, like mushrooms

While you can’t use butter because the milk fats burn at a low temperature, you can use clarified butter, which is easy to make:

Gently melt butter in a pot for about 10 minutes, until the milk solids look like they are about to burn. Strain the liquid into a jar, and discard the milk solids.

The strained oily liquid is clarified butter and can be used for frying, since the removal of the milk solids allows it to be heated to higher temperatures without smoking.

This recipe can be made using the pan in which you roasted the meat.

You'll need 1/2 Cup fat. Remove and save the rest of the drippings for another meal.

You can also make the pudding in pie pans, cast iron frying pans, or baking pans, or you can divide the fat between 12 muffin cups.

When pouring the batter into the pans or muffin cups the containers should be filled about 1/3 of the way. 

If you’re using a glass pan, reduce temperature by 25º F.

                                   Yorkshire Pudding

Serves 8

When the meat is almost done, sift together into a bowl

1 Cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt or 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Set aside.

Place in another bowl

4 eggs

1 Cup milk

Beat together until light and foamy. 

Remove the roast from the oven and place the meat on a platter to rest.

Remove excess fat if using the roasting pan, or scoop out 1/2 Cup of drippings to add to the other pan(s).

Place the oven rack in the middle position.

Preheat oven to 425° F

Place in the pan(s) or divide in the muffin tins

1/2 Cup beef drippings or other fats (see above)

Put the pan(s) in the oven and get the fat hot. 

While the fat is being heated, add the dry ingredients into the egg / milk mixture and stir until blended with no lumps. 

Carefully take the pan(s) out of the oven and pour in the batter. 

Put the pan(s) back in the oven.

Bake until the pudding is puffed and golden.

This can take 12 minutes in the muffin tins, or 15 to 20 minutes in the other pan(s).

Remove from the oven. 

If prepared in large pan you can slice and serve. 

If prepared in muffin tins, remove the puddings and place them on a platter to serve.

This is delicious with gravy, if you’ve made some.

About the sky, thanks to the folks at The Farmers' Almanac…

September 21 - Venus reaches greatest brilliancy on September 21st, shining at magnitude –4.8 and casting an eerily brilliant light from low in the west. Since the end of February, it has been a very prominent object in the evening sky soon after sunset. 

By month’s end the Red Planet sets well before the end of twilight. Its sunlit hemisphere currently is oriented mostly away from the Earth, so it appears as a crescent. Telescopic observers may want to keep Venus under surveillance and watch this crescent grow rapidly thinner and longer. Even with steadily held binoculars you might discern it, especially toward the end of the month, but, unfortunately, Venus may be a bit too low after sunset to show a steady image. 

By mid-October, Venus sets only a half-hour after the Sun and then will be gone. It will pass between the Earth and the Sun on October 27th, then a couple of weeks later it will reappear in the predawn sky as a “morning star”.

September 22 - The Autumnal Equinox, 9:54 p.m. While there’s nothing to see in the sky, this is the official first day of Fall!

September 24 - Full  Moon at 10:52 p.m. At this phase, the visible Moon is fully illuminated by direct sunlight. 

But is it the full Harvest Moon or the full Corn Moon?  

Because this full Moon is nearest the autumnal equinox (September 22 in 2018) so it is the Harvest Moon. When the September full Moon is not the Harvest Moon, we call it the Corn or Barley Moon.

Yorkshire Potted Shrimps and Yorkshire Pudding

Last month we celebrated Folklorama in Winnipeg.

Inspired by the delicious food we enjoyed there, and a few of the traditional food featuring episodes we watched on the British television show Escape to the Country, we’ve been trying English recipes.

A while ago we watched a couple exploring houses in Yorkshire and, lucky for us, the hostess/real estate agent on Escape went to a food shop and sampled the classic local dish, Potted Shrimps.

The shrimps are cooked, placed in a small bowl, and then covered with melted butter.

Potted Shrimps was created when people didn’t have luxuries like refrigerators.

The reason for the butter cover is that it was used as a preservative for the shrimp, as well as for other seafood, chopped meats or cheese.

In the 1826 Housewife's Manual Meg Dods said that game "to be sent to distant places" would keep for a month if potted correctly with a layer of melted butter.

We have refrigerators now, so the preservative aspect isn’t important anymore.

But it’s an easy recipe and can be used as a 'can be done in advance' appetizer.

And it’s delicious, too.

Potted Shrimps can also be served as a Yorkshire Shrimp Tea, by serving it with hot buttered toast, fresh lemon wedges and a pot of hot tea. 

Potted Shrimps also has a bit of literary history…

It was a favourite dish of Ian Fleming, who often ordered the dish when he dined at Scott’s Restaurant on Mount Street in Mayfair, London. 

Fleming decided that his fictional hero, James Bond, would share his love of this dish.

So, if you’d like to make a theme night of it, serve the Potted Shrimps with a drink that’s been shaken, not stirred.

Hints:

Some recipes call for clarified butter, which is easy to make.

Gently melt butter in a pot for about 10 minutes, until the milk solids look like they are about to burn. Strain the liquid into a jar, and discard the milk solids.

The strained oily liquid is clarified butter and can be used for frying, since the removal of the milk solids allows it to be heated to higher temperatures without smoking.

The recipe can also be see to make Potted Crab Meat.

This recipe has been around a long time, so of course there are variations.

Some recipes called for a 1/2 teaspoon of anchovy paste or 1 chopped anchovy fillet, or Gentleman's Relish, along with 1 Tablespoon lemon juice.

White pepper, which gives a more subtle flavour, or cloves or cayenne pepper have been included in other recipes.

There’s also a recipe which included a Tablespoon each of lemon juice and finely chopped shallot, in addition to a pinch of bay leaf powder and a dash of Tabasco sauce.

The procedure is the same for all recipes, while the spices are open to variations.

Suit yourself and enjoy.

Potted Shrimp is best made the day before and left in the refrigerator overnight, but it can also be made a few days in advance, which makes sense since the whole point of the melted butter is to serve as a preservative.

You can also serve Potted Shrimps on toast, with pickles on the side.

                                   Potted Shrimps

Serves 6

Cook and peel

12 ounces prawns or shrimps

Set aside.

Place in a small pot

3 1/2 ounces unsalted butter

Melt over a low heat.

Stir in

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg 

Add the cooked prawns or shrimps 

Stir to warm the shrimp through.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the seafood and press them into the ramekins. 

Allow to cool, then chill for 10 to 15 minutes or until set. 

Reheat the butter and pour it over the prawns to cover. 

Place the ramekins in the refrigerator to set overnight.

Heat oven to 375º F 

Cut a ciabatta loaf into thin slices, and place slices on a pan.

Brush slices with olive oil (about 1 Tablespoon should be enough for the loaf), and toast in the oven. 

Keep an eye on the slices so they don't burn.

Once golden, arrange slices on a serving board.

Serve the bread with the potted prawns and lemon wedges 

Hope you enjoyed your shrimp with a York twist.

Here are a few more shrimp recipes:

Anna Sultana’s Shrimp with Lemon Garlic Sauce

Anna Sultana’s Jambalaya, Maltese Style

Anna Sultana’s Linguine All’astice

Anna Sultana's zalza pikkanti (Fish in Caper Sauce, Maltese Style)

Carmela Soprano’s Shrimp Aragonate

Carmela Soprano's Lobster Fra Diavolo / Jumbo Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Carmela Soprano's Shrimp Scampi - Shrimp in Garlic Butter Sauce

Carmela Soprano's Linguine with Spicy Shrimp and Tomato Sauce

While we’re exploring Yorkshire recipes I’ll include a recipe for Yorkshire Pudding. 

It’s an easy recipe which can add a little something extra to a roast beef dinner, especially if you’re serving leftovers.

But I don't think it would go well with the Potted Shrimps.

                                   Yorkshire Pudding

Serves 8

Preheat oven to 450° F

Place muffin pan in oven to heat. 

Combine in a medium bowl

3/4 Cup flour 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

Place in another medium bowl

2 eggs 

1 Cup milk 

1 Tablespoon butter, melted 

Whisk until blended. 

Add to flour mixture. 

Mix well.

Remove hot muffin pan from oven.

Grease 8 of the muffin cups.

Pour batter (about 1/4 cup) into each of the the prepared cups.

Bake 35 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350° F and bake another 20 minutes.

The tops should be puffed and golden brown. 

Transfer the puddings from the muffin pan to a wire rack. 

Use the tip of sharp knife to cut a slit in each pudding's top to vent the steam. 

Serve with gravy. 

Anna Sultana’s Irish Tea Cake, the Solar Eclipse and The Perseid Meteor Shower

Folklorama is in full swing here in Winnipeg!

it’s a wonderful way to travel the world - you can visit forty countries in two weeks, yet still sleep in your own nice comfy bed.

For a senior it can’t get much better than that!

Visiting some of the pavilions reminds me of meals I enjoyed when I was a child in College Point.

We had neighbours from around the world - especially folks from Ireland, Germany and Poland.

We would eat leftovers for lunch at school, and bored with the familiar, often traded our lunches.

It was a fantastic way to enjoy really good home recipes which had been prepared by very experienced cooks.

Just like going to a Folklorama pavilion!

One of the recipes Ma got from a neighbour was Irish Tea Cake.

It’s an easy recipe - just perfect for when it’s too hot to go to too much trouble with something complicated.

The cake is similar to a pound cake, and can be served with fresh fruit as is or topped with whipped cream or ice cream.

Or you can serve it just as it is.

Hints:

This recipes can also be baked using two loaf pans.

Want a bit more flavour? Use lemon or almond extract instead of vanilla, or a mixture of 1 teaspoon vanilla and 2 teaspoons lemon or almond extract.

Or use a mixture of 2 teaspoons vanilla and 1 teaspoon lemon or almond extract.

You know what your family likes and what is in your cupboard.

If the batter is too stiff, you can add up to two tablespoons of additional milk.

If you’re using loaf pans, let them bake 1 hour.

After they’re baked, remove them from the oven and let cool for an hour, then remove the loaves from the pans.

Ma used a generous dusting of confectioner’s sugar.

The cake is also good without the dusting, or with a lemon frosting:

Place in a medium mixer bowl

2 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature

Beat at medium speed until light.

Beat in

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Turn down the speed to low and add, 1/2 Cup at a time

1 1/2 Cups confectioners’ sugar

Spread over the cooled cake.

                                                Irish Tea Cake

Grease and flour 2 9-inch cake pans

Combine together in a large bowl

3 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350º F

In a large mixer bowl place

1 Cup butter, softened

2 Cups sugar

Beat together until light and fluffy. 

Beat in, one at a time 

4 eggs

Stir in

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Making 3 dry and 2 liquid additions, add the dry ingredients alternately with

1 Cup milk

Divide the mixture between the 2 prepared pans and spread evenly.

Bake for 50 minutes, until golden brown and a tester inserted in the centre of the cakes comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool 45 minutes, then remove cakes from the pans and turning them out onto serving plates.

Before serving dust each cake with

1/4 to 1/2 Cup confectioners’ sugar

Slice and serve as is, or with fresh fruit.

About the sky, thanks to the folks at The Farmers' Almanac…

August 11—The Dog Days of Summer come to an end. Beginning on (or about) August 11th, Sirius comes above the east-southeast horizon just far enough ahead of the Sun to be visible against the bright morning twilight. In the days that follow, Sirius rises a little earlier and gets a little higher in the sky with each passing morning. Although we have come to say that the Dog Days end with the first appearance of Sirius, actually seeing it strongly depends on your location and clarity of the sky.

New Moon at 5:58 a.m. This New Moon (also a “supermoon”) brings in a partial solar eclipse in the daytime in the Arctic, far-northeastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia and most of Asia for about 3.5 hours. Read more about this eclipse here!

August 11-13—The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks. August is often regarded as “meteor month” with the appearance of one of the best displays of shooting stars of the year. These showers are named for the constellation Perseus (hence “the Perseids”) where they appear to emanate from, but are bits and pieces of the Comet Swift-Tuttle which visited the inner part of the Solar System in 1992. These meteors, no bigger than grains of sand, enter the Earth’s atmosphere about 80 miles above its surface. This year’s display is expected to be one of the best because the Moon will be gone from the night sky. Read more about this year’s shower.

August 13—Look to the western horizon after sunset to see the thin crescent Moon with Venus. But better catch them before the dip below the horizon at nightfall!

August 14—You have a chance to spot Venus with the Moon! Look to the east, one hour before sunrise.

August 14-16 — After sunset both Venus and Jupiter can be seen alongside the waxing crescent Moon. Because it’s moving east, throughout these nights the Moon will move closer to Jupiter as its path takes it away from Venus.

Anna Sultana’s Lemon Surprise Cake / The Summer Triangle

It’s funny how a holiday can make you think of a certain dessert. Think about it… 

Love it or hate it, everyone expects to see a fruitcake at Christmas.

And what’s Thanksgiving without a slice or two of pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream?

Here we are, in June, and every Canadian is in summer vacation mode.

We’ve gone through our usual long winter and can’t just serve another winter dessert.

Cobblers and coffeecakes - good as they are - have their place, and that’s not at the end of a summer meal or barbecue.

Tangy lemon recipes are perfect for ending summer meals and barbecues.

Lemon Surprise Cake is a summer recipe that was popular when I was a kid.

Ma wasn’t big on buying soda, but she'd heard a few of her co-workers talk about this really easy cake recipe.

Then one of her friends brought a slice to work and shared a bite with Ma.

Ma liked it and, when Ma made a cake for us, we did, too.

Hints:

You can use sugar-free soda.

If the frosting to too thick it can be thinned with a little water or lemon juice or milk.

For a lighter touch you can make a simple glaze:

Mix together 

2 Cups confectioners’ sugar

6 tablespoons lemon juice

Drizzle over the cooled cake.

You can also make this into a poke cake:

Using a fork, poke holes in the warm cake and pour the lemon glaze over the cake. Cool the cake and serve.

You could melt some chocolate and drizzle it on the top of the cake. 

White chocolate goes well with the lemon lime taste.

You can also use a container of fluffy type frosting or just give the cooled cake a dusting of confectioners’ sugar.

                        Lemon Surprise Cake

Heavily grease and flour an angel food cake pan or a bundt pan  

Preheat oven to 350º F

Place in a large mixer bowl

1 1/2 Cups butter, at room temperature

3 Cups sugar

Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Turn down the speed to low and add one at a time

5 large eggs, at room temperature

Beat well after each addition.

Add

2 Tablespoons lemon extract

3/4 Cup 7-up or Sprite or any lemon-lime soda 

Stir until just blended.

Stir in, 1 Cup at a time

3 Cups flour 

Stir until just blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

A toothpick inserted into the cake should come out dry.

Cool cake in the pan for 10 minutes before removing.

Run a knife around, between the cake and the cake pan, to loosen the cake.

Carefully remove the cake and cool it on a wire rack.

Place the cake on a pretty serving platter.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the icing:

                        Lemon Icing

Place in a medium mixer bowl

4 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature

Beat at medium speed until light.

Beat in

1 teaspoon lemon extract

Turn down the speed to low and add, 1 Cup at a time

3 Cups confectioners’ sugar

Spread over the cooled cake.

Garnish with slivers of lemon rind.

About the sky, thanks to the folks at The Farmers' Almanac…

Look for the Big Dipper asterism, referred to as The Plough by those in the U.K. As the most recognizable star pattern in our night sky, it will be high in the north in the evening hours during the month of June.

June 6 - Mercury passes from the morning to the evening sky. Observers who closely follow Venus may be able to see Mercury as early as the evening of the 13th in rather bright skies, about a half hour after sunset and hovering just above the west-northwest horizon nearly 30-degrees to the lower right of Venus. 

Mercury, at magnitude -1.4, will then match Sirius (the brightest star) yet will be fainter than Venus by nearly three magnitudes. By month’s end, Mercury dims to magnitude -0.1, but is more easily found, setting 1½ hours after the sun.

June 9 - Stargazers can still spot the Summer Triangle on these spring evenings at dusk. Look for a triangle that’s composed of the three brightest stars in the sky: Deneb, Vega, and Altair. 

June 11 - At dusk, Venus forms a nearly straight and horizontal line, just over 10° long with the much fainter “Twin stars,” Pollux and Castor. For viewers at mid-northern latitudes, June is the month when Venus appears highest right after sunset. This dazzling world (magnitude -4.0) is more than 25-degrees high at sunset now for observers around 40-degree north latitude. It sets about 2½ hours after the Sun at the start of June and maintains this interval throughout the month.

June 13 - Tonight is a Supermoon! But you won’t see it. That’s because its in the “new” phase. The new Moon will be at its closest point to Earth in its orbit on the 14th.

A lovely crescent Moon and Venus likely will attract attention to even casual sky watchers at dusk, although they are not really all that close to each other; Venus appears 7 or 8-degrees to the right of the moon as they descend the west-northwest sky.

June 14 - Earliest sunrise of 2018. This happens every year around mid-June. The Moon is also at perigee, its closest position to Earth, at 7:45 p.m.

June 15-16 - After sunset look for Venus and Mercury near the waxing crescent Moon, 30-45 minutes after sundown. Mercury will be beneath Venus and very close to the horizon.

Anna Sultana’s Sweet Heart Pound Cake for Mother’s Day

The weather’s been so odd lately.

Guess what - Mother’s Day is this weekend.

You’ve been reminded.

A light cake goes well with anything, whether it's a formal meal or a barbecue.

Speaking of Mothers and cake, I just remembered a cake that Ma surprised us with one Spring day.

She told us that the clipping said that it had a sweet tart flavour.

I forget who started it, but we started to tease her about making a sweet heart cake.

Well, you know how family jokes go… from then on we called it Ma’s Sweet Heart Cake.

And we enjoyed it every time she made it.

Actually, that name suits it.

It’s delicious and uses up whatever you have in your fruit bowl.

In my book, anything that is that accommodating is a sweet heart of a recipe.

Hints:

You can line a greased regular loaf pan with parchment paper leaving about a 2 inch overhang on the sides, so that you can remove it easily.

This is a cake that is open to suggestions.

You can use 1 Tablespoon each of your favourite three from the following: orange zest, lemon zest, lime zest and grapefruit zest, finely grated, instead of 3 Tablespoons of just one type of zest.

Or you can use half and half, or two to one. Your choice. It’s your cake.

Zest is a handy thing to have. You can wrap zest in plastic wrap or aluminum.

You can also place it in a small freezable bag or container.

It stays good up to a month.

Instead of the orange or lemon extract you can use 2 Tablespoons of any citrus juice or vanilla extract in the cake.

You can also top the cake with a Simple Syrup:

Place in a heatproof measuring cup or bowl

3  Tablespoons water

Heat water in a microwave until hot. 

Add 

1/4 Cup sugar

Stir to dissolve. 

Stir in 

1  Tablespoon lime juice

1  Tablespoon lime zest, finely grated

Allow simple syrup to cool to room temperature. 

Brush the simple syrup over the completely cooled cake. 

Let the simple syrup soak into the cake before serving, at least 15 minutes.

About the syrup… 

instead of the lime juice and zest, you can use orange, lemon or grapefruit.

If you’re in a rush, or Mom prefers a dusting of confectioners’ sugar, that works, too.

Like I said: it’s your cake.

Your Mom prefers banana pound cake? No problem. Make

Anna Sultana’s Banana Pound Cake With Caramel Glaze

                                                Sweet Heart Pound Cake

Heavily grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan

Sift together in a medium bowl

1 3/4 Cup + 1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Set aside.

Combine in a small bowl

1/4 Cup sour cream

1  teaspoon orange or lemon extract

3 Tablespoons of orange, lemon, lime or grapefruit zest, finely grated (or see hints)

Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350º F

Place in a large mixer bowl

1 Cup butter

1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar

Beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add, one at a time, beating well after each addition

4 large eggs

Add half of the dry ingredients into the large mixer bowl.

Blend on low speed until just combined. 

Add in all of the sour cream mixture. Mix until well blended. 

Add in the remaining dry ingredients. Blend just enough to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Place into the preheated oven. 

Bake for 70 to 75 minutes.

A toothpick inserted into the centre should come out clean.

Remove from oven and allow the loaf to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. 

Run a knife around, between the cake and the cake pan, to loosen the cake.

Carefully remove the cake from the pan.

Place onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

When cooled, place the cake on a pretty serving platter.

While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting:

                                                Frosting 

Place in a medium bowl

3 Cups confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon lemon or orange extract

Add 

1/4 Cup water gradually, beating until the glaze is  smooth.

Spread the frosting over the cake.

Sprinkle over the top

3 Tablespoons of lemon or orange zest, finely grated

About the sky, thanks to the folks at The Farmers' Almanac…

Look to the southeast after dark to see Jupiter, shining at magnitude -2.5 in Libra. The king of the planets reached its opposition to the Sun on May 8th, so it’s up practically all night this month. Jupiter is edging slowly westward toward from the 2½-magnitude star Alpha (α) Librae (Zubenelgenubi) nearby.

May 15 - New Moon, 7:48 a.m. In this phase, the Moon is not illuminated by direct sunlight and is completely invisible to the naked eye.

May 17 - Look to the west-northwest sky at dusk to see the slender crescent Moon, 9-percent illuminated, to the left of the brilliant planet Venus. Venus hangs at practically the same height, moderately low in the west-northwest during twilight all through the month of May.