Hedgehog
Lemon Slice - my favourite!

Following the success of the charity cupcakes, but before the Lunch itself, Adri and I sold some slices to raise more money for the Lunch for Leukaemia. (Pics still to come!) We thought slices might sell a bit faster, as they could be sold for cheaper, requiring less commitment and thought from the consumer.

Lemon slice is part of the homely Australian repertoire, easy to whip up, and a regular feature at afternoon teas, school fetes and the like. Whilst different versions and recipes abound, the lemon slice of my fond memory is always unbaked and contains a base of crushed biscuits, lemon juice and rind, butter, condensed milk and coconut, which is refrigerated, and then topped with a lemon icing.

My lemon slice recipe came from a decades-old Women's Weekly book entitled The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits, but this one online is pretty much the same. Give it a go, lemon slice is fabulous!

I didn't have an appropriately sized lamington tin, so I used a baking sheet with a new expandable tin that I bought in Germany. It's ausziehbar in alle Richtungen!


At first, I was just going to make the lemon slice, but it was so quick and easy that I thought, "hey, why not make some chocolate hedgehog as well?" (I had been drooling over the recipe, found here at the Cadbury website, for days beforehand). The method is similar to lemon slice, although the ingredients differ. The biscuits aren't crushed as finely as for a lemon slice, and the base is made up of sugar, eggs, cocoa, nuts, melted butter and coconut.

The topping is made of a heart-stoppingly delicious mixture of dark chocolate and butter.


As with the lemon slice, it needs to be refrigerated until firm, and then sliced. As you can see from the photo below, I cut the hedgehog into the same sized squares as the lemon slice, but if I weren't selling these, I'd definitely cut the hedgehog into smaller fingers. It's incredibly rich, and tastes better eaten in tiny pieces. (This is purely for taste reasons, not portion control. In fact, I tend to eat more of something when it's cut into bite-sized pieces).

Packed and ready to go...

The sales of these ones went really well too - Adri sold them all for a gold coin donation each (well done!!!) and I think only ONE lemon slice got stolen! Yay!

As you may have noticed on my next to last post, I am currently trying to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation as part of their Lunch for Leukaemia month. My friend Adri kindly offered to help out in my quest, so we thought that she could raise some donations by selling cupcakes at her work.

I baked a batch of Malteaser cupcakes (Nigella's malteaser cake being one of my favourites), and I found that the recipe made 18 cupcakes, filled about half to three-quarters full. Remembering that the icing just covers the whole cake, and that cupcakes need more icing than regular cake, I increased the quantities of the icing by 1.5.

Baked malteaser cupcakes; icing in the processor; messily piped icing; completed cupcakes.

I tried piping the icing, but as you can see, my piping was rubbish, and besides, whenever you piped brown icing it just looks plain wrong. I then spread out the piped icing with a knife, and dotted each cupcake with 3 malteasers. I'd still recommend piping the icing out then spreading it, as it's a lot neater, especially when the cupcake paper extends beyond the height of the cupcake itself.

I then whipped up a batch of Magnolia's vanilla cupcakes, and used Donna Hay's buttercream icing recipe for the icing. The Magnolia buttercream frosting is unbearably sweet - (8 cups of sugar to 1 cup of butter), and Donna's had approximately equal amounts of butter and sugar. I had a go at piping the icing, which a) was incredibly stiff and difficult to pipe and b) looked terrible. Let's face it, people, I cannot pipe! The good old pipe and spread method again came in handy. The recipe made 30 cupcakes; I used 12, had a couple of samples, and stashed the remaining 16 in the freezer.

Messily piped icing; extra cupcakes packed and ready to be frozen; one completed cupcake; completed cupcakes packed in a tin and ready to go.

I was hoping to use my Decor 2-storey cupcake-container (specifically bought for this purpose!) to give the cupcakes to Adri to sell, but the iced cupcakes did not fit! WTF? How can a 2-storey cupcake-container be too short for 2 storeys of cupcakes! I didn't even ice them that high. The cupcake container just managed to fit 2 layers of un-iced cupcakes, so I used it to stash the un-iced cupcakes in the freezer, and distributed the completed cupcakes amongst other containers.

Sample malteaser cupcake...

Adri and I decided to sell the cupcakes for a donation of $4 each, which we both thought was reasonable, and comparable to store-bought cupcakes. There were 28 cupcakes to sell, and if we managed to sell them all, we'd get $112.

We gave our friend JZ 6 of those cupcakes to sell at his office, and Adri took the remainder. However, at first they didn't sell well at all. By 11am, only 2 had been sold. Uh-oh. People thought they were too small, and too expensive. We didn't realise that the canteen at Adri's work sells muffins for a mere $1.60, and even though these cupcakes were for charity, people just weren't interested. Accountants must be damn kiamsap, man! Do you know what's really kiamsap (tightarse), though? Someone at JZ's office TOOK a cupcake without paying. I mean, fair enough if you think $4 is too much and you choose not to purchase a cake. But who steals a charity cupcake?!?!?!?!? We didn't figure out who the culprit was, but luckily some extra donations managed to cover it.

In the afternoon, Adri went desk-to-desk to sell cupcakes and solicit donations, which worked a lot better than just leaving the cupcakes in the staff kitchen. And in the end, she managed to get rid of them all! It wouldn't have been a great hardship for us to eat the remaining cupcakes, but our aim was to raise money! Wahoo! She also found that some people just wanted to give a donation, and not take a cupcake. Excellent.

So, after a slow morning, the cupcake sales actually went really well, thanks almost entirely to Adri's amazing selling power. We ended up raising over $120. Great work!

Anyhoo, the malteaser cupcakes sold a lot faster than the 'plain' vanilla, probably because they look a lot more exciting, even though the vanilla ones taste better. The general reaction was that the malteaser cupcakes were a bit too sweet, whilst the vanilla ones taste good. (The exact word that came up, which seems to crop up every time I make cupcakes, was "moist". It's an unfortunate word, but totally appropriate).

We're going to have another bake-sale next week, prior to my lunch on Saturday. This time we'll sell something a bit cheaper and simpler. Maybe lemon slice?

In August 2008, the Leukaemia Foundation is encouraging people in the community to host a lunch to support "Lunch for Leukaemia" and raise funds for patients and families living with leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders.

It's easy to get involved:

- Register to host a Lunch at your home
- Provide a venue for a lunch, ask guests to bring a plate and a donation
- Have a raffle at work
- Visit a supporting café

Just by having lunch you can make a real difference to the cause, and contribute to a fantastic organisation.

The Leukaemia Foundation is committed to ongoing funding for vital research into the causes, diagnosis and treatment, and ultimately cures for leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders. The Foundation also does great work providing support services, counselling, accommodation and transport for patients and their families, all free of charge. They receive no government funding, and rely on the generous support of corporate sponsors and the community.

For more information, or if you live in Victoria and would like to host your own lunch, visit the Foundation's Lunch for Leukaemia webpage. I'll be hosting my lunch in 2 weeks' time, and got my starter kit today! It included a banner, balloons, stickers, posters, donation receipts and excitingly, recipes from Tobie Puttock and Neil Perry! Please do get involved if you can; it is such a fantastic cause, and a great excuse to catch up with friends. (For fellow food bloggers, this would be a great opportunity to bust out those recipes you've been meaning to try!)

Here is Tobie, and his mouthwatering recipe for grilled squid and chorizo with pesto.


Tobie Puttock, co-owner of Fifteen Melbourne. (Photo courtesy of The Leukaemia Foundation)

Food is my passion and I love to inspiring people to cook. Why don’t you get some work colleagues, friends and family together and host a Lunch of Leukaemia? It is a simple and easy way to raise much needed funds for the Leukaemia Foundation. Every hour of every day an Australian is diagnosed with a blood cancer. The money raised will enable the Foundation to provide practical support and advice to people with blood cancer and their families.

Grilled Squid and Chorizo with Pesto
Serves 4

I like to use fresh chorizo when I can, available from selected butchers.

(Photo & Recipe courtesy of The Leukaemia Foundation)

Ingredients

4 fresh squid tubes (about 800g), cleaned
Finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1 long red chilli, seeds removed, chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced
50ml extra virgin olive oil
4 chorizo sausages, cut into
1cm-thick slices on an angle
Rocket and lemon wedges, to serve

Pesto
1 bunch basil, leaves picked
1 garlic clove
2 tsp pine nuts
2 tbs grated parmesan
1 tbs lemon juice
1/3 cup (80ml) olive oil

Halve squid lengthways and scrape away any membrane. With a sharp knife, lightly score inside of squid in a crisscross pattern, then halve each piece widthways. Mix rind, chilli, garlic, oil, salt and pepper in a large glass or ceramic bowl. Place squid in marinade, cover and chill for 30 minutes or until needed.

For pesto, pound basil to a paste with a mortar and pestle. Add garlic and pound until smooth. Add nuts, cheese and juice and pound again to a paste. Mix in oil and season to taste. Or mix all ingredients in a food processor, then season. Heat a chargrill or barbecue on high. Cook chorizo for 2-3 minutes to brown, then turn. Add the squid score-side up, cook for 1 minute, then turn – it’ll curl if scored correctly. Cook for 2 minutes, mixing squid with chorizo, until chorizo is browned all over and squid is just cooked. Serve with pesto, rocket and lemon.