Lemon Bars Recipe

Last April 16, we had a wonderful CAMEO Night ( Come And Meet Each Other ladies Night ). We invited owners of Divine Shop in town to showcase their products and to have a lovely night of fun, chat and of course food.

I thought to publish a very easy delicious recipe and one of my favorites - lemon bars from cakes and cookies recipe book. Everyone loves it in the party and it`s so nice and yummy specially when it`s served cold.

Makes 24

Ingredients

175g/6 oz flour
125g/4 oz butter
50g/2 oz granulated sugar
200g/7 oz caster sugar
2 tbsp flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
juice and finely grated rind of 1 lemon
sifted icing sugar, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3, 10 minutes before baking. Lightly oil and line a 20.5cm/8 inch square cake tin with greaseproof or baking paper.

Rub together the flour and the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the granulated sugar and mix.

Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and press down firmly. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, until pale golden.

Meanwhile, in the food preocessor, mix together the caster sugar, flour, baking powder , salt , eggs, lemon juice and rind until smooth. pour over the prepared base.

Transfer to the preheated oven and bake for a further 20-25 minutes, until nearly set but still a bit wobbly in the centre. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin on a wire rack.

Dust with icing sugar and cut into squares. Serve cold or store in an airtight tin.

Trifle Recipe - another family favorite

The beauty of this dish is that the longer the trifle is left in the fridge, the more the flavours will develop and it`s very refreshing! It`s very light too and perfect match after having a hot spicy meal like curry! It`s perfect dessert too when entertaining friends! We always like trifle, very light to eat, very easy to make and very affordable.

I had a fabulous time with friends this afternoon and i`d like to thank specially my friend Irene who did a wonderful job cooking for us - chicken curry, Filipino noodles (pansit), and duck spring rolls. I`d like to thank Eden as well for making me a delicious chocolaty birthday cake! Wow, what a treat! And i brought a trifle for them.Actually, this recipe is from my mother in law Sue who always love cooking and baking for others. She always gets her inspirations of cooking from Delia Smith but Delia`s recipe of trifle `s got brandy or liqueur in it. For non-alcoholic version of trifle, just simply replace liqueur with fruity syrup of orange, or cranberry, or raspberry, etc.

Serves 4-6
Trifle sponges ( I use 1 pack Trifle Sponges- the ready made one you can buy from the market
135g orange jelly
2 small tins of fruit ( you can choose any fruit you like - on this recipe i use mandarin fruits in small tin )
2 tablespoons of powdered custard (i use Bird`s custard )
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 pint milk
small carton of whipping cream

Cut into large squares the trifle sponges and arrange in the base of a large serving dish.Drain the syrup of the mandarin and put the fruit on top of the sponges as the second layer.Then do melt the jelly cubes .

In the packet instruction of jelly, it says add 1/2 pint boiling water.In our recipe, just add 1/4 pint of boiling water and stir until the jelly totally dissolves. Instead of putting cold water in the jelly i used 3/4 pint of the syrup from a fruit tin to mix with the jelly. Then pour the jelly mixture on top of the fruit.Put the dish in the refrigerator and leave it there for about 3 hours until the jelly sets.

Then do the custard. Put 2 tablespoons of custard and 2 tablespoons of sugar into a jug with small amount of milk and stir. Heat the remaining milk in a saucepan until it nearly boils. Then add the custard and sugar mixture into the saucepan stirring it continuously until it boils. When it`s already a little bit sticky , set aside and cool.

When the jelly is already set, pour the cooled custard on top of the jelly , then add the whipping cream. Yo can decorate your trifle in any way you can. You can top it of with any fruit or sprinkle with almonds and chill!

Let me know if you like. enjoy!!