Dina, who is a childcare educator at Viraajs day care , is an ex-chef and had this recipe which wowed all the children, so this post is dedicated to her .

Ingredients

To cream together

• 125 gm butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 +3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Sour milk

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Dry ingredients( sieve twice to ensure they get well mixed)

• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• pinch of ground cloves( here ive reduced the qty which dina had)
• 2 +1/4 cups plain flour

4 tablespoons dark cocoa powder

To add

2 cups of grated zucchini

• 1/4 cups of dark chocolate chips

method

1. preheat oven to 180 C/ 375 F.
2. cream butter, sugaroil then add in eggs and vanilla till well blended
3. Mix in milk and lemon juice.( the acid in the lemon juice helps the baking soda to act). +the baking soda when used with cocoa powder gives it a richer darker colour.
4. Add in the dry ingredients to the creamed mix.
5. Stir in the zucchini.pour into large cake tin or 2 loaf tins, and bake for 40-45 minutes.
6. Check that’s done by inserting a toothpick or wooden skewer in the center, it should come out clean.

Cherie Green is/was  one of my fellow tutors at Whitireia, and she had made some fabulous anzac cookies one day very very long back. after much persuasion and bribery she kindly parted with her recipe, which is what im sharing down here.Since that time cheries mood on literally to greener pastures and has her own farmland or section as its called in New Zealand

Anzac biscuits

1. Mix Flour -50 gm
2. Sugar- 75 gm
3. Coconut dessicated- 2/3 cup
4. 2/3 cup rolled oats
5. MELT Butter- 50 gms add
6. Golden syrup- 1Table spoon
7. Dissolve Soda bicarb- ½ teaspoon in 2 Tablespoons of Boiling water.Mix in with the dry ingredients.

Form into round biscuit shapes and bake in pre-heated oven at at 180C 15-20 mins.

Dave our It dude, made some fabulous fruit bread and here’s the recipe straight from heart.

self raising flour sifted -3 cups
Mixed nuts and seeds- 1 1/2 cups
mixed berries- 1 cup
Dried mango- 1 cup
Milk- 1cup
water- 2 cups
Extra virgin olive oil- 1 glug ( yes 1 glug)

Method

mix all the dry ingredients. mix water, milk and glug and add the dry ingredients to the this mix.

pour into a greased baking tin or 3 and bake in preheated oven at about 180 c for about 35-40 minutes.

cool down , slice toast and butter and you’re ready to roll.

A take on a classical italian dessert- pana- milk , cotto is to  cook so literally cooked milk, set with gelatine and creamy, this one is flavoured with sitafal, an amazing fruit from india, there is a caribbean relative called soursop, but sitafal is sweeter and creamier.

1. cream- 500 ml
2. milk- 500 ml
3. sugar- 100 gm
4. gelatine- 15-20 gms depending on which country you are making it in.
5. water – to soak the gelatine- 50 ml
6. sitafal puree/ pulp-  750 gms
7. cardamom powder- large pinch

Method

• Soak gelatine in water.
• heat milk and cream, add sugar and stir until dissolved.
• add in the sitafal pulp and gelatine and whisk well. depending on how sweet the sitafal is you might need to slightly increase sugar quantity.
• flavour with cardamom and  allow to cool down. set in individual glass bowls of small plastic shot glasses like i did( 80 x 60 ml) + got some extra.
• chill for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight