Recent work – Milla Cordial

One of the best kinds of work I do is create recipes and take photos for local (and further afield) businesses so they can have some pretty pics to use in their marketing endeavours. And it’s even more fun when those businesses are also friends. So when the lovely ladies behind Milla Cordial asked if I could come and snap their range of handmade cordials and also develop a few recipes to showcase them, I was in like flynn.

I’ve long been a fan of these beautiful cordials (I wrote about them here on this blog) last year, made with locally grown fruit (and now lavender!) and bush ingredients, and love that each batch is made by hand. Milla Cordial’s Mel Ashton and Camilla Strang keep production runs small to ensure they get the most flavour and goodness into each bottle.

If you would like to chat about working together please get in touch. I can develop recipes, shoot and style them for you, and/or just get some nice product and lifestyle pics for your image library. Rates are reasonable and I work pretty quickly! Email – sophie_hansen@me.com

Lemon drizzle tea cake

This beautiful, dense cake sings with lemon and is just perfect on a hot day,  maybe with a dollop of natural yogurt and of course a big pitcher of Milla Cordial’s Lemon, Lemon Myrtle and Kakadu Plum. Gorgeous!

250g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1 2/3 cups self-raising flour
1/3 cup buttermilk or natural yogurt
4 tbsp Millamolong Lemon, Lemon Myrtle and Kakadu Plum cordial
Zest of one lemon
1 cup icing sugar
Zest and juice of 1-2 lemons

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin. Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.

Fold through the flour, alternating with the buttermilk or natural yogurt and finally, fold in the cordial and lemon zest. Spoon mixture into the prepared cake tin and place in the oven for 35 minutes or until the top is golden and the cake is coming away from the sides of the tin. Let cool in the tin for five minutes before turning out to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing, just mix the icing sugar, zest and juice together until you have a lovely thick consistency. Drizzle this over the cool cake, let the icing set and serve!

Ruby Grapefruit & Lemon Aspen jelly with apple mint custard

2 cups (500mls) Milla Cordial Ruby Grapefruit and Lemon Aspen Cordial
2 cups (500mls) water
Juice of one ruby grapefruit
6 titanium-strength gelatine leaves, softened in cold water for 5 minutes
Apple mint custard (recipe here)

Combine the cordial, water and grapefruit juice in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Squeeze excess water from the gelatine leaves then whisk them into the hot cordial mixture.

Lightly spray a large jelly mould or six small, one-cup moulds with canola cooking spray then pour mixture into the mould or moulds, cover with plastic then place in the fridge to set overnight or for a few hours.

Serve with segments of ruby grapefruit, raspberries, almond bread and some lovely thick custard.

Lavender Shortbread Biscuits

Short, sweet and aromatic – these little beauties are great fodder for afternoon or morning tea. Recipe adapted from one by Mary Berry .

175g softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup (115g) caster sugar
1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
2 tbsp fresh, unsprayed, finely chopped lavender buds
For the icing; Milla Cordial lemon, lime and lavender cordial, 1 cup pure icing sugar and extra lavender buds

Line three large baking trays with paper and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Fold in the flour and lavender and gently stir until you have a soft dough.

Turn this out onto a lightly floured work surface, divide mixture in two and gently knead one half (keep dusting your hands with flour if necessary) until you have a smooth dough, form into a disc shape, wrap in plastic and repeat with remaining mixture. Place the discs in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.

Preheat oven to 160C (fan) and gently roll out one disc of dough between two sheets of baking paper, you want it to be an even 5mms thick, or thereabouts. Using a 5cm round cookie cutter, cut out biscuits and arrange on prepared baking tray. Roll the reamining dough back into a ball and let chill for a while before re-rolling and cutting.

Let the tray of un-baked biscuits chill in the fridge again for 20-30 minutes before baking in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until pale gold.

Wait until the biscuits are completely cool then whisk together the icing sugar with enough cordial to achieve a nice, thick consistency. Spoon a little icing over each biscuit and sprinkle with the extra lavender buds. Makes about 20 biscuits.

Also part of the Milla Cordial story is an annual Polo Carnival coming up this March just out of Orange. We have been the last few years and it’s always a really fun, very family friendly day. Ticket for the John Davis Volvo Polo Carnival on March 14/15h 2015 are now on sale via the Millamolong website.