Gidday Mate!
July 3rd this year was “Sunday Funday” at the church where I lead a couple of craft groups. What this means is several thousand people from the community invited to enjoy food, and lots of activities, especially for the children.
There were jumping castles, games, plaster painting, popcorn, fairy floss, billy-cart races, pies, sandwiches, drinks, soup, and lots of other stuff, all totally FREE!
Our craft groups chose an “Australiana” theme and set up the “Cockatoo Café” in the room where we meet.
We decorated with Australian quilts (a lovely one by Lyn Brocker), folk art with an Australian native floral theme by Kalli Boltman, a collection of vintage wooden pieces featuring pyrography kindly loaned by Karen Deakin, dozens of souvenir tea towels, and lots of other bits and pieces loaned by group members.
Koalas perched on eucalypt branches, kangaroos peaked out from underneath, and the ubiquitous clothesline stretched across the centre of the room, laden with tea towels. Flowering wattle also abounded.
Did we go “over-the-top”? Of course we did! Right down to the tacky souvenir koalas clipped on our cowboy hats and flannel shirts, Slim Dusty singing “The Road to Gundagai”, and the little Aussie Flag toothpicks stuck in the creamed Lamingtons. But that’s what made it so much fun!
Of course we served a fair dinkum “Billy Tea” cuppa (as well as Lemon Myrtle, and Australian Peppermint), and along with the Lamingtons, we also served some beaut “Wattle Seed Scones” with jam and I thought I would share the recipe with you.
It’s the easiest and best scone recipe I’ve found to make plain scones, and you just add the ground wattle seed as an extra. Wattle seed is an Australian native spice that has flavors of walnut, coffee, hazelnut and chocolate. Bonzer!
Lemonade Scones
Pre-heat oven to 240 degrees C
3 cups Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 cup Lemonade
1 cup Liquid Cream
1 Egg
2 tsp Ground Wattleseed (optional)
- Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix lightly.
- Turn mixture out onto a floured board and knead slightly (it is a moist mixture).
- Transfer dough onto a greased oven tray and press out until it is about ¾ inch thick all over.
- Using a sharp knife cut a lattice design of squares through the dough.
- Put the tray in the oven, turning the temperature down to 200 degrees C, for 10-15 minutes (depending on the heat of your oven).
- When cooked, the scones should be slightly golden on top and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
- Leave them to cool for 5 mins on the tray and then break or cut them apart.
- Enjoy with butter, jam, cream, or cheese. The choice is yours!
So now we are wondering what theme to choose for next year… maybe Paris? You could come and find out!
Happy Quilting (and baking)
