For practically the first time in my adult life, I have no chooks at present. This is the culprit.
I am working on a new roost design. If it works, the chooks will be able to put themselves to bed at night. I will be able to let them free range in the daytime and she (or he) won’t be able to get them at night.
I am missing them for many reasons, but right now because it is egg season. Luckily though, I have friends who have free-range, ethically raised chooks and, at this time of year an abundance of eggs.
My Muesli Bar Challenge series is a series of recipes for healthy lunch box baking based on fresh in-season produce. This recipe melds the last of the citrus season with the start of the egg season. It is a flourless cake with no butter but no less than six eggs.
Eggs are a great source of protein, but they go extra well in school lunches because they are rich in choline, which is needed for nerves and brain to function properly. Using them in baking makes them safer in the heat of a lunch box.
You need a cup of macadamia meal for this recipe. You can substitute almond meal – in fact I would be fairly sure that somewhere back in time I had an original version of this recipe based on almond meal. But for me, macadamias have no food miles at all. And they’re super healthy, with monounsaturated heart healthy oils and a huge range of vitamins and minerals. And fresh, in-the-shell macas in season are a taste sensation. This little tool makes cracking macas easy, and the kernels blend to a meal easily in a food processor.
Once you have your maca meal, the recipe is dead easy. Let’s see what the reviewers think.
The Recipe:
Turn your oven on to heat up to medium.
Grease a 20 cm cake tin and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper.
Blend together until smooth:
- 1 cup of macadamia meal
- 1½ teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 cup of orange, tangelo, mandarin, or lime segments with seeds removed.
- ¾ cup of brown sugar
- 6 whole eggs
Stir in 3 good dessertspoons of poppy seeds.
The mixture will not be at all like a cake mix. It will be quite liquid.
Pour it into your prepared cake tin and bake for around 40 minutes till the cake is set and a skewer comes out clean.
oh yeah looks great – the recipe that is. I am wondering about the roost thingo – we have a fox problem but I want the choocks to free range in the fruit orchard and tree roost at night but am not wanting to get tree roosting chooks by feeding teh ones that can’t to the fox. Love to know your ideas!
sorry lindy, i didn’t like the bitter aftertaste. i liked everything before though.
Hi Lindy. I’m fine with bitter aftertaste. It definitely did have one though. Wonderfully moist but solid texture. Thanks.
I liked the texture, but also found the aftertaste a little strong.
Oh my, that is a biiggg snake! Cake sounds good, I don’t mind bitter, so sounds perfect to me.
mine went down so fast there was no after taste… only after more more more.
the aftertaste again Lindy, also the poppy seeds were to numerous
Cake is great & bitter aftertastes are interesting sometimes…, not sure I’m happy about that chook eating snake though….
Yikes! I nearly fell off the chair looking at your company on the balcony! Would love to see your new roost design at some stage, and you are so right, it really is egg season, they are coming out of every direction!! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
That picture of the snake is awesome! It looks extremely well fed 😉
We have been using your chook dome for 10 years now, but in the city so I was never worried about predators. However, we just moved a few blocks over and nearby a magnificent fig tree, and the resident magpie has taken a real dislike to the chooks and is harassing them constantly. Any ideas? They would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Cherie
Hi Cherie, my only thought is that Spring is magpie breeding season. It may be that it will resolve itself as soon as that is over. And with luck by next year the magpie will have got used to the idea that these strange birds in its territory aren’t out to steal its mate. I’ve never had magpies attack my chooks. Quolls, foxes, goannas, carpet snakes, wedge tailed eagles, powerful owls, but never magpies!
Oh my, I think I would have died a thousand deaths if I found this monster on my balcony… did you really get that close or is it ZOOOOOOM lense 🙂
Sad to hear about the chooks though.. I would have been upset at loosing them – I am looking forward to trying this cake.. and I love your blog and look forward to coming back.
That close. They’re actually very placid and once you get over the snake thing, very beautiful with their many toned skin. We have had smaller ones forever, and have never been able to raise chickens successfully. But this one is big enough to think a full sized chook is perfect for dinner, and big enough and stubborn enough to get them during the night whatever kind of enclosure I try. Hopefully the new roost design will foil him or her.
Ref the macadamia nut cracker image: yes, that is the only one that worked for us after a neighbour loaned us his which he had about 20 years, made by a guy in Qld. and sold in fruit shops.