Hi, thanks for popping over! Grab a cuppa and a seat, morning tea will be ready shortly.
If you’re located anywhere in Australia you’ll know that Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is once again in full swing. And if you’ve been around here before you’ll probably know that I’ve been a big supporter of the Cancer Council’s annual fundraising campaign for quite a while. It’s a cause pretty close to my heart.
The event, held throughout May and June each year, puts Australia’s morning tea break habit to good use — encouraging Aussies to make their cuppa count by helping to fund Cancer Council’s vital research, prevention and support service programs.
This year Sally from Simmer & Boyle and I have decided to host a Virtual Biggest Morning Tea and we’d love for you to be a part of it!
If tax-deductible charity donations are your thing…
- Click on through to our ABMT page and drop a coin in the bucket (thanks!)
If cooking and blogging are your thing…
- Make a morning tea treat — sweet or savoury, it’s up to you — and post it on your blog between now and the end of June
- Click on through to our ABMT page and drop a coin in the bucket (thanks!)
- Send JJ (that’s me) a link to your Virtual Morning Tea post and Sally and I will add you to the lists at the end of our posts
If neither are your thing…
- Go hug (or call) someone you love
Now I wouldn’t be a good party hostess if I didn’t serve something special and this seasonal citrus upside-down creation is my edible contribution to the cause — a sweet and tart tea cake made with kumquats foraged from a friend’s tree.
It has more sugar than most things I make (thanks to super puckery kumquats) and while it still may not be sweet enough for some, it will be perfect for others. Either way it’s dairy-free and whole grain and brilliant as a mid-morning treat with a cup of tea or coffee. It’s best the day it’s made but still hits the spot for a few days after that too.
Thanks for joining us, and make sure to grab a slice of cake on your way out.
Upside-down Kumquat Tea Cake
A little bit tart, a little bit sweet, kind of like life.
Makes one 8 inch (20 cm) cake. Serves 8 – 12
INGREDIENTS
Upside-down bits
- 300 g kumquats
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted (30 ml)
- ¼ c coconut sugar, lightly packed (40 g)
- 1 Tbsp boiling water (15 ml)
Cake
- ½ c coconut oil, semi-firm (115 g)
- ½ c coconut sugar, lightly packed (80 g)
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- ½ c almond milk (115 ml)
- ¼ c orange juice (60 ml)
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 2 c whole spelt flour (260 g)
- 2 Tbsp arrowroot flour (16 g)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp sea salt
Topping
- handful flaked almonds
- handful shredded coconut
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease sides of an 8 inch / 20 cm cake tin with a bit of coconut oil.
Slice a very thin bit off the end of each kumquat and discard (or drop into a jug of water and store in fridge for drinking later). Cut each kumquat in half — or large ones in thirds — and remove seeds.
Prepare the upside-down bits
Drizzle melted coconut oil into base tin. Combine boiling water and sugar and stir gently, then drizzle over coconut oil. Place kumquat slices over caramel mixture, packing them very tightly together (no, tighter than that) as they will shrink when baked.
Make the cake batter
In a large bowl use a spatula to cream coconut oil and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs and beat well.
Combine orange juice, almond milk and vanilla in a jug. Combine dry ingredients (spelt through salt) in a separate bowl.
Stir a third of the dry ingredients into the egg mixture followed by half the wet ingredients. Repeat then end with dry ingredients. Tip batter over kumquats and smooth top.
Bake approximately 25 minutes until cake pulls away from the edges and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, run a knife around the edge then shake gently to loosen fruit and tip onto serving plate. Set aside to cool completely.
Make the topping
Toast almonds in oven/under griller/in a dry pan until just golden, tip into a plate. Repeat with coconut (this take a bit less than the nuts so it’s worth doing them separately) and combine with almonds. Sprinkle over cake to serve.
COOK’S NOTES
- You could replace the kumquats with blood orange or even orange, thinly sliced and overlapped in the base.
vegetarian // whole-grain // refined sugar-free // soy-free
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Virtual Morning Tea Party
Click on the images below to visit the contributors and see their recipes!
(Thanks Erika for the Virtual Morning Tea inspiration and Luisa for the header photo on our donation page. xx)
Great idea guys! My cumquats are just about nearly ready and I was going to make marmalade. Maybe I will cut the batch in half and make a cake too?
Thanks Claire – just quietly, this cake spread with marmalade would be unreal ;D
Yum! I’m in.
Yay! let me know when you post! x
Posted! Rhubarb, Orange and Hazelnut cake (gf).
added to the list – thanks so much! xx J
Please count me in for this one, I had been wondering what I should do to contribute and I think this is a lovely idea. I might even try to make it a virtual and non virtual morning tea to raise extra funds.
Thanks
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Oh that’s great to hear Julie, please remember to let me know when you post!
What a great idea — the virtual morning tea, I mean. But of course, any time to have a tea party with tasty looking cakes is always a good idea.
Yes, I agree to all of that ;D