Kiwi[fruit] Cake

Clearly I'm not a master froster of cakes.  Yet.

I had big dreams for this post. Dreams of revelling in the glory of the All Blacks’ victory in the Rugby World Cup on Sunday night, dreams of detailing Jonno’s celebratory leaps and whoops of joy, dreams of recounting the tension and drinking to cope with the stress of the game!

And then this thing called a Critical Contingency happened. It’s kind of an ambiguous-sounding thing, isn’t it? ‘Critical’ sounds pretty important, but ‘Contingency’ just makes it all waffley and wavy and not really all that much of a worry. They really need to call it something like ‘Country-Crippling-Very-Bad-Holy-Sh!t Emergency’. But that’s too long to say when you have to talk really fast because the poo is hitting the fan and you are in charge of cleaning up the country-crippling poo.

Anyway, long story short – between the buzz from winning the rugby, the adrenaline rush of a major civic emergency and all the caffeine I’ve ingested in the past 72 hours, I haven’t been able to stop my brain since Saturday! I also have only seen my husband for a grand total of 6 waking hours in the past 72, since we work on the same team and have been rostered onto different shifts to cover phones and emails 24/7.


This keeps me alive at the moment.

You know that thing people do when they pull down all the skin on their face, starting at the top with the eyes so that they look like something out of a horror movie with their eye sockets showing? I’ve been doing that thing a lot lately too. It’s probably giving me wrinkles on top of making me look like the undead. So that’s me right now - a hopped-up, spreadsheeting, goat-hating zombie. I haven’t even put on any makeup for two days. Two days! Someone quick, send mascara stat!

~~~~~~~



This cake has come about due to a ridiculous box of fruit that showed up at my door a week ago. It’s a case of voucher regret – you go for a deal that you think “yeah, it’ll be awesome, I’ll be able to make so much with the fruit!” – without really thinking of exactly how much produce you will be getting, and that said produce will only last for so long before it starts creating a furry green bio-hazard.

The workmates loved it, the rugby crowd loved it, and you will love it.

Eat it.  Eat it now.

Kiwi[fruit] Cake

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 125 g butter
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 cup caster sugar
• ¾ cup kiwifruit, chopped (about 3 kiwis)
• 3 eggs, beaten

Cream cheese frosting

• 250g cream cheese
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice

2 or 3 kiwifruit for topping the cake

1. Preheat oven to 160C and lightly grease a 23cm springform pan. Line the base with baking paper.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon into a bowl.
3. In a mixing bowl, beat butter, honey and sugar until creamy.
4. Add the eggs and dry ingredients in batches and combine.
5. Fold in the kiwifruit.
6. Pour into pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cream cheese frosting: beat the cream cheese until smooth then add the caster sugar. Add the lemon juice one tablespoon at a time to bring to desired consistency, which should be thick and not runny (it shouldn’t drip off of a spoon). Chill in the fridge for half an hour before using.
8. Frost the cake when cool.
9. Slice up extra kiwifruit and arrange on top of frosting.

NOM NOM NOM.  That's an order.