Short and sweet, but not too sweet.

This post will be short and sweet, but not too sweet. It’s about cake; shortcake. Feijoa and Ginger shortcake to be precise.

Take a peek at the shortcake, freshly baked and cut. It’s rough and ready in appearance, exactly like the every day setting of my kitchen.

Now please help yourself to  a piece*….of shortcake

and take a bite and let your taste buds linger on the soft buttery crust and luscious feijoa and ginger filling.

Here’s how it’s made:

110gm( 4 oz) butter & 110gm (half cup) sugar & 1 egg & 225gm flour, sifted &  1 tsp of baking powder & 7 to 9 feijoas, peeled and sliced & 9 small pieces of crystallised ginger, chopped & 2 T of sugar.

Soften butter and beat with sugar until creamy. Add egg and beat. Fold in sifted flour and baking powder. Shape into a ball and roll out on baking paper into a large oval shape. Leave the rolled pastry on baking paper and carefully place on baking tray. Slice feijoas reasonably thickly and cover half the pastry with the slices. Scatter the ginger over the fruit slices. Sprinkle with sugar. Carefully pick up ends of baking paper to ease empty half of shortcake over the feijoas. Crimp two edges together.  Bake at 170C -180C deg for about 30 minutes until cooked through and nicely browned.

The recipe was dictated to me by a friend. It is one she uses a great deal but I don’t know its origins.

Finally, here is a photo of the  feijoas, or pineapple guavas, from a  previous post. For those of you who can’t find feijoas in your markets / shops, experiment with another slightly tangy, firm fleshed fruit. 

*Something to chew on:

In my paternal grandmother’s family, if you were offered a ‘piece’, it meant a piece  of bread. The piece of bread would be buttered and spread with jam and then sliced off the loaf.  I don’t know if the use of the word piece in this way was widespread in early twentieth century New Zealand or was something peculiar to our family.  Please note that there is a loaf of bread in the photo collage. You are welcome to a piece 🙂

© silkannthreades