This recipe is part of Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge series on this blog, and I made this in Week 3 of the challenge.

There are many reasons why I love Semolina Cake:

• A slice of this simple, yet moist and fluffy Semolina Cake is very refreshing on a hot summer’s day.
• The ingredients cost about R35.00 (can you buy a whole tray of dessert anywhere for so little these days?!).
• It is sweet but not that sweet.
• Preparation is minimal and there is no mess!

Ingredients:

7 eggs

12 Tbsp. Semolina

6 Tbsp. Cake Flour

5 Tbsp. Sugar

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1 litre Milk

1 cup Sugar (or a bit more, if you prefer)

2 Tsp. Vanilla Essence

Spray ‘n’ Cook

Method:

Bring the milk and 1 cup of sugar to boil, remove from the stove, stir in the vanilla essence and set aside to cool completely.
Separate egg yolk and egg whites. Whisk egg whites until the mixture is firm, and if you turn the bowl upside down the egg whites won’t fall out. Continue to whisk the mixture adding the sugar, egg yolk, semolina, cake flour and baking powder. Your mixture should have a creamy yet fluffy consistency.

Lightly oil a 20x30cm pan with Spray ‘n’ cook then pour the batter. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190 C° for 45 minutes, or until the cake comes away from the sides and the cake springs back when you touch it lightly. Remove the cake from the oven. Use a ladle to immediately start pouring the cooled milk mixture evenly and watch the cake absorb all the liquid.

Refrigerate the Semolina cake for at least 2-3 hours before serving. Even when cooled there will be a tiny bit of milk left over here and there at the bottom of the pan and you will see this as you slice the cake. Slurp it up – it tastes good. Enjoy!

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This recipe is part of Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge series on this blog, and I made this in Week 1 of the challenge.

The Peach Cobbler recipe is very easy to make and yields a whole tray of dessert which can be enjoyed hot or cold with ice cream, whipped cream, custard or just plain. Tinned peaches go on special very often and so can be bought quite cheaply. While I don’t normally buy tinned peaches as we have a beautiful peach tree in our garden, I actually bought this large tin of peaches by mistake a while back – I thought I was picking up a large tin of apricot jam, which I use in baking, from the shelf! I only realised my mistake when I unpacked the groceries at home.

Normally I would just use peaches in this recipe but this time round I added a tin of mixed fruit (Fruit Cocktail) as I wanted it used up in this week’s Pantry and Freezer Challenge. This oh-so-easy to make Peach Cobbler still tasted great though and we enjoyed this dessert for a whole week. It can keep in the fridge for at least a few days.

Ingredients:

1 large tin (800 gr.) Peaches, including syrup

1 tin (410 gr.) Fruit Cocktail, including syrup

1 ¾ cup Cake Flour

1 ½ cup Sugar

1 cup Milk

½ cup Margarine

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1 Tsp. Cinnamon

½ Tsp. Cloves

¼ Tsp. Nutmeg

Method:

Chop all the fruit into small pieces, as you like. Add all the ingredients (including the syrup from the tins) to a bowl and mix well for about 2 minutes. Oil a 20x30cm tray with Spray ‘n’ Cook. Pour the batter into the tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C° for approximately 30 minutes (you will probably need to check, depending on the strength of your oven). Allow to cool and set a little before serving. Enjoy!

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With temperatures soaring in Gauteng this week, I will be making more and more of these yummy yet frugal summer refreshments to help us stay hydrated, healthy and happy, despite the oncoming heatwave!

These summer refreshments are easy to make and don’t cost much at all. I tend to experiment with fruits that I like but mostly I use whatever is on hand so no extra trips to the shops for me either. Of course, staying hydrated by drinking plain water is the cheapest and the healthiest way to go but there’s always room for a bit of fun and flavour along the way!

Fruity Ice Cubes

Fruity ice cubes are deliciously refreshing on a hot summer’s day, with no additives, no added sugar and no calories. They are very attractive to serve in a glass.

My favourites to use are lemons, oranges, cucumber, peaches, apricots and berries. I keep the flavours separate for best results but do sometimes experiment with a combination such as lemon and oranges.

Chop your choice of fruit into small pieces and add them to the ice tray.

Top with water and refrigerate.

Voila!

Serve 2-3 fruity ice cubes in a glass of water.

Fruit Flavoured Water

As simple to make as the fruity ice cubes, fruit flavoured water is another refreshing option for a hot summer’s day. It also gives you greater freedom in experimenting with a combination of fruits, vegetables and herbs of choice while it contains no additives and no artificial sugars.

My absolute favourite is a combination of lemon and orange slices with 2-3 leaves of mint while my husband loves the subtle flavour of a red, juicy apple. We also enjoy berry flavoured water, which turns pretty pink as well.

Simply cut up a few pieces of a fruit or two of your choice, add to a bottle of water, chill for at least a few hours in the fridge to allow flavours to infuse and enjoy! Once you’ve had your fill, you can top up the water but the flavours will not be as strong as the first time round. For some great fruit flavoured water ideas see here and here.

Flavoured Ice Tea

For all the  tea lovers, this is another wonderful choice of  a refreshment on a scorching hot day. I am a bit old-fashioned when it comes to making flavoured ice tea as I really enjoy only lemon or peach ice tea.

I make a litre of tea with 3 tea bags, sweeten it then add a few chopped pieces of either lemon or peach and chill in the fridge for a few hours to allow the flavours of the fruit to permeate the tea. I sometimes prepare the ice tea in smaller bottles to use when we’re on the go. It really is a much cheaper, and probably healthier, alternative to buying ice tea from the shops.

There are some really nice recipes for ice tea here and I plan to try out a few. I will post an update to this post with the results as soon as I do.

Lemonade

The summer’s favourite refreshment. One of my favourites, and my husband’s too. I don’t make lemonade as often as I would like to as the recipe calls for added sugar. Plus, lemons generally tend to be a bit pricey.

We were fortunate this year in that our lemon tree did bear us some fruit which I could use for the first time. We were really chuffed about that! We were also gifted a bag of ripe, juicy lemons by a friend whose lemon tree bears enormous amounts of fruit each year.

I tend to make the lemonade syrup first by mixing about a cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice with a cup of sugar, and boiling this mixture on the stove for a few minutes. I then dilute the syrup with 2 litres of water and chill in the fridge. I have used this recipe several times and we’ve always found the lemonade to be not too sweet and not too bitter but just – right. It cleanses the palate and refreshes the body

I hope you enjoy some of these ideas. Do you have any ideas for frugal refreshments? I’d love to hear from you. Stay frugally hydrated this week with these frugal summer refreshments!

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