Custard Powder Cookies

These melt-in-the-mouth Custard Powder Cookies are simple to make, and are ready in just 15 minutes ....

What with all the excitement of the recent festive season and being away on safari, I haven’t published many recipes on the blog lately – so I thought it was about time for one – and a quick, simple one at that ….

I’ve been making this recipe since I was in Primary school – in fact, it was probably one of the first recipes my Mum let me bake completely alone with no adult supervision.

With the ‘back to school’ season upon us now again too, these are fantastic for popping in to lunch boxes. (I don’t think that when I baked these for the first time as a child myself all those years ago, I ever thought I’d be baking them years down the line for my own daughter, though !)

These cookies are small enough to pop whole into your mouth all at once if you feel the urge (!!) and they have a lovely, melt-in-the-mouth texture, too. Enjoy !


‘Foolproof’ Custard Powder Cookies

100 gm Icing Sugar (Confectioners sugar, used for frosting ?)
100 gm Custard Powder (for me, only this one will do) - *see note at end of recipe for more info on what Custard Powder is*
300 gm Flour
300 gm Butter

Mix all the ingredients together. Work with hands into a paste, shape into small walnut sized balls on a greased baking tray. Press down with a fork to flatten slightly. Bake at 400’F/200’C/Gas Mark 7 for 10 to 15 minutes. Once cooled, you can dust with icing sugar if you like.

*What is Custard Powder ? This extract taken from 'Wise Geek' (see the full article here)"Custard powder looks a lot like cornflour (cornstarch), and in fact, is made from cornflour. It also has coloring , salt and other flavorings. The cook combines several tablespoons of the custard powder with sugar and enough milk to form a paste. The paste is then slowly added to hot milk and stirred until completely dissolved. The result is a thick custard sauce, not identical to traditional egg custard, but still good over cake, pudding or other desserts."

A Little Piece Of Africa ...........

A collection of traditional Maasai beaded and bone items which I purchased at the Ngorongoro Crater recently - read on to find out more about them !

I know that there are many of you who read this blog & follow it almost daily because you’ve either lived in or visited Africa before (& fallen in love with the Continent !), or because you plan to visit it sometime in the future, or because you know you cannot visit it, but would love to – so ‘visit’ it through the blog instead.

I must say that for whatever reason you read the blog, I always love having you all along with me and showing you parts of this beautiful Continent, and Tanzania in particular – over the (almost) 2 years I’ve been blogging, I have started looking at Africa through different eyes, thinking “Now, what would my blog readers like to hear about ?” and taking photos of, and writing about things, which I would have perhaps otherwise just have taken for granted.

So, when I was on my recent safari to the Ngorongoro Crater (you can read the first of the 3 blog posts I wrote about it over here), I wished that there was a way I could bring a ‘tangible’ piece of it back to share with at least one of you – who may never make it here yourself.

So - on the last morning of our safari, I bought some typical, traditional Maasai items at the Ngorongoro Crater, made by the people there. These are pictured above, and I am going to give them away to one of you, and will post them to you wherever in the world you happen to live !

Before reading on to find out how you could perhaps become the lucky recipient of these items, let me tell you what they are -:

- 2 traditional handmade Maasai beaded bracelets

- 1 leather beaded key ring/holder

- 1 leather beaded watch strap decoration (thread your existing watch strap through it) - or you could use this as a bookmark instead !

- 8 bone buttons – 4 Zebra, 4 Elephant. These are handcrafted from cow bone & have hand painted details on them

I tried to include items for both a man & a woman, as I don’t know who will get these. The bone buttons are included because I know that several readers are very ‘crafty’ people and make a lot of their own things, sew etc & these are quite unique.

If you’d like to read a previous post I wrote about the Maasai people and their beautiful beadwork, you can do so here.

If you’d like to stand a chance to ‘win’ these items, all you have to do, is to leave a comment at the end of this post and in it, tell me -:

1.) The title of your favourite blog post which appeared on ‘Food, Fun & Farm Life !’ during the past year/2009 (this is to prevent spammers or people just passing briefly through the blog !)

2.) Your name - or initials/nickname if you wish to remain anonymous

I’ll close the comments for this post at 11.00 am Tanzanian time on Monday 18th January, and will then draw a winner who will be announced on the blog on Tuesday 19th January at 11.00 am Tanzanian time. (I will print all comments out, cut them up & get my daughter to draw one for me - with photographic proof !)

I’ll then ask that winner to contact me via email with his/her address details (Don’t leave your email or contact details in the comments section as I would hate you to be hit by a spammer - I’ve had a few trying their luck on the blog lately !) and will pop the items in the post to that person within the next week or so - whenever I am next in the city.

I guess all that's left for me to say now, it - 'Good Luck' everyone !

Part 3 Of Our Safari To The Ngorongoro Crater

(If you'd like to read the first two posts about this safari, you can read Part 1 over here, and Part 2 over here). I took the photo above from the wooden veranda deck off the main lodge lounge. The dining room, bar and lounge are housed in the same building - with the dining room upstairs and the bar/lounge downstairs. As you can tell, all have magnificent views out over the Ngorongoro Crater.

The photo above shows a wall feature in the lounge - bushmen paintings (well, copies of them I should say !) can be found throughout the lodge and in all the bedrooms, too. They give the lodge quite a unique feel, I must say. Along with the uneven wall surfaces due to the rounded stones beneath them - who needs framed pictures, anyway ?!


The photo above shows a side view of the veranda deck outside the lounge - I was standing here when I took the first/top photo. I imagine that on a sunny day (it was a little overcast and rainy when we were there) they may even put dining tables and chairs out here - it would make a great spot for afternoon tea and cake to be served !

This photo above shows our bedroom. (Note the bushmen style paintings on the walls again - lovely !) We had a family room and it was quite spacious with a small private entrance/ passageway and walk in closet (with separate luggage storage area) which led through to a very roomy bathroom with shower, toilet and large vanity slab/basin. Both the bedroom and bathroom had heaters that were on all the time, as it does get quite cold here at night.


Our bedroom had it's own private wooden veranda deck with incredible views out over the Crater. I took the photo above from our veranda and once again, couldn't help but think how almost "English Countryside-ish" it looked - I have never seen the Crater area looking so green before.

The last photo which you see here above, was taken from our bedroom veranda the morning before we left. I simply love the reflection of the blue African sky and clouds in the water in this photo. The night before, on returning from dinner, the moon was full and low and reflected in the water and was a sight to behold. By the time I'd finished settling our baby son and found my camera, the moon was covered in cloud so I was unable to take a decent photo of it. (Oh well, that's a good excuse to return sometime in the future for another try, isn't it ?!)

I hope that you enjoyed coming on safari to the magnificent Ngorongoro Crater with me ! (We did not go down into the actual Crater to view game this time - although we have before - as apart from being very busy down there with lots of vehicles, it is a very long trip for a 5 year old and a 7 month old - and extremely boring, too - if you're that age !)

On Friday, I have a special post relating to all 3 of the recent posts I've written about the Crater which I hope you'll enjoy - something different, and nothing seen before on "Food, Fun & Farm Life In East Africa !" - so I'll see you then, okay ?