WIN OUR WEAVE PATTERN TABLE-RUNNER

Tell us your about your dream lunch to WIN

The “Weave” table runner is hand screen-printed in black ink on taupe-coloured 100% cotton poplin and backed with black cotton fabric.

This photograph of our “Weave” table runner laid out with delicious plates of nibbles on a long whitewashed table has received over 1 million downloads on @unsplash since the photographer Luisa Brimble posted it a few months ago.

So to celebrate we’re giving one of our table-runners away. Just answer the question below to win.

Competition Question

IF YOU COULD INVITE ANYONE OVER FOR LUNCH WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHAT WOULD YOU SERVE?

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Weave Table Runner Giveaway

Tell us is the space below, who you would invite over for lunch if you could and what you’d serve.

TABLE-RUNNERS - the quick and easy table centerpiece

Table runners can be a great alternative to a table cloth to create a wonderful centrepiece for a light lunch or afternoon tea. The menu artfully placed on our Banksio Table Runner pictured below is: Canadian walnut biscuits, rose and white chocolate Turkish delight and Sicilian Orange, Almond and Olive oil Torte (recipe follows) served with maple cream, toasted almonds and lemon syrup drizzle.

This pic was taken by Luisa Brimble during our afternoon tea break while photographing and styling our cushion range with Lisa Madigan. The location was Lisa’s wonderful place @thecottagekangaroovalley. Our Banksio Table Runner available to purchase… — This pic was taken by Luisa Brimble during our afternoon tea break while photographing and styling our cushion range with Lisa Madigan. The location was Lisa’s wonderful place @thecottagekangaroovalley. Our Banksio Table Runner available to purchase in our shop

FABRIC INSTALLATION AT AVALON’S BOOKOCINNO BOOKSTORE

Sicilian Orange, Almond and Olive oil Torte

from my time at the Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School in Sicily

Ingredients

For the Cake:

140 grams (1 cup) All Purpose (Plain) flour
1 /2 cup almond flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
150 grams (1/2 cups) sugar (I reduced the sugar from the original recipe)
150 ml (1/2 cup) plus 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 /2 tsp vanilla extract
1 /4 tsp almond extract
1 lemon, zest
125 ml (1/2 cup) orange juice

For the Glaze:

1/2 lemon, juiced
60 grams (1/2 cup) icing sugar (I use Billingtons Golden Icing sugar made from unrefined sugar for its caramel notes)

Toasted Almonds

Butter to prep the pan
30 grams (1/4 cup) almonds, toasted and chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

Butter and flour a 9 inch (22cm) springform pan, set aside. In a small bowl, whisk the AP flour, almond meal, baking powder, and salt together.
In a larger bowl combine eggs and sugar then, whisk together and stream in the olive oil to incorporate.
Whisk in the extracts, lemon zest, and orange juice.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix with a spatula.
Pour the batter into the pan and bake for approx 20-30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through cooking.
Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully remove and cool completely on a drying rack. Make the glaze while the cake cools.
Combine icing sugar and lemon juice with a fork until smooth and shiny. Pour glaze over the cooled cake. Garnish with chopped toasted almonds.

Serving suggestion:

Whipped ricotta is more traditionally associated with Sicilian cooking but I like to serve it with maple flavoured whipped cream ( a tablespoon of maple syrup streamed into the last few beats as your whipping the cream)

DATE GANACHE - simple to make

I swear these taste just like a wicked caramel chocolate but they’re actually super healthy … perfect with coffee, after dinner or for an energy pick-me-up after a workout.

ingredients

10-15 organic medjool dates
Lindt 70% smooth mild dark chocolate
organic or pesticide fee almonds

instructions

Carefully slice the dates in half longways (Cut from the top to the bottom). Remove the pips from the date and pop a whole almond in side the date where the pip was and pinch the date pack together.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water and stir with a spatula till melted and smooth and shiny. Turn the heat off. Add the dates one by one and gently roll in the melted chocolate with a spatula till coated all over.
Place them gently on a baking sheet. When they are all coated them place in the fridge to set. Once set they can be cut in half to serve - revealing the almond inside.

A NEW FABRIC DESIGN - inspired by the Cabbage-Tree Palm

I’m thrilled to have been awarded a northern beaches council community grants to assist in the development of a new textile design.

“It’s a great opportunity to create a distinctive cabbage tree palm fabric design. My hope is that by revealing the inspiration behind the fabric design, it will add layers of meaning, beyond just the visual, for those who experience it and expand our local knowledge of an important protected native tree species”

Records show that the cabbage-tree palm was a traditional food for coastal Indigenous communities who ate the heart of the palm and harvested and ate its young and tender leaves. Later early settlers continued this food tradition and also prized the tree as an ornamental and shade tree and used the trunks to build feeding troughs for their cattle.

The Cabbage-tree palm is now a protected tree species as so many were lost during the urban development which followed colonisation. Thankfully, it can still be found thriving in the rainforest margins on Sydney’s northern beaches.

From my home on the Pittwater side of Avalon, I look directly at a tall cabbage tree palm (Livistona australis) which also line the sides of our street. Its huge fronds creating beautiful shadows in the afternoon light. There is a beautiful grove of cabbage tree ferns which welcomes visitors as you wind your way into Avalon through the Bilgola bends.