Blueberry Oven Puff Cake

The blueberry oven puff cake is like a sweet version of a Yorkshire Pudding. The key to a good Yorkshire pudding or puff cake is to have a cold mixture hitting a very hot pan so that it rises and puffs up in the oven. So you need to put your ovenproof handled frypan in the oven until it is very hot and then add the cold batter to ensure that you get a lovely puffy specimen. After this you simply add a scattering of blueberries- a punnet or a handful will do, some icing sugar and some scoops of fantastic vanilla ice cream and you have an easy dessert that is an easy to make as a pancake but can feed four hungry beasts for breakfast, brunch or dessert ...or in a pinch a wolfbaby and a husband with a wolflike appetite...

I was sure I had a bit of PTCD-that is Post Traumatic Christmas Disorder.

"You know what problem you have?" Mr NQN yelled from the comfort of the couch. He was playing with his new toy, a new phone that he got for Christmas-his new second best friend. I braced myself. I thought Uh oh, what is he going to bring up now?

"You have trouble doing nothing," he said giving me a look of exasperation.

I looked at myself. I was in the bathroom scrubbing clean the new pram I had bought for myself. I had spotted it in a vintage store in Darlinghurst en route to a shoot. The producer Matt kindly stopped the car and I got out and purchased it. It was a genuine vintage pram from the 1920's and I carefully carried it back to his car excited that at last, I had a vehicle for my wolf baby.

Yes Christmas was all fine but I was busy readying myself for Halloween next year. I pictured myself, Halloween 2012, pushing my pretty white wicker pram with a hairy assed wolf baby wearing a bonnet and dress in it. When I brought it home Mr NQN just laughed and a visiting Queen Viv cooed at what a resourceful chicken I was to have found it (she is like a mum to me so she is used to my eccentricities).

"Just a moment, I'll do nothing soon! I just have to clean my wolfbaby pram! He can't sit in a dirty pram!" I yelled back. "And then I've just got to bake this blueberry oven puff cake..." I added, thinking of what else I had to do before I could relax.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you have trouble relaxing or doing nothing? Are you enjoying the holiday break thus far?

Blueberry Oven Puff Cake

Serves 6

• 3/4cup/100g/3.5ozs all purpose plain flour

• 3 tablespoons caster or superfine sugar

• 3 eggs

• 3/4 cup cold milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 45g/1.5ozs butter

• 125g/4os punnet blueberries to serve

• 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream to serve

• icing or confectioners sugar for dusting

You will also need a frying pan with an ovenproof handle. This quantity fits a 24cm/9.6 inch pan.

Step 1 - Preheat the oven to 200c/400F and place the frypan inside the oven while preheating.  Heat for 20 minutes. Place the flour and sugar in a bowl and whisk to combine. In a jug, whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and add in the eggy milk mixture and whisk with a balloon whisk until smooth (I added it in two batches).

Step 2 - Carefully and with oven mitts (doubled up if you can), take the pan out of the oven and add the butter and swirl until melted. Pour in the batter and with the oven mitts on, place the pan back into the oven (be careful not to just grab the handle without the oven  mitt as I did once as you will burn yourself!). Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and puffy.

Step 3 - Top the cake with blueberries, dust with icing sugar and then serve warm with vanilla ice cream.