Sloane's Kitchen with Subi Farmers Market

Passions for produce

WITH | Sloane Carvell in partnership with Subiaco Farmers Market

The farmers and producers who supply Subi Farmers Market with their extraordinarily broad collection of delicious ingredients are the epitome of why it’s best to buy and shop local.

FARMERS MARKETS ARE places full of passionate producers and farmers who are proud of their animals and produce, how they’re grown and how they get to you in the best condition.

Subi Farmers Market is open every Saturday in the grounds of Subiaco Primary School and have an amazing collection of producers and artisans who like nothing more then taking the time to talk to you about their products, bringing the pick of the crop each week. Passionate food lovers like me love to line up for the best tomatoes or lemons each week, and I love to contribute to the economic benefits of locally-grown produce and farms.

Thanks to the hard work of our local farmers and producers, you can get pretty much anything you fancy at Subi Farmers Market from your weekly eggs, butter and milk to fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and poultry, condiments and everything in-between. It’s a great place to do your weekly shop and avoid the crowds (especially as we’ve all experienced the panic depleted shelves in supermarkets in the time of COVID), and there’s the added bonus of knowing exactly where it all comes from.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are available from GMT Produce, Valley View Orchard, Stakehill Produce and Little Big Store, providing the best of our WA produce for you to choose from.

I chatted with some of these passionate market stall holders and have been inspired to create a beautiful lemon cake from their wonderful ingredients. It’s the perfect cake to share with your loved ones - perhaps even on Mother’s Day if you’d like to do something extra special for mum. The cake is an Italian-style lemon and olive oil cake and a type of ciambella, which is an Italian ring-shaped cake, often eaten for breakfast with coffee and simple to make.

But first, a little more about some of the key ingredients.

Devoted Artisan Butter

Established in 2019 by the Aubault family, Renee and Paul purchased the business in early 2020, and have recently completed their first year. They’ve continued the Devoted Artisan’s legacy of making beautiful butter and are passionate about the concept of hand-crafted food and knowing the exact source of ingredients right through to the process of making it. Making butter is an age-old process and by applying traditional techniques of churning, squeezing and massaging and shaping. The pair create a unique butter that is so rich in texture and colour it can transform a dish or be enjoyed simply smothered on a fresh baguette.

UTTERLY BUTTERLY The delicious Devoted Artisan Butter and fresh eggs from Treetops Farm - both available at the Subi Farmers Market - are important components of Sloane's sensational lemon and olive oil cake.

At Devoted Artisan they are passionate about introducing traditional flavour profiles like seaweed, garlic and parsley butter but they also use local ingredients like lemon myrtle, olive and truffle which comes straight from farmers to go into their butter. Each butter is handcrafted with love and no two butters are the same. They are unique, each with its own form and dimension as a result of the techniques they’ve used. For the cake I have used their natural butter.

Treetops Farm Free Range Eggs

Treetops Farm is owned by a family who have farmed for 33 years, raising free range hens in Carmel. Their chickens are rotated in different paddocks and have barns to escape to during the heat of the day with lots of space to enjoy, cluck and roam outside. As the sole supplier of eggs currently at the market, they are very popular and a necessary provision for your weekly shop. The eggs are lovely and an essential ingredient for cakes and breakfasts.

Helen’s Hellish Jams and Condiments

Helen sells a range of homemade chilli pickles, pickles and chutneys, as well as jams and marmalades. She also stocks olive tapenades and olive oil, and beautiful pizzas from Kerry Street Pear Tree. I grabbed a bottle of her olive oil and she told me it comes from the Manzanilla olives grown in Corrigin and York. It’s this oil which makes such a beautiful addition to the cake as well as all your cooking and salad dressings. Helen is definitely the go-to lady to get in a pickle, so to speak. If you’re into pickling – she has all the tips.

Valley View Orchard

Valley View Orchard is a third generation family run orchard in the Perth Hills. They are passionate about growing tree-ripened fruit that’s bursting with flavour and at the time of going to press in February, they were selling juicy summer peaches, plums and nectarines. They also grow apples, pears and citrus.

And just a little bit extra - Gingin Grass Fed

Gingin Grass Fed pride themselves on selling premium beef and meat. Their animals roam freely and are raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics, feeding on seasonal grasses and hay. They are passionate about giving their animals happy and healthy lives free from stress. At their stall at the Subi Farmers Market you can find steaks, roasts, minces, sausages and burgers, jerky, briskets and ribs, with their grass fed and dry aged beef, free range chicken, lamb and pork.

I’m a big fan of their Italian and lamb sausages.

(this cake) doesn't last long in my house!

Recipe

Italian style Ciambella Lemon and Olive Oil Cake

Photograph by Craig Kinder

This cake uses Devoted Artisan Natural Butter and Helen’s Hellish Olive Oil which gives it a beautiful soft and moist texture. Cakes that only use butter tend to be dryer than when olive oil is added to the batter. I used lemons from the market and eggs from Treetops Farm.

A Ciambella is an Italian ring-style cake that has many regional varieties. I have used a bundt tin here but you can also get ciambella cake moulds. In Italy it is often served as a lemon breakfast cake with coffee or for snack, but a warning - it doesn’t last long in my house! The cake can be stored for three days at room temperature.

Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the cake

1 cup of sugar

4 eggs

Zest of 2 lemons

¼ cup lemon juice

1 ¾ cup of plain flour

1 ½ teaspoon of baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda ¾

cup of olive oil

100 grams of butter, melted

¼ cup of milk

For the Lemon Drizzle

2 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 ¼ cups icing sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C fan and use butter to grease and prepare a 9.5 x 3-inch (24 cm diameter) or ringstyle cake pan. In the bowl of a stand mixer using a whisk attachment, beat eggs and sugar for eight minutes until pale and thickened. You can use a handheld mixer if you don’t have a stand mixer. Add the lemon zest and mix in. In a bowl sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Add flour mixture to the egg mixture and continue to beat in. Add the butter, olive oil, milk and mix in. Add ¼ cup lemon juice. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden. If unsure check with a skewer inserted if it comes out clean its ready. Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack. For lemon drizzle mix the lemon juice and icing sugar and pour over when ready to serve.