jul, 9th - snippet from the weekend....

day 881:

our weekend was pretty quiet. i met up with a great bunch of girlfriends on Friday night for dinner. we went here. for the rest of the weekend, the weather was fairly wet and sludgy and more suited to Autumn than high Summer.......(thank goodness for the roof on Centre Court at Wimbledon.)

we seem to have been stock piling dry ingredients for months now and our Shoebox kitchen is struggling to contain our for-a-rainy-day-rations...so, A. and i have been trying to use what we can to make some space......with plenty of desiccated coconut, oats, syrup and flour, i decided to attempt Anzac biscuits with Limi on Saturday. a brave move as a South African, to tackle an iconic Australian biscuit. not sure i nailed them or matched A.'s nana's version but Limi and i had fun (and they're a great dough-eating-recipe as there are no raw eggs).

it may also have been Limi's first milk and biscuit-dunking experience. by the way that she was  protecting her mug she may have been worried that i was going to wrestle this new-found joy out of her grasp.

hope your weekend also uncovered new-found delights. x

jul, 2nd - baking days....

day 874:

these pics are from a few weeks ago. they're of Limi and Kelly baking me beetroot and chocolate cupcakes for my birthday. we are trying as much as possible to teach Limi where her food comes from (as much as you can when you buy most of it, unfortunately) and involve her in the cooking process. she loves helping out in the kitchen and is even more excited about getting the sponges soapy and washing up.

the cupcakes were delicious.

apr, 15th - two cups of flour....

day 799:

i did a bit of baking this weekend for a good friend's baby shower. i tried out the new kitchen aid which is incredible. it makes mixing a complete joy...smooth, silky batter without the arm ache....

the cakes still need a bit of work but the assistant and the tools are good.

mar, 20th - those cupcakes....

day 774:

tahdah.

i'm pretty proud of how these cupcakes turned out.....my sister whipped up a batch of cupcakes (she has these whipping-up skills) and we practised our new techniques based on what we learnt on this afternoon course, using a wilton icing recipe.

we mixed our own colours and both fell in love with the grey......so, what's the verdict? cool or seaweed?

i'm going to keep practising and hope that i can become an expert by the time Limi can remember her childhood cupcakes.....it's surprisingly relaxing.

feb, 24th - hummingbird....

day 748:

on the first day in Hong Kong, my sister took me off to an cupcake icing lesson......i loved it....i'm going to be growing seedlings next and longing for a veg patch.....but hey, i'm not fighting it......it's surprisingly soothing and satisfying making buttercream flowers....and reminds me of my gran who was a fantastic wedding cake decorator.

i still need to work on my actual cupcakes though, especially when Limi will be comparing them to Hummingbird Bakery and their incredible red velvet cupcakes.

so.......be prepared for plenty of deliveries of my attempts as i try and hone my skills.....

jan, 22nd - virtuous bread....

day 690:

part of A.'s Christmas present was a sourdough bread-making course with Jane Mason at Virtuous Bread. we're not at the veg/herb garden stage yet, but we both love good food made with quality ingredients. {remember this ode to jam}

A. is already pretty good at making loaves but after today's course.......we will never be short of homemade bread and delicious sourdough crackers.

it's definitely one of those selfish presents, where the giver ends up benefiting just as much. 

for dinner, we enjoyed slices of A.'s fresh bread with bowls of butternut soup and cracked black pepper. very tasty.

jun, 23rd - baking....

day 498:

i love baking. i used to do a lot more of it......... i'm not particularly patient....i'm more of a sift-ingredients-together-throw-in-some-liquid-and-cross-my-fingers-that-it-will-rise type baker.....my sister, on the other hand, is brilliant........the produce-a-batch-of-meltingly-light-fairy-cakes-in-a-spare-moment-during-a-busy-afternoon type baker.....but i do love the ritual of separating eggs, scraping batter....and hoping for magic......and of course, licking the spatula is something that i want Limi to remember from her childhood the same way that i remember it from mine......

 so, to keep my folding-wrist in practise, i made some brownies today....adapted from a recipe by Small Food, it a simple recipe that produces dense, chewy-centred brownies that give you a serious chocolate-jolt.....they're not the healthy option but definitely worth a try.

Pecan Chocolate Brownies

2/3  (two-thirds) of a cup of plain flour

1 cup cocoa powder

3 cups demerara sugar

1 cup muscovado

2 cups roughly chopped pecans

125 g good dark chocolate, roughly chopped

125 g good milk chocolate, roughly chopped

500 g butter

4 teaspoons vanilla essence

8 eggs, lightly beaten

if making it for a dinner party, then:

substitute 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence with 1 dessert spoon of good quality Rum

1. preheat the oven to 180 C. grease two baking tins with butter and line with baking paper. 

2. sift the flour and cocoa together and add the sugar and pecans

3. make a well in the dry ingredients and add the chocolate

4. gently melt the butter and add to the ingredients with the eggs and vanilla essence (and Rum, if adding)

5. fold together, pour into the tin and smooth the surface

6. bake for 50 mins or until the top has a thin crust and the centre in spongy

7. leave to cool a bit and either cut roughly and serve warm with creme fraiche or ice-cream or alternatively, refrigerate  for 2 hours and cut neater wedges.

makes about 25 rectangular wedges, depending on how big you cut them.

i loved baking them....now to resist eating them........fancy some tea?