Stuff? Yeah, that.

Ridiculous vs Awesome

2011-06-15T06:47:00.001-07:00

This little article in Frankie magazine has inspired me to post for the first time in almost a year.

http://www.frankie.com.au/craft/1759-skirting-the-issue

I can't decide if it's stupid or awesome.

Baby Cardigan

2010-08-25T20:51:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been over a year since I last posted. About one week after the last post I got a new full time job, and two days later my computer died a very permanent death. It took me about four months to get a new laptop, and I just didn't have time to get back into the blogging. I still bake somewhat regularly, and occasionally take photos. Knitting has only just started again though.

I made this cardigan for a girl at work. Her baby girl is due in three weeks. The yarn is just Lincraft Baby Grand, and the pattern is from an old Emu Treasure leaflet (#8601) that I inherited from my Grandma.

Fruit & Spice Brownie

2009-08-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

I love mixed dried fruit, the kind that you make fruit cake or fruit mince from; sultanas, raisins, currents, candied peel and cherries (usually imitation, those little jelly balls). However, I hate the candied citrus peel that is in it. I love the flavour that it gives to the fruit, I just hate chomping down on whole pieces of peel. So I pick it all out before I use it. It takes a while, but it's definitely worth it. Most people I know hate the imitation cherries, and while you can get top shelf mixes with real maraschino cherries, just between you and me, I love the imitation cherries!

Above is a brownie with mixed dried fruit and spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg). It didn't last 24 hours. One of my flatmates nearly inhaled the whole thing, he liked it so much. I made it in the evening and it was gone before lunch the next day.

Garden Firsts

2009-08-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

My first Snow Pea.

My first Sweet Pea

Salty Peanut Butter Balls

2009-07-31T12:36:00.000-07:00

I saw these Milk and Honey Peanut Butter Balls. As all the comments on that post indicate, you can pretty much put whatever you want in these 'raw cookies'. Here's what mine had:

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/3 cup golden syrup
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup milk powder
1/4 cup oat flour
1 tsp vanilla

Yum!

Reflection

2009-07-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

No editing here. I saw the plant reflection in my cup of tea (rosehip and hibiscus) and snapped it. That's the apricot and choc chip cookies in the background.

Apricot Choc Chip Cookies

2009-07-26T15:36:00.000-07:00

When I saw this cookie recipe on the back of a packet of dried apricots I knew I had to make it. I've had really good luck with 'packet recipes'. My favourite peanut butter choc chip cookie recipe was found on the back of a brown sugar packet. My mum even has a cook book that has cut out recipes stuck to the blank side of every page (it's a very old book).

These cookies were great. They are crispy on the outside and soft and cakey on the inside. I made them quite large, the size recommended, and they held together really well. However I think that next time I make them (and I will definitely make them again), I'll make them just a little bit smaller to up the crispy edge to soft centre ratio, because I do like the crispiness.

I absolutely love dried apricots, and they work really well in these cookies. Their soft chewiness contrasts nicely with the choc chips. I also added a bit of cinnamon to the mix, which adds an extra flavour dimension.

I think this cookie stack looks like a monster, about to attack my rosehip tea!

Apricot Choc Chip Cookies

100g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup choc chips

1. Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and creamy. Add egg and vanilla essence and beat well.

2. Add sifted flour, baking powder, and cinnamon and combine. Stir in apricots and choc chips.

3. Place tablespoons of mixture onto tray and press down to flatten. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 170 C.

White Choc Coconut Slice

2009-07-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

I love white chocolate and coconut together, and have been wanting to make something combining these too for a while. So I 'invented' this white chocolate and coconut slice last week.

I basically reworked the standard caramel slice/any condensed milk based recipe. While it tasted really really good, it wasn't exactly what I had planned, so I was still a little disappointed. For the middle layer I wanted to mix coconut milk and egg whites with condensed milk and white chocolate. I already had the base in the oven when I discovered that my flatmates had used up BOTH my coconut milk and the communal eggs. I forged ahead anyway, and the middle was thankfully not too gooey. I'll try again to make it the way I planned, but not for a while I think. It was one hell of a sugar overload.

sev[en]circle

2009-07-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

The moment I saw the sev[en]circle pattern, I had to make one. I love how it looks, and it really keeps my neck warm. For better drape, I think my yarn would have worked better with 5.0mm needles rather than 4.5mm. But that's not the pattern's fault.

I love it.

Sweet Polenta

2009-07-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

Another random breakfast idea popped into my head a few days ago: sweet polenta. Obviously I'm not the first person to think of this (as a quick google will show), but this is what I did: I cooked it up as 1/2 cup each of polenta, water, and milk, plus a spoon of sugar, a handful of sultanas, and some powdered cloves and cinnamon. (I did have to add extra liquid though, as the polenta I used was a lot more thirsty than my usual brand).

A perfect breakfast! Polenta has plenty of protein, so it kept me going for ages, unlike the tapioca. It was also delicious, and freshly made it was a nice warm start for the cold morning. I made about two serves worth. I love to reheat set polenta with vegetable sauce for a fast dinner, but there's no reheating soft polenta (in my experience), so I'll need to experiment to figure out the perfect one serve amount, and see if it goes ok in the microwave too. This will defintely be a regular breakfast from now on.

The sultanas were lovely and juicy, and I'm sure other dried fruits will be really nice, such as dates and apricots, and nuts would be great too. Also, I kept the sugar amount low, because I intended to pour golden syrup all over it in the bowl. As you can see from the almost empty jar, golden syrup is very popular in this household.

Tapioca with Apricots and Orange Blossom

2009-06-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

I bought my first bottle of Orange Blossom Water last week, and the first thing I wanted to use it in was tapioca pudding. I didn't get the chance to make and eat anything that night, so I decided I would have a slightly healthier version for breakfast the next day.

I soaked 1/3 cup of tapioca in water over night, then drained it and cooked it with 1 cup of milk, a tablespoon of sugar, some chopped dried apricots, and a splash each of vanilla extract and orange blossom water.

It was delicious, but I wouldn't recommend tapioca as a breakfast food. It's almost pure carbohydrate and even with the milk, I was hungry again less than two hours later. The rest of it was lovely as dessert the following evening though.

Cabled Beanie

2009-06-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

The knitting project turnover rate has been pretty slow lately. I've mostly been working on a shawl which is now 0% complete, because I've ripped it back for the third time.

However, last week I finally purchased a set of interchangeable needles! So I'm gearing up to get some serious knitting done, and this is the first item finished:

Custard & Pear Cake

2009-06-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

What I was aiming for: A light tea cake with a layer of vanilla custard and pear slices in the middle.

What I got: A giant scone with a layer of vanilla custard and pear slices in the middle.

I'm not sure if the problem was me or the recipe, but I suspect the latter. I knew something wasn't right when rather than cake batter I had a sticky dough to work with; that's why there's so many and such large air gaps in the cake. The end product wasn't at all bad, and if I had intended to make a giant scone I would have been very pleased. My flatmate is actually the one who noted the resemblance to scones, and she was more than happy to have seconds. And it turned out quite handy two days later when friend came to visit. Intending to bring scones, I told her there was no need as I still had part of giant scone in the fridge!

One thing I really did love was the white, vanilla seed speckled custard. My local supermarket only has custard powder made with wheaten cornflour, so until I remember to grab some next time I'm at a different store, I'll have to continue to use plain cornflour and vanilla. I added yellow colouring when I made the vanilla slice recently, but this time I didn't bother. The stark whiteness allows the vanilla seeds to really stand out, and somehow suits the pears.

Coffee and Apple Cake

2009-06-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's my doona/duvet in the photo. I was sitting on my bed, just about plough into my piece of cake, the last piece of cake, when I realised I hadn't taken any photos of my Coffee and Apple Cake. You see, I like cake best when it's fresh out of the oven, still warm. So I bake when people are already over. Then the cake (or pudding, or cookies, or whatever) gets eaten straight away. So there's only photos if something is leftover the next day, and only if I can remember to take the photo before sticking that something in my gob.

This cake is a total crowd pleaser (unless it comes out of the oven looking like this!). I have one friend who, when my name and baking are mentioned together, will tell anyone in ear shot about this cake, even though I've made it for her only maybe three times in the ten years that I've known her. She even expressed more desire for it than a Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake! I think that's going a little far, but the Coffee and Apple Cake is the perfect afternoon cake. It's a very moist cake, slightly crumbly and best eaten with a fork. The flavours of the brown sugar, coffee, apple, and cinnamon work so perfectly together. Everyone needs a piece of this cake.

I had a pretty extensive look online for the same or similar recipes, and I was surprised that I came up empty. The recipe is originally from a Woman's Weekly cake book - hardly an obscure source. So here it is, with the small changes made by my mum and I over the years.

Coffee and Apple Cake with Caramel Icing

1/2 cup sultanas
1 tbs instant coffee
1/2 cup boiling water
90g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 large apple, grated

Line a 22cm square cake tin with baking paper. Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celcius.

Combine the sultanas, coffee, and boiling water in a bowl, cool to room temperature.

Cream butter, vanilla essence, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, beat in egg; beat until combined. Stir in half the sifted flour, cinnamon, and bi-carb soda along with half the coffee and sultana mixture, then stir in the rest of the flour and sultana mixtures. Stir in grated apple and walnuts.

Spread batter into cake tin and bake for 25-30 min.

Caramel Icing
2 tbs brown sugar
30g butter
1 tbs milk
1 cup icing sugar

Combine brown sugar, butter, and milk in a saucepan, stirring constantly over heat without boiling, until smooth. Remove from heat. Gradually stir in sifted icing sugar.

Note: The coffee flavour in the cake is pretty subtle, so if you really like coffee feel free to make the 1/2 cup of liquid as strong as you can, and/or use real espresso. Also, I sometimes make coffee flavoured icing instead of caramel, to increase the coffee flavour.

Black Beans

2009-06-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was soaking some black beans (turtle beans) to make a salad, and I wondered if the beans would sprout. I had a look and couldn't find any pictures of the growth habit, but someone on a gardening forum said that they grow into bushes rather than climbing, which suits me just fine because I already have snow peas and sweet peas on my limited fence space.

Just over a week ago I put eight seeds in a container, and five have already sprouted!

I'm not sure how they'll go. It's towards the end of general bean planting time here in Sydney, so hopefully it suits them. I won't be too upset if they fail though. Eight beans out of a one kilo bag of beans - it was definitely worth a try. They're such pretty looking seedlings too.

Coconut and Passionfruit Two Ways

2009-06-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

I wanted Coconut & Passionfruit Self-Saucing Pudding.

But, I only wrote down the ingredients and didn't read the instructions.

I got Coconut Cake With Passionfruit Custard Top.

It was actually really nice. The cake was really dense, but the passionfruit custard was great. I'll make the effort to read the instructions next time though, because as nice as it was, I wanted self-saucing pudding and it didn't scratch the itch.

Rose & Pinenut Rice Krispie Cups

2009-05-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

My American flatmate had a craving for Rice Krispie Treats, so I set about making them for him. I've made Australian style chocolate crackles plenty of times, but I wanted to make these the normal American way. So, I went to the Kellogg's site and got the original recipe. However, I could only find packets of mixed white and pink marshmallows. I couldn't be bothered buying two packets and separating out the colours, so I resigned myself to making pink Rice Krispie Treats. The colour got me thinking though, so after filling a square pan with 2/3 of the mix, I added a dash of rosewater and a handlful of pinenuts to the bowl and pressed the remaining mix into some oiled cupcake pans.

Et voila: Adult Rice Krispie Treats

They were delicious. The heady scent of the rosewater and the creaminess of the pinenuts took them from being a pleasantly sweet but basically uninteresting bar, to a really enjoyable 'treat'.

I thought my friend would be disappointed by the non-standard pink colour of the plain bars, and totally uninterested in the souped up version, but I was completely wrong. He didn't mind the colour at all, and it turns out he actually loves rose flavoured desserts and would have preferred the whole batch that way. I also much preferred them in the cupcake pans- it's so much easier and less messy than cutting bars.

Vanilla Slice

2009-05-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

This was a request by a flatmate. I grew up eating vanilla slices and I always loved them, but I hadn't had one for years. They're not the best thing to eat in public because of the tendancy for the custard to squish all over the place when you take a bite. These ones were enjoyed in the privacy of our home, and with the assistance of forks.

This was definitely one of the best vanilla slices that I've had. The recipe is from Donna Hay in the Sunday Mazagine's ANZAC Day special. It called for custard powder, but I swapped it for cornflour, vanilla bean paste, and a few drops of yellow food colouring. The passionfruit icing isn't essential, but I highly recommend it.

Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake

2009-05-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

This ugly brown and white lump is a slice of the Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake that I made for my flatmate's birthday recently. Believe me when I say that it tastes as good as it looks ugly! We were like animals, groaning as we ate and smushing cake around the plate in our haste to get more into our mouths.

Like Smitten Kitchen did, I substituted each of the different elements of the cheesecake for recipes that I already had: my own vegan brownie recipe, a New York Cheesecake recipe (minus the lemon) in Australian measurements, and I winged it with the ganache.

Soft Gingerbread

2009-05-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

These unassuming brown balls are the tastiest gingerbread I've had in a long time. They are soft, spicey little balls of heaven. The recipe yields only a fairly small amount, so I recommend doubling the batch. I certainly will be next time.

This is my mum's Mother's Day present, and why I'll be making that double batch really soon. The whole lot fit into the container with no leftovers for me!

Banana and Date Cake with Lime Icing

2009-05-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

Banana and Date Cake with Lime Icing
I used the innards of a fruit from a kaffir lime to flavour the icing. It took a bit of effort to separate the seeds from the fruit, but it had a good lime flavour, and not at all bitter, and the little pearls of the fruit popped when eaten.

Primula Seed

2008-10-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I collected a bunch of seeds from the primulas. I made sure that primulas will grow in this garden forever by sprinkling the seeds all around the place (they should germinate next spring of their own accord). But we don't expect to be still here to see the lot, so I collected some of the seed to store and sow somewhere else.

Fudge

2008-09-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

I came across a hand written Peanut Butter Fudge recipe in one of mum's cook books. It didn't look very 'fudgey', but it required the exact amount (40g) of cooking chocolate that had been sitting in the cupboard for several months, and I figured if mum had bothered to write it down, it must be good.

As you can see, it's definitely not fudge. But it was very tasty. It's basically coconut rough - a chocolately coconut mix.

So I found another fudge recipe and tried again.

This is chocolate rum fudge. I used the Bundaberg Rum Royal Liqueur, which is dark rum with chocolate and coffee. The fudge was delicious, though it didn't set entirely. Chilled it was perfectly firm, but went gooey if left out of the fridge.

I'll try again at some point, but for now I'm all fudged out.

Bed Socks

2008-09-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

A while ago my mum was looking through Paton's 'Big Book of Small Projects 2' that I have, and she pointed out several things that she would like. She now has a pair of bed socks, just in time for the start of spring.

These are the first socks I've made, but I do know that the construction of these was very odd. The pattern was graded as intermediate, but I found the only challenge to be filling in the gaps in the instructions. For such a basic pattern book, which has 'how to' knit and crochet sections, the instructions left a lot of be assumed/guessed at.

Date Self-Saucing Pudding

2008-09-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

Around here pudding is a cake that is so dense and moist that you have to eat it with a spoon. And the best type of pudding is self-saucing pudding.

Date Self-Saucing Pudding

1 cup self-raising flour
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon lemon rind
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup apple juice
60g melted butter
3/4 cup hot apple juice
3 tablespoons golden syrup
2 teaspoons butter

1: Sift together flour and salt, stir in sugar, dates, walnuts, and lemon rind. Mix to soft dough with the egg, 1/4 cup apple juice and butter. Spoon into greased oven proof dish.
2: Put the hot apple juice, syrup and butter into a small saucepan and stir over low heat until butter has melted. Pour over pudding and bake in a moderate oven for about 40 minutes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Cake

2008-09-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

This is a chocolate cake with peanut butter cheese cake centre and peanut butter cream cheese icing. It was amazing. To balance out all the peanut butter and cream cheese, I used apple sauce instead of butter in the cake, which had a beautifully light but moist texture. The cheese cake was supposed to be an even layer, but I forgot that this cake batter is very runny, so I had to spoon the cheese cake batter onto it and though it looked nice and even when I did it, obviously the spoonfuls moved about and did their own thing during cooking. The cheese cake is also peanut butter flavoured. I used chunky style, and the pieces of peanut gave a really nice contrast to the smooth cheese cake and fluffy chocolate cake. The peanut butter cream cheese icing? I saw this Smitten Kitchen post and didn't need any convincing that it would be as good as it was.

Pattern Booklets

2008-09-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

I discovered the magazine section at one of the local op shops, and it was quite a score for knitting and crochet patterns. Nothing was more recent than the mid '90s, and there were some booklets that were from the '40s/'50s. The majority of the booklets were from the '80s, so they were mostly good for a laugh and I didn't buy a lot.

The booklet above is pretty indicative of what I found, with the hideous '80s patterns and/or styling. I bought this one, and two others, because they had just one pattern that I really liked.

This crochet booklet was a surprise. After having a good laugh at the nipple peeking through there (look closely), I actually looked at the patterns and found that I like seven of the nine included. One dress in particular has gone straight to the top of my must-make queue. I haven't bought the yarn yet, but I'm hoping to have it ready for a wedding in October I'm attending.

Pear & Blueberry Coconut Loaf

2008-08-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

Go and make this Pear & Raspberry Coconut Bread.
It is awesome. Pears are in season, so I went looking for recipes and had to try this one. I had some blueberries in the freezer, so I used them instead of the raspberries and they were great. I'm definitely going to try it again with the raspberries though. It's a really great recipe for a people who want a cake that's not to sweet, because most of the sweetness comes from the fruit. The cake is really dense and moist, and it just fine on it's own, but is really good with butter too.

Please excuse the ordinary photos- I just wanted to get more cake in my mouth as fast as possible!

Pot Plant Covers

2008-08-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

I love to have lots of indoor plants, but nice indoor plant pots are really expensive. So I bought some 50c garden twine and crocheted a quick cover for the normal plastic pot that the plants come in. It looks like I'll get two and a half covers out of 50c worth of twine, compared to around $15 for an average sized pot.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

2008-08-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

I had an excess of cooked pumpkin to use up, so I decided to make spiced pumpkin cupcakes. Most of the recipes I found online were 'box of yellow cake mix + can of pumpkin' (which, for the record, I don't consider a recipe!), so I improvised and used a banana cake recipe, swapping the mashed banana for mashed cooked pumpkin. It worked perfectly! I'll definitely make these again. The vanilla and cinnamon cream cheese icing is absolutely heaven as well.

Birthday Cake Dramas

2008-08-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

It was my mum's birthday a little while ago, so of course I made her a cake. I chose a coffee and apple cake that she had been asking for, and which is a tried and trusted recipe. But for some reason, I have no idea why, it all went terribly wrong. I've made mistakes while baking before, but I've never had something entirely un-salvageable. Until that day.

Worst of all, I timed the cake so that it would be done right before mum got home from work, so she could have some for afternoon tea while it was still warm. Luckily I put the extra batter into cupcakes, and when I saw them sink the second I pulled them out of the oven, I frantically started making another cake. I opted for a quick mix orange and date cake which I had to cook in a glass bowl because we don't have many cake pans.

It was still in the oven when mum got home, and when I eventually did pull it out it still wasn't quite done in the centre, so it sank the moment mum stuck the knife into it. Thankfully my mother isn't fussy, and she was very happy with the cake, which thankfully was delicious despite the slightly gooey centre.

Ladybird/bug/beetle

2008-08-05T12:03:00.000-07:00

I found a ladybird on the footpath the other day, and I put it on my lemon balm plant because there's been a few aphids on it. The ladybird wasn't in the best shape when I first found it, but four days later and it's still on the lemon balm and seems very happy.

Stupid dye lots!

2008-07-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

I promptly started a Seascape Stole in Cleckheaton Studio Mohair 8 Ply after returning from the trip. I've stalled 3/4 of the way in though. I bought three balls of yarn, all different dye lots but perfectly matching. Then I decided that I needed another ball, and because of the different dye lots of the first three balls I didn't think twice about buying it from a different store. Yep, it doesn't match. I discovered that four days ago, and I'm still waiting for a chance to get back to the original store and get another ball. Frustrating!

In the meantime I whipped up a pair of hand warmers for wearing at the computer.

Pumpkin Pie

2008-07-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Pumpkins are in abundance in Australia at the moment and despite having pumpkin with dinner almost every night, I still can't get enough of it. So I made pumpkin pie. I've never made pumpkin pie before, and I've also never eaten it before. I used this recipe here, and I'm not sure if what I ate is classic Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, but it was really good. The shell was cookie crumbs style, using oats, coconut, spelt flour, and butter because I can't eat wheat. It was perfect.

Birds

2008-07-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

Last week we welcomed two new members to the family. Helmut the budgerigar died recently, leaving his boyfriend Herbie all alone. We went to the pet shop to get him a new friend, and came back not only with a new budgie, but also a cockatiel. After four pets' names coincidentally starting with 'H', it's become a tradition, thus our new friends are called Himmel and Hello. Himmel means sky in German and the new budgie is blue, plus there's the novelty value of calling him Him. We think the cockatiel is female but wont be sure until she matures, so we needed a gender-neutral name. After repeatedly saying hello to her for three days, we decided that may as well be her name.

Herbie

Himmel

Hello

Berry Cheesecake Brownie

2008-07-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

My brother came round to have a look at my photos from the trip, so I had to bake something. The bro loves cheesecake, but I couldn't go past this Berry Cheesecake Brownie recipe that I found a while ago. It turned out really nicely. Next time I will put a little bit of flour into the cheesecake mix though, to give it a proper cheesecake texture. The colour from the berries is so beautiful, it could easily have be dressed up and made really visually impressive, but I just chucked it in a bowl with vanilla ice cream and chocolate rum sauce and everyone here was happy.

Travels

2008-06-16T03:14:00.000-07:00

I'm currently in Exmouth, WA. The trip has been amazing so far. On Saturday, WWKIP Day, I spent most of my time swimming with Whale Sharks. I did manage to get in a couple of rows of knitting though.

Choc- Cup Cakes

2008-05-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

At the start of the week I was impatiently awaiting a package of peanut butter cups. The disappointment of finding the post office box still empty on Tuesday lead me to make a half batch of choc-peanut butter cup cakes. Of course the peanut butter cups arrived the following day, and I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch of cups, followed by a cupcake, followed by more cups. (Followed by a jog!)

Mum requested more chocolate cupcakes to take to her boyfriend this weekend, and I opted to use up some leftover coconut milk to make choc-coconut cupcakes. I made the batch using normal wheat flour and thus couldn't eat them, but I did take out a scoop of the batter pre-flour and mix in some spelt flour to make a single wheat free cupcake for me. To compensate for having only one cupcake, I claimed all the extra icing. :)

Both batches were made using mashed prunes instead of butter or oil, and I was really surprised by how well they turned out. The original chocolate cake recipe calls for the butter and sugar to be creamed, as well as for the eggs to be separated and whites whipped to soft peaks. I just chucked the prunes, sugar, and eggs together and mixed them thoroughly, and the cupcakes turned out really moist but still light and fluffy. Little bits of prune are visible in the cakes, but don't alter the flavour at all.

Lemon-Blueberry Cake

2008-04-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

The above is a picture of the Lemon-Blueberry cupcakes that I made to take camping on ANZAC Day long weekend. My mum loves lemon flavoured desserts so I'd been saving up recipes to make for her, but I decided to use the Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Loaf recipe that was posted on Smitten Kitchen not long ago.

The cake was wrong in so many ways: the juice from the frozen blueberries spread through the batter and turned it grey; the berries all sank to the bottom; I overfilled the cases; they were over cooked and stuck to the cases; and the cake itself had the weirdest texture, being light but not crumbly, slightly rubbery, and incredibly moist (despite the fact that I marginally reduced all liquid amounts).

But mum LOVED them, and wants me to make them again already. I think they would be perfect served as pudding with icecream.

Here's a few random photos from camping:

Coconut Cake

2008-04-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Mum used to make this cake for us all the time when we were kids. We have dozens of coconut cake recipes in all the different cooking books, but the recipe for this one is handwritten into a book that is older than I am, and mum doesn't remember where she got it from. It's an incredibly moist cake, but I still decided to up the richness this time by using coconut milk where it calls for normal milk. It was great.

I never mean to make the icing quite so pink, but I always end up spilling a bit too much into the mix. And just quietly, I really like it like that.

Lacey Scarves

2008-04-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

I finished and blocked my Lace Ribbon Scarf on the weekend, and it's now sitting in a post pack waiting to be sent off to a friend in the States. I wanted to make something for my friend's husband as well, but I have no immediate access to yarn at the moment, and I want the scarf to get there so she can use it a bit before the weather warms up. (I know exactly what to make for the Mr, so he'll get his own package as soon as I can manage it)

I originally intended the scarf to be for me, but then realised it was perfect for my friend so I designated it hers, and bought some more Regia Silk to make another scarf for me. Given that there are thousands of options for making a lace scarf, I couldn't bring myself to make the same one again, so I chose this standard fern pattern because I'm lazy and the pattern is easy to memorize, but also because I think it's really pretty. The yarn is 'natur' because the colour range for Regia Silk is fairly ordinary, and I want to give dying a go. I'm thinking dark turquoise or purple.

I'm almost finished the second of three balls for the scarf, so I need to hurry up and procure some more yarn before I finish and have nothing else to knit.

Australia

2008-04-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

I love Australia.

(Learn about Tim Tams here)

Banana Bread

2008-04-08T13:06:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I baked banana bread. Much to my surprise, this was the best banana bread I have ever made! I usually make banana cake rather than bread, partly because I grew up eating banana cake (with lemon icing) and I still use my mum's recipe which is perfect, and partly because I'm simply a cake fiend.

I opted for banana bread this time though, because Fran prefers it, and because last time I made the cake with white sugar rather than the specified brown sugar (which is very hard to find in Germany) it turned out really light and fine instead of dense and moist like it's supposed to be. This is also why I was so surprised that the banana bread turned out so well, because the recipe I used also called for brown sugar, but I used white, and somehow it still came out incredibly moist. In fact, it was almost a hybrid of banana cake and bread; dense and moist like the former, but not too crumbly and easy to slice like the latter. Perfect with a bit of butter (though it went down just fine without the butter too) and a cup of Earl Grey tea.

This banana bread was my last baking task in Berlin. The following day I headed back home, taking a big chunk of banana bread to eat on the first of three flights, and 30 hours later I was in Brisbane, Australia. I have mixed feelings about being back here, but at the very least I am excited to have easy access to brown sugar, liquid vanilla extract, choc chips, and of course fresh tropical fruit.

Choc Oat Hazelnut Cookies

2008-04-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

I baked some ordinary cookies this afternoon. But in this household, even if your cookies are crap they will be eaten, and the first half of the batch looked like this ->
before the second half was even out of the oven.

I made these cookies a few weeks ago and they were really good, so the scribbled down recipe was stuck on the fridge and that's what I worked off today. Just by looking at the recipe I expected it to be too dry, and instead of doing my usual fix everything trick of adding milk (and what I probably did last time), I went looking on the computer for the recipe, couldn't find it, and ended up adding more flour and another egg. I knew this was stupid as soon as I did it.

The cookies aren't actually bad, but they're disappointing, and not up to my usual standard. They're a bit eggy (funny that), and not as sweet as they should be. The only other problem really is that they're just kind of... ugly.

Septopus!

2008-03-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

It's mail out week for the Ravelry Australian Knitters Bag Lady Swap. The chances are pretty slim that my swappee will see this post, so I think it's safe to share a preview. I love this little octopus that I made. I know he's kinda lame, but he's just so cute and fun. Plus, he's actually only got seven legs because I was using the left over cotton from the bag and I ran out. He's a septopus!

Here's a horribly blurry pic of the package. I had thought that he didn't fit into the box, but when I was packing it up yesterday I tried folding the bag differently and just managed to squish the toy in too. So I was franticly weaving in the ends so I could include him and still get to the post office on time, and I didn't notice how blurry the pic was. I think he looks amusingly freaked out in the box there.

After all that, I got to the post office too late, so I'm heading there right now.

Happy Easter

2008-03-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to everyone! As you can see to the right, the easter bunny (my flatmate) already visited our household, because she is going away for the weekend. Within seconds of taking this photo the eggs found themselves in my belly, and that was after I'd already eaten most of the chocolate bunny I bought for myself yesterday. (No, I didn't have chocolate for breakfast. I had muesli and banana for breakfast. The chocolate was my lunch). I'll be good and save the Lindt bunny for Sunday though.

Like 171 other people on Ravelry so far (plus the 1707 queues), I've already cast on the Lace Ribbon Scarf from the latest Knitty. It's supposed to be my aeroplane knitting for next week, but that's only if I can keep my grubby little hands off it. I've got several other projects that need finishing: I need to sew the lining for my Bag Swap bag, and hopefully knit two more small items for the package, ready for sending on Tuesday; and I want to get this Polo Top done before I leave in case I have to gift it to Fran, if it doesn't suit me.

Latvia

2008-03-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

I recently visited Riga, the capital of Latvia. I really liked the city and the people, but unfortunately it wasn't the most fun trip ever because I ran out of things to do and felt rather lonely, and I spent the last few days mostly reading and hiding from the weather. Transport around the Baltic isn't very good, so visiting Estonia or Lithuania wasn't really practical without a bit of advance planning. Five days was just an awkward amount of time.

I had one day of sunshine to take some photos of the beautiful Art Nouveau buildings that make the old centre a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I actually liked the old and dirty buildings better than many of the restored ones, which seemed somehow fake and lacking in character.

The Latvians seem to really love their bread, cheese, beer, and pickles. I didn't try any bread or pickles (just gawked at the huge piles of pickled everything at the markets), but I ate plenty of cheese in a myriad of forms, and sampled a few local brews which were very nice. I was tempted to buy some real Latvian mittens, but I couldn't bring myself to do it when I can make them myself. So I searched out the local yarn stores, which stocked mostly italian yarns. One shop had a massive number of bags of balls or cones of all sorts of yarn, some of which were fantastic bargains. But I'm in no position to be purchasing bulk mohair, even if it only costs 10 Lats/kg! So I came home empty handed.

Sharing the love with soft and squishy yarny goodness

2008-03-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

I enjoy knitting for other people, and it's always nice when the recipient of a knitting item is genuinely excited by and appreciative of a gift. I'm a serial beanie and scarf maker, and most friends have at least one of each from me. I'm pretty easy to please, all I expect in return is a thank you, so the list of will not knit for people is quite short, though I must admit that a couple of names ended up on the list because they appreciated the knitted items more than me!

A friend of mine who lives in London has been feeling a bit down lately, so I knit her some cheery yellow wristwarmers in squishy alpaca and sent them off last week. She sent me an sms on Saturday saying "I just got your gift and it made me cry. Thank you so so much!", and posted about them today on her blog, saying that she's been wearing them every day. In a comment to that post, another friend mentioned "I wear the maroon and black scarf you made every day btw". The scarf she's referring to was made in 2001, and was actually what got me back knitting regularly!

It makes me feel all soft and squishy like a nice ball of alpaca.

Baking

2008-03-02T20:28:00.000-08:00

I mostly only bake in the evenings, which isn't the best time to photograph the results. Unfortunately there isn't usually much left the next day to photograph. This batch of cookies survived the night almost intact (I only ate a couple, and no one else was home). I wanted to play with the cookie cutters so I made some simple butter cookies with some mixed spice thrown in for interest. They were actually really good, and they disappeared very quickly once they were discovered by the rest of the household.

Since the the butter cookies there has been a batch of choc-hazelnut cookies, the last three of which someone had for breakfast the following day (I'd eaten half a dozen as my dinner, so I wasn't in a position to criticise), and on Friday night I made wholemeal bread rolls and pizza scrolls. There's two bread rolls left, and the last scroll was gobbled up this morning.

Hot Cross Buns

2008-02-27T11:47:00.000-08:00

Hot Cross Buns are one of my favourite things about Easter in Australia. Every year for as long as they are available (usually a good two or three months), I buy the packs of a dozen hot cross buns from the supermarket and eat them every day, warmed in the microwave, with butter and jam. Germans don't 'do' hot cross buns, and while there are similar things available, such as Rosinenbrötchen, it's just not the same. So I decided to make some myself.

I used the recipe from taste.com.au, and they were perfect! The dough tripled in size while it was resting, and did so again after being shaped into buns, so we ended up with a dozen giant buns. I only put the cross on half the batch because I wasn't sure how it would turn out because I only had wholemeal flour left, and I normally I don't even like the cross because it's either hard or chewy. As you can see in the photos, the crosses didn't exactly work as planned; they're supposed be perfect white crosses on the buns. So I ended up with six perfect fruit buns, and six weird looking hot cross buns. I love the rustic look of the crossed ones though, they are my favourite.

The texture of the buns was absolutely perfect. Lovely and light and fluffy. Changes for next time: a little more butter, to help keep them moist for longer. More sultanas. My friend, flatmate, and fellow hot cross bun devotee, Fran, doesn't really like sultanas so I only put in half the recommended amount. I found it quiet upsetting having so few sultanas, because I absolutely love them, and even Fran admitted that there needed to be more. I will also make the batch into sixteen rather than a dozen, so that the buns are more normal sized, and so they hopefully last longer - the Germans liked them a bit too much!