I guess I'm just going to have to keep it all to myself. Darn it.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
walnut whippin'
Now that summer has decided to turn up it's getting a bit too warm to risk sending chocolate in the post - which is a shame as I had just bought this to send to my mum, who is rather a fan of the walnut whip...
how not to make macarons
the perfect macaron diagram from Serious Eats
"hahaha!", I said to myself after accepting the challenge to make macarons, "how hard can it be?"
In my mind, when it comes to baking, I am fully capable of doing anything - and regardless of the fact I've never made macarons before, I still expected them to look something like these:
{sprinkly macarons} {macaron circle} {hello kitty macaron}
I got all my ingredients together and decided to document the entire thing - then blog about it, naturally - though that was before it all went horribly wrong...
~~~~~
weighing stuff and making a wee bit of a mess;
boiling the sugar and water to 110°C to make syrup;
whisking the syrup with beaten egg whites to make the meringuey mixture*
*try not to eat too much of this, it has raw egg in it, I realised afterwards.
It was all going fine until I tried to make the almond mix into a "paste" - one egg white added to almonds and icing sugar does not a paste make.
It was downhill from then onwards.
a paste this has not become;
perhaps it'll be better once it's in a piping bag...
no - it does not want to pipe, and I don't blame it.
Wanna see the final "product"?
Now these might look utterly rubbish, but man do they taste goooooood!
I just need to learn how to make the mixture smooth instead of sandy and jaggy-edged and wrong-looking... I think it was in the timings and the fact that I didn't mix it as well as I could have done to smooth it out - but taste-wise, I did good!
Yippee! Almost success is better than complete failure!
a teeny tiny beetroot obsession + recipes
I don't think it was until I was well into my teenage years, perhaps even when I was at uni that I first ate beetroot. I was a pretty fussy child and anything that looked remotely exotic was kept at a safe distance. Recently, I have got really into them again - they're so versatile and sweet and earthy and yummy. Mmm, I'm getting all peckish now!
Just in case you've never wondered at how splendid they are, I thought I would share with you some of my favourite beetroot recipes for you to try for yourselves.
Just in case you've never wondered at how splendid they are, I thought I would share with you some of my favourite beetroot recipes for you to try for yourselves.
Let me know if you try any of them, I'd love to hear what you think!
>>snacks<<
beetroot salsa by James Tanner
beetroot and butterbean humous from Love Beetroot
beetroot and cream cheese samosas by Brian Turner
roasted red pepper and beetroot pesto from Nigella.com
beetroot and avocado salad by Yotam Ottolenghi
beetroot fritters by Yotam Ottolenghi
beetroot and feta risotto balls from Mode With Love
beetroot and butterbean humous from Love Beetroot
beetroot and cream cheese samosas by Brian Turner
roasted red pepper and beetroot pesto from Nigella.com
beetroot and avocado salad by Yotam Ottolenghi
beetroot fritters by Yotam Ottolenghi
beetroot and feta risotto balls from Mode With Love
>>meals<<
beetroot and cheese pie from Veg Box Recipes
roasted beetroot, sweet potato and blue cheese hash by James Tanner
pea, beetroot, roasted red pepper and goats cheese tart from Love Beetroot
beetroot and chilli onion lasagne by James Bonfield
beetroot and butternut squash salad by Kate from One Flew Over
beetroot burgers by Marisa of The Creative Pot
beetroot pizza from Food Me Over
beetroot ravioli stuffed with ricotta from Martha Stewart
roasted beetroot, sweet potato and blue cheese hash by James Tanner
pea, beetroot, roasted red pepper and goats cheese tart from Love Beetroot
beetroot and chilli onion lasagne by James Bonfield
beetroot and butternut squash salad by Kate from One Flew Over
beetroot burgers by Marisa of The Creative Pot
beetroot pizza from Food Me Over
beetroot ravioli stuffed with ricotta from Martha Stewart
>>puddings<<
chocolate beetroot cakes by Jill Dupleix
beetroot chocolate brownies by Dulcima Mansell
beetroot & vanilla cupcakes from Love Beetroot
happy pink cookies by Katie of Making Food and Other Stuff
beetroot chocolate brownies by Dulcima Mansell
beetroot & vanilla cupcakes from Love Beetroot
happy pink cookies by Katie of Making Food and Other Stuff
~~~~~~~
a belated birthday celebration
There's nothing quite like one of your baby brothers, whose birth day you remember so well, turning 21. Yep. My baby brother Rich was 21 years old last Thursday. The other one will be 21 in five years time. Blimey, they're getting so old.
Mummy and Pops came up for the weekend to spend his birthday with him in South London and I hosted a belated birthday lunch for them all today. It was also James's birthday on Thursday (the big 3-0) so we had a lovely double celebration.
Late in the morning, Rich started his journey from the very leafy south to the... well, less leafy north of London with his girlfriend Alex; Ma, Pa and the youngest, Will, headed over from my Granny's where they had been staying; my Godmother drove from even further north than we are; and James, Yoyo and I busied ourselves with getting the new flat* in order.
My morning was spent in the kitchen, cooking up a feast; a feast that was utterly demolished within 20 minutes of my laying it on the table:
I baked a loaf of sun-dried tomato bread, a loaf of olive bread, made some super garlicky humous, some hotter-than-I-had-anticipated-but-still-pretty-good-even-if-I-do-say-so-myself salsa, a roasted beetroot salad - I am obsessed with beetroot at the moment, potato skins loaded with a creamy, herby filling, a tomato and mozzarella salad and cut up plenty of veggies to dip in the humous.
Oh yeah, and an enormous white chocolate cheesecake for pudding.
In all the busyness, I got a huge paper cut across my left palm and a very sore scratch near my right eye, though I'm not sure how... all I know is, having had chilli juice on my hand probably didn't help with soothing either of them.
I am completely shattered now, and off to bed. It was so worth it though - it was an excellent day.
Mummy and Pops came up for the weekend to spend his birthday with him in South London and I hosted a belated birthday lunch for them all today. It was also James's birthday on Thursday (the big 3-0) so we had a lovely double celebration.
Rich's birthday gift, bought on Etsy from John Scarratt
Late in the morning, Rich started his journey from the very leafy south to the... well, less leafy north of London with his girlfriend Alex; Ma, Pa and the youngest, Will, headed over from my Granny's where they had been staying; my Godmother drove from even further north than we are; and James, Yoyo and I busied ourselves with getting the new flat* in order.
My morning was spent in the kitchen, cooking up a feast; a feast that was utterly demolished within 20 minutes of my laying it on the table:
I baked a loaf of sun-dried tomato bread, a loaf of olive bread, made some super garlicky humous, some hotter-than-I-had-anticipated-but-still-pretty-good-even-if-I-do-say-so-myself salsa, a roasted beetroot salad - I am obsessed with beetroot at the moment, potato skins loaded with a creamy, herby filling, a tomato and mozzarella salad and cut up plenty of veggies to dip in the humous.
Oh yeah, and an enormous white chocolate cheesecake for pudding.
N-Y-O-M!
In all the busyness, I got a huge paper cut across my left palm and a very sore scratch near my right eye, though I'm not sure how... all I know is, having had chilli juice on my hand probably didn't help with soothing either of them.
I am completely shattered now, and off to bed. It was so worth it though - it was an excellent day.
*I'm not sure how long I will be referring to it as the 'new' flat - it's been 6 weeks now, and although it still feels new, it feels settled-in at the same time, quite odd.
must have Monday: iced gems
On my way home from the doctor's last week I saw a little girl on the bus eating Iced Gems. I hadn't eaten that day and it took all the strength I had not to nab them from her tiny chubby hands.
As soon as I got off the bus, I headed straight to the nearest supermarket so I could buy some of my own. I can't believe how I have done without Iced Gems for so long - they are totally the best snack ever - and I always forget about their magnificence.
It seems I'm not the only one lovin' the Iced Gem at the moment...
As soon as I got off the bus, I headed straight to the nearest supermarket so I could buy some of my own. I can't believe how I have done without Iced Gems for so long - they are totally the best snack ever - and I always forget about their magnificence.
It seems I'm not the only one lovin' the Iced Gem at the moment...
How do you feel about Iced Gems?
Movember update and moustache treats
It's halfway through Movember and I've worn a moustache every day, much to the amusement of the children with whom I work. I've now got a lovely selection of glittery moustaches - made of the same fabric as my new bows - in all kinds of pretty colours.
Wearing glittery moustaches is one thing, but it's not particularly challenging and doesn't require an awful amount of effort - I think I need to do something else moustache-inspired alongside it... perhaps something nyommy - like glittery chocolate moustache lollipops!? Yeah, that'd be good!
While I was looking for a moustache mould I found a unicorn chocolate mould! Yep, a unicorn.chocolate.mould. And you know that I'm the kind of girl who cannot resist a unicorn!
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then I trust you have not seen the most wonderful Planet Unicorn!? It's pretty much one of my favourite cartoons ever!
I'll let you know how my moustached unicorn lollipops work out - I cannot wait to see them!
Wearing glittery moustaches is one thing, but it's not particularly challenging and doesn't require an awful amount of effort - I think I need to do something else moustache-inspired alongside it... perhaps something nyommy - like glittery chocolate moustache lollipops!? Yeah, that'd be good!
While I was looking for a moustache mould I found a unicorn chocolate mould! Yep, a unicorn.chocolate.mould. And you know that I'm the kind of girl who cannot resist a unicorn!
I'm sure you can imagine my first thought...
CADILLAC LOLLIPOPS!
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then I trust you have not seen the most wonderful Planet Unicorn!? It's pretty much one of my favourite cartoons ever!
I'll let you know how my moustached unicorn lollipops work out - I cannot wait to see them!
Have you seen Planet Unicorn before? How do you feel about moustached unicorns?
special edition Halloween screme eggs
Easter is pretty much one of the best times of the year - and that's because of the super delectable Creme Eggs. Om nyom nyom!
They stop selling them in the summer, so I always try to stock up so that I can enjoy them all year round. I only have 11 left of my stock, but that's pretty good going I reckon.
I needn't have worried, however, as they have released Halloween special edition Creme Eggs called Screme Eggs! I've never seen them before today, I'm super excited! And now I can re-stock up, woop!
If you're as obsessed with them as I am you can buy yourself a box of 48 screme eggs!
outfit challenge: inspired by ice cream
While I was lying in bed the other night, unable to sleep under the sound of the rain on my (slightly leaky) roof, my mind started wandering, as it is prone to do, and after a while finally settled on ice cream. I guess that now it's getting cooler people don't eat ice cream as much, but I can think of nothing better than snuggling up under a blanket with a bowl of ice cream and a nice cup of tea - lovely!
It's no secret that a nice mint choc chip ice cream makes me a very happy girl indeed. Jms prefers it just mint with no chocolate bits (apart from maybe a swirl of sauce) but I prefer it with nice big chocolatey chunks: mmm, perfect!
If I were asked to list them, my second favourite flavour would be raspberry ripple, which is a bit of a peculiar choice since it always tastes so artificial. There's just something so innocent about it, I love me a bit of cheapo raspberry ripple - I have cravings for the stuff more than a little regularly.
I don't think I would consider my third favourite to be tutti frutti (even though it is quite obviously awesome), but I am rather saddened by fact that it no longer seems to exist - I've not seen it on sale anywhere since I was about 11. Is that just me? Has anyone else seen it around? I'd be intrigued to try it again. If not, I suppose I could always make my own...
Anyway - all that evening-dreaming about ice cream got me wondering if I could get away with dressing as ice cream flavours without being questioned about it at work. I do like to set myself little costume challenges, and the more Clarissa-based, the better in my opinion.
It's no secret that a nice mint choc chip ice cream makes me a very happy girl indeed. Jms prefers it just mint with no chocolate bits (apart from maybe a swirl of sauce) but I prefer it with nice big chocolatey chunks: mmm, perfect!
If I were asked to list them, my second favourite flavour would be raspberry ripple, which is a bit of a peculiar choice since it always tastes so artificial. There's just something so innocent about it, I love me a bit of cheapo raspberry ripple - I have cravings for the stuff more than a little regularly.
I don't think I would consider my third favourite to be tutti frutti (even though it is quite obviously awesome), but I am rather saddened by fact that it no longer seems to exist - I've not seen it on sale anywhere since I was about 11. Is that just me? Has anyone else seen it around? I'd be intrigued to try it again. If not, I suppose I could always make my own...
Anyway - all that evening-dreaming about ice cream got me wondering if I could get away with dressing as ice cream flavours without being questioned about it at work. I do like to set myself little costume challenges, and the more Clarissa-based, the better in my opinion.
Without further ado, let me present:
Are there any particular ice cream flavours you would like to dress as???
a charitea party - a tea cosy hat is mandatory
Yesterday, in my weekly blog trawl, I read a fascinating post on Kathryn's blog, Kat Got The Cream, about National Wear a Tea Cosy On Your Head Day. It rather amazes me that I had never heard of this day before now!
This year it is on Thursday 22nd September - this Thursday! Kathryn had a chari-tea party to raise money for the White Stuff Foundation , and provided her guests with cucumber sandwiches, a Victoria Sponge cake and all sorts of other goodies, including party games and bingo! Plus, of course, she wore her tea cosy on her head with pride.
When I mentioned it to a colleague at school this morning they were wholly unsurprised that it was something I wanted to do, and even offered up their own tea cosy for me to use! As generous as this was, I am actually hoping to make my own tea cosy for the occasion, but if that fails I know where to go.
I've been looking at lots of pretty tea cosies to get some inspiration, and some of them are pretty darn snazzy, I must say! Here are some of my favourites:
This year it is on Thursday 22nd September - this Thursday! Kathryn had a chari-tea party to raise money for the White Stuff Foundation , and provided her guests with cucumber sandwiches, a Victoria Sponge cake and all sorts of other goodies, including party games and bingo! Plus, of course, she wore her tea cosy on her head with pride.
When I mentioned it to a colleague at school this morning they were wholly unsurprised that it was something I wanted to do, and even offered up their own tea cosy for me to use! As generous as this was, I am actually hoping to make my own tea cosy for the occasion, but if that fails I know where to go.
I've been looking at lots of pretty tea cosies to get some inspiration, and some of them are pretty darn snazzy, I must say! Here are some of my favourites:
{spiky flowers by Cassi} {tiger drinking tea by minouette}
{foxy springtime by Julie} {bright birdy by Mary}
{buttony cosy by Geraldine} {knitted crown by Debi Birkin}
{felted cosy on knitty.com} {liquorice allsorts by Jacky Edwards}
How about some woodland animals, just for good measure:
{brown owl from Periwinkle Park} {pink squirrel by pig and company}
Oh, and just for fun, look what else I spied along the way:
{Mary Poppins} {matryoshka} {librarian} {nun} all from Handmade Awards
I feel an obsession coming on...
a wonderful portmanteau find
If there is one thing that makes me happy* it's a good portmanteau. I just can't help myself, I love them.
Imagine my delightment (delight + excitement - you know you love it too) when I spotted these while shopping this morning:
SQONUTS! Square donuts! But Tesco are too cool to use a U after the Q - they evidently mean business, and I love it! If you'd care to buy your own sqonuts, here is the product info.
I think I'll write them a letter praising their ingenious product development team.
And I might start describing all of my food using shape-related portmanteaux.
*there are actually lots of things, not just portmanteaux, I'm not weird.
Imagine my delightment (delight + excitement - you know you love it too) when I spotted these while shopping this morning:
SQONUTS! Square donuts! But Tesco are too cool to use a U after the Q - they evidently mean business, and I love it! If you'd care to buy your own sqonuts, here is the product info.
I think I'll write them a letter praising their ingenious product development team.
And I might start describing all of my food using shape-related portmanteaux.
*there are actually lots of things, not just portmanteaux, I'm not weird.
happy cream-filled donut day
In continuation of the food theme that Matin Lapin seems to be taking this week, let me wish you a very happy creme-filled donut day!
I know you're excited - me too. I was thinking perhaps I would do another RAOK today, a creme-and-donut-filled one, but I figured that might be going a bit RAOK-crazy, so I decided not to. In fact, I haven't even mentioned what day it is to anyone I have seen so far today, just in case they have too high an expectation of me and start demanding donuts...
Instead, I made a treasury. Yeah, I know it's not as good as making donuts, but hey, I'm a busy girl! I have no time to make donuts! Look at these lovely donut-y things, and think about how many calories you have saved :)
I know you're excited - me too. I was thinking perhaps I would do another RAOK today, a creme-and-donut-filled one, but I figured that might be going a bit RAOK-crazy, so I decided not to. In fact, I haven't even mentioned what day it is to anyone I have seen so far today, just in case they have too high an expectation of me and start demanding donuts...
Instead, I made a treasury. Yeah, I know it's not as good as making donuts, but hey, I'm a busy girl! I have no time to make donuts! Look at these lovely donut-y things, and think about how many calories you have saved :)
happy fortune cookie day
I knew I had seen some pretty printables for fortune cookies on Kind Over Matter, which was where I found these badboys:
I made about 30, filled a little Easter basket with them and skipped around my workplace dishing them out to colleagues, watching with childlike glee as they revealed their fortunes. For all the fuss I make about my job, I think I would be pretty sad to leave this place - I have built up quite the reputation as "the quirky one", and I must say I rather enjoy it. This RAOK only helped strengthen that reputation.
When all my cookies were gone, I went in search of some other pretty fortune cookie-related goodies... have a peek at these lovelies:
afternoon tea - Swedish style!
Earlier today I had the pleasure of taking high tea with my friend Sarah of Fingers and Toes - a blog largely about cooking and knitting. This was to be no ordinary high tea though, this was high tea - Swedish Style!
Sarah had very kindly invited me to join her at a pop-up Fika parlour in central London which had been organised by Visit Sweden to promote the area of Skåne in Southern Sweden.
We turned up at 12:30 (in the rain, good ol' Britain) to find that Soho Square had been transformed into a little picnic area, surrounded by a white picket fence, with a large white marquee at one end. Under the marquee there were some handsomely-table-clothed picnic benches, at which we we were invited to sit. We were given a special blend of coffee (courtesy of Swedish roasters Löfbergs Lila) before being brought a beautiful cake stand full of tiny Swedish biscuity treats.
The lovely serving ladies, in traditional Swedish dress, told us the history of Fika as we sampled some of the delicacies. The term Fika comes from the Swedish word for coffee, fik. In the early 19th Century, coffee was banned in Sweden because it was too much of a stimulant. This ban was lifted in 1822 and since then it was was even more important to take part in Fika, literally meaning 'coffee break'. Small biscuits were soon added to the tradition, and because the ingredients for biscuits were still so expensive at the time, the larger the selection of biscuits you could offer your guests, the more wealthy you would be thought. There was a lot of competition between hostesses, but the custom is to serve 7 different types of biscuits with your coffee.
The 7 types of biscuits we enjoyed today were made by Jan Hedh, the famous Swedish chocolatier and patissier, in his bakery in Malmö, in the southernmost province of Skåne. His own favourite of the biscuits we were served is the 'vaniljdiamant' (Vanilla Diamond), for which his recipe can be found here. Other Swedish favourites are 'kolabröd', a crispy toffee biscuit, for which a recipe can be found here, and 'havrekakor med russin', oatmeal and raisin cookies, for which a recipe can be found here.
Sarah had very kindly invited me to join her at a pop-up Fika parlour in central London which had been organised by Visit Sweden to promote the area of Skåne in Southern Sweden.
We turned up at 12:30 (in the rain, good ol' Britain) to find that Soho Square had been transformed into a little picnic area, surrounded by a white picket fence, with a large white marquee at one end. Under the marquee there were some handsomely-table-clothed picnic benches, at which we we were invited to sit. We were given a special blend of coffee (courtesy of Swedish roasters Löfbergs Lila) before being brought a beautiful cake stand full of tiny Swedish biscuity treats.
The lovely serving ladies, in traditional Swedish dress, told us the history of Fika as we sampled some of the delicacies. The term Fika comes from the Swedish word for coffee, fik. In the early 19th Century, coffee was banned in Sweden because it was too much of a stimulant. This ban was lifted in 1822 and since then it was was even more important to take part in Fika, literally meaning 'coffee break'. Small biscuits were soon added to the tradition, and because the ingredients for biscuits were still so expensive at the time, the larger the selection of biscuits you could offer your guests, the more wealthy you would be thought. There was a lot of competition between hostesses, but the custom is to serve 7 different types of biscuits with your coffee.
The 7 types of biscuits we enjoyed today were made by Jan Hedh, the famous Swedish chocolatier and patissier, in his bakery in Malmö, in the southernmost province of Skåne. His own favourite of the biscuits we were served is the 'vaniljdiamant' (Vanilla Diamond), for which his recipe can be found here. Other Swedish favourites are 'kolabröd', a crispy toffee biscuit, for which a recipe can be found here, and 'havrekakor med russin', oatmeal and raisin cookies, for which a recipe can be found here.
If you're interested in sampling some Scandinavian treats for yourselves, check these out...
happy birthday Susie + my first ever outfit post!
Today is my friend Susie's birthday, and last night a bunch of us went out for a birthday meal for her in Soho. It was thoroughly splendid. We went to the newly opened Giraffe, and partook in all the cocktails in the world. I had the most delicious homemade lemonade which was served in a mason jar - lovely! The food was divine: falafel burger with sweet potato fries, nyom nyom, and afterwards we obviously had birthday cake. I'm a bit sad that I didn't get a photo of it.
It was yet another Vixie creation, consisting of three layers of rich chocolate cake, with layers of choc chip fudge brownies and frosting between each of the cakes, framed on a silver plate by Tunnocks teacakes with sugar animals on top of them. On the very top of the cake, though it was already pretty tall, we had angel flame candles - whose flames burn the same colour as the candle! This was the highlight of the evening - though it could have been because of all the alcohol that had been consumed - and everyone was amazed at the green, pink, orange and blue flames! Plus the cake was pretty good too.
As it had been absolutely ages since I had been out socially, I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. But Susie is a good friend and I didn't want to let her down, plus it was up to me to bring the cake, so I had to be there. It turned out to be a really nice little group of us, and once I was there I was completely OK. The thought of going to these kinds of things is always much worse than actually going, and I did end up having a great time, even with people I hadn't met before or hadn't seen in ages.
As I don't have any pictures of the cake, the only other thing I can share with you is what I wore - woo, first ever outfit post! But I'm doing it a little differently, I'm afraid: I thought I would do a "what I wore vs what I wish I had worn" type thing, so here is my first ever (kind of) outfit post:
It was yet another Vixie creation, consisting of three layers of rich chocolate cake, with layers of choc chip fudge brownies and frosting between each of the cakes, framed on a silver plate by Tunnocks teacakes with sugar animals on top of them. On the very top of the cake, though it was already pretty tall, we had angel flame candles - whose flames burn the same colour as the candle! This was the highlight of the evening - though it could have been because of all the alcohol that had been consumed - and everyone was amazed at the green, pink, orange and blue flames! Plus the cake was pretty good too.
As it had been absolutely ages since I had been out socially, I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. But Susie is a good friend and I didn't want to let her down, plus it was up to me to bring the cake, so I had to be there. It turned out to be a really nice little group of us, and once I was there I was completely OK. The thought of going to these kinds of things is always much worse than actually going, and I did end up having a great time, even with people I hadn't met before or hadn't seen in ages.
As I don't have any pictures of the cake, the only other thing I can share with you is what I wore - woo, first ever outfit post! But I'm doing it a little differently, I'm afraid: I thought I would do a "what I wore vs what I wish I had worn" type thing, so here is my first ever (kind of) outfit post:
chocolatey jaffa cake cake recipe
OK, so I have been thinking about this Jaffa Cake Cake. I didn't really think it would be possible to make a giant Jaffa Cake but there is proof that it is possible here: PimpThatSnack. Unfortunately, all the recipes I have seen for it have included gelatine, so no thank you very much!
Instead of a giant Jaffa Cake, surely cake can be made all kinds of better with the inclusion of a layer or two of Jaffa Cakes, so that is what I will do instead! Hurrah!
~preheat the oven to about 180 degrees Celsius before you begin
~beat the eggs and the vanilla essence
~cream together the butter and sugar until it is smooth
~measure out the flour and cocoa (add more cocoa and less flour if you want it more chocolatey)
~add a bit of the flour/cocoa mixture and a bit of the egg/vanilla mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, and mix together a bit at a time
~grease a baking pan and pour in half the mixture
~bake for about 20 minutes... check it's cooked through by putting in a knife - if it comes out clean it's ready, if it's a bit sticky give it a bit longer
~re-grease the baking pan and pour in the rest of the mixture. Now you can eat the remaining mixture in the bowl, nyom!
~when the first cake is cool, ice it with the frosting. I'm lazy and used Betty Crocker icing, because it's delicious. I added a few drops of orange essence to the frosting to give it a chocolatey-orangey flavour, to complement the Jaffa Cakes ;)
~add a layer of Jaffa Cakessssss
~add another layer of frosting, just for fun (and to help the other cake stick to the top)
~once the second cake is cool, add it to the top, and cover with another layer of frosting and more Jaffa Cakes - you can never have too many
~finish off with extra orange sprinkles if you fancy - and you're done!
I haven't actually tried it yet, but it smells utterly delicious! I'm taking it over to my friend Jo's house tomorrow morning - she is at home on her own recovering from surgery, so this is bound to cheer her up! Woop! Will let you know how it tastes tomorrow...!
Instead of a giant Jaffa Cake, surely cake can be made all kinds of better with the inclusion of a layer or two of Jaffa Cakes, so that is what I will do instead! Hurrah!
The recipe is below if you're interested in making your own...
6oz butter or margarine
6oz caster sugar
4oz self-raising flour
2oz cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
lots of Jaffa Cakes
frosting, if you're lazy like me
orange essence (optional)
orange sprinkles (optional)
~preheat the oven to about 180 degrees Celsius before you begin
~beat the eggs and the vanilla essence
~cream together the butter and sugar until it is smooth
~measure out the flour and cocoa (add more cocoa and less flour if you want it more chocolatey)
~add a bit of the flour/cocoa mixture and a bit of the egg/vanilla mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, and mix together a bit at a time
~grease a baking pan and pour in half the mixture
~bake for about 20 minutes... check it's cooked through by putting in a knife - if it comes out clean it's ready, if it's a bit sticky give it a bit longer
~re-grease the baking pan and pour in the rest of the mixture. Now you can eat the remaining mixture in the bowl, nyom!
~when the first cake is cool, ice it with the frosting. I'm lazy and used Betty Crocker icing, because it's delicious. I added a few drops of orange essence to the frosting to give it a chocolatey-orangey flavour, to complement the Jaffa Cakes ;)
~add a layer of Jaffa Cakessssss
~add another layer of frosting, just for fun (and to help the other cake stick to the top)
~once the second cake is cool, add it to the top, and cover with another layer of frosting and more Jaffa Cakes - you can never have too many
~finish off with extra orange sprinkles if you fancy - and you're done!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I haven't actually tried it yet, but it smells utterly delicious! I'm taking it over to my friend Jo's house tomorrow morning - she is at home on her own recovering from surgery, so this is bound to cheer her up! Woop! Will let you know how it tastes tomorrow...!
Mr Fox loves jaffa cakes and so do I!
Mr Fox Loves Jaffa Cakes plate by James Ward aka Jimboart
...but not as much as Vixie loves Jaffa Cakes! They are certainly the food of the gods, there is just nothing better. In fact, they made up the core "fruit" part of my university diet*
Despite having said just up there ^^ that there is nothing better than a Jaffa Cake, perhaps I exaggerated a little... for example, I think a Jaffa Cake Cake would be way better than just a Jaffa Cake on it's lonesome.
Perhaps I shall experiment... BRB
*Jaffa Cakes count as a fruit right??
branching out
Considering my penchant for milk chocolatey delights, and my fondness of European travel, I would have confidently assumed that I've tried all the chocolate bars that the continent had to offer, but no - the other day I was presented with a Ferrero Duplo Stick - which I had never even seen before, let alone tasted.
Duplo Sticks are comprised of thin wafery biscuits sandwiched between layers of creamy hazelnut nougat cream, all covered in milk chocolate. They're nice. Not amazing, but pretty nice. If you would like a more detailed critique, you can read a review of Duplo Sticks here: Jim's Chocolate Mission. It's pretty much my new favourite website - chocolate reviews plus statistical diagrams, what more could a girl want?
The best thing about Duplo Sticks in my opinion is the ridged outside of the bar - they've been made to look like little twigs, which I find simply adorable. Perhaps you may think it a strange characteristic to find twigs adorable, but they just are. And to prove it, here are some more I found:
You can't honestly tell me you don't think all of these are just wonderful?!
The best thing about Duplo Sticks in my opinion is the ridged outside of the bar - they've been made to look like little twigs, which I find simply adorable. Perhaps you may think it a strange characteristic to find twigs adorable, but they just are. And to prove it, here are some more I found:
click on image to be taken to treasury
You can't honestly tell me you don't think all of these are just wonderful?!
I long for Arctic adventures
Hello I Love You by Julia Pott
I love you too, Mr Polar Bear.
I was thinking just the other day that I wanted to write a post about polar bears and how awesome they are, so I spent
hours
a little while looking at pretty pictures of them. Then I decided I wanted to write a post about ice cream, and how awesome it is...
I was thinking just the other day that I wanted to write a post about polar bears and how awesome they are, so I spent
hours
a little while looking at pretty pictures of them. Then I decided I wanted to write a post about ice cream, and how awesome it is...
...and then I found this splendid illustration:
...an utterly wonderful combination of two of my favourite things!
You can see more of Laura's lovely illustrations in her shop and her blog.
No doubt there will be more polar bears and ice cream to come in the future, I just couldn't resist sharing these!
eurovision party delights
Incredibly, I have never been to a Eurovision party other than those I have hosted myself. This, of course, means that I never really know what one should do at a Eurovision party - should there be drinking games? Should it be fancy dress? Should people bring something from the country they want to win? Who knows!
I never normally have any kind of entertainment other than the actual show, but this year I decided to try a bit harder: after both of the semi-finals, when the final 25 contestants had been chosen, I attempted to find some food from every participating country... it was not an easy feat, I can tell you! I didn't technically complete the challenge, but I think I did pretty well in the one day that I had to prepare it all - and the countries from which I couldn't find food, I at least tried to link in some food somehow...!
Here is a list of what was chosen for each country:
Austria - I couldn't find anything from Austria so I bought some Viennese Whirls... they're from Vienna, right?!
Azerbaijan - pakhlava (it's Azerbaijani baklava, nyom!)
Bosnia and Herzegovina - the song is called "Love in Rewind"... so I bought Fruit Winders, of course!
Denmark - Danish pastries, natch.
Estonia - the song is called "Rockefeller Street" so I bought some rocky road.
Finland - Finn Crisps (multigrain crispbread).
France - French baguette (made from 100% French flour, no less) and brie.
Georgia - now this one was very tricky... so my friend Georgia made some cakes so we would have something from Georgia!
Germany - Hit biscuits made by Bahlsen - my favouritest biscuits when I was a child.
Greece - my lovely friend Dave scoured the shops for Greek olive oil and Greek balsamic vinegar to have with our French bread, and also brought Greek dolmades - stuffed vine leaves - one of my favourite snacks!
Hungary - well, this was impossible so we just had an empty bowl to represent hunger. I know, I'm sorry, that was an awful joke, but we were desperate.
Iceland - after going there in February I brought back a horrendous-smelling traditional Icelandic alcoholic beverage called Brennivín (meaning Black Death) even though I don't actually drink alcohol. I knew it would come in handy at some point.
Ireland - I could have bought one of lots of different types of alcohol for Ireland, but I thought I'd better not risk it after the Brennivín - so I got some jelly lips, as the song is called 'Lipstick'.
Italy - this one was easy... no, not pizza or pasta, that's too obvious! I found some utterly delectable biscuits that I first had when I was in Sicily a few years ago, and had no idea you could buy in this country until a few months ago, woo!
Lithuania - Ekstra beer - this was a great discovery, as Lithuanian food is hard to find!
Moldova - this one is a point of contention among the group: I, for one, don't believe that this ridiculous song should have made it through to the final show, and I think Belgium deserved to go through far more as their song was awesome and had a guy beatboxing (!) so when this song was playing we ate Belgian buns instead of Moldovan food, in protest.
Romania - I found some disgusting Romanian biscuits in one of the grocery stores close to my house, so we had to go with them as we couldn't find anything else.
Russia - easy: vodka. OK, OK, I know the vodka we had was Swedish, but I didn't know that at the time!
Serbia - the song was about magic, so I bought Milky Way Magic Stars.
Slovenia - this was the only country I couldn't find anything from :(
Spain - some weird sticky honey cakes I found in a shop nearby.
Sweden - after all my recent adventures to Ikea, I already had plenty of Swedish goodies in my cupboards - Daim chocolates and Kex bars in particular.
Switzerland - cheese and chocolate, nyom!
Ukraine - the song is called 'Angel' so we made up a batch of strawberry Angel Delight.
United Kingdom - Cadbury's Roses - the ultimate British chocolate.
There was quite an unfair bias toward the sweet end of the food spectrum, which meant that by the end of the show a couple of people were drunk and most others were suffering from a sugar high, me included. The amount of food I ended up with was huge, and a lot of it was, sadly, vile, especially the Romanian biscuits. I'm very impressed though that I was able to find as many of the countries as I did - that's one of the great things about living in such a multicultural city, and in probably the most culturally diverse area of that multicultural city!
If anyone would like to try any of these bizarre foods, do let me know and I'll supply you with some!
kate middleton on a jelly bean
Wow, look what someone awesome has found:
...it's a jelly bean with Kate Middleton's face on it! Imagine that! The finders are planning to sell the jelly bean (mango-flavoured in case you are interested, apparently) on eBay for £500. Go on, let's see how much it's up to!
---update---
I have just checked eBay and it doesn't appear to be listed yet... however, I did find this original painting by Dan Lacey:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
