Italia & Vienna

As we all know, Italy is the most thought of place when one says ‘home of good food’. But as we all might not know, a three week trip there was recently had by me, Grace. A lot of these photos aren’t of food, but I’ll use them to guide you through my ‘culinary journey’, my tastebuds’ experience of Italia!

A (very) brief update:

This blog has been quiet for far too long. Which is somewhat ironic given the vast increase in the amount of cooking I’ve been doing. But when cooking something decent is the most you want to achieve after a day at uni and it’s dark and you’re in a communal kitchen and the list goes on – the last thing you want to do is attempt to also take decent photos of whatever you’re making. Thus, I apologise for the above photograph. It was, however, a lovely cake. Gorgeous purple golden and slightly tart plums atop an almond (and almond studded) base. This cake was for a birthday dinner (along with this lemon tart) and, after wrangling the communal ovens, both were, thankfully, promptly appreciated.

Salted Peanut Butter Cookies

As ridiculous as this sounds, my sister and I are trying to avoid sugar. Refined sugar, that is. After the sickly sweet excess of Christmas, New Years and the like, avoiding sugar seems like a quasi, not too punishing detox. And it’s actually not too hard. Granted, in the first couple of days the desire for a slice of cake (some Christmas fruit cake might have slipped in around day two) or a biscuit, especially with a cup of tea, was rather strong. But after that, and once I accept and embrace my unsweetened morning tea, it gets easier. That is, until I want to bake something.

Now, I think I may have ruined my aforementioned anti-sugar adjustment period. Although these cookies are wholesomely, earnestly good (unlike some other Earnests, perhaps) with honey as their only sweetener, I fear I may have returned my taste for baked goods. These, for now at least, should satisfy: chewy, studded with the crunch of chopped peanuts and perfect with a large glass of milk.

A Farewell and A Belated Happy Holidays!

This post is both an update and a sad adieu: Grace (the illustrious photographer that she is) has left us all on a wild motherland adventure and shan’t be returning for a year (that’s a whole twelve months, people!). The good news is that she will be having hopefully both spectacular fun and exciting culinary escapades; the bad is that our already infrequent combined posts shall be even fewer. The other, potentially good, news is that both she and I (wherever I end up, and at whatever uni) should have ample access to kitchens and ovens and so our individual posts should continue, fingers all crossed. I’m also plotting some arrangement whereby I send Grace lovely (non-perishable) care packages by post: cookies, nougat, toffee, fruit cake, vegemite, timtams, etc, etc, for her to photograph, slightly battered and broken, on arrival in quaint ol’ England. We shall see!

This is also a much belated peek at holiday baking, delayed by general vacation lethargy but also a slightly dodgy memory card: some excellent mince pies, some very cute lebkuchen and a grand, wonky gingerbread house. Happy Holidays!

Blueberry Crumble Cake

Honey Cake

Honey cake for a cold and rainy Rosh Hashanah. For a sweet New Year. For the Year 5772!  For, mainly, a good excuse for cake…

Happy Father’s Day

For the sake of all fathers out there you should probably make this cake. And yes, yes, it is no longer Father’s Day, but the giving can continue, no? My father requested this one: dense, rich, barely sweet, and really more of a brownie smothered in ganache than a cake. Tiny slices are recommended.