Chocolate Framboise (Chocolate & Raspberry Cake)

It started with cake. Back in July, I had seen all these impressive, beautiful stacked cakes on Pinterest and I so wanted to make one of my own. But I knew that it would be a waste to just suddenly decide to make one which could serve more than ten people, and offer it to our household of three. So I needed an excuse - and what better than a party?

It's not my birthday and it wasn't a christmas party (though the party favors were somewhat festive). Instead it was simply a summer party. This gathering was reminiscent of birthday celebrations of my childhood, or at least of children's storybooks. I made a treasure hunt; we had egg-and-spoon and three-legged races from between one pair of hay bales to another; and the spread - well, how about I show you…

Summer Cake

It was a Saturday afternoon. We were all kind of bored, sitting in front of the TV watching River Cottage Everyday when Hugh walks into a pub, dessert in hand, and enters it into the establishment's pudding competition. The fluffy-haired program host was just telling of how all the regulars to the bar had formed a pudding club, which took the form of this such competition, when my sister piped up,"We should have pudding club!". The three of us - my sister, C; Helen, our nanny at the time; and I - looked around at each other for a hopeful hint of shared enthusiasm, eyes wide at all the possibilities. 

It was a spur of the moment thing. Cookbooks were flipped open, recipes googled, and by dusk  each of us had found a dessert to make, and had all agreed that, with Mum and Dad out for the night - we would have our puddings for dinner. And so the Pudding Club was born.

Raspberry Quinoa Porridge and a new regular!

Firstly, I apologize for by brief disappearance from cyberspace. Since my last post I've had heaps of fun at my senior ball, held a bake sale at two local markets to raise money for Sir Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Trust, and on top of all that sat mid-year exams! So it's been pretty busy lately. Yet amongst it I managed to make myself a hot breakfast or two and come up with a new regular post! Was it procrastination maybe…?

I therefore introduce Flavor of the Month, where I share my favorite things of the moment, every month! It'll be a good way to keep me blogging regularly, yet won't be too demanding. Fingers crossed I can stick with it!

Apples

Image

With the colder month upon us, the refreshing crunch of an apple is now just what I need to bring a bit of vitality and freshness back. Also, it is oh so sweet and comforting in a pudding, cake or a classic pie. Delish.

Long-sleeved Dresses

I do try to embrace winter, really I do, but there's always a part of me that is stuck in a summery mindset of light dresses and cool treats. To try and curb my craving for the warmer months, I have been on the hunt for an elegant yet playful long-sleeved dress. Any suggestions?

Dress

Movie Night

I recently went to a close friend's birthday party. It was nothing fancy. No theme, no party favors, no gimmicks. Just a tight bunch of her closest friends, enjoying good food, a surprisingly decent movie (Step Up 4) and each other's company. It was unbelievably good fun.

Ice-cream

It's funny. As soon as the days grow shorter and blustery, I find myself tiptoeing my way to the freezer in the laundry, ready to eat ice cream straight from the tub. My favorite is usually chocolate ice-cream drizzled with berry jam (don't knock it 'till you've tried it), but lately I've found that I can settle for vanilla when the craving possesses me. If I had a less hectic schedule, I would dedicate one saturday to making my own, but for now I'll fantasize over gourmet flavors like blackberry and lavender and all these.

Recipe for left image here.

Have I mentioned my latest infatuation with breakfast? It's hard to justify, but it started somewhere around my boredom with usual old "cereal or toast" option on weekday mornings. I mean, there must be something more, right? So, when the weekends rolled around, I got inspired. Smoothies - green or otherwise -  packed with fruit and nice and thick. Pancakes stacked with honey and banana sandwiched between the layers. Omelets. Bagels, topped with fresh veggies, pesto and cheese and grilled. And a super-healthy quinoa porridge. 

If you have been tuned in to the food universe lately, you'd know that this ancient super grain is So Hot Right Now. Packed with protein, vitamins and a unique nutty flavor, it's not hard to figure out why.

Healthy Breakfast Slice

Lately, I've been on a bit of a health kick.

Having gorged myself over summer and christmas (don't we all?), after a while I realised that I couldn't go a day with out having just one sweet thing, albeit a slice of cake, a cookie, a bowl of ice-cream, whatever - and my bikini body wasn't thanking me.

So, to refocus, I read The Londoner's Anti Diet blog post and went back to basics - focusing on getting my 5+ servings of fruit and veggies a day. It was a question of The Swap. Whenever I had a craving for something sweet and deliciously evil, I would reach for the fruit bowl instead of the cake tin. I swapped carb-laden microwave meals with a vibrant and delicious salad. I found it was easiest to be healthy by packing my school lunches chock full of raw fresh vegetables, such as cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, capsicum,or anything else lying around my fridge, either left whole of chopped into sticks. As for the fruit, summer peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots always get me excited (I'm a bit of a fruit freak), as well as apples, oranges and pears.

Blueberry Whoopie Pies - A Beginning

This is my first post, and what recipe, of a possible millions, have I chosen for this honor? A recipe which I partly made up, when it never occurred to me to write down my adaptions (including the essential detail of quantities), so most of this recipe is written based on memory.

However, that is not why I chose this recipe. I made (and invented) these whoopie pies at a friend's house, where about a dozen of us were hanging out in the kitchen, singing along to good music, laughing and having fun. That is what I think food, and surely, the making of it, should be about.