Notre Beau Jardin

The Tulips in the garden are the ones I planted back in October. I'm so happy that they are beautiful, if a little heavy for themselves. With all the stress in my work life right now, I need something like this to remind me that I am capable of doing something worthwhile. 

Meanwhile, pretty much the entire allotment is dandelions. Whooops....

6 weeks without baking... What's wrong with me?

I cannot believe how long it has been without baking. Between being ill and being busy, it's been difficult to get home to sleep let alone to make a cake.
Anyway, here is my comeback; The Brooklyn Blackout Cake

It is a Hummingbird Bakery recipe; a three tiered chocolate sponge, enveloped with a chocolate custard icing which was an absolute faff. 

But what a beauty!

Housemate envy: 9/10 a very anticipated cake, that didn't disappoint. Half gone!

Presentation: 8/10 Would have loved to have a more squared off shape instead of a dome. Need to sort out my rise. First ever crumb coating though - success! 

Yummy points: 9/10 Apparently a touch too much on the icing on the cake:covering ratio. Keep in mind.

Giving up on Lent, and Deadlines

Little bit nervous about my review tomorrow, but never mind.

Gave up on 'No Processed Food' - It's so difficult. It's harder than giving up sugar last year, because at least then I could eat pasta, bread and cheese.

I procrastibaked on Friday (maybe?), and made a weird fruit cake. I substituted butter for a touch of oil, and switched sugar for honey. I also added sunflower seeds.

IT WAS SO GOOEY.

... verging on "I will never be cooked".

It was kind of like Soreen, in the way that it stuck to our teeth.

It didn't last long at all....

I particularly like the gesture of leaving a little tiny bit...

Housemate Points: 9/10 - very surprising
Presentation: 8/10 - very normal, nothing special
Yummy points: 9/10 - maybe more spice!

Lent begins

We had a good pancake day in the house yesterday, but now its down to business.

This year I am giving up all processed foods. Which should be super good for me.

Sounds pretty simple, and I'm going to have to get creative to avoid missing out on my baking resolution, but I think I can make it. 

Some snaps of our pancakes last night:

Squiggley heart

Giant cupcake

Apology cookies

On Tuesday night, I went out with my housemate. We were pretty loud when we returned in the wee hours of the morning. So I made some 'sorry for waking you up' treats.

Oatmeal and Raisin cookies.
Was still a little on the wrong side of tipsy, so it's a miracle that these came out ok. I used a Joy of Baking recipe, but deviated. A lot.

Crumbs stand as evidence that they are great warm
(there were two dozen)

Housemate Envy: 9/10 - a simple recipe that simultaneously helped hangovers and mended fences.
Presentation Points: 9/10 - I could have wrapped them up, or presented them on a nice stand, but they were too yummy to waste time doing that. They had a nice 'golden brown' going on, and soft in the middle.
Yummy Points: 8/10 - need more raisins and oil for a more gooey cookie. A real homely bake, that dangerously feels like it should be healthy. Maybe substitute sugar with apple puree? More dried fruit?

Hail and Easy-as-hell Porridge

Couldn't make it into the studio today - poorly girl!

So instead, I have been working on opera house plans in my room, serenaded by hail, and with some very yummy porridge!

Master planning with porridge. Life's pretty sweet.

Little recipe for the best porridge in the world! Totally work friendly. I often take this into the studio, because porridge is bloody great and this version only needs a kettle. I started doing this after looking at the Quaker instant porridges in sainsbury's. Not only is this version cheaper, it also is not wasting packaging either. Throwing one of those pots away each time is crazy lazy. Jars? ECO POINTS.

What you need to do:

1. Find yourself a jar - mine is an old peanut butter one.
2. Into the jar goes: half a cup of rolled oats, handful of dried fruit (raisins, craisins, dried pinapple - go crazy!!!), seeds, nuts, whatever you want really. I then put in 1 tsp of peanut butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Today's was raisins and peanut butter.
3. Put the lid on
4. Take it to work (don't forget a spoon), and wait for the distracting hunger pangs
5. When you need a little foodie break, whack on the kettle, and pour boiling water into the jar.
6. Pour enough in so that the water line is about 1 cm above the oatline. 
7. Wait about 5 minutes until it looks like porridge. 
8. Dig in, and witness your colleagues' envy.

Goodbye to Sussex!

I leave in the morning to go back to uni - but just a tree pic before I do...

With my 5ft10 brother for scale

Feathers and Bleach

I got back from Stockholm Saturday night, and have spent a couple of days at my home with my family. 

It's been great. We had a mustache dinner last night and I painted some feathers on my wall this morning instead of doing the work for my deadline tomorrow... ooops! 

Cannot remember if I uploaded this before?
Bleached fabric and recon.

Olympic cheer

Hello!

I know I need to be more regular with my posts, however - I've been in renovating for a while!

Just a quick one to say that my sketchbook project sketchbook has arrived, and that I did a string art olympic piece for the opening ceremony (friday before last).

Keep your peepers peeled!
Abi
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