Spring Baking

Spring has officially sprung at long looong last.

The snows been melting, the trees are blossoming and I managed to pick up some lilies for just $5 (!!!) at my local supermarket. 

All of this has left me inspired to dig out one of my favourite recipes for this time of year. Trust me when I say, 'easy' is an understatement, this is one of those, one bowl, can't go wrong kinda recipes that's perfect for whipping up quick when you've got guests popping in for tea, need something for a bake sale or even as a birthday cake for your mother-in-law (yep i've done that!)

I'm a sucker for cakes that look great sitting on my cake stand in the kitchen with minimal effort and what's easier than a dusting of icing sugar and a few spring flowers on top!

Let me introduce you to my Vanilla Berry Cake, best served with a natural yogurt and a simple berry coulis.

ingredients:

125g of softened butter

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp of vanilla essence 

1 1/2 cups of SR Flour

1/2 cup of milk 

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries 

I've used frozen blueberries for this recipe as i'm kinda obsessed so they're always in the freezer. However i'm looking forward to the day that fresh berries are a plentiful in the supermarkets again as this recipe will work with whatever berry tickles your fancy. 

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla essence.

Add flour to the creamed mixture and mix well.

Finally stir in the milk until mixture is smooth.
Spoon mixture into your lined cake tin and sprinkle berries on top. 

Bake in preheated oven for approx 30 to 40 minutes or until cake springs back to the touch. 

Berry Coulis:

While your cake is in the oven doing its thing,

Put 1/4 cup water and your desired amount of berries into a pot on a medium heat, I used approx 1 cup of mixed frozen berries and also added some extra blueberries. As the berries melt down stir in a tsp of honey to sweeten, I also like to add a tsp of chai seeds cause it helps thicken the recipe and makes me feel like I'm adding extra goodness.

Let the berries simmer while stirring for 4-5 mins

Finally:

Slice, Share and Enjoy x

  

Cosy Cottage

Almost a year ago now Michael and I won a voucher for a night away at a kinda local Bed & Breakfast. With the expiry date looming we finally arranged to drop the kids with the grandparents and have a night to ourselves, "woohoo!", right?  Not "woohoo" it turns out, 8 days before, I had to put Micheal on an airplane to Australia unsure of when he'd be back (but that's a story for another day). As each day passed it seemed to be less and less likely that he'd be home in time. As disappointed as I was that I wouldn't be getting my romantic night with my man and unable to push out the booking, I took full advantage to have some quality time with my daughter and made it a "girls trip" instead. 

We set off Friday afternoon and upon arrival, saw it was everything I'd hoped for! 

A gorgeous stone cottage set in a beautiful garden full of spring flowers. Just over the boundary the paddocks were full of lambs, some only a few days old.

We checked in and as we were being showed to our room my daughter spotted a lonely duckling just sitting amongst the grass. After a long search for his mum, the darling wee thing soon became her afternoon entrainment. He was kept in a box by the fire in the restaurant until a kind local farmer came to collect him and promised to raise him until he was old enough to live on the pond on his land. 

We sat for dinner by the fire at 6pm and were most delighted at the yummy looking menu. For mains, I had a sautéed mushroom and Stilton cheese tart with Apple and walnut salad and my daughter had some quality home made fish and chips off of the kids menu. For dessert, we shared a flourless chocolate cake which had the most incredible melt in the mouth texture. I'm going to have to find a similar recipe to try myself. I had full intention to take some snaps of my meals but every time one arrived I was obviously so keen to tuck in that I totally forgot.

The next morning we woke to the surprise of spring snow. As I sat at the breakfast table in front of the fire watching the snow out of the window, I wished again that I could have shared this trip with my partner. There's just something so romantic about the the way snow falls. 

I loved the relaxed, romantic atmosphere so much I'm already planning to go again. I'm thinking over the Christmas break when we can sit in the evening sunshine and enjoy a glass of wine. 

Cheers to that thought! 

They had quite the collection of their own condiments. I bought myself some Apricot Chutney, Rhubarb Jam and Dukkah. 

If your ever in the area and think this is a place you'd appreciate,

 then you can find the website here.

Taking a Leap

Hello Everyone,

I sit here writing this blog mainly because I've ran out of excuses not to. 

For 18months I've wanted to start my own blog but...well, I just haven't. So today, on this random Tuesday morning

 I'm finally putting pencil to paper! Yes, that's right, I'm scribbling this on a tiny piece of paper unsure if it will ever be published. So please, if your reading this somewhere online, bare with me while I find my blogging voice and maybe even congratulate me for finally following through :)