Sunday Baking (PM)

You know, readers, I actually heard about this cake yesterday while K was at my house eating a cake that I baked yesterday and it troubled me. I bake a sponge using the Stephanie Alexander recipe from The Cooks Companion. It is a really good one. One of the things StepAl says is that you can cook it in two tins or cook it in one. Now that sounds flexible. Me, I've cooked it in round tins cooked it in loaf tins, had a perfect sponge every time and it just makes me think, what's the point in having a non-versatile sponge recipe when there are super versatile recipes out there? Fail D-Smithy.

As for me I cooked a pretty perfect cake yesterday. I had a pretty great birthday haul this year including these:

And these:

And when K said she may drop in on Sunday I thought I better make cake. Plus with a KitchenAid and great recipe doing all the work all I had to do was put stuff I'm a bowl and flick a switch. Then let some dough rise. Oh, then roll out dough, smear it with chocolate goo, roll it up Swiss roll-style, cut the Swiss roll in half lengthwise, plait the two halves, let it rise in a tin and bake it. And after that simple affair I would have a babka! Or, as it is called in Jerusalem and probably Jerusalem, a chocolate krantz.

I've been wanting to make this babka from Smitten Kitchen for ages, because a babka is one of the worlds finest cakes, but somehow I haven't got around to it but when I saw the recipe in Jerusalem nothing could stop me. Really, it was about 3 hours before seeing the recipe and having the ingredients christening the bowl of my KitchenAid. It's the kind of recipe in which the author apologies for the fiddliness or difficulty but in truth it really is just a bunch of simple steps. That's what I have discovered about so many fancy foodstuffs, they are easy they just take time. Cooking is easy.  Just listen to Delia Smith.*



*Not really,what does she know?!

In praise of leftovers (PM)

I am always so busy eating the firstovers to tune in to discussion of potential leftover innovations. Idiot.

Now I think about it, I could have turned all that leftover cauliflower kugel I made in to a pretty sweet vegetable tart. Sheesh, I could have made burgers. But I didn't. Oh well. 

Next year in Jerusalem. 

This is a tart I made another time. 

Apollo Thirteens (PM)

You know, I’ve said it before and I will say it again. The recipes David Lebovitz posts on his blog could be a little more informative. Like warning people it will appear things are going wrong when they aren’t. That is very useful information. Don’t get me wrong. His blog is great and his ice-cream book The Perfect Scoop is my go to book for ice cream.  But geez Lebovitz, a person can freak out when cooking, how about a little support?!

You know what never went wrong? My breakfast! It was my special muesli brew (oats, almonds, walnuts, sesame seeds, shaved coconut) with a little Greek yoghurt, a little vanilla yoghurt and fresh raspberries and blueberries. Holy motherflippinng moly you guys. It was delicious. Everything in it PLUS fresh raspberries. Those guys are the best. THE BEST! Let’s hear it for summer berries. If I hadn’t eaten it so damn quickly I would have a photo to show you guys. I don’t though but I think this is a pretty reasonable visual depiction of the experience of eating it.