Mint Chocolate Brownie

Welcome back… to you and to me!

It has certainly been a bit of a hiatus since my last blog post. It was not really intentional, and it didn’t reflect a lack of baking, but rather an increasing devotion of all my writing energy towards my thesis. But I’m very pleased to say that I submitted that beast in February, and then spent the following month and a half in the UK/Europe. My husband was temporarily working in Hull, and we travelled to Edinburgh, Dublin, York, London and Lisbon. It was a fantastic trip and I have been inspired to try and bake some of the delicious treats I ate over there.

My first ‘Key’ Lime Pie

Well, it seems that I’m on a bit of an American kick with my baking lately. Possibly because I’m off to San Francisco in a couple of weeks for a conference. I can’t wait!!!

Limes are normally so expensive, so when I saw a big bag of them at the Chinese supermarket for $4, I couldn’t resist! The aroma of lime brings to mind so many fond memories, largely involving cocktails! 😀 I decided it was high time I made my first Key Lime Pie. 

Recipe Challenge: Ruske Kape (Russian Hats)

Hullo and velcome to my blog! (I hope you read that in a Russian accent)

Today’s post is my entry into Lina’s recipe challenge for February, which was cakes from around the world. What a fun idea! I picked Ruske Kape, or Russian Hats, which are adorable little individual cakes, which kind of resemble (surprise surprise) Russian fur hats. According to Wikipedia, they are from Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. They consist of two layers of spongey chocolate cake, sandwiched together with buttercream, decorated on the sides with coconut and topped with chocolate. Yum!

Now, I have to admit, this WAS indeed a challenge.

Chocolate Lamingtons

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Mine has been lovely, catching up with lots of friends and attending our second wedding of the summer. Love is in the air!

This week I’ve had a real hankering for lamingtons, so I decided to make some with the help of my new recipe book, Treats From Little and Friday, kindly donated to me by my supervisor (her favourite recipe bookmarked, look out for Chocolate Brioche, coming soon!).

Feijoa and Coconut Cake (gluten and dairy-free)

Well, we truly are in the throes of autumn. While it’s sad to farewell the sun, autumn yields some amazing fruit as a consolation. I am delighting in feijoas, persimmons and tamarillos. This truly is my absolute favourite thing about autumn – the daily gorge of seasonal fruit. Yum!

Sticky Date Cake

Hello everyone.

I adore Sticky Date pudding. Whenever I go out for dinner/dessert, if there is Sticky Date pudding on the menu, I will almost always get it (unless of course there is Lemon Merengue pie… in which case I panic and blurt out whichever comes to mind first).

The other night we went around to some friends’ place for dinner, and I was bringing dessert. The impression I get from these friends, is that they eat a very healthy diet, which always makes me feel a bit guilty. So I thought, why not be a great friend and corrupt them with a sweet and sticky pud? They can’t not eat it, if I brought it…. right? Right.