Any one for a kiss!

I come across an old school friend of mine quite often these days and she works on the odd day down at the New World that I frequent often. Victoria is an avid follower of my blog and gave me a recipe to try quoting it off by heart last Monday in the wine isle.

Now I remember her facebook status a while back was that she has, after 20 years, perfected the kiss cake. A family recipe. That should have got me worried as how could it take 20 years of baking to perfect what seemed to be a very normal problem free recipe! It is Sunday morning as I write this and behind me in the oven are the kiss cakes. The timer has gone off and they look quite sweet but anemic. I got 25 of them from the mixture and one only needs to cook them for 8 minutes. Somehow I don't think they are the way they should be!!! I will find out tomorrow when Victoria does the taste test.

Yesterday (anticipating the kiss cakes might not be too good) I made a Ginger cake from the Avenues magazine that arrived in this weeks newspaper. It has the real authentic grated root ginger as well as the ginger powder so it really is a ginger cake! Took it around to friends last night to have while watching the All Blacks show Australia how to play rugby (score 49-28).

Served with a little vanilla ice cream on the side while sipping a bubbles, it was quite lovely.

Birthday Week

What a lovely week that was.

The inevitable happened and I turned another year older and with that came the celebrating. I was showered with beautiful gifts and many of them had a baking theme. I was given a great book called 'Cakes', a selection from the Australian Womans Weekly that have been triple tested for 'your success every time.' Along with a gorgeous bundt cake pan and 4 miniture bottles of Piper Heidseick complete with sipping straws! So this weekend I made a cake in the bundt pan from the new recipe book.......Passionfruit Buttermilk Cake.

As you can see from the photo above, it turned out superbly. The taste is exquisite, so light and soft to eat. The recipe required to add three eggs, yolks first, then fold in the whipped egg whites, thus resulting in a very light texture.

I found this cake to be delicious, especially when accompanied by a chilled glass of bubbles.

So if you are passing, make a point of popping in and having a taste.

(Better make is snappy as the Piper has been known to evaporate!)

A weekend in July

This weekend was to be Emma and Richard returning from their two weeks in Europe. And since I haven't seen them since 13 June, I was keen to bake for their homecoming. It was not to be as they were delayed in Singapore for 24 hours so arrival is now Monday morning 9.20am. (Fog descended on Christchurch at 8 am, closing the airport!!) As I write this, they are still not home! Due in soon though.

The cake of the week was made and has already been eaten as we just couldn't wait till they got here. ha ha

I made a Lemon Sour Cream Cake from the Waihi Cookbook. Lovely ingredients. Lemon meringue yogurt, sour cream (lite of course), a few eggs and lemons of course.

It was a very moist cake but lovely and light with a little yogurt on the side. Eaten after a beef casserole on mash with beans.

So, this morning I threw together some Tamarillo Friands from the same recipe book. If Emma doesn't hurry up and get here then they will be gone soon too.

Week or Cake 25......I'm back

Well here we are back in the land of the living and the freezing (it is July after all!) after three weeks riding through the French country side/hills and the Italian Dolomites, then walking by the five stunning villages of the Cinqueterre.

It is lovely to be home and slowly getting back in to a routine that is life. Ben was there to greet us at the airport, Emma is somewhere in Paris as we speak and Adam is speaking Spanish in Spain.

John went back to work on Friday in what seemed like a few hours after landing, Uni starts again on Monday for Ben and Gunna the dog has settled himself back in front of the fire. As for me, well I am baking a cake!

I opened a recipe book up on a random page and the cake staring at me is 'Ladysmith Cake'.

Ladysmith cake was named after the lifting of the seige of the town of Ladysmith during the Boer War. It is a vanilla butter cake in which half the mixture is flavoured with spice and put in the tin first, then a layer of jam, then the rest of the plain mixture and chopped walnuts on top.

It looks very delicious and will take it our friends Dave and Kerrys place tonight. Will be tested at half time of the All Blacks/South Africa game.

There will be plenty left though if you are passing, as it keeps beautifully for a few days in an airtight container!

Until next week......