Sticky Ginger Cake

Ginger cake

Pat likes cakes with frosting. Most Sundays I bake a cake so he can have them for tea when he gets back from work. He loves the Coffee Walnut cake and can have them every week. Nah... have to do something different otherwise it would be so boring right?

So this week, baked this Ginger cake and it is so nice with bits of chopped stem ginger when you bite into the cake.

Yum....if I may say so myself!

Unexpected Dinner guests

Unexpected Dinner Guests

We went to Katrina's house to have a look at Rob's car as she said there was something wrong with it and wanted Pat to have a look at it. It was a beautful day and I sat in the sunshine while Pat had a look at the car. Then Katrina asked Rob what they were going to do for dinner, so on impulse I invited them to our place for dinner. It was a good thing I went to the supermarket that morning, so I had a packet of chicken and a pack of lamb neck fillet.

As for the sui mai, had already pre made the filling a couple of nights ago as I was craving for it!

So this is what I made. Got home at 6 and got dinner at the table by 7.45. Not bad, right?


Oyster sauce grilled chicken


mixed fried veg


Lamb and spinach curry


Sui Mai

April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day

Sigh. Why sigh? Because every year for as long as I can remember, my late brother Francis will call me and my mother and when my daughter was big enough to understand, her as well, to try and play a joke on us. Most of the time, my mum would be taken in as she would forget that it's April 1 and the laughs that we will get when he or she repeats the joke to us. As for me, most of the time, I will be waiting for his call and don't get caught!

Francis was good that way, remembering birthdays, anniversaries and even April Fool's day! It's gone just past 6 months that he has left us and it's times like this that it hurts most.

Back to the present... Mother Nature did a u-turn yesterday, it was back to winter - (read snow)for places up north and for us in London, daytime temperature was less than 10 degs.
It's sunny now but hope it's not an April Fool joke that Mother Nature is playing on us.

We will be having a loooong weekend as we get Easter Monday off as well.

Birthday lunch

Pat's Birthday

Pat's birthday was yesterday but we only went out for an Indian in the evening as I had arranged for the children to come back and celebrate it today.

I made a Roast beef dinner with all the trimmings including Yorkshire pudding. Started cooking at 1030 for a 1300 lunch and I was so happy that it was right on time!



Also baked a Coffee Walnut cake for Pat as this is his favourite.

Spring Flowers

Spring Flowers



These have been out for quite a while but I haven't had the time to upload them. The first one is crocus




These are snow drops but with a double row petal instead of the normal single row petal. Aren't they pretty?

Cranberry Oat Cookie

Cranberry wholemeal cookies with oats and white chocolate



Ingredients:
150g plain flour (I used wholemeal flour)
120g brown sugar
150g butter
50g instant oats
100g dried cranberries
25g ground almonds (I ran out, so omitted this)
50 g white chocolate chips
2 eggs yolks
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I omitted this as I used salted butter)
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
Preheat oven at 190 degrees C. Sieve together the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the ground almonds, brown sugar, oats, cranberries and white chocolate chip.

Melt butter in the microwave or a small pan over low fire. Stir the butter into the dry ingredients together with the egg yolks. Mix well, then using your hands, form balls of dough, pressing down on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet. Leave space in between the cookies for them to spread.

Depending on how big your cookies are, bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until sufficiently browned. Remove and cool on wire rack for them to harden.

Macarons

Macarons revisited

Since Shirley told me that she was unsuccessful with her macarons using the recipe I posted, I thought I had better try it again to make sure it was ok. This time took step by step pictures.

Beat eggs till semi stiff


Add almond meal and colouring (if using)


Using a plastic bag, pipe 1 1/2 - 2 inch rounds


This time, I whipped some creamed and added lemon curd to make the filling.