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Friday 25 July 2014

The lemon is in play

For the longest time, I have wanted a lemon tree. Because of reasons.
The only problem: they can be insanely expensive. Or maybe they just seem insanely expensive to a poor person like myself.
So last year, IKEA had lemon trees! Now picture me dancing through the plant isles, chanting 'LEMONS! LEMONS!' at the top of my lungs.
That wasn't my actual reaction, but it would have been, if there hadn't been any people around. No, I just did a quick little happy dance on the spot.
I paid for my lemon tree (full of happiness), I drove him home (full of happiness), I named him Richardson (full of happiness), I gave him his own little space on my desk (full of happiness).
And how does he repay me?
By almost dying!
I actually blame IKEA. Why? Because they sold lemon trees in the middle of winter! And apparently Richardson thought the two minute walk from IKEA to the car was enough time to freeze to death.
Thankfully after lots of care, the finest citrus fertiliser money can buy (actually, it was the only one and it was quite cheap) and a playlist full of Korean pop songs, he recovered.
When I bought Richardson (named after Douglas Richardson of Cabin Pressure), he had two huge (and I mean huge) lemons dangling from a branch. I left them on the tree until they decided to jump off themselves (almost gave me a heart attack). After that, I couldn't get myself to throw them away, they were so pretty!
(You're probably asking yourself why I didn't eat them. Because the sticker on the pot said I shouldn't. Who knows what kind of chemicals they spray on there...I would probably have grown an extra arm if I had eaten them! But next time the tree grows some fruit, you can bet I will devour them with glee.)
So the lemons just lay around, chilling in the living room, then chilling in the kitchen.
Until, after about half a year of chilling, my father brutally murdered them.
Yesterday he cut them in half, for reasons still unknown to me. And you know what he discovered?
NEW LIFE!
Praise cheeses!
I'm not yet sure if they are lemon trees or tiny tentacle monsters which inhabit abandoned lemons, but whatever they'll grow up to be, I'll keep you updated.
(That is, if they reach adulthood. Let me get my K-pop songs)




Thursday 24 July 2014

Cookie Time

I bought Black Treacle for the first time last year (main reason being the awesome Halloween tins it came in), and haven't done much with it since.
So because I don't want it to go bad (can treacle even go bad?), I made some cookies!
And they are SO DELICIOUS.



Black Treacle Cookies
(from allrecipes.co.uk)
155g (cup + 1 tsp) butter
200g (¾ cup + 2 tbsp) sugar
 60g (4 tbsp) black treacle
1 egg
250g (1¼ cup) flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves
1 pinch salt
additional sugar
*

Melt the butter and set aside to cool.
Add sugar, egg and treacle, beat well.
Sieve together dry ingredients, then add to the mixture and stir until combined.
Chill for three hours or over night.
Preheat oven to 190°C.
Form dough into walnut sized balls, roll them in the additional sugar and place on parchment lined baking trays.
Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Don't worry if they come out a bit crispier than you like, just store them in an air tight container, and they'll be chewy and delicious the next day!

*the original recipe also calls for ½ tsp ground ginger, if that's your thing

Friday 11 July 2014

Cupcakes, cupcakes, more cupcakes!

One of my mother's friends apparently likes my cupcakes! Oh yeah!
She asked if I could bake 20, so of course I said yes and baked 70.
I see your raised eyebrow, and raise you another.
Yes, I can get carried away sometimes, but my dad told me to make some for us as well, and 50 sounds about right for four people, right? Right?

I tried two new recipes, Ultimate Marble Cupcakes and Homemade Lemon Cupcakes, both by Sally's Baking Addiction.
The marble cupcakes are so pretty and delicious (even though the frosting is a bit too sweet for my taste), I almost don't want to eat them! Almost. I already had three.
The lemon ones aren't my favourite lemon cupcakes, but they're not bad and my parents both think they're delicious.
Other than that I also made my go-to chocolate cupcake with my go-to frosting, raspberry whipped cream.

 From left to right: Ultimate Marble Cupcakes, Homemade Lemon Cupcakes (used a different frosting) and Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Whipped Cream
 LOOK AT THOSE PRETTY SWIRLS
I love how currants come in different colours :D (am I the only one who thinks that cupcake has a major derp face?)

Thursday 10 July 2014

RED

Cherries, raspberries, red currants, strawberries - all red, and absolutely delicious!

Sour Cherry Cake (from our sour cherry tree - they were SO juicy, the cake took forever to bake)
Raspberry Pudding Tart (there are four different kinds of raspberries on there, all from our garden :) the super ripe looking ones are actually a dark variety we bought last year, delicious!)
 Japanische Weinbeere (no idea what those are called in English, a direct translation would be 'Japanese Wine Berry'. From our neighbour, look like raspberries, feel like the things they put on socks so you won't slip, taste a bit sour, but not bad!)
Woodland Strawberries are the BEST strawberries. Sometimes they're teeny tiny like this one, but still they have ten times the flavour of strawberries you can buy at a store.
My grandma sent quite a lot of these little guys over, together with the red currants. Isn't he adorable? (please ignore that my fingers look like I just murdered someone, I was making red currant jam...honest!)
 Another tiny fellow
 A bucket full of red currants going through my 'Flotte Lotte' (which was quite a workout) -
 - to make 1,8kg pure, sour, yummy sauce, to which I then added sugar and made delicious jam!
I dubbed these sandwiches 'blood puddle' :D (the picture doesn't do the red justice)