Obsession

It's baking time again!! But at least it's not me. See below: Our selection of "wives" cakes. Legend has it some man lost his wife in a gambling debt (welcome to the Chinese and gambling), and to get her back, he sold lots of these cakes to buy her back. Well tomorrow I'm going up north to the Grandparents and so mother dearest baked a lot of cakes. I sat aside and let her get on with it as I'm not a major fan tbh. But check out the pictures. Sis holding pei-dan so Pei-dan is a thousand year egg. It's an egg that has become a black jellified solid. It tastes amazing in congee, but it also goes in these little cakes, in a mass of lotus paste wrapped in flakey pastry. I can't say I'm a fan of it in that form, but it's something we make. The pastry is the same as the wife cakes but they are more egg shaped. Mama-san egg washing the "wife" cakes. These are stuffed with a more melon paste type concoction. Wife cakes are flat rounds and

What else can I say? I've been a busy baker recently. Namely because I've been hugely antisocial of late, slight toothache and just generally sick of it all. So for the first time in ages I've been spending large amounts of time in bed curled up and so to be productive I've been baking a bit. Coconut cupcakes (which neglect to mention the chocolate factor) 175g softened unsalted butter 120g caster sugar 2 eggs 25g cocoa powder 50g desiccated coconut 150g plain flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 3 tablespoons milk Frosting: 150g mascapone 1 tablespoons icing sugar zest of 1 lemon 25g desiccated coconut soaked in a little milk Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases. Cream together the butter and sugar in the large bowl until pale and light. Add beaten eggs and mix well. Add cocoa powder and coconut. Mix together theflour and baking powder and fold it to the butter-egg mixture, and mix until smooth. Divide between t

I'm in a petulent mood. Hmm maybe that's the polite way of putting it. Right now, I want to whip raw potatoes at the wooden fence outside. If I had superpowers and could throw fireballs I'd be in trouble right now. All in all, not feeling too Christmassy. Usually I'm really into the cooking. My only opportunity to cook the main. But I made goose last week (£19.99 at Lidl) and I suppose that might have killed my urge. I was banned from cooking goose for Xmas because it's too fatty, too expensive, may as well get duck... and when I bought it the parentals got all excited because it's not that pricy, it's huge and quite tasty. I followed Nigella's Feast to a certain extent. Stuffed it with mashed potato but also some apple wedges which did not go down too well. I also learnt that geese have some large greasy valves near the bum which require squeezing or cutting off. (Icky, but less icky than what I thought it was.) Presenting: My Goose.

I'm procrastinating as I should work (it's Sunday) but a mate said since I ate out so much I should really write reviews... well, tbh I should just write to remind me where to eat next time. Will do a round up and then try to blog going forwards. I already take bad pictures on my camera (well you're sitting on your own so being a freak isn't so weird...) Edit this as and when I can go through my receipts and remember where I was and what I ate... Brighton Hotel: Jury's Inn: Nearest to the station, clean, basic, no biscuits on the nightstand, gym or free wi-fi. God-awful food. Will explain. Unlike some of my more refined colleagues, I didn't mind Jury's Inn. I don't mind you have to go to pick up room service from downstairs. And I don't mind the minimal tv channels because channel 5 is a luxury for me (I live in a valley). The hotel is blissfully less than a minute's walk to the station. It's also about ten minutes walk to the Lanes where mos

I think I've been failed by Nigel Slater. It's very disturbing. Now he says he's not a cake man anyway, he's predominantly mains, ice cream and the odd fruit based dessert. However, I had poppy seeds, so I decided to borrow his recipe from Kitchen Diaries and tweak. I have to say it was an easy to make, albeit I judge him for requesting 90g of ground almonds when the packets come in 1oog amounts. So anyway, the cake. Which I forgot to add the poppy seeds to until the cake was in the pan. But I digress. Why did I feel the cake failed? Well it lacked the lemony-ness one craves. But, even worse - although might be partially my fault.... it tasted quite bitter when warm. That could be because that's an entire lemon with peel sitting on the top. Or it could be that I made the syrup in the pan that held the slightly caramelised lemons. Oh well. Live and learn. And also figure out a way to use the shredded coconut that's in the cupboard...