Spring is almost here! Warmer weather, beautiful sunshine, flowers in bloom and longer days. I am so over Winter and I am glad that Spring is just around the corner.

Yesterday was such a glorious ‘Winter’ day that I thought an early dinner and some quality chill-out time in St Kilda with friends was in order. The temperature peaked at 22.7 degrees and it was just perfect.

My originally intended having a Spring-inspired recipe to accompany this post, but I kind of got distracted and decided to stay all night at the beach instead of coming home early to bake (can you blame me though, when the weather was as glorious as this?) So, this will just be a short post, full of random photos. Enjoy!

One of Acland Street’s patisseries displaying their wide array of yummy treats…

And you can only top off the day with a big cup or cone of gelati from 7 Apples (75 Acland Street, St. Kilda). Try the pannacotta flavoured gelati – it’s my favourite!

The Esplanade…

Of all Melbourne’s beaches, St. Kilda’s beach doesn’t rank that very high at all. It is rather blah (it has lumpy/pebbly sand and the gross murky water isn’t very attractive), but this sunset just made my day…

I’ve always wondered, is there any difference between a biscuit and a cookie?

After doing a Google search (one of the best things ever invented), it seems that there is. In America, a cookie is a small, sweet, flat baked product and a biscuit is a type of small bread that is made using either baking powder or baking soda as it’s leavening agent. Many American biscuit recipes are similar to English/Australian scones and what’s confusing is that the sweet variations of biscuits are known as scones, whereas the savoury versions are usually known as biscuits (e.g. cheese biscuits). Sweet biscuits that are served with fruit, juice and cream are known as as a shortcake, with the most common version: the strawberry shortcake.

In England, a biscuit and cookie are essentially the same, but a biscuit is usually harder, more brittle. A cookie is softer and more chewy. And a scone is, well, a scone.

We Australians like to keep things simple. A biscuit or a ‘bickie’, is the same as a cookie. It’s small, it’s sweet and it’s damn good with a ‘cuppa’! :)

Oaty Chocolate Cookies

(adapted from a recipe found in ‘Bills Food’ by Bill Granger)

150g unsalted butter, softened

230g brown sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

125g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

200g rolled oats

180g dark chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

2. Cream the butter and brown sugar with a hand-held beater until light and fluffy (if you don’t know this by now, I love using this thing!).

3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat well.

4. Fold in the flour, oats and chocolate. Roll tablespoonful sized balls and place them on your lined tray/s. Flatten them slightly with your fingers.

5. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until they become pale golden brown.

If I could describe a lemon in one word, I would describe it as ‘happy’. Why ‘happy’ you may ask? I don’t know why, but their bright yellow skin and citrus-y smell just conjure up memories of fun times like running around in the backyard with friends and drinking homemade lemonade in summer to cool down.

I love to use lemons whenever I can in the kitchen. When the lemon trees in the backyard are bursting with fruit, it’s hard to decide what to do with them! Lemons make great curd, give buttermilk pancakes an extra zing and you just can’t beat a dreamy creamy lemon cheesecake. Lemon meringue pie, lemon tart, lemon slice, lemon delicious pudding, the list goes on and on…

One of my favourite lemon recipes is a lemon poppyseed cake drenched in a lemon syrup. This particular recipe is similar to a madeira cake, rather moist and cakey.

Lemon Poppyseed Syrup Cake

(adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson in ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess‘)

250g unsalted butter, softened

225g caster sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 lemons, zested and juiced

2 tablespoons poppyseeds

200g self raising flour, sifted

100g plain flour, sifted

Syrup

100g icing sugar

2 lemons, juiced

1. Preheat oven to 150 °C. Grease and line a 13cm x 21cm loaf tin.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a hand-held mixer for 2 to 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, lemon zest and poppy seeds (make sure you use your fingers to remove as much mixture as you can from the beaters – most of the lemon zest and poppyseeds like to hide here).
4. Gently fold in both flours and lemon juice and mix until smooth.
5. Spoon the mixture into the tin, spread the batter so it is nice and even and bake for around 45 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
6. For the syrup, place the icing sugar and lemon juice into a small pan and bring to the boil. As soon as the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and pour the syrup all over the cake, allowing the syrupy goodness to soak and work it’s magic.
7. Once the cake is cold, remove from the tin, slice up and serve. If you try to remove the cake while it is still hot, or you haven’t allowed sufficient syrup soaking time, the cake will fall apart when you cut.

This cake is fabulous with a cup of tea :)

One of all my all-time favourite cakes to make is this one. It is chock-a-block full of bananas (6 big ones in total!) and the rich chocolate ganache just completes it perfectly. It is absolutely delicious and I always get rave reviews!

Usually when I bake a cake, for a birthday or a celebration of sorts, I often reserve the smallest amount of cake batter so that I can make a very tiny 4-inch version for Z. That way, he always gets to taste what I have made and have his own special little cake. I know I should stop making these cakes for him (it’s not the healthiest of options), but I can’t help it! Little cakes are so cute to make, decorate and admire. This is one of the many reasons I love to make cupcakes, but I’ll leave that for another post.

Pictured below is my special little cake for my always special Z :)

I will share my simple recipe for chocolate ganache…

Chocolate Ganache

(to cover a 20 centimetre cake)

250ml thickened cream

200g good quality dark chocolate, chopped (or half/half with milk chocolate if you like it sweeter)

25g unsalted butter

1. Place all ingredients in a heatproof bowl (metal, glass or ceramic).
2. Balance the bowl on top of a saucepan which is a third full of simmering water (also known as a double boiler). Make sure the bowl does not touch the water, or the chocolate will seize and turn hard and horrible.
3. Stir the ingredients until the chocolate has melted and has become smooth and shiny.
4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

You can use the ganache while it’s still rather warm and runny and pour it over your cake, or you can leave it to thicken before use (this way, you can create a lovely, big swirly effect on your cake).

Check out my new keyring! I bought the mini whisk keyring and a separate little wooden spoon, got my boy to drill a hole in the handle (it’s what boys are for), put it all together, and voila! Cute new keyring!

I’m on the lookout for a mini pastry brush now…

Stay tuned until tomorrow people, I’m making a banana and chocolate cake! Yum! :)