Thirty things that make me smile…

A perfectly baked sponge cake with jam and cream.

Photographing in natural light.

Reminiscing about my first kiss.

Soulful music.

Eating anything wrapped in pastry.

Laughter and uncontrollable giggles.

Receiving a compliment from a stranger.

Birthday and festive season celebrations with family.

Deep and meaningful conversation with close friends.

The kind of love that makes your heart ache when you’re not with them.

Ice-cream in summer anytime of the year.

Kindness. Gentleness. Understanding. Patience.

That look on someone’s face when they open up their gifts.

Farmers’ markets and fresh, seasonal produce.

Shopping until my feet hurt and so much money is spent.

Cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles.

Making new friends.

Flicking through design magazines for inspiration.

A coffee made from ground beans, perfectly steamed milk and served at the right temperature. Then drinking another one.

Fruit smoothies with honey.

Being loved for who I am.

Spending hours and hours in a bookshop, trying to find the right book to take home.

Turning the mobile/laptop off and being disconnected.

Being appreciated and acknowledged.

Log fires, hot chocolate and marshmallows in winter.

Watermelon, floral dresses, flip-flops, last minute BBQs and trips to the beach in summer.

Finding that perfect dress/top/skirt/jeans/shoes that actually fit for a bargain price.

The sense of accomplishment when something difficult has finally been completed.

Reading a book from beginning to end in one sitting.

Thick slices of banana chocolate bread, still warm from the oven…

Banana Chocolate Bread

250g plain flour

2.5 teaspoons baking powder

big pinch of salt

125g dark or milk chocolate, finely chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup caster sugar

2 large eggs

4 large, ripe bananas, mashed (don’t add anymore bananas – it will be too stodgy).

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Grease and line a loaf tin and set aside.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir through the chocolate.
3. In a larger bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, vanilla and banana.
4. Gently combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and be careful not to overmix.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
6. Cool on a wire rack, but eat it warm. It tastes good toasted the next day too :)

Hello dear readers, I am currently in the midst of changing the layout of the blog and what you see now is just a temporary theme. I know there are uber-geeky ways of making changes to a site offline, whilst having the current site up and running, but I have no idea how to do that! I actually have no idea what I am doing right now to be honest, haha!  It’s been a huge battle so far with the new host, changing servers, transferring content to Wordpress.org etc and it’s been damn frustrating, but I am quite proud of the fact that I have gotten this far by myself. Now it’s time for business as I work on the new layout with the help of both a graphic and web designer. Hopefully it will look fantastic once it’s all been done!

There are few links here and there missing, including my RSS feed link and for some annoying reason, you can’t leave any comments.  I will still upload new posts until the new site is launched, so you will still get the usual ramblings and recipes from me! :)

Sunday is my favourite day of the week in winter. It’s the perfect day to stay indoors, curled up on the sofa with a warm blanket, a mug of hot tea and a little something sweet to nibble on. That “little something sweet” for this Sunday is this really lemony blueberry cake. I first saw it on Deb’s blog a year ago but had never tried to make it until this morning.

Read more »