I’m not dead! Really! I’ve just been MIA for the last six months. I’m back in the land of the living again, so this blog should liven up a bit. And over time I’ll post about what’s been happening up to now.
I’m on a bit of a baking kick at the moment. I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but I’m usually cooking savoury food, main meals etc. Except for my Creme Caramel that I’m still working on getting perfect (it’s a lot of fun trying!), I don’t make a lot of desserts.
Then I found SWEETAPOLITA. Rosie has very quickly become my object of hero worship. Not only are her cakes divine to look at, the recipes work (you’d be surprised how many online don’t), and she’s amazingly talented, plus she responds to comments on her posts! Yes, it’s a bit of a ‘thing’ with me – if I take the time to comment or ask questions, I’d really like the blogger to respond. That’s the whole point of comments, to have a two way conversation. So I’m totally star struck at her fantabulousness!
Last week one of the students in the other Auslan class (Australian Sign Language) brought in a huge bag of lemons from her tree. I took several and joked that I’d have to make a Lemon Meringue Pie with them and bring it to class. I’ve never made a Lemon Meringue Pie in my life before, although I do love eating them.
Instead of the pie, I made Rosie’s Lavender and Lemon Cake and took that into school to share with both classes. It’s a big cake, 20cm/8″ around and about 15cm/6″ high. And we ate well over three quarters of it! Note that the photo’s are taken after the cake had been in the car, and on my daughter’s ipod as I forgot my camera. Actually, this pic was taken ON the car….
The layers didn’t appreciate the drive too much, there was a bit too much lemon curd in between each layer and they moved slightly during traveling.
But they still tasted great!
And now there’s none left, although I’m a total convert to culinary lavender. After tasting this cake I went and bought my own culinary lavender plant (Lavender Angustifolia) as buying it dried is pretty exxy. So hubby and the kiddo are going to be having some interesting dishes with lavender flavouring in the future. 
We had lunch at my brother’s place on Monday and he – as usual – served us an amazing meal. One of the dishes was a rice and bean salad that he’d adapted from another recipe. Dian tried it just to be polite and loved it. So we asked what was in it and made it when we got home. It didn’t really have a name so we titled it “Rainbow Rice Salad” as it’s so pretty.