This is the bottom layer of Dian’s meal.  Nutella sandwiches cut into hearts, cherry tomatoes (amazingly still growing in this cold weather), and a bear shaped egg.  Biggest lesson here – the extra large eggs that I use for cake making are NOT good for bento, they’re way too big.

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Top layer for Dian.  Snow Peas, mushroom, carrot, broccoli florets, california rolls with a tiny bottle of soy sauce.

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Bottom layer of my dinner – california rolls.

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Top layer of mine – a fish and a star moulded eggs (two eggs is way too much), carrot, mushrooms, broccoli florets and snow pea salad, and a bottle of soy sauce.

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. 

Be warned, it makes a LOT of salad!

Click the link to download:

Rainbow Rice Salad

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I made it up about four days ago and it’s been sitting in the fridge ever since.  This afternoon I followed the instructions and made the basic white loaf.  It’s delicious.  Probably one of the best breads I’ve ever made.  I’ll definately be making this one again!  The loaf is probably about six inches across, so it’s only a small loaf.  Big enough though, as we’re not huge bread eaters.  Yum!

Sourdough Wheat and Spelt Bread

Ingredients

1 cup plain sourdough starter (that’s starter made from just flour and water)

1 cup lukewarm water

2 tspn salt

1/4 tspn baking soda

1 cup organic white plain flour

2 cups organic wholemeal spelt flour

(Proof your starter before making this, that is, mix the starter with about one cup of warm water and a cup of plain flour and leave in a warm place for 4-8 hours.  Then measure out the cup of starter and put the rest in the fridge for next time)

Method

Sift and mix together all the dry ingredients.

In a large pyrex or ceramic bowl mix the water and starter together.

Add most of the dry ingredients and mix well.  Keep adding the dry ingredients until you can’t stir with a spoon any more.  Tip the dough out onto a floured bench and knead.  Add more dry ingredients as necessary, however keep in mind that sourdough needs to be moister than ordinary yeast dough.  It should end up as moist as possible, but not sticking to your hands and the bench.  I usually don’t use all the dry ingredients, mostly I end up with a few tablespoons left.  I put any excess away and use it next time.

Knead for ten minutes.  Use a timer, you really do need to knead for the full ten minutes to get a good texture to your bread.

Scrape any loose flour out of the bowl, oil it lightly and place the dough back in.  Oil the top of the dough, cover the bowl and put in a warm place until it has doubled in size.  This could take from 2-6 hours depending on your starter and the temperature.  I keep mine in the oven with the light on – just enough warmth to help it rise.

Take the dough out, turn it onto the floured bench again and punch it down.  I then divide it into two, as I have two small loaf tins, or you can leave it as is for one large loaf.  Flatten it out so it’s about as wide as your tin, then roll the dough up and place into your oiled/buttered and floured loaf tin.  Place the edge where you rolled it on the bottom.

Cover the tin/s and place back in a warm place to rise until doubled in size again.  I’ve found this takes about the same amount of time as the first rising, sometimes a little bit faster.

Bake in a pre-heated moderate oven (mine is 170 deg Celsius) for about 40 minutes, until browned and sounds hollow when tapped.  Remove from the oven and leave in the loaf tin for about 15-20 minutes, then turn out and let cool.

This bread freezes well and will last a few days without refrigeration.  It has a strong sourdough taste and is very filling and healthy!

If anyone makes this and discovers an error in my recipe please leave a comment and let me know!

And yet I did.  This one – The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen

Totally drool-worthy!  Apart from the fact that I totally can’t stand even the smell of olives, there are very few recipes in here that don’t sound fantastic.  And since I leave the olives out all the time, unless they are the major ingredient then it’s really not going to make a difference to what I think of the recipe.

Yum, yum, yum!

Several years later, I realised that the cake was actually a form of Sourdough, and I’d been making sourdough bread for years. I had been searching the internet for a friendship cake recipe similar to the one I had as a teenager, and finally found one. I’ve changed this one drastically from the original recipe I found, however this tastes just like I remember the one in my teenage years did.

Click here for the recipe

I also just discovered The Essential Ingredient has a shop here in Canberra! Yay!

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/FrenchSourDough.htm This is the recipe for the sourdough bread I made recently. I don’t make my starter the same way though, I mix the flour and water and then sit the uncovered bowl outside for a few hours on a quiet, windless day. That puts wild yeast from the air in the bowl to start the fermentation. It turns out different every time! The only thing to watch is if there is any pink mould or discolouration develop on the starter, you MUST throw it out and start again!

I keep my starter in a jar in the fridge and feed it 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour once a week. I also use organic unbleached wholemeal flour for the starter as it has more food for the yeast organisms. If any grey watery ‘hooch’ develops on top of the starter you can either stir it back in or pour it off, it’s harmless.

I’ll post the recipe for the Minestrone in a few days!