Sometimes you find yourself facing one of those cheesecake situations; and sometimes bucketfuls of cashews, or Londonfuls of them, give
you a stomach ache that makes you question your chances of survival, and you
consider tofu instead, and remote islands, or give it a Japanese twist and go
for seaweed powder and loss in translation, or perhaps yoghurt or coconut oil
or frozen bananas or cauliflower or the Land of Oz; and the options are so many
and the fear of the unset so
unbearable and you’re almost tempted to sack it off altogether and sit on the
kitchen counter and eat sprinkles on toast until further notice; and in the end
you find yourself whipping up cheesecakes out of millet and dates and peanut
butter just for practice, and when you head to
the fridge and casually grab a slice and eat it, your surprise could almost equal that of a little kid whose flying house accidentally squashes a wicked witch to death, as, geographical metaphors aside, you come to the realisation you’ve just made the best
cheesecake you’ve ever had, and it's fair to say you've had a few.
Sunday 28 February 2016
Sunday 21 February 2016
IRN-BRU BAKED DOUGHNUTS
In case of pitch darkness and lack of colour: plantain
parties, Isabjhdffdgghfjkdottir, frog
rescuing, Kings of the Rye, Deadpool, fizzy pop doughnuts.
Sunday 14 February 2016
MACAFAME - ITALIAN BREAD PUDDING
Gusts of the coldest winter wind this week exhumed, much
unsurprisingly, a pile of nothingness, rainy days, insomnia and Star Wars bottled water and swept it and pushed it and dragged it right onto the doorstep,
and even though it should be declared illegal in such cases to even think of
leaving the bed unattended and opening the front door, you find yourself ungracefully
climbing over them and making your way through the most unpleasant drizzle of rain
and icy wet fog and nostalgia and don’t even bother with a brolly.
Truth to be known, the cold and darkness are here to stay at
least for a while, and the memories they blew about, of one excited
little kid that glimpses a foil-covered oven dish in their daddy’s hands in the
warmth of their kitchen when he gets home, and there’s loads of your auntie’s
famously delicious bread pudding in it - it would be nice if they did, but they
won’t make the rain go away, nor the gloomy winter end any sooner, nor your
eyes less inappropriately teary on your bus home in the evening; however, what
may help is baking your own macafame,
translated and tweaked and localised from your nonna’s original recipe (est.
ca. 1946) (nonna > Mary Berry): between one mouthful and the other, you can
try and get your head around the fact that this light and soft cake packed full
of sultanas and pine nuts and so moist and delicious kind of brings you right
back to when you’d stand in the rain just for a laugh and you wouldn’t hide
away from the wind and you’d let it lift you up and drag you around and you’d
think it’s the most amusing thing in the world.
Monday 8 February 2016
FRITTELLE - ITALIAN FRIED DOUGH BALLS
I firmly believe that one of the frequently asked questions
at interviews for skilled and highly valued jobs like say, sommeliers should
be: if you were a cake-like thing, what would you be. It is probably for the
best however that that’s not the case, as I myself would stare at the
interviewer in sheer panic and spend the following about five days going
through a mental list of all cakes and sweets and treats known to man, then opt
for eternal unemployment and spend my days making videos of cats and die shortly
after from asthma, or scratched to death. But if I really had to answer the
question in utmost seriousness, my immediate reaction would have been to identify myself with some seriously sugary out-of-the-strong-came-forth-sweetness-style sticky Bundt cake, or a spotty-face-inducing chocolatey fridge treat preferably to be consumed over
the sink, or some inexplicably underrated pumpkin cake all drenched in sweet syrup,
or again something containing worrying amounts of sugar and apparently chocolatey but not, because I can be peculiar like that. But
then it so happened that introspective times at the hairdresser’s via the strip catered for thoughts of Venetian masquerade balls that never came
into being, and brought back memories of Italian Carnival and warm kitchens and mid-week late
afternoons and greasy paper bags filled with fresh frittelle and sugar all over your mouth and your nose and your hair and your Latin homework; and this may or may not be me saying that’s my final answer, but if
you think it’s a coincidence that each of these little bites of deep-fried
sugar-coated deliciousness rhymes with my name, and don’t give in to sweetness too, and as per my very own Carnival tradition, glory in one frittella too many: you’re crazy.
Thursday 4 February 2016
GOLDEN BERRY & COCOA NIB OAT COOKIES
I did think for half a moment, I will admit, that the
after-effects of Disgrace wouldn't involve much more than binge holiday-booking
and a mildly emotional farewell to avocado on toast and snuslessness and the occasional
life-wrecker text message gone m.i.a.; however, running out of book every half a week and forgetting, as one does, to
leave the house for just under fifty-eight hours in a row and a surplus of coffee in my
Lavazza tin and of exotic tea in my cupboard did eventually set off this little
alarm bell in my head, as well as this tiny voice going, what’s it going to be then, eh; and as it turns out, what it's
going to be for right now is a fair amount of waiting; for trips to happen, for
books and parcels and books inside parcels, for cat-ction shots to get developed, and for the
inspiration to face-the-outside-world-every-now-and-then-if-strictly-necessary
to come find me; so if you see any adventures around, please do send them my way: I’ve got cookies.
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