From the luscious oasis to a mountain gite

So it’s been about a week since I last posted and rather than try fit in everything that I did and saw in one post I’m gonna split it into two, especially as I’ve so many photos as well, would be a terrible shame not to put them all up, ha. So in my last post we had just arrived in the Todra Gorge. After an afternoon of relaxation we went for a lovely river walk passing through the oasis that sits in between the mountains. We saw a massive beetle scurry across our path and wild mushrooms of various sizes underneath a fallen tree. We passed under lots of palm trees and by plenty of impressive vegetable lots, it was very peaceful and a little cooler than earlier in the day. We were driven over to another part of the gorge where families were having picnics and children were learning how to rock climb, very brave. We had dinner back at our hotel, I opted for the spaghetti bolognese and we had some mint tea to end our night. Continue reading “From the luscious oasis to a mountain gite”

From the blue city to the Sahara

My second day in Chefchaouen was very chilled. I hiked up to the mosque and was treated to a panoramic blue-tastic view of the Pearl of the North, such a beautiful city. Then I wandered about town, browsing the shops when it was lovely and quiet. I bought a ticket for the Kasbah for 60 dirham (15 dirham for the locals, usual tourist tax). It was lovely and cool inside, turns out their holey walled ventilation system really does wonders. I relaxed there for a while and then got some more lovely city views from the tower. Afterwards I eventually found some safety pins, they are like gold dust around here, haha. Had a mixed juice and chicken skewers for lunch. Continue reading “From the blue city to the Sahara”

Oaty, rhubarb streusel cake

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As I was browsing through this months Delicious magazine I came across a rhubarb recipe, there’s bags upon bags rhubarb in the freezer, the recipe also has oats so I thought that seems nice and healthy. You’ve got one of your five a day, a cereal and plenty of dairy too of course, haha. Continue reading “Oaty, rhubarb streusel cake”

A little lime, a lotta coconut.

So I’ve been given another opportunity to make a wedding cake, this time for a friend’s wedding in a few months time. I’m super excited to try out some new recipes and you will get to follow me on the wedding cake journey for the next few months, whoop whoop. So one of the layers that I suggested was a coconut and lime cake, one I’ve never made before, but sure it can’t be that hard, right? Famous last words, I will never learn, haha. I found this recipe on……..yes you guessed it, BBCGoodFood, just can’t beat it.  Continue reading “A little lime, a lotta coconut.”

Who wants to be a millionaire?

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This week I decided to try my hand at making millionaire’s shortbread. It was my first time making them even though I have made a similar version of a caramel square but with a brownie base and hazelnuts in the caramel. I used two different recipes to make these, I used a BBC Food recipe for the shortbread base and a Donal Skehan recipe for the caramel. So I preheated my oven to 180C and lined a 23cm square tin and off I went.  Continue reading “Who wants to be a millionaire?”

Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?

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So it has been waaaaaay too long since I last put up a post, terrible baker I know but I’ll be baking plenty this month hopefully, so I’ll make up for it in sugar bags full. So this weekend I decided to try out a good ole fashioned American recipe, half inspired by some lovely little measuring mugs my mam bought this week and half by my trip to NY last October and the delicious oatmeal cookie I had in Dean and DeLuca. Continue reading “Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?”

A baking disaster saved by everything-but-the-kitchen-sink soup

So my aim to bake healthier things was short lived after browsing through the January edition of Delicious today and spotting what I thought was a really easy recipe for something called Savoyard cruche. I had never heard of this before and it looked delicious and really easy to make. So off I went with my cocky self and measured out 250g of butter and placed it in a pan and left it on a low heat as the recipe stated, then when it had melted I added in 250g of plain flour and proceeded to stir it for 10-15 minutes, waiting for it to turn a light brown colour and smell biscuity. I waited another 5 minutes and it still wasn’t turning a brown colour for me, I added in 125g of caster sugar and I wasn’t happy with it so I dumped it.  Continue reading “A baking disaster saved by everything-but-the-kitchen-sink soup”

Pop goes the weasel….

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This week I came upon an unusual cake while doing a little baking research and I decided to give it a crack, after all it’s good to challenge yourself every now and then. So the recipe in question was a toffee popcorn cake that I found on http://lapechefraiche.com/pop/. The cake is a yellow cake, which I’ve never made before, iced with a meringue caramel buttercream with caramel sauce drizzled on top and toffee popcorn on top. I took the basic idea and used tried and tested recipes for the buttercream icing, caramel and the toffee popcorn and so I began.  Continue reading “Pop goes the weasel….”