This week I feel slightly insane or maybe "all over the place" is a better way to describe it. We had a busy weekend, I had very little time to work and now I'm running behind trying to catch up which is so not ideal considering my week ahead. I guess it doesn't help that I've spent forever looking at pictures that remind me of Paris- but it does mean that you get to see these pictures (tell me i'm not crazy, tell me they want to make you go to Paris RIGHT NOW).
This weekend I baked the entire weekend. We had friends over on Saturday for tea (and then happily they stayed for lunch) so I baked (being the wonderful domestic goddess that I am) Cinnabons (a recipe from my best friend) which were sensational and everyone was super impressed (because no one really thought that Cinnabons could be made) and I also made brownies which turned out to be pretty crud. This is my brownie problem, everything is fine until I put them in the oven for the "required amount of time" then after this time, when I take them out, the top is black and the brownie underneath is still sloshing around in the pan. So how on earth do I cook the mixture through without burning the top (and in the "required time")? I made Cinnabons again on Sunday so now I'm all Cinnaboned out- and my kitchen smells like cinnamon which is never a bad thing.
I promised a biscuit recipe a while ago and so here it is:
[recipe for the most amazing vanilla biscuits ever]
Ingredients
200g butter, softened
1 cup (200g) castor sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 cups (420g) flour
1 tsp (5ml) vanilla essence
-Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease a baking tray
-In a bowl with an electric mixer cream the butter and castor sugar. Add the egg flour and vanilla essence. Mix until combined.
-Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour before using.
-Dust the work surface with flour and roll out the cookie dough to the preferred thickness.
-Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.
-Decorate with royal icing
Royal icing
Ingredients
2 egg whites
21/2 cups (350g) icing sugar sifted
juice of 1/2 a lemon
-In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites, icing sugar and lemon juice together
-Start on low speed and increase the speed as the mixture gets smoother
-If the mixture is too dry add more egg white
I hope it brings you much eating happiness
I knew this week would feel bitty and odd- Graham left for a conference yesterday and I'm leaving for Cape Town tomorrow to apply for my French Visa (party time) and then we're racing back to Durban to be here for a show on Friday night. On top of this my delightful lecturers have saved all the enormous tests for next week and the following week (I have a test the day before we leave for Europe- apparently I won't be studying for that one). Argh it's all a bit overwhelming at the moment.
In other happier news- it's Spring! Spring sounds like it should be a really nice season but in reality it's pretty crud. In Cape Town Spring isn't very different from winter and in Durban Spring seems to be the ONLY time in the year that the wind blows like mad (In case anyone is wondering- Autumn definitely wins for the best season of the year) I'm tired of this "cold" Durban weather and impatiently wait for Summer every single day (will take this statement back when I'm dying in the summer heat wave).
Did I mention it's 2 and a bit weeks to Paris and Amsterdam?
