Last blog I was going to attempt courgette cake in an
attempt to use up some of the mammoth courgettes from the garden (both of which only use up one courgette so not really helping use up the hundreds we are getting!). I have now
tried 2 different courgette cakes, both a success! The courgette cupcakes went
down well with everybody who tried them, quite similar to a carrot cake. And the
second one, which I preferred I think was a courgette and sultana loaf. This was
a perfect fruit loaf and reminded me of the one my nana used to make for me, my
brother and cousins. There would always be one of these in her kitchen. I attempted
to replicate her fruit loaf a few months ago and was told by my granddad it wasn’t
as good! I am going to keep trying until I get his seal of approval!
Last week I had my biggest disaster in the kitchen ever! I attempted
to make macaroons…. I wanted to make them
for my friend Lowri, as part of her birthday present as she is a big fan of
them. I have never made them before, however I was expecting them to be
perfect. To look like the ones you buy in the shops, pretty colours, sandwiched
together with icing and just overall delightful (see picture below). I read how complicated they
are and how it takes people many attempts to get them right. O no not me I thought.
I will get them right first time! O how wrong was I?! My macaroons looked like
mini fried eggs. Flat as a pancake. I did however realise my error and mistakes
are made to be learnt from! I had read how they can stick very easily to trays
and baking paper and that nothing was more upsetting than the perfect macaroons being stuck on the tray, so being the baking genius I am (obviously not), I thought I would
grease the baking paper to be extra sure they did not stick. O no no no no!
Very basic error when working with egg whites is to put fat anywhere near them.
Hence my disastrous fried egg/pancake looking macaroons, which turns out is pretty upsetting too (well at least I think
this is what went wrong!). Needless to
say Lowri did not get macaroons for her birthday, just a lovely little vintage
cake stand, with no cakes on. Maybe I will have perfected them in time for her
next birthday.
I also have some very exciting tomato news! There I was minding
my own business doing the dishes (which look out onto the tomatoes), when what
do I see, a hint of red??? It could not be. Out I go to investigate further and
behold, an orange tomato! Result! It has only taken since May I think for the
tomatoes to turn red! I hope other follow suit soon and begin the transition
from green to red! I have been very excited about my tomatoes since I planted
them as my dad has always grown amazing tomatoes, and they taste so different
to the shop ones and have that smell about them (if you grow your own tomatoes
you will know the smell I mean). And of course, when going back to mum and dads
this weekend just gone, I was greeted by his lovely tomato plants, lots of them
orange and ready to eat, and there were mine, back in Cardiff being stubborn
and staying green. But now I have an orange one! I have also had a chilli,
which I ate last night with my dinner (not very spicy though) and have more
growing!
So all is well on the garden front at the moment. My sunflowers are still
going strong, apart from being covered by the giant courgette plants so I am
cutting them and bringing them inside to enjoy. We have had an invasion of
caterpillars on the broccoli, there are so many of them I don’t want to eat it
in fear of accidently eating one (I probably already have) as they hide in all
the nooks of the broccoli. Luckily the broccoli is pretty much finished so it
was not all destroyed! They just better not get to my sprouting broccoli or I’ll
be out to get them!
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