A cold but not so miserable Thursday

Today has been cold. Our first real taste of the winter that is coming. My boyfriend John and I woke up to grey skies, freezing wind and just downright coldness.

Not that I'm complaining, I love winter. I love rugging up, drinking a hot cup of tea, wearing scarves, boots and a knitted cat jumper. That's my kind of winter. Even though it is half way through May and winter officially starts here in Australia in 2 weeks, it has sort of snuck up on me. The blue, sunny skies have been very deceiving.

John and I decided to go for a walk in the cold abyss down to our local basketball courts. John's a big basketball fan and is in training for a new season that starts in a couple of months. I basically sit on the court and take photos while he's practising and try not to think about the fact that I could be working out alongside him. I much prefer photo-taking to exercise.

We have quite a large lake just down the road from our house so there are always ducks around. These two were particularly friendly and were visiting a front yard.

These are one of my favourite pairs of flats. They are super comfortable and have two of my favourite things, bows and they are turqouise. Yum.

 

To prove how cold and how rugged up I was and wearing one of my favourite grandma knitted jumpers.





This kind of weather to me, is perfect for baking a cake and sitting down for afternoon tea and having a slice with a hot cup of tea. Today I made a caramel cake with caramel icing. Can anyone say YUM? Here's the recipe.

Caramel Cake with caramel icing

Cake Ingredients                                                        Difficulty: Easy

- 250 grams butter                                                       Cooking Time: 40 minutes

- 1 cup brown sugar                                                     Servings: 10-12

- 2 eggs, separated

- 1 tbs golden syrup

- 1 tsp vanilla essence

- 1 1/2 self-raising flour

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 1/2 cup milk

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease and line a 20cm x 6 cm round baking tin with baking paper (a square tin will also produce roughly the same height).

Using an electric mixer, cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I like to rub a bit of the mixture in between my fingers. If it is 'gritty' with sugar, mix a little bit longer. Add the egg yolks in, one at a time, until mixed in well. Next add the golden syrup and vanilla essence and beat until mixed in well.

Alternatively, fold in flour and cinnamon with the milk . Using a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until lightly peaked and add to the cake mixture (Be sure not to fold the mix too much as the egg whites will allow it to be fluffy and moist, and you want some air retained in the mix). Place in baking tin and cook in the oven for 40 minutes or until cake springs to the touch or a knife comes out clean.

Icing Ingredients

- 60 grams of butter

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 3/4 cup icing sugar

- 1/4 cup milk

Icing Method

Using an electric mixer, add melted butter and sugar and combine. Gradually add milk and icing sugar alternatively until icing is soft and fluffy. Icing is best spread soon after making.

Enjoy this recipe and tweak it with your own spices and icing. It is deliciously moist and rich and is served best with a cup of tea. Which is how I ate my piece.

Happy Thursday.

♥ Katie Lou

KL

Happy Wednesday

I visited my mums place today and spent the day there with my sister Kelly. It's our family home and my family has lived there all my life. We have these two beautiful autumn trees called Liquid Amber (or Liquidambar styraciflua I found out!) out the front of our house. The name fits the tree beautifully as every autumn the leaves turn from bright green, to red, to orange then to yellow and then die before coming back to life again. Our trees are just starting to turn, and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. 

Since I was visiting, I decided I would bake a treat to have as afternoon tea. Here is what I baked.  

Butter cake with Vanilla Icing Recipe

This butter cake recipe is so simple to make and will give you a moist, and beautiful looking cake.

Cake Ingredients                                                                Difficulty: Easy

- 250 grams butter, softened                                                Cooking time: 1 hour

- 1 cup caster sugar                                                             Servings: 12 

- 2 tsp vanilla essence - 3 eggs

- 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour

- 2/3 cup milk

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease and line an 8cm-deep, 19-20cm based square cake pan with baking paper. (This is the pan I used and gave me the height in the picture below. If you don't have a pan like this, then using a different shaped or sized pan will simply result in a different sized cake so it's no big deal!)

Using an electric mixer, cream your butter, caster sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add your eggs, one at a time, beating them until combined. Add half the flour and combine. Now add half the milk, also beating until combined. Repeat this process with the remaining flour and milk.

Spread your mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow your cake to stand in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once the cake is completely cool, prepare the vanilla icing.

Icing Ingredients

- 200 grams butter or margarine, at room temperature

- 1 1/4 cups of icing sugar, sifted

- 1 tsp of vanilla essence or 1 vanilla pods seeds

Icing Method

Using an electric mixer, beat the ingredients together for roughly 4 minutes or until light and perfectly fluffy.

I can happily say my cake didn't last longer than the day! I added a few mixed berries on top of mine to add the perfect amount of fruity tartness. De-lish!

Happy Wednesday everyone,

♥ Katie Lou

KL