Monthly Archives: March 2011

a new monkey hat

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Thankfully Little Monkey is still young enough to want to wear most things I put him in. I’m sure if I strapped a pancake to his head, secured it with a ribbon and it kept out the sun, he would still wear it.

I think…

Pancakes aside, but with this philosophy in mind, I started crocheting my first hat.

I had the wool, I had the hook, and I had the image of a lovely warm colourful number. A hat to keep small ears warm, with the little imp running around and looking  rather dashing in his new hat at the same time.

Now I just had to harness that imagery and put it into practise. Crochet and I were new friends, quite new friends. I was still practising and wasn’t quite sure how to make a hat rather than a… well, a pancake.

Now, how do I make it all go in again?…

Ah well, lets get cracking anyway.

Reclaimed wool from my mum, who in turn had reclaimed it from someone else. Stolen moments at the playground after school to crochet, and a week and a half later Little Monkey can now wear his new pancake… I mean hat.

an unattractive tasty plum cake

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I knew in my mind the sort of cake I wanted to make. Not too sweet, using half plums, and perhaps a little almond meal in there. Could  I find a recipe within my collection that was even remotely like it, no. Not a whisker. I didn’t want to trawl the internet, so it was back to hack baking. I’m certainly no stranger there.

Springform pan greased and lined with parchment paper on the bottom. Cutting 5 plums in half, lining them up round side down and then sprinkled with a tablespoon of sugar.

In a mixing bowl add,

150gms softened butter

1 cup raw sugar (approx 140gms)

cream together, add

2 beaten eggs

1 tps cinnamon

1 cup natural yogurt (approx 250mls)

1 cup almond meal (approx 100gms)

1 cup s/r flour (approx 150gms)

Spoon mixture on top of plum halves and bake at 180C for approximately 1hour 15mins.

Now let’s address the elephant in the room. It doesn’t look pretty. It really doesn’t. I couldn’t photograph its prettier angle, as there was no prettier angle. The food stylist was clearly out for a long lunch. It is what it is, an unattractive tasty plum cake.

That’s ok though, these things happen in every day cooking.

* Edit. I forgot one litttttle thing. I flipped the cake. So the bottom is now on the top. If you would like to see how an unflipped cake looks, read on down in the comments and you will see Keri’s superb looking cake she made.