white rabbit

Two days ago, a friend and I visited the White Rabbit Gallery, a Sydney-based gallery featuring contemporary Chinese art. I never go to galleries but my friend studies fine art so I tagged along to keep her company. I had heard about the teahouse which was the gallery's cafe, and it definitely trumped every other stock-standard canteen I'd been to. We ordered some herbal tea and some chicken and corn dumplings.....authentic and delicious!!

The beautiful dumplings and flower tea

We then checked out the exhibition which was surprisingly interesting. As little as I know about art, I was truly able to appreciate it and I had one of the loveliest days I'd had in a while. The weather was perfect, the company was great, and the city was at its best.

XX

cleansing, cleaning, cooking

I just realised the work both 'cleansing' and 'cleaning' share the same prefix..... I now completely understand why, as today me and my sister took on the insurmountable task of cleaning the apartment. 5 hours later and both me and the apartment look and feel brand new! The smell of vanilla ambi pur is in the air and I truly believe I could take on the world, just knowing I have a beautiful smelling home to come back to when my plans fall apart.

A thought struck me last night. Today is the only day in all of history that it's ever going to be the 13th of April, 2011. Does anyone else find that sad? I guess you really have to live every day to the full, although I'm the first to admit I don't....

Now that the house is clean, the only thing left to do is bake..... This is a recipe for an apple cake with creme anglaise. It's absolutely scrumptious.

Apple Cake with Creme Anglaise:
(Serves 6-8, or in my case, 1)

Ingredients:
For the cake:

• 220g caster sugar
• 150g cream cheese
• 1 large egg and 3 egg whites
• 2 tbsp thickened cream
• 1.5 cups self-raising flour
• 2 dessert (not green) apples, peeled and sliced

For the creme anglaise:

• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 250 ml milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celsius 
2. Put the sugar, butter and cheese into the bow of an electric mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed and add the egg, then the egg whites. 
3. Turn off the machine and remove the bowl and stir in the cream and then fold in the flour to make a smooth paste. Fold in the apple slices. 
4. Pour into a greased 23 spring-form tin and cook for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
5. Make the creme anglaise by whisking the sugar, milk and vanilla essence well. Cook in the microwave on high for 2 mins. Remove and whisk, then cook for another minute. 
6. Whisk again - by now you should be able to see some bubbling around the side of the container - whisk well and return to the microwave. Cook at 30 second intervals until the sauce has thickened and repeat until done. This sauce does not go really thick. Stir to cool.
7. Remove the cake from the tin after it has cooled in it for 5 minutes. Slice and serve with the creme anglaise poured over. 

Hope you try and enjoy 

XXX

warning: highly addictive....

Flourless Chocolate Cake, recipe by Sophie Dahl


Ingredients:

• Butter for greasing
• 300g broken dark chocolate
• 225g caster sugar
• 180ml boiling water
• 225g salted butter, cubed
• 6 eggs, separated
• 1 tsp instant coffee powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

To top:

• Berries (choose your favourite - raspberries, blackberries, blueberries etc.)
• 200ml of crème fraiche

Method:

1. Grease and line the base of a solid-bottomed 23cm/9inch round cake tin (a springform is best)
2. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4
3. In a food processor pulse the chocolate and sugar until fine. Add the boiling water, butter, egg yolks, coffee powder and vanilla extract and pulse some more until combined. 
4. In a bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and then fold them into the chocolate mixture
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the hot oven for about 45 – 55 minutes. Remember, don't worry if cracks appear.
6. After you take the cake out of the oven it will collapse into itself quite a bit. This is ok – its not meant to be a proud cool cake, its meant to be slightly rough around the edges and the crème fraiche and berries will hid any dips and cracksLet the cake cool, then put it in the fridge for a few hours. When you are ready to serve, remove from the tin, smother the top in crème fraiche, then raspberries, strawberries and redcurrants (or blueberries, blackcurrants and blackberries). You can also grate some more chocolate on top or dust some icing sugar

and just remember, everything in moderation.....including moderation

These songs are beauties as well.... I'm on a youtube spree right now. Also loving The Tallest Man on Earth and Bombay Bicycle Club and their album Flaws.

This song is magical, and it was also free on iTunes, what a steal!

Dreams of colour and light

I've never been anywhere "developing" in the world. Well, I was born in Africa, but my experiences there are limited to a few pictures and no real memories... I have always dreamed to travelling to exotic places like Kathmandu, Marrakech, Columbia and Bali to name a few. I imagine them to be full of colour and light and life.

Having grown up in a good family, I've gone to private schools my whole life. Even though I was never one of the "well-off" girls, I had a fantastic upbringing and I have never really had any problems that you could call 'serious'. But being solely exposed to certain people and certain ways of life has completely limited my views and I really think I'm clueless when it comes to what the standard way of life is.That's why I'm hoping travelling will be able to shed some light.

I see people around me, and everyone I know seems to fit the same cookie-cutter mould: going to university to get some banal and futile degree which they rarely enjoy, getting a job, going out to the same crappy clubs as everyone else and seemingly wanting little more. I struggle to believe that that's all I should want, or what everyone else really wants. I crave adventure, and bizarre experiences which are completely out of the realms of my imagination! I think the world has so much to offer, and it's brimming with possibility, but most people don't seem to want to find out what's out there. I cannot comprehend how or why this is. I think places which apparently aren't quite as advanced as other nations, have so much rare beauty and knowledge to offer in the form of culture, history, cuisine, fashion, architecture, literature, practices, beliefs and much, much, much more.

This is Udaipur, where I will be visiting later this year. Have you seen anything more beautiful?

it's about time i wrote a new post

So I haven't quite gotten the hang of blogging, seeing as this is my second post in about 3 months... A fair bit has happened since last I wrote. I decided to go to university, and after I was accepted into the best journalism course in Sydney and possibly the country, I began a new chapter. It was a very small chapter. After about 3 weeks, give or take, I dropped out and vowed never to become a journalist. To be honest it was a bizarre choice seeing as I tend to avoid reading the papers, preferring literature, fiction and food instead. I had thought it would allow me to get straight into food, but to be a journalist (whether that be of the political, sports or scientific kind) you have to be a journalist at heart, and you should be able to write about anything. I very quickly discovered it was about finding the story, and it shouldn't matter which one. So now I'm working two jobs, both cafes (what joy), and I'm saving to go to India in a few months time.

My food exploration hasn't really been taking place but to be honest I don't have the time or money. I feel like I'm back in a rut, and as much as I hated the course I was doing at uni, I really was enjoying the whole experience of being out of my comfort zone and meeting tonnes of new and interesting people. In that respect I did grow, because I was forced to test my comforts. That's what I'm going to miss. Now I feel as if everyone is getting on and living their lives, and I'm just watching from the sidelines. Nothing of that much interest is happening in my life. I don't really feel that passionate or driven at the moment and that's scaring me. I want to feel a fire, and I want to want to work hard if that makes sense. Oh well, time will tell :)

I will do my best to keep you all posted, although I'm fairly sure no one is reading this!
xx