Busy Bee Cafe

INGREDIENTS

175g butter at room temprature
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
250g self-raising flour
200g glaced cherries
55g ground almonds
1 lemon zest
3tbsp milk

1. > Preheat oven at 175C (gas mark 4)
2. > Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. > Beat in one egg at a time, adding one tbsp of flour in between to stop the mixture from crudling.
4. > Fold in the remaining flour and add glaced cherries, ground almonds, lemon zest and milk.
5. > Pour the mixture into a cake pan and smooth the top.
6. > Put it in the middle of the oven and let it rise nicely until golden brown and the skewer pierced into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
7. > Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

yati’s tip: I usually slice the cherries in half and mix it with the ground almonds before folding them into the mixture. This tends to stop the cherries from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

no mouse was harmed in making this image… it’s all in my head!

23 June 2009

Just a scrap watercolour painting of what was in my head… and what I wished for at that point of the day

I love Farmers’ Markets. I love walking around finding fresh ingredients straight from the farm.

I love eggs.

And this egg is worth the wait (and weight).

Everytime I go to Borough Market, I keep an eye for an ostrich egg. They don’t lay eggs when it’s too cold and most of the time they ‘ostrich meat’ stall sells the shell but seldom is there a fresh egg.

But yesterday was my lucky day! I got my fresh ostrich egg!!

What will I do with it? Who cares! I got my egg and if I do cook it, it will serve at least 8 people! Just look at the size of it!

photo taken by Julesd

Don’t ask why this image came to my head…

But then… J loves elephants so this one is for you baby xxx

Does this design exist anywhere? I’ve found loads of other animal booties but not bees

One medium that I really can’t get along with is watercolour. I can’t seem to manipulate it like acrylic or oil… so I’ve decided that this is the medium that I should really practice on just to punish myself. I’ve added colour to my previous pencil drawing of a butterfly unfolding itself for it’s pupa… and yes, I need to practice more.