This time of the year is always awesome! There is just a certain something in the air that makes you feel instantly at ease with the world. I love December, I love all the Christmas hype and anticipation leading up to the day. I’m also one of those people that kind of goes overboard on the present front. I feel that there are only a few occasions during the year that you can 100% do that and for me, it’s Christmas and birthdays.
I can’t tell you how often during the day I feel like a fat piece of chocolate cake! I think anyone who hangs out with me a lot probably hears me say this at least once a week. There is just something about a fresh, homemade slice of cake that is pillowy soft and chocolatey that just makes me so happy.
I’ve got to be honest though, I don’t often go to a coffee shop or restaurant and find a good piece of chocolate cake, so more often than not I just land up taking these cravings into my own hands. So when I discover a new recipe that requires minimal effort, ingredients and time and yields a fat piece of yummy homemade chocolate cake, I’m over the moon and this weekend I added another one of them to my list of go-to-recipes and it’s for this One Bowl Chocolate Cake with Velvety Chocolate Icing.
A while back I asked you if you would like me to share my really simple recipe for my Lemon Cream, Prawn and Leek Pasta and a lot of you said ‘yes please’ and I’m so glad you did! Once you’ve made this dish you will be making it again and again, not only because of the minimal amount of time you will spend in the kitchen, but also because unlike every over-priced prawn pasta you will get in a restaurant, this dish will guarantee you a mouth-full of lemony prawn deliciousness every time your fork goes in for more!
You know the kind of recipes that get passed down to you by a family member and you know that it’s going to be awesome because they have been making it for years and years? Well, this is one of those recipes and one of those cakes that will have you coming back for thirds, I kid you not. This cake recipe is from my Thea Sophie (Thea means Aunty in Greek) and I’m not sure what she calls it, but I refer to it as Thea Sophie’s Orange Bundt Cake That Will Have You Getting Up In The Middle Of The Night To Have Another Slice. Ok, so the name is a bit long but I’m telling you now that if you make it, it will become a family favourite that you will revisit time and time again.
First of all Happy Heritage Day, everyone 🙂 Today seeing as I’m sure a lot of people are going to be taking advantage of the awesome weather and perhaps have a braai I thought I’d share a recipe for good old-fashioned South African Roosterkoek. Which to anyone who has never heard of them before is a bread/bun that is cooked on a grid over a hot braai.
This recipe forms part of my Royal Baking Powder Series and requires probably the least amount of ingredients so far! I’m talking six ingredients all of which I’m dead sure are sitting in your pantry right now. So if you’ve planned a braai for later today I think you should add these to your menu, they are nice and crusty on the outside with a bit of a smokey char and soft on the inside and they go so well with anything really! Steak and salsa verde, boerewors, apricot jam and cheese, onion marmalade or even just plain glorious salted butter!
I’m actually going to include a nice and simple recipe for a sticky Caramelised Onion Marmalade too, just in case you’re feeling like adding another handmade element to your meal today.
Did you know that today is National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day? If you didn’t, don’t worry neither did I but I figured, hey it’s not such a bad day to celebrate especially if it means that you get to stuff your face with some of the best things on this planet. I’m talking pecan nuts and chocolate! Man, I love pecan nuts there is just something about this specific ingredient but that just makes any biscuit, cake, ice-cream, sweet, nougat etc taste awesome! Wouldn’t you agree? They’re just so warm and toasty and this cake that I’m about to share with you will pretty much make you feel exactly that, warm, toasty and amped that your face and stomach is full of soft spongy delicious cake. Damn it I love cake. I do. I love it like ants love a picnic basket, lightening loves ugly thatched roofs and bears love unsuspecting hikers. Hopefully, you get where I’m going with this.
Annnyyywwaaayy for today I thought that I’d put my own spin on a Chocolate Pecan Nut Pie and instead make a Pecan Nut, Chocolate and Maple Syrup Layer Cake because, one I didn’t feel like pie and two as I so creatively and rather confusingly explained above, I love cake. So Pecan Nut, Chocolate and Maple Syrup Layer Cake it is!