It's Spring in My Garden

Springtime is lovely. (Yes, it's Springtime in Australia!) I for one am not fond of the winter, so I'm always glad when Spring comes. My roses in the front garden are blooming earlier than the back ones as usual. The back garden's roses are budding. Some others are starting to bloom. Gertrude Jekyl (a David Austin rose) Heritage (also David Austin) Gold Bunny (a Floribunda) Another Gertrude Jekyl I can tell the bees, butterflies and the ladybirds are having so much fun, they always come and keep me company when I'm in the garden. Everytime I've done some gardening, I would think I should do it more often or do it everyday, but the busy-ness of life often keeps me away from the garden. Today I'm joining Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home.

Tea Time Strawberry Gateau

Hi, there, how are you all? Last Friday was a windy day here, and since gardening was not a practical thing to do then; I decided to stay indoors and do something I would enjoy doing. This spot where I look out of my kitchen window kept saying "Strawberries" to me. Strawberries have been in season and they are everywhere, including in my fridge. So why not make a strawberry cake. I remembered seeing this recipe in a British Country Homes and Interiors magazine, I found it in the May 2008 issue, yay! I checked the ingredients, yes, I had all of them on hand except the hazelnuts. However, I had flaked almonds in the freezer, so I would use them instead. This recipe is super easy to make, but looks impressive. I think the most fiddly and time consuming part was to stick those flaked almonds on the cream on the side of the cake, and even that was honestly not really that difficult! So there you go, everything else was simply easy as pie.
STRAWBERRY GATEAU serves 8-10
Ingredients: 225g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
225g caster sugar (fine baker's sugar)
225g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk 20 strawberries
5 tbsp strawberry jam
300 ml whipping cream Flaked almonds, toasted
Icing sugar, to dust
"Flake" chocolate broken up or flowers to decorate.
(1) Preheat oven to 190C. Lightly grease and flour two 20cm sandwich tins. (2) Put the butter, caster sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla and milk into a bowl and beat until smooth. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 20 minutes untio the sponge is golden and springs back to the touch. (3) Reserve 10 (I used 12) strawberries and roughly chop the rest. Invert one cake on a plate, spread with jam and scatter with chopped fruit. (I stewed my chopped strawberries in a saucepan for a few minutes with some sugar) Top with the second cake.(4) Whip the cream until stiff and thinly coat the sides of the cake, press nuts into sides. (5) Pipe rosettes over the top of the cake and top with reserved strawberries. (In order to give it a more casual look, I didn't pipe the rosettes, I simply made 12 mounds of cream using a tablespoon) Place a whole straberry in the centre of the mounds of cream and sprinkle broken up "Flake" chocolate in the middle. Dust straberries with icing sugar. Voila, Strawberry Gateau! I rested the glass cake plate on top of a glass drink goblet and made it an elegant pedestal cake stand. Now let's serve the cake with some tea or coffee. Here, do not be in a haste, one slice at a time please. All gobbled up in three minutes! Mmm! So superb and moist!!!! Another one please.............. Another window outlook Have a lovely week with a wonderful outlook.

Spring Buzz In My Garden

Many have asked me how it could be Springtime here when their world is all Fall and Winter approaching. The answer is we live on a globe that has two hemispheres, that's why. So it's Spring in the Southern Hemisphere, and Autumn in the N0rth. Australia where I live happens to be in the Southern Hemisphere. These pictures of my garden (below) were taken last week. And these below were taken today. It's amazing how much difference one week makes. Spring really brings buzzing new life, doesn't it? Hope you enjoyed these garden pictures, enjoy your season, wherever you are.

Today I love..............

Hi, dear friends, hope your week has been splendid. The weather here for us has been absolutely fantabulous, Spring has sprung, the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing and soon roses will be a-bloomin. Even though Alyssums are not Queen of Flowers like roses, I love them for their simplicity and loveliness. They look gorgeous (and innocent) casually placed in glass jars. I love the scent of lavender plants wafting in the breeze in my garden, can't get enough of it. Remember this chair? Maybe you don't. I have two of those randomly placed in our home. They were given to us, we use them for extra guests when we need them, or I use them for styling a lot of the times. I painted and upholstered them years ago, but they've started to look a bit tired, so I gave them a makeover, with a coat of new paint. Ta da, here it is........... ............in its grey glory, with navy ticking fabric for its seat. I think it's given it a breath of fresh and smart air, don't you think? I got that blue "Keep Calm and Carry On" tea towel for free........ It came with the latest issue of Country Style magazine, which is full of eye-candies as usual. I also got the Women's Weekly Afternoon Tea cookbook. For someone who loves baking and lovely pictures, it was simply too hard to resist the page after page of loveliness. I've included a few sneak peeks, I'm sure you'll love them. It was not only food for the tummy, It was a feast for the eyes, all the vessels used for the yummies were downright awesome. I was pretty inspired to have an afternoon tea after all that for sure. It was hard to do what the following tea towel says to do. (wink)