Weekend activities

With all this cold weather, one of our dobermans, Gaia has become quite stiff and having trouble keeping warm - below is a photo of Gaia and DH keeping each other warm!!

Gaia with his new coat going for his walk - he loves the new coat as it is fleecy lined!  At least he will be easy to see in a fog!!  We now need to buy a second coat for Brenin, the second Doberman.


I haven't shared a photo of Ruby for sometime - here she is looking at the birds on the tree outside the kitchen window.  She wags her tail with excitement and makes little meow sounds - she just loves finding birds to watch.
Relaxing-Ruby knows how to do that!!


I made this card for my daughter-in-law (future) who is having her 22nd birthday today.



On the cooking front, I did quite a bit on the weekend including making this "Chocolate Miracle Cake" from Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog. It contains 1 cup of egg mayonnaise and is SO moist. And it doesn't taste anything like mayonnaise. I made mine in a brownie tin and it worked well.  I covered it with a dark chocolate fudge icing. I told the guys at work about the recipe and they were eager to test taste so I am taking some to work tomorrow.
Went French this week with the bread and made Pain de Campagne - it came out of the oven crusty, but lost the crustiness quite quickly, not sure why.  Perhaps the oven wasn't hot enough.  This one had to rise for 3 hours in total!  Tomorrow I'm making a Stilton and Bacon bread which the first part of the recipe (flour, water and yeast) sit in the fridge for 10-12 hours to ferment.  We are having it with pumpkin soup that is currently cooking in the slow cooker.

My garden is looking very sad at the  moment with no colours, except for these pansies. In the mornings after a heavy frost they are looking very sad and flat, but once the sun comes out they bounce back.




~oOo~

Comments

  1. I was wondering how that Miracle cake would be. So what adaptions if any did you make? I might have to print that one out if it is easy and workable to have in case of "emergency"!!!! =)
    love,
    Bets

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  2. Bets - I followed the recipe 100% and I used a whole egg mayo. The only differences was instead of baking the cake in 2 round tins, I used my brownie tin (square) and cooked it for the same amount of time as in the recipe. I didn't want to create a tall 2 layer cake as in the recipe. I tested the cake on three people (tomorrow the guys at work) and so far no one has identified the mayonnaise!! It was so moist which isn’t surprising as it contains 2 cups of liquid (milk and mayonnaise).

    My sons were fascinated by the use of mayonnaise instead of egg and oil.

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  3. That is a very different recipe... I would be afraid it would taste strange - you are very brave in your baking adventures! We made a "Golden butter cake" on the weekend, which had a cup of yoghurt in it and it was a REALLY good butter cake - more solid than other ones, but delicious! :)

    Love seeing the cards you're making - this one is beautiful!

    I've had bread come out of the oven crispy-crusted and then have the crust soften as it cools... not sure why or what to do about that. Maybe cook a little longer?? Let me know if you ever find an answer!

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  4. Clara, I made a Stilton and Bacon bread tonight for dinner (mixed the yeast, part flour and part water in morning and let it sit for 10 hours) and it has come out of the oven so crusty. I cooked the loaves at 200C which I think has something to do with it I think. This bread did taste a little different, so the fermenting of the yeast/water/flour does change the texture. Youngest son was very impressed with this loaf !!! Next time I will add far more cheese and bacon.

    Give the cake a go, you can't taste the mayo at all. I'm taking it to work tomorrow for some more tasters, will let you know what they think:)

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  5. Good to catch up on what you have been doing! Love the look of that cake! xxx

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  6. What pretty pictures. Your pets are cute and makes me miss our kitty.

    God bless,
    Mrs. Q

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  7. It is great to see such a variety of posts here and lovely photos. You really are a multi talented lady.

    Seeing Ruby brought a smile. It made me think of watching my grandbaby yesterday playing with the cat. Madison was piling little puzzle pieces on the kitty, while she lay patiently beside her. :-) The cat follows her around and lays down beside her whenever she stops crawling for a minute.

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  8. LOVE the photo of your husband and Gaia - it is priceless! And the little doggie coat is too cute.

    Its hard to imagine that you are cold now where you live and we are sweltering HOT here!

    Miss Ruby always makes me smile - and you can just send me a piece of that cake right now~~

    Vicki

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