things are looking up!

i had a great day shopping for appliances yesterday. i bought not just a new oven but a new cooktop, rangehood and a dishwasher! so no excuses soon. in a couple of weeks i should have them delivered and a week or so after that installed with any luck. I won't know myself! a kitchen that works as it should and helps me clean up afterwards!!
i dropped my aunt off at gold coast airport at 7am this morning and then whizzed back to brisbane for a lovely breakfast in the park at toowong. emily brought freshly cooked coconut and cinnamon bread, warm with butter! yum! and we had other pastries, coffee, juice and champagne! very nice way to spend the first couple of hours of the day.

Week 3 - Double choc chip brownies

still don't have a new oven but i made double choc chip brownies last night just because. They turned out well, a little crispy on the outside an a bit gooey on the inside. but as per usual they didn't rise all that well in my less than perfect oven. i haven't put photos up because they aren't from Nigella's book, the recipe is from a workmate. i might copy it below because its pretty easy and they are very yummy. Hope to go oven and cooktop shopping next weekend, last weekend of the specials so have to take the plunge. 

80g butter, melted

40g cocoa

100g caster sugar

40g brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

60g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

100g milk chocolate choc chips

1. preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line a 20x30cm shallow baking tin. 

2. Melt the butter. Remove from heat and stir in cocoa, sugars and lightly beaten eggs.

3.Sift the flour and baking powder directly into the saucepan and mix well to remove  lumps.

4. Stir through chocolate chips and pour mixture into tin.

5. Bake for 30 mins

6. Leave in tin till cool then cut into squares.

Week 2 - peanut butter and snickers muffins

Week 2 started off well, easy enough recipe and muffins are hard to stuff up right? welcome to my nightmare. They look all right from the outside, a bit flat but not too bad. But...burnt on the bottom, dry on the edges and sodden in the middle. I just can't win. I hate my oven.

 

I have decided to cease and desist further attempts at baking until i have  a new oven. I went looking today and think i know what i want. Hopefully within a couple of weeks i will have a new oven in place and be able to return to this project. Probably should have thought about this a bit more before i took it on...not much of a forward planner really. Which is a bit of an issue as a Project Manager...

Week 1 - Butterscotch Layer Cake

I love butterscotch caramel, sticky, gooey, luscious of texture and taste. a cake separated by caramel sounds too good to be true. and i have the perfect reason to cook such a large yummy cake, show day holiday this coming week which means a picnic in the park with friends. they get to enjoy the fruits of my first goddess labour.

11 August.
ok so my first attempt  has been completed with mixed results. doesn't look quite as spectacular as Nigella's but  tastes good!

Nigella's cake

The Beginning

inspiration is a funny thing, it can encourage you to climb to the top of a mountain or, as in my case start a blog. thanks to Nigella and Julie i am inspired to start a year long challenge. A year in the life of a domestic goddess. Now thats not stating that i believe myself to be one, in fact i have spent most of my life being reasonably baking challenged. Its all a bit too scientific, you can't just throw things in and hope they turn out like i tend to do with my savoury cooking. Baking involves a bit of careful measuring and ensuring the right type of product, the difference between self raising and plain flours is vast!

So here i am, armed with my brand new cookbook thanks to a sale at Borders. Nigella Lawson's "How to be a domestic goddess". She has some wise words that woman, 'sometimes thats the best we can manage, but at other times we don't want to feel  like a post-modern, post feminist, overstretched woman but, rather, a domestic goddess, trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking pie in our languorous wake.'

Oh and one other thing before i start this scientific journey of discovery. I have an oven that is either on or off, no thermastat to speak of. Just to add a little interest to the venture.