On the eighth day of Solstice my Thelma made for me

Cake

A lot of things! I got up at 6am this morning (ugh) and made chocolate cake for my housemate's birthday. I made a double batch of the chocolate cake out of the EDC so I could make cupcakes for TheHusband as well, and it really wasn't a huge batch of cake. Which was odd given the huge amount of butter in it. It was a delicious cake though, with a simple ganache over the top (also from the EDC).

Biscuits

I then made biscuits. I used the chocolate chip recipe out the EDC but put 100g of seeds in with the sugar so that they got creamed in with the sugar and butter. I then added 100g of sultanas at the end and made do without chocolate chips, which I don't like much anyway. I did end up overprocessing the biscuits which had two effects - the butter started to melt so the texture was gross when handling them, and it made the biscuits almost shortbread in texture. Interesting.

Bread

I then put bread in to rise.

Bread recipe that's the best one so far
270g warm water
1 small palm sized collection of raw sugar
15g olive oil
Pinch of salt
500g bread mix, bread flour, flours
2tsp yeast

Assemble in that order in the bowl. Mix for 30 seconds at speed 4-5. Lock lid and knead for 2.5 minutes. I'm not sure if mine needs this long because it's an "ancient grains" mix so lower in gluten, but without this kneading it's like a brick. Leave it in the bowl until it peaks out of the top hole (or set aside in a warm spot to double in size, if you need the jug!). Lock lid and knead for another 2 minutes. Shape into a loaf and put into a cold oven, set to 200C, for 30 minutes or until baked (sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom). 

Vanilla sugar

and playdough
I packed up after mixing the dough, and went to the amazing My Kitchen Robot's house to make things and hang out with my mama tribe. I can hardly call it a "mothers group" when it's more of a tribe than a group. It's the best part of my week most weeks and this time we met at a house. I whipped up vanilla sugar (3 very dried out beans, 600g raw sugar, whizz up and voila! another gift done!) and then made faildough, which was made (a) with the same recipe (b) at the same time and (c) within metres of MKR's deliciously soft and doughy dough, and mine was like, well, putty. Nearly dried out putty. Though I did use different flour, and I used tartaric acid rather than cream of tartar, so that's probably the reason. I'm going to make ornaments out of mine today I think.

Soup

After that, I whipped up soup for 8+ people in 20 minutes. I used the Moroccan Lentil soup but didn't have lentils so added a large tin of 4 bean mix and it was delicious!! It was nommed up with gusto by children and adults alike, and went well with the bread I made while the soup was souping.

So you can just see my car can't you - 3 bags of clothes for someone who's expecting a babe in the new year but didn't get to the clothes swap the other week, a jar of lemon butter to swap for eggs, my picnic basket with flour, food colouring, an onion, premeasured spices for the soup, a tin of beans, two of tomatoes, bits and pieces, Thelma all gravid with proving dough, my bag, my camera, Thermobaby's acoutrement (she travels light though), a sling or two, hat, water bottle etc etc. It might have looked like I'd left home and was moving in.

At least I brought food!

Though TheHusband tells me that when he got home and there was no wife, no babe, and no Thelma - he momentarily thought the worst! That I'd left home and taken all that was important with him ;).

The view, sounds and energy of two dueling Thermomixes on My Kitchen Robot's benchtop was a sight to behold though. It was momentarily confusing to hear one working away, and the other chiming completeness, and both MKR and I had confused looks because we could hear/see our own working but were compelled to answer the chime as well! Mr MKR wasn't sure what to make of it all though when he got home, but I think seeing a happy MKR and fed people made sense to him.

Cake! Stunning cake! Lemon poppyseed in this case.

I made a cake this morning before an Australian Breastfeeding Association meeting. I made a lemon-poppyseed cake (thin-skinned lemons with lots of juice) which was delicious and still warm when I got to the meeting. I didn't make the icing in the Tmx but it was so.good. that I licked the bowl out.

Lemon-poppyseed cake
Rind of one lemon - dry it on paper towel so it doesn't just stick to the edges
250g raw sugar
1/2tsp of the best vanilla extract you can get your hands on
175g butter
4 bantam eggs and 1 humungous egg (or else 3 normal-sized eggs)
60g milk
Juice of the lemon
250g selfraising flour
30g poppyseeds
A pinch of cinnamon

Icing
75g white chocolate dots
1T sour cream
A drop or two of vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 175C. Spray a cake tin - I used a circular one from Ikea with hearts on it! Place the rind and sugar in the Tmx and process for 5-10 seconds at speed 7. Add the butter and eggs and process for 15 seconds at speed 6 if the butter is straight out of the fridge. You should cut it into small pieces if this is the case so it processes easily. Add the juice by squeezing the lemon onto the top of the Tmx lid when the MC is in place - this catches the seeds! Sweep the seeds off before you open the lid though. Add the flour and cinnamon, and mix for 30 seconds at speed 4. Add the poppyseeds and mix for an extra few seconds to incorporate. Pour into cake tin and bake for 45 minutes. Check that it's cooked then cool before icing.

To make the icing - melt the buttons in the microwave (takes about a minute). Add the sour cream and the vanilla, stir well and drizzle over the cooled cake. I did it over still-warm cake and it was fine.

This was inspired by the EDC book but is not quite the same as I'd heard the crumb wasn't particularly fabulous with that recipe (it used plain flour and baking powder, and I also adjusted the process to reduce the speed as the recipe goes on).

Keeps for a few days if it lasts that long. Lem