Fynbos walks and cupcakes.

A wintery chill is in the air. But the wind died down and the sun came out on the weekend so we went for a hike up the Fynbos Walk.

We walked and talked

and climbed and saw some stunning flowers and had a picnic and oohed and aaahed at the magnificent views…

And jumped off boulders like Big Boys.

…well, one incredibly happy body did….

Today, with thanks to the inspiration from Ravishing Rayne, I embarked on making Decadent Cupcake for a Birthday Party order. I first followed the recipe given…but unfortunately for some reason or other they tasted a bit like washing powder(?) so the chickens had an interesting second breakfast. Then I adapted my own recipe (secret one, not telling) and the results were as follows:

<<<cupcakes with creamcheese icing and cranberry and edible glitter decorations     ****       ***Wheat-free rose cupcakes with pink chocolate icing and crystalized lavendar decorations>>>>>>

And Wheat-free chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla centre, choc ganache topping and mint choc ball to decorate.

And here they all are…….

A cluster of cupcakes?

A snuggle of cupcakes?

A comfort of cupcakes?

Well whatever it is, its time for tea!

Bye bye for now…Sweet dreams!

The best aubergine recipe and a garden club visit

I have been asked a couple of times for this recipe so I thought I’d be nice and share it with you too.

You will need:

Two organic aubergines …(these babies came from our garden)

And two free range eggs (thank chicken # 2 & 3) and a plate with seasoned flour ( I used a mix of rye and corn flour…wheat-free and all that)

• Crack the eggs and mix them in a bowl.
• Slice the aubergines up and salt them so they sweat a bit..
• then heat some oil in a pan on medium-high heat.
• Dip slices first in the egg and then in the flour and pop in the pan…like so:

• Let it gently brown on both side and then drain on absorbent paper.

Viola!

Deliciousness in minutes. Even those who don’t normally like aubergines will love these.

This week we had another garden club visit. They had a talk and 10% discount on the retail plants and relaxed in the tea garden in between.

It was drizzling a bit, that’s why one lady has a plastic packet on her head.

Then we fed them

Chocolate

Decadence

Cake

and

Awesome

Carrot

Cake

both

Wheat-free of course.

The Home/Tuise photographer and creative designer came over again to shoot the exterior of the Ecolodge and the interior of our bedroom. Apparently we have a Bohemian/Eclectic style happening. Cute label for secondhand loves! So don’t forget to buy the September issue of Home/Tuis magazine because that’s when the Ecolodge will feature in it…its their Eco-edition.

Thats a while off, in the meantime, this weekend we will have the honour of Petra Van de Casteele from Country Life magazine and her family visiting us in the Ecolodge for the weekend. She wrote ‘Celebrating Fynbos’ amoungst other magical articles and books. Nervously wondering what to serve them at the tea garden after they go on a guided fynbos walk. Maybe scones, a variety of  indigenous flower jams and fynbos tea? Mmmm.

As Kingoftheplayground would say: ” I better get crackalacking outta here”and go hunt for flowers.

Pecan & white chocolate cake

This recipe is for my sister. Sister # 2 cause she asked nicely. More and more people are gluten intolerant and find it hard to find any wheat-free treats that are in the pastry/bakery section. Go on…try this. Go buy a wheat-free something in the shops…did you enjoy it? No. Did you feel satisfied afterwards? No, cause it probably tasted like a loo roll with carob on it.

Here’s what we had last night for Bossladys birthday: A wheat-free Pecan and white chocolate cake.

Taskmaster is gluten intolerant so everything I make is minus wheat. Sounds hard, but really simple – Just Substitute.

Wheat flour is really bad and bleached and etc, blah blah blah anyway, so just use rice/millet/quinoa/corn/almond/chickpea/rye(not gluten-free) potato/and the list goes on/ flour instead.

Recipe for Pecan & white chocolate cake:

• Preheat oven to 180 deg cel.
• In mixing bowl cream:

250g butter

250g sugar

• Add

3 eggs

• Mix well. Add

1 tsp vanilla/caramel essence

290g rice/rye/millet flour or mixture of all for best results

100g ground pecans

3 tsp baking powder

185ml milk/cream/buttermilk

Mix untill combined.

Pour into greased baking tin and bake for +- 40 mins or untill knife comes out clean.

Topping for the cake:

handful of white chocolate

1 Tbs butter

• Melt over a low heat on the stove. Pour evenly over the top of the cooled cake. Let it set.

Icing:

100g butter

2 tbs cream

2.5 cups sifted icing sugar

1 tbs vanilla essence

drop of milk

• Cream all ingredients together and ice cake.

1 packet of flaked almonds

• Press the flakes around the side of the cake to decorate.

So, there we go. Tea anyone?

Heres a photo to brighten up your day…Kingoftheplayground – sweet deprived child of the bush – after a homemade chocolate escaped off the table….hmmmm.

Sunny daze

Another fantastic day.

Took a German navy sailor for a guided walk. Hehe I led him up the garden path. No, not actually. After tea in the tea garden with his two lady friends, we had the luck of finding

A shy Geometric  Tortoise,  a flaming red Paintbrush Lily in the middle of the path, lots of orange parasite plants (Dodder) looking like telephone wire suffocating the plants ( Apparently, this means the suffering bush is ready for a burn) the reservoir, termite hills, beautiful Helychrisum flowering bush and the windmills. The wind was kind, the sun was hot. Thank goodness for my hat!

Later I heard my 2 and a half-year old boy, crying halfway down the path.

“Why are you crying?”

“I’m so, so sad!”

“Oh why? What happened?”

“I did step on a sharp stone. But I do want to go down there and make mud pies in the Tea Garden.” weep weep.

Pick him up, carry him back up the path and sense someone behind me. Its Nootnoot the kitten, followed by Pollox the  dog, followed by three chickens running to keep up. The word Circus leaps to mind…

Today I made      Wheat-free  Cupcakes                                                               and                      Cake                        for the Tea GardenAnd homemade chocolate                                                        and                                                    seeds for sprouting

Spot the odd one out?

Meanwhile, work of a different sort was in action….Taskmaster and the Lovely Lutho were hammers a blazing (my poor aching head) and renovations are going well. Note to self: Book into relaxing spa holiday next time renovations happens!

To make temporary space, these toys and one small happy boy looked like this:

Recipe for Homemade melt-in-the-mouth Chocolate:

5 tbsp coconut oil

5tbsp organic cacao powder

5 tbsp ground nuts (I used pecans)

2 tbsp icing sugar/honey

pinch of salt

Method:  1.Melt oil in a pot on a low heat on the stove. 2.Remove from heat. 3.Add rest of the ingredients and mix well. 4.Spoon into silicon ice tray and leave to set in the freezer for a couple of hours. 5. Eat them all fast before anyone sees. …..Oh its Valentines day so 6. Eat with a loved one and share the bliss!

Bye bye for now.