Tuesday's gone...

...gone so long she's almost back again.
It seems my sister and I have a lot in common...looks...talent...............................love of pies.......procrastination...

Last Tuesday we had a baking day in Kate's new kitchen..styley but a little small on bench space...still we managed to come up with a Rhubarb Meringue Pie (mmmm...pie) -with a layer of chocolate thrown in of course-; and a couple of old favourites...Ginger Cake for Phil, and the best ever (truly) Chocolate Caramel Slice, which we've been making since about 1992 when our Dad had a cafe in Milford...these days I like to double the caramel though..sweet sweet sweet.

The pie was basically a Lemon Meringue Pie using rhubarb juice instead of lemon, and because there was a block of chocolate with no other purpose, we melted it down and lined the pastry with a rather hefty layer of the stuff. Kate whipped up a fantastically light and glossy meringue topping..the result was a slightly sloppy, ridiculously sweet, but , in my humble opinion, still pretty damn tasty, pie. (mmmmmm...pie).

 

Okay, so I am really bad at sorting the photos into a beautiful display, I'll sort it out one day, but right now i just don't have the patience. 

Anyway, meanwhile, Juno was either sleeping or just chilling with her bottle, and Rory was on the deck making cupcakes of her own..

 

The ginger cake is fairly simple to make, it's a melt in the pot, stir in the flour, slow bake kind of cake...it can be jazzed up with the addition of pears and/or icing..but this time I left it unadorned, and even though i thought it was slightly overcooked (my preference is always to lean towards raw , not dry), the Light-Thornleys seemed to make a quick demolition job, which i take to mean cake success. Yay. That really is the best part about baking...having people enjoy your food.

As for the chocolate caramel slice...thankfully i left half at Kate's house...once I start eating this, I find it very hard to stop. It was quite soft (the fear of overcooking strikes again..) but I have to say i think i prefer it that way .although perhaps the base could be a bit thicker to support that extra caramel-ly filling... I get such a thrill just looking at the composition of the things we bake too...the colours, the thickness, the whiteness of the meringue, the perfect roundness of a cake...oh..endless raptures

And so the end results:

A cheeky slice of pie...

Cake on a plate

                                                       

Oh caramel heaven....

Clearly when it comes to posting photos, I have no clue. The blog seems to have a mind of it's own where placement of pictures is concerned..

Well. Almost a week late but there it is..the results of a productive day in the kitchen, ignoring my own domestic duties at home. So much more fun.

On another note, because I always like to do what my big sister done, I will lead you here to a beautiful song, which I hadnt heard for awhile but last week, in desperation for some sound, I put an ancient mix tape into my car stereo and heard it again..a perfectly apt love song..and isn't she pretty?

 Which then got me listening to some Mazzy Star, so nineties, so sweet...... so scary how long ago this was!

xx Harriet .