26.

Last weekend was my 26th birthday.  Gosh, I'm getting old!  I had some friends round for lunch, and we ate and ate and ate.

I didn't manage to get any good pictures of my guests, but here's the cake..

It's Elizabeth David's chocolate almond torte.  I make it every year and it's never failed me!

To make it, you do this:

Preheat the oven to 375F (190C), and line a 20cm springform tin with baking paper.

Separate 4 room-temperature eggs, with the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another.

Melt 200g dark chocolate (the best you can get, and at least 70% cocoa solids) with 150g chopped unsalted butter in a stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Remove from heat and cool.

Beat the egg yolks and 100g caster sugar until pale and thick.  Beat in the melted chocolate/butter mixture and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Fold in 100g blanched almond meal.

In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy.  Add 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (I usually omit this, it's not really necessary) and continue whisking until soft peaks form.  Sprinkle in 50g caster sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form.  Fold about 1/4 of the whites into the chocolate batter to lighten it.  Quickly fold in the rest of the whites and mix only until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 45 to 50 minutes or until ready.  Remove and cool.  The cake will rise during baking but falls during cooling, leaving a crisp and cracked crust.  Once cool, run a spatula around the inside of the pan before undoing the tin.  Dust with icing sugar and serve with strawberries and thick double cream.

25.

I celebrated my 25th birthday a couple of weeks ago. It was an afternoon of sun, fun, food, and rude conversation. I had so much fun, actually, that I only took one picture the whole afternoon!



Here's Toby in my backyard. Please excuse my underwear on the line.

Toby, Kristy, Bron and Liz are vegan, and Preethi is vegetarian, so I wanted to cater for them - after all, the rest of us could still eat the vegan food, and I wanted everyone to be able to eat everything! With that in mind, I whipped up a bunch of tasty treats - green pea puffs, baked artichoke dip and quinoa salad, all borrowed from Cindy and Michael).

My housemate made a killer guacamole, and I also made a chocolate-almond torte and an orange polenta cake. With a heap of gorgeous summer fruit and Kristy's cute cupcakes, we ate and ate and ate until we were stuffed full, and then kept eating!

And two weeks later I'm STILL working my way through the 650g of Belgian chocolate from Bronwyn and Simon....

I'm staying up late for a secret mission at approximately 0305 hours, so I'm cleaning my house and wasting time on the internet. Here's a cute thing I stole from Pip of Meet Me At Mike's.

This past week, here's what I've been...

Making: owl mittens.
Cooking: chocolate and almond torte for my mother's 50th birthday celebrations on Sunday.
Drinking: rotgut red wine with a new friend, and Cascade Green with an old friend.
Reading: Cafe Europa by Slavenka Drakulić - a series of essays on life in post-Communist Eastern Europe.
Wanting: a holiday.
Looking: at the pretty night sky in the street behind my house.
Playing: McDonald's Monopoly with my housemate.
Wasting: time sweating the small stuff.
Sewing: a missing button onto my work shirt.
Wishing: and hopin', Dusty Springfield style.
Waiting: to buy my own copy of Love Of Diagrams' new album Nowhere Forever.
Wondering: where the twists and turns of the past week's romantickal events are going to lead.
Loving: the photos of my friend Tim with a huge snake draped around his neck.
Hoping: I get into art school next year.
Marvelling: at the little things that tell me spring's JUST around the corner.
Needing: a small practise design in preparation for my big project that I'll be beginning soon.
Smelling: my cocoa-butter moisturiser. Yum!
Wearing: clothes from Australia, Brazil, Korea and Italy.
Following: Mamma Spaghetti on Twitter. She's hilarious!
Noticing: the snuffles that my cat is making right now in her sleep.
Knowing: that everything will be okay.
Thinking: about what I can say on the radio at 3 in the morning that will make any kind of sense.
Bookmarking: this recipe for dill pickles. About the only thing cucumbers are good for, in my opinion!
Giggling: with my BFF this afternoon.
Feeling: a bit ordinary, but enjoying the small details.