Leaving, actually

It seems a strange time to say this, after abandoning this blog for so long and recently getting back into it. But I'm going to have to leave this blog, and we've started a new one. For reasons that I won't go into, I no longer feel safe posting on this blog. There are some people reading it who make me feel like my privacy is being violated. (Don't worry, if I don't know you in real life, then it isn't you.)

I won't post the link here, but I'll comment on the blogs of people who have commented on this blog recently, and on the blogs of anyone who comments on this blog. So if you have been reading our blog, but not commenting, and you want to keep reading (my self-esteem says there probably isn't anyone, but we can all dare to dream) I'd love it if you said hello here, and let us know that you are reading.

A return and cinnamon buns

Wow, it's been ages since either of us posted. I guess we've both been busy, me with my HSC and Coppe with finishing a Bachelor's Degree and starting a Master's... Also, I haven't really felt like cooking anything lately. Stress? Probably. It's also hard to cook when you haven't got your own kitchen and your family are all carnivores.

So I apologise for neglecting this blog. Hopefully some people will still be around to read it.

I'm thinking of making it invite-only, but we'll see.

Anyway, I'm on holidays at the moment (well I was, my exams start in a few days) and I finally felt like baking something today. So I made Cinnamon buns. This sort of bread is a favourite of mine, through I don't get to eat them much. Just some nice sweet bread, with some spices, maybe some fruit, and, if I'm feeling decadent, some gooey sickly-sweet icing.


I chose a different recipe this time. One that could be made in a bread-machine (I have a tight schedule of procrastination to maintain) and was simple in terms of ingredients. I found this recipe on Recipezaar. It's not vegan, but was pretty easy to convert.

I just replaced the one egg with a few spoons of soy yogurt, and the butter with dairy-free butter.

The dough was really nice to work with, all soft, fluffy and pale. I think the bread maker really improved it compared to my last attempt... I can't beat a machine when it comes to kneading and rising. They baked in 20mins for me, but they were almost touching the top of the oven, so.


I would say this is one of the easiest, and tastiest bread recipes I have ever made. The icing is so simple, and even odd-shaped blobs with a spoon decorate the buns up nicely. They're also really tasty!

Walnut-Pecan Custart Caramel Chocolate Slice Ice Cream

Yes, it is a long name.

This is basically a failed baking attempt that turned out surprisingly delicious.


One day when I was in Holland, I decided that I wanted to make a slice. I had brought over a new square silicone pan and I wanted to use it. Also, I couldn't find a recipe I wanted to use so I made it up. I made a walnut-pecan crust based on a recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking. I then blended together silken tofu and some vanilla custard. I then made caramel sauce based on the recipe from A Vegan Ice-Cream Paradise. I put the caramel sauce over the crust. Then I poured in the custard. I refrigerated this overnight. Unfortunately it had not set.

Figuring that I may as well continue regardless, I tried to spread out some melted fair-trade chocolate over the top. This didn't really work. The chocolate sunk into the custard and made swirly patterns.

We then tried to eat some but it didn't really work, because the custard had not set at all (funny, that).

So I had a flash of brilliance and froze it! It took hours of frequent whisking, but the end result was so good.


Seriously. This stuff was delicious. It had chunks of walnut-pecan crust and chocolate, and the caramel sort of mixed with the custard. It was smooth, gooey and so so tasty.

Like most homemade ice-cream, it got a little hard in the freezer but that's unavoidable. We just had to leave it to sit for a while.

I'd say this was best on the night it became ice-cream, as it hadn't been able to freeze solid yet.

Focacce and Mint-Onion Pita Bread

One of my favourite things to do is make bread. Kneading dough is lots of fun and bread that rises properly makes me feel all competent. It's easy to steal the credit off yeast.

Anyways, Adele brought over V'Con and I've been meaning to give the rosemary focaccia recipe a try, so I made a focacce.

It came out really well. The recipe does need an infusion of flavour to really come out well, so I used every Italian herb I could get my hands on, some olives and sundried tomatoes.


I used plain bread flour, which makes it really light and airy.

Another recipe I've been working with recently is a mint-onion pita bread recipe. It's pretty simple. Stir together some mint leaves, coriander, cumin, oil and chopped onion. You can use any pita bread recipe you want. Just divide the dough into balls, roll them out and spread the mint mixture over it.

We're Still Alive!

We haven't posted in ages, we're sorry! Adele spent most of April in Holland and we sort of lost track of the fact that we aren't the only people in the world.

We did make tons of stuff, though. Adele made the most delicious pecan walnut slice ice cream and I mastered focaccia. So yeah, that and more is coming up!

A new book, cupcakes and cup-a-cakes

A couple of days ago I found a giant package on the table in the kitchen. It was wrapped in bubble wrap, and looked pretty worse for wear. Intrigued, I looked closer. It was for me!

Luckily it survived the shipping, because the box was pretty dented. It's pretty cool: The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg. It's massively huge and heavy.

Coppe is such a good boyfriend.

Then today I found another package on the table in the kitchen. Yet again, for me! I opened it and found a set of cup-a-cakes! I couldn't help but giggle. They are so useless and yet so wonderful.

So obviously I had to use them, because they're so cute. I made a coffee spice cake from the book, the one cake recipe that happened to be vegan. I replaced most of the cup of oil with apple puree, and the raisins with chocolate chips. They're sort of healthy...


I think they turned out pretty well. Not sure I cooked them long enough... I was guessing because the recipe was for a full cake. But the one I tried tasted nice. I made a mocha ganache for the top - a bit too sweet for my liking, I added too much icing sugar. So I sprinkled some cinnamon over some, to offset the sweetness. It's only a little bit anyway, and the cakes themselves don't have much sugar.

5 Facts

Amid all the Easter baking (I have something new in the oven again right now), we got tagged for a meme by Vegan Dad (mostly, I suspect, because he was afraid of tagging Isa!). Still, woo! Our first meme.

Anyway, the idea is to share 5 new things about yourself. Here I go.

1. I am a linguistics geek. Syntax is hot. I study it and I'm involved in proper linguistic research (I was asked for this last year, which is very cool, because I don't even have a Bachelor's degree yet). So yes, I do 'speriments. WITH KIDS.

2. I love politics and I am an active member of the Young Greens. I'm the chairman of the Utrecht group. We do a lot of fun stuff. We're planning something involving penguin suits and green paint at the moment.

3. I draw flowers and penguins during classes. Here's a drawing of a penguin chasing a butterfly:


4. I have a British accent. I went to a bilingual high school, where half my classes were in English, and I've gone on to study English. Because of this and because of talking to Adele frequently, all traces of Dutchness have been completely eroded away. It's kinda weird.

5. I wear apple stickers on my hands. I don't know why, I've done it for years. I think it's pretty.

I'm going to tag (in alphabetical order): Bonnie, Chelsea and Josh, Mihl, Cristy and Paul (and Lily) and Romina.