Tea and Cake

After weeks of trying to perfect my icing, I have finally done just that - and in the nick of time too. Monday, my mother and brother celebrated their birthday with a tea party, and I decided to do a bit of baking and cake decorating. I made the three cakes I have perfected so far, namely, carrot cake, lemon polenta cake, and the coffee chocolate cake. 

The carrot cake was iced using smooth cream cheese icing with loads of icing sugar, a bit of butter and

Carrot Cake

just a hint of vanilla. To decorate, I used roughly crushed walnuts (same as that used in the cake itself) and tumbled just under a handful of silver cake decorating balls.

Scrumptious Carrot Cake from the side

I thought of serving the Polenta cake un-iced, but then thought "why not decorating it in the spirit of the

Lemon Polenta

occasion". So a lemon flavoured butter icing was in order. This time I even tried my hand at writing - i have to say it doesn't look too bad. To make the lettering stand out the silver ball decorations were tumbled onto the surface before lettering.

Happy Birthday to you.....

I have to say the coffee chocolate cake was very rich and dark - but delicious none-the less. The letter-

"MOM & TOM"

ing didn't come out too well, I used white chocolate and dark chocolate decorations on the base, which didn't really help with reading. Anyway, next time I know what I shall do....

Dark Coffee Chocolate Cake

So I'm at a loss as to which recipe I should try out next. Leave me a comment with suggestions of something I should try.......

Independence Anniversary & New Banknotes Launch

On Wednesday we (Namibians) celebrated our 22nd Independence Anniversary which, this year, was held in the Mariental. The celebrations also included the launch of the new N$10 and N$20 bank notes featuring the portrait of founding President Dr Sam Nujoma whilst the rest of the new N$50, N$100 and N$200 still bare the face of Kaptein Hendrik Witbooi. An article and a photo of the unveiling can be found on the Namibian website.

Turn OFF the Lights....!!!!

This year, Earth Hour falls on 31 March from 20:30 to 21:30. Show your support and switch off all your lights for one hour or longer.

In case you haven't heard of it, here is a short description. Earth Hour is an organisation formed in Sydney, Australia in 2007 to take a stand against climate change. The switching off of lights is used to show that everyone, from children to CEO's and politicians, has the power to change the world they live in.

Last year millions of people across 135 countries took part in the event that saw not only people switching their lights off for one hour, but going beyond the Hour to commit to lasting action on climate change.

To find out more visit their website.

Two Cake Dessert

Children running around in the background, young adults and adults engaged in loud and gushed discussions respectively....
This is the sign the neighbours use to let them know guests were being entertained.

Nobody wanted to be stuck in the kitchen doing the cooking and washing up (our house-keeper is not a live-in, and doesn't work on weekends!), so  we had to strategise. Why? Because hyper, nearly teenage, children were expected.

So, the cooking was done early, making sure not to cook too much food. We'd often made this error of cooking too much and not being able to eat it all in time. Instead, we opted for more desserts. So my sister cooked the meal - spicy baked chicken, cornflake crumb coated fried prawns and baked potatoes and potato chips- while I made the dessert, which consisted of a lemon polenta cake and a chocolate cake made with strong black coffee.

I wasn't sure if the polenta cake would be palatable for everyone, so I made it as simple as possible - using lemon and vanilla essence instead of lemon zest. Usually around Christmas, I bake a blueberry version with frozen blueberries.

I knew one couldn't go wrong with chocolate where children are concerned, so the chocolate cake just had to be moist, fluffy and rich enough for even those with an extensive palette. So the eggs where beaten with the oil and hot coffee to perfection before adding the dry ingredients.

This week I didn't go overboard with trying to perfect the icing - I just gave the cakes a bit of frosting by dusting icing sugar over them.

Lemon Polenta Cake

Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake

Carrot Cake Success

Following Sunday's disaster with my badly turned out cake, I thought "you know what, practice makes perfect so I'm go to show these carrots who the boss is!" And boy did I show them.  

So I tweaked the cooking time a little bit. Last time i had baked for 30 minutes but this time I opted to let the cake bake for 45 minutes. I then let it cool for 20 minutes before turning it out. 

Well turned out Carrot cake

I'm really proud

 I enjoyed making this bit! I found baking was almost like engineering, so it felt just like when I'm busy with a design that is going well. The cakes were like the mechanical parts I spend all day designing, making the icing bit felt like I was back in the lab working on my nano-composites. And finally, putting the cake together and icing it was like an assembly drawing :)

The base

Assembled success

 Although my icing is still not on par - I just can't seem to get my my cottage cheese to be as smooth with the butter as it is without, and by the time the icing sugar goes in things had already gone bad. All in all I'm pleased with the result. Unlike with the first attempt, the reviews were great - "I like the walnuts in there, and the balance of the spices with the carrots is beautiful". So, yes, finally "success"!!!

Side view of the iced carrot cake

Top view of the iced carrot cake

 Even if I do say so myself, this cake was absolutely moist, fragrant and delicious. Now onto another recipe when I find the time between work.....

Iced carrot cake

Don't forget to cover your cake before letting the icing set in the refrigerator.

Successful ending

Sunday Dessert

Sundays are really lazy around here. We usually only get time to eat breakfast at around 10 am, and lunch at 3 or 4 pm. And as a consequence of that, dinner ends up unmade but there is always a dessert to be had for dinner.

So last Sunday, my sister and I decided to do a bit of baking early for the Sunday dinner. She made scrumptious bran and raisin muffins which came out beautifully as you can see.

My sister's bran and raisin muffins

I decided to try my hand at baking a carrot cake. Things didn't go as well as I had planned them. Taste-wise it didn't disappoint, but i do have to say my carrot cake does fit the bill of " it tastes better than it looks". So instead of the delicious and aesthetically pleasing cake, we all tucked into a carroty-cottage cheese blob. My carrot cake mess is more accurate.

Carrot cake mess side view

Carrot cake mess top view

I shall not be defeated by carrots......

Namibian Meatballs

Living in a house with very picky eaters presents a real challenge when it comes to cooking a meal. Lukily, the picky-ness or differences in requests (read "what I can eat") for the food is only for staples such as rice, "oshithima", macaroni, spaghetti or bread, etc..
So what this means is the vegetables and sauces and meats can be generic for everyone.

For lunch  I made meatballs. These moist meatballs are made with grated potatoes instead of breadcrumbs or mashed salt crackers, grated green pepper, grated onion and fresh chilli. Of course potatoes would win, since not everyone eats bread. Another thing I've had to minimize is spice. As a consequence, this version of meatballs used coriander seeds, black pepper corns, cloves and salt.

In the end three separate dishes were served:

(1) Meatballs and Sour dough bread

Namibian Meatballs with sour dough bread

(2) Meatballs with white rice

Now the rice was just boiled, but you can steam it if you prefer it that way.

Namibian Meatballs with white rice

(3) Meatballs with Oshithima

The third dish of meatballs was served with oshithima, which is an Owambo hard porridge with Omahangu flour. It has a slightly sour taste and is really good and healthy for you.

Namibian Meatballs with Oshithima

Lastly to accompany the dishes, a salad consisting of lettuce leaves, green apples, pealed cucumber, peaches and a sweet and sour lemony dressing was made.

Salad