Carnival cooking

Yesterday was my sons' nursery carnival. Each parent was asked to bring a plate of food from their country. Since I have two boys and we're Australian/German I thought it was only fair that I make two dishes.

The Australian contribution was going to be Lamingtons but I ran out of time so made up the cute little mini cupcakes instead. The parents ate them all before the teachers had a chance to hand them out to the kids. All 120 went within an hour (mind you I might have eaten a dozen before delivering them...).

My man is German. We spend a lot of time there an in Austria at our flat and luckily I love the rich food. I've tried buying German cookbooks and attempting to translate them but the problem is that I can't find the right ingredients here. Sometimes I can find them in Polish shops, but it's just so hard. Then I found Modern German Food by Roz Denny. I've made a couple of things from it and can actually find everything in need on Ocado.

I decided to make Reibekuchen mi Katenspeck un Kaese - potato pancakes with katenspeck (bacon) and cheese. It seems like a good idea as I peeled the potatoes and then I realised that I gave away my food processor when I left the US because it wouldn't work here. I then had to grate 2.5kgs of potatoes by hand! These little pancakes took me 2 hours to make. Luckily my little Master T slept then whole time. But hardly a productive way to spend 2 precious baby-free hours.

The result was worth it. These little pancakes were delicious and a couple of German mums commented on how good they were. The man's verdict? Nice but too fatty - from the man who loves pork crackling!

Introducing The Vicarage

Please let me introduce you to my new home, The Old Vicarage, De Beauvoir. I walk past this incredible 19th century Victorian residence most days and always romanticised about who lived there. It was so overrun that I thought it must house an old eccentric who never sees the light of day.

It turns out that I wasn't far from the truth. Owned by the local authority, it had been derelict for decades and overrun by prostitutes and drug addicts. A group of 18 squatters then moved out and tidied up somewhat, even planting a vege patch.

The beautiful house was bought by developers in September who installed plumbing, painted and did a general tidy up for a quick sale. I couldn't believe it when I saw it up for sale and contacted the agents immediately. We saw it the same day and put in an offer just two hours later. Our offer was accepted two days later and we're waiting to complete any day now. As you can imagine, I JUST WANT THE KEYS NOW!

While the house is perfectly livable now, we want to restore it back to its former glory starting with the period features. Most of the fireplaces have been boarded up and decorative plaster work stripped away. We also want to open up the back of the house so that it flows onto this beautiful garden. Don't you think a summer house will look great at the back here? I also can't wait to plant out some vegetables and make this a beautiful eclectic English garden.

There should be two fireplaces in this room which have been boarded up. We plan on making this our family room and playroom for the boys and move the kitchen to next door as it is overlooking the garden.

This will be our kitchen and will (hopefully) be opened up at the back to link into the garden. There is actually a large chimney at the back wall which will make an incredible feature between the modern glass room at the back (subject to planning of course) and the kitchen/family room at the front.

I can just picture bold wallpaper and numerous coat hooks and Hunter boots sitting in the entrance hallway.

The first task is to sort out the floorboards. Unfortunately they were painted black many years ago hiding the natural beauty of the wood. Ripping up and sanding or even replacing 4,000sqft of floors would be too expensive so I'm considering white washing them. Over time they'll wear down beautifully to show the black and the wood underneath. We will need to replace some boards and want to have the gaps repaired. I'm quite excited to see what we find underneath when they're ripped up. As a crack den I'm expected syringes. A friend suggested that we might find hidden drug profits. Given the estimated cost of the renovation we'll need to find a lot of gold under those floors.

Cracking the Victoria sponge

I can't explain why but I've been truly afraid of baking a Victoria sponge. I've baked since I could talk but never a sponge. My maternal grandma and great grandma were both famous for their sponges, as they're called in Australia. Both used a slightly different recipe one with 4 eggs, the other with 3. One with custard powder, one without. My mother prefers the less eggy recipe of my great grandma (which is the Fielder's sponge off the cornflour packet) so this is the one I chose to tackle first.

With a brunch invitation last weekend it was time to attempt this baking triumph. Stupidly I started at around 10pm the night before. I followed the recipe beating all eggs perfectly, lining and flouring the tin. I put the mix in the oven and held my breath for 17 minutes.

Initially I was not disappointed, the cake had risen perfectly and was beautifully even. But it quickly sank in the middle. I admitted defeat, texted my mum saying it was all over. We'd be eating a fruit platter tomorrow. But to my surprise, and delight, the next morning I unwrapped the tea towel and underneath was a beautifully flat sponge! I carefully cut it in half, spread the lower half with strawberry jam and whipped (a bit over whipped sadly) fresh cream, and then topped with more cream and fresh British strawberries. It really was good and my friends really appreciated it. Silly I know, but I kind of feel that I've accomplished the ultimate goal of a baker since my pavlovas are damn good too.

Of course I'll share the recipe with you! Here's the Fielder's Famous Sponge recipe here. Enjoy!