The other day … I’m in a honey scented cloud in my kitchen. It’s Honey Madeleine baking day.
The recipe I used came from this wonderful wonderful book.
The recipe promised 18 Madeleine. I doubled the ingredients. It was a smart move, I should tell you.
Here, 36 of them. Or most certainly less by the time I took this photo. It was hard to guard freshly baked smelling like Heaven cookies. They were shamelessly stolen from under my nose as soon as I turned away to refill the cookie mold. Well, Madelaine do taste best when warm.
They look so pretty too!
Don’t believe this picture. Never mind how hard I wanted to try, there were more than three for me that time.
Sunday, April 15th is Orthodox Easter. Last year we were in Ukraine during this time and could enjoy the atmosphere of the holiday. And since we’re home in Hong Kong this Easter time, I wanted for my family to have a little bit of Ukrainian tradition.
In Ukraine for Easter there are ALWAYS colored eggs -pusanky and sweet Easter bread – pasky, in pretty much every home. I’m keeping with the tradition, though in an easier way. Actually, many Ukrainians use this same easy way now with the colored eggs. They are not really painted on. It’s a picture on plastic wrap that you put on an egg and then dip it in hot water so the wrap ‘hugs’ the egg tight.
It’s cheating, but the eggs look really pretty.
Last Easter while in Ukraine I used my chance and bought all kinds of different egg wraps and dry food coloring specially made for eggs. I used red and blue color this time.
As for Easter bread … the process of making it takes whole day.
My homemade pasky and here from three years ago.
I’m having it easier for myself this year. Decided to make a cake, we call it keks or bunt cake, and decorated it the same way as with pasky. Pretty, and so much less work and time saving too! Looking good.
On Easter day we all greet each other with saying “Hristos voskres” with the other person responding “Voistinu voskres” or “Christ is Risen!”, and the response is “Truly, He is Risen”. It is also customary to exchange a triple kiss on the alternating cheeks after the greeting.
A glimpse at Easter in Ukraine from our traveling there last year here.
Nevertheless, Orthodox or not, I’m wishing you a beautiful Sunday!
I imagining to be called “a lifestyle goddess”! More like a junk/flea market digger, hopeful to find a treasure.
But Toma, the Antiques Diva thinks differently. Go here and see why.
I’m very humbled.
THANK YOU, Toma for writing about me!!
{my embroidery: cross stitch on linen, Pierre-Joseph Redoute’s Rosa centifolia Anglica rubra}
Our breakfast this morning.
Valentine’s Day was an excuse to make a new cake.
The recipe is from Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell.
I have the book for a while but this Pink Specked cake was the first one I’ve tried making using Annie’s recipe. It was also a first time ever I’ve tasted a BEETROOT CAKE! Yes, it has grated beetroot in it!! But if you like carrot cake you will LOVE this one. The taste is wonderful, it melts in your mouth.
The fact that it doesn’t have artificial coloring is another big plus for me, I try to avoid anything artificial as much as I can. To make it pink, a teaspoonful of beetroot liquid is used.
I wished I could find sugar roses to decorate the cake just like in the book! Not much choice in that department in my supermarket, it only had these simple looking flowers. Oh well, I sure will try better next time.
Have a nice and sweet Valentine’s Day!
PS.
1. I’m not sure I can publish the recipe, but if you would like I can email it to you just ask :)
2. If you’re wondering … the empty frames on the wall in the last picture are waiting for their art or my embroideries. Nevertheless, these frames is a work of art by itself and were made in the early 19th and late 19th century in France. xoxo
No, it is not about eating it for the first time. After ten years in Hong Kong there has been plenty of different kinds of Moon cakes eaten, fancy and traditional but they all came from a shop. This time it is different … I’ve learned how to MAKE my own.
Thank you to Candy, a Chinese lady from my morning dancing class, for offering us a cooking lesson on making Moon cakes. Six of us spent a few hours making total of one hundred cakes, joking that we could open a Moon cake factory. We had so much fun!
{ready to go into the oven}
They came out beautiful and oh, so tasty!
{ready for tea time}
To learn more about the Moon cakes go here.
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on September 13th this year and it is one of the four most important Chinese festivals.
