What’s on my plate: July

Thistles and Kiwis,

As we were away for the weekend, and with yesterday being my last French lesson of this term, (when dinner was fromage et vin rouge in class) there has been a lack of activity in my home kitchen, apart from rustling up a quick pasta, peas and spicy sausage dinner on Monday when I got back from Auckland.

Today is my birthday. As a child, growing up in the Northern Hemisphere, my birthday marked the start of the school summer holidays (Scotland has different holidays to England). Now of course we are in the middle of winter down here, so there are no strawberries or other summer fruits to celebrate the day. Naturally though there is still cake.

This year I just made a simple Victoria Sponge – the first cake many of us in the UK learn to bake. The recipe I first used was still in Imperial measurements with the ratio of ‘4:4:4:2’ ie 4 ounces of flour, 4 of caster sugar, 4 of butter and 2 eggs. This now translates to 3 x 100g +2, which just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Those familiar with this cake will know you cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs with a little flour one at a time, then gently fold in the rest of the flour. Place the mixture in a 18cm greased cake tin and bake at 180C for around 40 minutes depending on your oven. This makes a nice small cake, perfect for just the two of us for a couple of days.

You then cut it in half and fill with jam, cream, or in my case today mascarpone (which certainly was not available where I lived when I was first learning to bake) and cloudberry jam, a delicious favourite found in Sweden and Finland. I found I had no icing sugar to dust the top to make it look pretty, but it tasted just right with a cup of tea.

Anyway, just a brief post from me today but this well be entered in the What’s on Your Plate blog challenge hosted by bloggers Widow Badass and Retirement Reflections.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.co

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

43 Comments

  10. What a yummy looking cake Barbara and happy birthday wishes from the Scottish Highlands! 🎉

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  15. First up – Happy Birthday!

    Secondly, I have just made the same sponge using the imperial measurements coz that was how I was taught it in the UK too!

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  17. How wonderful! I hope your birthday was everything you wished for.

    They say 2024 is a great year for cloudberries in northern Sweden. As a teenager I worked in a bakery during the summer. It was hard work and the summer before my 18th birthday I worked all summer to save up for my driving license, as many hours as I possibly could. My little sister, three years younger than me, picked cloudberries four days and made more money than me…it was an exceptionell year for cloudberries..

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  21. I hope you had a lovely birthday Barbara, many happy returns. Your cake looks yummy but I get that the recipe doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

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  22. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures. #395 – Thistles and Kiwis

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