Delightfully dessert-ey

I’ve had a delightfully dessert-ey few days.

First I made a (gluten and lactose free) three-tier carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Plus a basic fruit trifle. Both turned out really well :)

Photo of a dining table (with a flowery table cloth) around which people are standing. On the table is a large cake with rustic cream cheese frosting and the numbers 5 and 0 stuck on top of it. Also on the table is a trifle bowl containing fruit trifle that’s topped off with vanilla custard.

Then yesterday I made two pies: one apple and one sweet potato.

I made the gluten free sweet pastry for these from scratch too.

Close up photo of an apple pie cooling on a rack. Behind the apple pie, and slightly out of focus, is a sweet potato pie.

The apple pie even featured an unintentional alien face :)

Close up photo of an apple pie that has three slits cut into it so steam can vent during baking. The slits are arranged in a way that looks like two angled eyes and a vertical mouth.

And since I had some leftover pastry, I made a few mini apples pies for good measure!

Photo of four mini open apple pies cooling on a rack on a kitchen counter.

Those turned out pretty well too.

Close up photo of a mini open apple pie with crispy, caramelised apples and a nicely browned crust. This pie is lying on a cooling rack, along with a couple of adjacent mini pies.

So yay for some successful weekend baking!

Friday night baking: apple pie

Turns out I’m pretty decent at making pies :)

#WinningAtLife

Photo of a large slice of apple pie on a red coloured plate that’s being held up outdoors.

I made this pie using leftover gluten-free pastry from last week’s sweet potato pie – hence the sparse and rather amateurish lattice work with the remaining few bits of extra pastry!

And, for those who are interested, I followed this American apple recipe from SBS Food.

Photo of an apple pie cooling in a pie dish that’s been placed on a wire rack. This is an open pie with a sparse pastry lattice on top.

Peanut butter bread

Turns out peanut butter bread is super easy to make and is quite delicious.

The recipe I followed made a relatively mild loaf, so next time I’ll make a richer, more cake-like version.

Photo of a home-baked loaf of rich brown bread cooling on top of a wire rack on a kitchen countertop.

FYI: I followed the 1932 recipe in this video (which is from the US Great Depression) and I’ll try Dylan’s own peanut butter bread recipe for the next loaf.

Mini apple pies

Home made, gluten free, mini apple pies on a Saturday afternoon.

My mother loved apple pie. Had she been alive, today would’ve been her 75th birthday. *sigh*

Photo of a few square, single-serve apple pies with a rich, brown, caramelised crust lying on a cooling rack.

Important Sunday breakfast update (lactose free vanilla ice cream in slightly warmed pie)…

Photo from the point of view of a man holding a yellow plate. The plate contains a square piece of pie with a scoop on vanilla ice cream on top of it.

Saturday night roast

Why wait for Sunday when you can have a roast on Saturday night instead? :)

Photo of a hunk of roast beef lying on a large white platter on top of a dining table. Arranged around the beef are diced roast potatoes and carrots. To one side is a large jug of gravy. There is a two-person table setting around the platter.

Got a nice crust on the beef and the potatoes, too.

Close-up photo of a hunk of roast beef that is crispy on the outside. Next to the beef is a pile of diced roast potato pieces.

Christmas barbecue FTW!

All clear for the Christmas barbecue!

Photo of two rapid antigen tests lying next to each other on a counter. Both tests are showing a negative result for COVID-19.

The barbecue itself was a great success. This here is just a photo of the meat tray taken halfway through the meal. Not shown are the snacks, salads, vegetarian options, pile of haloumi, and desserts! :)

Photo of a tray piled with barbecued meats, including sausages, burger patties, cutlets, and ribs.

Thank you James for the barbecuing and Bec for the hosting! #ChosenFamily

Mango summer

Nothing quite like a bowl of cold, diced mango on a hot summer day.

Photo of a hand holding a pink and white bowl that’s full of diced chunks of mango.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When your fridge freezes your diced mango (because you inadvertently knocked the temperature dial to a higher setting) make mango milkshake.

Photo of a blue glass full of mango milkshake.

Lunchtime baking on a rainy Friday

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade.

When life gives you leftover fruit — and you’re working from home on a rainy Friday afternoon — you make a mixed berry crisp…

Photo of a baked berry dessert with one portion scooped out. The dessert consists of dark red berries underneath a golden-brown chewy top layer.

And a pear crisp!

Photo of a baked pear dessert with one portion scooped out. The dessert consists of several layers of cooked pears underneath a golden-brown crunchy top layer.

Life can be good. (And delicious.)

Carrot cake!

So the carrot cake I made yesterday turned out pretty great. (Carrot cake is always better the second day, isn’t it?)

Photo of a moist, two-layer, half-eaten carrot cake with raisins and cream cheese frosting.

Yesterday, of course, we lit it on fire and celebrated :)

Photo of a man leaning on a countertop with his elbows. On the counter is a home made cream-cheese-frosted cake with several lit candles on it.

And I made the most of the sunny day in Melbourne with the daffodils and jonquils that Nadia grew for me for my birthday! <3

Photo of a man on a paved section next to a residential garden. The man is crouched behind four large planting pots with yellow and white flowers growing in them.

Yay rock buns!

The joys of working from home: Monday lunch-break rock buns :)

A plate piled with about a dozen baked rock buns. These look like small, biscuit-textured buns with dried fruit in them.

Mmm. Rock buns. Both delicious and super easy to make. Highly recommended.

(These ones are also gluten free and contain currants, raisins, and cranberries.)

Close up photo of a plate of rock buns. You can see their half-cake, half-bun texture and you can recognise dried fruits like raisins, currants, and cranberries baked into them.

Sunday breakfast FTW!

Sunday breakfast FTW!

Featuring a spicy desi omelette, keema simla mirch with a dollop of Greek yogurt, roti, and cinnamon kava.

Good meal too have on a drizzly day after you’ve walked your dog.

Two plates on a dining table place mat. The plates contain an omelette, mince meat curry, yoghurt, and flatbread. There is also a glass containing tea.

Successful Sunday saalan spectacular

I’ve been really good these last couple of months: I’ve spent Sunday afternoons cooking things that Nadia and I can have for dinner over the following week.

Today I made three things! From left to right: machhi saalan (masala fish curry), tamatar saalan (tomato curry), and ginger chicken.

I’m super happy with how they turned out and I’m looking forward to eating all this during what’s going to be a super busy week for both of us.

Cooled and ready to be put in the fridge.

Mango pudding

Nadia adores mangoes. Unfortunately, she’s been allergic to them since her late teens.

I, too, adore mangoes. But, given we been married for over fifteen years, I only rarely have them. So, when I do, I make the most of it :)

This is from Nadia’s Instagram account:

@ameelkhan is unrepentant in his consumption of mango pudding. #nom #dessert #mangopudding (Source)

To which my response was: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯