cake and the doctor

This weekend I finally had a good, albeit nerdy, reason to have another crack at that Blackforest cake I've unsuccessfully made several times before - the Dr Who Season Finale - the perfect excuse to watch telly and eat cake! We had a little get together for it at our lovely friends' place and their dog, Motown, slept through Doctor Who but perked up enormously for a walk down the wonderfully named Storey Street to chase dogs and sniff random mushrooms. 

If you want to give it a crack, here is the recipe I used. I adapted it to 3 layers in the end because 10 was just becoming insanely out of control - and this cake had to be bus transportable, but don't worry, 3 layers will still have you reclining post-cake on the couch in a delicious, chocolately daze.


(Images: my flickr)

art and cockatoos

It was such gorgeous Winter weather this weekend - sunny and blue skies, perfect for ferries catching and island adventures! K and I headed over to Cockatoo Island with some friends to see the Biennale of Sydney.
I think we might all have enjoyed romping round the island and checking out its various buildings, amusing signage and industrial wonders a teensy bit more than the actual Biennale exhibits (with the exception of the green room and AES+F's Feast of Trimalchio - a nine channel animation of over 75,000 photographs - which was incredible!). 

After taking in as much culture as we could handle on a gloriously sunny day, we tempered the high-falutin arty farty rigmarole with some low-brow fare - bread and babaganoush (which was actually at the gourmet end of things) meat pies and the Australian classic (according to Masterchef anyway) Golden Gaytimes - what a way to finish!

after the rain

After the colossal downpour of rain on Friday, the weekend was a pleasant respite with a few patches of sunshine even and we got heaps of stuff done around the house which is always awesomely satisfying.  
Outside in the natural world, the plants were putting on a display - I don't think I'll ever get tired of photographing the changing leaves.  We also consumed some damn fine meals (and drinks) - Yum cha at Marigold, delicious red wine at a new wine bar on Curlewis Street, Bondi and home-made lasagna to round things out on Sunday night, bless this eating weather! I'm already dreaming about the long weekend!

the weekend that was

I love those weekends when you don't really have any plans but the little things that happen seem extra good somehow. Maybe it's this Autumnal weather, but sleeping in, lounging around, rugging up and eating in all seem very important and enjoyable.

And now it's Sunday night and we're scoffing a homemade, square meat pie and catching up on Party Down and Doctor Who, all three are highly recommended (especially a square meat pie!)

Hope you had a great weekend!

like a playground

On a quiet, long weekend it can almost seem like the world is your playground.

As many things as there are to do, sometimes the nicest thing can be to explore your own neighbourhood.  

This morning we went for a run/walk down by the water and spotted all sorts of funny things, and a lot of dogs. Feeling good about our exercise efforts, we promptly scoffed some Lindt chocolates and hot cross buns from Bariloche, the lovely Argentinian Bakery in Glebe (an Easter egg/hot cross bun hybrid was also attempted).

A couple of Gin and tonics ushered in the afternoon and a there were a few attempts at snoozing, but this weather is almost too delicious to sleep it away. Roll on holiday Monday!