little fishie...

Freddy and I arrived safely home today after a lovely trip to the US. I'm currently on the bus into London to stay at a friend's house and go to London Fashion Week over the weekend. Then on Tuesday I'm starting a two week work experience at a political think tank. Freddy is currently at home playing his new game Halo Reach online against Patrick who is in London. He's going to be pretty busy too over the next couple weeks. I've got loads of beautiful photos from the last two weeks and I'm going to upload some of my favourites on here. First up is Obie playing playing in the pool in his backyard.

two weeks and you're mine...

Red Robin I am coming for you.

Snickerdoodle cake...

Today is the 1st birthday of my other blog The Style Crusader. In honour of the momentous occasion Freddy suggested that we bake a cake. Since he isn't a mahoosive fan of my chocolate cake I thought we should try a different sort. I opted for this Snickerdoodle version, in my opinion the king of all cakes. If you love cinnamon, like I do, then this cake may become your very best friend.

The cake: get yourself a standard cake mix (either white or yellow will do fine), 1 cup of milk, 1 stick melted butter (113 grams), 1 tsp vanilla, and 2 tsp cinnamon. Make the cake mix as the directions on the box say and then add the milk, butter, vanilla and cinnamon to it. I was a little concerned because it basically just looks like a sloppy watery mess. But don't worry, it will cook beauitfully and be so moist. Bake the cake as indicated on the box.

The frosting: 1 stick (or 113g) of butter at room temperature, 3 3/4 cup of icing sugar, 3 tbsp milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 1tsp cinnamon (I added a bit more cinnamon... just put in as much as you fancy). Blend up the butter with an electric mixer until it's fluffy and then add the sugar and milk. Blend on low until the sugar mixes in. Add the cinnamon and vanilla and blend on medium until it is light and fluffy. If it feels too stiff you can add a bit more milk. The recipe I saw advised to put the frosting in the fridge until you are ready to use it, but this made my frosting quite difficult to spread (hence my manky cake). So, pop it in the fridge if you want... but I wouldn't recommend it, or if you do maybe blend in a bit of additional milk to help soften it.

Once your cakes have cooled just frost those bad boys right up and serve them to some hungry people as quick as you can. This is my favourite cake... hope you enjoy.

pop up garden...

We came across this pop up garden last weekend in Ealing Broadway. There wasn't anyone there to protect it and it was very difficult to resist stuffing our bags full of flowers and herbs...

'that's not my name...'

sweet tooth...

A carrot infused medley: cake, sorbet, and some creamy stuff. Mini ice-creams in an assortment of flavours. These are the scrumptious desserts we had at the Cherwell Boathouse after the graduation last week... courtesy of Andy's parents. So yummy.

graduation day (take 2)...

Friday Fred had his Masters graduation ceremony. Which seemed a little funny seeing as he has just finished his PhD. He got to wear a different robe though, got hit on the head with the New Testament by the dean and this time it was held in the Examination Schools so we could actually see what was going on. Well done Freddy... now we just have to wait for the third one.

the road to citizenship...

While the road to citizenship has certainly been a long and strenuous one (not to mention gut wrenchingly expensive) the aftermath of all the efforts was extremely enjoyable. A British feast followed by a picnic in Hyde Park and classical music at the Royal Albert Hall... welcomed me into citizenship - must better than the ques at the Croydon citizenship offices.

and he's off...

Freddy has just headed off to his PhD viva which starts in 5min... it was pouring down rain this afternoon and it just stopped a couple minutes before he had to walk out the door. Perfect timing.

we want what fred wants...

Which undoubtedly meant we were going to be eating kebabs when we headed into Uppsala with all the boys from the lab. This started a crazy obsession that I now have with kebab pizza... it sounds so wrong, but is actually so very right that I had to eat in two nights in a row.

we're back...

We just arrived back from Sweden today. Had the most beautiful two weeks doing absolutely nothing but hanging out in the sunshine, sailing, swimming, and playing. It was really wonderful and so relaxing. More on some of our holiday adventures later... but for now, I'm off to bed.

'i just need to find landskap...'

At the end of our first official day in Sweden I am left looking like a lobster. Freddy and I spent the morning at the lake then came home and ate tasty salami and gouda. We headed over to Maggan's place for some dinner in the late afternoon. She used to watch Freddy when he was a little boy... he tends to reminisce about their time baking and reading stories. We played pool and discovered that Vivi is a little shark. I was 'forced' into eating three very yummy pieces of strawberry cream pie, felt ill, and then once we got back home begged Freddy and Vivi to cycle with me down to the grocery store to buy my favourite candy... which I then stuffed my face with (after jumping on the trampoline). Lesson #1 of the holiday: 'I'm not hungry but I'm on holiday' (as I reach my hand into a massive bag of sour candy).