Creative Wish

I took an impromptu weekend off from the blog these past couple days, and had a lovely time with my twinnie, Hana. We did some shopping, some cooking and some movie-watching, all in the delicious sunshine of a May day. I bought some summer clothes too, which was great, as it’s been a long while since I’ve bought any clothes for myself. A delicious stir fry and a homemade strawberry milkshake was our dinner for the evening and then we decided to watch Les Miserables to end our night in. Here’s to next weekend already!

Photo Credit: Lucy

2011 was the year I bought my DSLR camera, and so I was becoming more comfortable with taking more photographs, and better quality ones at that. I loved getting to grips with a more professional camera and became a little better at documenting more of everyday life. These pages are some of my absolute favourites, in that they include the most gorgeous photos of our trip to Kefalonia in August/September time and then my nephew Cody was born mid-September and the pictures of him are just beautiful, blue eyes and all! I will be starting the journalling portion of the album is just a little while, as I want to think a little more about what I want to write, but it will be lovely to re-live these memories over again, adding in all those things that I remember that weren’t captured digitally. And although I said I would wait until year’s end to fill my 2013 pages, I’m itching to get going on them already, so maybe once I return from my vacation in July, I’ll share some of those pages with you too!

I’ve been wanting to make something with coconut for a while now; it’s an ingredient I love – as a cupcake flavour, mixed in with granola, or even in the middle of a chocolate bar (naughty!) So, when I saw a recipe where this lovely flavour was combined with a biscuit base and a layer of strawberry jam, I just knew I had to give it a go. And so here are Coconut & Jam Sandwich Bars, as seen in The Hummingbird Bakery’s cookbook, Cake Days. Absolutely delicious and just a little decadent, it’s the perfect tea time treat and I urge anyone to give it a go. And they were a big hit with the family too, which is always a good sign! Just a couple of places I differed from the recipe – I added a good 50g more strawberry jam in my version, there just simply wasn’t enough for a proper layer with the amount listed below, and I also upped the cooking time by around 6 minutes over the 30 maximum here, as the coconut topping just wasn’t lightly browning enough in that time. So, there you go, a couple variations and we’re good to go!

Ingredients

For the base:
30g unsalted butter
175g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
50g caster sugar
2 large egg yolks

For the topping:
175g desicated coconut
175g caster sugar
4 egg whites
50g plain flour
150g strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius and line a 9×12 inch baking tray with parchment paper.

Mix together the butter, flour and baking powder until you have a mixture like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and stir in. Tip the egg yolks into a jug and stir with 2 tbsp of water, pour into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Press the mixture into the tin and bake for 12-15 mins or until a light golden colour. Leave to cool completely, but leave the oven on for baking the whole bars.

In a saucepan mix together the coconut, sugar and one egg white with 2 tbsps of water. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the ingredients form a thick paste. Add the flour and cook for a further 1 minute whilst stirring. Tip into a bowl and set aside to cool slightly.

Whip the remaining 3 egg whites until stiff, stir one third into the coconut mix then fold in the remaining egg whites with a metal spoon until fully combined.

Spread the jam over the base then top with the coconut mix and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

How beautiful is this image from Style Me Pretty? As soon as I saw it I knew I had to pick out some of the stunning colours and create an inspiration pallette. This would be a lovely wedding theme or an interior design idea for your home, and it just looks fabulous as a bouquet just as it is. Plus, don’t these colours just make you crave summer along with all its florals and colourful shades?

Photo Credit: Style Me Pretty

Gabrielle Aplin on this Monday in May. This new song, Panic Cord, is just lovely and I highly recommend Gabrielle and her new album, English Rain.