Cakes and Calligraphy

Happy Easter everyone!

I’ve been enjoying the last couple of days off from work,  and it has been a blissful time filled with leisurely lie-ins, lazy lunches, and plenty of retail therapy. It was so nice not to worry about all the usual holiday palaver of flights, accommodation, and struggling with directions in a strange destination, but I certainly managed to consume plenty of cake and empty my wallet shopping!

I sadly didn’t photograph all the cakes but we ate delicious sticky toffee tweener from Selfridges, sugary doughnuts from Bread Ahead, and gorgeous french patisserie from Le Patisserie des Reves.

I oohed and ahhed over beautiful cake displays, and pink flowers galore. The floral displays outside Liberty never fail to impress.

I dragged poor A along for a calligraphy class which was so interesting – now I see what I’ve been doing wrong all along, and now I’ve got all the equipment handy will be keen to continue practising!

Work hasn’t been great recently, and it’s been a real struggle getting myself to keep going every day. I’ve been thinking about ways to try and make my free time go further, and I think this break was a great way of utilising time without spending ridiculous amounts or going to a huge effort.

Pancakes, then Mulberry

Woke up ridonculously late today. Yes, ridonuculously.

Oversleeping is a good excuse for having a casual brunch though, so I went for some savoury pancakes, oh yum.

I used to make pancakes quite regularly, but shockingly, today I realised I haven’t made a single one in the last two years! I made a couple of changes to my tried-and-test pancake batter by using half wholemeal flour instead of 100% plain flour, and adding a sprinkling of extra mature cheddar and some chopped ham whilst it was cooking in the frying pan. Delish. Flipping the pancake over caused some of the cheese to brown in a very yummilicious way, and the one pancake that didn’t get a large enough share of ham got a liberal squirting of tomato ketchup. Not particularly refined nor classy, but infinitely tasty.

Then I went shopping. AAAAAAND guess what I bought?

Am so poor now. But here’s a pancake recipe to keep you happy.

Pancakes

Serves 1

• 1 egg
• plain flour
• milk/water
• a sprinkling of grated cheddar, chopped ham, cooked sliced mushrooms
• salt and pepper

Crack the egg into a bowl and gently beat with a fork. Add enough flour until it is a thick gloopy mixture and really hard to stir. Then add a splash milk until it has thinned down a bit, add another spoonful of flour to thicken it up. and add another splash of milk. Then add enough milk or water to thin it down to a thin pancake batter consistency. Season well.

Heat up a pan with a splash of oil until hot hot hot, and ladle on a big spoonful of batter. Turn the pan so the batter covers the bottom of the whole pan, then cook for a bit and the top has set. Flip the pancake and cook the other side. Finally dish the pancake out onto a plate, sprinkle on the extra goodies, and fold the pancake in half. Enjoy thoroughly with a squirt of tomato ketchup.