Sunday, April 3, 2011

Cathedral jelly, petersburger streuselkuchen and count the calories

Sticky apricot and coconut cake with butterscotch sauce
 
Today's Food Diary
Breakfast: Muesli
Lunch: Adzuki beans, coconut and tomato spread with sourdough rolled oat bread
Dinner: Pork curry with rice and oat sourdough flatbread

I got inspiration for the sticky apricot and coconut cake from sticky date pudding and malva pudding. Sticky date pudding, a date based cake, is popular in the UK and colonies and malva pudding seems to have originated in South Africa. Malva pudding has apricot jam. I love coconuts so I decided to ‘upgrade’ malva pudding by adding coconut. I thought coconuts and apricot would go well together, and it did thankfully. 

The cake is sticky as the name suggests, and moist. The cake on its own is not very sweet so the sauce is definitely a welcome addition to the party. The sauce is necessary, having sticky cake without the sauce is like having a burger without the bun. The recipe is available here.

Today's Favourite Photo
Source: Ang Sarap
Cathedral Jelly



Today’s Favourite Blog
CaffeIna has an interesting recipe for petersburger streuselkuchen. No, its not a burger but a crumb bake filled with ricotta and topped with streusel. The cake perhaps originated in Germany or one of the neighbouring countries. You could perhaps call this a German cheesecake. This reminds me that there are so many different types of cakes and other treats that I am not aware of.

Today’s Random Rambling – Count the Calories
I have a 500g bag of chips at home. Actually its no longer 500 grams, it used to be at one stage, and probably will not be for long. Anyway the point is that on the bag it says 160 kcal and then in smaller print it says 30 grams. I definitely will not be eating 30 grams, I don't buy a 500g bag to eat 30 grams only. I don't know anyone who does. And on a can of beer it says 100ml has 30 kcal. I have never opened a can of beer and drank 100 ml only, well maybe I did but after having many cans before. If someone opens a can of beer with the intention of drinking 100 ml only, then that person may have a problem, low calorie consumption being not one of them.

Why bother putting calorie count for 30 grams of chips and 100 ml when probably nobody will consume this volume. The companies are definitely not recommending consumption of such low volumes, for them the more the merrier. Its legislation and consumers (us?) that results in such ludicrous statistics. 

Personally I feel those statistics are driving some people to the point of insanity when they live their life around calorie consumption. The purpose of legislation is to protect consumers but sometimes I wonder whether its having the intended effect. Personally I cannot calculate my calorie intake and I think there is no point worrying about it. A healthy lifestyle with balanced meals and sinful foods in moderation should be fine. We need sinful foods once in a while I think. After all no matter what we do we will not live forever.

6 comments:

  1. I was a strict calorie counter when I was trying to lose weight a few years ago and it definitely worked but it definitely also made me quite neurotic. These days while trying to lose weight, I'll calculate the calories of the items that I cook just to make sure I'm not eating a 1000 calorie meal for dinner, but I don't count numbers every day. Too much time and effort and really, nothing i"m eating is unhealthy!

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  2. This apricot and coconut cake sounds so good! Love the glaze.

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  3. The apricot and coconut cake looks beautiful and delicious. Love your picture too! :))

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  4. I wouldn't care how many calories in that cake it looks so delicious!

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  5. love love the glass jelly as well. been seeing quite a lot of it lately. it's trending!

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  6. Joanne: glad it worked for you, I guess counting calories has its pros and cons
    yummychunklet: It was good:)
    Anncoo: thank you, it was delicious!
    Maris: I don't know either how many calories it had!
    penny: it was the first for me

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