Beetroot cupcake, panna cotta and kouglofs

Sautéed adzuki bean sprouts with roasted potatoes

Today's Food Diary

Breakfast: Rolled oats with kiwifruit and linseeds

Lunch: Sautéed adzuki bean sprouts with roasted potatoes

Dinner: Mushroom and onion pate on wholemeal sourdough toast

Baking/sweets: Beetroot cupcake, wholemeal sourdough

I made the beetroot cupcake using frozen dough that I prepared sometime ago. To increase the flavour I added bit more cooked beetroot. The cake was much more moist and flavourful. It had a very slight hint of earthiness. I am glad I didn’t add more beets, a stronger earthy flavour in a sweet cupcake is probably not particularly exciting.

Today's Favourite Photo

Source: Rosa’s Yummy Yums

Panna Cotta with Oatmeal Florentines - a work of art.

Today’s Favourite Blog

david lebovitz

An interesting post about kouglofs, a German/Austrian pastry that David describes as “one of the all-time best things I’ve ever eaten, anywhere.”

There must be something very special if it is described this way so naturally I looked up the recipe as soon as possible. Kouglofs just has a handful of ingredients which are pretty standard items in all pantries – flour, milk, egg, butter, sugar, raisins, yeast and salt. What makes kouglofs special is the proportion of ingredients – increase butter and reduce flour and you are bound to create a mind-blowing treat. Mystery solved, that was easy.

One other issue I liked about the post. David had kouglofs from a particular bakery more than 5 years ago, remembered it and went back. I immediately remembered my favourite bakeries where I used to buy bacon end egg pies and caramel slices more than 10 years ago. If I ever went back to the particular city in New Zealand, getting my hands on those pies and slices is the first thing I will do. Amazing how in spite of coming across all sorts of complex and sophisticated foods it is the basics that gets us most excited, most of the time anyway.