Sushi!

We've had the sushi rice and nori in the cupboard for literally months but this week a sense of adventure and experimentation struck me and I returned home armed with rice wine, mirin, reduced vegetables and no idea what to do with it all. We often eat veggie sushi at the local tea house and we have learnt that the sushi is only as good as the rice and that can be quite tricky to perfect.

So I googled. I amalgamated a number of tips from different websites (stirring the rice wine mixture into the rice in front of an electric fan seemed like a good one) and we began. I had planned to make it all before Tom got home and surprise him with a Sushi picnic or a Sushicnic even but he finished work early and got home before me which foiled that plan. But I'm pleased because it was such a giggle utterly winging it and eating as we went along. It tasted good and the rice was definitely sticky, hoping it wasn't just a fluke.

Rachel's Birthday Cake

Tom's little sister was 17 a few weeks back and I got asked to make the cake! It was a simple sponge but strictly without jam, so there was no buttercream spare this time. I had an absolute nightmare with the black icing; I attempted to persevere with the first tar-like batch but it resisted and managed to kill 2 of my mixers! I don't really know what went wrong with it but it looked like it belonged on the pavement more than on a cake... cue a very stressful last minute trip to the supermarket (3.45pm on a Sunday!) enabling me to start again. 17 on one-side and an R on the other and lots of random swirly bits in between! It tasted good too!

This was my first real venture into birthday cake style icing but I'm signed up to take on his other sister's 21st cake, I'm feeling adventurous so watch this space...