Nigella Lawson, eat your heart out!



Dear Nigella,

Happy Easter! I hope you have used this long weekend as an opportunity to consume as many cups of tea in bed as you possibly can.

I also have used the peacefulness of the Easter weekend to relax and indulge in a few domestic goddess activities of my own.

As you may already know, I am not much of a baker. I don't have a sweet tooth, so there's no reason to bake for myself, and as I don't have a family there are too few mouths to share the goodies with on a regular basis - I can hardly turn up to the dog park with a cake several times a week can I?

Recently however, I have experienced cravings of a kind never known to me before - chocolatey goodness cravings. As I don't stock chocolate in the house the best I have to work with is some cocoa, which set me into baking mode.

My first effort, some chocolate cookies, were overcome by the oven on steroids, as I was working downstairs and baking (upstairs) at the same time. Despite eating some of the cookie mix and supervising the second tray that went in the oven, the following week I still had an inexplicable desire for chocolatey goodness.

Armed with a Jill Dupleix recipe for chocolate cake I set about another exercise in baking. I don't have an electric beater so i was able to get elbow deep in butter and sugar until it was gooey enough for the whisk to do the rest of the work. I don't have a cake pan either, so I used the friand tray I have - quite impressively the cakes look rather Easter-y in the oval shape. And then, I heated the oven and turned it off, before the cakes went in, and stood by in disciplinarian mode to ensure nothing was spoiled. Success was mine (as was the remaining batter) and we have had Easter cake this weekend.

This then inspired an effort and Easter quiche. Armed with Quattro Stelle bacon and Fountaindale free range eggs, I prepared my first quiche. So 1980's I know, but food has a fashion and revival will be ours sooner than you can say "bastardisation of a chicken caesar salad". The quiche was made mini and in 2 shapes round (muffin tin) and oval (friand tin). As I said, I rarely bake so my baking equipment is very limited. Again, I loved the oval quiche in keeping with the Easter theme.

Whilst hope you are enjoying your tea whilst lolling about in bed, do remember that there are other bossomy brunettes about the world partaking in domestic divinity.

Kind regards,
Princess Quiche Lorraine

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