Want to listen to an audio version of today’s post? Click the Spotify podcast link above. And please give it a follow.
Ever crave a treat that tastes decadent but is a bit healthier? Get your veggies and good fats with this brownie-like moist loveliness. Khashayar infuses love into all of his vegetarian cooking…
Ingredients
2 pounds grated carrots 2 cups regular white sugar 2 cups white flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon nutmeg 2 eggs 1/2 cup milk 4 tablespoons melted butter 1/4 cup olive oil
Topping
2 cups greek yogurt 1/4 cup honey 1/2 cup slivered almonds
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 farenheit degrees.
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients: carrots, sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and milk.
4. Combine all the above with the melted butter and olive oil.
5. Pour the batter into a 13″ x 9″ x 2″ baking dish.
6. Bake for an hour or until a toothpick inserted into it comes out clean.
7. Let the cake cool.
8. Stir topping ingredients together: yogurt, honey, and almonds.
9. Slice the cake and serve with a dollop of the topping. Garnish with fresh or frozen berries (frozen ones look tantalizing as they thaw, as if they’ve been powdered with sugar). It also gets a nice chewy crust when heated. If you prefer it warm, don’t add the topping until it’s out of the oven.
Thank goodness COVID-19 hasn’t affected my ability to write and read, aside from the days it weakened my sight and energy. We’re much better, wake each morning slightly less raggedy than the one before in terms of feeling totally human.
It has a week since I’ve been able to smell and taste. If I hold my nose to a jar of cinnamon powder or a bottle of lavender oil, absolutely nothing registers. Taste is down to an occasional three notes of flavor. They’re subtle and offer no complexity. If something is super salty, ultra sweet, or blazing hot, they’ll call like old friends from a place so distant I can hardly hear them.
I tried sniffing a bottle of bleach… nearer = nothing… nearer = nothing… short of sticking my nostril right over the spout, a revelation terrified me. How easily I could accidentally truly damage myself without these two senses. How easily anyone could! My heart goes out to all who suffer this.
I try to rev my appetite by conning it that texture and temperature are flavors. My clothes haven’t gotten too baggy yet. I try not to stress over whether things will always be this way.
Ah, yes! There is indeed another note of taste I neglected to tell you about! It’s the most important one; the love Khashayar infuses into all of his vegetarian cooking rings loud and clear…
Ingredients
2 pounds grated carrots
2 cups regular white sugar
2 cups white flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup olive oil
Topping
2 cups greek yogurt
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup slivered almonds
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 farenheit degrees.
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients: carrots, sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and milk.
4. Combine all the above with the melted butter and olive oil.
5. Pour the batter into a 13″ x 9″ x 2″ baking dish.
6. Bake for an hour or until a toothpick inserted into it comes out clean.
7. Let the cake cool.
8. Stir topping ingredients together: yogurt, honey, and almonds.
9. Slice the cake and serve with a dollop of the topping. Garnish with fresh or frozen berries (frozen ones look tantalizing as they thaw, as if they’ve been powdered with sugar). It also gets a nice chewy crust when heated. If you prefer it warm, don’t add the topping until it’s out of the oven.
Click here for an audio version of the blog post that follows.
Staying home makes me hungry, whether it’s to keep safe from disease, the weather, or working on my novels-in-progress! How about you? And when I get hungry, my first thoughts are of sweets! Cute ones are all the more enticing…
Robbie Cheadle is a writing dynamo! Go to her main page for the extensive catalog of books, stories, and videos she’s published out of Johannesburg, South Africa. She writes for all ages; there are her “Sir Chocolate” children’s books (co-authored with her son, Michael Cheadle), her middle-grade “Silly Willy” series, her preteen/young adult fictionalized bio about her mom’s World War II childhood in England, her supernatural and horror stories for adults and young adults, and her poetry!
Photo of author Robbie Cheadle and her fondant peonies.
How to make fondant (sugar dough/paste) peonies, by Robbie Cheadle
My husband’s birthday is approaching, and I wanted to make something special to mark the day, especially as we are likely to still be in some form of COVID-19 lockdown. I decided to make peonies in a dark pink and dust the outer petals with edible gold.
Making the peonies was quite a challenge, as I wanted to get the shape right. Peony petals curl inwards, which means that each layer must be allowed to dry completely inside a correctly sized bowl-shaped container. I made these containers out of tin foil, which I pleated and folded to fit the four different stages of the petals.
You will need…
Fondant coloured dark pink
A large fondant rose cutter
A large and a small ball tool
Edible sugar glue
Peony petal cutters in three sizes (standard pack)
Edible dark pink food colouring powder
Edible gold dust
Two medium-sized paintbrushes
A flower veining tool or toothpick
Process
Mix a quantity of dark pink fondant and place it in a lock zip plastic bag. Take a small amount and roll it out as thinly as possible. Use a thin layer of cornflour on the surface of the fondant when you roll it out to prevent it from sticking. Cut out two rose shapes using your large rose cutter.
Use a ball took or toothpick to frill and flute the edges of the two rose shapes and use the flower veining tool or toothpick to texture the petals. Place in a small silver foil container pleated to round the petals. Allow to dry to the texture of leather.
Roll a bud from fondant with a fatter base and narrower tip. Use a bit of sugar glue to attach it to one of the rose shapes. Paint a small blob of sugar glue on the bottom part of each petal on both sides and wrap the petals around the bud. Use a toothpick to separate the petals and create a rosebud shape. Use sugar glue to attach the enlarged bud to the other rose shape.
Wrap the other shape around the enlarged bud. Leave to dry overnight.
Roll out more dark pink fondant and cut out six peony petals using your smallest peony petal cutter. Frill and flute the edges using a small ball tool or a toothpick. Use the toothpick for flower veining tool to texture the petals.
Place them upside down in a sliver foil container and allow them to dry to the texture of leather.
Dab sugar glue along the bottom half of both edges of the petals and place them around the bud, pressing them firmly into place with your fingers. When all six petals have been placed around the bud, place the flower into a piece of silver foil shaped into a cup. Leave overnight to dry. Your flower will look like this…
The following day cut out six middle-sized peony petals and repeat the steps above. Place in a slightly larger silver foil cup and leave to dry overnight.
Repeat the above process on days three and four, using the large peony petal cutter and slightly larger silver foil cups.
Once the peony is completely dry, use a medium-sized paintbrush dipped into dark pink food colouring power, and smudge it into the centre of the peony. Dip a medium-sized paintbrush into edible gold shimmer dust and paint over the outermost petals until they shimmer and shine.
Your peony flower is now complete.
Robbie Cheadle’s finished fondant peonie.
For step-by-step instruction on how to make more of our fondant artworks, for recipes, and for free audible readings of our free Sir Chocolate books, please visit our YouTube site.
Our YouTube site is a community service project that my two sons and I have started to bring readings of our free Sir Chocolate books and simple recipes to children and their parents to help keep children entertained during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our step-by-step creature videos can be made with children using playdough or fondant.
These are trying times worldwide — perhaps my other posts here and here and here and here and here and here and here will lift your spirits a bit?
Has your eating changed since COVID19?
Share + Like + Rate + Comment + Follow + Email me at ContactdaAL@gmail.com
As the dish went in the oven, I admit the ingredients could have looked more appetising. But this is the truth of the process; sticky toffee pudding before its glory on the plate, and the gunky sweetness which sticks to the back of your teeth. This photo is the real life part of the fantasy which will be the portion covered with cream, dribbling down across textured contours of sponge and jagged rocks of dates. Real life is the seven selfies you take before the one which is finally chosen for public scrutiny. That one becomes the fantasy. The image of what we ideally want ourselves to be.
In fact I had to bring it out again, because I forgot the components of the sticky bit. Dark muscovado sugar, unsalted butter and some boiling water … all sprinkled, dabbed and poured over the top before cooking commences. (That looks even…
Handmade Persian embroidery given to da-AL enhances this colorful delight!
There’s no better way to end a sumptuous dinner with something lovely and just a little decadent. Get some tea steeping and reignite your guests’ appetites with buttery sweet baking aromas. The striking layers and fruity colors of this confection are sure to please most palates. (Find more of my dear husband’s recipes here and here and here and here and here and here.)
Double Pop-Over by Khashayar Parsi (inspired by Jacques Pépin)
(serves 8-12, depending on how hungry your guests are)
Note 1 : this party-friendly batter can be made in advance and refrigerated for several hours.
Note 2: As mouth-watering as this is fresh from the oven, it’s just as good later. Refrigerate leftovers, which are equally wonderful hot or cold.
Nuts can be served on the side, in a pretty bowl, if any of your guests might prefer their dessert without them.
Ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
3 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cups milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups cream cheese
1 cup honey
1 cup mixed berries
3 sliced bananas
1 cup orange marmalade
1/2 cup crushed roasted walnuts
1 cup crushed or shredded chocolate
Baking
Preheat oven to 420°F.
Whisk eggs, flour, sugar, salt, sour cream, and milk in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly until smooth.
Slowly whisk in half of the melted butter.
Heat two non-stick pans: an 8” and a 6”. Divide the remaining butter onto both warmed pans.
Pour about 2/3 of the batter into the 8” pan, and the other 1/3 into the 6” pan.
Cook over medium-high for five minutes, or until crepes take shape.
Put the pans into oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until popover cakes are fluffy and golden.
Remove pans from oven, and let them cool to room temperature.
In a separate bowl, stir honey into sour cream.
Plating
Transfer the larger cake onto a serving plate.
Sprinkle about 2/3 of the chocolate onto it.
Spread about 2/3 of sweetened sour cream over it.
Remove the smaller cake from the pan and gently place it over the center of the larger one.
Add the remaining chocolate and sweetened sour cream to the smaller cake in the same way.
Decorate the outer edge of the larger cake with berries.
Cover the smaller one with bananas.
Spoon the jam over bananas.
Sprinkle the nuts over jam.
Serve in pie-shaped wedges.
Jacques says that food is best when made with love and eaten with loved ones. That said, eating alone can be wonderful too, so long as you treat yourself with love.
Happy eating!
Share + Like + Rate + Comment + Follow + Email me at ContactdaAL@gmail.com
Happiness Between Tails by da-AL 
