Taormina, Sicily

In between finishing my exams, going to Italy, moving out, getting my results and planning mine and H's one month Europe backpacking trip we embark upon in less than a week there really has not been much time for baking or bloggin'. Or cooking for that matter (baked beans will be removed from my weekly grocery list from here on out). But baking aside I thought I'd share with you some photos (a travel post on an up-to-now-solely-baking-related blog WHAT IS GOING ON!?) from my recent trip to Taormina, Italy where I was on super cool synthetic biology course listening to some of the smartest people i've ever been in the presence of, feeling slightly out of my depth as I was the baby in the room but having a whale of a time discussing science, eating great food and gelato everyday and making some really fab new pals. Snaps below!

Summer Berry and Cinnamon Buttermilk Cake

So it's finally getting sunny in Liverpool (today I even considered bare legs), we have unwillingly given up one hour of perfectly good sleeping time and winter seems to be on its way out (touch wood) so I thought I'd combine warming wintery cinnamon with summer berries to create spring. Turns out Averie Cooks had already made a cake where she combines buttermilk pancakes and blueberry muffins so I adapted the recipe slightly (and I really do mean slightly) to suit my needs. I replaced some of the sugar with soft brown sugar because I love the way it adds a slight caramel-y flavour to baked goods.

Sometimes you just want cake. Not icing, not filling, not cream, none of that fancy extra stuff. Just cake. This pretty fabulous mix of berries and cinnamon adds just enough excitement whilst still allowing this to be just cake. I say just when I mean tummy cuddlin' taste bud caressing cake. This is a soft, fluffy heaven in ya mouth kinda cake.

My blog has fallen by the way side somewhat in recent times, it's exam season you see so I am up to my neck in bacteriophage replication, apoptosis and immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs so this is just a quick post before my break ends and I have to go back to my life of coloured pens and yellow legal pads (there is something about colours and yellow paper that enforces knowledge better than black pens and white paper..).

The first two paragraphs of this post were written over a month a go so they make little sense now as the weather has got a little warmer and I have indeed by this point got the ol' pins out however I can still imagine myself eating this cake pretty damn clearly which is obviously a great sign and tbf the incessant wind (that may or may not be unique to Merseyside) warrants the use of cinnamon. Make the cake. You know you want to.

Blood Orange Macarons

My eagerness to post another blood orange recipe before Lidl stops stocking them and ultimate life goal to master (alright wouldn't go as far as master, nor declare them my life goal but these turned out pretty darn well) macarons very conveniently led to this fancy pastel coloured post: blood orange macarons. I say fancy because this is definitely a baking milestone for me! Plus I have a lot of making up to post wise since ya know, I'm abysmal at following my self set post schedule!! Uni seems to have thrown all-the-work-ever at us these past few weeks, but deadlines have now all been met and I can breathe PHEW (when I say breathe I mean watch back to back episodes of Angel because I have finished Buffy *sobs uncontrollably*).

Emotionally Repressed Valentine's Day Almond Shortbread Biscuits

This is just a really quick post, I have a full length post lined up to be published soon though nobody fret, but in the Valentine's spirit I thought I'd whip up some really easy, super speedy lovey-dovey almond shortbread biscuits - or rather some emotionally repressed V-day almond shortbread biscuits in true Brit-stereotype fashion inspiration courtesy of this Buzzfeed article. I found it through my friend on facebook and I thought was pretty bloody funny (small children don't need to see the last one!) and took some of the greetings (for lack of a better word, what are the words on cards collectively called?! HELP!) and stamped 'em onto my biscuits with my Tala letterpress cookie cutters (which are super awesome btw).

You make tea properly is my favourite, I made several for my other half and guess who made me several perfect cuppas on my return from a 9 - 5 day in the lab n'awwwwww.

Here is one really-crapply-photographed-slightly-lumpy-un-emotionally-repressed cookie just for you guys, who I know are out there (my stats tell me so even if you never blummin' comment! :P ), not to get all mushy, cos ya know, British, but readers, I really do love ya!

 

Blood Orange Chocolate Loaf Cake

 

January has gone so. very. very. very. slowly. I couldn't be more glad that it's over. February isn't much better what with its dreary drab miserable weather perpetually teetering on the edge of snow (come on if it hasn't snowed by now it should just try again next year please don't make me walk through a sludgy brown mess to get to uni).

Winter-hating aside I finally located some blood oranges! Like a top plonker I've been searching for them since the summer... (for fellow plonkers winter is blood orange season, duh :P ). Anyway I don't go in for the whole 'new year new me' stuff and if I did my self control definitely doesn't stretch to new year healthy eating, so I cracked out a tin of cocoa and made a delicious, dark, moreish, and dare I say it, moist blood orange chocolate cake with a zesty glaze.

In the interest of long term health and well being for those of you possessing the self control to eat all healthily this cake does have some naturally good-for-ya ingredients so it can be enjoyed by everyone, and those adverse to 'healthy' sweet treats won't suspect a thing. Win win sitch right there.

Coconut Banana Bread Mini Loaves

HELLO PALS exam season is over and I am BACK IN ACTION. Hannah has been making cookies for the past few weeks to keep me going the perfect angel that she is but other than that the serious baked good shortage has seen me eating clementines and 100 g bars of dark chocolate - that my friends constitutes a balanced diet - however I did find the time to whip up a batch of coconut banana bread mini loaves which are fat free and pretty damn healthy (for Hippopotamousse ;) )

Pannukakku [Guest Post]

I am DROWNING under the weight of various parasites (metaphorically of course as they are v v v small - revision done? I think so ha ha if only :((( ) so I am leaving this post in the very capable hands of soon to be reader-of-English (is that even a thing can you tell I do science?) Hannah. I hope you all had marvelous seasonal celebrations and the like! Enjoy x

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Hello hello, as Kate is busy busy busy revising for her extremely important exams (and I mean busy, some nights we've even had to do without our customary Buffy episode - it's a hard knock life, right?) I have offered to step in and post something, ANYTHING so that Hippopotamousse doesn't just fade into the dusty backwaters of the internet like an angsty tumblr that's been outgrown (we've all been there, let's be honest). If you have ever frequented Kate's 'About Me' page you will know who 'I' am.