Mixed Media

Watercolor painting

Watercolor painting

Watercolor painting

Soulful

Watercolor painting

"Fall"

Watercolor painting

"In the Garden"

Another drawing

I might create a series of these

Watercolor Painting

One of the other things I love is painting. I enjoy the peaceful feeling when i sit down to paint, its probably the only time I truly switch off and just concentrate on one thing.

Here's one of the Watercolor paintings I have completed today!

Easy Banana Loaf

Easy Home-made Banana Loaf

I was just too excited to start my fist Blog and decided to make the Banana Loaf I had promised my daughter.

Now let me tell you, this is not my standard Banana Loaf, I soon realized I did not have enough regular flour, but decided to go ahead anyway (substituting with some coconut flour).  Unfortunately I then noticed I didn’t have any of my other ingredients I usually used, like dried raisins, nuts or even sugar.

Instead of heading out to the shop though, I started venturing around for more substitutes (this being a money saving and using what you have blog and all).

I ended up with a delicious Banana Loaf – probably even healthier then my standard one

So here it goes, our new Banana Loaf Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 Bananas (mashed)
• 2 tbsp of Linseeds
• 1/3 cup Goji Berries
• 125g white baking Chocolate (chopped)
• 1 cup Flour
• 1/2 cup Coconut Flour
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 3 tbsp Honey
• 1/3 cup Butter (melted)
• 3 small Eggs separated (this is optional you could use the whole egg as is)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 pinch of Salt

Directions:

5. Preheat Oven to 175°c and prep baking tin
6. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks
7. Combine all dry ingredients and give it a stir
8. Add Egg Yolk, melted Butter, Vanilla essence and Honey to Dry Ingredients and mix well.
9. Fold in Egg white (I believe this makes the cake fluffier)
10. Pour mixture into your baking tin and bake 50-60min.
11. Enjoy warm or cold.

Lemon Lavender Cake

Lemon Lavender Cake

This is another Cake I made about 2 weeks ago (sorry for the bad picture – will be updated with a better one soon). I make this Recipe all the time, as I just love this Juicy Lemon Cake! I’ve added some Lavender this time, which I have become absolutely obsessed with! Lavender everywhere!!!

Ingredients for the Cake:

• 250g Butter (leave it out of the fridge to soften first)
• 250g Sugar
• 250g Flour
• 4 Eggs
• Zest of 2 Lemons
• Juice of 1 Lemon (depending on size)
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup Lavender Petals

Ingredients for the Glace:

• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 1/3 cup Water
• juice of 1 lemon

Directions for Cake

1. Preheat Oven to 180°c and prep baking tin
2. Beat Butter and Sugar until fluffy and light
3. Sift in flour and other dry ingredients
4. Slowly add 1 egg at a time and mix until smooth
5. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, lavender and vanilla essence
6. combine well before pouring into your cake tin
7. bake at 180°C for 40-50 min

Directions for Glace

1. in a small pot combine all 3 ingredients
2. beat until sugar has melted completely
3. poke holes in to cake while it still warm and pour warm glaze over the cake

You could simply leave your cake like that, but for a touch of sweetness, combine some powdered sugar with some lemon juice, trip the sticky icing over your cake once it has cooled. Add some more Lavender Petals and whole flowers as decoration.

Let me know how your cakes turned out if you try this recipe.