Yummy cake!

I was in the middle of doing some work (plodding along with an assignment at an appallingly slow rate) and got too tired to concentrate. Obviously that's my cue to have a nap, which I did. Waking up 3 hours later (I was hoping to have a 1 hour nap) I started working again, about half an hour in I realised that I must make a cake.

I had to make it because:
1) I've been craving cakes/ pastries for some days
2) That way I won't go to the local 'boulangerie' too often
3) I found an interesting recipe online that I wanted to try
4) My flatmate made a cake yesterday and I stopped myself from eating some of it
5) I now had the energy to make it.

So I made the cake. It was a recipe that substituted the butter for oil; this trick saved me going to the shops to buy butter, and to use up some extra oil I had about. Gosh! I must be the laziest person I know.

Anyway, the result was absolutely amazing. The cake is soft, yummy and very quick and easy to make. The only (quite big) problem was that it's so soft that when taking it out of the mould, some of it broke apart, which I obviously tried to put back together. But when I tried to re-flip it so it would be the right way up, I realised that I might just end up with a big pile of crumbs, so I left it. It was so soft that when I was checking if it was cooked, I saw that the top was cooked but very bouncy so assumed the inside was still all batter but it wasn't! I was actually surprised that a cake could be that bouncy.

Apparently the thing with oil cakes is that they don't solidify like butter cakes (as you can imagine why) so my cake will stay this soft for as long as it's not been eaten by me :)...

I followed this recipe:

http://acookatheart.blogspot.fr/2011/03/simple-vanilla-cake-using-oil.html

and just halved it.

Anyway, I was rather fascinated by this cake so I had to write about it; this is what happens when work is going slowly and you haven't left the flat in 3 days...

Not exactly a moment of deep reflection about our relationship with food, but food-related nonetheless. I ought to find something else to speak about...

Relationships

A strong and positive relationship with God will result in a strong and positive relationship with all those around you, be they friends, family or complete strangers.

Therefore we must always be honest with ourselves about our relationship with God. It is the only way we can truly start to improve it and thereby improve our relations with others. In actively doing this, a relationship will never go 'stale'; it will always be developing alongside your relationship with God.

Quick! Catch Up!

I have so much to catch up on. Not been very good with this blog. I think I just don't have anything meaningful to share. Well I'll give you a few brief snippets of what I've been up to and pop a few pictures in along the way. If an inspiring thought comes to mind, I'll share it, if not, make what you will of it.

I visited Annecy with some international students. It was nice. I think I would go again. It's got a rather famous and beautiful lake and we had a nice walk around the city centre. It's a small city and yet cute and touristic. Apparently a very expensive place to live though. I did a little bit of shopping there too.

I don't know what the building in the middle of the river actually is, but it's cool :). 

The second picture is of the lake. It's a bit misty but you'll see a water feature on the right to the trees. The water is incredibly clear; you can see right down to the bottom! It was beautiful and would put the Thames to shame!

In preparation for a little dhikr/ dawah workshop/ gathering, a few of us (me and 2 others) ended up practising some qasidahs to just sing on the evening. Met up at one of the girls' flat on the Wednesday to just get us a little organised (know what we've got to sing, get the tune going and what we need to fix). It was quite hard because I'd never heard the qasidahs before so I was learning the words and the tune completely from scratch- and the event was on Friday night- and I had a test on Friday morning! I managed though and I was pretty impressed with myself.
   On the Friday afternoon we went back to her flat to bake some cakes for the event too. I made a very successful chocolate fondant cake (I was just given the recipe and followed it). Had a lovely couple of afternoons and the evening was lovely, although not many people came but we all had a nice time together. The view from her flat's living room was pretty impressive.

Although it looks quite grey here, it was a beautiful day but it did rain later on. I loved the view because of the three layers; the city buildings, the green hills (that were covered in snow not that long ago) and the snowy mountains.

The next day, a few friends had organised a rather French 'repas du fromage' for lunch, just to give us a taste of the regional cheeses. Although they did go easy on me and all the cheeses were tolerably mild and creamy. Maybe next time they'll turn it up a notch? Anyway, I survived that one! Then we went out for ice cream (and it was super-yummy!).

So I visited a cute little village in the mountains just outside of Grenoble called Saint-Hilaire. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and although the intention was to visit a lady I knew and meet up with  her daughter (whose flat we made cakes at) for a bit of dhikr, her daughter couldn't make it so we went round for a little stroll around the village instead.

A popular pastime is a little parachuting from about April until October. During the winter people come to the village to ski too. 

OK, so a little bit of a stream but look how clean and clear the water is! It's remarkable! I keep seeing clean water around and it's refreshing to know that it still exits. I can't remember seeing really clean water like this at home...

In between this, I've had a few exams. They were alright.We will see how the results are. Got one big one left and got to do some assignments. However, I have no more lectures! I was supposed to be doing some more work on one of the assignments and then I realised that it was imperative that I update my blog... :)

It was a lovely day yesterday (weather-wise) so I wanted to go for a walk. Ended up visiting a deer farm for a short walk and it was really nice. Got to feed two of them with some leaves too but one got more than the other because he wouldn't share. It was so peaceful and calm there. Took a couple of pics of the two- though there was a whole field of them.

This is the big, greedy deer (or should I say stag?) who kept munching the leaves. He even followed us after when we'd 'finished' so we found some more to give him. 

This is the little deer who would have liked to have been fed some more but got chased away by the bigger male. 

Also, a quick note for my Mum here. I made a real curry yesterday. By real, I mean that I spent 1 hour carefully browning the onions so that they wouldn't burn and had got to the right colour and texture in order to make the base sauce for my curry. To be fair, it did turn out really well and tasted like a curry should (on the spicier side of course) so it was rewarding. Whether it was 'worth it' and whether I would choose to do it often is another matter.

I do need to do another blog post on my thoughts on our relationship with food. I few interesting things have come to mind and I've eaten some yummy things while I feel like I'm 'learning more about the world' (yes, dramatic I know) through food encounters. But that's too deep for the moment- I'm sleepy thinking about the work I should be doing...
- I will organise my thoughts and get back to you.

I will try to add things more regularly now.