Orange and Vanilla Almond Cake

This is an adaptation from Nigella Lawson's Damp Lemon Almond cake. I do love Lemon cake but as there were no Lemons in the house I decided to make it with Oranges, then thought vanilla would be a nice mellower of the sharpness from the citrus. I also made some other changes based on what I had and time.
The resulting cake is a delicious moist cake with an old world flavour like an orange sherbert, maybe I should call it Orange Sherbert cake.

RECIPE (I converted it to imperial)
Pre heat Oven to 180'C
8ozs soft butter *(see notes)
8ozs sugar
4 eggs
2ozs flour
8ozs ground almonds * (see notes)
tspn vanilla essence
grated zest of 2 oranges and juice of 1 (or both if small)
20cm springform tin greased and floured

METHOD
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I use a handheld electric whisk. Now add the eggs one at a time and beat in with a wooden spoon, add a little flour after each egg. After all the eggs are incorporated add the ground almonds and vanilla essence, orange zest and juice and gently stir in.
Pour the mixture into the buttered and floured cake tin.
I like to Sprinkle the top with flaked almonds and sugar, this will give you a lovely crisp and crunchy top.
Bake for approx 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool
Turn out of tin and sprinkle with icing (confectioner's) sugar to serve.
This cake keeps really well. wrap in tin foil and keep for up to a week.......but don't worry it won't last that long
notes
* if  am using butter straight from the fridge I cut into cubes and place in the bowl in the pre heating oven for a minute, this softens it up but do not let it start to melt
** I know that grinding your own almonds is the best way BUT sometimes life is too short. If you are going to grind your own I recommend using flaked almonds, toast lightly and grind to fine dust. These will give you a more textured cake. You can add a few crushed flaked almonds to the bought ones as a cheat way to acccomplish this.

ready to go in the oven

fresh out of the oven see the shiny crisp sugar top

sprinkled with icing sugar ready to eat

yum!

Chateau de noisy by Talk Urbex

Found this very interesting site Talk Urbex it is a coming together of a community of "guerilla" photographers:

Talk Urbex is a community site for those with shared interests in “draining” (when exploring drains) “urban caving”, or live/derelict “building hacking”. Its function is to provide an online environment for members to share tips, locations, and photos and to encourage others to join the crew

They take photographs of derelict and abandoned buildings including this enchanting but slightly spooky abandoned school. I love the idea of the photographers shooting these images with adrenaline pumping, for fear of being caught or falling through some floor boards.
You can really sense the presence of past lives here, did you notice the balloons on the stairs in the first image? Not sure if the photographer placed them there? They add to that feeling that everyone just up and left one day, like they dropped everything and ran.
I would love to do a photoshoot here.

Also have you been over to NOWNESS yet? A new site backed by heavyweights LVMH. A little sceptical at first, I am very impressed with their initial offering of a short film by Hairdresser Sam McKight and Photographer Matthew Donaldson. It is a slow motion image of Lily Donaldsons flying hair. Sounds interesting? No, it is Captivating and beautiful.

While you are off checking out things you should also head over to  The Considered Ensemble, a new Blog where they invite people to tell them about the outfit they are wearing. But, unlike other "style watch" blogs this one is all words . Scroll down to view mine.

The woods

images Denise Grunstein

Some people want to live by the Sea. For me it's always been about The Woods................

Modern Elegance

image from The sartorialist

How elegant is this man? I think he looks Regal, like a modern day Prince. I love that his top is actually a tracksuit but the way he teams it with this blazer and scarf transforms it. It adds a little pop of colour at the wrists and collar.  Also that slant on what could be an ordinary beanie hat, escalates it to a 21st century crown. I have no idea who he is but I like the cut of him as they say in these parts

Small apartment, Brooklyn

Having only 178 sq ft of space has not stopped this 25 yr old New Yorker from thinking big in terms of design. Following on the "more is more" ethos of design he has outfitted his Brooklyn apartment on the budget of an apprentice with the panache of a connoisseur.  The key to the success of this apartment is he has treated each corner as an individual tableux. Everything is considered.

 

Rather than de-clutter he has filled every available inch with a possession, but every piece is carefully placed and arranged into "collections".

 

I particularly love the backsplash in the kitchen; planks from Home Depot stained with green wood stain and varnished with yacht varnish. Although he says he doesn't cook in the apartment as he can't live with the lingering food odours.

The red chair $10 from an upstate antique store adds a welcome pop of colour in the office area.

 

all images NY Times 

A bold cobalt blue in the bathroom.

Now while living in this limited amount of space is not preferential. This youngster shows you that with a little commitment and imagination it doesn't have to be dull, sparse or dingy.

For the full article go to the NY Times website

Florica on Salt and Sentiment

Head to over to the beautiful blog Salt and Sentiment today to see a lovely post on Florica. 

Thanks Salt and Sentment for your kind words.

Red lips and black boots

The Perfect Boots, perfect Jeans and the perfect red lipstick. All eternal quests of modern woman.
Yesterday I came across the perfect Red Lipstick. In my mind when I smoothed that rouge onto my lips I was transformed into this.

Kate Winslet for Lancome

Yes, that was in my mind.........The colour was Lancome 116 or was it 161?  I can't remember because it was a limited edition and they had none left in stock! Argh, annoying! I ventured from counter to counter in the make up department trying to match my lips to another colour but couldn't. I feel I may have to mix my own.

But all was not lost ..... I did come across the perfect black boot. I encountered this piece of perfection in the ever beautiful boutique, Smock in Dublin 2.

Just the right amount of attitude but still ladylike enough to wear with a frilly dress.

They are made by Acne  

Soon they will be mine!

Have a great weekend