In My Kitchen - September 2012

This month's In My Kitchen post comes a little late, and for no good reason. I was contemplating skipping it altogether in favour of sulking over my lack of new gadgets, and delayed postage on some new books I ordered, but I have spent a lot of the time in the kitchen this month and convinced myself an update was warranted.

In my kitchen today is...

a Raspberry Yoghurt Cake. I originally came across Celia's Blueberry and Yoghurt Cake recipe some time ago. Hubby doesn't really like cake, but this is one he'll steal the last piece of. The original recipe can be found here at Chocolate and Zucchini. Anything with yoghurt in the recipe is guaranteed to be moist, and to remove the "cakiness" of cake, hence why this one was a winner in our house. I normally use whichever berries I have on hand and today it was raspberries. I also never use white sugar and so replaced that with raw caster sugar in the recipe. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly and I'm waiting for the cake to cool so I can have a piece! Most of it however will be shared with some lovely ladies and their children at a local coffee morning tomorrow.

In my kitchen quite a lot lately has been...

a pot of Teresa Cutter's Vegetable Minestrone Soup. This is the simplest and tastiest vegetable soup I've made, and one the whole family seems to enjoy. It is simple, vegetable-filled, low in salt and delicious. The capsicum is the dominant vegetable I think, and that makes the taste of this soup really unique from other vegetable soups. Did I mention it was healthy? And it contains no potato so it a fantastic low-carb option for lunch or dinner. I serve this as a main meal with a fresh loaf of Mixed Seed Bread. I also love these soup bowls that my mother-in-law almost got rid of at a garage sale a few years ago before I spotted them and took them home.

In my kitchen earlier this month was...

a birthday cake for my gorgeous "kind-of-sister-in-law" Kate. A fortunate twist of events meant I was able to see Kate on her 26th birthday, and make her a birthday cake, or 24. I used this divine Brownie Cupcake recipe and topped them with a whipped milk chocolate genache. I didn't even know you could whip genache until coming across Savoury Sweet Life, but the result is a beautifully pale and extremely stiff topping perfect for piping. The letters were made with white chocolate. I melted the chocolate, poured it into a zip lock bag, snipped the very end off the bag and piped the letters out onto a baking paper-lined oven tray. I then cooled the letters in the fridge and when they were set, moving very quickly to avoid melting them with my hands, arranged them on top of the genache. This was a great cake for sharing, and the munchkins could have one to themselves without consuming too much brownie.

So maybe my kitchen isn't that boring this month. Check out what's happening in some other kitchens around the world by visiting the links at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.