The Culinary Explorations of Mrs Cake
The Culinary Explorations of Mrs Cake
How did you find out about blogland and what motivated you to join in?
I’ve been blogging since 2003 – I started my first blog while overseas to keep friends and family up-to-date on my movements. A couple of years ago I was making lots of cakes and started a blog to record those – and now my cooking and baking is less cake-oriented (though there’s still plenty of that kind of thing!) and I’ve just moved to a new city I thought it would be fun to document both my own cooking/baking and the yummy things I discover as I explore my new city.
How long have you been blogging?
I only started this blog at the beginning of April so it’s definitely still in its infancy – but I’m making it a habit to post almost every day and really enjoying the challenge of finding things to write about (which is really all good since it just means I have to eat yummy stuff lots).
Please tell us a little of what your blog is about
My blog is about the adventures I have in the kitchen – like trying to replicate a complicated Masterchef dessert in cupcake form, or make a batch of cookies in my lunch hour and get them back to work before the hour is up – and about exploring the eateries of Wellington (and anywhere else I happen to be). I love reading other people’s foodie adventures, too, and am pleased to discover I’m not the only one (it can be pretty tricky to track down New Zealand based blogs, so I was thrilled to find this site!) – so I hope that others will enjoy reading about mine as well!
What do you enjoy most about blogging?
My favourite thing is connecting with people – yes, I’m a comment whore – about things I enjoy (i.e. food). Though I have lots of friends who are into food I think most (if not all!) of them think I’m at least a bit crazy so it’s nice to find like-minded people on the big, wide, interwebs.
Where in NZ are you based?
I live in Wellington with my partner – but until the end of last year we lived in Christchurch so it’s all pretty new.
Holiday Time
photo © dMap Travel Guide
Whenever we travel to and from New Zealand we always make sure we stop over on doctor’s orders. Since we’ve had children our doctor has, frankly, insisted we absolutely must have two nights in between wherever we are going from, to where we are going to.
Unless of course where we are going to is quite close. Then we must stay a minimum of seven nights. And good advice that is too.
I remember when I first discovered the term boutique hotels and that was when the first Hip Hotels book came out in 1990 when I was working at an interiors consultancy in London. Everyone was desperate to get a copy and stay at as many as they could so they could tell their friends.
Whenever we travel we always insist on staying in top boutique hotels. That’s not the doctor’s advice although I’m sure she’d agree. For the same money as a big chain hotel we always find ourselves somewhere interesting and unique, somewhere with character, that’s a pleasure to stay in – and they are always in really interesting locales. It’s always loads of fun seeking them out online and deciding which will be the best.
Which are your top boutique hotel picks from around the world? We’d love to compile a list of readers’ favourites.
My Villa Life
One of our favourite New Zealand blogs, My Villa Life is Ann’s blog about her new life in Auckland. Ann, a serial mover, hails from London, or is it Australia? And has a thing about villas. As Ann lives in what looks like Herne Bay, that’s a good thing, as it’s home of the Auckland villa.
Her most recent post about green plants and the odd white flower indeed does point one in the direction of Herne Bay. Her writing style is engaging and humorous with a certain sense of English irony. Ann’s photos are simply beautiful and indeed I rejoice in her love of white and her love of villas.
As we, Lovely NZ, sit and write in the cold English winter – it’s a joy indeed to be taken on a tour of Auckland, the familiar faces of English wit and beautiful photography included.
The Kitchen Maid
A food writer for Frankie Magazine, Lucy has, at a glance, provided the baking tip I have been searching for, for years. That you can substitute banana for egg.
A piece of advice worth its weight in gold. Watch out spelt chocolate cake, we’re going to make you spelt, banana, chocolate cake.
Lucy has a lovely mix of music, food and musings on her blog.
Definitely a young foodie to watch.
Louise Douglas Jewellery
Starting her first jewellery company at age 18, Louise sold work to design stores in New Zealand before going on to design collections for jewellery houses and runway shows in New York. Her work has also been sold in high-end department stores in Japan, the States and New Zealand.
Now settled back home in Nelson, Louise creates a new and beautiful collection under her own label, Louise Douglas Jewellery.
Lovely Aussies
Photo © Gajen Indra
Being in the UK at the moment it’s certainly easy to overlook the Antipodean wines that are so readily available back home in New Zealand. We are truly blessed here with lovely European wines – my favourites being Beaujolais from M&S and the lovely organic whites and rosés available from Riverford.
We’ve not had the chance to try any Aussie wines of late but with the arrival of a nanny who’s dad was a winemaker in The Barossa Valley we were encouraged to investigate a little further. But where to begin? The Wine Vault of course – New Zealand’s favourite digital wine retailer who also conveniently has a TV channel to tell us all about which Australian wines to try.
Quite a nice history of Aussie wines here also – including information on all the wine producing regions, as well as a fascinating write-up about the worldwide phylloxera epidemic which saw the Australian wine industry almost wiped out until its incredible resurgence in the 1970s.
It looks like Tesco is the place to go for great Australian wine if you’re in the UK. Australian wines are known for their full bodied boldness and with Australia so well known for its Shiraz that has got to be the one to start with – you’ll notice that’s the variety Tesco has the most of. And from what Jayson from The Wine Vault has to say it looks like Shiraz is indeed the one to begin with.
Susannah Tucker
Oh. Wow. How. Incredible.
Susannah’s photographs all tell their own story and are so beautifully taken with vintage cameras. Spend a moment, or wander for hours lost in one of her own unique daydreams…
My Darling Lemon Thyme
Beautiful honest styling and photography – and utterly delicious, healthy food – kind of on par with Peter Chaplin meets Tiny Happy. That’s our take on it anyway.
We’ve pretty much dispensed with the term gluten-free around the house, just like we don’t really bother to specify organic anymore. So this blog is right at home here. So many amazing, delicious and makeable recipes – I mean grapefruit curd – oh my lordy lord! Music to our ears.
Where we’ve been
Hello. We’ve been building up a little pile of emails to reply to over the next couple of weeks. Yet again we find ourselves in Europe with a stockpile of stories to write, recipes to post and shops to tell you about.
A wee while back we were sent some lovely Ricotta by the nice chaps at Perfect Italiano and we’ve come up with a gorgeous lasagne and a super-gorgeous smoked fish recipe.
Also we lost our Facebook page in the move (figuratively speaking). Please like us again – you can find us here.
