What a four-year-old taught us about the magic of baking a chocolate cake
Valentine’s is on the horizon, which means we are about to officially enter chocolate cake season – that soft-focus part of winter when confectionery and romance blur together,For our four-year-old goddaughter, it is always that time of year,Just hearing the two words together makes her roll her eyes and roll out her little tongue in anticipation of pleasure, like a cartoon kid,When we told her we would come and bake a chocolate cake with her, there were squeals of joy,Settling on a recipe was the first challenge – Ravneet Gill’s fudgy one, Felicity Cloake’s perfect one and Benjamina Ebuehi’s traybaked one were all contenders.
We eventually landed on Samin Nosrat’s much-loved, tried-and-tested midnight chocolate cake.It was to be a learning experience for us as much as for her – we never knew that you can make chocolate cake only while wearing a crown.She had to explain this to us at length.The reasoning had something to do with warding off ghosts and crocodiles – or perhaps the crocodiles were warding off the ghosts, and the crowns were for something else.Bluey was involved as well.
After donning our crowns and aprons, and setting off to the kitchen, it became very clear who was actually in charge of the process,Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and the girl, who speaks mostly in the imperative, began shooting out instructions with the speed and confidence of a football coach,At one point, we had to cut baking paper to size, then we had to draw dragons on the baking paper, which led to a very serious discussion about which of the dragons was good and which evil, and how many there should be of each, in case we needed to draw more,(The verdict: in life, as in cake, balance matters,)When baking with a child, precision gives way to play, efficiency to imagination.
Throwaway moments – lifting a heavy bowl, cracking an egg, sifting cocoa, licking a spoon, placing a cake in the oven – become moments of reverence and revelation.Burying our noses together in the cake fresh out of the oven to breathe in that smell, the anxious anticipation for it to cool so we could decorate it.There is no overstating the importance of sprinkles to the process – here, more is more is more is more, and the merits of each type can be endlessly discussed and compared.Over the next few weeks, we will be baking lots of chocolate cakes, as well as babkas, heart-shaped cookies and many other sweet romantic treats, and while we have certainly – maybe sadly – outgrown sprinkles, this kitchen experience has been a timely reminder that baking is nothing short of magic.All of this is to explain that if you see us in one of our places carrying a tray of baked goods, we may be wearing paper crowns.
Feel free to talk to us about dragons,An island paradise | Around about this time last year, we were in Sri Lanka, and a chunk of our heart is still there,We were thinking about it when ensconced in the beautiful new Hoppers in Shoreditch, where everything – the light filtering through the slatted shutters, the beautiful painted ceiling, the tunes from the speakers, the woven rattan bar and chairs – reminded us of the enchanted isle we love so much,Everything on our table was a perfect balancing act: the potent heat of spice tempered by the richness of slow-cooked meat, seared seafood and fish, flashes of tamarind and guava, chilli-dipped lime … The crab omelette is something we will order every time we come back here, which will be often,An Italian culinary getaway | Our fantasy holiday is something not far off this: an olive grove in Abruzzo, in-depth culinary tours in one of the world’s most beautiful and delicious regions, and two legendary chefs to cook for, and with, us.
Rosie Sykes and Barny Haughton are giants of the food world and will take a lead on this Italian getaway of dreams.The return of Nigella | We are giddy with joy at the news that Nigella is joining The Great British Bake Off team.She has been off our screen for a criminally long time and Bake Off has been off our radar for years, but suddenly it’s got interesting again.What will the queen of the double entendre do when she is facing a soggy bottom? Finally, something to look forward to.If you want to read the complete version of this newsletter please subscribe to receive Feast in your inbox every Thursday.
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: ‘We are now at the women-should-smile-more stage of his presidency’
Late-night hosts dug into Donald Trump’s deflections from the Jeffrey Epstein files and the backlash to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show.Jimmy Kimmel kept the focus on the Epstein files on Tuesday, because it’s “a story that Donald Trump wishes would go away. But it won’t just go away. It’s the kind of story that makes headlines, and he knows that. So what he does is he bombards us with a dozen other crazy things to try to flood the zone
The Guide #228: Against my better judgment, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has me back in Westeros
Just when I thought I was out … just when I thought I would no longer have that sweeping, ever so slightly irritating theme tune ringing around my head for hours on end, or feel the need to remember the difference between House Tyrell, Tully or Arryn, I suddenly find myself pulled back in to the Game of Thrones extended universe. The blame for this goes to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the likably low-key Game of Thrones spin-off series about a cloth-eared hedge knight and his shrewd child squire currently ambling through its first season on HBO/Sky Atlantic.Before its arrival, I had departed Westeros for good. My faith had first been shaken by that rushed, badly plotted final season of Game of Thrones proper, which bashed to bits six previous seasons’ worth of finely tuned political intrigue and fascinating character dynamics in a succession of endless (often badly lit) CGI-laden battles, before flambéing them in dragon fire. Worse came with House of the Dragon, a dreary, po-faced, endlessly withholding slog of a prequel series, the enjoyment of which seemed to rest entirely on whether the viewer was familiar with deep lore buried within a Westeros history book that George RR Martin wrote instead of cracking on with that sixth novel
Jon Stewart on Epstein files: ‘I’m just not sure anybody is going to be held accountable’
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The Biennale of Sydney has revealed the final lineup details for its 25th edition, scheduled to open mid-March across five key venues, including White Bay Power Station, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Penrith Regional Gallery.Featuring 83 artists, collaborations and collectives from 37 countries including Australia, the 25th Biennale of Sydney is titled “Rememory” – after the term coined by author Toni Morrison – and will “[explore] the intersection of memory and history as a means of revisiting, reconstructing, and reclaiming histories”.It represents the vision of artistic director Hoor Al Qasimi, the first Arab appointed to the role and the eighth woman in the festival’s 53-year history.Highlights announced on Tuesday include a giant functioning clay oven at White Bay Power Station in Rozelle, created by Argentinian sculptor Gabriel Chaile, which will be activated for the Biennale’s opening weekend and at key moments through the festival to serve visitors Peruvian cuisine. Also for food lovers is a large vat of tabbouleh, created by Lebanese artist Mounira Al Solh as part of a community-based performance in Granville
Meryl Streep is as withering as ever in first full-length trailer for Devil Wears Prada 2
The first full-length trailer for The Devil Wears Prada 2 has been released, and given more details on David Frankel’s hotly anticipated follow-up. In the promo, Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly and her right-hand man Nigel, played by Stanley Tucci, are seen reuniting with Anne Hathaway’s Andy and, later, Emily Blunt’s Emily.Priestly remembers neither, nor even her habit of referring to all her fashion magazine assistants as Emily – presumably on account of her withering alpha-editor status rather than, say, dementia.The film’s teaser trailer, which was released in November, was reportedly the most-viewed comedy trailer in 15 years, with 181.5m views on YouTube in its first 24 hours
Wil Anderson: ‘I honestly believe being mistaken for Adam Hills is one of the great gifts of my life’
Do you have a nemesis?I know Adam Hills did one of these and he chose me as his nemesis because we often get confused. He said it in a nice way – but I wouldn’t say Adam, because I honestly believe being mistaken for Adam Hills is one of the great gifts of my life. Even at the peaks of my career going well, it was always quite a good reminder that people never care as much about anything that you care about. Sometimes you’d have moments where you think: “Everyone thinks this or that about me” – and then someone would say, “Hey, I love you Adam!” Adam’s a very well-known comedian, I’m a very well-known comedian and yet, half the time when somebody comes up to say g’day to us, they don’t even know who it is. There’s something really nice and humbling in that
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