I was suffering from a case of the Why Nots the other day, standing in front of the crates of vegetables at Sainsburys. In one hand was a bunch of perfectly ordinary orange carrots, but from the corner of my eye I had spied a container of purple carrots. And yes, why not indeed. I’ve made this carrot and ginger cake so many times that I can almost taste the crumbs in my mouth, even while the ingredients are still being weighed up into a bowl. It’s nice to add a little something different to the mix every now and again, just to see what kind of difference it makes. Diced candied yellow peach is as nice as candied ginger, for example.

The purple carrots are quite sweet and attractive in their raw form, but the big question is, would it lend a purplish hue to the resulting cake? As it happens, the answer is not really; the cake doesn’t turn out as vibrantly purple or as exotic-looking as purple rice and furthermore, when stirred in the bowl, the mixture morphs into an alarming shade of grey. The baked cake is however devilishly dark, like a Rhett Butler of the cake world with it’s slick of frosting, and welcomingly damp, as Nigella might describe it.

What other Why Nots can this cake handle? A substitution of grated beetroot or apple for carrot? Why not omit the cream cheese frosting, to ease the calorific burden. Why not bake to the rhythm of Camille. Why not make a cake at least once a month, to gladden the hearts of friends.

A couple of weeks ago, B sent me this link, and all of a sudden I had this great need to learn how to knit, never having touched a pair of knitting needles in my life before this point. I must say, hats off (or cast off) to all those people who make knitting look easy, because I found understanding it to be quite a trial. It was as headache inducing as learning biochemistry. But now that I’m beginning to grasp it, thanks to Mir, I’m loving it. I love the whole process of creating something with your hands – which could explain why I love baking too.

To celebrate the completion of my Princess Leia beanie, I decided to make some Stormtrooper cookies, for a laugh. The batter is a simple tuille mixture, which I then spread over a hand-made template (couldn’t find a Star Wars cookie cutter on the internet,.. funny that, i thought the internet had everything!), drew the outlines with some mixture that had been darkened with cocoa powder, and then baked these until light golden. I found it better not to fill in the features that are supposed to be darker (eg. the nose and eyes), because I don’t think you can really respect a Stormtrooper if he looks like Ron Jeremy!

And so it was under the eaves of my new ear warmers, that I sipped some tea and did damage to a couple of Stormtroopers. All in a day’s work, folks.. all in a day’s work.

(This one is for Mir who jump-started my new favourite pasttime and for Maureen who brought it all together at the last minute. Mir, I promise I’ll post pictures of the beanie soon.)

Seamus is learning Japanese, so it’s only fitting that we go to a Japanese restaurant while he’s here visiting. Harbourview is located in a new development area overlooking the Lagan River and the Waterfront Hall. On a drippy, dismal afternoon, we were only too glad to step into this warm and welcoming place, where we were quickly ushered into the ornately designed lounge area for some drinks and a chance to peruse the menu. The theatrics of Teppanyaki is a must-see for anyone who hasn’t experienced it before, so we had to pick that option, eschewing the many sushi and sashimi platters on offer (which were pricier anyway). The lunch set menu for Teppanyaki offers you a salad to start, followed by your choice of salmon, king prawn, steak or chicken then vegetables, fried rice, and tea or coffee, all cooked right in front of you (except the tea and coffee of course!) by a highly skilled chef.

The first thing the chef did when we were finally seated in front of his hot plate, was cook up an astonishingly large mound of chopped garlic, which he served with some vegetables and two dipping sauces (the ginger one was especially good). Then it was a toss here and a twirl there of the salt and pepper shakers, liberal dashes of what the chef called “Japanese Coca Cola” (soy sauce), and spoonfuls of garlic butter to finish off the cooked seafood. He flipped a few eggs in the air and caught prawn tails in his hat, and pocket, but didn’t have us catch bowls of rice as they do in many restaurants we’ve been to in Sydney.

Everyone agreed it was a good experience, and Seamus even tried his hand at requesting for the bill in Japanese, but unfortunately the waiter was Chinese and so didn’t understand what he was saying.

Harbourview Teppanyaki
1 Lanyon Quay,
Belfast, BT1 3LG