This little piggy went to the North Sydney Produce Market during the weekend, and she filled her shopping bag with Eumundi Smokehouse’s Kasaba, made from pork and James Squire Porter, some Tasmanian leatherwood honeycomb and a gluten free chocolate treat. She was also tempted by the bright bunches of fresh flowers, the Jersey cow lightly salted butter, La Tartine’s sourdough bread, the organic vegetables and potted herbs.

The next morning I had thin slices of Kasaba with some gorgeous wholemeal bread from Central Baking Depot on Erskine Street in the city. Central Baking Depot is an offshoot of the Bourke Street Bakery, I believe. I love that they bake their bread twice a day, on site, so that the loaves you buy in the evening on your way home, are fresh. It seems however that you would have to get there early to snap up the sourdough loaves as they’re selling fast at the moment.

Also on the way up George St. last Friday, I spotted what I think is a new cupcake place called The Cupcake Bakery, in the Ivy (don’t you love the Ivy’s font? It’s so .. phat and curvy). Am wondering if anyone has been there and what the verdict is thus far.

North Sydney Produce Market
(3rd Saturday of the month- 8 am to 12 noon)
Miller Street, North Sydney 2060.
(between Ridge and McLaren Streets)

I am shattered. Destiny etched on old, worn and tear stained faces. Despair delving deep like cotton buds into waxy ears. Delirious arms stretched out. You are alive, his father says. So live. But who lives now? Not the Mist, though the Road continues down a path of gentle hope.

I am a sponge. But everything goes in and nothing comes out.

I am mellow, smalltown America. A brother and sister singing Jezebel and the only shape they will pray to.

I am the ice-cream tester to your doctor.

I am rubber. You are glue.

I am sweetness. The first kiss, then the hungry second.

I am a cake. Lady Chance made me. Two loaf tins, decades spent unused in a mother’s baking cupboard. She released them. Their virginal glow blazing brightly, thrust as they were into the hoary roar of the oven. They emerge unscathed, bearing sweet whispered words that cling to your memory long after the crumbs have passed your lips. They quell the butterflies and grass fires in the pit of my stomach.

For now, I am satisfied.

Sticky Ginger, Fig and Nut Loaves :
(from Australian Gourmet Traveller, March 2005)

(I was looking for dried Iranian baby figs, for this recipe, and chanced upon some small dried black mission figs which I love for their startling dark colour. They were also more moist than the Iranian baby figs I usually use, so I love them in this recipe. Mission figs apparently got their name from being cultivated in California missions in the 18th century after they were introduced from Spain. Figs are naturally high in fibre, and low in fat and cholesterol. As part of a simple, not too sugary cake, they are the pefect weekend treat. These sticky ginger, fig and nut loaves are my contribution to this week’s WHB, hosted by Kel of Green Olive Tree.)

250ml milk
100g dried figs, coarsely chopped
125g soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
110g dark moscovado sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
225g self-raising flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons finely chopped glace ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
60g walnuts, finely chopped

Place milk in a saucepan and bring almost to the boil, then pour over figs in a bowl and leave for 20 minutes. Grease two 8 x 17cm nut roll tins and lids well, then line lids with baking paper. Place a lid on the end of each tin and stand tin upright.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and honey until light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Sift over flour, ginger and salt, add glace ginger, walnuts, milk and fig mixture and stir until just combined. Divide mixture between tins, cover with remaining lids. Place tins upright on an oven tray and bake on lowest shelf at 180’C for 50-55 minutes. Stand tins for 10 minutes, before turning out onto wire racks to cool.

Serve warm or room temperature, cut into slices (and toasted, if several days old), plain or spread with cultured butter. Rolls will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Marie of Proud Italian Cook and Maryann of Finding La Dolce Vita are celebrating Italian food with their Festa Italiana event.

It might be a bit cliched, but one thing that comes instantly to mind when I think of Italian food, is a long table situated somewhere in the sunny outdoors, covered rustically with a white tablecloth, and groaning with an amazing array of food : sliced cold meats, fresh salads, bowls of pasta, juicy figs, perfectly ripe peaches and chilled watermelon slices. Seated around this, a group of people (family? friends?) talking to, over, around, and amongst each other; laughing, singing, clinking wine glasses. I hope my cake, made with one of my favourite liqueurs, Amaretto, would not be out of place in such a setting.

Amaretto is an Italian almond liqueur, sweet and slightly bitter in flavour, that I use quite often when baking. It is great in biscotti for that extra nutty flavour, or to enhance the flavour of a pannacotta. It is also great in this cake, adapted by Janni Kyritsis from an Alice Waters recipe. He serves it with hot caramelised figs but I’ve opted for poached rhubarb instead.

Amaretto Cake :
(serves 8, from Wild Weed Pie by Janni Kyritsis)

5 x 65g eggs, separated
3/4 cup castor sugar
100ml Amaretto
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
2 egg whites (from 65g eggs)
pinch cream of tartar
150g plain flour
pinch salt
100g clarified butter
1/2 cup sugar syrup (made from equal amounts of castor sugar and water, and brought just to the boil to dissolve the sugar, then cooled)
1/2 cup Amaretto, extra

Preheat oven to 150’C. Butter a 20cm springform cake tin and line the sides and bottom with baking paper, making sure the paper rises half as high again above the cake tin. Butter and flour the baking paper.

Beat the egg yolks with half the sugar until mixture falling from the beaters forms a ribbon-like pattern on top of the mixture for a few seconds. Gradually whisk in the 100ml amaretto and lemon zest. Whisk all the egg whites with cream of tartar until the mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add remaining sugar, beating until the mixture forms firm peaks. Fold a third of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Sift flour and salt together. Mix a generous tablespoonful of the egg mixture into the clarified butter, then fold the butter mixture back into the egg mixture. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 130’C and bake for a further 30 minutes. Turn oven off and leave cake to cool in the oven.

Combine sugar syrup and extra amaretto and pour over the cooled cake.