Vermeer's Victoria Sponge.

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Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Bank Holiday Baking... .(scribbled at 23:19 )

What a wonderful bank holiday it is turning out to be! I'm afraid I may be sporadically posting onto Blogger this week, as I think time spent at my laptop this week is going to be at an all time low.

Bank holiday baking. Oh yes.

Things have been rather strange over the past week, varying from psychedelic gigs in Dalston to actually feeling my eyes blur on looking at Antony Gormley's new sculptures in the White Cube in Hoxton Square.

I also went on a productive Zara spending spree pre-pay-day (!), and came out with this little bottle green number. I'm afraid I'm too lazy (i.e- cannot be arsed) to use the self timer on my camera, so this may be as good as you get to seeing it...

I'm also mightily impressed with a pair of boyfriend jeans I bought from there in the sale that were less than £20 which I imagine will actually be worn to death. Much like my parka from there circa 5 years ago (Zara- I salute you for creating something that actually lasted this long!). Like every other shop on the high street, they're using studs on everything. But it's this little catch that I saw during an ASOS lunch hour rummage that I cannot wait to snap up!

Backpack; £35; ASOS

Hoxton Square t'other day.

In other news of my disarrayed lifestyle, I'm becoming more architecture obsessed than ever before. Much to the irascibility of my fellow Victoria line commuters, I've started sketching on my journey into work each morning. For what is only a handful of stops on the tube, I'm rather content with my attempt at La Sagrada Família last week.

aaaand this bad boy arrived in the post earlier last week.
My evenings may not ever be the same again!
Oxford Dictionary of Architecture; James Stevens Curl

Before I forget, here's the recipe to the marbled brownies I baked yesterday. They're a rather straightforward recipe from the Beeb, but drizzled with lashings of Green and Black's Mint Dark Chocolate adds a great twist to these gooey calorific chunks of delight.

Ingredients

200g Dark Chocolate (70% Minimum Cocoa Solids)
200g White Chocolate
250g (cubed) unsalted butter
300g golden caster sugar
140g plain flour, sifted
4 Eggs

Method

1. Butter and line a 23cm brownie tin (something just as similar and oblong should do the trick though). Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, or 160 if you have a fan assisted oven.
2. Melt the chocolate in separate bowls, with 125g of the unsalted butter in each mixture. They should both have a slightly thick consistency.
3. Add 2 eggs to each mixture and beat until fully incorporated. Stir in 150g of the golden caster sugar into each bowl.
4. With the dark chocolate mixture, add 50g of the sifted plain flour and stir in until fully combined. With your white chocolate mixture, stir in the remaining 90g flour. Both mixtures should have achieved a thick gloopy texture that doesn't easily drop off a spoon.

5. Now, spoon both mixtures into your pre-lined tin, in an alternating checkerboard style. Then spoon on another layer of mixture, but again, alternating with the previous layer. After this is all done, grab or knife or skewer and drag through the tin in a frivolous manner until it creates a marbled effect (see my above photograph.)

6. Bake in the oven for around 40 minutes, or whenever done. The brownies shouldn't be too crackly and dry, so do take care. Leave to cool on a wire rack, and then decorate with chocolate as you see fit later on....

NB: I recommend using a strong dark chocolate to scatter across the brownie afterwards. Mint, Orange and other strong flavour chocolates will all work a dream!

Labels: ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, Sartorial

about

diaristic ramblings about architecture, design, art, baking and shoes.

...all posts penned by Vikki, a twenty-something girl based in London (but currently having itchy feet and wanting to move back to Neuilly).

all these poorly taken photographs are indeed my own.

Vermeer's Victoria Sponge.