Cake, babies, football, and the Welsh.

I have made two sultana cakes this week from a super simple recipe that was apparently a favourite of my great grandmother.

400g sultanas (approx)
250g butter
3 eggs
Dash of lemon essence
1 & 1/4 cups sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups flour

Heat oven to 175 - 180 degrees celcius.

Put sultanas in a pot, cover with water. Bring water to boil and boil for 5 minutes. Drain water and mix butter into hot sultanas (this is my favourite part, watching the butter melt into the sultanas just makes me really happy for some reason).

Beat eggs, sugar and essence until thick and creamy white. Add to fruit mixture. Mix well.

Add dry ingredients (I always sift my dry ingredients but I'm not sure if it makes any difference).

Bake in 20cm x 20cm tin for 55 minutes.

Excellent with a cup of tea!

Today I took some to the cutest baby in Hataitai's 1st birthday party. A native tree was planted in a secluded spot looking out over Hataitai Beach (that may or may not be public land...) with his placenta (which I managed to avoid seeing, I'm sure it's just a squishy lump or something but I can wait thank you very much), and then it was a shared lunch party back at the house with lots of babies.



A woman was there with her twin boys and when we took all the babies to the park for a play after lunch, I got to help look after one of the twins. Walking back home we all took a baby on our shoulders which made for a very conspicuous group. I love babies but I'm glad to be able to give them back to their Mums and Dads at the moment.


Also the Phoenix on Friday night was very chilly but fun. We were in the Yellow Fever Zone (where all the Phoenix fans sit), I loved all the chants that seemed almost constant - I think really a lotof the guys there would secretly love to be in a rowdy choir. I could just imagine someone down in front of the stands conducting them - starting different rows off in rounds and creating harmonies. When it got to ten minutes left on the clock, everyone took their shirts off and waved them around despite the freezing cold wind. Ahh sporting rituals.

Last night I got a bit carried away and watched the entire first season of an amazing series called Gavin & Stacey about an English guy and a Welsh girl. It is so funny. Welsh accents are amazing. I think I'm going to have to go to Wales now. I love Gavin and Stacey's respective best friends and their families; all such well drawn hilarious characters. I can't even try to pick a favourite, they are all so realistic but so crazy. I'm excited for season 2, but I might need to pace myself a bit or I'll give myself a hernia from laughing.