So I’ve finally had contact from WPCoder (www.wpcoder.com). The first in 3 weeks. They’ve settled the PayPal claim I had against them and have refunded my deposit.
They didn’t tell me why they’ve messed me around and have wasted 3 weeks of my time. They only gave a perfuctory apology and my money back.
I’m very glad I’ve my deposit back so I can hire another coder.
Though I’d really have preferred to have my website.
We’re nearing the end of a long, long weekend here in Lausanne. Thursday was Ascension day and my husbands employer gave them Friday off as well. Meaning that I’ve had a playmate for four days!
Thursday consisted of sleeping in, discovering it was sunny outside and heading to the lakeside for about 6 hours of coffee, lunch and languid lazing about- resulting in much relaxation and quite a fabulously uneven case of sunburn!
To end the day I made a batch of Lemon Sabayon over a layer of gluten free sponge for a dinner at my lovely friend Jo’s on Friday night (it needs time to set).
For dinner, Jo made us a decadently delicious meal consisting of an apero then a raspberry, walnut, roquefort and apple salad and spicy chicken roasted with beans wrapped in prosciutto. It was delicious. We had a fabulous evening with much laughter, fabulous food and great company.
I contributed to dessert and took individual portions of the Sabayon to dinner in Weck glasses, served with fresh raspberries. I put the one in the photo together with the remaining sabayon and sponge. We ate it last night, but by this stage the sponge was getting a little dry. So I’d recommend polishing it off quicker than we did!
But without further ado, here is the recipe I used to create these little pots of creamy citron!
Little pots of Lemon Sabayon and Gluten Free Vanilla Sponge
(Makes 6 -8 depending on the size)
Lemon Sabayon Ingredients
Gluten free Vanilla Sponge Ingredients
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius. To make the sponge, whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Then carefully fold in the flour mix doing your best not to stir too much so as to keep as much air in the batter as possible.
I then put a small amount of batter into each Weck glass as they’re oven proof. You may want to cook the batter in a cake tin and then cut them to size if you’re assembling them in pretty tea cups! I’d be devastated if I’d destroyed one of mine. Remember that the batter almost doubles in size in the oven! So you really only need a little in each.
Cook until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. For mine this was only about 8 minutes, but this very much depends on the size of the vessel your cooking in.
Remove from oven and allow to cool.
For the Sabayon, you need to put a pot of water with about 5 centimeters of water on to boil. Take a large metal bowl that will sit comfortably on the top of your pot and whilst your water is heating, whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together until smooth.
When you’ve got your water simmering nicely, place your metal bowl over the top and start whisking (you’ll give your arms a workout on this recipe!). Make sure to continually turn your bowl or you may find that your egg mixture starts to cook to the bottom of the bowl.
When your egg mixture is foamy and has thickened, add a quarter of your lemon juice and continue whisking until your mixture thickens up again. Repeat 3 times until you have used all of your lemon juice.
Continue whisking until the egg mix is light and thick. You’ll know it’s done when your mix starts to ribbon when you lift your whisk out of the batter (it leaves a ribbon on the top of your mix that takes a little time to disappear).
Turn off the heat and add your butter a piece at a time, mixing in well after each piece. Your mix will be a little less thick, but don’t panic it will set in the fridge.
Pour your lemon sabayon over your now cool sponge. Place in the fridge and allow to set for at least 4 hours (over night is preferred).
I brûlée the top of my Sabayon for a little extra colour. You can do this with either a kitchen blowtorch or your grill (but make sure that your sabayon container can handle being under a grill!) It colours quickly so keep an careful eye on it.
Serve with your favourite berries et voila! You have a decadent but very light Spring dessert!
Currently my life seems to be doing the ‘snow dome dance’. Parts of it are locked down and stable, but everything else is flying about with reckless abandon whilst we try to wait patiently and see where the pieces land.
I shan’t go into details and bore you all. Suffice to say everything’s contained. The really important stuff is still in place and strong, but everything else that could be in the air… is.
We’re confident that the clouds on the horizon have platinum linings. But uncertainty is always destabilising.
We’ve been in this situation a number of times before. All it takes is patience as we wait for the pieces to settle to the ground, to assess the resulting new circumstances, adjust accordingly, and then hold on tight as life jettisons off at speed. It’s always been somewhere interesting, challenging and exciting.
I just have to be patient.
I’m hopeless at being patient.
Is your life ‘snow-globing’ too? Are you enjoying the ride?
They predicted rain and snow, but it’s gloriously sunny right now! I’ve a bit of time before my next appointment, I think I’ll spend it working here. (Taken with instagram)
Will I or won’t I? Do I or don’t I? If I attack it a little to remove some of the superfluous bling, I really could love this little shiny thing. (Taken with instagram)
My gorgeous Society 6, Voyages over Edinburgh print by David Fleck just arrived! It’s printed on beautiful cotton rag that I’m going to be sad to put behind glass! (Taken with instagram)
We’ve moved into Chelsea for the rest of the weekend. Early checkin at our favorite place to stay on London (Sydney House). (Taken with instagram)
So today is the day my coded site was due to be delivered. I was due to start loading content so I could launch at the end of the month. I have all of this in writing and paid a deposit, the coder was recommended to me by another coder so I thought I was safe.
But the company I hired (www.wpcoder.com) have refused to reply to email, twitter or phone for the last 2 weeks and I have no site. I’ve had to resort to trying to get my deposit back with a PayPal dispute claim.
I’m sorry all; I’m doing my best to get up and running but this hurdle seems harder to get over than the others.
“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”
Maurice Sendak, rest in peace.
So you met Melvin the Mini Machine last week. Now meet his Dad! This is Melvin the machine. Yet another fabulously inefficient Rube Goldberg machine. This one’s only purpose is self promotion.
Today is my friend Po-Chi’s birthday.
Po-Chi is a very special gentleman I met when I started the Lausanne Stitch ‘n’ Bitch. He’s one of the best knitters I know and is my go-to guy for the times my knitting looks like macrame (he’s the reason I know I’ve been knitting ‘backwards’ all these years!).
We bonded over a love of porcelain and a trip to the Salvation Army to pick out random pieces of china for his new house. And our friendship was cemented when we discovered mutual love of baking, alcohol containing bubbles, unusual head wear and British films.
Po-Chi makes fabulously extravagant cakes and doesn’t shy away from recipes that would have me rocking myself and sobbing in the kitchen corner after a mere read; let alone attempting them! So it was with trepidation that I went looking for a cake recipe to attempt for his birthday (we celebrated it yesterday).
I stumbled upon the Martha Stewart’s birthday cake and knew instantly that this was the cake required!
The cake uses a whopping 21 egg whites and 900 grams of butter as it consists of a vanilla sponge, brushed with sugar syrup, covered in swiss meringue buttercream with a final layer of Swiss meringue! No candles are required for this cake as it’s given a final toasting with a kitchen torch.
Inside it’s cut into four layers, two sandwiched with buttercream and one with jam. I messed up my layers a little as I had to make the sponge on Friday morning and freeze it until Sunday morning. As I was running dreadfully late for lunch and furniture shopping with my husband, I didn’t cut the layers in beforehand. Cutting it frozen was painful (I shall never attempt it again) and I wasn’t happy with the overall look inside.
As per usual; I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I used Schar gluten free flour and gluten free baking powder, I replaced the amaretto with a small dash of Calvados, only added 1 teaspoon of almond extract to the Swiss meringue buttercream and I didn’t add any to the Swiss meringue, and finally I replaced the apricot jam with raspberry.
This was one of the richest cakes I’ve ever baked. I was very glad it co-incided with International No Diet Day! I packed off the remaining cake for others to share with their families and Po-Chi took a slice home to eat for his birthday breakfast today.
But wonky layers aside, it was a lovely afternoon full of gorgeous friends, bubbles in all colours and levels of sweetness and a very opulent cake. I finished the day a little drunk and very high on sugar!
I’m now looking forward to a sugar free week in the lead up to cake and tea in London next weekend!!
There are some benefits to having a husband who does international travel for work. Whilst I often complain as he flies off. I’ve usually wave goodbye and promptly take a book and a glass of wine for a long luxurious bath and enjoy not having to cook for two.
But occasionally I get to go along too and for the price of my ticket and an extra night or two of accommodation we get to spend weekends in wonderful places.
So when Husband had a conference in Amsterdam last month, I promptly booked my ticket and arranged to meet him there on the Friday afternoon. We’d been to Amsterdam previously, had loved it and wanted to go again.The last time we went it was at Christmas and so very cold, so this time we were looking forward to a time when we could wander around comfortably and enjoy the fleeting moments when the sun came out.
When in a new city husband and I tend to grab a map, pull on a pair of comfortable walking shoes and go for a wander; only using the map when we get very very lost or as a guide to get us back to the hotel.
Whilst we were wandering this time we stumbled upon the Pompadour Patisserie. This was perfectly timed as I’d just started to complain about sore feet and we needed an energy boost before we made our way back to the hotel (to collect our luggage and head to the airport for our trip home).
The 18th-century interior is exquisite and apparently imported from Antwerp. They sell an amazing array of handmade chocolates, cakes and desserts for consuming within the tea room or taking away.
Not expecting to be able to consume anything but in desperate need of a cup of tea we entered and rest our weary feet. But we perked right up when advised that they had a gluten free dessert available. An unbelievably rich, creamy chocolate mousse surrounded by sticks of chocolate macaron and dusted in cocoa. My husband and I shared it along with a pot of peppermint tea (a lovely light contrast to the very heavy dessert).
It was a wonderful pit stop on our trip. So if you find yourself wandering around Amsterdam… I suggest heading towards the Pompadour!
Some of my recent work.I forgot to post this last week.
For this project I created a monogram with the clients specified font (Papyrus) and letterpress printed it in transparent ink on GMUND 100% cotton, in gentleman blue colour. I also printed the monogram onto the reverse of the matching envelopes and lined them in yet more GMUND cotton.
They turned out beautifully and look and feel so very luxurious! They should be a joy to write on.
My husband asked me this morning if I am making the cake I’ve selected for this Sunday’s party because it requires I purchase a blowtorch.
“What a silly question.” I replied.
“Of course it is!!”
(Taken with instagram)
This gorgeous piece of 1960’s teak Danish furniture is going to live in my dining room from Sunday on! #vintage #furniture #design #danish #happy (Taken with Instagram at Morges)
