As you may have read several days ago, we are officially moved into our new flat!
Safe to say, I am so happy to be here. I’ve already noticed a reduction in my stress levels since we moved into our fourth-floor walk up here on the Pest side of the Danube.
First of all, it’s only ten minutes walk to my work. Win!
Secondly, since it’s so many floors up, we are surrounded by trees. We don’t currently have a view of anything but leaves, even from our balcony, which sort of makes it feel like a treehouse. It’s so peaceful! (Please don’t break my heart and tell me that will change come winter).
Finally, the apartment itself is just lovely. We’ve upgraded from a studio to a one-bedroom, we have a bathtub (!!), we have a table and a desk so E can finally have a decent place to work, we have a dishwasher (!!!!), AND….
We have an oven!
Which means I can finally take part in the Bake Off Bake Along, hosted by the lovely ladies, Amanda and Ala.
If you aren’t in the know, the Bake Along is inspired by the Great British Bake Off, which E and I discovered–somewhat embarrassingly–on our honeymoon in Costa Rica. One rainy night, tired of watching Spanish TV, we found one channel in English–the BBC–and two episodes later, we were hooked! The show follows bakers who compete in three categories: a signature bake, a technical challenge, and a showstopper. For the Bake Along, I’ll be choosing one of their assigned bakes to make each week.
I won’t be sharing any recipes, except for my sources of course, since I’m not experienced enough (and I’m too out of practice!) to be inventing any. In addition, since I’m living in Hungary, it’s often a confusing adventure to buy the most basic ingredients. I will, however, try to use my travels to inspire my bakes!
For the first week, and my first bake ever in my new kitchen–and my first bake ever in Hungary, for that matter–I wanted to choose the simplest course, likely to be the signature bake. The showstopper was a mirror glaze, which seemed insurmountable for my first bake, or the Jaffa cake, which I have no desire to ever make. That left the signature: a classic British drizzle cake.
It took me waaaay to long to figure out what baking powder was in Hungarian, how to use vanilla sugar (they don’t really have vanilla extract here at most supermarkets), and I accidentally bought the coarsest sugar known to mankind.
This is going to be fun!
I made this Lemon Blueberry Drizzle Cake since simple was the byword. I did make a few changes: more lemon zest, more lemon juice (as I used vanilla sugar, I needed extra liquid anyway), I made extra drizzle just in case (can you ever have enough?) and I dusted the blueberries in flour before adding them. An essential step to keep them from dropping, and I did a poor job so half of mine dropped to the bottom anyway!
Would Paul and Mary want to eat this cake? Truth be told, it was over-baked and it wasn’t very pretty–but it was pretty delicious. I might have to up my game in the following weeks!
