White chocolate, raspberries and macadamias

What could be more wonderful than baking on a Sunday afternoon for your family? They will love you! If you haven't already realised, I have a great love affair with food, and this weekend I treated my mouth to delicious farm rye with handcrafted chili cheese, smoked mozzarella, camembert, pestos, humus, my mom's warmly baked scones with jam and whipped cream, and chocolate fudge cake. Extend the love affair, and treat your family, or those loved ones around you, with white chocolate, raspberry and macadamia brownies, well actually "blondies" :)

What you need?

• 125g butter, chopped
• 200g white chocolate (or more, much more!!)
• 3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten lightly
• 3/4 cup (110g) cake flour
• 1/2 cup (75g) self raising flour
• 100g of white chocolate, extra, chopped
• 1/2 cup (75g) macadamias, toasted and chopped coarsely
• 150g fresh or (thawed) frozen raspberries
• 1 Tbsp of icing sugar, to sprinkle

What you do?

1. Preheat the oven to 180-190C /(or 350-375F).
2. Grease a cake tin, and line with baking paper (which I didn't do... and it turned out alright-ish)
3. Melt the butter and white chocolate in a glass bowl placed above a pot of boiling water, stirring over the low heat, without boiling, until the mixture is lovely and smooth. Cool until just warm.
4. Sitr in the sugar, eggs, sifted flours (and you all know that this is for hardcore bakers only, us lazy one just throw it all in), add in the extra chocolate pieces, nuts and raspberries.
5. Place the mixture into the pan and spread out.
6. Bake for 40 minutes, or until firm, allowing to cool within the pan. Dust with icing sugar, cut into slices and let them sweetly kiss your tastebuds. 

A weekend with you

My weekend spent with Ray by my side meant: sitting in the glorious sunshine eating ice-cream, dreaming about Summer and lazy days spent at the beach, early mornings at church, in awe of God's indescribable forgiveness, working across from each other, you distracting me, tickling my feet, discussing your assignments with me, fascinated and amazed by who you have become, naps on the couch, baking lemon poppy seed cake, driving with the windows wide open, warm breezes filtering through, trying not to stress for my tests, dancing to Matthew Mole, family Sunday lunch spent under the blazing sun, wearing flip flops, laughing while the ice cubes in our glasses melt, discussing wedding plans,  playing with the dog, prayers for strength and focus, making plans, counting the days till graduation... busy times lie ahead, the end of the year, with all its challenges and adventures, rushing upon us whether we are ready or not, wondering if we will make it, but depending not on ourselves... 

Darling

Sunday evening. The weekend is coming to a close. These last few hours are always a mixture of too many things... the sad feelings of knowing that an early morning awaits, of rushing around to finish off your mounds of work and finally admitting defeat for the day and all the great plans that you had made. It is about making sure that you haven't forgotten anything important, but feeling like you have... of whispered conversations on the couch, attempting to hold onto this precious inbetween moment, wrapped in blankets and the warm glow of love, sipping hot chocolate and listening to the rain thunder in the winter darkness.  It is a time of wanting to go to bed early and drift off gently into blissful unconsciousness, yet wanting to stay up late as though tomorrow will never come...

A family tradition is to make pancakes on a Sunday evening after church. Right now I can hear my darling mixing the batter in the kitchen next door, accompanied by the sweet smell of cinnamon, while I finish off my studying. And somehow I feel like I may just make it through this next week...