TODAY LONDON NEXT WEEK PARIS

a.k.a. My Love Affair With the Macaron

So how many people have I told the same story to over and over

I'M GOING TO PARIS TO LE CORDON BLEU TO LEARN "THE SECRET OF MACARONS".

I was talking to Mum on the phone this morning asking her "What other kind of cake is hard and a bit fiddly that you have to practice loads to get perfect and even go to a class?" and she said "Profiteroles?" I told her I already made those and they were easy. Maybe not perfect, but successful enough on the first go to not feel challenged. Sponge cake - I have totally cracked it. I have struggled with cannellés and clafoutis - maybe that is the kind of thing - but nothing like a macaron. If you serve a macaron, people are amazed and always say "HOW DO YOU DO THIS? Is there a mould? Do you drop it into something hot? How do you get it so smooth?" etc etc etc. Anyway I have no clue as to what I will learn in Paris but I am getting HELLISHLY excited. And I feel a bit sick/nervous about it. The confirmation letter even tells you what you have to wear in the kitchen.

So - with this level of thrill in mind let me tell you first of all about Mrs K MEETING PIERRE HERME at the new Selfies consession where she had to photograph him for work. I had about 5 missed calls from her that day as she attempted to tell me "MOVE YOUR ASS HERE IMMEDIATELY" and as I said in my previous post about it [and apparently MISQUOTED and then got berated for it afterwards and I told her "Okay woah like fine but I will just blow it up all over the blog about how you yelled at me LOL brb gtg my nbff just logged on bye".

Oh Buddah where was I? Oh - about to eat this gift of personally selected macarons by Mrs K from Pierre Hermés own hand.





Here are a few views of the macarons at The Cardinals house. Please note the china. Also in bottom photo bottom left please note the sliver of marmite toast available for palate cleansing.



You may remember if you even care, these were the ones I had in Paris when I was there last from Pierre Hermé shortly after getting silly stringed by three pre teens on a skateboard outside the the Pierre and Marie Curé University mineral and gem museum.

So The Cardinal and I were in a gifted position to be able to truly assess the macarons in the privacy of her living room in front of an open fire, sipping Earl Grey Tea from china cups and a variety of cutlery to best perform the operations of peeling apart the layers.



Not the first time I have done this. Remember Nantes?



Sorry lost in a K-HOLE of macaron reminiscing and checking on the Danish cabbage in the kitchen.

Back to Pierre Hermé. There seems to be a whole divide between Pierre Hermé vs Ladurée and who's is better and whatever. I am going to say that on the whole, I prefer Ladurée. I like to know that what is labelled as Rose is going to taste like Rose. Admittedly I do admire the adventure of P.H.'s "collections" but I think the ratio there is too much filling to macaron and I am not a big fan of chocolate & fruit together at the best of times. I think they are both marvellous though. The only macarons I ever that that were awful were the ones in Nantes - the really tasted like lipstick, shampoo and shower gel.

With all this preamble, lets get ourselves to Sunday afternoon when I had a tea at The Crib with a selection of O.G.'s in attendance: Covvo, Alex T [the sub editor], Ella, Fi and the Cardinal. Hobart was also there but her presence was only felt when she scratched the Cardinal and singed her whiskers on a candle. For my guests I presented my take on cream cheese & radish and egg mayonaisse & quails egg sandwiches. Followed by a selection of macarons made in my own exclusive kitchen and two cakes. Oh and Champagne and tea.



These were Bailey's and Hazelnut. Total fail in my opinion but Alex T was more than happy to take the ones we didn't eat home with him at the end.



These were Campari and Blood orange on the left and Lavender on the right. Both lovely.



These were Basil, Pinenut & Honey with Lime. They totally cleaned up. Unfortunately they are a visual fail - see the brown bit? Slightly over done but did not affect taste.

The success of these makes me feel a bit less nervous about the class in Paris. I have to say, I had a very jolly afternoon after heinous weeks at work. The cookbook was planned. I will even be doing a chapter on Chinese food. It will be one page long.

"Don't fuck with it and leave it to the Chinese."

Although since then, I have been thinking about macaron recipes on that theme.

My lunch is ready now - braised fennel and Danish cabbage. I'm going to go eat it. You can be rest assured that I will be reporting back in detail from Paris all about how I go. PLUS I have been in touch with Goon already to discuss the restaurants we will be visiting! YERRRRRR.

xx Lektrogirl

Boys Baseball Team

Boys Baseball Team, originally uploaded by discoverblackheritage.

HOBART HATING BALLOONS

Hobart Hating Balloons, originally uploaded by Lektrogirl.

This is how I feel about the snow.

xx Lektrogirl

THE FAMOUS DORA

Dora The Ignorer, originally uploaded by Lektrogirl.

Hi Everyone

I just want to introduce you to Dora. She is on the phone, she doesn't have a crook shoulder. She was on the phone to her Pastor [the nice one]. There was a Pastor from Ghana who phoned her later over a little bottle of oil that she didn't even want that he said she owed 2 million for [Ghana money] and he said he will curse her and he she thinks that she is powerful but only Jesus is powerful but he will put a curse on her. Then he ran out of credit and had to hang up. We laughed. Then Dora got on the phone and rang this man in Ghana. I swear. I NEVER want to fall out with Dora.

This picture was taken before I spilled a kilo of flour all over her while we baked together. I showed her how to make genoese sponge. I made one and it stuck in the tin. She ate the whole thing, handful by handful in one go while it was still warm.

She doesn't always wear that wig. Her sister did it for her. [Not her real sister - just like Joe who called from Birmingham is not her real brother although to have a real brother who went to The Netherlands to buy a Hummer to sell in Ghana in the Summer probably wouldn't be bad but Joe is not a real brother cause he is only a friend of an Aunty who is not even a real Aunty.]

The conversation she was having with the nice Pastor here in London was about a white couple who separated and the man got custody of the kid cause the woman is a "drunka".

xx Lektrogirl

T.O.T.A.L. MEGA OOMMGG

Mrs Kipling met Pierre Herme today at Selfridges. She said I'd shit when she told me who she met. Not only me, but when I told Cards, she did too!

AMM 553

AMM 553, originally uploaded by otisarchives1.

I don't like posting pictures in portrait. I prefer landscape.

WISH I COULD GO TO WORK LIKE THIS TODAY!

Vintage Photo, originally uploaded by fun old new.

EDIROL V4 VIDEO VJ MIXER FOR SALE £550

PERFECT CONDITION!!

On sale on eBay now.

THE BOOYAH COOK: GODESS

One day I will bother explaining the ins and out of what it has been like living with Bipolar Mood Affective Disorder [aka Manic Depression that most people use - albeit incorrectly] but frankly it is a drag and a drain IRL so never really feel like blowing the trumpet online. But today as a absolute forced activity to get myself off the sofa I decided to work on my cake invention recipe and perfect it in the aim of sharing it with all of you. I can say categorically that cake eating Hayley at work has nominated this her favourite. She can elucidate her thoughts on every cake I every made and everything that goes into her mouth infinitum so truss, yeah. She knows.

So after today's success I feel confident to announce The Booyah Cook has achieved some earth bound status - NOW KNOW AS GODDESS!!



Since then I have been with Sean Combs on a jet ski in Miami, making it rain up and down the strip in LA, my life is like a movie but if it looks like I'm having more fun than you then sue me. ETC.

MY CAKE
In concept is my favourite bits from different kinds of cakes: super moist vanilla sponge, fresh fruit, clafoutis-esque, lasts a long time. I have tried both a cherry one and a blackberry one. I think it will work with anything like mulberries, figs, fresh apricots or peaches, nectarines - strawberries would taste good but they would look rank.


Cherry

1] Grease a 9 inch / 23 cm (ideal size for BDL's) circular cake tin and dust it with flour. It has to be a loose bottomed or spring loaded tin or when you get the cake out all the fruit is gonna mush up.

2] Preheat the oven to about 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F

I would like to say "freestyle freestyle" but the science of silkience will not adjust [remember that ad or is it just Australian? Mrs G?] when it comes to baking cakes. If a recipe recommends a particular tin at certain temperature, and you change either of those things it will impact on your recipe. Maybe even instant fail you.

3] With electric beaters cream together 120g butter and 120g castor sugar.
If you never made a cake before, this means mix the two together until the colour changes to a lighter shade and smooths into a paste and isnt all crumbly sugar and icing any more. Can take anything between 5 - 8 minutes.

4] Add two eggs. Get on the beating again. Mix until the colour changes again. It will end up pretty pale. Takes about 5-6 mins after adding the egg.

5] Add 240 grams of plain flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Mix it in with a spoon or spatula. Don't using the electric beaters now. The beaters will over work the flour and make it "tough" and you will end up with a loaf of flat bread. When you have mixed in all the flour, you will have a kind of doughy looking mixture though.

6] Mix in 6 drops of vanilla essence and 200 mls of creme fraiche with the spoon. It is still gonna be a doughy looking mixture. If you think it is too dry, add 10 mls of milk / water / alcohol whatever but not more.

7] Tip the mixture in the tin and spread it with the back of the spoon to the edges. Doesn't have to be smooth, just kind of level.

8] Cover the top with whatever fruit you want. You are going to bake your cake for a fairly long time. So don't put anything too small on it and the cake needs to rise underneath the weight of the fruit so make small slices of peaches or whatever. Try the blackberries first though. Awesome!

9]Put the cake in the oven for 40 minutes. It will most likely have to go in again. Everyone's oven is different so maybe 40 minutes will be enough. Test like this: Use a skewer and prick the cake right to the bottom in the centre of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean, then the cake should be done. If there is any goo, put it in for another 15 minutes.

If the middle is gooey but the top has turned brown, turn your oven down 10-20 degrees before shoving the cake back in for the second go in the oven.

10] Leave the cake too cool a bit in the tin before turning it out. Then leave it on a rack to cook completely before you dust it with icing sugar you sprinkle on through a sieve.


Blackberry

The end.

Yum.



The icing sugar will eventually dissolve into the cake after a while with the moisture. It isn't even really important to put it on there. Whatever you want!

BOOYAH

xx Lektrogirl

SPOILT FOR CHOICE

Listening to Snoop Dogg, eating pistachio icecream and checking these out:







And another 10 pages of them on my flickr.

THE INDIGNITY

Ted modelling Cabbage Patch Kid Clothes, originally uploaded by Lektrogirl.

Here I am at my age already making clothes from my niece's Cabbage Patch Kid doll. Hang on a minute - her dolls are actually the dolls my sister and I had. Weird deja vu.

The model you see here though is Ted. [Also known as Little Ted cause I had Big Ted too.] Ted I got on the day I was born. He has suffered a lot through his life but seems to be still going. Ted is wearing the latest in Cabbage Patch Couture made by the hands of yours truly out of some old scarf I had. Secretly wishing I could have a similar dress in my size, including dogs as big as me on the front. I tried to get it on Hobart but she was having none of it. Instead she crept up from behind and jumped onto me clinging to my back like a backpack. The pain. The pain.


The other night I went to Westfields with Cardinal. We had a stroll through Miu Miu like we were actually going to buy something. I looked at some dykey sandals that were pretty hot in a Homey Peds kind of way. But I probably could get some Homey Peds identical except they wouldn't be made from crocodile leather would they?
We then went to the champagne bar and had some blush champagne.
I bought a lipstick.
Then we had dinner.
Then we went to Waitrose.
Then I came home and cried.

I need to go check on a cake. Laters. If the cake worked, a new Booyah Cook section coming.

xx Lektrogirl

STRONG LOOK

BUMED 09-8131-9, originally uploaded by otisarchives1.

TIPS FOR DIY

There are two very very important things that I tell myself every time after completing a home DIY project. And I forget every time when it comes round to do the next project. Let me share them with you and maybe you will benefit from this knowledge.

1] NEVER use the screws supplied for fixtures that are to go into mortar. The heads of the screw always "melt", even with a hand screw driver, making it impossible to get the screw in or out. ALWAYS buy your own screws from the hardware store.

2] SNOOP DOGG & DR DRE are the two best artists to listen to while performing DIY tasks. Their soundtracks provide reasonable aggression, humour and focus and put you into the right frame of mind / swagger to get any job done in minimal time.

Thanks for listening.

xx Lektrogirl

P.S. If you have not cracked up at "I Love The DJ" by R Kelly yet, take a look on YouTube and you sure will.

ABENA NOW

Today Dora taught me about baby names in Ghana. I was born on Tuesday so my name is Abena. And if I was a boy, it would have been Kwabena. Then I taught Dora / Afia how to use youtube and we looked at a lot of Christiana Love and Profit Seth videos. I was asking her about the Hiplife videos and she told me "They smoke marjuana these ones." And then she told me about her son Festus who made a rap demo.




Christiana Love is a pastors wife. She does not dress appropriately for church and she dances like a normal person and not like a pastors wife. Apparently.


I love Kwaku's voice. And Seth in this video is Profit Seth. And Seth used to be in Dora's church back in Ghana.

xx Abena