choc-orange self-saucing pudding recipe

Yummmmm. I was craving jaffas this week but as a vegan who doesn't eat chocolate, I can't have them. So instead I invented a jaffa pudding. I have shown you the mainstream ingredients but my vegan carob version is given in brackets.

Sauce
3/4 cup soft brown sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons cocoa (or carob) powder
1 cup boiling water
juice of 1 orange

Place all ingredients in a greased, high-sided casserole dish and stir until the sugar is melted.

Pudding
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa (or carob) powder
a pinch of salt
grated rind of 1 orange
2 Tablspoons melted butter (or dairy-free margarine)
1/2 cup milk ( or soy/rice milk)

Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
Pour pudding mixture into casserole dish on top of sauce.
Bake for 45 mins at 180C (350F).
Serve warm or cool with icecream.

build a fort

To celebrate the upcoming release of the Where the Wild Things Are movie, Booooooom recently hosted a contest asking people to build and photograph their own Wild Things' Fort. The results were so beautiful, and the day was so rainy, that I decided to give it a try. The result was a very fun morning and a cosy place to play.

Would you care for a cup of invisible tea in a plastic eggshell?

These are some of my favourite official entries:






Happy fort building to you :)

apron dress tutorial

How to make a cute dress for a toddler in less than an hour.
Step 1: Purchase a half apron from your local op shop.
Step 2: Remove the ties from the sides.
Step 3: Re-sew the ties on as shoulder straps, removing any excess.
Step 4: Add a button and button hole at the back.

I even managed to do this while my toddler was awake. Amazing!

I'm sure there's a child somewhere under all that hair ...

Microscopic beauty

It's taken me 35 years to find it, but I am now i rapture over the images from Nikon's "small world" microscope photography competition.

doxorubin by Lars Bech

quantum dot nanocrystals by Seth A. Coe-Sullivan

rat retinal artery by Dr Rong Wen

thin nematic film (liquid crystals) by Dr Oleg D Lavrentovich