Choice, confusion and cake

You would think that being able to freely choose from a wide variety of things would make a task easier. In fact, for me, I found it very difficult. Yesterday I spent almost all day rebuilding my blog template to make it easier to manage. The template I chose before didn't allow me to do certain things, so I thought I had to bite the bullet and set it up for ease of use. I went looking for a new template, found many hundreds of them, but was confused by having so many choices.

I tried a few, and if you were here while I was doing that, I apologise, but kept discarding what I had because I thought the next one would be better, or what I chose was not as good. In the end I deliberately went back to what I knew and made sure the template I chose had all the bells and whistles I need. I started at 8am, finished at 5.30pm, taught myself a little html along the way and ended up with a page very similar to the one I discarded. I still have a lot of additions to get it back to where it was, but at least the choosing part of the process is over. That, my friends, really stumped me. I am by nature a simple soul and don't like too much fuss. I like plain and simple things but most of the templates are very fancy, with lots of widgets. Anyhow, I found one I like, it has everything I need to facilitate long term, easy posting, so I'm happy.

Having all that choice is a lot like recreational shopping. You go into the store looking for 'stuff' and the choice is so overwhelming, you don't know what to buy. In the end you grab a few things, not really knowing that what you have is what you need or want. I'm glad I'm over that phase of my life.

So today I should be able to finish off the blog and get down to some other work. I have a bathroom to clean, bread to bake, floors to sweep and general tidying up on my agenda. Tasha, I smiled when I read your comment about buying a broom, I understand completely. There are certain tasks in the home that represent a break from your old life. A broom is symbolic of that change for me too.

I'm happy to be able to tell you that Shane got a job in Brisbane! Sarndra is still looking but I'm sure she'll find a job soon. At least Shane is working so he will look after them both and when Sarndra gets her job, they'll be able to save. We've been sharing the house with Shane and Sarndra for a few weeks so I have a little bit of reorganising to do today. They still have a lot of their things here but Sarndra is such a good housekeeper, the room they were in is pristine. :- )

I was really pleased to read that so many of you are tending or planning vegetable gardens. If you have a blog with photos, I'd love to see what you're doing. Please leave your link in the comments and I and a few others might come along to see your handy work. I love looking at vegetable gardens.

And finally today I have recipe for you. It's for a delicious lemon yoghurt cake I made last week. The cake started off being a finely textured light fluffy cake but as I had yoghurt in the fridge I added that for extra flavour. Instead of a fluffy sponge-like cake, it was slightly dense in texture, but still light and intensely flavoured with lemon. I will definitely make this cake again. Even after four or five days, it was still very moist and tasty. If you like a very sweet cake, add other ¼ cup of sugar to the mix.

LEMON YOGHURT CAKE

• 6 small to medium eggs OR 4 large eggs
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 180g (6.5 oz) melted butter, cooled
• ¾ cup plain yoghurt
• juice of 3 lemons - take out 3 tablespoons for your icing
• rind of 3 lemons
• 1 ½ cups self-raising flour

ICING

• 3 tbs fresh lemon juice (reserved from cake)
• 20g (4½ teaspoons) butter
• 2 ¼ cups sifted icing sugar

METHOD

• Beat the eggs and sugar together. This is not just mixing, you are beating air into the cake. Keep beating until the mix is a light colour, thoroughly mixed and falls like a ribbon from the beaters.
• Add the yoghurt and mix in. Take the cake mix off the mixer.
  

• Add half the flour and fold in. When you fold, you do that by hand with a spatula or large spoon. Fold the ingredients, don't beat.
  

• Fold in the lemon juice and butter.
• Add the remaining flour and fold in. What you're trying to do with the folding is to keep the air that you beat in the mix, in it. The more air, the lighter it will be.
• Just before you finish, after everything else is done, add one tablespoon of boiling water to the mix. This will keep your cake moist if it's not eaten in the first day.

Pour the mixture into a round normal sized cake pan and bake in a moderate oven 180C (350F) for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick you insert into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool on a rack and then spread the icing. The icing is made by combining all the ingredients and mixing until they're smooth.

I used a slab pan for my cake but it should be cooked in a round pan. I hope you enjoy it.