Spring Photos

Spring is finally here! Actually with the hot weather it feels more like early summer, lol. Winter seemed long this year, so I was pleased when we started getting better weather. Today I'm sharing some recent pictures I took in the park and at the beach. :)

Apple blossom (I think) trees in Hove Park

Easter 2018

This year for Easter I baked the frosted white chocolate Easter cake that I made last year, and a few years before that as well. It has white chocolate in the sponge and cream cheese icing. For more on the cake and the recipe visit this post: http://livingseasonal.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/frosted-white-chocolate-easter-cake.html

Here is a picture of this year's cake:

Oestara 2018

Last Tuesday was Oestara aka Ostara and the Spring Equinox. As I mentioned in my Celebrating Oestara and Spring post I baked a white chocolate Malteser cake. Here's the recipe: https://goodfood.uktv.co.uk/recipe/white-chocolate-malteser-cake/

I couldn't find white Maltesers so I just used ordinary ones for the top of the cake. I put Cadbury Mini Eggs on top as well. The recipe requires Malteser drinking chocolate, so I put in two 50g sachets and I used Tesco white chocolate for the icing. It came out quite nice. Here's a picture:

Celebrating Oestara + Spring

At the beginning of the month I wrote a post on getting ready for spring. You can read that here:
http://livingseasonal.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/getting-ready-for-spring.html

Now it's almost officially here, Tuesday 20th March is the Spring Equinox, the first day of spring. It's also Oestara (or Ostara), so I thought I'd do a post on celebrating both Oestara and spring in general. :)

Note: If you're in the Southern Hempishere, Madron (or Mabon) and autumn are coming up for you. In that case you may like this post: http://livingseasonal.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/madronautumn-equinox-celebration-ideas.html


Ironically we're having wintry weather again, like when I wrote my post about getting ready for spring! We're having what they're calling the "Mini beast from the East" in the UK. It's around 0 degrees Celsius (32F) here in Sussex and is snowing as I write this. But hopefully spring isn't too far away!


Oestara Ideas

Last year I wrote a post on Oestara and Spring Equinox celebration ideas. Check it out here: http://livingseasonal.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/oestaraspring-equinox-celebration-ideas.html

Getting Ready for Spring

Back in December I did a post on getting ready for winter. You can read that here: http://livingseasonal.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/getting-ready-for-winter.html

Now that spring is coming (in the Northern Hemisphere, those in the Southern might like the winter post), it's time to do one on preparing for spring. Well, you could say spring is already here because like with winter (see linked post), there are two days considered to be the official start of spring- "meteorological spring" which is 1st March and "astronomical spring" which is on 20th March. The 2nd one is also the date of Oestara aka the Spring Equinox, which is always around this date. You can read more about it here: https://www.kentlive.news/whats-on/whats-on-news/first-day-spring-2018-1239047

My birthday is on actually 1st March and I like to think that it's in spring, but it's only really the very beginning of spring and technically the end of winter. I was born in Swaziland in Southern Africa though, and their seasons are different, so I was born towards the end of summer there!

Right now I'm ready for winter to be over, lol. I'm more of a summer/warm weather person and don't like the cold. However, since we don't get snow very often it is nice to get it for a change and we've just had a lot of snow in the UK. When I started this it was the coldest week in February in 5 years and it seemed ironic to be writing about spring! Some days it was around -2C (around 28F) and colder at night. Now it's warming up a bit with daytime temperatures around 7C. So it's starting to feel more like spring!

Red Velvet Brownies + Pancakes

I recently baked some red velvet brownies and also last week was Pancake Day and I made some pancakes, so I thought write about both in a post. :)


Red Velvet Brownies

I made these the weekend before last. The recipe is from the current issue of Co-op magazine. Here's the link to the online version: https://main-coopfoodmagazine-rivergroup.content.pugpig.com/2018/01/11/food-news-8/pugpig_index.html

They came out quite nice. I've baked red velvet cake a couple of times but it hasn't come out that well for some reason! (I plan to try again in future). These were nice though. The only thing is they weren't red, even though I actually put more food colouring than it said by accident! I think they're supposed to have a red tinge. Never mind, lol. Here's a pic:

Imbolg 2018

It was Imbolg (aka Imbolc) on Friday (2nd February) and as I mentioned in my Imbolg Celebration Ideas post I made pancakes (English pancakes, also known as crepes). This year I used a recipe from BBC Good Food and they came out really nice. I was happier with them than last years! lol. Here's the recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2907669/easy-pancakes

The only different thing to what I normally use was vegetable oil in the batter. (You can use sunflower or vegetable oil). They had a nice taste and texture, I ate them with lemon and sugar and had Ben Shaw's cloudy lemonade to drink. I'd like to make them again for Pancake Day on 13th Feb. Here's a picture: