Traditional Cornish Pasty

That may or may not be a little touch up patch on the front right..pretend you don't see it! :)

If you have never been to Cornwall then you might well never have had a real Cornish pasty. This is the sad truth! Everywhere I go there are very yummy looking Cornish pasties in very yummy smelling bakeries, and yes they may sometimes be 'ok' but I am yet to find one that is traditional. More often than not they are made using a mushy minced mixture...that's just a blasphemy in Cornwall! There are a few things that make a Cornish Pasty the real deal -

1. The 'D' shape

2. Crimped on one side

3. Filling is created from roughly cut, uncooked chunks of beef, onion, swede and potato

4. Seasoning is a happy amount of pepper and salt

5. Robust pastry that can hold it's shape in the oven/cooling (used to be a ready 'packed lunch' for workers)

6. Sadly the one point I cannot achieve at the moment, has to be made in Cornwall!

Paul Hollywood's Bloomer

Once upon a time I didn't eat bread for a year to see if I could lose a bit of the wobble around the waistline. I cannot conceive myself ever repeating this act of craziness again, I do not know how I managed it in the first place. Bread is a staple for me, something I am not advocating as a particularly healthy thing but...pish posh to that. Fresh bread from the oven with a little dot of butter melting in, unbeatable! I hadn't made bread for a verrrryyy long time, but now I am settled down again in a place with an oven (woop!) I decided to give it a go. As soon as this loaf emerged in all its yumminess I vowed not to buy bread for the next 6 or so months I will be living here (rather than in a van, a bit of a hindrance on the ol' baking that is). Yes it is not a quick fix and does require a few hours, but realistically it is SO easy! If you haven't made bread before, well you really should change that right now, if only for the amazing smell that will make your neighbours jealous :)

Oh-So Good Berry and Citrus Muffins

I would like to start by saying I have made these muffins a lot over the past 4 or so months, the most popular muffins I bake at the cafe/lounge bar I work at, and therefore one of the most tried and tested recipes on this blog! It's a good'un I promise, often requested by locals here. This recipe I found on Mel's Kitchen Cafe titled 'The Best Blueberry Muffins', for her to call it the best you know it's going to be dang good. So if you haven't tried this recipe yet give it a go, if people are willing to pay good money for them here then hopefully it's a winner!

Makeover Time!

Hello everyone! :) Sorry it's been so long and also that I have a rather boring little post for you without any recipes! Just a quick note to explain the overhaul on the blog image, in the near future you might notice quite a lot of templates being trialed on the blog. This is because it sadly seems my old template decided to go a bit funny on me so forcing a (probably much needed) makeover! So until I find one and settle with it I may have a bit of fun finding the new theme for 'The Procrastobaker' :)

As a quick update whilst I'm here; currently still in Paihia, Bay of Islands with my lovely other half Pete. We both are working in a lounge bar/cafe on the waterfront and I bake the muffins every morning I work which is brilliant! Learning a lot and have some aweessommee recipes I can't wait to share with you! I also work as a cook/host/general boat-y on a lunch/dinner cruise that goes around the bay, so all in all we are having lots of fun working and are now planning our next adventure to the South Island, hopefully to work in a ski resort over winter :)

Will try my hardest to be a better blogger and maybe this template failure was a not so subtle nudge back to you all! If you have any opinions on any templates I trial please do comment to let me know :)

Much love

Sasha xxx

Raspberry and Chocolate Muffins (plus some muffin tips!)

Why hello there! It has been a while I apologise, a fair bit of news but will stick to the essentials and will try my hardest to curb my rambling habit.
Firstly, my partner Pete and I have found ourselves in Paihia, Bay of Islands, in New Zealand's Northern island. It is absolutely stunning here, quite a small town but a major tourist spot in the busy summer season. After buying a campervan in Auckland we traveled up the East coast and decided to stop off here to find work for over the summer period. We were both very lucky in finding jobs, Pete as a barista/waiter in a lounge bar on the wharf, and myself as a pasta cook/waitress in an Italian restaurant. I have learnt an awful lot and it has been amazing so far. I feel so lucky to have landed a cooking job that required no previous professional experience. To begin with I was 100% certain I wasn't going to be able to cope, contemplating bailing after the first few days! But I really am proud of how, after nearly 2 months, I feel confident with my abilities in that kitchen and have even helped train up others. So it has been a big learning curve!

At Pete's work place, tea time treats like muffins are a big seller with the tea and coffee. Every morning a fresh batch of muffins is made, and with a bit of hanging around and hint dropping I have managed to land myself the task of morning muffin maker! :) As I work nights, I have all day free to hang around Pete's work place, helping free of charge but probably just making a nuisance out of myself!

Greetings from New Zealand!

Hello lovely readers! Sadly I was running round frantically trying to sort my unorganised self out for my travels so I ran out of time to say a temporary farewell before I left. But here I am now to say Kia Ora (hello in Maori) and to let you know a little more about what I am doing at the moment :)

I stayed for a week, with Pete, at a friend-of-a-friends just North of Auckland. The couple we stayed with are absolutely lovely and incredibly helpful, having moved from the UK 50 or so years back and been here ever since, so they had a lot of really useful information for us naive folk.

The people here so far seem wonderful! Very friendly indeed. Money wise we are a little short at the moment as my funds haven't transferred from my account in the UK, it seems it has got lost in the electronic world somewhere which is worrying us rather a lot! But Petes money came through so I am a kept woman at the moment!

No-Bake Vanilla Cheesecake with Passionfruit

For the last night at our house in Nottingham I thought it would be nice to make a large meal we could all share and eat together. A couple of weeks before hand Pete and I made a lamb hotpot and it was love at first taste...rich, slightly sweet, melt in the mouth and just packed with flavour. One of the other housemates tried a forkful and was rather envious to say the least, the noises that he made were..to be honest..slightly disturbing! He was absolutely adamant we had to make it again as our goodbye meal, along with the homemade garlic bread that went with it perfectly. So we did! And the pudding for this meal is the recipe I am dying to share with you today :)

The same housemate has been bugging me all year for me to make a passionfruit cheesecake. He is not a big sweet eater but said he tried a version of this dessert in a restaurant long ago and the memory of it had remained with him ever since..I had promised him I would give it a good go, no pressure on recreating a favourite hey! My instructions were that it must have a plain cheesecake base, a no-bake basic filling and a passionfruit topping. So off I set trying to find something that would live up to his expectations..