Even when it has been raining, the sky clears to a dramatic slash of rosy gold against dark grey clouds.  It was all enough to almost make me wish I was stuck in the Friday evening peak hour just a little longer so that I could look up at those colours a little more.

 

Not that I’m complaining about the weekend weather.  Can’t you just feel spring in the air already?  Toddler SSG’s been proactive in helping me embrace the change by telling me to wear my black shoes and not my brown ones.  We were on our way to breakfast and the golden rule of toddler club is that if you’re hungry and in need of coffee yourself, you wear those black Nikes and pull together an outfit around it pronto.  Just as well I had those Cotton On skinny track pants at hand.  They’re a match made in heaven for a busy Saturday out and about.

Saturdays are dumpling days as far as Toddler SSG is concerned.

Which is just enough time for us to navigate the complicated lift arrangements at The Chase to run whatever other errands I need to get done.  Like doing a Kiehl’s run and getting some green tea and sushi for my lunch.

This weekend’s mum with a pram department store report comes to you from Kmart.  A store I’d previously thought of as a distant forth to Aldi, Target and Big W.  I’ve been a bit slow in realising what the rest of Australia seems to know already – Kmart has really come a long way in the last couple of years.

The Kmart price point seems to be generally lower than Target’s but they’ve still managed to incorporate key homewares trends in their inventory.  I love these cushions which are a steal at $10 and elsewhere there were mason jars and other little bits and pieces that represented budget friendly ways to pick up on the trends you might have found browsing Pinterest or Instagram the night before in that calm post toddler bedtime routine part of the evening.

But what interested me the most and surprised me most was Kmart’s range of baking tins and trays.  I was looking for a smallish loaf pan (reason why will follow later in this post) and hadn’t had much luck finding one at Coles or Woolies.  It turns out that Kmart has a whole aisle devoted to both metal and silicone baking accessories, most of which cost $5 or less.

Kmart loaf pans – silicone and metal, $5 each.

I put my new heavy gauge loaf pan to the test with this Stroopwafel cake mix from Aldi.  Thank you to a kind blog reader who reminded me that I did in fact need to add extra syrup wafers to the cake mix – before I’d eaten my entire packet of 8 wafers.

In comparison to Australian cake mixes, the Stroopwafel cake goes hard on eggs and butter.  You need 4 eggs and 200g of butter.

Plus 4 syrup wafers cut into 1cm squares.

There are little bits of wafer and syrup already in the mix but the added wafers add texture and prettiness to the cake.

I baked my cake at 140C (fan forced) for close to 90 minutes in a greased and floured loaf pan.

The kitchen smelled of caramel as the cake baked.  Which isn’t a bad thing on a sunny winter’s afternoon.

Cooling instructions  were very precise.  The tin has to be placed on a baking rack with a tea towel over the loaf for half an hour.

Will you have a look at the loaf pan!

My loaf turned perfectly.  No chunks of cake left in the pan (despite it being such a sweet and syrupy cake) and such an even golden crust too!

Not bad for $5.

The cake is served at room temperature and it’s basically the love child of butter cake and waffles.  The cake itself is buttery, dense and very rich.  The syrup and wafers add just enough texture and sweetness.  It reminds me of Indonesian layer cake in terms of its taste.

And on that note, I’m off to enjoy the sun as I put something called Lamb Obsession into my slow cooker for dinner.  Yes, that really is a can of cream of mushroom soup, a packet of French Onion soup mix, mint sauce and Worcestershire sauce in the photo.  I’m intrigued as to how this is going to turn out….