www.telegraph.co.uk

And sorry, I just had to edit this post because this photo just came to my attention.

www.itv.com

Preschoolers in winter jammies.  Heart.  Melted.

And The Queen turned 90.

www.mirror.co.uk

Here she is cutting the birthday cake Nadiya Hussein (winner of The Great British Bake Off) made for her.  Opinions are divided about the cake, specifically its wonkiness.

Personally, I’m a fan and fellow baker of leaning layer cakes.  They just taste better with a bit of a lean, don’t you think?

www.6abc.com

This is my favourite photo from the official series released for The Queen’s birthday.

Team Lurpak…

In honour of it being the ANZAC Day long weekend, I’ve just made Love Swah’s genius recipe that pays tribute to both ANZAC Day and classic Australian home baking – her ANZAC Caramel Slice
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I used a 20cm square brownie tin and it gave me a pleasantly thick base.  A larger slice tray may have made too thin a base,

There was a bit of parallel play in the kitchen today with me baking the slice and Preschooler SSG honing his cutting skills on some cream cheese (not part of the recipe, just in case you were wondering).

Caramel is always a challenge for me.  I don’t think I’ve gotten it right before.

And here’s the chocolate top layer.  I melted the butter and chocolate together in a kind of double boiler arrangement (glass bowl on top of saucepan of simmering water).  Much easier to manage than trying to do it in the microwave or directly on the stove top.

Not wanting to creep Swah out or anything,  but if she were in my kitchen right now, I’d be giving her a big hug and a high five (complete with choclatey fingerprints and caramel smudges) because look what just happened!

I made a caramel slice that’s looks as close to food stylist grade perfect as I’m ever going to get.  All three of my layers remained cohesive as I sliced and depanning was pretty much atraumatic.

The ANZAC biscuit base works so well here because its not terribly sweet on its own and the chewy texture goes perfectly with the rick caramel and brittle chocolate layer.

www.thereviewfiles.com

I used Lindt’s Arabica Intense for my chocolate layer which actually does taste of coffee (funny that).  I guess that makes sure that this slice now covers all the major food groups necessary for a long weekend snack.

In other news from my kitchen, I’ve been introducing those teff seeds I bought at Costco into my usual breakfasts.

 They have quite a distinct and strong ‘metallic’ odour to them.  Can’t really describe the taste but it wasn’t unpleasant.  It was more their smell that I struggled with.

Then @missdirections on Instagram suggested they were great for baking with so I added them to today’s batch of baked blueberry oats.  Perfect.  Odour eliminated and my favourite autumn breakfast is now fortified with iron and vitamin K.

And my pantry moths are almost all gone thanks to the traps I put in earlier this week.  How’s that for environmentally friendly efficiency.

My next housekeeping goal is defeating the moisture in my wardrobe(s).  Do you reckon these pink Hippos are up to the task?

We can’t have this entire post being about my dressing for comfort and pottering about the kitchen all day, can we?  Let’s end with a bit of Queen B.

While this tank at Top Shop nearly came home with me until I realised it was entirely sheer mesh.

Have you bought anything Ivy Park?  I quite like the look of the leggings but already have so many that are nowhere near being retired.

I actively stretched at the end of this morning’s HIIT at home session.  I really should press pause on my mornings more often to do this.

Will you look at that.  It’s the start of a hole in the bottom of the bag I use to lug all my things to work.  Better spend this long weekend looking for a replacement, then.

Wishing you and yours a restful long weekend and that you have the chance to reflect on the ANZACs in the way that is most meaningful to you at some point over the next few days.