.

Dearest readers, I would like to first of all apologize for not updating my blog much lately. I’ll report soon, I hope. But in the meantime, I would like to introduce you to my dearest, dearest friend of 14 years, Mr Jason Hindley.

.

Jason is a photographer, an award(s)-winning one in fact. He’s also a very relaxed, good bloke too, & always very generous & buys me drinks! ^^ (Lol! Now it’s set in public domain, you’d better keep to it J! Lol! ) – On a serious note now, his photographic talent is awe-inspiring. He once took a picture of me when I was about 22, with a mohican-style quiff do. It got used for a calendar I think. Yesss, I’m officially a calendar-girl!! Ha! One day, when I’m wrinkled & want to look back on my youthful looks, I’ll show it to you. – – Anyway, I hope you’d agree from the sample pics here that he’s damn good at what he does… Respect to the man.

.

In aid of the Japan Tsunami disaster, he’ll be exhibiting & selling his collection of 100 images taken in Japan at ‘theprintspace gallery’ in Shoreditch, London. All proceeds from the print sales will go to the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal. The exhibition will provide a rare opportunity to purchase the exhibited prints at an affordable charity price.

.

The private view (which you are most definitely welcome to) will be on next Thursday, 19th of May, from 7pm to 10pm.

It’s at theprintspace gallery, 74 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DL.

And then the exhibition will run from the 20th of May until 3rd of June.

.

I’m gonna be the first in queue to get in that night to snap up a print. I hear that there’ll also be raffle tickets & stuff too. It’ll be fun & it’s all for charidy!!

I hope to see you there. xxx

.

Update 22/04/11:

Hi! I’ll be at the market tomorrow (23rd), so I hope to see you there! All the best, t xxx

.

Hi… Just a very quick note to say that I won’t be working this week… Sorry for letting you know in such last minute… I hope I haven’t messed up anyone’s plans on visiting… – There’s a good reason why I can’t work, but…, I don’t feel like telling you until the situation has calmed down. Perhaps I can tell you at the end of the week.

… Sorry.

(plus a general update at the end)

.

x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x .x . x . x .x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x

Please note:

I am not going to be at the market on the 9TH & THE 30TH OF APRIL! I’m sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused to your plans… Sorry.

x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x .x . x . x .x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x

.

.

Hello everyone!

I’m going to share with you today a cake recipe that is not mine, but from one of my family’s favourite & thumbed through Japanese children’s story book we have at home.

.

If you’re a seasoned reader of this blog, you’d know that this is the second time that I’ve written about a recipe from a children’s book (read the first one here). I love collecting (good) recipe books to add to my huge library of anything baking related, & that obsession extends to the choice of books I buy for my children! Biased I know (!), but why not? ^^ I would love for my children to like baking as much as I do. And in fact, let me tell you, my son’s first ever cinema film was Pixar’s Ratatouille back in 2007, because I wanted food to be part of his milestone experience. Although… then again, maybe the truth was that we went because I myself simply couldn’t wait ’til it came out on DVD…? ;) Lol.

.

The book title is “クマくんのはちみつぶんぶんケーキ” (Kuma-kun no hachimitsu buun buun keiki) which translates to something like “Boy bear’s honey buzz buzz cake”. It is published in 1994, & is written by Machiko Yagyu.

.

The story is about a bear who wants to make the honey buzz buzz cake (what a great name!), so helps out at Mrs.Bee’s to get some honey for it. On return home, he meets a family of pigs & he invites them around for a cake party. Here, there is the highlight joke of the book, when the piglets can’t say part of the cake name “buun buun” (Japanese way of saying buzz buzz), & says “buu buu” (Japanese way of saying oink oink). If you’re a Japanese kid, it is the most hilarious bit I assure you.

.

(the illustrated recipe page.)

(Boy bear with his bee & piggie friends have a tea party outside with pink tablecloth. – For my cake picture at the top of this post, I followed Boy bear’s choice with pink tablecloth! But I’d like to think I’m one up on him for the beehive-like hexagon design! )

.

Boy bear’s honey buzz buzz cake is delightfully homesome. There is one caution though – as it bakes in the oven, the aroma of honey will waft tantalizingly, teasing us in to a drool monster by the time it is ready. And if you only knew how scrumptious it really is, it’s hard not to dig in as soon as it is out of the oven. Trust a honey-lovin’ bear to know a seriously good honey cake I say!

.

Combined with the ease of the recipe, I have made this cake a number of times without fail, even with the children! – – Although, as you can see from the chaotic pictures below, at times there were too many hands wanting to do the same thing, & it does get messy… When baking with children, best to take a deep breath & not be too fussy I suppose, so long as they’ve washed their hands! – (I’m a hygiene freak!)

.

About the science behind the recipe:

Honey has the ability to attract & hold moisture (hygroscopy). This makes the cake moist. Honey is also relatively acidic, & together with the sour cream which is also an acidic ingredient, it tenderizes the gluten formed in the batter.

.

The bicarbonate of soda in the recipe reacts to the acidic ingredients & produces carbon dioxide gas which lifts the cake upwards as it tries to escape. During the time in the oven, the flour gluten structures ‘pillars’ that hold the cake in it’s risen height. A noteworthy point here though is that the bicarbonate of soda starts doing it’s magic at 80 degrees+ (wiki), so you’d think that you would have time to prepare leisurely, but as the recipe also calls for baking powder which reacts straight away from when in contact with moisture (the batter), you will be required to work quick once the BP is mixed in.

.

You might have noticed that the oven temperature is set at 140 degrees compared to the usual 180. That’s because honey caramelizes at a lower temperature than sugar, & it browns more than baked cakes made with granular sugar. The lower oven temperature will prevent the cake from over-browning.

.

For this cake recipe, I recommend using ‘clear’ honey with all-round taste, & NOT any of the more distinctive bold flavoured ones. I once tried baking this cake with eucalyptus honey, & it was not good. If this cake recipe works for you, perhaps next time play around with different honeys – the amount of fructose honey has is different in every one of them & subsequently the sweetness too will differ.

.

One last point – don’t feed honey to children under the age of one – honey has high fructose content, & the botulinum spores in it may be hazardous.

.

x . x . x . x .x . x .x . x .x . x .x . x .x . x .x . x .x . x .x . x .x . x .x . x

.

“Boy bear’s honey buzz buzz cake” Recipe:

.

Ingredients:

• 140g of unsalted butter
• 140cc/ml of clear honey
• 140g of sour cream (or if not, double cream apparently, but I have to admit I never tried)
• 2 medium sized eggs
• 200g of plain flour
• 7g of baking powder
• 2g of bicarbonate of soda
• 25g plus of almond flakes
• Icing sugar to dust the top

.

Prepare:

• an 8 inch (20cm) spring-form cake tin. Butter the sides & the bottom, then line it with baking paper.
• preheat the oven to 140 degrees.

.

Method:

.

• 1. Cube the unsalted butter & microwave until soft. (I recommend microwaving in 10 second increments & checking that you haven’t over-melted it. Here, ‘soft’ is when you can easily dip your finger in to it & it feels soft like mayonnaise.
• 2. Whisk the butter to incorporate air. Do it until the butter is lighter in colour.
• 3. Add 140cc of clear honey. Thoroughly mix it in.
• 4. Add 140 grams of sour cream (or double cream). Thoroughly mix it in.
• 5. Add 2 medium sized eggs. Thoroughly mix it in.
• 6. Sift the dry ingredients in. 200 grams of plain flour, 7 grams of baking powder & 2 grams of bicarbonate of soda.
• 7. Fold it in.
• 8. Pour the batter in to the cake tin & spread it out nicely.
• 9. Sprinkle 25 grams of flaked almonds.
• 10. Sieve icing sugar on top. Here, sieve more than you think it requires!)
• 11. Place in pre-heated oven of 140 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes, or until your cake-skewer comes out clean.

.

.

x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x .x . x . x .x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x

.

A little update on how things are doing:

.

Exactly a week after the Japan earthquake & tsunami, my daughter S turned three. That Sunday, we celebrated with a small party. The birthday cake was our family’s one & only option for birthdays, which is the genoise cake with cream & strawberry. It was put together very quickly on that Sunday morning, while chaotically tidying the house before the guests arrive. You could probably tell the stress on my face in the first picture on the left! Lol!

.

Last week, there was a little incident when our son ‘I’ turned out to be a bit of a fundraiser himself. He handed out ten of the Japan charity badges to his class-mates without my knowing, & asked them to bring one pound each. He meant well I know, but asking for money from children is not good, so I emailed the parents to tell them what happened & tried to recover the badges. Nice thing about it was that most parents just donated money instead of returning, & so in the end, my son raised eleven pounds! – Upon this incident, I realized that our son is perhaps just as affected by the news of Japan as I am…, & wanted to help. Perhaps I ought to have been a bit more careful when watching the news on telly…

.

There’s two bits of news:

One: all donations from the badge sales & from the donation box on my stall will go to THE RED CROSS from now on. They are doing such a fantastic job out there. Subsequently, I am now going to shut down the fundraising page I set up 3 weeks ago on First Giving for the Save The Children charity. May I take this final opportunity to thank once again to those of you who have donated! Thank you!! xoxo You are all very special people…! I love you!

The total fund raised is… (drum rolls please…!!) a whopping 3,699 dollars! Woohoo! Yay, baby!!!

.

Two: As I wrote at the beginning of this post, I will not be at the market on the 9th & the 30th of April. The first one because I can’t get child-care, & the second date, because it is my 35th birthday!!! ^^ Also, it’s because the day before, the 29th is the Royal wedding, & my road is doing a street party & I’m not one to miss it! ^^

.

がんばれ日本。がんばれ東北。

(Don’t give up Japan, go for it East-North)

.

First of all, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to those of you who have donated so far. Currently, as at 22nd of March, we have raised $3,160!!!!!! For the UK readers amongst you, that’s £1,943. I thank you for being so generous. I also would like to thank those of you who have blogged, tweeted, facebooked, or sent mass emails to your friends about the relief. When I set about organizing this, I didn’t expect half as much as it has achieved. And it’s all down to the generosity you have shown.

.

That said, the call for funds is far from over.

Currently, even after ten days since the earthquake, people in the worst affected area are still without heat, electricity, running water, regular meals or for some, no word from their loved ones. The official death toll is currently 8,277, with 12,272 still missing. Nearly 500,000 people are homeless. Japan is still very much in it’s urgent state. They are still battling to gain control over the dangerous situation at the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Worries are abound especially for harmful levels of radiation. I well-up when I see children tested for radio-activity by those masked & suited workers, it really feels unreal. When I hear that some have resorted to drinking swimming pool water & pond water…, I can’t believe it is happening in Japan.

.

Japan is facing a herculean task to recover & rebuild. But I know that the Japanese people have the remarkable capacity to face natural calamity stoically. In Japan’s time of great need, please let’s continue to do our best to help!

.

I now have a donation box at my stall. It was my first time to do it last week, & it has raised $51.68. The generosity that Broadway Market goers have shown is amazing ~ thank you!

.

.

This weekend, my friend H successfully persuaded a badge maker to make 1000 of these badges for free. The text on these tiny badges (it’s a size of a £1 coin) says “Ganbaré Nippon. Ganbaré Touhoku.”. It means something like “Don’t give up Japan, go for it East-North”. I love the simple design of just a red circle. Pin this dinky thing to a plain coloured top & it looks very stylish. I’ll be selling 50 of these for £1 each at the market stall next week, & if they sell well I might order more from her.

.

The Japanese word “ganbaré” is one of my all-time favorite words. It’s a difficult one to translate in to English though ~ there doesn’t seem to be a direct translation. It could mean any of these below, it just varies on the context the word is used:

try hard

hang in there / hang tough

good luck

be stronger

stick with it

do your best

don’t give up

.

As you can see, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, but it does have a core theme – to wish someone well & to send strength their way. Apparently, the Chinese translation to ganbaré is ‘Jiayou’, written in these symbols: 加油. First symbol means ‘add’, the second means ‘fuel’. (wiki) I like that they put those two symbols together like that. It captures the spirit of the message well.

.

Like I say, ganbaré as a word is special for me.

When I was about 10, I had to do a swimming test at school. It was to swim two lengths without any aid. I was one of the last ones that could do it & the pressure was on. I was so determined to do it that I came up with a repetitive song in my head “Ganbaré, ganbaré, Ta! ma! mi!”. Again & again, non-stop I repeated those words until the very end. And with that, I managed to complete. ~ Ever since then, whenever I face challenges, I magic that phrase in my head. It’s become my very own special phrase to help me zone in.

.

Finally, I’d like to share with you another phrase that is close to my heart. It is 一期一会 (Ichigo ichie). Literal translation is “One encounter, one chance”. It means that one must approach every encounter like as if you will never get that chance again, so excel & do the very best. It also means to treasure the moment you have.

.

I just want to thank you dearest readers for being so kind to donate for Japan. I think it is so amazing that you have answered to my call for help & donated on that page… Am I lucky to have you guys visiting this little blog? Yes I am.

.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Tamami xxx

.

Donate & I pledge to give £1 for every time there is a donation!

(up to the total of £150)

.

.

I’m sure you are all aware of the magnitude 8.9 earthquake that occurred in Japan yesterday. It’s heartbreaking to see the extensive devastation it has caused  – & I feel very tearful to think of all the people there. The people that died, the injured, the missing & the sorrow of the families & friends of those people. There are plenty who have lost their houses too. It’s going to be a long, trying process to heal, & it truly is a horrific time for everyone in Japan.

.

I feel strongly that it’s not enough to JUST feel sorry for Japan. Even if we live so far away in a different country, there must be something we can do to help… But what? I wish I was there to help with the relief, rescue as many people with my own hands, dig out the injured underneath the rubble. But turning up on the doorstep is not a good idea – When I thought of what I could do, yes, I can donate, but what else? And then I had an idea. I can use my web-presence, however small it is, to persuade you to donate too, & generate as much buzz as I can to get people to be generous in Japan’s time of need.

.

So I have decided to set up a personal appeal. Here’s what I ask of you. Please follow this link to FIRST GIVING website. I have created a special donation page to help the Save The Children charity. The money we generate will fund them help Japan specifically.

.

“Save the Children is mobilizing its global resources to respond to the needs of children and families affected by the earthquake and its aftermath, and an international emergency team has been dispatched to assist staff in Japan.  The humanitarian agency has been in Japan for 25 years, is in many of the other Pacific nations that could soon be hit by tsunamis, and was a major responder to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 225,000 people.”

.

Please donate generously.

Please help me generate as much funds as possible.

.

To start it off, I have already put funds in to the account. And as an incentive for you to donate, I pledge to give £1 for every donation you give, up to the total figure of £150.

.

So go on, I’ll dare you. You donate & I’ll pay!

.

Please tell all your friends about this pledge so that I’ll cough up more! Also, if you have a blog, please blog about it. If you twitter, please twitter. I want you to reach to as many people as possible to donate. Help me do this.

.

Please remember, Japan has an excellent track record for been superbly charitable in other’s time of need. Now it is your turn to return the favor. I know we’re in recession and all, but look at it this way, ~ if this mega scale of a disaster struck where you live, wouldn’t you love it if everyone dipped in to their purse to donate for you?

.

So please give generously in this time of great need. Please. It’ll mean a lot to me to see you do it. Let’s you & me make a difference.

.

Thank you in advance,

Tamami Haga

.