Italian Lemon Polenta Cake Recipe

The recipe for this fluffy, incredibly yellow cake is part of my go-to recipes and I hope you try it out.  

The vibrant colour comes from the polenta and eggs and the cake is ideal for summer as it’s fresh and light.
If you prefer, you can use oranges instead of lemons.

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 70g polenta bramata
• 100g plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• the zest and juice of two lemons (or two oranges)

Method

Heat the oven to 160C.
Grease a loaf shaped baking tin with butter, then coat it with plain flour.
Mix the butter and sugar with an electric whisk, then add the eggs one at a time and amalgamate well.
Now add all the remaining ingredients.

Pour the mixture into the baking tray and cook for ca 45 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Buon appetito!

 

Cacti at Kew Gardens

This is the last in a series of three posts about Kew Gardens in London. In one day, we visited the temporary Orchid exhibition, the Palm House and a greenhouse dedicated to cacti. All three were memorable and I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Kew. Besides the three exhibition spaces featured on this blog, there are dozens of other glasshouses and specialised areas to see, not to speak of the Treetop Walkway, a viewing platform towering 18 metres above the ground which is accessible for free and offers mesmerizing views of London. Truly there is something for everyone. From the Japanese Gateway, to the Ginkgo, the Azalea and the Woodland Garden, several visits could offer a new experience every time. There are plenty of cafés and also a well-stocked gardening shop. 

 

For more information about the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, visit:
http://www.kew.org

The Palm House at Kew Gardens

On the same day we visited the Orchid exhibition at Kew Gardens, we also strolled around the Kew Garden Palm House.  A lush selection of plants from all over the world awaited us. I must say, the interior of the palm house itself is in need of renovation, as the colour is chipping off the metal frame and in places the glass is heavily stained with patches of moss.
Nevertheless, we enjoyed the super-sized plants, some of which clearly recalled the presence of dinosaurs and prehistoric times.

 

 

 

For more information about the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, visit:
http://www.kew.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gardening coffee / tea mugs

I bought myself a gift.
These wonderful garden mugs were displayed in a local deli.  After seeing them for several weeks I could not resist and bought all three – the beetroot, the carrot and the tomato mug. (Just to avoid any doubt, I bought these myself and was not paid by anyone to write this).

All three cups show how the plants develop from seedlings to fruit bearing plants and the months of when to SOW and HARVEST.

The cups have now sold out at the deli here in Hackney, but I saw that you can buy them for the same price (£12 each plus delivery) on the Not on the High Street website: http://bit.ly/1n4AVB0

 

 

The London Aquatics Centre Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

One of the main venues of the 2012 Summer Olympics & Paralympics, the London Aquatics Centre is now open to the public.

 

 The Aquatics Centre has two 50 metre (160 foot) pools, one of them, the Competition Pool

 and a 25 metre (82 foot) Diving Pool

 Visitors can watch swimmers through the window in the entrance hall, or from the 2,500 seat gallery

 The Olympic Park is beautifully planted

 

The large scale of the venue and park, the futuristic shapes, long-distance views  and the different materials used, make one feel very welcome

 Bird nesting boxes have been placed along the Eastern facade of the Aquatics Centre  

 

The Ocean building – Casa Battló, Barcelona

If you have a chance to visit Spain, I would recommend a trip to the casa Batlló, built by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí in the heart of Barcelona at Passeig de Gràcia, 43.
The modernist building, its contours and colours remind one of the sea.
For those of you who like me are Italian, the interior also recalls the house of the fairy with the turquoise hair (‘fata turchina’) in Luigi Comencini’s Pinocchio.

Below is the Casa Battló’s living room with an undulating glass-tiled front wall, bespoke golden window handles shaped to perfectly fit into a human hand and small wooden ventilation openings:

The ceiling alludes to a vortex in the ocean:

The interior staircase provides a cool retreat from the summer sun:

the skylight channels light in and reflects on the cooling blue and white tiles:

Another room has a sail-shaped skylight, providing aeration and dimmed light:

My favourite part of the house is at the top, where the ceiling takes the shape of a whale skeleton:

What when the house was built was a laundry room, could easily become a contemporary bathroom:

With moorish floor tiles

And shelves built into the wall for bath towels: 

The room below could be a living room, with its ribcage ceiling: 

A large skylight sits at the top of the interior staircase: 

Stairs lead to the rooftop: 

where one can step out into the hot sun and also see the various chimney’s of the house: 

and admire the dragon-back shaped roof:

For more information, visit www.casabatllo.es/en/visit/
The house is a museum but can also be hired for events.

Related articles:

• Casa Batlló (lightslant.wordpress.com)
• A Home in the Style of Gaudi (terrysblinds.co.uk)
• Antoni Gaudí’s La Pedrera © Nora De Angelli/ www.noraphotos.com (ireport.cnn.com)