The beaver is a proud and noble animal
Notes from a bemused canuck
On my way home last night, I did a silly thing and forgot my keys at the office. No big deal.
Today, as we dropped off the car to get its two-year service, Katy left her house keys with the car keys. No big deal.
After taking the bus/train back home, we realised that neither of us had keys to get into the house. Oops.
My sensible plan to work from home today got locked out. So Katy and I had a impromptu date day.
Ingredients
Salted Caramel Sauce
110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
120ml (1/2 cup) 35% heavy/whipping cream
45g (3 tbsp) unsalted butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Cake
180g (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, slightly cooled, divided, plus more, room temperature, for pan
155g (1.25 cup) cups all-purpose flour plus more for pan
4 firm (about 1kg / 2lb), tart apples (ex Braeburn), peeled, cored, sliced 1cm / 1/2” thick
2 tbsp plus 220g (1 cup) caster sugar, divided
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
3 large eggs
Preparation
Salted caramel sauce
Bring sugar and 60ml water (1/4 cup) water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil, swirling pan occasionally and brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush, until mixture turns a deep amber color, 8–10 minutes. Remove from heat and slowly add cream (mixture will bubble vigorously). Return to medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in butter and salt. Pour caramel sauce into a small heatproof jar or bowl; let cool.
Caramel sauce can be made 5 days ahead. Cover and chill.
Cake
Place rack in middle of oven and preheat to 175C/350F. Butter and flour cake pan; set aside.
Heat 30g melted butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add apples, sprinkle with 2 tbsp. sugar, and cook, tossing occasionally, until apples are golden brown, 10–12 minutes. Arrange half of the apples in the bottom of prepared cake pan so most of it is covered (a few gaps are okay).
Whisk baking powder, salt, lemon zest, floup and remaining sugar in a large bowl. Whisk in eggs and remaining melted butter until smooth.
Pour half of batter over apples in cake pan, top with remaining apples, then pour remaining batter over. Bake cake until top is golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 40–50 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cake cool slightly; turn out onto rack and let cool.
Serve cake with caramel sauce.
Sadly, many a coder comes to realize that poor planning, tight deadlines, scope creep and unmanaged expectations will lead from the first to the second:
… if it wasn’t for those blasted liberal kids and their biased facts.
So the kiddies in our building went around the flats tonight. If you consider that the building has 3 sections of 5 floors, with roughly 4 flats per floor, that’s a fairly dense hunting ground for sweeties.
The Swiss, bless their little cotton socks, are only really starting to get into the spirit of Halloween. Must be the influence of all the bloody foreigners :) They see nothing wrong with giving out loose sweets from a big bag, an open packet of tic-tacs or a box of ricola cough lozenges. It’s the thought that counts, but it makes my inner north-american cringe.
Bean wanted a pumpkin carved into a cat. We got a picture off the internet that Katy freehanded. It got a lot of love from the crowd.
It warms my cockles to know that I’m not the only one who thought that…
I can’t believe that I’ve never tortured the oldies with this before!! Shocking lack of hindsight on my part.
Look at my horse
My horse is amazing
Give it a lick!
Mmm! It tastes just like raisinsHave a stroke of its mane
It turns into a plane
And then he turns back again
When you tug on his winkyOoh, that’s dirty!
Do you think so?
Well, I better not show you where the lemonade is made
Sweet lemonade
Mmm, sweet lemonade
Sweet lemonade
Yeah, sweet lemonadeGet on my horse!
I’ll take you ’round the universe
And all the other places, too
I think you’ll find that the universe pretty much covers everything
Shut up, woman, get on my horse
I have seen many projects in the last year lead by someone who’s taken these books to heart:
Sadly, the developers who must deal with the new shiny-shiny have had to take pages out of this book:
