In My Kitchen: April 2023

Dear friends of IMK, welcome to my kitchen, have I got a story to share with you this month! 

Who would have thought you could make little dough lovebirds like this? I really enjoyed the process of making them. The males have their wings spread and the females are more demure. I also strangely enjoyed poking the cloves in to be their eyes... 

Here they are after baking! Aren't they beautiful? 

I had to store them out of sight because they were the first step in a big surprise project... 

I've never made such a giant dough (it was a simple challah dough), I couldn't find any bowl big enough so I put it inside my biggest IKEA pot. Obviously my sourdough was too active - the next morning I woke up to see that it had exploded in the fridge! 

Can you guess yet what I'm making..? I made my own wedding "cake" from sourdough! 

It was a base layer of braided challah (just because challah is delicious), a Chinese middle layer of a Chinese style babka with sesame, coriander, chilli and green onions, and an Italian top layer of tomato focaccia. It represents the coming together of our cultures. 

You may ask... but why is it on the balcony? Because I started making it 2 hours before the wedding and I needed it to cool down quickly. It was -5 outside so I put it outside to cool! We ended up putting it together just 7 minutes before the wedding started. Talk about cutting it close! 

The Italian focaccia layer 

Braiding the Chinese babka... 

Have a look at that Chinese layer, my friend E's flavour creation - she calls it crack babka because it is utterly addictive!

Here's the final wedding "cake" in all its glory. So much fun to make!

My bridal bouquet - the first time that I met S we ate artichokes that we bought from the market downstairs from his place in Paris

We also got ourselves a beautiful dozen roses 

S wanted to match the artichoke so he had a piece of cos lettuce for his pocket - so sweet

This is probably one of my favourite photos from my entire life! It was so special to celebrate our wedding with friends in Toronto, especially our music friends. We got married in the party room in our condo so that we could unplug the piano and take it downstairs.  It was so special that we could play a part of the second Brahms violin sonata during the ceremony - here is a video of the beginning. It was a really simple wedding, 20 people, a potluck dinner, and a music party - now how often do you get to play music in your wedding dress?? 

And now we drink our coffee from these cups :) 

Thanks to Sherry for hosting the IMK series - I don't know any of you in person but I feel like I know you all, thanks for all your words of encouragement and support!