my not-very-secret gingerbread recipe

here’s something embarrassing: I thought I knew where I got this recipe from, and it turns out i was completely wrong. here i was, thinking that this was an adaptation of Kikki.K’s recipe for swedish pepparkakor, and then when I actually went and read that recipe, it was nothing like this one. so here is a gingerbread recipe that i may have dreamed, might have hallucinated, and really just hope i haven’t stolen from someone.

I’m calling this my ‘not-very-secret’ recipe because once upon a time, i kept it closely guarded that i added orange zest to my mix. now, it’s out in the open.

Here’s what you do:

INGREDIENTS
(these are a lot like the Kikki.K ones, which may be why I was confused. Who can tell.)

1 tbsp golden syrup
½ cup soft light-brown sugar
½ cup butter
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
2 cups self-raising flour, or plain flour with baking powder

METHOD

1. Put a medium-sized pot on the stove at a very low heat and pour your golden syrup brown sugar and butter in. Stir gently. Then add your cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, and the orange zest.
2. Take the pot off the heat and start adding your flour little by little, stirring in between. Depending how exact you were with your measurement of golden syrup (if you’re like me – not very exact at all), you may need to add a little more flour until you reach a nice consistency.
3. Roll out your gingerbread mixture and cut it into shapes, people, or if you’re feeling really ambitious, the blueprint of a gingerbread house!
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

xox

Dora

akiba

when my sydney friends came to town we had some plans in place, but you always end up wandering around blankly looking for something to do or, in this case, somewhere to eat. a couple of us had heard good things about akiba so we checked it out and boy was that a good call.

this place is SICK.

akiba’s aesthetic is sort of a cross between a big ol’ hipster wine bar and a bright and feverish street market. it was so full of details that I ended up leaving our table in between courses so I could just walk around snapping pictures.

as for the food itself, all I can say is that it was too good to stop and photograph. I got as far as the place setting and the first dish that came out and then I lost my freaking MIND. we shelled out for the $33 kobe beef, which was charcoal and luscious and 10/10 worth it. we got edamame beans, because you always should get edamame beans, and these ones came with crunchy salt and spices and were h e a v e n l y. we got fried chicken and dumplings and ate and laughed and  and caught up after months apart and marvelled at how delicious everything was.

the bar was a sight to be reckoned with but inevitably all of us wanted to stay sober so they made us custom fruit juices! I got watermelon and passionfruit, and that started a bit of a trend.

dessert was, of course, jaw droppingly beautiful: this was a mandarin-chocolate bar cake.

if you’re in Canberra, GET YOURSELF THERE.

love love,

Dora

flower child

flower child is this ridiculously gorgeous cafe that opened last year in my area. it’s full of hanging plants and tiny vases of flowers everywhere, and their food is off the charts yummy. it’s been a great place to go with friends for special occasions, especially when they’ve got a new job or achieved a dream and I want to go somewhere unusual with them to celebrate!

every time I’m there I have my phone out taking photos of everything with zero shame. dig in, you guys.

xx

Dora

manly adventures

Driva asked for more photos of the Australian summer so here goes!

on the weekend we headed to Manly Beach. everyone and their dog was there this close to Christmas. that didn’t stop us having a lovely time!

we started off with coffee and lunch at fika swedish kitchen, a cute cafe run by a group of lovely swedish locals who share beautiful pieces of their culture and food so generously! they also sell imported swedish sweets and treats, so being in there is like being in a candy store.

the beach was full of matchy-matchy umbrellas and deck chairs from the hire tent. we didn’t get one but they looked so sweet, all colour coordinated:

dinner was hotdogs from the hot dog man. we started going there ages ago because I loved their vintage name-in-lights sign, but the actual hot dogs are as good as the decor! I love the crunchy slaw they put on them, which is so refreshing next to the fatty sausage and the sweet brioche bread. also, they don’t put mayo or aioli on your hot dog if you ask them not to, which is a relief for me because I can’t stand raw eggy sauces at all.

after dinner we went for a ramble around the beaches. manly is positioned across the width of a peninsula so the famous “manly beach” is actually only one half of it! then there’s a long street lined with pretty shops, cafes and pubs that leads to the other side of the peninsula, where there’s another beach, the ferry stop and the pier.

at the pier i treated myself to the flow paper lovers’ book, a spin-off of the dutch flow magazine. it was too windy to unfold all the lovely posters inside, but it sure does have a lot of pretty in between the covers! I’ll be taking it when I move so the decor in my new room will be the toast of the town.

out and about in Canberrifornia

Canberrifornia! there, didn’t I say it would sound cool!

as well as staying in a magical airbnb in the country on our recent road trip to Canberra, my friends and I did actually do some exploring in the city itself. crazy, I know.

here’s what we did:

saturday night: we pulled into our guesthouse, got unpacked, did some much needed stretching and phone-recharging and exploring.

then we had tickets for the Sunset Cinema in the national botanic gardens, which was a treat! we watched something called Keeping Up with the Joneses, a suburban American comedy about an ordinary couple who become entangled with the world of sexy high-paced spies. the movie was nothing special but watching it with a pulled pork burger from the onsite food van, curled up with friends on the bean bags provided, and watching the sun go down and the birds fly overhead was pretty great.

sunday morning:

first, an important croissant breakfast to charge up our batteries.

then, to check out the Sunday market scene! we went to the old bus depot markets in the suburb of kingston. it was a lot bigger than we expected, and full of artists and crafters selling their wares to early christmas shoppers. plus, many doughnut vans and other food businesses. I bought a candle and marvelled over the potted plants area – when I live in canberra I’ll be coming back!

we also got coffee and milkshakes from this adorable coffee van outside:

for lunch we went to brodburger, which is a bit of a canberra institution – so much so that the wait time to get our burgers was 40 minutes! we snaffled a table and spent the time playing cards. yes, those are dora the explorer cards.

the burgers were definitely worth the wait!

I didn’t get many good photos of Brodburger’s decor, but I did love this internal window. I suppose I’ll just have to go get another burger sometime to justify taking more photos of their cool interior.

sunday afternoon: 

we all wanted another look at the botanic gardens after seeing them at sunset the previous night. they’re our national botanic gardens, so they were pretty fancy! just in case any visiting foreign diplomats want to see some australian flora.

this is a desert plant called sturt’s desert pea that i remember getting taught about at school! they’re a bit of an australian icon – always printed on tourist things like tea towels and shirts – but I don’t think I’d ever seen a real one until now. so waxy and shiny! i was impressed.

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in the middle of the gardens is a special area designed to imitate the conditions of the central australian desert. this was one of our favourite parts. all the red sand everywhere made it feel like we really were somewhere else.

it was already a hot day, but this bit was boiling. that was about when we decided we wanted to go home and sit in the shade with cold drinks.

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monday: 

we spent this entire day having hands-on fun, so there aren’t many photos! of course we had to go to questacon, one of canberra’s biggest attractions – it’s a science museum designed especially for kids, with a big emphasis on interactive exhibits (read: toys). think life-size jigsaw puzzles, water mazes, and levers and buttons galore.

it’s designed to be fun rather than beautiful, but I did love this exhibit from the light section:

we went home exhausted, ordered thai and took sunset photos while we waited for it to arrive.

tuesday morning:

going home day. we had to be out of our airbnb by 11am, so we packed up, had a last breakfast out on the balcony, and took ourselves to a dumpling place and drowned our sorrows in pork buns.

after that? we hit the road.

 

xx

Dora

my first airbnb

over the weekend, four school friends and I went for a road trip to explore Canberra, where I’ll be moving permanently next year. it’s about a three-hour drive, far enough for it to feel like a holiday but easy enough to get to and from in half a day.

we contemplated staying in the heart of the city while we were there, but then my friend Karla found this amazing Airbnb only 20 minutes out of town, for less than how much we’d have to pay for even the cheapest hotel rooms.

the house ended up being one of the highlights of our trip! 20 minutes out of Canberra turns out to translate to being nestled deep in the bush, tucked away down a side road and a winding dirt driveway, hundreds of metres from any other houses.

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all around it was this beautiful winding garden, and the indoors was decorated with what looked like treasures from the family’s Pacific trips.

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our friend Madeleine brought her one-year-old and there was a whole room of toys for him. he was in heaven! plus the lovely owner set up a cot for him and provided a pram, high chair and lots of sip cups and plastic cutlery to save Madeleine having to tote along all her baby goods.

 

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also, this was my bedroom: tartan duvets and school camp nostalgia all the way. (there were also three rooms with double beds, but I was in for the top bunk life)

the open kitchen/dining room had a lovely vintage farmhouse vibe and one of those hanging cast iron holders to hang all your pots from. i took about a million photos and felt very nigella lawson even though we didn’t actually cook anything that needed a frying pan the entire trip.

there was an outdoor table on the back verandah where we played board games and cards, and it always smelled like jasmine.

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[this game is called Superfight. you make combinations of characters and powers to try and create the strongest one. there are a lot of funny / useless powers, so it wound up being pretty intense.]

the back garden was so serene and peaceful, with tall trees hiding little curving paths and little flower patches with mosaic and metal sculptures (we wondered if maybe the lady who owns the house makes them herself!)

 

behind that, the back fence had peeled away so you could walk straight out into this grassy valley, empty as far as the eye could see. my friend Chloe and I went out there near dusk and took some beautiful photos I can’t wait to show you soon.

this house was such a fun place to stay! I would definitely go back, and I’m looking forward to trying out some other Airbnbs now that I’ve tried the app.

bye for now,

Dora xx

lately.

so the big news is that this past fortnight I finished university! For ever!

I was so busy up until the very end that it barely even registered , but it was my mum’s birthday so we did go to The Botanist for a little celebration that night.

this is their bathroom! I always love that wallpaper.

after that, I’ve been spending the past couple of weeks volunteering, catching up on some graphic design jobs, and taking just a couple of Lush baths:

I’ve also been getting back into drawing, and carrying around my Moleskine sketchbook and fine liners with me as though I’m a fancy artsy person, which feels so good. I found this forgotten gem in the front pages of it from my last sketching phase:

and as usual, the summer weather has been just the best thing! when it chooses to show up.

window drawings with paint marker : )

I’ll be back soon with some more pretties but for now that’s about it!

Have a lovely week, lovelies.

xx

Dora