Autumn...... it is time to travel in England

Autumn is one of these moments when you can see the "glass half full or half empty".
I think it is half full !

The trees start to lose their leaves and the whole place can look quite sad and messy ..... but it is also the time when nature presents us with an explosion of intense colours.... from deep reds to orange and green, it is just amazing.

It is a good time to travel and enjoy the wonderful scenery.

This year we have been to Nymans Gardens, few places in Somerset and a Nature Reserve.

Everywhere was beautiful, but Nymans Gardens has to be the winner. I think I have never seen red trees like there.


At the same time, the recent rain in the south of England made the lawn a vivid green, creating beautiful contrasts.

In Lacock Abbey, the red foliage over the walls made it all look more vivid.... and it was a splendid day, with beautiful blue sky. Inside the abbey, they were playing a movie - a record of a party they had in there many years ago - in the main hall the music was on, in the games room they had background record of people playing music and games, in the great hall the fireplace was lit, leaving the smell and heat play with our imagination .... it helped me imagine what it would be like to live in such a wonderful place, with all those gardens at your disposal.

Just imagine the wonderful parties they enjoyed there!

Baking.... and dieting - Banana and Chocolate Cake Recipe

That is the theme of today.
I decided I need to lose some weight and eat a more balanced diet. As I am not prepared to give up on all sweet foods and I don’t think this is actually necessary, a new rule was created: “only sweet foods made at home can be consumed”.... what a wonderful new way of dieting!

And that called for a banana and chocolate cake.... only one egg and using dark chocolate. Ok, it does contain sugar and a fair amount of calories, considering banana is quite high in calories, sugar and fat, but it is still much better than eating a cake from a factory, with hardly any fruit, full of refined sugar and vegetable fat.... plus my home made cake comes with the smell of baking and the pleasure of cooking.

Being forced to cook anything in order to eat it limits also how much cake I will eat. For more that I enjoy baking, I work full time and my job does not involve being in a kitchen, so I don’t have time to cook a lot of cakes or sweets during the week.

The cake was simply delicious, especially soon after baking, when it was still warm.
The recipe is based on David Lebovitz’s Banana-Chocolate Chip Upside Down Cake with few changes by myself.
So, here it is my Banana and Chocolate Cake:
For the topping:

60 g muscovado sugar
2 tablespoons water
3 ripe bananas
For the cake:
210 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150 g caster sugar
30 g melted butter, unsalted
1 medium egg
250 g banana puree (about 3 bananas)
120 g Greek yoghurt (0% fat)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
80 g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

1. To make the topping, place the brown sugar and water in sauce pan. Warm over low heat, stirring until the sugar is thoroughly moistened. Simmer the mixture for about 45 seconds. Let cool to room temperature. Transfer the sugar sauce to the baking pan.
2. Peel and slice the bananas in 1 cm slices. Arrange them in rows over the sugar sauce.
3. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
4. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl, making sure there are no lumps. Mix in the caster sugar.
5. In a small bowl, mix together the butter, egg, banana puree, yoghurt, and vanilla.
6. Add the wet mix to the dry ingredients, stirring until almost combined. Do not overmix. Gently fold in the chocolate pieces.
7. Transfer the batter into the pan over the bananas, and then use a spatula to carefully spread the batter over the sliced fruit.
8. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the cake feels just set in the center when you touch it.
9. Cool the cake for about 20 minutes, then run a knife along the edges of the cake to help it release from the pan. Invert the cake onto a serving platter.
The cake is best served warm.

If you decide to make it, I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did!

It is missing a picture here of course! I meant to do it, but when I saw most of the cake had been eaten already. I promise to take a picture when I next bake it.

People Fascinate Me

I created this blog because I thought it would be a nice way to share my passion for food, travelling and the moment we are going through in our lives.

I love cooking, it is my way to express my creativity and my love to other people, it is also the way I calm down, relax from a stressful day or take my mind away from the present and focus on the task.

Through my job there is a lot of travelling in England, and during our holidays we often travel to Brasil (written with s, I am Brazilian) and Italy......

When travelling, we tend to look for new foods, this is part of the joy of our trips. We also love to talk to people. And it is amazing how many interesting people I have met in this way. They fascinate me.

Recently we have been facing difficult times with the business my husband owns. It was in a difficult moment like this that I met a lady in a cake shop. We started to chat and she told me about how she has owned almost 20 businesses in her life, from farm and interior design to cheese and leather shops! How amazing is that? She started with the farm in partnership with friends, learned the lesson and went solo ever since. It was her daughter's cake shop now. The shop is amazing, it brought me inside through the wonderful smell of cheese scones it left in the streets of this little village. However, once inside, the freshly baked chocolate cake left me speechless. I had to buy of course!

Meeting this successful lady left me inspired. Suddenly I could see so many possibilities for his future business.

In a train I met an ex-priest... and learnt from someone who has been in charity trips in poor countries, helping in civil wars, but has also lived in peaceful small villages in the middle of England.

So.... I thought writing a blog would be an opportunity to share some of this with other people.

Hopefully you will enjoy it too....