Lately, I have been working my socks off. Seriously. Every single day for the past two weeks I've been working on filling Myth of the Wild orders from noon until 10pm, and doing chores all morning. I had a brief break on Thursday when Seeg, Lucy and I went out to Lacock to wander around the Abbey and old village, ate the best sausage roll on the face of the planet, and stopped in the local bakery and chocolate shop - hello peanut and caramel chocolate salami! But as soon as we got back I slipped back into my routine. Though I admit that it's nice to be keeping so busy, it's also meant that I haven't had the chance to write anything of my book since the middle of last month.
The only time I've had to get back to myself are for half-hour workouts, and this morning seems to be the first chance I've truly had to breathe and slow down, which has set me up for a better day.
And so I can say, with a smile, happy Sinterklaas!
Yeah, yeah, I know it's for the kids, and I know I'm not Dutch, but a Dutch boyfriend gives me the right to celebrate such things and use them as an excuse to celebrate. And despite being 26 years old, when we went to visit his parents a few years ago and were there for December 5th, they revived the holiday so I got to experience Sinterklaas - hessian bags on the doorstep in the evening, pepernoten through the letterbox and gifts wrapped in disguise. The only thing I didn't get were the poems to help you guess each gift, because writing a poem in your second language isn't an easy thing.
I'm making a venison stew with Dick Soek's practise of adding kruidnoten in place of flour to thicken the broth, I've made some small cakes of Sinterklaas's horse, Amerigo, for dessert, and we're watching a movie with some giant chocolate letters to pig out on.
But for now, it's a Sinterklaas canvas cake for breakfast! Spiced with speculaas and topped with honey yogurt, mini kruidnoten (spiced Dutch biscuits) I made myself, some tiny chocolate letters - chocolate letters are part of the Sinterklaas tradtion - and a last-minute sprinkling of a broken candy cane, it's pretty yummy and suitably sweet for a festive occasion.
I used the basic canvas cake recipe with 1 tsp speculaas spice mix from Vandotsch, topped with 50g of Yeo Valley Greek yogurt with honey, some mini kruidnoten I made myself - equivalent to about 3 full-sized pepernoten/kruidnoten biscuits - 'Sinterklaas' spelled out with the melted chocolate of 1 Hotel Chocolat gingerbread man (I put him in a piping bag and melted in him in that over a double-boiler) and a sprinkling of candy cane pieces from a broken mini cane by Mr Stanley, which I didn't photograph as it was a last-minute addition!
Spiced Sinterklaas Mug Cake:
320 calories, 9g fat, 27g carbs, 5.5g fibre, 22.5g protein
320 calories, 9g fat, 27g carbs, 5.5g fibre, 22.5g protein
Break-Down
Cake + speculaas spice: 135 calories, 2.8g fat, 2.5g carbs, 5.5g fibre, 21.5g protein
50g Yogurt: 50 calories, 0g fat, 7g carbs, 4g protein
Toppings:
- mini pepernoten (about 3 full-sized biscuits): 60 calories, 2g fat, 7g carbs
- 1 Hotel Chocolat gingerbread man chocolate: 60 calories, 4g fat, 4.5g carbs, 1g protein
- Sprinkling of broken candy cane: 15 calories, 6g carbs
- mini pepernoten (about 3 full-sized biscuits): 60 calories, 2g fat, 7g carbs
- 1 Hotel Chocolat gingerbread man chocolate: 60 calories, 4g fat, 4.5g carbs, 1g protein
- Sprinkling of broken candy cane: 15 calories, 6g carbs
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