Thursday. I was in a food coma that I didn't wake up from until Friday.

The food highlight of Thursday was definitely a food coma date with my brother. Even though it wasn't hard to out rank the porridge or the defrosted, soggy Japanese curry, Malaysian with Jack was excellent. We used to always go out for food together then I guess we got out of the swing of things when he went on an exchange and we just never got back into the habit of it. Until now. 

We went to Selera in Newmarket and gorged ourselves in chicken curry, noodles and roti. Sah good.  

Anyway I guess the moral of this story is to hang out with your siblings more because they are secretly great. Although share plates get wolfed down rather quickly if you're in the least bit competitive.. 

Thats really all I have to say about Thursday. Oh I made some coconut shortbread so if the reviews come back good (aka if Dad, the shortbread connoisseur, gives it the thumbs up) I'll give it a blog. 

Sah much food

Thursday. I was in a food coma that I didn't wake up from until Friday.

The food highlight of Thursday was definitely a food coma date with my brother. Even though it wasn't hard to out rank the porridge or the defrosted, soggy Japanese curry, Malaysian with Jack was excellent. We used to always go out for food together then I guess we got out of the swing of things when he went on an exchange and we just never got back into the habit of it. Until now. 

We went to Selera in Newmarket and gorged ourselves in chicken curry, noodles and roti. Sah good.  

Anyway I guess the moral of this story is to hang out with your siblings more because they are secretly great. Although share plates get wolfed down rather quickly if you're in the least bit competitive.. 

Thats really all I have to say about Thursday. Oh I made some coconut shortbread so if the reviews come back good (aka if Dad, the shortbread connoisseur, gives it the thumbs up) I'll give it a blog. 

Sah much food

Friday. No more pumpkin soup.

I looked in the mirror and around my mouth was a ring of yellow. Dark orangey yellow. The beta carotene from my daily dose of pumpkin soup and carrots had stained the edges of my mouth with awful tinge. I look like a kid who decided to make out with a yellow felt. No more pumpkin soup. Our relationship is no more. 

I'm currently sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to chch. I was craving a dunkin donut as I was walking through the terminal and right there at the entrance was a guy I went on two tinder dates with once, covering himself with the icing sugar from his Bavarian cream.  But yeah that slightly awkward moment when he asked what brought me to chch... Umm the boyfriend. Yup that's right. Someone eventually decided they liked me enough to actually date me. Unbelievable I know...😑 The awkward chat enabled the time to pass quickly. Then we parted ways and sat in different departure lounges. I seem to bump into him a lot. Mainly at places providing mass transport aka airports and trains. Ok not a lot. It's happened twice. Twice more than all the 27 other tinder dates I've been on.

I've got to pee but I can't be bothered taking all my stuff to the loo.

Psyching myself up for the  meager snack on this flight. After my weird AF brocolli and egg stir fry I am so keen for sometime that didn't taste so peculiar. Although you can ever guarantee that with airplane food can you?

No. Just no. 

I am very excited for our long weekend in Hamner springs. I've got my beanie all ready to go.. 

Have an excellent weekend friends. Sah much eating will be happening. Much wine. Such scenes. Many wows. 

Thursday. You just can't beat a sausage roll.

I'm currently trying to finish drying my fitted sheet on the oil heater. I don't want to take it back outside to the garage to put it back in drier. The ground outside is literally freezing. Our flat is freezing. Zero insulation in any direction. I wonder if Mum has a spare woolen underlay because my room gets so cold I can see my breathe in the morning (hint hint). My flat in Dunedin was so much warmer. 

I'm running around trying to wash, dry, bake, pack and prep for tomorrow. I'm flying down for the long weekend to see Dylan which I am very excited about. There is lost so much life admin involved. Guys don't understand how much coordination there is in even just packing underwear. Do these knickers go well under these trousers? Will the matching bra go underneath the tops you plan to wear with said pants? Are any of the above items even clean to pack?! I also get to see my best friend and my charming wee god daughter. In the process of getting my life sorted my room has been in various states of disarray. 

The "my room is the only place in the house I can't see my beath in so I'm going to find somewhere to sit and eat my dinner" phase  

The "pull everything out of the cupboards to try and find my missing wheat bags to give to Dylan"  phase.

The "fuck! My sheets are still wet!" Panic phase

Amongst all this I am trying to bake spice crisps for D to take away with us to Hamner Springs. They are gingery and delicious and I think will go nicely with a cup of tea, a cosy fire and a good book. Every fifth biscuit though is coming out such a runt. There is only so much evidence of poor performance you can hide before you start to feel sick.. 

I managed to redeem myself with episode II of the average beef stir fry. It really wasn't too bad second time around. The real test will be with the frozen breast of chicken I have waiting to be used tomorrow.

Why the sausage rolls in the title? For the first time since I've been working at my current job our department splashed out and got super great catering. Included in this was some excellent handmade sausage rolls. It was as if the stars had aligned because I had some made sausage roll cravings earlier today. You just can't beat a cheeky sausage roll with a good dunking of T sauce. 

 Oh and also. I bought some cheap pb for my snickers brownie the other day  but I didn't use it all. I took it into work to put in my porridge in the morning and can I just say it is still legit. 97% peanuts. The remaining 3% peanut oil and salt. So it's 99.99% peanuts really. Just like Pics. This jar also set me back only $2.50 in New World vs the $7 they wanted to charge me for the Pics equivalent. Sure it's not as tasty to eat off the spoon but it does the trick sure enough. Get back amongst I say.

Wednesday. Mum fed me and I got a fan email :D

Somehow I wangled only having to cook three nights this week. Score. I went home and Mum had made Jess Daniell's lamb meatball salad. Ok so salad probably wasn't the best choice for the first day of winter but it was still delicious regardless. 

I am stoked winter decided to show itself finally. It took until June to start getting properly chilly! I can finally crank out all the coats I over eagerly bought in February.. I also bought woolen pants which caused me to suffer heat stroke in the office so woo!! Finally get to wear those in comfort now!

I was going to skip today's post because nothing really that exciting happened. That was until I got an email from a girl called Siobhan saying thank you for posting recipes. The fuzzies are warmer than my oil heater. In all honesty I thought the only people who read Sophie Likes Cake were my parents and Dylan, so this was an excellent surprise. So thank you Siobhan for being the highlight of my day. You way surpassed my epic victory of finally finding gym leggings that make my bum look great and don't make my legs look like strangled hams! Many baking well wishes to you.

Socks would have been a good idea for the single digit temps... 

Tuesday. So begins the week of brocolli.

Ah junk free June starts tomorrow.  Not for me though. I did it last year and when I ate a couple of fun size chocolate bars towards the end the guilt was overwhelming. Funnily I eat "better" when I'm not trying to. As soon as something becomes taboo it consumes me. I don't even think about twix bars when I'm "allowed" to have them. When all the hip nz celebs get involved too, "junk free" suddenly becomes "clean" and the whole thing becomes carb, fat, dairy and gluten free. Sure chips, fast food and lollies aren't good for you on a regular basis but there are plenty of other food groups that should be consumed regularly albeit in moderation. Basically, I don't need another media source telling me that I am a bad person for what I eat.

I try really hard to be in a harmonious relationship with food. It's really hard. I went from being a 14 year old who would feel guilty for eating a kiwi fruit after school and would weigh herself twice a day to someone at Uni who would smother her feelings in brownie batter. My boyfriend's sister snapped me a pic of her "diet" breakfast this morning and all of a sudden I panicked. I'm huge compared to her, should I be on a diet too? Should I be counting my carbs and macros like my flatmate? For the first time in a while I feel quite distressed about the whole thing.

Irrelevant of the whole junk free hullabaloo I funnily enough ate a brocolli and beef stir fry. A whole head of brocolli was consumed, why? Because it was three for $5 at countdown and I knew I only had to cook for myself three more times this week. I found a recipe whilst flicking through an Annabel Langbein winter cookbook thing. I was quite excited but the final product was not so flash. I had to add extra ginger and kecap manis to the sauce to make it slightly palatable. Once cooked though it was actually quite tasty. Overall it wasn't bad for a first attempt or a miserable weeknight dinner for one.  

I also made a snickers, peanut butter, pretzel birthday brownie so looking forward to having a cheeky piece of that when she gets home. 

I can't cut it yet.. It's too oozy! 

Monday. All the foods.

Today felt like I had been slapped in the face by the all mighty bosom of Monday. She's a dirty mistress I tell you.

I came home starving after yet another lunch of just pumpkin soup. I had left over truffle mac and cheese that I made for Dylan last Friday. White sauce made with truffle butter anyone? Oh and mushrooms slow sautéed in more butter? Sah much butter. Such cheese. Many carbs. Wow. 

So after nuking that for three minutes then shoveling the oily goodness into my face I went back to the fridge to find more. I found some peanut bliss balls. I found four limp carrots. The cupboard had a 1/4 jar of crispy shallots left in it. All of the above got consumed. Then I found a jar of caramel popcorn in my room. That too got hammered. Seriously, why was I so hungry? Am I preggers? Are my flatmates hormonal feasting cravings rubbing off on me too? What the actual..

I distracted myself by going to the supermarket - not before toying with the idea of doing my shopping online rather than walking the two minutes to the supermarket... 

On the menu this week is beef and brocolli stir fry. Want to know a fun fact? I'm terrible at stir fries... 

To make things worse, bae called to tell me what delicious rustic Italian dish he had whipped up for dinner. I think it involved pasta. And here I am with my trashy (but also not - uh hello truffle???!) Mac and cheese. I wish Mac would stop autocorrecting to a capital M. Gosh Apple is self centered..  

Also it just started pouring with rain and the sound on my roof is delicious. The drips coming from my windows are not though..

This truffle mac and cheese though... 

Sunday. It was nice while it lasted.

Back to feeding myself tomorrow. I have had a weekend of food joy. Dylan came up for the weekend and came with my family to the Coromandel where all we did was sleep and eat. It was glorious.  It was so bizarrely warm - two days before the first day of June and I am wearing a singlet and getting tan lines whilst on walks?!

Did I say we did a lot of eating? We ate a lot of pimped porridge, cheese scones dipped in soup, date loaf and my new favourite dinner - tuna curry with mango salsa. My oh my. I may have to make it this week except with chicken and not tuna at $40/kg.. 

Mum's tuna curry ❤️ 

Also I decided to make my mini date loaves back into a large loaf but still cover it in all the bells and whistles. It was much applauded and I still can't get over the candied walnuts...sah good!

Ok so it's a little ott..

I'm tucked up in bed writing this waiting for Dylan to text me saying he's landed back in Christchurch. It's our ritual. As is reading the hilarious Mainfreight quotes lit up on the wall of their warehouse that we have to drive past on our way to the airport "Readers are achievers"

"Happy is the man with a hobby" 

"Read to your child everyday" 

Truly inspirational.  My life is definitely the richer thanks to these quotes.

Babe. 

I miss him already.  

Wednesday. I just want a chocolate fudge cake.

It's been ages since I've had feeling related cravings. Work was terrible for the third day running and the resultant existential crisis is making me want a gooey, fudgey, ganache covered chocolate cake so bad. A hug from bae and a good solid cry would also be ideal.  

I live a 14 minute drive from work and the bus took 1 hour 15. Tomorrow I'm walking to the train station because this makes me want to break something especially after such a shitty day.

Do do I have to eat pho again? It's tasty but it's just not truffle Mac and cheese nor is it cake.  

I can confidently say that eating the same thing everyday gets you down. If you too are a food enthusiast then mealtimes are probably the highlights of your day. Today my highlight was the prospect of a stale tortilla with my soup. If your food doesn't bring you joy then you're just going to set yourself up for failure. Not even two delicious persimmons could save the day. 

Friday 8.25pm could not come fast enough (aka the time Dylan's flight comes in). I will also prob make truffle Mac and cheese for dinner that night. From Wednesday's point of view the food week can only get better, especially since tomorrow is Wok n Noodle night with other Sophie! 

In summary: I finished my 1kg jar of peanut butter and replenished the salt I lost through my tears. Tomorrow will be better.

Monday. So much soup.

It has come to my attention that in my eagerness to do all the food prep for the week yesterday that I have made about twenty servings of soup. It would appear mastication will not be a thing I engage in this week.

Our flat finally took the plunge and purchased a stick blender from Kmart for a whole $39 dollars. My justification for the purchase was that the money save whilst consuming pureed 99 cent pumpkins will pay off the outlaid capital in no time.

So on the menu this week:

Caramelised leek and pumpkin soup (thanks Nadia Lim)

Red lentil and pumpkin soup (thanks Nadia Lim)

Chicken pho (thanks Jess Daniell)

My freezer has 10 snap lock sandwich bags full of the frozen pumpkins all stacked up in a tower ready to be deployed. I actually don't even like pumpkin soup very much. Pumpkins were so cheap though...

The pho I shall concoct tonight – I have to say I am rather excited for pho. While Jess’ recipe uses premade stock it still tastes pretty legit. I once made stock from a whole table hen overnight in my slow cooker and to be honest it didn’t taste that much different. A Continental stock melt will do roughly the same thing.

Flip. It has just occurred to me that I also have all the ingredients required for a pad Thai and now I am suffering a great internal conflict. Crikey. A delicious carby pad Thai would go down a treat…AAAAH I CAN’T DECIDE (*texts Dylan for moral guidance* – he is pretty much the Atticus Finch of both life and food).

*waits for response*

Ok come on Dylan. Reply already. I’m getting hangry.

Spoiler alert: he doesn't reply. 

It was up to me.. 

Pho: healthy, warming, vegetable rich, soup

vs. 

Pad Thai: warming, carby AF, not soup, contains delicious fried egg.

I was not feeling agile enough to make pad Thai. Knowing me it would turn into a stodgy lump. Pho in the end was delicious. I made enough for tomorrow as well. We don't have a dining table in our flat (nor do we have insulation or a central heating device) so I was restricted to awkwardly eating my pho at knee height at our coffee table. As much as I love my flatmates (like I seriously love them) I kind of can't wait until I live in a proper house that is warm, insulated and has a dining room table. 

Anyway, make pho. It is good. And mega filling.  

The dining situation is not ideal.. 

I had to battle two pumpkins. One tried to escape. I managed to catch it with my legs. I thought this was clever so I held it there a little longer while I took a photo..

Also buy these for your pho.. They are the tits. Slash just eat them by themselves. 

Friday. I'm not too sure what I ate.

I had an interview for a new role today so the mix of nerves and not wanting to be in a curry coma by 2pm meant that lunch consisted of a 3pm apple and superwine biscuit. Come 4pm I had a killer headache. Not sure if this was brought on by hunger, dehydration, lack of caffeine or a wine craving..

I was trying to get all my pals at work to go to social clubs drinks with me as I would have killed for a wine. Alas Original Sophie was going to be working late and Kelly wanted to go home and do laundry. Sigh. Of the available flatmates one is at a radio show awards, one is working and one is on a strict bootcamp diet – no winesies for her. Sigh. I would be tempted to go open a bottle for myself but A) a bottle of wine costs the same as Wok n Noodle and Wok n Noodle > wine. B) I can’t leave a bottle unfinished – it’ll go off and spoil – what a waste of what could have been Wok n Noodle. C) Calories – I’d rather eat Wok n Noodle. D) Drinking alone sounds like it could be the beginnings of alcohol dependence.

You know what? I am going to try and make my favourite Wok n Noodle noodles this weekend. Pad see yu here I come! This could mean I could have my Wok n Noodle AND wine.

Good news though, my cake order went down a treat. The birthday girl was super stoked and excited. It’s this kind of excitement that makes me love making cakes so much for people. I have to say it was quite pretty considering I had to rummage and be a little creative with the decorating.

Breakfast: oats

Lunch: non existent 

Dinner: ugh more curry. Oh shit! I forgot the cabbage. Dammit. Now I have to eat cabbage by itself or else it'll go off and I'll waste it. 

Ok time to go to the supo and buy some golden syrup for the ginger loaves I plan on baking. This is the first Friday in yonks that I haven't been to the airport to pick Dylan up or fly to visit him. While I'm stoked I get to bake for the sake of baking I miss him :( I wish he was here, he'd drink wine with me. Oh and he's alright company too.. 

Cake!!! 

Thursday. Beef tacos. Also surprise surprise, more cabbage.

I saw an ad on the cross trainer this morning for a 60% off sale at Briacoes and got excited about the prospect of discounted bed linen. 

Then at lunch today my friends and I discussed the pros and cons of various banking and insurance companies. When did playground gossip turn into health insurance policies and credit card interest rates?

I'm sitting on the bus ride home writing this whilst plotting how to defrost a steak quickly but without cooking it. I should have planned ahead and taken one out this morning. Such is life however.

I will probably salt this bad boy well and maybe rub some cumin and chilli into it then slap it in the pan. Simplicity is key. As is mayonnaise.

 ***********

So fast forward to 10pm where I lay shattered in my bed. I did some laundry, iced a monster three layer, delivered it to work along with all the fresh decorations so I can pretty it up just before it is collected. I defrosted a steak, I also rubbed some salt and cumin and chilli into the steak as predicted. I ducking (ugh) nailed cooking the steak to a primo medium rare and I ended up having a delicious cabbage laden taco (slash two) for dinner. This eating reasonable food thing isn't too hard after all! Oh and I facetimed Bae where we exchanged dinner chat and I described my tacos. 

I also took photos! Awful photos! But hey at least flash wasn't involved...

This is my cake which I left trustingly in the work kitchen on my floor... 

One of my delicious tacos feat. A photo bomb from my mate Best Foods.