#and i also added some ginger and a lot of vanilla extract along with the apples and cinnamon

[celepeace]

I made some apple cinnamon muffins that fuck severely

[thedudewiththedragontattoos]

Downtown Revamp - A complete overhaul of Downtown from The Sims 2 Nightlife

It’s finally here! This is going to be a long post, please read everything before you download, as there is quite a bit of information to go over! Let’s get started!

First, a picture of the finalized Downtown!

Click here for a relatively complete imgur album of all the lots!

*The pics are not in order. I seriously cannot be bothered going through 140 pictures. Sorry!

*Please note that some of the venues may look different in the final download than the pictures. This is because after building everything I went through and picked/replaced all of the CC that I felt wasn’t 100% necessary to use in the hood, thus some of the color schemes of the lots may differ, especially on interiors.

What is this?

 If you haven’t been following me for the past few weeks, I took on a project to completely renovate all of Downtown from The Sims 2 Nightlife. This means all lots have been completely remodeled and updated. No more fugly Maxis lots! I had three main goals for this project - First, to update everything to look good and be fun to play, second to have each lot offer a unique “experience”, and third, to keep the original feeling of the lots in tact. 

This comes in two versions - a Subhood version that you can add to your existing hoods, like you would with a traditional Downtown, and a Main Hood  version, so you can play my updated Downtown as a main hood if you’d like!

General Information:

I renovated every single lot (except four lots which I removed from the hood, more on that later). Downtown had a special way of reusing the same idea for multiple different lots - I stopped counting how many dark vampy dance lounges with raised or lowered dance floors there were. Three freakin bowling alleys? As I mentioned earlier, I wanted each lot to have its own reason for you to come visit, and there were four lots that I ultimately felt offered nothing and wouldn’t be missed if they were taken out. The following lots are not in this Downtown:

Lost in Love Hedge Maze

P.U.R.E.

The Corner Shoppes

Comandgo Emporium

Aside from those four lots, every lot has been renovated - Including Residential lots!

This is not populated. There are no townies and/or Tricou ghosts.

There are a few unavoidable NPC’s that have spawned when I made this such as a busker and the New Year’s Toddler. There are also a few stray animals that decided to spawn, but those could not be avoided. All in all, don’t worry about this adding tons and tons of NPC’s to your game - I did my best to ensure the hood was empty.

This hood does include custom content. Sorry if you don’t play with it, but there’s just some things that I couldn’t go without. I tried to use only what I felt was necessary to make the hood look and play nicely.

This was built in the Ultimate Collection, so unfortunately I don’t know exactly what is “required”. Recommended at the very least to have NL, H&M, BV, FT, UNI, and AL. 

Custom Content info & Download links/Instructions below the cut :)

UPDATE: You can now download all Downtownies (Except dead Tricou’s) easily to add to this hood! Check out the post and download here!

Custom Content:

Firstly, a HUGE thank you to all of the following CC creators who have so kindly allowed me to include their CC in a single download folder. Below are links to the individual pieces that were used, along with their creators blogs/profiles as well. There are also some important pieces of information and disclaimers about certain sets and defaults below. Please read everything before you bork up your game and blame me. 

Custom Content used in this hood/Credits:

**You do NOT need to download the following items one by one. These are credits. All but ONE of them are included in a single download folder included with both hood versions**

*Those with a * next to their name are Default Replacements.

Pub Bottle Recolors and *Clothing Rack Defaults both by @withlovefromsimtown

Better Nightlife, Tarmac Hood Deco, and Matching Road Floor Tiles by @criquette-was-here

A few recolor sets from @cluedosims AKA @shastakiss

Community Phonebooth by nicvncnt

*Linden Trees, Seasonal AL Pond, Tower of Communism Skybox, and The Emerald City Skyscraper Set all by @lowedeus

Skyfix by @simnopke

Hood Deco Buildings by @dulcinean-alien

Criquette Horizons by @witheredlilies​ and @criquette-was-here​

*Terrain Default Replacement by @dramallamadingdang​

Invisible Driveway Recolor by Roddyalexio

*Invisible Stop Sign Default Replacement by Psychosims

4T2 City Living Murals by @moocha-muses​

Simlish Neon Signs by @polllinationtech​

Some (excluding the DFR) items from the Bespoke Build Set by @honeywell-mts​

Public Bathroom Deco by @nekosayuri​

Vampire Gravestones by @tony-veis​

*Low Poly Tree Defaults and *Edited Defaults of Criquette’s Rural Road by @peppermint-ginger​

I do not claim any of the included CC as my own. If I mistakenly included CC that you created and you do not want it included (Though I contacted those I was unsure about) please immediately reach out to me and I will remove them :)

Additional credit to the amazing and dear Mootilda for this extremely helpful tutorial :,)

Important CC Info:

DISCLAIMER: There are SOME default replacements in this CC folder. They have been marked in a separate folder with “-DFR” in front of their names. If you have your own defaults, simply do NOT add them to your downloads. 

Note about Bespoke Set: This does NOT include all of the items in the Bespoke Build Set. If you already have it, do not add these folders to your game. If you do have it and plan on getting the rest of the pack later on, just delete these two folders and install those from MTS. The items included in this folder are the following:

Windows

Doors

Wall Coverings

Floor Edging

If you do not wish to use the entirety of BBS, then just use the items in the folders I have provided, as these are the ones that are necessary in Downtown :) Thanks again Honeywell!

The Roads that I use in this hood do not have a grass median between the road and sidewalk. The way my DFR’s work is that that space needs to be filled in once the overlays are placed. If you do not use a DFR OR if you use something different, you may have to remove the filled in section. You’ll know what I mean when you load it up. Also, if you don’t use these defaults, there may be random rugs in the road, that is just the game replacing unavailable content.

If you don’t plan on using the Phone Booths that are included, you will want to go back through the lots and add back the EA default phone booths. I am not sure if your sims will be able to get back to their home lot if you don’t download the custom ones, since I deleted the original vanilla booths. 

Excluded CC:

I used these recolors of Numenor’s stairs. You WILL need to download these (be sure to properly download them) as they are NOT included, since Numenor does not allow this.

CC Download Instructions:

CC is included with both versions of the hoods.

Instructions: Download the zip file for the hood version you want, unzip it with your preferred zipping program, and extract the contents into your downloads folder. Don’t forget to check your Default Replacements!

Download Instructions:

Instructions:

If you want the Subhood version - Download the DTWN Subhood zip, unzip with your preferred program, and extract it to the following folder, depending on which version of the game you have:

DELETE THE D001 Folder, or move it to a safe location. This is the original Downtown.

Ultimate Collection:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Double Deluxe\EP2\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

Disk: C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

Once this is installed, load up the hood that you wish to add the new Downtown subhood to, and add it as you would with the vanilla Downtown. Note that you will know it’s the right one as the thumbnail will be different.

If you want the Main Hood version - Download the DTWN Main Hood zip, unzip with your preferred program, and extract to the following folder, depending on which version of the game you have:

Ultimate Collection: Documents\EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection\Neighborhoods

Disk:  Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods

Hood Download Links:

*Links include CC

Main Hood

Subhood

If you have trouble downloading, let me know and I’ll throw in an alternate link :)

TOU: I guess I need my own TOU now. Please don’t be an asshole, don’t steal my lots or hood and claim it as your own. Use common sense. I am fine if you renovate one of my renovations and want to post it yourself, just give me credit and link to this original post. Also, do NOT redistribute the cc folder included. This is meant only for Downtown, only saying this as I wish for the creators to get all the credit.

Thank you all once more for your interest in the project! I can’t wait to see what you all do with this! Please feel free to tag me in screenshots, renos of my renos, etc...

Additional thanks to everyone at PleasantSims’ discord for the interest and motivation for this project, especially to Sabrina, Melting Magnetz, Crosimmer, Yeetus, and much more!

Keep an eye out for my next project. Thinking of moving on to Bluewater Village or a Vacation Hood!

Enjoy and have fun :D

- Mike

[rudiddayear2infographics]

After doing some research about the creation of chocolate and how its made I wanted to create my own chocolate bar and some simple branding and then make a info graphic based piece of work were you can look at maybe some of the creation of the bar and the content of it using icons and digital imagery. The first thing I am going to do is look at examples of chocolate bars and brands.

Here are some popular chocolate bars I have found.

For my chocolate bar I want it to be a variety of different layers with different flavors clashing with each other. For the base I want it to be a ginger and caramel bass and then in the middle some sort of creamy marshmallow fudge filling like in a mars bar and then a very thin layer of peanut butter with vanilla extract/flavor in it and then the whole thing will be surrounded by a thin milk chocolate shell.

I then drew some sketches of icons and graphics I would create to represent the filling in the bar and the actual bar. For the chocolate bar instead of it being a normal rectangle its going to be a square because theirs so much filling. 

Once I had my idea of the chocolate bar and its filling I came up with a name for the brand. I did some brain storming and these are the names a came up with.

Thick

Chunky 

Burst

Squidge

Sweet

Rush

Dream

Fill

Jumbo

Drip

Stuffed

Cloud

Clouds

Fluff

Out of these names I decided to pick clouds as the brand and chocolate bar name. For the advertisement that I was going to make I knew I wanted to show the chocolate itself, the layers of the filling in the chocolate and some sort of simple packaging idea. For the layout I wanted there to be some sort of logo at the top of the page and then the packaging and chocolate bellow it and then under that the information and icons explaining the different flavors and layers of the bar.

I then looked at some packaging and advertisements of other chocolate brands to help me get a better understanding of colors and type that fits with this type of product.

This is an advertisement for cadburys dairy milk chocolate bar. For the layout there is a large piece of text in the middle and underneath is the actual chocolate bar and then the logo. For the type its a large sans serif piece of type that has the effect that its made of milk. The type is then surrounded by lots of different fragments and pieces of the chocolate bar, this shows what the chocolate looks like but because its broken you can also see whats in the middle of the chocolate and its just milk chocolate all the way through. There are also dashes of what looks like milk emerging from the chocolate bar at the bottom making the poster look full and busy. One of the main things that is commonly advertised with the dairy milk bar is that it contains one and a half classes of milk so they are once again expressing this here with the milk drips and text that look like its made of milk which pushes to the viewer that this is milk chocolate. At the bottom you have the chocolate bar which is half wrapped, this is clever because it allows the viewer to see what the packaging making it more noticeable if they were to see it in a shop and then you also get to see the chocolate so you understand what you would be buying and whats underneath the wrapper. The color scheme is very simple and only contains a few colors which are mainly gradients of purple, different shades of whites and light grays.

What do you like?

I really like how busy it looks and I really like the main typeface with the slogan and how it look like milk which follows there whole branding of the bar which is that is contains one and a half glasses of milk hence the glasses of milk in the dairy milk logo. I also like how they have managed to show both the bar and packaging in one allowing someone to know what the bar will look like in a shop but also whats behind the wrapper.

What do you not Like:

The only thing i am not a huge fan of is that theirs lots of broken bits of chocolate around the page working as a boarder for the slogan. I think that larger bits of broken chocolate look fine but there are lots of very small bits and crumbs which gives me the thought that when eating this chocolate it could get messy and its just going to fall apart and get everywhere. Another thing is that this advertisement is very heavily focused on the slogan by using hierarchy and making it the main focus of the poster, maybe the poster should focus more on what there trying to sell which is the chocolate bar and show more of it.

Wonka is a company owned by nestle, They Sell lots of different sweets under the name wonka and one of them is chocolate. The whole brand identity is based of the franchise willy wonka hence the name wonka, the color schemes and logo relates heavily to the film which you can see in there branding which uses lots of bright colors which remind me of this scene in the film.

For the logo its a thick bold typeface with lots of little swirls and tails coming off it making it almost look like a script typeface. It also resembles the original wonka logo that was on the chocolate bars in the film.

As you can see it follows similar letter forms with swirls on the W, K and A

What do you like about the brand?

I really like all the bright colors they use and I also Like there logo with its swirly tails on the letters and the iconic hat that willy wonka wears above the letter W. I really like lots of there branding and how busy and fun it looks with all the swirls and high contrasted colors.

What do you not like?

There is not a lot that I dislike except that fact that its not very original and it is a massive rip off of willy wonka.

The next thing I did was start creating my advertisement for my clouds chocolate bar. Here is my final design:

What was your final idea?

The final idea was to create a chocolate bar and make some sort of branding and advertising for it. I decided to Create a poster/advertisement that showed the chocolate bar i came up with and the content inside it essentially a poster promoting the chocolate bare.

How did you arrive at this idea?

After doing research into how chocolate is made and looking at other chocolate bars and there advertisements I decided that I would prefer to try and create my own brand of chocolate allowing me to try and create my own brand identity and advertisement for my made up chocolate company.

What inspired you?

I have always been more interested in the more branding and advertisement side of graphic design so this is why I wanted to try and create something that was an advertisement. I also really like all the branding and set design in the willy wonka films with the bright colors and different sweets this is why i looked at the wonka brand to inspire me.

What went well during this final production stage?

At first I didn't think it would look right combining 2d flat designs and then some more 3d designs for the icons that represent the flavors in the chocolate bar but I actually think it works well and adds another element to the design which makes it more interesting to look at.

What issues did you encounter along the way? 

I think I struggled to make everything make sense and that I am trying to show whats inside the chocolate bar so I did find it hard to create a layout that would make all the elements and pieces of design come together. Also for a long time the designs were just not looking finished and were not coming together so I was beginning to worry a little that I wouldn't be able to create my idea.

How did you overcome these issues? 

For the layout I used a custom grid that I made which helped me section everything almost into 4 columns I also made a piece of chocolate and there is a path going from the chocolate that leads to the flavors within it so this is how I tried to show the inside of the chocolate. Towards the end I spent lots of time adding small details and shadows which I think made the design look a little better and up the quality.

What have you learnt during this project?

I have learnt lots about the history behind chocolate and the process in which it is made I have also learnt a little more about branding and advertisement styles within the chocolate industry.

What do you like about your work?

I think at a first glance it is eye catching and looks fun with all the colorful elements of design. After looking at cadburys advertisement With its chocolate bar half in its package allowing you to see what it looks like in its wrapper and underneath I tried to create my packaging with this in mind so Its a box surrounding the chocolate but you can actually see the chocolate through the box.

What don’t you like about your work?

I think the icons/designs for the flavors that are in the chocolate for example peanut butter and vanilla look like separate sweets and not flavors for example they sort of look a little like mints. Also for the packaging idea the chocolate in it has too many squares of chocolate when theirs only meant to be 9 so I could of switched them out. I like the layout and think there is a good use of higher ache but the general composition and layout could look a little crammed. This piece of work is also meant to be to do with info graphics and I think that is something I really forgot about as you can see there are not lots of icons or info graphic like designs also I do like all the bright colors and variation in color but the color pallet is very big and for info graphics you would usually have a very minimal approach in the colors and design and that is something I feel I didn't follow very well.

The design was mainly made in illustrator using main tools like the pen tool, shape builder, tool and shape tools allowing me to create and build different shapes and items. After I finished the design and layout I put it into Photoshop and added some light texture and changed the color channels with a filter giving it a slight red and blew glitch to it making the design look a little bit more retro/vintage. Here are the images i used for texture.

[actfact2-blog]

Preserved Lemon, Ginger & Rosemary Loaf Cake

There it was staring at me every time I looked in the fridge: a jar of preserved lemons. From the jar there were only a couple of pieces missing. "I'll come for you soon," I said to them every time I saw them but I never did and there they sat, unloved. And then it came to me. Instead of a tagine or a savoury dish which I'd normally use them in, I'd instead make a preserved lemon cake!

Preserved lemons are salty, lemony beasts (as you'd expect). They also have a distinct flavour and aroma. What would go well with them? I added candied ginger and rosemary, just because I thought that they may be compatible.

With a sugar crackle crust

And that Dear Reader is how I baked one of my favourite cakes. If you don't want to do the icing, leave it sprinkled with sugar-it's rather magical and the crunchy crackled top is an absolute treat. But if you want to make it a bit pretty the lemony cream cheese icing with ginger is perfect and gave me the chance to use a piping tip I had always wanted to use.

Chopped ginger

I made this cake as a thank you to the lovely couple that look after Mochi. They are quite besotted by her and I don't blame them as she is such a lovely, calm affectionate dog. One weekend there was a miscommunication as they thought they were looking after her for two nights but because I'm 100% sure that Mr NQN doesn't listen, he didn't tell them that it was just one night.

I thought that giving them cake might make things a bit better. I also appreciate that they love looking after her because it means that we can eat dinner without having to rush to pick her up (my mother goes to sleep at 8:30pm which always means a rushed dinner) and we can also do things like go and see movies.

We went to see a movie on the day that I iced this cake and gave it to them. I'm a huge fan of the band Queen and I was waiting eagerly for the new biopic called Bohemian Rhapsody to come out in theatres. The critic reviews ranged from disappointed to tepid but then reviews from my friends flowed through shortly after it came out and they raved about it. I value my friend's opinions more than that of a stranger so we went to see it.

I have no idea what those critics were on, maybe they were Queen haters, maybe they were universally having a bad week but I loved the movie and it was my favourite movie of the year. It is a great movie with the best soundtrack. They chose all of my favourite songs and everyone was so perfectly cast it was eerie.

Some criticised it saying that they didn't delve enough into Freddie Mercury's personal life but I disagree, they definitely included a lot and I also don't think his personal life and sexuality defined him at all, his talent did. Also in a funny twist, during Queen's heyday a lot of critics didn't like them either but they were hugely popular with fans so history repeats itself.

I sang along to every song (apologies to those sitting next to me) and cried my eyes out at the end. Even Mr NQN who didn't have a television growing up (have I mentioned that?) so wasn't familiar, loved it. And when we left a couple of women got into the elevator with us. "You're a bit young to like Queen, that's not your vintage" one woman said to us but we said that the music transcended any age (also there were loads of kids in the theatre).

We were walking the same way to the car park and were talking about it and she let me know that there was a documentary on them that evening which we hurried home for. And we ate a slice of this cake while watching it with Mochi at our side. A perfect Sunday spent.

So tell me Dear Reader, are you a Queen fan? What is your favourite movie this year? And do you have a jar of preserved lemon that you can't seem to use up quickly enough?

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

250g/8ozs. butter, softened

200g/7ozs caster or superfine sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

300g/10.6ozs. cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

150g/5ozs. crystallised ginger, finely chopped

40g/1.4ozs. preserved lemon peel, well rinsed, rind only (discard pulp)

2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary

1/2 cup buttermilk (or just add a couple of teaspoons lemon juice to milk)

2 tablespoons white sugar (optional or use cream cheese icing below)

Cream Cheese Frosting

125g/4ozs. cream cheese, softened

75g/2.7ozs. butter, softened

3-4 cups icing sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

50g/1.7ozs. crystallised ginger pieces, halved

Step 1 - Line a loaf tin on the base and sides with parchment and preheat oven to 150C/300F. Beat the butter and sugar together for 5-6 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Add eggs in one at a time beating well between additions.

Step 2 - In a jug whisk the flour, baking powder and ground ginger. Add in the crystallised ginger, lemon peel and rosemary and toss so that the pieces are coated in flour (this prevents the pieces from sinking to the bottom of the cake). Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture alternating with the buttermilk and mix until just combined. Scoop into the prepared tin and sprinkle white sugar on top (you can omit this if you are icing it with cream cheese icing). Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the centre springs back to the touch. Cool in the tin.

Step 3 - To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth-around 1 minute or so if ingredients are at room temperature. Add in the icing sugar on low speed and then once mixed increase and add lemon juice and beat until smooth. This mix will be quite wet but will firm up on cooling. Take a #125 piping tip and fit it into a piping bag and then pipe patterns on top of the completely cooled cake (tip: have the larger side of the teardrop facing down). I find it easier to practice it on a plate (you can always scrape it up from the plate and put the frosting back in the piping bag) and once I get the hang of it, do it on the cake. Top with ginger pieces.

Source: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2018/11/21/preserved-lemon-cake-ginger/

[middletuna7-blog]

Preserved Lemon, Ginger & Rosemary Loaf Cake

There it was staring at me every time I looked in the fridge: a jar of preserved lemons. From the jar there were only a couple of pieces missing. "I'll come for you soon," I said to them every time I saw them but I never did and there they sat, unloved. And then it came to me. Instead of a tagine or a savoury dish which I'd normally use them in, I'd instead make a preserved lemon cake!

Preserved lemons are salty, lemony beasts (as you'd expect). They also have a distinct flavour and aroma. What would go well with them? I added candied ginger and rosemary, just because I thought that they may be compatible.

With a sugar crackle crust

And that Dear Reader is how I baked one of my favourite cakes. If you don't want to do the icing, leave it sprinkled with sugar-it's rather magical and the crunchy crackled top is an absolute treat. But if you want to make it a bit pretty the lemony cream cheese icing with ginger is perfect and gave me the chance to use a piping tip I had always wanted to use.

Chopped ginger

I made this cake as a thank you to the lovely couple that look after Mochi. They are quite besotted by her and I don't blame them as she is such a lovely, calm affectionate dog. One weekend there was a miscommunication as they thought they were looking after her for two nights but because I'm 100% sure that Mr NQN doesn't listen, he didn't tell them that it was just one night.

I thought that giving them cake might make things a bit better. I also appreciate that they love looking after her because it means that we can eat dinner without having to rush to pick her up (my mother goes to sleep at 8:30pm which always means a rushed dinner) and we can also do things like go and see movies.

We went to see a movie on the day that I iced this cake and gave it to them. I'm a huge fan of the band Queen and I was waiting eagerly for the new biopic called Bohemian Rhapsody to come out in theatres. The critic reviews ranged from disappointed to tepid but then reviews from my friends flowed through shortly after it came out and they raved about it. I value my friend's opinions more than that of a stranger so we went to see it.

I have no idea what those critics were on, maybe they were Queen haters, maybe they were universally having a bad week but I loved the movie and it was my favourite movie of the year. It is a great movie with the best soundtrack. They chose all of my favourite songs and everyone was so perfectly cast it was eerie.

Some criticised it saying that they didn't delve enough into Freddie Mercury's personal life but I disagree, they definitely included a lot and I also don't think his personal life and sexuality defined him at all, his talent did. Also in a funny twist, during Queen's heyday a lot of critics didn't like them either but they were hugely popular with fans so history repeats itself.

I sang along to every song (apologies to those sitting next to me) and cried my eyes out at the end. Even Mr NQN who didn't have a television growing up (have I mentioned that?) so wasn't familiar, loved it. And when we left a couple of women got into the elevator with us. "You're a bit young to like Queen, that's not your vintage" one woman said to us but we said that the music transcended any age (also there were loads of kids in the theatre).

We were walking the same way to the car park and were talking about it and she let me know that there was a documentary on them that evening which we hurried home for. And we ate a slice of this cake while watching it with Mochi at our side. A perfect Sunday spent.

So tell me Dear Reader, are you a Queen fan? What is your favourite movie this year? And do you have a jar of preserved lemon that you can't seem to use up quickly enough?

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

250g/8ozs. butter, softened

200g/7ozs caster or superfine sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

300g/10.6ozs. cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

150g/5ozs. crystallised ginger, finely chopped

40g/1.4ozs. preserved lemon peel, well rinsed, rind only (discard pulp)

2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary

1/2 cup buttermilk (or just add a couple of teaspoons lemon juice to milk)

2 tablespoons white sugar (optional or use cream cheese icing below)

Cream Cheese Frosting

125g/4ozs. cream cheese, softened

75g/2.7ozs. butter, softened

3-4 cups icing sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

50g/1.7ozs. crystallised ginger pieces, halved

Step 1 - Line a loaf tin on the base and sides with parchment and preheat oven to 150C/300F. Beat the butter and sugar together for 5-6 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Add eggs in one at a time beating well between additions.

Step 2 - In a jug whisk the flour, baking powder and ground ginger. Add in the crystallised ginger, lemon peel and rosemary and toss so that the pieces are coated in flour (this prevents the pieces from sinking to the bottom of the cake). Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture alternating with the buttermilk and mix until just combined. Scoop into the prepared tin and sprinkle white sugar on top (you can omit this if you are icing it with cream cheese icing). Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the centre springs back to the touch. Cool in the tin.

Step 3 - To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth-around 1 minute or so if ingredients are at room temperature. Add in the icing sugar on low speed and then once mixed increase and add lemon juice and beat until smooth. This mix will be quite wet but will firm up on cooling. Take a #125 piping tip and fit it into a piping bag and then pipe patterns on top of the completely cooled cake (tip: have the larger side of the teardrop facing down). I find it easier to practice it on a plate (you can always scrape it up from the plate and put the frosting back in the piping bag) and once I get the hang of it, do it on the cake. Top with ginger pieces.

Source: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2018/11/21/preserved-lemon-cake-ginger/

[shelfnovel12-blog]

Preserved Lemon, Ginger & Rosemary Loaf Cake

There it was staring at me every time I looked in the fridge: a jar of preserved lemons. From the jar there were only a couple of pieces missing. "I'll come for you soon," I said to them every time I saw them but I never did and there they sat, unloved. And then it came to me. Instead of a tagine or a savoury dish which I'd normally use them in, I'd instead make a preserved lemon cake!

Preserved lemons are salty, lemony beasts (as you'd expect). They also have a distinct flavour and aroma. What would go well with them? I added candied ginger and rosemary, just because I thought that they may be compatible.

With a sugar crackle crust

And that Dear Reader is how I baked one of my favourite cakes. If you don't want to do the icing, leave it sprinkled with sugar-it's rather magical and the crunchy crackled top is an absolute treat. But if you want to make it a bit pretty the lemony cream cheese icing with ginger is perfect and gave me the chance to use a piping tip I had always wanted to use.

Chopped ginger

I made this cake as a thank you to the lovely couple that look after Mochi. They are quite besotted by her and I don't blame them as she is such a lovely, calm affectionate dog. One weekend there was a miscommunication as they thought they were looking after her for two nights but because I'm 100% sure that Mr NQN doesn't listen, he didn't tell them that it was just one night.

I thought that giving them cake might make things a bit better. I also appreciate that they love looking after her because it means that we can eat dinner without having to rush to pick her up (my mother goes to sleep at 8:30pm which always means a rushed dinner) and we can also do things like go and see movies.

We went to see a movie on the day that I iced this cake and gave it to them. I'm a huge fan of the band Queen and I was waiting eagerly for the new biopic called Bohemian Rhapsody to come out in theatres. The critic reviews ranged from disappointed to tepid but then reviews from my friends flowed through shortly after it came out and they raved about it. I value my friend's opinions more than that of a stranger so we went to see it.

I have no idea what those critics were on, maybe they were Queen haters, maybe they were universally having a bad week but I loved the movie and it was my favourite movie of the year. It is a great movie with the best soundtrack. They chose all of my favourite songs and everyone was so perfectly cast it was eerie.

Some criticised it saying that they didn't delve enough into Freddie Mercury's personal life but I disagree, they definitely included a lot and I also don't think his personal life and sexuality defined him at all, his talent did. Also in a funny twist, during Queen's heyday a lot of critics didn't like them either but they were hugely popular with fans so history repeats itself.

I sang along to every song (apologies to those sitting next to me) and cried my eyes out at the end. Even Mr NQN who didn't have a television growing up (have I mentioned that?) so wasn't familiar, loved it. And when we left a couple of women got into the elevator with us. "You're a bit young to like Queen, that's not your vintage" one woman said to us but we said that the music transcended any age (also there were loads of kids in the theatre).

We were walking the same way to the car park and were talking about it and she let me know that there was a documentary on them that evening which we hurried home for. And we ate a slice of this cake while watching it with Mochi at our side. A perfect Sunday spent.

So tell me Dear Reader, are you a Queen fan? What is your favourite movie this year? And do you have a jar of preserved lemon that you can't seem to use up quickly enough?

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes

250g/8ozs. butter, softened

200g/7ozs caster or superfine sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

300g/10.6ozs. cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

150g/5ozs. crystallised ginger, finely chopped

40g/1.4ozs. preserved lemon peel, well rinsed, rind only (discard pulp)

2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary

1/2 cup buttermilk (or just add a couple of teaspoons lemon juice to milk)

2 tablespoons white sugar (optional or use cream cheese icing below)

Cream Cheese Frosting

125g/4ozs. cream cheese, softened

75g/2.7ozs. butter, softened

3-4 cups icing sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

50g/1.7ozs. crystallised ginger pieces, halved

Step 1 - Line a loaf tin on the base and sides with parchment and preheat oven to 150C/300F. Beat the butter and sugar together for 5-6 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Add eggs in one at a time beating well between additions.

Step 2 - In a jug whisk the flour, baking powder and ground ginger. Add in the crystallised ginger, lemon peel and rosemary and toss so that the pieces are coated in flour (this prevents the pieces from sinking to the bottom of the cake). Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture alternating with the buttermilk and mix until just combined. Scoop into the prepared tin and sprinkle white sugar on top (you can omit this if you are icing it with cream cheese icing). Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the centre springs back to the touch. Cool in the tin.

Step 3 - To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth-around 1 minute or so if ingredients are at room temperature. Add in the icing sugar on low speed and then once mixed increase and add lemon juice and beat until smooth. This mix will be quite wet but will firm up on cooling. Take a #125 piping tip and fit it into a piping bag and then pipe patterns on top of the completely cooled cake (tip: have the larger side of the teardrop facing down). I find it easier to practice it on a plate (you can always scrape it up from the plate and put the frosting back in the piping bag) and once I get the hang of it, do it on the cake. Top with ginger pieces.

Source: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2018/11/21/preserved-lemon-cake-ginger/