Ricotta Cakes and Sticky Dates

Yesterday was a big day. A big food day.

Justine told us last week about Virginia's famous Sticky Date Pudding as well as her to-die-for Ricotta Hotcakes. We asked her to make them for us, expecting that they might come a couple days after one another. Instead we put all the eggs in one basket and had them both yesterday. It was Alex's 20th birthday and we had a breakfast with the fam. We had eggs, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms for the first course, and then out came the ricotta cakes.

OK, let me just explain to you that this dish is perhaps the best thing I have ever had for breakfast (outside anything eaten at Soundbites). The cakes are fluffy and light, yet terribly filling and moist! We topped them with this special chocolate honey butter Virginia makes:

One chunk of butter
2-3 Violet Crumbles chocolate bars, crumbled
3-4 TBSPs honey

mix all ingredients. freeze. serve.

So that butter was the first layer. Then some fresh berries. Then a scoop of ice cream. Then some Canadian maple syrup. Then more berries. Then more syrup. This was the second best meal of the trip, hands down (the first was the burgers). I had seconds.

Then later that night we had the sticky date pudding, which was topped with the most insane toffee, buttery, sugary sauce in the world! Serves with vanilla ice cream I couldn't pass up a second helping.

What does all this mean? Well, first of all it means I have some killer recipes to bring back to the Northern Hemisphere. It also means our diet's gone to shit and we'll have to get back on track with Natalia as soon as we hit Melbourne.

It also means I still love fatty foods!