Very moist lemon, semolina and blueberry cake. There is no accounting for taste

Manila is a place where you need to plan your outside life around the hours where the heat is not very strong- unless you don't mind being hot and sweaty, of course-, between 5.30 am and 8am and in the afternoons from 4pm. During the day, you spend most of the time in places with air con such as malls, restaurants, cafes, supermarkets or in your own house- if the work place pays for the expensive electricity bill because otherwise you might need fans everywhere-.

For this reason, my son Gabriel is at the park at 6.30am feeding the cats with the yaya before he goes to school. 

Last Saturday night I suggested to my family to have a breakfast picnic the next day. Nick and the kids were excited about the idea of doing something new on a Sunday instead of our routine of going to the park, to Legazpi market and then mass. 

So I went for my long 10km run- I have been training since a couple of months for a 10km fun run in Canberra in April- and prepared the picnic outside while Nick took the kids to get fresh croissants from the trendy Wild Flour bakery. And this is what happened:

• We decided to set up the blanket in front of our house because the park was hot and full of red ants but Aurelia started to complain that the concrete was annoying her so I had to bring an exercise matt to sit on it. 
• Then the sun was strong already at 8am. Nick and the kids were complaining, again. Nick decided to move the car forward and to place an umbrella on top of the car to give us some shadow. It didn't work.
• Nick was a bit tense that Gabriel or Aurelia were about to spill some of the HOT chocolate- good idea of mine, by the way, on a hot day- on the picnic matt. Both kids were drinking it from the bottles with a straw to avoid accidents. The poor kids were not totally relaxed.
• The croissants were from a local cafe and not from the lovely bakery as we planned because it was closed, so they were more Filipino style and less French, more soft and sugary and less crispy and buttery.
• The picnic lasted 4 and a half minutes. A total disaster. We were uncomfortable and hot but pretended we had the best time ever and Nick suggested to do it again…but in our dinning room next time, with the aircon, he said. I laughed, of course.

So, yes, we enjoy doing picnics if we are relaxed enough; we like camping if there is a clean toilette nearby, no mosquitos and the weather is cool; we don't like spending hours driving in the car, grumpy with three children and 6 suitcases to get to a resort where the food isn't great, the rooms smelly and the toilets dirty. We rather being at home and happy.

You might think of the following about the McCaffrey Tolmos family…. We are picky? yes, maybe. We are snob? no, we are not looking for luxury; we want the same or better comfort than we have at home. We are difficult? no, just honest with ourselves about what makes us happy and what we don't like. 

Perhaps we feel limited by being like that, true. We have been in three places in the Philipines in 2 and a half years; Dumaguete, Boracay and Bohol. None of them were my dreaming holiday, to be honest. I am glad I am married so well because Nick shares the same opinion. We like adventures but without a hustle.

Every family finds pleasure in different ways, no better or worse than yours. They are just another way of doing things. As long as you know what makes your family being cheerful and together, what brings them joy and laughter, stick to it because "There is no accounting for taste"or as we say in Spanish "Sobre gustos no hay nada escrito". 

Very moist lemon, semolina and blueberry cake

I have been looking for the perfect recipe of lemon cake that it wasn't too sweet or too dry but it had a lemony flavour. I love lemons, by the way. Like I did with the granola, I took some of my cookbooks and wrote a few notes and tips. 

My favourite recipe is based on Tessa Kiros's Falling cloudberries- it is a beautiful cookbook to read and look at- but adapted to my taste.  Hers it is a Cypriot cake and very sweet so I made it a bit healthier and omitted the extra syrup and added blueberries and almonds. I hope you like it. My children loved it and it is a good way to encourage them to eat nuts.

• 125g butter, softened
• 230g caster sugar
• 250g plain yoghurt
• 3 eggs, separated
• 2 lemons grated
• 125g plain flour
• 125g fine semolina
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 125 ground almonds
• 3/4 cup flake almonds
• 3/4 fresh blueberries

1. Preheat oven 180 and grease and flour a 22cm round cake tin.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind of the two lemons- I added the lemon rind now because it really enhances the lemon flavour). Beat with electric beaters for a good 5 to 7 minutes, until creamy and airy. 
3. Whisk in the yoghurt and egg yolks.
4. Sift in the flour, semolina and baking powder and mix well to incorporate. Mix in the ground almonds.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they become white and fluffy and soft peaks. Carefully fold these into the almond mixture. 
6. Pout the batter into the tin and top with almond flakes bake for 45 minutes.

PS: While I was baking this cake, I had 20 mini plastic containers on the table full of colourful cooked vegetables for my baby, Juanan. My lovely yaya was staring at them so I asked her: what are you thinking?. "I think that in my family we give a big chunk of raw pork to the baby as the first meal. After that, the baby eats real solids, no purees." she replied and left the kitchen.

Traditions in each family are also very different indeed…