Day Three Hundred and Forty Six - Fondue

Dear all,

It is time for our official House Warming party! Vince, Kerry, Anna and Dale came around for a cheesy feast as we decided that this time, we would experiment with a legendary Fondue!

Darren and I had bought bricks and bricks of various cheeses; Emmenthal, Gruyere, mozzarella, Cheddar, Brie.. I had prepared a ton ( literally) of appetizers so everyone could graze while the cheesy pot was warming up. I heated up garlic and white wine in a pan and then added all the grated cheese.

Here is a brief video of the cheese feast being prepared with our host, Vince taking the mic!

Darren finished whisking up the cheese and we transferred the pot to our new Fondue burner and it was ready to go!

We all grabbed forks and dunked away at the cheesy goodness. The flavor was quite something as the garlic and wine infused into the cheese as it bubbled away in the pot. We had a large selection of breads to dunk with as well as some roast potatoes that I popped into the oven as an after thought ( I still have major 'portion control difficulties).

We ate and ate until we were all completely stuffed and [this is no word of a lie], 'cheese-full' is a unique type of 'full'. It usually means 'full for the next 48 hours' which Darren and I experienced at quite a significant level.

I had bought three punnets ( they were on offer....) of strawberries on the way home from art class and D suggested that we make up a 'strawberry cake' for dessert. I found this recipe online that involved mixing in fresh strawberries to the cake mix. http://www.food.com/recipe/fresh-strawberry-cake-36970

CAKE

• 2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup fresh crushed strawberry, unsweetened

STRAWBERRY GLAZE

• 1/2-3/4 cup crushed strawberry
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Darren went totally off piste with the glaze and mixed in various liqours with cream and strawberries and then popped it in the freezer. Once we came to unvieling the cake, he poured the glaze on and then squirted on cream. It was wonderfully decadent and echoed of trifle due to the moisture, cream and boozey juice. yum!

It was a total success, thank you everyone for coming over and can't wait to do it again soon!