cinnamon toast crusts and dyslexia

i was reading about someone's love for cinnamon toast crunch and mistakenly read it as cinnamon toast crusts. in my mind, i was imagining what i thought this cinnamon toast crusts thing should look like and taste like. i imagined thick buttery white bread crusts heavily dredged in cinnamon and sugar, toasted to golden perfection. you can imagine my disappointment when i reread what was written and googled cinnamon toast crunch.
boy, was i disappointed. cinnamon toast crunch was a breakfast cereal. imagine, i was thinking crunchy with a moistish interior, slightly chewy, warm out of the oven, fresh.....not some dry, packaged breakfast cereal (i'm sure it's delicious, but it wasn't how i imagined it to be). at that point, i decided that i would stay dyslexic just for this one thing. think about it, buttery toasted crusts of bread with loads of cinnamon and sugar......
after some experimentation, this is how i achieved what i imagined.

preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.
butter thick strips of white bread - 2 centimetre batons if possible, on all surfaces.
roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar - 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to every half cup of sugar; pressing it on firmly doesn't hurt.
place the strips on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden.

they shouldn't be at all dry, but crunchy outside and light and fluffy within. they should also be buttery, but not dripping in it. the sugar should also be slightly caramelised......yummm..... i don't know if this was a freudian slip of the junk food kind, food dyslexia or just wishful thinking, but i'm glad of it because cinnamon toast crusts ain't half bad....to eat, that is.....i'm sure that on another level, they'd be classified as something totally lacking in nutritional value, but hey, it isn't everyday i'm dyslexic.

pound cake by whisks

does this title sound boring? i guess it does, but a good pound cake has been one of those elusive things in my life. it's a simple cake, but it isn't....a good one that is. then, there's always this thing called "personal preference" - for me, i want a pound cake to be fragrant, comforting and have a mouth feel that's...that's...velvety, smooth....i don't know, it's hard to explain exactly....i must lack the eloquence, especially in between mouthfuls.
i've tried making this cake in lots of different ways - i've tried it where i don't beat until the sugar's dissolved, i've tried it where i beat it until the sugar's dissolved....i've even tried baking it with half plain flour and half self raising flour (no, i didn't run short of either - i just wanted to experiment) and permutations of these and other methods. all methods were delicious, but perhaps the one where i used half self raising flour and half plain flour and dissolved the sugar was my favourite. that said, this is a favourite cake in all its permutations.....maybe because it's so deliciously buttery and fragrant....something old fashioned and comforting....bliss.... go ahead and try making it - it's almost foolproof, and wonderful to eat.


125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
2 tablespoon powdered milk
1 tablespoon corn syrup
juice of half a small lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg


cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
add eggs one at a time and mix well.
add in flour, powdered milk, and corn syrup.
beat each in well.
add the lemon juice, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, and mace.
make sure everything is well combined, and pour into a greased loaf pan.
bake 180 degrees celcius for 45 minutes, checking for doneness by inserting a toothpick and seeing if it comes out clean. try not to over bake this - it's much nicer when its just done.