Every month, Su from Zimmerbitch, hosts a virtual afternoon tea. and invites readers to go along for tea, bikkies and a chat. It’s very elegant …

I was having a moment today and feeling rather anti-social but it passed (no pun intended). Canberra (Australia) has not recorded a Covid infection for over 90 days now. It seems a miracle (not literally) to me that despite open borders and escalating community transmission in the greater Sydney region to our north, Canberra citizens appear to be returning to their pre-Covid lives without a care in the world. I went to brunch with a couple of friends recently and if the tables were any closer together we would be sitting on one another’s lap. I mentioned my concern to the waitress but apparently the seating arrangement was all legit. Go figure. At least one million people worldwide have died from Covid and we are going out for coffee. Being the martyr that I am, I sat there with my mask on and had nothing to eat or drink which rather defeats the purpose of coffee dates. Kudos to my long-suffering friends for putting up with me.

However, Su’s event is a virtual afternoon tea, so risk-free. I made a GF apple and ricotta cake to take along. The ricotta was about to expire and the apples were long past their best too. The texture is pudding-like, and perhaps under-cooked even though I baked it for much longer than the recipe required. Perhaps the chefs and the cooks out there can advise me whether I need to convert American measurements to metric measurements? Normally I don’t bother, but I dunno …. it might have helped in this case. Anyway, most importantly, it is delicious. Perhaps it is the sprinkling of brown sugar on the top that makes it so yummy. Next time I would probably use less oil and sugar.