In the beginning, there was cake...

For some time now my friend Elle and I have emersed ourselves in the joy of cooking.  Baking in particular.  After some initial hiccups like the vienesse whirls that were re-named butter blobs, the time I almost burnt the flat down and the time I thought substituting cocoa for dried coffee would only add to the taste of brownies, we were on our way to becomming bakers extraordinaire.

Our friendship was secured through a shared love of talking about, preparing, and most importantly eating food.  I find that food can be a perfect accompanyment to almost any situation in life.  The perfect cherry crepe to be bought from Brighton pier and consumed whilst walking along the beach on a warm night with your best mate.  The perfect pumpkin and sage risotto to be eaten in front of a warm fire on a cold all hallows eve.  The perfect almond croissant and hot steaming coffee on a Sunday morning with the papers and your loved one.  The pefect melting goats cheese on toast with home made fig chutney.  And the perfect chocolate cake to be eaten...well anytime.

So our friendhip grew along with Elle's technical skill and my waistline.  We ventured to Greece together and ate copious amounts of souflaki and tzatziki, to Paris for wine, cheese, and Angelina's bakery, and to Covent Garden for mulled wine and the markets.  It became clear that we needed to challenge ourselves with new and interesting recipes from lands afar.

So some months ago, after some glasses of wine a plan was hatched to take on the world.  We would choose a diferent country every month or so and plan a recipe using traditional yet challenging dishes.  We have given ourselves artistic licence to pick regions within larger countries too (mainly so we can make Mississippi mud pie AND New York cheesecake).  Naturally, we will be providing photographic and written evidence of our efforts, and in really special cases we might even share recipes with you, dear readers.

So join us, friends, on our adventure around the globe...