- By Natalie Pitfield
In 2002, my husband and I gave up city life and moved to a 16-acre lifestyle block in
Whangarata. We had a simple dream of being surrounded by land and animals. It sounds
simple, but it’s been an epic journey.
For many years, I wrote a column about our adventures in the beautiful community we call
Franklin. And now I have the chance to do so again.
Over the years, we’ve given a home to just about any animal that needed one. We adopted
pigs, chickens, goats, alpacas, a cat, a dog and even some near-starved lizards. Some
of our rescues had special needs. Others had a rough start. We loved them all.
There was Tubby, the malnutritioned pig who wouldn’t come when we called. We soon
figured out she was completely deaf. We’d thought her name quite silly, but it didn’t matter as she couldn’t hear it anyway.
One day, Rupert the rooster wandered onto the property. He was so young, we thought he was a chicken. We let him stay and when he started crowing we realised ‘he’ was a ‘she’. I hadn’t had much experience with roosters. Rupert was polite, sweet, and so loving toward his girls.
Rupert is now 13 years old and still going strong.
We lost Sheba, our beloved dog, and adopted Milo from the pound. Milo had suspicious
wounds on his body and was terrified of water. We could only imagine the abuse he’d
suffered. His separation anxiety was extreme. We worked hard to help him relax. He’s now
10 years old and is a happy, goofy dog who loves water (and Mum) beyond all things.
Over time, the cast of characters in the crazy reality show that’s our life has changed. But our core commitment to love and nurture every animal on our property has never wavered.
Over time, I’ll introduce you to them all. The one thing I’ve learned about living on acreage is that every single animal has a unique and beautiful personality and brings something singularly special to your life. And that’s the real “lifestyle dream”.
This recipe is the one that I use to make chocolate cakes for my customers. It’s rich and
chocolatey without being heavy and dense. It stays fresh and moist for days and can be used for both cakes and cupcakes. It’s very easy to substitute gluten-free flour and dairy-free milk.
I test drove many recipes and made my poor family try so many chocolate cakes that they
couldn’t face chocolate cake for ages afterward. But this recipe was by far the winner.
Enjoy.
CHOCOLATE CAKE
Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
¾ cup cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 cup strong coffee
Method
- Preheat Oven to 150° C.
- Lightly grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch rectangular baking dish or a 9 inch round cake
pan. Or fill cupcake papers 2/3 full (makes approximately 24 large or 30 standard
cupcakes). - Place all the ingredients except the coffee into a mixing bowl.
- Mix at medium speed. After about 1 minute, add the cup of coffee. Then, continue to
mix until all ingredients are blended and smooth. - Pour into a greased and floured baking dish or cupcake papers.
- Bake for 1 hour (cupcakes 22 – 23 minutes).
- Test by sticking in a toothpick or skewer. If it comes out clean… It’s done! If not, put it
back in the oven for an additional few minutes, and then test again. - Remove from pan and cool on a cake rack. Decorate with ganache or buttercream.
Tips
- Dust the greased pan with cocoa powder instead of flour for a chocolatey finish.
- Use Dutch cocoa for extra richness.
- Make your own buttermilk by adding 1 tsp white vinegar to 1 cup of milk. Leave for 10
minutes.
