Surprise! I signed a book deal.🪁

Hi friends, and hello to my new friends from around the world this week. I’m Catherine Greer, author, serial baker of lovely treats, Aussie-Canadian mum and wife, lover of books and making things beautiful.

Just now, just this morning on holiday at my favourite place in the world, I signed a book deal.

My new novel is for women just like us. The working title is BITTERSWEET BAKERY CAFE…and it’s a funny, big-hearted story about all the things I love.

• Beautiful Australian beaches — the book is set at a fictional Hyams Beach in New South Wales.

• Baking.

• DIY renos on a shoestring.

• Starting a business in the middle of your life.

• Imperfect people who believe they’ve failed (but find, after all, that they haven’t).

• And a midlife woman who definitely ISN’T invisible…and learns to love all the people she’s been given to love.

When you read BITTERSWEET BAKERY CAFE — and oh! Oh! I can’t wait for you to read this book — I hope you see the world through my eyes, and remember that you can start now, where you are, to find joy in everyday things.

This morning, after YEARS of hard work, fears, doubt, disappointment, reading a zillion books by other amazing writers and working and believing in myself even when I was far past the logical point of doing so…I’m going to give you a book I love with all my heart.

I hope you love it, too. It’s coming out in 2025 and I’ll keep you posted along the way.

Thank you, thank you for sharing my happiness with me today.

Love, Catherine x

PS. The fun stuff!

• My favourite Emily Dickinson quote: “I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.”

• I’m buying this book for all my favourite kids hitting their late teens.

• This plum and blackberry cake is just as good with frozen mixed berries or frozen blueberries. My family’s absolute favourite for Sunday dessert and quick to make.

• I bought this green dress for a presentation at work and it was lovely. If you buy it in black, you’ll probably reach for it every time you think, “I need something comfortable and pretty and I don’t want to make a decision about what to wear.”

Hello, Sunday!

It’s a chilly morning here in Sydney, after a wild day yesterday. Our family is home, doing the usual during this extended Covid time: working on a puzzle of America, making nachos for dinner (yum!), watching some Netflix, reading in bed, working on my new book…

How are you?? If it’s summer where you are, enjoy!

Every Sunday I have a little family tradition: I make dessert with dinner. These past couple of weeks, I’ve made the delicious Plum and Blackberry Cake you see above. Can you believe I didn’t take a picture of what it looks like baked? It’s just as pretty, served with some thickened cream and dusted with icing sugar.

For summertime people, plums and blackberries are fresh for you. Here in Australia, you can easily use a bag of frozen blackberries (skip the plums) and the cake is still perfect.

Can I share?

Plum & Blackberry Cake

• 4 eggs, separated

• 185 grams sugar (divided into 150 g and 35 g)

• 110 grams flour, sieved

• 80 grams melted butter

• fruit: 4 plums (I slice off the ‘cheeks’) and a punnet of blackberries (OR 3/4 bag of frozen blackberries, around 400 grams)

Preheat oven to 160C (or 325 F). Line a 22 cm cake tin with baking paper.

• Whisk egg yolks and 150g sugar until thick and pale. I use a mixer!

• In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks, add in 35g sugar and whip until smooth and triple in volume.

• Mix the egg white, flour and melted butter into the egg yolk mixture. Don’t overmix.

• Pour batter into cake tin. Place plums on top and intersperse with blackberries. Be sure to poke some blackberries into the batter with a skewer.

• Bake for 40-50 mins, depending on your oven. Check that a skewer draws out clean in the centre and the cake is golden.

• Cool until just warm, and serve dusted with icing sugar and more blackberries. I also put pouring cream in a little jug on the table so people can add it if they love it.

That’s it! Trust me, this cake is totally worth it. It may look a little tricky, but it’s not — all you’re doing is whipping egg whites and egg yolks separately, combining it all together, popping in the fruit and into the oven.

Wherever you are, I hope you have a restful weekend. We’re cozy in Sydney, and I’m longing for summer…

Love Catherine x

PS.

• Hi to the new people this week — I do send recipes I love a few times a year, so hope you’re okay with that! I’m a baker and always have been :) I find it so relaxing and creative.

• A favourite extremely short poem about plums! “This is just to say…”

• I’m thinking of getting this long black beach cover up for our pool days! Roll on, summer.

• But right now, for Aussie winter, this lounge-around-home-after-a-bath set in blue looks super cosy. That long fuzzy cardigan looks so warm! Sorry, the pic is a little vavoom, but you’ll get the idea — ha! :)

• My fun baking photos on Instagram here! I loved posting on Insta for a long time, and now I rarely do…but if you scroll my feed, you’ll find apple pie, macarons, cakes, cookies, all the things…