Okay, so I think those of you following this blog may have noticed that I have struggled a little in recent years to complete the challenge of cooking along with the 21 days of the world’s premier cycling road race.

As some background for you, I started this blog a few years ago now in 2013 when I was spending my time at home with a young family.  For the last three years I have been back in the full-time workforce, making it a little harder at the end of the day to whip up a storm cooking fabulous French food.  My problem is though that I really enjoy it.  People I meet ask me about it, friends anticipate the kick off, and my husband goes into training for his taste testing duties… what am I to do?

This year I have decided to take a more relaxed approach.  Instead of cooking daily, I will aim to bring you a couple of recipes each week that speak to my heart (and ideally come from the regions visited by the Tour).  For 2017, I am particularly looking forward to bringing you a recipe for the quite poetically named ‘Crying lamb’ from the Alps region; and from Germany (where we kick off this year) a recipe for Butterkuchen. 

I will be commencing my cooking for this years Tour from the heights of Mount Hotham in Victoria, Australia where I will be visiting the ski slopes with friends along with my sister and brother-in-law’s family.  My brother-in-law’s mother, Hilda, would traditionally bake Butterkuchen for all our family gatherings, she was known for it, loved for it and it is one of the many things my nieces miss about her now that she is gone.  I think it is only fitting that I choose this recipe, based on a scone dough  with a buttery almond topping, to represent Germany as I kick off the Tour de France Cook Along for 2017 and share time in Hilda’s ski lodge with the family she loved…

Stay tuned – we kick off on the 2nd July!

Madelyn