Redcurrant Harvest

I planted a redcurrant bush in our garden a couple of years ago. My granny and mum used to make meringue and redcurrant tarts which were delicious so I bought the bush as a memory of those kitchen times. I harvested the redcurrants yesterday as I knew they would start to rot if I left them for any longer. Here they are in their luscious glory.

I also harvested the rhubarb but I'm not sure what I'm going to make other it yet. Before making anything with the redcurrants I took them off their stalks and cleaned them.

It was so hot yesterday so I didn't spend a lot of time outdoors, only enough to hang up and take down the washing which dried in super quick time. I've been getting all the washing done in preparation for some time away. While I was inside trying to stay cool, I thought I'd search for some redcurrant recipes which are surprisingly few and far between. I stumbled across a recipe for a lemon cake with redcurrants and I decided to take the topping from there. So this is what I did. I made up a Victoria Sponge recipe as normal.

175g margarine or butter
175g caster sugar (I used the unrefined sugar)
175g self raising flour
3 medium eggs

I creamed the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Added an egg one at a time with a spoonful of the flour and then I added all the flour. At this point I added half the redcurrants and folded them into the mixture to prevent them breaking down. I divided the mixture between two greased and floured cake tins and baked for 25 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade. While the cakes were in the oven, I mixed the juice of 4 lemons (I only had 3 lemons left so I had to use some squirty lemon juice from the fridge) with 150-200g of demerara sugar. Once the cakes were out of the oven I spooned half the mixture over them, leaving the other half for the other two cakes I made with the second half of the redcurrants. I decided to cut the cake into finger sized pieces. I tried some and it was delicious but as we're going away, I've put the rest in the freezer ready for my next tea party.

Birthday Cake and a Day Out in Oxford

We spent the day with my mum on Saturday to celebrate her birthday. Dad had sent me an email requesting a birthday cake for her and I was more than happy to oblige. I made her a chocolate cake using a basic victoria sponge recipe.

175g margarine or butter
175g caster sugar
150g self raising flour
25g cocoa powder
3 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream the marg and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla extract. Add the eggs one at time, adding a tbsp of the flour and cocoa powder mixture with each egg to prevent the mixture curdling. When this is all mixed in, fold the flour in with a metal spoon (I did this all in the mixer which has a metal mixing paddle). Add enough water to make it a dropping consistency. Divide between two 20cm tins which have been greased (I also added a circle of greaseproof paper). Bake in a preheated oven (180 degrees centigrade) for 25 minutes.

When a skewer comes out clear (make sure you don't open the oven door too soon as the cakes will collapse), remove from the oven and leave to cool. To make the butter icing, mix 120g margarine or butter with 200g icing sugar and 50g cocoa powder. Sandwich the cakes together and cover with the icing. I decorated the cake with chocolate buttons.

I love the plate that it's on - it was my granny's plate and I use it all the time for cakes. Mum enjoyed her birthday cake although my ds said that it was too light and he preferred his granny's (my mum's) cakes. You can't win them all!

We spent the day in Oxford - lots of people but we managed to find some of the quieter areas, down the smaller roads and by the river. We managed to beat the weather as it didn't start raining until we were back in the car. Here are some pictures of our day.

I love the architecture in Oxford and the wildlife is pretty special too.

We tried to save this snake from the canal but it wasn't playing ball so we left it have a swim. Just outside Christ's College we came across a border of lavender which was covered in honey bees - it was an amazing sight and this photo doesn't really do it justice. It's good to see so much wildlife in an urban area. After all this visiting, today was definitely a day of rest.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been a busy couple of days visiting family so I spent today pottering. In reality I did three loads of washing, narrowly missing the rain shower, and not much else until this afternoon. The time has come to defrost the freezer but before I do that, I need to make sure we use up the freezer contents - easier said than done. I bought a cheese sauce from Waitrose a couple of weeks ago for 25p and froze it when I got home. I used it today to make a vegetarian lasagne. I'd taken it out of the freezer before I checked the fridge for vegetables. When I did all I found was mushrooms and a couple of onions but I still managed to make the sauce with the addition of frozen peas.

My ds is taking part in the Challenge this week and was very disappointed that I hadn't been baking for the week as he wanted to take extra for his packed lunch. To be honest when the holidays start, I fall out of my normal weekend routine and forget to make the baked goods for the week. Feeling a little bit guilty, I've just made a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I like to think that these are healthy as they're full of oats but I don't think I'll get away with that thought.

200g margerine or butter
1.5 cups dark brown sugar
0.5 cup caster sugar

Cream the marg and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs and 1tsp vanilla extract and mix well.

Mix in

1.5 cups plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda 
0.5 tsp salt

Add 2.5 cups rolled oats and 2 cups chopped chocolate of your choice. I used cadburys milk chocolate. Mix well. Place tablespoons of the mixture onto baking sheets - I put 6 on each sheet to allow room for spreading (4 baking sheets, 23 cookies).

Bake in an oven preheated at 180 degrees centigrade for approx 10 minutes. I took the first batch out too soon so I've just it them back in for a couple of minutes.

They're really yummy and just waiting to be added to the packed lunch box tomorrow.

Muffin Baking

I spent the early hours of Sunday morning baking for the afternoon synagogue celebrations. As it turned out (which it always does) there was plenty of food despite everyone worrying that ere wouldn't be enough. I decided to make two different types of muffins - raspberry and jam filled. I used a basic muffin recipe for both:

225g plain flour
100g caster sugar
3tsps baking powder (only 1tsp if you use self raising flour)
Half a tsp salt
8fl oz milk
3fl oz vegetable oil
1 egg

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a measuring jug. For the raspberry muffins, mix the fruit into the flour mix then combine with the wet ingredients. Don't over mix as this makes the muffins quite dense. Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases and bake at 200 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes.

For the jam filled muffins, follow the recipe above. Fill each muffin case half full. Add a teaspoon of jam to each case.

Cover with the remainder of the mixture and bake as above. Here they are after baking.

These are such simple things to bake so if you haven't tried baking before, this is a good place to start. There lovely fresh from the oven - warm and gooey. There also great heated up in the microwave after a day or two - 30 seconds should do it. I've been playing with a new app called Pic Collage and this is the results of my efforts.... it makes me feel hungry just looking at all the pictures together.

Deep Filled Apple Pie

My dh and ds returned from a trip to the Lake District last week. They had a wonderful week camping, walking and eating. One of the places they found sold a wonderful apple pie (so they told me) and it was aptly named The Apple Pie. Hearing them talk about this apple pie fresh from the oven, it made me want to make my own. My mum used to make a rectangular apple pie that we used to slice up into squares and that's what I based mine on. I peeled and cubed 5 bramley apples, put them in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water and a sprinkling of caster sugar. I popped the lid on, placed the saucepan over a medium heat and let the apples cook down. Bramley apples can be quite sour so make sure you taste the apples to see if you need to add any extra sugar.

I left the apples to cool and made the pastry. I measured out 225g of self raising flour, rubbed in 110g marg and a handful of sugar. I then added a beaten egg and enough water to make a dough. I should have left the pastry to rest at this point but I didn't have time so I divided it into two and rolled out the bottom, lined the baking tin, filled it with apples and added the lid. I had some pastry left over so I made some hearts to put on the top. I put some water on them so they stuck. I then baked in an oven preheated to 180 degrees centigrade for about half an hour.

Here's the finished pie sprinkled with caster sugar and here's a slice ready to be eaten (and still warm from the oven) - yummy.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks at work (two proms as it's that time of year, preparing for a changing role and keeping up to date with my day job including preparing students for their GCSEs and A levels) and busy at home (ds's prom and dd's exams) which has left me feeling completely exhausted (hence the lack of sewing posts). This apple pie has kept us going all week - it's great as a pick me up at the end of a busy day. A slice popped into the microwave for 40 seconds has helped to keep my spirits up. I hope you all have a lovely weekend spending time with the ones you love. Me, I'll be catching up on my sleep.

I've just joined in with Handmade Monday - there are some lovely blogs that you can visit.

Best Flapjack Recipe

For years, I tried to make flapjacks but they were either too dry or too soggy. I never seemed to get it right no matter how many times I tried or how many different recipes I tested. I have a friend from university who makes flapjack and seems to get it right every time and I never heard the end of it from my children. They were constantly asking why I couldn't make flapjack like her and could they go and visit her (a two hour drive away). Luckily, I found a recipe that worked about two years ago and now they ask for my flapjacks (phew). This recipe works every time and I always get positive comments. So if you've been having trouble with getting your oats to stick together or your flapjack felt like sawdust in your mouth, this is the recipe for you. I always make a double batch for the week as my DS uses them as his energy fuel but this is the recipe for one batch.

Melt 175g of butter or marg (I used Pure margerine) in a saucepan. Add
2tbsp golden syrup
175g Demerara sugar

Melt over a medium heat and stir well. Remove from the heat and add 225g of rolled oats. I sometimes find that this isn't enough oats and so I add a bit more. This time I added some sultanas and dried cranberries. Spoon to mixture into a baking tin and spread it out evenly. Place the baking tin in an oven heated to 170 degrees centigrade and cook for 15 minutes until the oats are golden brown. Remove from the oven and mark into slices. Leave to cool completely before placing in an air tight container.

A Bag of Cherries

When I was in London at the weekend, I was wondering down Berwick Street past a number of fruit and veg stalls. At the first stall, they were selling fresh cherries for £3 a pound but at the second stall the price had gone down to £1.50. I thought that this was a bargain so bought some. Little did I know, but of course I should have guessed, that these cherries were moving towards the overripe stage. Now, I love fresh cherries and usually eat them all in one sitting but these were moving past their best. I decided to pit them all and then have a little search around the internet to find a recipe that I could use them in.

After a quick search, I hadn't come up with anything that took my fancy so I started looking through my cookery books at home and as you know, I have a lot. 10 minutes later, still no inspiration. And then I thought to myself, why don't I just make a victoria sponge batter and add the cherries to it. So that's what I did. I put the following ingredients in the food mixer and blended.

225g marg or butter
225g caster sugar
225g self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs (the recipe called for large but I only had medium)

I then added a bit of water until the mixture reached dropping consistency. I tend to add water rather than milk just in case I serve the cake up to someone with a lactose intolerance. I then divided the mixture evenly between two greased and lined 20cm round tins. I put the cherries on top and then sprinkled some demerara sugar over the cherries. Here is the batter before being put into the oven.

I then baked the cakes for 25 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees centigrade. I checked the cakes after 20 minutes but they still needed 5 minutes more. It's really important that you don't check before 20 minutes as the cakes will just sink. When I took them out of the oven, the cherries were no longer on the top of the cake. I decided to try a slice (as this was the first time I had made a cherry cake) and it was delicious. I can highly recommend it - why not give it a try.

Thank You Baking

 

I've had the greatest week professionally. I had the opportunity to become involved in a leadership carousel so I spent the week working at a different school. The staff and students welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like a part of their team. I learnt new skills and saw new ideas - all in all, I got my mojo back. So, on the last day (yesterday) I really wanted to say thank you to everyone so I made some fairy cakes and Cornish fairings (biscuits). Here are the recipes...

Fairy Cakes (based on Nigella Lawson's recipe)


125g marg or butter
125g caster sugar
125g self raising flour (I ran out part way through so had to use some plain flour with a bit of baking powder)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsps water 

Put everything except the water in the food processor and mix well. Add enough water to reach dropping consistency. Spoon into 12 muffin cases and bake at 200 degrees centigrade for 15 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool completely then ice. I just used plain glace icing made with icing sugar and water. I even used icing that I had freezed and it worked. I made two batches of the fairy cakes to take in for staff and they seemed to be appreciated. By breaktime, they had completely disappeared - there wasn't even a wrapper in sight. 

Yesterday, I woke up before 6am and I couldn't get back to sleep. I don't know why but I decided it would be a good idea to make individual cookies for the team I had been working with all week. They had been really supportive and gave up their time to help me. I used the Cornish Fairings recipe from the River Cottage Handbook on Cakes. It worked a treat. I hadn't made it before and I was really pleased with how it worked out (again I doubled the mixture and made 12 cookies - 2 for each person).

125g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground mixed spice
50g caster sugar
50g butter or marg
2 tbsp golden syrup

Put the first 5 ingredients in a bowl, mix well and add the sugar. Add the butter and rub in so the the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add the golden syrup and bring the mixture together to form a smooth dough. Form into 6 large walnut sized pieces and place on a baking tray with enough room to spread (and they really spread - I put 4 on each baking tray). Flatten slightly with the back of a fork.

Cook at 200 degrees centigrade for 6-7 minutes. You need to keep a really close eye on the time as you don't want to over bake these. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack. This is what they will look like - yummy.

I packaged them up, two in each packet, as a thank you which seemed to be well received.

I want to say a big thank you to all the staff and students for looking after me so well all week. I'm looking forward to working with them again and I know I'll really miss them. Now, off to some extra training in London today (on a Saturday I hear you all cry!) so no baking today. I hope you all have a lovely day.

Birthday Brownies

Today was a big day - my dad reached a very special age. I had booked a local Italian restaurant months ago - Da Gennaro in Guildford. This is a family run restaurant and they couldn't have been more helpful. They allowed us to decorate the table before everyone arrived. I decided to make chocolate brownies for everyone as a going home present and we sprinkled the table with stars and laid out straws, cocktail stirrers and umbrellas for everyone. These were particularly enjoyed by my nieces and nephews. My nieces decided to collect up all the cocktail umbrellas and take them home with them, along with the doilies from the desserts which they then got all crafty with.

So, back to this morning. As it was a Saturday and I therefore had time for a lie in, my body decided to wake up just before 6am! As I was awake anyway, I got up to bake the brownies. I used my favourite recipe from The Little Red Barn Baking Book. I don't think you can buy this new anymore but there seem to be a number of pre loved copies available on Amazon. Here is the recipe:

110g plain chocolate (high cocoa content)
90g plain chocolate (chopped)
110g butter or margerine
155g plain flour
150g dark brown sugar
150g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs

Put the 110g chocolate and the butter in a bowl suitable for the microwave. Place in the microwave on defrost for 5 minutes. Stir and then microwave on defrost for another minute. Add both sugars and stir in well. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until glossy (at this point my DS took over the beating to make sure the mixture was smooth). Add the vanilla extract and stir in. Add the plain flour and salt and stir in carefully trying not to add too many air bubbles. This is what it looked like..

I doubled the mixture to make sure I had enough brownies. This amount makes 50 small brownies.

Spoon into a square baking tin, level the surface then bake at 170 degrees centigrade for 20-25 minutes. Be careful not to over bake. I cut them into squares when they had cooled slightly and then packaged them up - 4 brownies per person.

I added a label to each and some shiny wrapping ribbon and here is the end result.

We had a really lovely birthday lunch and everyone had a present to take home afterwards. So Happy Birthday to a wonderful, amazing dad.

St. Clement's Cake

I love baking using Nigella Lawson's recipes. In particular, the recipes in How to be a Domestic Goddess. I have a well thumbed copy and have tried a number of the recipes over the years. I love her lemon drizzle cake and decided it was time to do some baking at the weekend. I had some oranges that needed using up but I had already used the orange rind so I decided to use lemon rind instead, hence the St. Clement's element.

Here is the recipe...

125g marg or butter

175g caster sugar

Grated rind of 1 lemon 

2 eggs

175g self raising flour

Pinch of salt

Cream the marg and sugar, add the eggs and lemon rind and beat well. Add the flour and enough water or milk to make a dropping consistency. I added water as I was making the cake for colleagues at work and one of them is lactose intolerant. I also used pure margarine which has no dairy products in it. 

Line a loaf tin and spoon the mixture in. Bake in an oven pre heated to 180 degrees centigrade for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 

While the cake is baking, mix 4 tablespoons of orange and/or lemon juice (I used both) with 100g icing sugar in a saucepan and heat gently until the icing sugar dissolves. 

Once the cake is out of the oven, skewer all over and pour the syrup over and leave to soak in. 

Allow to cool completely. I made double the mixture so I ended up with two cakes. Both are now in the freezer (they freeze beautifully) ready for cake Friday.

Grape Cake

I bought a punnet of grapes from the supermarket last week. Both my children like red grapes so I thought it was a safe bet. When I got them home we soon realised that they weren't the tastiest of grapes so they've been sitting on the side since then. I hate to throw food out so I decided to google cooking with grapes this morning and is stumbled on this recipe which looked really easy (it's currently baking in the oven so the true test will be in half an hour). I found the recipe on this New Zealand website. I started to get the ingredients ready and was reaching for the butter when I realised it doesn't have any in the recipe. Could this be too good to be true? Here's the recipe....

2 eggs
Three quarters cup caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
Rind and juice of one lemon

Beat all the ingredients together until the mixture thickens. My mixture didn't seem to get very thick. Then add one and a half cups of self raising flour. Fold in gently and add 500g seedless grapes. I just added the grapes I had left. Spoon into a greased and lined 20cm round baking tin and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade.

Just before I made the cake, I finished off the pretzels that I had started making yesterday evening. I divided the dough into 8 pieces, rolled each piece into a tube and then shaped into a pretzel shape. This is how they turned out

I then left them to rise again and then covered em in egg wash and sprinkled them with sesame seeds.

Finally, I baked them for 15 minutes. By this stage they had lost any resemblance to pretzels so I guess this will be a case of practice makes perfect.

I left the oven on to bake the grape cake and here is the finished cake, dusted with icing sugar.

 
And with a slice taken out so you can just about see the grapes inside.

It's a surprisingly tasty cake as it has no fat in it - definitely worth making again.

Bread Making

It's heading towards the end of the holiday so I spent the day running errands (doctor and opticians), finishing the bags I'd started at the beginning of the week (three more to go) and pottering around the kitchen. I started by making some basil pesto this morning. I had bought a pot of basil last week from sainsburys. My DH hates this herb as he says it makes the house smell of cat wee! I have to admit that this morning, he had a point so I pulled all the leaves off, put them in the blender, added some grated cheddar that I found lurking at the back of the fridge, a handful of pine nuts and a few glugs of olive oil. I added some salt and pepper to taste and then put the finished pesto into a glass jar and covered it with olive oil. This should keep us going for a while.

I then decided to make Babka (sweet Shabbat bread) as my DD is returning from scout camp tomorrow and she loves this bread, especially as it includes Nutella. I love bread making when I have a whole day available. Here is the finished product (see the previous post for the recipe).

 This smells delicious fresh from the oven. I'm also making a batch of bagels which are a little bit trickier as they need boiling as well as baking. Come back tomorrow to see how to make these. I hope you're having a lovely day.

More sharing

I love to see what other people have been creating around the world. This week has just been about work and sleep (except for my trip out to the theatre with DH on Wednesday which was an unexpected treat) but I've taken the opportunity to join a link party and one here to share some of my creative ideas from previous weeks. Feel free to have a look around and comment on the other posts.

I'm hoping that a holiday will encourage my creative juices to start flowing again and I'm looking forward to a week of jewellery designing, bag making, appliqué and baking. It's obviously starting to rub off on the rest of my family as my DD got I from school yesterday, donned her apron and started making fairy cakes of her day's birthday. I was so impressed. She even did all the washing up. Here are the plain version.

She then started making the glacé icing and learned a valuable lesson - you don't add the water first. We ended up using nearly half a packet of icing sugar to get the icing thick enough to use on the top of the cakes but we did find out that you can freeze unused icing. I've always said that life is a constant learning experience.

I hope you all have a wonderful day and I look forward to sharing all my makes with you next week.

Busy, busy day

Do you ever get to the end of a day and wonder how you managed to fit everything in? Today was one of those days. I made a bag in the morning, baked flapjacks, bread and rock cakes, went for a lovely walk with my family to see the bluebells and made pizza for dinner. Here is my day in pictures.

If you're in the area, the bluebells are beautiful at Hatchlands Park at the moment. I'll be going back to work tomorrow for a rest! Only kidding, I'll be planning lessons, marking and working late nights. I'm going to make the most of the rest of the day - roll on the apple pie. Thank you to The Little Red Barn Baking Book for the lovely recipe. A wonderful baking book with the best brownie recipe.

Chocolate Yeast Bread (Babka)

My Israeli friend made a delicious chocolate bread when she came round last week. She said that it's traditional to have this bread on the Sabbath in Israel but it is so delicious that I think it could be traditional to have it at any time (although I'm not sure my diet can cope with it). Here's her recipe for Babka:

500g strong plain flour
1 sachet dried yeast
1 tsp salt
50g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
125ml milk
100g softened butter

Put all the ingredients except the butter in the food processor with a dough hook. Knead together for 5 minutes. I added a splash more milk as the dough wasn't coming together. Keep mixing and add the butter bit by bit. Keep kneading for another 5 minutes. Put in a bowl and allow to rise.

Once risen, dived into two and roll each piece of dough out into a rectangle.
Cover each rectangle with Nutella (or butter, sugar and cinnamon or a filling of your choice). Roll up each rectangle from the short end and place into a bread loaf tin.

Leave to rise for an hour until doubled in size.

Brush with a beaten egg and cook in an oven preheated to 170 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes. Once out of the oven, cover with icing sugar or a sugar syrup or leave plain. Enjoy.

Pesach Baking

So, the first night of Pesach (Passover) is tomorrow night so today it was time to decrumb the kitchen and start the preparations. I'll be cooking for 14 tomorrow (and working all day) so today was baking day. Pesach is the festival that celebrates Moses leading the Jewish slaves out of Egypt. Whilst it is, of course, about remembering a sad story in the past it is also about all the food that needs to be prepared. I've bought the matzah - I love Waitrose. Who would have thought that a supermarket in Surrey would stock kosher food - normally we have to go up to Golders Green to get our supplies. I've also stocked up in matzah meal that I'll use to make kneidlach (matzah balls) and kremsels (matzah pancakes). I've boiled the eggs (traditionally everyone has an egg dipped in salt water at the Seder meal) and the parsley is ready on the windowsill (this will be the green herb that represents spring).

Pesach is the festival when we don't eat bread for 8 days - the story goes that the Jews had to leave Egypt so quickly that the bread didn't have time to rise so we eat matzah (unleavened bread) instead. All the baking that I've done today has therefore not used any flour. I always make a chocolate cake and then trawl the net for a new ground almond based cake. This is the best chocolate cake I have ever made and the recipe came from the Waitrose magazine. The recipe calls for green and black chocolate but I use value dark chocolate instead. It's one of the simplest recipes that tastes gorgeous. Here it is...

300g dark chocolate
275g caster sugar
165g unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
5 large free range eggs
1tbsp ground almonds

Break the chocolate into a microwave proof bowl, add the sugar, butter and pinch of salt. Microwave on defrost for 10 minutes (stir halfway through). Whisk the eggs with the ground almonds. Add the eggs to the chocolate mixture, pour into a 20cm greased tin and bake in an oven heated to 180 degrees centigrade for 35-40 minutes. And here it is....

I also found a new recipe on the net for apple and almond cake. I've been trying to find a recipe for ages that would use up the apples that have been sitting in the fruit bowl and here it is. It's a little more complicated than the chocolate cake but I'm hoping it will taste as good.

3 large eggs
3 apples
Lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
170g marg/butter
1 1/3 cups ground almonds
1tsp baking powder

Peel the apples. cube two of them and put in a bowl with half the lemon juice and 1tbsp sugar. slice the other apple and add lemon juice. Cream the marg and sugar. Add the egg yolks and continue mixing. Add the almonds and baking powder and fold in. Whip the egg whites until the stiff peak stage. Fold into the mixture. Add the cubed apples and fold in. Pour into a 20cm cake tin and place the sliced apples onto the top of the cake, fanned out. Bake in the oven at 150 degrees centigrade for 1 1/4 hours until browned on top.

And here it is (sorry about the dark photo). I'm now looking forward to eating them.

Baking day

It's been a busy day today. Baking in the morning and celebrating in the afternoon. By 11am, I'd made the week's flapjack, made the dough for bread and rolls and made a birthday cake. I added chopped dried dates to a quarter of the flapjack rather than cooking the flapjack first. This is how it turned out

I've just cooked the bread and I'm happy with the way it looks

This should last us a couple of days. I made a birthday cake for my dd using the recipe from the River  Cottage baking book.

175g marg
175g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
3 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract

Cream the margarine and add the sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add an egg at a time and beat with 1tbsp flour. Once all the eggs are beaten into the mixture, add the vanilla extract then all the remaining flour. Mix in some cold water so that the mixture is at dropping consistency. Spoon into two tins (greased and floured). Bake in a preheated oven of 180 degrees centigrade for 20-25 minutes.

I waited for the cakes to cool then sandwiched them together with Nutella (chosen by dd) and then iced with glacé icing and covered with grated chocolate.

It's now the end of half term so it's back to work tomorrow. No more time for sitting and crafting so it may be quiet on here for a while.