Sweet and Lemony

Last Christmas, I treated myself to a copy of Life is Sweet, the latest
cookbook from the popular Hummingbird Bakery in London. My
husband got me the first Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook a few years ago and it's become one of my favourites, along with Mary Berry's
Baking Bible. 

Life is Sweet is a collection of baking recipes all originating from America. It's the sort of baked goods their bakeries have become famous for and they're introducing us to more of these American style baking with this new book. I was initially amused to find a recipe for 7-Up Pound
Cake and Chocolate Bundt Cake that uses mayonnaise instead of oil or
butter but I also found them strangely familiar somehow. Then I remembered having cake flavoured with Merinda, an orange carbonated drink, and also Sprite when I was a child. I also recall an auntie making chocolate cake with a dollop of mayonnaise. So I now realize that some of the cakes from my childhood were American-influenced and this shouldn't really be so surprising as the Philippines was once an American colony. I just haven't thought much about it before.

 I'd like to make these cakes one of these days just to give my girls
 a little taste from my childhood. I'm planning to substitute 7-Up with Fanta for that orangey flavour from a long time ago. I'll tell you more once I've made them. For now, though,  I'd like to share a recipe for Lemon Crumb Squares from the book. It's a little less exotic but it's definitely very tasty and you might like to give it a try too.

 *Lemon Crumb Squares*

Pre-heat the oven to 175°C (350°F), Gas Mark 4. Line a 9x13 inch tin

with non-stick baking parchment.

To make the base and topping, sift together 180g plain flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking power in a bowl and set aside.

Using an electric mixer or whisk, cream together 115g unsalted butter (softened) and 200g soft dark brown sugar for around 5 minutes on

 a medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add 90g rolled oats and

the flour mixture to the butter and sugar and mix until it resembles 

breadcrumbs.

Press half of this mixture into the base of the prepared tin and set

the rest aside in a bowl.

To make the filling, whisk together 370 ml sweet condensed milk,

140 ml fresh lemon juice and the zest of one lemon.

To assemble, spread the filling evenly onto the pressed base.

Sprinkle the rest of the reserved topping gently over the filling.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the topping begins to go brown.

Cool at room temperature for 30 minutes then in the fridge for

at least 1 hour. Cut into squares. 

This was so easy to make, I'm looking forward to making them

again with the girls. It's got a nice, crumbly base, a soft and gooey

middle that is both sweet and lemony, and a golden, crunchy topping.

 Actually we think it's like a traybake version of cheesecake

 but much thinner and with a condensed milk-lemon juice-zest filling 

instead of cream cheese. It's really good, especially with a hot drink.

I can see this becoming another family favourite.

Before I go I'd like to say thanks for all your comments and well
 wishes for last Monday. It went okey. The morning school run was
more chaotic than usual due to road works and closures around
the school but we made it on time and the girls came home in the afternoon very tired but happy. As back-to-school/nursery days go,
it was all right.

 Thanks again. Hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

Easy Chocolate Oat Treats

We tried a new recipe this week- 'easy chocolate oat treats' from
The Scandi Kitchen by Bronte Aurell. The cook book was featured
in last weekend's Saturday Times and the recipes included looked
lovely and delicious. I particularly liked this one because there was
no baking involved, just lots of sugar sprinkles and mixing and rolling
by hand. It sounded like something concocted with my girls in mind
 and making them certainly kept them happy and occupied on a rainy
half-term morning! They taste really good too and despite their sugary
appearance they're actually not too sweet, just a nice mix of chocolate,
 sugar and coffee flavours. They were very easy to make as well, just
as the name suggests. If you'd like to give them a try, here's how:


Ingredients

250g butter
400g rolled oats
175g caster sugar
4tbsp cocoa powder
4tbsp strong, cooled coffee
1tsp vanilla sugar
Dessicated coconut, sugar sprinkles or pearl sugar,
to decorate

1. Blitz all the ingredients, except the coconut, sugar sprinkles
    or pearl sugar, in a food processor, or mix by hand but allow
the butter to soften before doing so.
2. Put the mixture in the fridge to firm up a bit before using it
or it can be a bit too sticky. Add more oats if you feel the
the mixture is too soft.
3. Roll into 2.5cm diameter balls, then roll each ball in either
dessicated coconut, sugar sprinkles or pearl sugar.
4. Firm up in the fridge before eating.

Makes approx.40 and they will keep up to a week in the fridge.


We didn't have sugar pearls or dessicated coconut so we just
used what we've got which were mostly pink glimmer sugar and
hundreds and thousands, all leftovers from last June's birthday
baking. I didn't think the girls would like coconut anyway. And I
wasn't too sure at first about all that raw porridge oats but they
 all got absorbed into the mixture after they've been blitzed and
give the mix a bit of crunchiness. I've added this recipe to our list
of favourites, no doubt we'll be making these again soon.

Thank you so much for your comments on my last post especially

about the pop up restaurant. As Michelle said, it is crazy, but a good

sort of crazy. We're already making plans for the next one, hopefully on
November 28th. Thanks again for your kind and encouraging words.
Fingers crossed it will go well again, I'll keep you posted.


Enjoy your weekend and happy Halloween!

Autumnal Apple Cake

Saturday before last was Apples and Pears Day at the walled garden
in Wortley Hall. It was a beautiful autumn afternoon with blue skies
 and warm sunshine, just perfect for a wander round the grounds of the
estate and see all the organic vegetables and fruit trees grown within
 the hall's walled garden. There were lots to see but it was mostly the apples that caught my eye. They were all over the place, in trees,
 on the ground, in wooden crates, displayed in boxes on a table, and
 floating in water inside a plastic tub. I'm not sure why they were
 in that tub, to be honest, but anyway, they were just everywhere.
And of course there were delicious cakes and freshly pressed juice
too, all of which we tried and really enjoyed.

That lovely, apple-filled afternoon (sorry pears) inspired my cake-

baking this week. I found a recipe from the Bake-a-boo Bakery
 Cookbook that is very similar to one of the cakes I tasted that
Saturday. It's deliciously moist, full of apple and cinnamon flavours

 and, to me, very wonderfully autumnal. You might like to try it too.
Here's the recipe:


**Autumnal Apple Cake**

For the cake:

175g (6 oz) butter at room temperature
150g (5 oz) light muscovado sugar
3 large free-range eggs
200g (7 oz) apples, peeled, cored & sliced
100 g (3 1/2 oz) sultanas
175g (6 oz) self-raising flour, sifted
1tsp ground cinnamon
icing sugar, for dusting

For the topping:

2 apples, peeled, cored & finely sliced
2 tsps demerara sugar

Pre-heat oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas Mark 4. Grease and line
the bottom of a 20cm (8 inch) loose-bottomed cake tin.
Cream the butter and muscovado sugar together until smooth
and creamy, then beat in the eggs one at a time.

Stir in the apples and sultanas, then gently fold in the flour
and cinnamon until well combined. Transfer the mixture to the
prepared cake tin and level with a spoon.

Arrange the apple slices for the topping in a neat fan all the way
around the outer edge of the cake, then make a circle in the centre.
Sprinkle the apples with the demerara sugar, then cook in the
preheated oven for 45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the cake
comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then release and serve
dusted with icing sugar.

I hope you'll like this cake as much as we do. I forgot to dust
the top with icing sugar but it doesn't really matter I think. It's still
very taste, especially paired with a cup of tea. Enjoy!

On another baking note, I'm very pleased for Nadiya for winning
this year's The Great British Bake Off. She was in great baking form
in the finals and aced through all three challenges. She's the real
deserving winner, well done to her.

A lovely Sunday evening to you all. See you soon!

Blackberry Pud and Brownies

I like blackberries. They're full of goodness, they are free, and there
are so many tasty things you can make with them. Last Sunday we
picked enough fruit from hedgerows growing around here to fill
two punnets. Half of them were made into blackberry sorbet and
 we've added some to apple crumble. (Apple and blackberry crumble
with vanilla custard is one of my favourite desserts ever. Yum!)
The rest were made into bread and butter pudding.

I've never made bread and butter pudding before. I can't even
remember if I'd ever tasted it. But Nigel Slater's recipe looked easy,
and that photo was very tempting, I decided blackberry bread
and butter pudding is the perfect new thing for us to try this week.

It was very easy to make, a bonus when you're baking with kids.
I buttered, cut and arranged the bread. The girls mixed the egg
custard and poured it over the bread. They also helped scatter
the blackberries around, helping themselves to one or two of the
fruit as they did. Oh well, perk of the job.

We baked this for about 45 minutes. The middle had a nice
little wobble when it was taken out of the oven and I've now
learned that this is a good sign - the custard had set just right.
I was expecting it to be rich and heavy with all that bread but
it's surprisingly light and to me, it tasted better after it had cooled
down a bit. Actually I liked it just as much cold from the fridge.
Is that wrong? Does it have to be eaten warm at all times? Anyway,
temperature aside, it tasted really good. The blackberries added
texture and a bit of sharpness that worked well with the sweet
custard. Really nice. I'll make sure to freeze some blackberries
so we can make this many more times this autumn and winter.

Aside from the bread and butter pud, we've also made brownies
this week. This one is Lorraine Pascal' s Cookies and Cream
Fudge brownies.

It was a bit of a faff to make compared with the ones we usually
make but it's worth it. It's very gooey, chocolatey and very naughty!
There's only a tiny bit of flour in this, the rest is sugar, butter, eggs,
chocolate and Oreo cookies. Not for anyone who's diabetic or
watching their weight but if you're not worried about those things
then this brownie is pure chocolate indulgence!

So that's all our baking for this week. I'm taking it very easy
this weekend. Did you enjoy Bake Off last Wednesday? The
technical challenge was a bit ridiculous. Does anyone make their
own pitta bread at home? But I'm pleased for Nadia. She deserved
to be star baker this week.

Before I go I'd like to say a big thank you for your kind, helpful
and understanding comments in my last post. Your words have
heartened and encouraged me, thank you. The first week back at
school had gone well and Lulu was happy and confident when we
dropped in at the nursery yesterday so I'm less worried now. I'm
looking forward to it now actually. Lots of crafting and crochet time
for me hopefully. Thanks again for your kind comments.

Have a great weekend!

Teabread and Cookies

Inspired by all that incredible bread making in last week's
Bake Off, I wanted to have a go, too. I had Chelsea buns in mind, but
the rest of the family wanted lemon squares. I couldn't quite decide
what to bake: lemon squares? Chelsea buns? Then I spied some
over ripe bananas in the fruit bowl and decided to make something
completely different. So there's no bread making this week, nor any lemony bake, what we have instead is Mary Berry's Banana and
 Honey teabread.

This turned out to be a good one to bake. The girls really enjoyed
helping out. There were plenty for them to get involved in- mashing
 the bananas,  rubbing the butter in with the flour and afterwards,
brushing the top of the cooked teabread with warmed honey.

I like that the girls had fun making this so no regrets about the

Chelsea buns. The teabread itself wasn't bad either. It's more dense

 than our usual banana loaf and full of interesting flavours with

 ground nutmeg, lemon zest and honey in the mix. 

We didn't have sugar cubes or nibbed sugar for the topping and
used demerara sugar instead. I always like a sugary, crunchy top
 and the demerara was a good substitute I think.

We all loved this teabread. It was gone the next day so we had
to do some more baking. I decided to try a new cookie recipe-
White Chocolate and Pecan Nut from The Hummingbird Bakery
Cookbook . Well, a version of it really. We couldn't find any pecans
 in the shops so ours turned out as White Chocolate and Hazelnut cookies.

I'm sure they'd taste differently with pecans but we're happy
with these. They're soft and chewy and not too sweet. It's one
of those recipes where you have to freeze the dough first before
baking and that was a bit too long to wait for two excited girls. But
we'll make these again and next time with the pecan nuts hopefully.

Did you enjoy this week's Bake Off?   I thought the wind torte (?)
they had to make in the technical challenge looked so dainty
and pretty. I hope some brides-to-be out there were watching
and make it their wedding cake.

Have a great weekend everyone!


PS. I still haven't given up on the Chelsea buns!

Courgettes Not Carrots

It's the second week of our Bake Off challenge and we've made
 Nigella's courgette cake.

Baking with courgettes is something new to me. Carrots? Yes.
But courgettes? No. Not even when we have to help use up the
glut from my father in law's allotment nearly every summer and
we're always looking for new ways to cook with them.

 But I know that cakes with courgettes can be lovely and moist;
I thought we should give it a go. We had most of the ingredients
already, so why not try it? It is something new and a bit different
 and this, after all, is what our little baking challenge is all about.

So we started off by grating the courgettes and then mixing the other
cake ingredients together before baking for half an hour.

It is very much like carrot cake: it has vegetable oil, sultanas and
the same cream cheese frosting, although it has lemon curd with
some lime juice for the filling.

It is also similar to carrot cake in taste and texture- very moist

and lovely, but it is more lemony because of the filling.

I really like this cake and Markie is a big fan too. She's says she only likes carrots but she doesn't seem to mind that this has courgettes,

 even when she can see little green flecks of this totally different

vegetable all over the cake. Lulu, on the other hand, hates it. Her

reaction when I was folding in the grated courgettes was less than enthusiastic. But I bet she won't be able to resist a chocolate version

 of this cake. We'll try that one out next time we have some of

 Grandad's homegrown courgettes. We're expecting more gifts 

from his allotment soon.

Hope you enjoyed the Bake Off last night. Those bread sculptures
were amazing! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Bake Off Challenge: Goosebery and Honey Cake

Now that the The Great British Bake Off is back, I've decided to have
a little Bake Off challenge of my own. The idea for this came from
the lovely Marianne of Ladybird Diaries. Every week throughout the
new series I'm going to bake something new. I'm currently feeling inspired to try out some new recipes, to be a little bit more
adventurous with my baking and I think that the next ten or eleven
 weeks while The Bake Off is on will be the best time to do this.
I'll get inspiration and encouragement from the programme and
I just think it will be great fun too.

So to kick start my Bake Off Challenge I chose Gooseberry and Honey
Cake from the June issue of The Simple Things magazine. 

If you'd asked me a few years ago if I know what gooseberries are

I'd honestly tell you that I have no idea. I only got to taste and like 

these soft fruits about two or three years ago when my father-in-law

started growing them in his allotment. They can be a little tart but when

 they're fully ripe they're lovely and sweet and perfect for summer 

crumbles. I didn't know they can be added in cakes too so I was really eager to try this recipe.

Baking this was straightforward and easy. What was interesting for 

me were the ingredients: instead of the usual sugar, it has honey

and two tablespoons of elderberry cordial to make it sweet and

there's no flour, just ground almonds.  

I think it turned out well. The texture is nice and moist although

it's a little bit greasy. The honey and elderberry cordial were effective

sugar substitutes. I was tempted to sprinkle icing sugar on the top to 

make it less plain looking but decided not to. Maybe next time I will. 

You've also probably noticed that my version is slightly thinner 

compared with the magazine's. It's because I didn't have the required 

baking tin and used one that was a little bit bigger. As for the gooseberries, I think they add a nice, sweet flavour and texture

 to the cake although I think it can do with maybe 50grams more.

So a baking success? Not quite, I think. Because even though the
girls and I like, it my husband's not particularly taken by it. Maybe
he'll enjoy it more with a dollop of creme fraiche as it's suggested
in the magazine. But it has fulfilled my criteria of baking something
 new so I'm still very pleased. I'm now looking forward to my next challenge. Bread, maybe? We'll see!

Hope you're all having a good week. Enjoy tonight's
Bake Off! 

A birthday party and other happy things

Last Saturday we celebrated the girls' birthdays.

We had a party for them and their friends and they had a wonderful
 time. I'm so glad it went well, especially after all the baking and party
 preparations that we did. I just wish I had remembered to take photos
 while the party was happening. It got so busy that I forgot. Ooops!
 But it was still lovely though, and now we are all looking forward to having our little celebrations on their actual birthdays this weekend.
We're going to have a picnic and on Sunday there will be a trip to a
 toy shop. It's going to be great. I'm so excited for my birthday girls!

...................


I always appreciate a quiet day at home and we had this on Sunday.

It was so nice to slow down after a busy week and all the previous
 day's partying. We napped in the afternoon and there was time to read
and crochet. It was just what we needed and it did us all a whole lot
 of good. I love quiet, restful, staying-in days, just can't do without them.

...................

I was given this orchid as a belated birthday present.

I always love an orchid. We had many orchid plants in our back
 garden when I was growing up. My father was a very keen orchid
grower and he was very good at it. So this reminds me of home,
family, sunshine. Good memories. It's a lovely gift.

.......................

These are my recent charity shop finds: two novels by two
excellent authors.

I've started with Kate Atkinson's book. So far, so very good and
a lot of people have told me that 'Death in Pemberley' is also a great
read. They're very good finds then. I'll be looking for more to add to
my summer reading. Hope I'll get lucky again next time I do a charity
shop stop.

..........................

Markie loves to draw and her work just keeps getting better
and better all the time.

They have so much more detail now and they're always so colourful.
It's wonderful to watch her draw and see how much she enjoys it.
There's always a story behind each picture too. Our little artist's
work always make me smile and I'm very proud of her.

..........................


I'm not too far away from finishing my shawl. Hooray!

I really like this stage in every project when I'm just a few rows and
stitches away from completion and whatever it is I'm making is looking
all right. Fingers crossed I'll have my very own handmade shawl soon.


..............................


Those are some of my happy things from last week. I hope your
weekend was lovely too however you spent it.  I'll be back with my finished patchwork blanket. See you soon!

Five on Friday

Hello! I'm joining in again with Amy for Five on Friday.
For today's post, I've chosen five things from these past five days.

I'm starting with this slice of pine nut loaf cake which my husband
made yesterday. It is delicious, especially with creme fraiche and tea
or coffee.

My husband is off work this week so he's had more time to do what he

 enjoys-- cooking. Today he's planning to make lemon ice cream.

It is going to be good. We're all very excited about it.

This is Markie's costume for fancy dress day at school today.

I've been busy making it this week. I've never made a costume before,

either for kids or grown-ups and it's been fun. Hope to write more

 about it soon.

My new pom-pom makers. I got two with different sizes and

this is the smaller of the pair.

Markie's costume was my excuse for this purchase. I made her

little antennas with pom-pom tops and having this little gadget made

the job easier. I thought it was a little extravagant at first, but now I'm

glad I got them. Next pom-pom project: Easter chicks.

This is the newly tidied wall shelf in our bedroom.

I've done some spring cleaning this week. It's so satisfying to know

 that every surface, item and corner had been cleaned, polished and tidied- well, almost. I still haven't finished, so more cleaning for me
next week.

My very simple makeshift loom.

I made it with cardboard and string. It's just a little experiment.
 Hopefully it will work and I'll have something woven to show you here next time.



So those are my five today. I'm joining in Five on Friday, taking five
minutes from our day to enjoy five things. Please click here to visit
the other people blogging about Five on Friday this week.


Thanks for visiting me here. Hope you all enjoy your weekend!

This week...

.......I started my Christmas making.

Nothing big, just gift tags using these paper tapes - a nice little project 

to get our festive making underway. I'll show you the gift tags

next time.

.......the yarn I ordered came through the post and they're as

lovely as I'd expected.

I'll be using these to make a present for my mother-in-law.

I can't wait to get started!



......I bought a new crochet book.

I don't think I need another craft book but this has pretty
and useful projects that I'm interested in making (the pot holders
and table runners are my favourites) and it's only £3.99. It was a good
bargain and I couldn't resist.



......we made orange and almond cake.

It's been a long time since we've made this cake and yesterday
we were reminded by how simple it is to make and how delicious
it tastes. We'll be baking this again soon.



.......we've all felt a bit unwell.

Markie was the first one to get sick and had to miss three days of
 school. Thankfully she's well again and went back to school yesterday.
The rest of us are still not a hundred percent well but we're getting
better everyday and hopefully by the end of this week we'd be rid of
all these nasty germs and bugs.



So that's a bit of our week so far. Hope yours is going well and
you're all keeping warm and healthy. See you soon!