living is a great adventure

Welsh Cakes - Bake Off inspiration week 2

2015-08-17T10:29:00.000+01:00

Biscuit week. Anyone else just totally in love with biscuit boxes made from biscuits? From the bakers comments I was pleased to learn that I was not the only one to never have heard of an arlette, and with Jus-Rol sharing a recipe for one on their Facebook page using their ready made sheets, I may just find time to try one!

I decided to make some biscuits for us to enjoy with a cup of tea and a board game so got out my copy of 'The Great British Book of Baking' and flicked through the biscuit chapter so see what whet my appetite. The biscuit chapter is headed 'Biscuits and Teatime Treats' and it turns out what whet my appetite was not a biscuit at all, but welsh cakes.

This is an incredibly quick and easy bake, I mixed it up while the cabbage was cooking for tea (and you know you don't want to overcook cabbage) and then rolled, cut and griddled after we had put the girls to bed. Ten minutes after they went to sleep we were eating welsh cakes.

I have had welsh cakes many times before, a friend at work has previously baked them and brought in to celebrate St David's day and I good friend sent us a homemade batch not long after Bessie was born. However I have never before had them hot. I didn't know what I was missing! They are tasty cold, they are amazingly moreish hot, and given that they were so quick to make, I may never again bother to eat them cold!

I started with the recipe from 'The Great British Book of Baking' but to be honest I wasn't very good at following it either in quantities or instructions (there was no where near enough fruit for my liking, and I don't have time to hand breadcrumb when I have a blender that does it so well!) so this is what I did.

Ingredients

225g self raising flour

pinch of salt

100g unsalted butter chilled

85g golden caster sugar

25g currants

25g sultanas

1 egg yolk

Splash of milk

1. Put flour salt and butter into blender and pulse until breadcrumbed

2. Empty into bowl and mix in sugar and fruit

3. Add egg yolk and milk and mix until dough comes together.

4. Turn out onto floured surface and roll to 1m thick.

5. Cut out shapes and griddle until golden brown on each side

6. Dust with sugar, and try very hard not to devour the whole lot!

As a salute to last weeks 'World Elephant Day' (August 12) I cut my dough into elephant shapes, but they didn't hold their shape too well when cooked and were very difficult to turn!

A griddle pan full of fruity dough elephants

Slightly puffy misshapen elephants once cooked

I also cut some heart shapes, just because.

My mix made nine elephants and around 15 hearts, a good sized feast for our game with plenty left over.

Our Feathered Friends

2015-08-16T16:45:00.000+01:00

I've mentioned our chickens a couple of times in posts, but realised I have not yet introduced you!

At the end of September 2012 we had some new additions to our household. Four incredibly cute silkie chickens, a wedding gift from some friends who have a breeding flock. There are two black ones - the witches (of Terry Pratchet Discworld fame) Nanny Egg and Granny Featherwax, one brown one - Emily Chickenson, and one white one - Princess Layer.

We had been talking about getting chickens for ages (first step on the small holding dream) and my previous birthday had a distinct poultry theme. I received a chicken house, feed hoppers, water dishes, books on keeping chickens, chicken food, grit, mite spray and an all important scrambled egg pan. Best of all my mum had reconstructed the bottom of our garden to include a fantastic hand-built chicken pen and a rebuilt shed to keep all our chicken paraphernalia in.

The pen under construction

I knew something was up as I’d been banned from the garden for the week before my birthday, Arthur got really twitchy every time I got near the door! However I didn't expect the scale of the work taking place.

The finished pen and new tenants

With the house in and ramp open the run is maybe a bit smaller than I would have liked but it doesn't really matter as the girls spend most of their time bobbing free around the garden.

From left to right: Princess Layer, Nanny Egg, Emily Chickenson and Granny Featherwax

They have been incredibly industrious and hard-working additions to our little family, producing an astonishing amount of eggs, they even laid pretty much all through the first winter. This last winter has been different though, more wet than cold and they did not enjoy it, hence the egg shortage. The poor little things look so bedraggled and small when wet, very sorry for themselves. They have plenty of undercover options in the garden but do seem determined not to let the rain interfere with their daily routine!

During the dryer months though they have been an amazing source of eggs, although it has meant compromises. Last spring I planted a selection of vegetables in the garden. The only thing to survive was the courgettes, apparently chickens don't like courgette plants, but they do adore cabbages, runner beans, peas and carrots - although the carrots just seemed to be a bed rather than a food source!

Our first ever homegrown egg

I was also confused as to why one of my rose plants was not growing well when all the others were flourishing until the one day I saw a chicken eating the newly budded leaves of the rose plants! The rose that was not growing well is the youngest of my roses and as such is smaller and therefore totally available as a chicken buffet, where as the others were flourishing through top growth out of reach of the pesky foragers.

At first I was annoyed by this, but decided to accept that for that year at least, I was not growing plants, I was growing eggs! And eggs we had in abundance so I guess it was worth it.

The chickens have now moved with us into a new home and have a large area of garden to roam in (the area containing the fruit bushes, they are spoiled hens!), but importantly are behind gates, allowing us garden space to grow things without being eaten, and space which can be kept clean for the (non feathered) girls to play in.

A summer Christmas pudding

2015-08-15T20:41:00.000+01:00

August might seem an odd time to post about Christmas pudding, in fact there's no might about it, it is odd. However there is a reason!

My sister and I are both huge fans of Christmas pudding, but me being somewhat pickier than her, I have been making my own for the last 10 years or so, mainly just to have one without chunks of nut in, who wants a crunch in that mouthful of warm soft flavours?!

I started with a recipe from an old cookbook at my parents house, I don't remember what it was called, and, apart from removing the nuts, the first year I did follow the recipe. That was the only year that happened!

Each year I have made changes to the recipe, either through design - such as adding ground almonds to keep the nutty flavour without the crunch and swapping candied peel for fresh for a wonderful citrus burst, or sometimes through accident - such as changing of quantities due to bad maths when trying to halve the recipe and the one year when I was making a fruit cake at the same time and used the cake sugar in the pudding and the pudding sugar in the cake.

Anyway, with all the changes, intended and otherwise, Christmas pudding 2013 was about as perfect as I ever expect to get it, and was faithfully reproduced for Christmas 2014 without any errors. It went down a storm. That being the case it seems such a shame to only make it once a year. So with my sister enjoying Christmas pudding as much as I do and her birthday approaching, I decided to make her a birthday pudding rather than a birthday cake. However, best laid plans and all that, I ran out of time and she did not get a birthday pudding (she got peanut butter cupcakes). So when she invited us for dinner last week I seized the opportunity and casually offered to bring dessert.

Here is my recipe for anyone who fancies giving it a go

Topped with a rose, rather than the more traditional holly. It is summer after all! This picture does not really do the pudding justice. We were too keen to eat them to remember to take pictures, so this one is a left over that had not yet had its second steam. As such it looks a little sad :(

Nell's Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

* 225g fresh white breadcrumbs
* 115g shredded vegetable suet
* 115g light muscavado sugar
* 1tsp ground ginger
* 1tsp ground cinnamon
* 1tsp ground nutmeg
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 125g seedless raisins
* 125g currants
* 125g sultanas
* 50g finely chopped fresh lemon and orange peel (about 2 lemons and 1 1/2 oranges)
* 70g natural glacé cherries washed and chopped into small pieces
* 50g ground almonds
* 1 medium cooking apple, peeled cored and grated
* 2 tbsp golden syrup
* 2 tbsp brandy
* 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
* milk to mix

1. Weigh out all dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well

This is before mixing, obviously!

2. Add apple, golden syrup, brandy and eggs, then enough milk until the mixture is damp and holds together but is not wet.

Your aiming for a mix that all looks wet but if you took a handful and squeezed you wouldn't get any liquid out

3. Stir well, and make a wish! Then cover and leave to stand overnight

4. butter pudding mould then fill with mix and steam for 8 hours.

I steam in a large pan with water in the bottom and the pudding mould stood on a biscuit cutter or tin can (or in this case, moulds stood on a baking sheet, on top of a cake ring) but you can use an electric steamer if you have one, or whatever works for you. The important thing is that the pudding is steamed not boiled or baked as this results in the perfect texture!

5. Remove from steamer and leave to cool.

6. Once cool remove pudding from mould, wrap in greaseproof paper and cloth and store in a cool dry place for up to a week.

7 Re-steam for 3 hours before serving.

I normally make this mix as one large spherical pudding, but as I was working to a clock on my summer pudding I knew I would not find enough steaming time so did smaller individual puddings instead, it made about nine of them. I could then get away with just 4 hours for the first steam and just 1 for the second. Don't try to do any less though, no matter how small your puddings, it really does need that time for everything to soften and combine together and for the flavours to develop.
When doing the second steam I always put my pudding back into its mould as I have a lovely spherical mould and I want it to keep its shape well. However in past years before my mould I have made spherical puddings without a mould just by shaping and wrapping in paper and cloth before steaming, work with what you have, but I recommend returning to the mould if you want a really neat shape. You can of course make hemi-spheres (or any other shape you fancy) but personally I feel nothing beats the full sphere.

I have searched my photos, but apparently have not taken a picture of the pudding at Christmas in it's full glory. I will add one this year!

Black Forest Bites - Bake Off inspiration Week 1

2015-08-08T12:13:00.000+01:00

So what did you think of week 1? I enjoyed the Madeira (lemon with cherries is my signature), particularly liked the sound of Tamal's pistachio and rose version, and I thought it looked incredible. The recipe has gone up on the BBC site so I shall definitely be adding that to my 'to bake' list.

The walnut cake was a good watch, but not really the accompaniment to my cup of tea, although they did look very nice.

But what really fired my imagination (as usual) were the show-stoppers. I love a good Black Forest gateaux, the best one I ever had was actually in the Black Forest in a small pub at the bottom of a waterfall, it was delicious, if a little boozy for my 14 year old self!

This weeks bake off versions were fantastic, I loved the chocolate trees and animals, was so impressed by the chocolate collar (what can I use that for?) and thought Alvin's shards were a really modern original.

I was all fired up with ideas of baking a gateaux, I could try something fancy like Ian's macaroon base (although maybe not after my last macaroon disaster) or just do a simple cake and go all out on decoration. Then I realised, who am I kidding! I don't have time to eat that sort of pudding, let alone make it, so here is my time saving version for those of us that wish we could spend the weekend baking, but can't. Black Forest Bites.

These are not a fancy bake. They are definitely not winning a show stopper, but they are quick to make and tasty, a manageable bake even if, like me, you are trying to fit too much into your very short days.

I kept my bites alcohol free, but you could easily replace the vanilla essence with kirsch wasser or cherry brandy.

Makes 9 large dessert sized bites. If you want snack sized then use a teaspoon to measure out your bites rather than a dessert spoon.

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter
120g light muscovado sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1 tin of black cherry pie filling
240g flour
3tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder

for the filling
60g unsalted butter
200g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
splash of milk

1. Melt the butter and sugar in a good sized pan, remove from heat
2. Empty the tin of pie filling into a sieve and stir until the cherries are separated from the syrup.
3. lightly beat the egg and vanilla then add to the pan along with 4 tbsp of pie filling syrup.
4. roughly chop the cherries and add to the pan
5. Add flour, baking powder and cocoa and stir until combined. The mix should be a very soft sort of dough.
6. Use a dessert spoon to spoon 'dollops' onto a baking tray, bake at 180 degrees for around 15 mins, until the top is firm to touch and they come off the tray easily.

Make a butter icing for the filling by combining all ingredients until pale and creamy. Then use a small amount of the syrup to ripple through it.

Use the butter cream to sandwich the bites together.

Eat and enjoy!

If I had time and was making these fancier, I would have liked to reduce the syrup into more of a jam and use this and real cream to sandwich the bites, then do some chocolate drizzle decoration.

But fancy was not what these were about. It was about baking, quickly, while I had chance and with what was available in the house. I managed to bake these (although not the topping) in the 30 mins both girls were napping at the same time, and that to me is far better than any fancy additions!

2015 Reading Challenges

2015-08-06T11:20:00.000+01:00

One of the things I want to get back to doing more of is reading, and to help keep me motivated to do so I am going to take part in a couple of reading challenges this year (or what is left of it!).

The first is the Full House Reading Challenge hosted by Book Date

The idea is to complete a full house on the bingo card below

I'm going to start with 'Book by an author you really like' and read The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett. I will add my list of books and any reviews here as I choose and read them.

Full House Challenge Books

1. Book by an author you really like - The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

2. Book set in the Northern hemisphere - North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

3. 2nd book or more in a series - Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

The second reading challenge I am signing up to is The Nonfiction Reading Challenge hosted by The Introverted Reader. I very rarely read nonfiction, so I'm hoping that this will open up a new genre for me. I am aiming for Explorer level - read 6 - 10 books so we will see how that goes! We are currently reading David Mitchell's biography 'Back Story' so that will be first on my list. Again I will update this post with books and any reviews as they are chosen and read.

Nonfiction Reading Challenge

1. Back Story by David Mitchell

2. How the Girl Guides Won the War by Janie Hampton

3. The Little Princesses by Marion Crawford

4. The Kon Tikki Expedition by Thor Heyerdahl

If anyone has some good suggestions for reading material for either challenge I'd be very happy to receive them.

Happy reading!

Bake off and new beginnings

2015-08-05T18:50:00.001+01:00

So as I'm sure you can see, the blog has been dormant or some time. Over a year in fact, but it has been a very busy year!

Our baby has grown into a toddler and we have another baby fast on her way to becoming the same.

We have unfortunately had to say goodbye to our cat after a fine innings of 20 years ordering us all about, and we have moved house (3 weeks before the baby arrived!). So I make no apologies for the lack of posts.

However, I have been feeling lately that I would like to do something for me, and this blog encourages me to do those sort of projects that I might otherwise neglect as I then get to blog about them.

So no time like the present, the girls have just gone to bed and in less than two hours Bake Off begins, and with it starts a new season of inspiration. Every episode makes me want to try new things and our new garden is bursting with fruit to be turned into delicious baked/jammed/frozen delights.

Now is the time, the new sap is rising (slightly late, but it has been a chilly wet spring!), I want to bake and craft and visit exciting and interesting places - and I want to blog about it. I want to share my thoughts and have a lovely record of our doings and hopefully chat with some of you lovely people out there along the way.

So look out for more regular blog posts, sharing cooking, crafting, outings and all sorts, but for now to get going here is a picture of some peanut butter cupcakes and some 'worms in the mu' brownies that I made or my sister and nieces recent joint birthday party.

See you all soon!

Pear Honey and Almond Upside Down Sponge

2014-07-10T15:42:00.000+01:00

Arthur was hankering for an upside down pudding the other night, and while I know what he really wanted was a syrup sponge I fancied something a little fruitier so I put this together. I think he was pleasantly surprised, I certainly enjoyed it.

Pear, honey and almond upside down sponge

Ingredients

For the sponge
* 75g unsalted butter
* 75g margarine
* 75g cinnamon sugar
* 75g vanilla sugar (you could use regular caster sugar for both of these and add a little of the flavours)
* 2 eggs
* 75g self raising flour
* 75g ground almonds

For the syrup
* 1 tin pear halves in light syrup
* 25g butter
* 4tbsp honey
* 1tsp cinnamon
* 1tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Cream the butter, margarine and two sugars together until fluffy.
2. Beat in eggs one at a time with a small spoon of the flour.
3. Fold in remaining flour and ground almonds until fully combined.
4. Empty contents of tin into saucepan, add butter, honey, cinnamon and vanilla.
5. Heat on low stirring until combined then bring to boil for a few minutes to slightly reduce.
6. Pour syrup and pears into the bottom of an oven-proof dish, add cake mixture ontop. The syrup is very runny at this point and the cake mix rather think so it needs to be added in small spoons to ensure it doesn't sink completely, there will be seepage but this is okay!
7. Cover dish with lid or tin foil and bake in preheated oven at Gas mark 4 for around 25-35 minutes until the sponge is completely cooked (a knife comes out clean). If you like you can remove the lid for the last 5-10 minutes to brown the top of the cake, or leave it on to keep the top pale.

Serve warm with cream for true indulgence.

Made in Water - La Bassine birth pool

2014-07-08T21:16:00.000+01:00

Right from the start I knew that I wanted to have a homebirth, hospitals are definitely not or me, but it wasn't until during our hypnobirth classes when we watched some water births, that we considered this as an option.

The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea so I started looking around or a pool that we could use at home. There seemed to be two options - the birth pool in a box and the made in water La Bassine. After a good look at both we decided to go with the La Bassine as I wasn't too sure about the seat in the birth pool in a box and the La Bassine seemed to offer a larger internal space for the total dimensions.

We bought the La Bassine birth pool essential kit, including the pool, a heat retaining cover, electric pump, water pump, eco hose, tap connector, repair kit, debris net, protective sheet and a nylon storage bag, everything you need to set up, use and empty the pool.

As directed in the instructions we had a test run setting up and filling the pool. The pump supplied to inflate the pool was very noisy, but fortunately worked very quickly, the hose was plenty long enough to reach the taps at the other end of the house and the protective sheet was huge and could have covered the entire room.

In just over an hour the pool was inflated, filled and ready to go.

I really liked this pool. The bottom is inflated as well as the sides so it is really comfortable to sit or kneel in. The sides are wide enough to give a good support to neck/head if you're leaning back against them. The pool definitely helped with comfort during labour, I got out several times for various reasons and it was always wonderful to get back in.

The water stayed warm for a goo length of time (I'm not sure how long, I was busy with other things!) we did have to refill but I was in there all day so no surprise.

Slightly disappointingly, the pool developed a hole towards the end of my labour, I'm not sure how as there was nothing in the pool but me and a floating thermometer. I went to change position and found the hole with my hand. Credit where due though, the pool retained its shape and all the water despite the large hole in the internal wall.

Hole discovered in the pool

I was really disappointed that the pool developed a hole, as it was quite expensive and we had bought one rather than hiring as we had hoped to use it more than once.

I contacted the company and they told me (not overly politely!) that the pool was only guaranteed for one use and if we wanted to use it more than once we should have bought the professional pool (I didn't realise there were two), however they did offer me a discount on a future purchase which I thought was a fair offer. I responded and accepted the offer but did not get any further response from them so not an overwhelming success!

I would recommend the pool, as it was incredibly comfortable, however based on my experience I would recommend that people bought the professional rather than the standard version unless you are sure you only want to use it once. I will consider buying a La Bassine pool again, but would also have another good look at the market competitors.

Natural Dye - The Yellow Raspberry Experiment

2014-07-06T14:35:00.000+01:00

I have a number of white muslins, baby grows and nappies that I thought it would b fun to brighten up by dying, but maternity pay being what it is, when I came to buy dye I decided it was an unnecessary waste of money. Then while making my blackcurrant sorbet and appreciating the colour of it, I got to thinking about natural dyes. I did some reading online about different methods of dying, and mordants to use, and then decided to have a go with what I could find in the garden.

White items to dye

My mum had mentioned earlier in the week that she ha a glut of soft fruit if I wanted to pick some so I started there. She wasn't too keen when I told her it was for dying rather than eating though! So I started with the yellow raspberries as she had the most of those.

Yellow raspberries waiting to boil

The raspberries are a lovely orangy yellow, I had about a litre of raspberries which I boiled with two litres of water for a couple of hours before straining. The resultant liquid was more of a peachy orange, but still a nice colour. I had about a litre of dye mix which wasn't enough for all three items, so I jsut did the muslin and the vest.

Yellow raspberry dye

To prepare the fabric for dying I soaked it in a mordant of salt which is recommended for berries. I used 1 cup of salt to 4 cups of water and let it soak for a coup,e of hours. Then rinsed the fabric and left to soak in the yellow raspberry dye over night.

Fabric soaking in dye mix

After soaking overnight the colour wasn't very strong, and after rinsing it was even weaker. I anticipate after drying it will be even lighter!

Dyed fabric on a white towel to show colour

The final colour is a bit of a disappointment. Sort of a creamy ivory, the kind of colour you can get with a quick tea dip.

Final rinsed fabric

In summary, yellow raspberry as a dye is not worth it! If you want to achieve this colour, just use tea. Not a total loss though, the chickens appreciated the left over raspberry seed mush.

Chickens enjoying yellow raspberry mush

Homemade cloth nappies - five months later

2014-07-04T20:16:00.000+01:00

Before Jen arrived I made a bunch of budget homemade nappies and some wool nappy covers. I was really pleased with them, they looked cute and were very cost effective. Five months on I must confess we are not using them, which is a little disappointing!

We are still using cloth nappies but not my own homemade ones, for several reasons.

Having not used real nappies before (or any nappies for that matter) I was a little clueless about them, and despite having done my research, there is nothing like actual use to give you perspective. The nappies were not absorbent enough, in fact were far from it. They need to be made from a double layer of absorbent material and/or used with boosters (additional absorbent fabric stuffed inside the nappy). That alone wouldn't have stopped us using them, I could have easily made boosters.

Only one of my woollen covers fitted. The crochet one was almost impossible to get on, there just isn't enough flex in the fabric to allow the shape I used to work. Again this probably wouldn't have stopped us using them, although I definitely would have bought covers as I certainly had no time to knit another.

What did stop us using our homemade ones, is the gift we were given by a friend of some commercially made all-in-one, one size nappies. She had used them for her son but he had outgrown them so she very kindly passed them on to us to use, and we were spoiled! I will be eternally grateful, they made a world of difference to us in the early days.

They were fab. So easy to use, with velcro closure an a built in waterproof layer, using the nippers and covers on our homemade ones isn't really so much of a chore, but it is amazing how every little bit helps when trying to adjust to a newborn. The homemade nappies were just that little bit more to handle, so they weren't first choice when changing.

We have bought more commercially made nappies since, from several brands (mostly preloved) and I'm not sorry. They are so simple to use and care for and Jen seems comfortable in them. I am looking at making some of my own again, but they will be similar to the commercial ones. I will post about them when I get round to it, am also hoping to post some reviews of the brands we have been using.

The good news is, the wipes I made are brilliant, just what is needed, and I'm planning on running up a few more. So pregnancy sewing wasn't a complete loss!

Blackcurrant Sorbet and liquorice sticks

2014-07-02T20:26:00.001+01:00

Some years ago (more than I care to remember) Ribena held a summer promotion where if you got a purple straw you could send it off to claim a free cutting of the Ribena berry Ben Hope.

I was working at a cafe at the time an more than one customer left behind their purple straw so I ended up with several cuttings which grew incredibly well and strike so easily I am now on third or fourth generation plants.

Despite having a number of very healthy plants, I have eaten very few blackcurrants over the years. They always seem to ripen while we are on holiday and by the time we are back, the birds have beaten me to it. Not this year though!

Having returned from a holiday on the Saturday I went out to take stock of the garden and noticed one ripe blackcurrant - great I hadn't missed them. Gardening on the Sunday I looked up to see a bush full of ripe blackcurrants, they had obviously been waiting for me!

With the weather being so warm I decided that the best use of them would be Blackcurrant sorbet. I used this recipe from Lavender and Lovage although I only had enough berries for a half batch it was plenty.

I love the colour that blackcurrants give, such a bonus to the taste. I'm lucky enough to have an icecream maker - an excellent birthday gift some years back - so making sorbet was really a doddle, boil the fruit and sugar syrup, cool and pour into the maker. My work was done oh so quickly.

Sorbet after mixing in the icecream maker

I must confess that I did not read the recipe thoroughly and tossed my fruit in the pan whole, without topping and tailing, however I don't feel that this affected the final product in any way, and candour compels me to admit that even if I had read that part, I probably would have been too lazy to do it.

I served the sorbet with liquorice sticks which were great as they worked really well as spoons. The recipe said it would serve 4-6, but I only made a half batch and it easily served four (with larger servings than pictured below, I started small and went back for seconds!) with a good size portion left over.

Blackcurrant sorbet served with a liquorice stick spoon

It's the first time I've made sorbet and I was amazed at how easy it was and how healthy I can convince myself it is (just a little bit of sugar, right?). I will definitely be trying more sorbets with garden fruit this year.

As a bonus the seedy mush left over after straining was enjoyed by the chickens!

Coffee Lover's Cheesecake

2014-04-27T17:03:00.000+01:00

Last weekend, the three of us went for a walk in Ironbridge an stopped at the Tea emporium for a coffee (a slight contradiction I know!). The coffees came served with ameretti biscuits which I love, and it got me thinking.

The results of these thoughts were this coffee lover's cheescake which I made for Sunday dinner.

Ingredients

* 250g ameretti biscuits

* 100g butter

* 250g marscapone

* 300g cream cheese

* 100ml strong black coffee (cold)

* 3tbsp demerara sugar

* 100ml double cream

* 50g dark chocolate

Method

1. Put the biscuits into a blender and blitz until crumbs. Melt the butter and stir in, then press into a 7 inch dessert ring or springform tin and put into the fridge to chill.

2. Put marscapone, cream cheese and sugar into a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Then add the coffee a little at a time. Empty the mix onto the biscuit base and spread out evenly then return to the fridge.

3. Whip the cream and pipe onto the top, I did 12 round the edge and one in the middle.

4. Melt the chocolate and spoon into a piping bag with a really thin nozzle or as I used a plastic sandwich bag with the corner cut off. Draw your design on a piece of paper then lay greaseproof paper on top and pipe over the design. I had to do about 30 to get around 10 that I was happy with!

5. Decorate the top and serve!

House-warming Saffron Buns

2014-04-17T19:51:00.000+01:00

My sister and her family recently moved house after a very (VERY) long time of trying to do so. I wanted to bake them something nice to celebrate and decided on Saffron buns.

My Grandma grew up in Devon and even after moving to Shropshire, raising a family here, and confessing to a love for her adopted county, she still thought of herself as a Devonshire lass. We spent a fair few holidays in that part of the world as children and my sister opted to attend university there.

Pasties, saffron cake, and clotted cream have always been popular not just in our house but with all of the family and whenever my sister came home from university she did so laden with huge boxes of pasties, many tubs of cream and saffron cakes ordered by our many uncles. I remember one time visiting her at Uni before coming home together and we spent the morning driving round several bakeries and clearing them out of stock in order to get as many pasties as needed!

So saffron cake or buns have quite a special place in my heart, and the warming saffron spice seemed an appropriate choice for a house warming gift. They are also on my current list of bakes to try.

I used a recipe from The Great British Book of Baking, and while I wasn't expecting them to match up to the standards of Budleigh Salterton (small bakery there many moons ago, hands down best saffron cake I have ever tasted) they looked like a tasty bake.

Unfortunately this house-warming gift did not warm well, my dough did not rise. Not after the 3-4 hours that was suggested, and not after the 24 hours I left it just in case.

Dough after mixing (left), and dough after 24 hours (right)

I didn't bother baking them, it didn't seem worth it. Still, I do dearly love saffron buns (and am rather fond of my sister!), so will at some point try again.

Walled garden walks

2014-04-10T14:15:00.000+01:00

I read somewhere that babies who get at least an hour of fresh air and daylight during the afternoon sleep better at night that those that don't. So in an effort to improve our night times, Jen and I have an enforced hour of outside time each afternoon. Providing the weather is not hideous, we go for a walk (well I walk and she generally sleeps!) otherwise we sit outside on our covered patio, but she doesn't seem to enjoy that as much, and really neither do I.

One of the places we have been walking most often is Attingham Park a National Trust property. We are National Trust members, so going is free which is a big attraction, but it is also a really lovely place to walk. The grounds are huge so plenty of different routes to explore, the paths are well kept and easy to use a pushchair on and there is lots to look at, woodlands, the deer park, the mansion, tea rooms, a book shop and my current favourite the walled garden.

Attingham Park - view of the mansion

The walled garden is an established feature of the property but a relatively new addition to the visitor attraction. It has been restored over recent years and is now absolutely stunning. I love walled gardens, they are calming, beautiful and incredibly evocative places, always making me think about 'the secret garden'.

Entrance to the walled garden

What I particularly like about the walled garden at Attingham is that it is a working garden. They grow fruit and vegetables, for use in the tea rooms and flowers that are cut and used as table decorations in the tea room and mansion.

I like the order and pattern of the gardens, fruit trees are trained along the walls, beds are edged with flowers and herbs, vegetables grown in large rows, I particularly like the willow tunnels that the beans are grown on.

Fruit trees on the south facing wall

It is lovely to visit the walled garden at this time of year as so much is changing as the plants start to wake with the spring and the team of staff and volunteers plant new additions.

At the moment there are some stunning flowers on display and some beautiful scents. I'm not much good at plant identification so I don't know what they are but the plants below run all along one of the paths and the smell is beautiful.

The garden inspires me with ideas for our garden, and makes me wish I had a larged walled space of my own to cultivate!

Time flies...

2014-04-08T16:35:00.000+01:00

So you may have noticed it's been a little quiet here on the blog of late, an I'm sure you can understand why, I've been busy being a mama.

Our tiny bundle (weighing in at a not so tiny 8lb 15) made her appearance in early February and life as we knew it ceased!

Eight weeks on we are beginning to adjust to our new life as a family rather than a couple. It has been an amazing, awe inspiring, and incredibly difficult couple of months. No matter how prepared you may think you are, how many books you've read or advice and experience others have shared, nothing can prepare you for the relentless nature of having a new life totally dependent on you for their survival.

It has taken quite some time but we now have a routine allowing us to eel confident enough to leave the house and which includes more than 3 hours of sleep at a time overnight, making a huge difference to our days. There is a reason sleep deprivation is used as a torture.

Jen changes and impresses everyday, learning new things and developing new responses, I still find it incredible that we had a part in making this amazing person and am so excited to help her to continue to learn and grow :)

Pork and Apple Sausage Rolls

2014-01-30T11:23:00.000+00:00

I had intended to make these sausage rolls for Arthur's Nan's 90th birthday party last week, it was going to be my first try at puff pastry and I was very excited about it. However, sometimes things just don't go to plan and two baking disasters last week (saffron buns that didn't rise at all, and brown sugar shortbread that ran off the tray in the oven) combined with tiredness that I suppose is to be expected at this point in pregnancy, meant I just didn't feel up to making them (or the honey rose cupcakes I had planned).

I ended up buying both cakes and sausage rolls to take along, very disappointing to me, but thanks to a little time taken in arrangement and the addition of a pot of amazing chutney (Pear and Ginger made by Heather's Harvest) they seemed to go down pretty well.

With my pork not getting any younger and my inclination to try puff pastry not yet recovered I bought a pack of ready made just to get these made up. I am very pleased with the filling, so I will have a go at making these again with my own pastry, will see how that goes!

In the meantime, here is the recipe for my pork and apple sausage roll filling, use it with whatever pastry you like!

* 2 medium cooking apples
* 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
* 1/4 tsp ground ginger
* 1tbsp dark brown soft sugar
* 500g minced pork
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1tsp fresh ground black pepper

Core, peel and chop apples and stew with a little water, nutmeg, ginger and sugar until soft and mushy.

Allow to cool then mix into pork along with salt and pepper.

Use in whatever pastry required.

I used a 500g pack of ready to roll puff pastry, cut the square in half and rolled each half out to a rectangle around 15cm by 60cm. Placed mix along the middle (longways) then wrapped edges over. I cut each roll into 6 pieces, slashed the tops and brushed with milk before baking at Gas mark 6 for 25 mins.

Wool nappy covers

2014-01-21T09:52:00.002+00:00

I have finally completed the last stage of our homemade real nappy system - wool nappy covers.

I decided to try wool for several reasons:

It is more breathable than synthetic alternatives
I could make them myself, without buying expensive PUL fabric
Who wants to wear plastic pants?!

The biggest incentive for me to try wool covers is my own hatred of waterproof clothing. I mean I really hate it, I would rather be wet. I have tried any number of waterproof coats over the years, including incredibly expensive 'soft' and 'breathable' fabrics and all of them have been sweaty and uncomfortable. I do not like them, and the thought of my baby experiencing that discomfort on such a sensitive area was not a pleasant one.

It may be an unnecessary concern, I know that huge numbers of people are using synthetic waterproof covers, both as outer wraps and as part of all in one nappies. In fact I have recently been given a number of Tots Bots all in one nappies by a friend whose son has outgrown them and they do feel soft and comfortable, and I certainly will be giving them a try, but I wanted to have an alternative.

So I have made some woollen covers to use with my handmade nappies. I have made two different types to test out, one is a knitted pattern (gah knitting! It took me weeks and weeks!) that I found through Ravelry, and is available on Mrs Flowerpots blog.

Try to ignore the terrible mistakes on the top ribbing!

I really like these, they are very cute and look like they will fit comfortably. Being knitted they are quite a thin fabric so shouldn't feel too heavy for the little one or restrict her movements. They did however take me forever to make. They are also very long in the waist, as shown below on my childhood doll Sammy. Sammy is somewhat larger than a newborn (I hope!) so these may need folding down to fit our new arrival for a while.

Knitted cover delightfully modelled by my childhood doll Sammy

After such a long battle with the knitting (in fact half way through as I was loosing the will!) I decided to have a go at some crochet ones. I had a look round for a crochet pattern but couldn't find anything I really liked. However a number of the knitting patterns I looked at just seemed to be a rectangle with leg holes at the side, no particular shaping or gusset like on the knitting pattern above. So I had a go at my own crochet pattern along these simple lines.

Crochet cover made up as I go

It is, as a crochet fabric, much thicker than the knitted pair so is somewhat stiffer and I'm not sure how this will work out for wearing. It also doesn't sit quite as smoothly as the knitted pattern given the lack of shaping and was slightly more difficult to get one due to the placement of the leg holes, not sure how either will go on to a wriggling baby rather than a static doll though. It was however, significantly quicker to make!

Two pairs should be enough to get us started (they don't need washing after each use, just airing I am reliably informed by current users), so we can have a chance to see what works well and what doesn't. If the crochet pants work, I shall definitely make some more, and will post a pattern for them. If the knitted ones work best I think little one will be making a plea to her grandmothers' for additional pairs, as much as I want to be a knitter I'm just not and it's very disheartening to take so much time making something so small!

They aren't necessarily a budget option. In order to be effective they need to be at least 80% wool, I have gone for 100% as I figured if I was going to give it a try I might as well go for it. Real wool yarn is not cheap, one pair used just over 60g and the second pair just over 70g. I did manage to find some 100% wool in the sale at £2.20 per 50g which was very good, but most 50g balls came in closer to £5. However, given how little has been spent on the nappies to go inside these covers I figure we're still winning! Also you don't need as many of these covers as you do nappies so even at £6 or £7 a go it's not too bad.

I also want to have a go at making a flat 'wrap' type cover the same sort of shape as the nappies, as I have a feeling that this may be easy to get on and off than the pull ups. So I will be spending sometime with my graph paper and a pencil figuring out a pattern for that.

Honey Chocolate Madeleines

2014-01-16T14:28:00.002+00:00

My first bake off my list from my recipe book post.

I recently treated myself to a mini madeleine mould from Lakeland, so when looking for a recipe to make for this months we should cocoa, honey chocolate madeleines won hands down.

My new silicone mould

We should cocoa is a monthly chocolate challenge from Chocolate Log Blog and a guest host, this month Lancashire food. Each month has a theme and January's is 'New Ingredient', the idea being to use an ingredient you have not previously combined with chocolate.

As much as I love honey and chocolate, I've never put the two together before, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity!

The recipe is taken from a fair trade chocolate recipe book: Divine - Heavenly Chocolate Recipes with a heart, by Linda Collister.

I've never made madeleine's before, so I wasn't quite sure how it would go, or to be honest entirely sure what they should be like!

The first part of the recipe calls for whisking the eggs sugar and honey together easy - except my mixer has recently broken, so I was resigned to whisking by hand. It took a very long time, and I found it very tiring (although at 38 weeks pregnant I tire easily these days). To be honest I'm not entirely sure I whisked enough, but I had definitely had enough!

Mixture is supposed to be pale (check) thick (sort of) and leave a ribbon trail when lifting whisk (not really)

The recipe says it will make 16 madeleines but given mine were mini it actually made two trays worth (48 bite size pieces), although I think I may have slightly under-filled the first batch.

They taste very nice but not very strongly of honey. The book does say to choose a well flavoured honey, which I thought I had, but it doesn't come through very well.

What I was most disappointed with was the shapes, the pattern from the mould didn't show up as clearly as I had expected on the cakes, and having under-filled the first batch I think I over compensated on the second so neither were particularly well shaped.

Those from the second batch also had a large number of air bubbles in them, I'm not sure if this may be because the mixture sat while the first batch baked.

First batch shown on the right, second on the left

They looked slightly better once cooled and dusted, but still disappointing in shape.

I would make them again, they are very tasty and dangerously morish, but would want to experiment with the mould. Use a regular size one, rather than mini, and try a metal one rather than silicone to see if either gave a more defined shape and pattern.

Recipe books - practical or pretty?

2014-01-13T15:40:00.000+00:00

With all the clearing out we have done in the house of late to make room for a nursery, I have recently been looking at my ever expanding collection of recipe books (mostly cakes and baking) and wondering if they are really worth the space they are taking up. They are very pretty to look through (or just look at sometimes) but there are quite a few that I have not baked a single thing from.

A selection of my baking books - some as yet unused

This is a huge step for me to even question, as
a) I like to keep things 'just in case' and
b) They are books! (I love books and getting rid of them does not compute)

I certainly haven't been at the point of ditching them, but I have been wondering do I really use them enough? Do I need more than 20 books with cake recipes?

Then I saw this post - Books, recipes, cake and bakes for the year ahead from Angela over at Garden, Tea, Cakes and me and I thought what a brilliant idea! I can keep all of the wonderful baking books without feeling guilty about it, providing I use them.

So following Angela's lead I sat down and went through my books and have made a list of the recipes I would like to try. I'm not committing to a time-scale here, as soon I'm sure I will have other things on my mind! However I thought it was useful to list them in this post to remind me what they are and then I can update my list when I have tried them out.

So here are my planned recipes (in no particular order other than the books came off the shelf) from my wealth of very pretty, and now destined to be practical, baking books.

Double Chocolate Pretzels (Divine, heavenly chocolate recipes with a heart - Linda Collister pg 24)
~~Honey Chocolate Madeleines (Divine, heavenly chocolate recipes with a heart - Linda Collister pg 54)~~
Devil's food cake (Divine, heavenly chocolate recipes with a heart - Linda Collister pg 71)
Chocolate Amaretti Cake (Divine, heavenly chocolate recipes with a heart - Linda Collister pg 85)
Churros with Chocolate (101 Best loved chocolate recipes - Hotel chocolate pg 22)
Chocolate and Cherry bread (101 Best loved chocolate recipes - Hotel chocolate pg 52)
Best ever chocolate cake (101 Best loved chocolate recipes - Hotel chocolate pg 106)
Tarte Belle Helene (101 Best loved chocolate recipes - Hotel chocolate pg 128)
Oatmeal and raisin whoopie pies (Whoopie pies, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 16)
Pumpkin whoopie pies (Whoopie pies, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 18)
Banana maple cream whoopie pies (Whoopie pies, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 28)
Coconut & raspberry mallow whoopie pies (Whoopie pies, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 32)
Lemon macaroons (Macaroons, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 24)
Saffron and cardamom macaroons (Macaroons, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 30)
Spiced apple macaroons (Macaroons, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 52)
Blueberry cheesecake macaroons (Macaroons, a collection of delicious sweet treats - Love Food pg 58)
Fluffy cherry rice (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 55)
Banana pasta dolce (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 58)
Little orange soufflés (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 63)
Apple amber (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 70)
Pear frangipane tart (Hamlyn All Colour Book of Puddings & Desserts - Carol Bowen pg 76)
Eccles cakes (Baking perfect cakes and bakes - Rosie's pantry pg 84)
Black forest roulade (Baking perfect cakes and bakes - Rosie's pantry pg 141)
Crumpets (Baking perfect cakes and bakes - Rosie's pantry pg 159)
Ciabatta with tomato and basil (Baking perfect cakes and bakes - Rosie's pantry pg 223)
Passion fruit butterfly cakes (Cupcakes - Susannah Blake pg 11)
Blueberry and lemon cupcakes (Cupcakes - Susannah Blake pg 23)
Coffee an banana vacherin (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 58)
Key lime pie (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 67)
Gooseberry and elderflower cheesecake (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 116)
Battenburg cake (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 210)
French apple tart (Mary Berry's ultimate cake book pg 251)
Greek Orange and almond cake (Delia Smith's Book of cakes pg 61)
Viennese tartlets (Delia Smith's Book of cakes pg 121)
Shrewsbury biscuits (Delia Smith's Book of cakes pg 149)
Peach pudding cake (Delia Smith's Book of cakes pg 167)
Baked parkin with rhubarb (Desserts - James Martin pg 57)
Baked pear and honey tart (Desserts - James Martin pg 134)
Warm pecan caramel cupcakes (Hamlyn all colour cookbook 200 cupcakes - Joanna Farrow pg 36)
Mile high marshmallow cupcakes (Hamlyn all colour cookbook 200 cupcakes - Joanna Farrow pg 56)
Coconut & Almond Munchies (Chocolate & Baking, quick and easy proven recipes - General editor Gina Steer pg 28)
Apple and cinnamon brown betty (Chocolate & Baking, quick and easy proven recipes - General editor Gina Steer pg 114)
Rosebud madeleines (How to be a domestic goddess - Nigella Lawson pg 49)
Ricciarelli (How to be a domestic goddess - Nigella Lawson pg 56)
Welshcakes (How to be a domestic goddess - Nigella Lawson pg 75)
Peach cream pie (How to be a domestic goddess - Nigella Lawson pg 119)
Cheddars (The great British book of baking pg 80)
Naan (The great British book of baking pg 118)
~~Cornish saffron buns (The great British book of baking pg 129)~~

That's probably enough to be getting on with! I will update this post and move recipes to the completed section below once I have baked them, see how long it takes me to manage them all!

Completed:

Banana scones

2014-01-11T10:11:00.001+00:00

I like scones. They manage to be a comfort food and a luxury one at the same time. Nothing is better than a warm scone with butter, or cream if you can get it!

I also like bananas, but am rather picky about the point at which they should be eaten. Slightly too green or hard and I feel a bit sick, too brown and they just don't taste nice. This often leaves a very short banana eating window, which I occasionally miss leaving the fruit bowl with increasingly black bananas.

Every cloud has a silver lining though as black bananas make beautiful banana bread, which we very much enjoy in our house, but it is always nice to have options. So when I saw this recipe for banana scones I was excited to give it a go.

I found this recipe for banana bread scones with brown sugar glaze on Lavender and Lovage blog but it has travelled a little further than that! Kate from Lavender and Lovage found the recipe as part of The Secret Recipe Club on the blog Baking and Creating with Avril, where Avril had seen it on the blog cinnamon spice and everything nice where it is sourced from thekitchn. Phew!

So earlier this week when I was going to have lunch with my mum, sister and niece and noticed a number of past eating bananas in the bowl I gave these delicious sounding scones a go.

I actually didn't follow the recipe too closely, I didn't have any yoghurt or sour cream in the house and it being a miserable day didn't fancy the trip to the shop. Instead I took the yoghurt/milk/banana quantities listed in the recipe and made it up simply from banana and milk. I used 4 bananas and not much milk!

I also decided based on my love of the apple scones I made last year to use demerara sugar instead of granulated, and opted to leave out the walnuts as I'm not a fan of nuts in cakes an breads.

To top it all off I actually didn't make the glaze either! It does look amazing, but it also looks a little too sweet and icing like for me to believe it really goes well with scones. Instead I brushed the top of my scone with milk and sprinkled with demerara sugar as in the apple scones.

Ready for the oven

The scones went down very well with all, particular combined with a tub of clotted cream! I will definitely be making them again, I will probably increase the amount of cinnamon next time as I would have liked to taste it a bit more, and may add sultanas as I do in the banana bread, but it is really nice to have a banana bread alternative, particularly one that does not need eggs for when the chickens are not laying.

Budget homemade nappies

2014-01-09T21:45:00.003+00:00

So after making my first cloth nappy I have been collecting towel and fleece and have finally got around to finishing a batch of nappies and wipes. I did decide to hem the pieces before stitching together as mentioned in the last post, I also used slightly narrower elastic this time round and I'm much happier with how they sit.

There is a total of 18 nappies and 32 wipes, so I'm sure I will need more but it's a good start. I'm really pleased with how they've turned out, and incredibly pleased with the cost - or lack of.

In total I've used 7 towels of various sizes, six of which were old towels from our house or my mum, and one that I bought for £1 because I liked the colours. In terms of fleece I used 2 baby blankets, 1 jumper, 1 dressing gown, 1 pair of PJ bottoms all of which were again old/use from us and my mum and then 2 fleece night dresses which I picked up at a charity shop, priced at £3 each but didn't actually cost me as the shop has a reward card scheme where every time you take in a bag of items they stamp the card and it is worth £2 to spend in store. We have been clearing out a lot of bits in order to make room for our addition so I had some stamps to spend.

The only other thing I bought was some more elastic, £1.20 for 4 bunches (about 10 meters) off the local market.

So 18 size adjustable cloth nappies and 32 reusable cloth wipes for a grand total of £2.20. I don't think I could have done any better!

Of course the super saver aspect has led to compromises. Much of the towel fabric and pretty much all of the fleece is not what I would have chosen. Pink leopard and zebra print is really not my style!

If I had been making anything else I'm not sure I would have been able to resist the selection of cute fleeces available, stars, dots, owl prints, beautiful colours, but they retail at around £8 a meter which would have made this project a whole lot more expensive (roughly one nappy can be cut from a 60x60cm square). I kept reminding myself that these were designed for my baby to soil! They don't need to be high fashion, they needed to be practical and affordable, and I'm happy that they meet those goals.

That's not to say that I think they are ugly. Overall I think the shape and style is very cute and some of the fabrics I do like, such as the towel I actually bought and a bright yellow fleece that came from an old blanket.

I will keep looking out for cheap towel an fleece to make some more, and hopefully will be able to pick up some patterns and colours more to my taste with a bit more time to search.

The nappies did not take a lot of money to assemble, but they did take a lot of time, and thread! Seaming, zigzagging and top-stitching around every one (nappies and cloths) took its toll on me and the sewing machine. I don't think I have ever finished a reel of thread on a single project before and this one finished two reels and made a dent on a third, and with cutting and sewing has taken well over 20 hours to complete.

Worth it though. They are all now hanging out to dry having been washed (all very easily fitting in one load with room to spare, which is good to know) and I am very excited about putting them away in their drawers and hopefully getting them out for use in the next few weeks.

A snickerdoodle variation

2014-01-06T12:03:00.002+00:00

I have had a bit of a hankering to bake snickerdoodles recently, not sure why, I just haven't made any in a long time and thought it would be nice. I didn't get much baking done over the Christmas period, given our impending arrival Arthur and I mainly spent the holidays sorting out baby things and banking sleep, so the only baking I really did was the Christmas pudding. I didn't even manage any mince pies!

So yesterday I made snickerdoodles. If you don't know what snickerdoodles are, they are a doughnutty tasting, cakey sort of biscuit. Confused? Give them a bake and you'll understand. The recipe I use is from Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a domestic Goddess' one of my favourite baking books.

While mixing up the original batch, I had a burst of inspiration. I was thinking about making a second batch of 'chocodoodles' (where you replace some of the flour with cocoa), but I've never been a huge fan of them, I like the originals better, then I had a thought.

I've not really had any cravings through pregnancy, there have been things that I have really enjoyed and at times things that I really didn't (4 months sugar hating, not fun!) but no actual must go out and get or I'll gnaw your arm off cravings. One thing I have been really enjoying lately is the combination of orange and chocolate, not sure if this is at all attributable to pregnancy or just a seasonal thing as it's quite a Christmassy flavour, but either way I am really enjoying orange and chocolate together. So i thought I'd add some orange essence instead of the vanilla essence and have orange chocodoodles.

But that didn't quite hit the spot, so still creaming my butter and sugar I kept thinking. I have done a fair amount of exploring the range of orange chocolate available recently and have some favourites. Firstly the darker the chocolate the better, and then some brilliant sparks have combined the orange chocolate with other wonderful things, such as in this offering from Lindt:

Dark chocolate, orange and almond. Yum Yum Yum! So taking this as inspiration I resolved to swap out some of the flour for ground almonds, use orange essence instead of vanilla and add dark chocolate chunks rather than use cocoa as I always think the cocoa makes them go a little dry and who doesn't love chunks!

I am really pleased with the finished batch (no surprise really as they have chocolate and orange, it's a current winner!). In the end I switched half the flour for an equal amount of ground almonds, swapped vanilla essence for orange, missed out the salt and added about 60g of dark chocolate chunks. I still rolled them in the same sugar/cinnamon mix, mostly as I had loads left from the original batch but I think the flavours go really well together. They are less doughnutty that the originals, slightly softer but just as moreish!

I am choosing to call these Christmas Doodles (I know I'm too late!) as the combination of flavours really is very Christmassy and they are my belated Christmas baking!

I am entering this post in this months Tea Time Treats, a monthly blog challenge hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers.

This month's challenge is eggs, eggs, eggs and is hosted for the first time by Jane.

This recipe has one egg in it, I know that may not seem like much for a challenge entitled 'eggs, eggs, eggs' but it does represent out current egg situation!

Our hens have not been laying for over a month now, thanks to a shocking display of weather (they really do not like the rain) so if we want eggs we are reduced to buying them (shock horror!) something we have pretty much not done since the girls arrived as even over the winter last year we were getting around one egg every other day which kept us fulfilled in egg needs.

Now, however we find ourselves very short in the egg department and woefully unused to having to buy them, so while egg rationing is not strictly in place, I didn't feel like committing to an egg heavy recipe without my feathered friends to back me up.

Homemade cloth nappies

2013-11-22T11:12:00.001+00:00

Today I made my first cloth nappy and I am very proud of it!

When I first looked at what I needed for cloth nappies, I spent a lot of time looking at all the very (VERY) many different options available. Some of them were absolutely adorable, and almost always very expensive, and not always sensible when I though about using them long term. So I came to the conclusion that we would use terry squares and fold - economical, size adjustable, fast drying, no plastics, probably with fleece liners for ease and comfort.

But I didn't stop looking. It is somewhat addictive, there are a world of cloth nappies out there and a whole community of people making, buying, using, blogging them. I couldn't help but wanting the cute patterned, printed nappies that I saw all around, they just weren't what I wanted function wise.

So I started looking specifically at sites where people were making their own nappies (or diapers generally, a lot of these sites seem to be American), thinking I could still have the cute look but with the practical function I was looking for.

I found this great pattern/tutorial on Little Bean Bum blog and was sold. It is a very simple pattern, so easy to make, it is adjustable in size, only two layers so thin enough for quick drying but with space for stuffing with a booster, and the inside can be made of fleece remove the need for a separate liner.

Best of all, it could be made from bits I already had around the house, and if I liked it and wanted to make more, bits that could be easily and cheaply picked up from charity shops.

We have quite a few old towels that I have been stashing to cut up for cloth wipes so that was sorted

I really fancy making one out of this towel on top with the sailor pattern centred on the bum! But I thought for the first one I'd just use one of the plain towels, in a nice pale blue. Also in this pile for wipes was an old baby fleece blanket that my sister had but gave me to cut up as there were quite a few stains on it.

1. I drew out my pattern based on Little Bean Bum's instructions

2. Cut out my two layers, one towel, one fleece (cutting around the stains and holes!)

3. Pinned together and zigzag stitched all around except the bottom
(This was slightly different to the instructions, but I didnt really understand how the back elastic had been fitted, so decided to do it just the same as the leg elastic which meant there was no need to keep the tab ends open.)

4. Added my elastic around the legs and back. This was an experience! I've never sewn elastic before, I've threaded it into casings in sew items but never actually stitched it, I don't think I was very good at it, but it did seem to work.

5. Then I turned it all the right way round and topstitched. It didn't really sit right at all with the elastic until it had been topstitched, so don't be tempted to skip this step, below you can see on the left the side that has been topstitched and on the right the side that hasn't.

6. After that I hemmed the opening and I was done!

Inside fleece

Outside towel

I messed up the hemming of the lower edge a little

Couldn't really get it to sit flat or figure out how best to neaten it. I think next time I will hem both pieces individually before putting them together. But it hasn't ruined it, and it seems to work well.

It is also very adjustable, so should last a good long time. Below are about the smallest and biggest I could make it go with a nappi nipper for comparison.

So now I just have to wash it and see how long it takes to dry in comparison the the squares, but unless it's ridiculously longer I think I'm sold and will be making more.

A Christmas teaser

2013-11-17T18:30:00.000+00:00

We have begun making this years round of Christmas presents and as usual my husband has come up with some fantastically creative ideas for gifts for friends and family that tend to put my ideas to shame!

Still we are a team and some of his ideas he needs me to make, so I'm not totally useless!

Here is the first lot of gifts all cut out and ready to go through the sewing machine. These are for the toddlers in our life and I am very very excited about them and incredibly pleased with how they've turned out. But unfortunately you'll have to wait to see them until after the little ones do.

The Sound of Happiness

2013-07-27T09:54:00.000+01:00

Is a Ukulele.

Nothing (I have found) sounds so light and friendly and inspires such a happy mood.

We were lucky enough to have a friend sing at our wedding and among the song suggestions we gave her was 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. She came back saying she was unable to find a backing track for it,but had almost mastered it on the ukulele so would give it a go live if we wanted.

I was incredibly excited about this and she was amazing. It made me cry!

This inspired me to have a go at learning the ukulele myself and just after Christmas I bought myself a cheap one and some books.

While the instrument may be cheap (I got it from Amazon for less than £20). It has a lovely sound, I don't feel that I need to immediately invest in a high quality instrument, although I may at some point. At the moment my lovely (yellow) ukulele is doing me proud.