Well I wasn't exactly star baker with my efforts for week one of the Great Bloggers Bake Off, but that hasn't deterred me. Week two's theme is bread which absolutely petrified me until Helen Hollywood and Jenny Berry (again possibly not their real names) said that you were allowed to use a breadmaker. Hallelujah! I've a couple of books full of breadmaker recipes which I tend to ignore in favour of a standard wholemeal loaf which I generally make as our "daily bread". It's fascinating to see just how many thing you can make with your ... read more
Great Bloggers Bake Off Week 1 – Victoria Sponge
If you're in the UK you really can't have missed the fact that the Great British Bake Off arrived back on our screens this last week. If you love baking then this is must watch TV. Last year I was a bit busy giving birth in the middle of the series so didn't really join in at all, but this year as soon as I saw plans for a Great Bloggers Bake Off I just knew that I had to be involved. I bake quite a bit, but generally tried and tested old recipes and I often feel too scared to try anything really new. I'm not normally too bad at baking, but there's definitely ... read more
Thomas the Cake
It's hard to believe that it's nearly a month since Little Miss C turned three. A busy month in which we've had lots of family adventures, but it means I've not yet had chance to tell you about the cake, or more accurately about Thomas the Cake! I'm not sure where she got the idea from but one day, about two months before her birthday, LMC suddenly announced (as toddlers do) that she was going to have a Thomas Cake for her birthday. Now she is a little obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine at the moment, but it still took me a bit by surprise. I then did something that no ... read more
Millionaire Shortbread
When I was working in London there was a coffee shop just down the road from my office that sold the most amazing millionaire shortbread ever and since then I have been addicted to the stuff. Some places make it a bit too sweet and sickly, but I've followed this recipe a few times now and it always seems to turn out really well. I just have a handwritten version of this recipe from my sister which I have then gone on to tweak, but I believe that it's originally from the Hairy Bikers. Ingredients Base 125g butter 50g sugar 175g plain ... read more
Three hours
I'm sure I can't be the only person who gets to the end of the day and wonders what I've actually acheived that day. When you're at home with little ones it can be quite easy to just concentrate on "surviving" and it can be easy to lose track of what has kept you busy all day. Realistically though, stay at home parents usually acheive loads, but they simply don't have the time to step back and take stock of just what they have done. This morning Mr C went out to a first aid course so I thought I'd keep track of just what I got up to in that time - admitedly, ... read more
Toddler cupcakes
After the scathing comments about "mummy bloggers" that appeared courtesy of Ms Jones in yesterday's Daily Fail (I refuse to link to them and give them any SEO credit at all for this) I felt slightly bad about today's post being about cupcakes, but still. I may be one of these parents who stays at home knitting and baking whilst blogging and bringing up my children, but that's completely fine with me. And also with my husband who gets to eat the fruits of my baking activities when he comes home from work. Little Miss C has really got into baking recently and one of the ... read more
Taking a step back
This week was supposed to be a nice little "holiday" between Mr C leaving one job and starting a new one. We acknowledged that there were likely to be some little jobs left to finish off in our new loft conversion, but the reality is that we've actually been running round like headless chickens all week trying to make decisions, but things and get everything sorted. Today we've made quite an effort to make the day a bit calmer and fun. A spot of baking - mainly prompted by the need to use up some bananas that were going very brown in the fruit bowl - a pub lunch and a wander ... read more
Buns for new friends…
If a new friend has invited you round for tea then you can't turn up empty handed. Luckily I had a little assistant to help me in the kitchen. ... read more
Chocolate Easter nests
The long Easter weekend and we decided that it was the ideal time to introduce Little Miss C to the joys of cooking with chocolate! The three of us followed the Chocolate Easter egg nest cakes recipe from the BBC food site that seemed to be very much like the one I remember from childhood. Chocolate, melted with butter and golden syrup and then mixed in with cornflakes, before being topped with mini-eggs. It couldn't really be much more simple. With two of us at home LMC could be picked up to watch as I melted the chocolate on the hob and then she got very involved in helping ... read more
Homemade fairy cakes
After seeing a friend get caught up in an online "debate" about the price of shop bought cupcakes and whether or not they were value for money I felt that there was only one thing that I could take round the next time we met for tea and cakes - good old fashioned homemade fairy cakes! As a child I don't think anyone here in the UK had quite invented cupcakes like we have them now with huge towers of fattening icing or elaborate decorations. Instead fairy cakes, or if the event was very special butterfly buns, often appeared on the plate at tea time along side scones ... read more