After quite a tough day at work I decided to do some baking on Monday evening whilst Mr C worked late. I've been reading Jane Brocket's Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer for quite a few months now, but haven't actually tried that many recipes from it.Mr C's a big raspberry jam fan and hence the recipe for Mary Poppins' strike-me-pink raspberry jam cakes seemed like an obvious choice. The recipe makes them sound quite simple to make - a soft dough, make into twelve balls and then shape each ball as if you're making a crude clay pot (like at school pottery ... read more
Last day of holidays
Mr C and I are back to work properly tomorrow (that bit between Christmas and new year didn't really count) so today has really felt like the last day of the holidays.It's been a pretty day though with lots done. The decorations and tree have come down and been packed away for next year. As a result our living room now feels so much larger again. I tried to use up the last of the mincemeat by making a final batch of mince pies. The jar managed to defeat me though and somehow I've still got more left! Honestly, the jar has started reminding me of Mary Poppins' bag!A batch of ... read more
Yummy food
It's been a few days of fantastic food here.Firstly, we've been enjoying the contents of the food platter that my sister and her boyfriend gave us for Christmas. The chocolate truffles are particularly good (if you're reading please send me the recipe H!) and the chutney went perfectly with some ham for lunch on Sunday. I then got my hands very messy helping Mr C to make the tandoori chicken part of a butter chicken recipe that was in a book I gave him for Christmas. I have to say that it was one of the most delicious curries I've ever eaten and tasted amazingly fresh, with a ... read more
Final Preparations
Today has really been a day of final preparations for Christmas. All the gifts are now wrapped and we've been to visit Mr C's family to deliver presents. All the washing is nearly done and I am starting to feel ready to start the festive season. Quite a bit of time seems to have been spent in the kitchen today. The final touches were made to yesterday's Rocky Road. Now we just need to remember to take it out of the fridge tomorrow and put it in a nice box for the journey north. Today I also made my first set of mince pies. I have helped my Mum hers many times over the years, ... read more
Edible gifts
It's been a while since I've done any baking and therefore I was quite excited to go round the supermarket earlier today picking up ingredients. My Dad's a big fan of Rocky Road and I therefore decided to make some so that Mr C and I can take it up as a gift when we go to stay with my parents on Monday. This is such a simple recipe and I love having these in the fridge for those moments when you need a little something sweet at the end of the day. I've got a few ideas though as to how to vary things in this recipe - possibly with the addition of rice krispies ... read more
Am I a Yappy?
According to tonight's thelondonpaper it seems that I'm a "Yappy". The article doesn't seem to be on their website so I'll summarise here for you.Apparently a "Yappy" is a Young Aged Pensioner; young people who rather than go out, instead stay in and knit, make jam and tend their allotments. In an article by Johnny Vaughan he asks whether or not this is a result of the credit crunch that's currently hitting us, or possibly something else.Thinking about it I've probably been a Yappy for a while now. I don't (yet) have an ... read more
More scones
I needed something to eat mid-afternoon on Saturday so decided to try again with Delia's Rich Fruit Scone recipe. This time I kept the dough a little thicker before cutting out the scones and this seemed to make all the difference to the final shape and size of them. Mr C arrived home just in time to help me sample them and this batch did taste quite different to the last one. Somehow lighter and fluffier. I'm not at all sure what made this difference as all the ingredients were exactly the same as last time. Very yummy though! ... read more
Matilda Cake
I think today is going to be a baking day here. Firstly, I needed something to take along to this morning's WWA working party. There's one family cake recipe that I use time and time again for things like this - i.e. when I've left it a bit too late to put any proper thought into trying a new recipe. I've no idea where Matilda Cake got it's name from - and no it's not the chocolate cake from the Matilda books, although I have found a fantastic recipe for that though from Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer. I remember this as something that my Mum and ... read more
Rich Fruit Scones
As Mr C and I drove back from my parents this evening I have to admit to starting to feel a little hungry. There was one thing that I particularly wanted though - scones with raspberry jam! Therefore within less than one hour of arriving home I was eating just that. I pulled out the rich fruit scones recipe from The Delia Collection, Baking book that I've had for a while now and quickly gathered together the ingredients. In the recipe Delia says that the scones are "so quick and easy to make that you can have them on the table in less than half an hour after ... read more
Zesty Flapjacks
I needed to make something to take along for the tea break at Sunday's WWA working party so I decided to look in some of my newer cook books for inspiration. I thought that flapjack may be an option, but as I've written about before my experiments with flapjack haven't always been that successful.All the recipe's in The River Cottage Family Cookbook are designed so that they can be made by children (with adult supervision), so when I found a flapjack recipe in there I thought I should have a reasonable change of it working out OK.The difference ... read more