Lavender Biscuits

Along with the melting moments, I made these last night to give as gifts. We have some lavender in the garden which is starting to die, so I thought this was a good opportunity to use some of it for these biscuits. You can either use fresh lavender or dried, but if using dried, you use half the amount.
If you have never made lavender biscuits, and have been put off by thought of them, think again. I have made them before, and liked them, but this recipe is even better.
Mary's recipe involves making the dough, rolling it into a sausage shape, and then rolling in in demerara sugar before chilling. The biscuits are then cut from the roll, meaning that each biscuit has sugar around the edge of it.
I baked mine for the full 20 mins, and they were just golden.
We tried them, and even the kids thought they were delicious. We gave them 9.0.

Melting Moments

I wanted to make some biscuits that we could give to some of the helpers on camp, so I made these melting moments. I have tasted these before as Mum has made them, so I knew they would be nice.
The recipe says to line 2 baking trays, which I did. It also says that the recipe makes 36 biscuits. My advice would be that if you want to make 36 biscuits, you need to use 3 trays. I made 30, and even then, some of them merged slightly.
They were quite messy to make as you had to roll the dough (which was pretty sticky) into balls and then roll the balls in oats. It was quite fun, but took a little while. The best bit was putting the cherry on the top!
I have bagged the biscuits up as gifts, but of course we made sure that there were a few left over for us to try. We gave them 8.5

St Clement Muffins

How quickly a week flies by. Today I am off to pick up Adam and Ben from camp. Nathan lasted until Monday. The rest of us had a few days with Mum and Dad, which was nice. I even did some baking with mum. She wanted to make some bread, so we made granary rolls, as they were successful for me last time. The only problem was that we left them in the conservatory to rise while we went out, and by the time we came back they were very large, but also quite flat! They still tasted good though!
I made these muffins on Thursday when I got home. They are ok, but so far I haven't been particularly impressed with muffin recipes in the book. I would give these 7.0.

Wholemeal Ginger Cake

Today Ad has taken Ben and Nathan camping. He is the chaplain for a camp of young people, and he thought the boys would like to experience it with him. Not sure how much of the week they will last, but it's not too far away so I can always rescue them. Tom, Ellie and I are hoping for a quiet week!
Anyway, I thought that I would give them some cake for the young people, so I made this - also on Thursday - I was pretty tired by the end of the day, three recipes is too much in one day!
This was a typical traybake recipe, and nothing of any interest to report, apart from the fact that the piece that I tasted was very nice. 8.5 I would say. Let's hope it improves with keeping, although if I know young people, it will not last long once it gets into camp.

Lemon Griestorte

Also on Thursday ( it was a bit of a manic baking day), I made this lemon griestorte. I knew that Tom would like this, and I already had cream in the fridge that needed using up.
This recipe is rather like the wimbledon cake and does not use butter.
It was fairly straight forward but did not seem to rise very much - I seemed to remember that happened last time as well. I think the mixture needed to be thicker before adding  the egg whites.
The inside of the cake has cream mixed with lemon curd, and as you can see, I had quite a lot left over. so I decorated the edges as well (I did not follow Mary's measurements as I wanted to use up the cream). I was supposed to put raspberries in the cake, but I forgot, so I served them alongside. The pudding went down fairly well, although some members of the family did not want much as they had been to the cinema and had too many sweets!!! Thankfully it got used up yesterday when some good friends came to visit. We all gave it 9.0, but I don't think I would be in a rush to make it again. I think I prefer and ordinary sponge.
Oh, and I have to say that I did enjoy the Bake Off, but I think it's gone a bit OTT. Everyone seemed to be trying too hard to impress. Less is often more I say - bring back the victoria sandwich cakes! Maybe I am just jealous because its way out of my league now!!

Boozy Fruit Cake

On Thursday Tom got his GCSE results, which we were very pleased with - for those of you interested  2A*s 6As and 3Bs.
As a congratulations, I made him this Boozy Fruit Cake as he likes fruit cake - don't worry, I didn't make it too boozy - only a spoon of brandy over the top!  The only problem is that it has chopped walnuts in! He did like it, but he picked out all the nuts!
From a personal point of view, I thought it was delicious, and so did Ad. It was very easy to make, and I would definitely make it again. We gave it 9.0

The Very Best Shortbread

I have to say that I am very excited, as in less than half an hour, The Great British Bake Off is on!
This year I am looking forward to picking up all sorts of baking tips. I am not yet in the Bake off league, but I am certainly more experienced that I was this time last year!
I thought as it was the start of the Bake Off, I would make a classic - shortbread. I also thought that it would be a nice gift to give  some new neighbours that are moving into our road this week.
The recipe was straight forward and the shortbread turned out well. It certainly has a "short" texture, but I guess that's how it should be. Thankfully there was  enough slices for the kids to have a taste. They gave it 9.0

Cornish Fairings

Ben and I made these biscuits this morning. They turned out to be a good choice.
They were quick and easy to make, and very tasty. It made 24 biscuits from quite a small amount of mixture.
My only comments would be that the mixture was too wet to roll into balls - we just tried to make little round piles, which seemed to turn out ok.
Also, the recipe said to bake them for 10 mins, then bang the trays on a solid surface before returning to the oven for 5 mins. It also said to take care not to bake the biscuits for too long.
Knowing that my oven often bakes things quicker, I baked them for 8 mins. When I took them out, they were already quite brown, so I only gave them another 2 mins after banging them. They are crunchy on the outside, with a bit of a chew in the centre. Very tasty 9.0
p.s for all of you who are concerned for our waistlines, you will be relieved to know that we are continuing to share all the baking!

Bunny Rabbit Birthday Cake

I know what you are thinking - that doesn't look much like a bunny cake. It is in fact a "despicable me minion" cake, which I made for Nathan's 9th Birthday, which was yesterday.
I was going to make him a chocolate cake, but  everyone agreed that he would love a "minion" cake. Mary says "you can use this basic shape to make other animals such as a cat, a teddy, a koala or an owl". I just adapted it!
Instead of putting the mix into  sandwich tins, I put it into a 10 x 12 tin and then cut out the oval shape. The feet were made from the off cuts.
The whole thing was covered in butter icing, and then the extras were made from licorice laces, chocolate buttons, licorice and a chocolate digestive covered in white icing for the eye!
Nathan was pleased with it, and we gave it 8.0
He had a lovely birthday, going out for breakfast with the family, and then in the afternoon, Nathan, Ben and I did "Go Ape" Junior at Leed's castle, which was great fun!

Wholemeal and sultana Rock cakes

On Saturday we returned from our holiday in Devon. We had a good time, but it was nice to be home.
On Sunday, apart from making Nathan's birthday cake - post to follow, Ad asked me if I could make some rock cakes. Now, I knew that after the last disappointing rock cakes which I made back in January, Ad mean't could I make my mum's recipe. However, I really can't bake anything but Berry at the moment, so I made these - Ad says its "won't bake, not can't bake"! I guess that's true really!
Anyway, once again, these were not a patch on my Mum's recipe. They were a bit better than the last ones, but I am afraid, having made both rock cake recipes, I shall be sticking to my Mum's one in future - which is a great relief to my family. Having said all that, they managed to eat them all! We gave them 6.5

Traditional Parkin

I made this today for the very reason that it says "it improves with keeping, so try to store it a week before cutting". I thought it would be good to take with us when we go away. I will let you know what it tastes like.
It's quite an unusual recipe as it has porridge oats and treacle, rather like a flapjack, but it also has flour, eggs and spices, like a cake. I look forward to giving it a taste! Let's hope it tastes nice, because it is not much of a looker!

20th Aug - I have bad news about the Parkin. When we went to eat it on holiday, it was really dry and not very appealing. The flavour seemed ok, but it didn't get eaten. I think the problem might have been the container that it was in. It might not have been air tight. I can't really give this a rating, and probably need to bake it again, but not for a while yet!

Farmhouse Brown Seeded Loaf

Yesterday we had friends to lunch, so I thought I would make some fresh bread. I even had to buy linseed for this occasion - something I have never bought before. Judging by how much linseed is left in the bag, I will be making this again!
The bread was fairly straight forward, and rose beautifully in the warm conservatory.
My fatal error was to make one loaf instead of two smaller ones. Mary does say that you can make one or two loaves, but I think the cooking time is suitable for two smaller ones. Consequently I did not bake it for long enough, and although it sounded hollow when I tapped it, hollow was the last thing that this loaf was! I ended up having to slice it up and put it back in the oven for a while. Our guests were very understanding. It was rather dense and filling, but I have to say that I really should bake this one again and make two smaller loaves, as I think it has potential. At least there was still millionaires shortbread and chocolate brownies for afters!

Millionaire's shortbread

On Monday, Ellie had her friends over and they did some baking. As one of Ellie's friends does not eat eggs, we decided on this recipe - another very low fat one!
Well, I say that they baked it, but to be correct, they made the shortbread, and then got distracted while that was baking and cooling, so I ended up finishing it off.
Heating the caramel seemed to take ages, and even then, I think it could done with cooking for a bit longer.
They tasted delicious, and get a 9.5. They are quite time consuming to make, but well worth the effort. I am pleased to say that lots of people benefited from these shortbreads, and the girls got to take some home for their families.

Dark Indulgent chocolate and walnut brownies

We have had quite a few visitors this week, so on Sunday afternoon, Ellie & I decided to get baking in preparation. Now Ellie is a chocolate loving girl, so we decided to make these brownies.
To say that they are very chocolatey is an understatement. There is 350g of plain chocolate, and 225g of chocolate chips in them! That's over half a kilogramme!! And that doesn't include all the butter, sugar etc. Let's hope our visitors are not on diets!
They were straight forward to make, and the walnuts added a nice crunch to the mix.
We gave them 8.5, and our various visitors seemed to like them. One little boy said he thought they were better than his mum's ones! I am sure that's not true!
We cut them into 30 pieces, and I have managed to freeze some to take on holiday with us.

Key Lime Pie

I have been meaning to make this pie for a few weeks now, as I have had limes in the fruit bowl at various times. I finally got round to it on Sunday.
I made the base on Saturday, and then filled it on Sunday morning. It is so quick and easy, and is pretty tasty. My only problem with it was that I could not get it off the base of the loose bottomed flan dish. Next time, I will either use a different flan dish that it can be served up from, or I will try the base for the lemon cheesecake instead as that was more successful when it came to removing!
We gave it a score of 8.0



I thought I would include this mexican chicken ring which I made for our lunch on Sunday. I wanted to try out my new pizza stone, which I got from the pampered chef evening. The recipe is the same as the one that Sarah demonstrated on the night. It went down well with the family.

Cranberry & Apricot Fruitcake

It was Ad & I's 20th wedding Anniversary on Wednesday, so to show him how much I love him, I baked him a cake! Knowing his love of fruit cake, I thought I would make this cranberry and apricot one. Mary says that you can exchange cranberries for cherries, so I did. There was a great deal of fruit, and it took 2 1/5 hours to bake. I had the feeling of deja vu, but it was a separate recipe and another one ticked off the list. As it turns out, this recipe is almost exactly the same as the victorian Christmas cake that I baked for Ad's birthday. Thankfully he liked that a lot as well, so he was happy. I can't remember what we scored the other one, but we give this one a 9.0.