Cherry Loaf Cake

I made this last Saturday for Tom's return. He came home from skiing on Sunday morning, having had a fantastic time. He was all in one piece, which was a real answer to prayer!
The cherry loaf cake went down well, although it was not one of our favourites. It was rather like the madeira cake, but with cherries. We only scored it 7.5, which is quite respectable, but the standard of Mary's cakes is so high that we are becoming quite fussy!

White Cottage Loaf

I thought it would be nice to bake some bread for lunch today, so I made this loaf with help from Nathan. He became my chief kneader!
Having watched a clip of how to knead on the computer, we were raring to go.
Nathan did an excellent job, and the bread turned out brilliantly. It was my lightest bread so far, so I'm sure it was all down to my little helper!
We demolished the whole loaf between us, and rated it 9.75. It couldn't really have tasted much better, but I can't quite bring myself to give anything a 10!
Tom asked me not to bake anything that he would love while he was on holiday, so "sorry Tom, you would have loved this"!

Nursery Mural

 Yes, I know its not out of the Baking Bible, but I thought you might like to see what I get up to when I am not baking. This week, I painted a mural for our neighbours, who are expecting their first grandchild.
They wanted a giraffe, and a rainbow, the rest they left up to me, so  this is what I came up with.

Apple & Cinnamon Cake

I made this cake on Saturday in preparation for a church lunch on Sunday. We were not able to stay for the lunch, so we asked folks to rate it for us in our absence. Apparently they gave it a 10.0, but I think they were over generous. They kindly saved us some, and we thought it was more like 9.0
I should say, at this point that Tom helped me with some of this ( he wanted a mention on my blog prior to going off on a skiing trip to Italy). We have heard from him, and apparently he is having a great time.
The cake was easy to make, and worked well with pecans instead of walnuts. As you can see, it doesn't look particularly attractive, but it makes up for it in taste!

Easter Simnel Cake

I have never made a simnel cake before - like so many things in Mary's book, but this is one I would make again, it was delicious, and scored 9.5!
I was expecting it to be complicated, but it wasn't really, it just took a long time to cook - 2.5 hours
For those that are interested, this is a traditional Easter cake, and the 11 marzipan balls represent the disciples ( not Judas). I put an easter chick in the middle of mine, but he ended up looking rather sunburnt! - you have to put the cake under the grill to brown the marzipan.

The middle of the cake has a layer of marzipan in it, which makes it lovely and moist.

All in all, I was very pleased with my Easter bakes, and not a hint of chocolate in sight!


"For God so loved the world, that he sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not die, but have eternal life" John 3 v 16

Easter Biscuits

The smell of these biscuits as they cooked was fantastic. They have cinnamon and mixed spice in - two of my favourites.
They were very simple to make, and I also ended up making a batch without the fruit in, partly for Nathan, and partly as I wanted to give some as Easter gifts to our neighbours, some of whom don't like dried fruit.
When I made the ones without fruit, I didn't add any milk as the dough seemed fine without.
The biscuits were a little softer than I had expected, but I think they would have over browned had I left them in any longer.
I would definitely recommend making these! 9.0

Hot Cross Buns

A belated Happy Easter everyone. Apologies that I am behind again.
Last Thursday, before the kids broke up for the holidays, I had my very own Easter bake off!
In one day, I made Easter biscuits, Simnel cake and hot cross buns - pretty impressive hey!
Out of the three bakes, the hot cross buns were probably the most time consuming. On the day of baking, they did taste great, but the next day, they definitely needed toasting.The texture was rather like a bagel, rather than a soft bun. Not sure my kneading technique is quite right yet. I'm glad I had a go at making them, but I don't think I would be in a hurry to make them again. For me M&S hot cross buns win every time.
The recipe was fairly straight forward, although I should point out that Mary says to make a cross using a knife. Alternatively, she says you can make some shortcrust pastry to make the crosses!
I didn't fancy either of these. A cross with a knife just wouldn't be good enough, and yet I didn't want to go to the effort of making shortcrust pastry. Thankfully, having watched the Easter bake off, I remembered that Paul Hollywood made his crosses using a flour and water mixture which he piped over the top. This is what I did, and they turned out great.
They scored 8.5