Lime Lattice Cookies

I made these on Friday with help from Ben. We had some limes in the fruit bowl, as I was going to make the key lime pie, but then we had a change of plan. These were very easy to make and fairly tasty. We gave them 7.5. The only thing to add is to say that the recipe says to make 16 balls out of the dough and then to "use a skewer to create a lattice pattern on the top of the biscuit". I would add that the balls need to be slightly flattened first before making the pattern. Other than that, very straight forward.

American Spiced Carrot Traybake

I didn't have any particular reason to make this, other than I fancied trying it!
It turned out to be a great decision, and was another winner - good old Mary!
I would describe this as carrot cake for the masses. The recipe is fairly similar to the ordinary carrot cake one, although this one doesn't have banana in it, and there are more spices, which add to the flavour.
There are nuts in this, but even Tom overlooked these, and polished off quite a few pieces. I did make a small concession to him, and left the nuts off of the top of some pieces!
This scored 9.5, and will go down as one to make again. It's got to be the best way of eating carrots!

Special Fruit Scones

Last Tuesday it was Nathan's last piano lesson of the term, so I decided to treat his teacher to some scones, strawberries and cream. She was very grateful, and I trust she enjoyed them.
I didn't actually get to taste them, although the kids did, and said they were very nice.
One thing I would say about the recipe is that if you add all the egg and milk mixture, it makes the dough rather sticky. It's probably best not to add it all at once like I did. I had to add more flour in order to make it workable.
They probably got a score of about 8.0!

Hazelnut Meringue Cake

This was delicious! Last Saturday, having been out to Grenwich and enjoyed the glorious sunshine, we came home to a BBQ. I served this up for desert (having made the meringues in the morning).
The recipe requires you to toast the hazelnuts before adding them to the meringue mixture. You will be pleased to hear that I did do as I was told this week, but this was  because the only hazelnuts I had in the cupboard were whole ones that needed the skins removing.
It was a simple process, but I am not sure what the benefit is over using ordinary chopped hazelnuts. I probably will try baking it one day without toasting the hazelnuts, as this is definitely a dessert that I will bake again. Apart from all that, it was fairly straight forward to make, although once again, I was very grateful for my mixer which enabled me to add the sugar slowly. If you only have a hand mixer, make sure you have someone with a strong arm who can mix while you add the sugar!
It went down extremely well, and we gave it 9.25!

Lemon Yoghurt Cake

I made this cake last Friday evening as we were going out for the day on Saturday and I thought we ought to have some cake for the picnic!
It was straight forward to make, but it rather divided opinion. The general consensus was that there was too much sponge and not enough  icing. If the cake was half as thick, or if it had a layer of icing running through it, it would have been better.
The texture of the cake is more dense that some of the other lemon cake recipes, and you have to keep it in the fridge.
We gave it an average 7.0. There are definitely better lemon cake recipes in the book.

Chocolate Eclairs

On Tuesday night, I got together with a couple of friends to watch  "Les Miserables". I had wanted to see it at the cinema, but didn't get round to it, so got it out on DVD instead.
Of course, I offered to bring something sweet along to our evening, and in keeping with the french theme, I made these chocolate eclairs.
These were delicious! Although choux pastry is not particularly straight forward, with my mixer it was so much easier. I think the hardest part is adding the egg slowly and mixing in between.
They were very satisfying to make, and I was especially pleased that they looked as good as Mary's ones in the book. I think mine were slightly bigger as I only made 10 instead of 12.
The kids and Ad all got to have one, and everyone agreed that they got a 9.75 score!
Les Mis, was very good, but tissues are a must!

Lemon Swiss Roll

On Monday, friends of ours became grandparents for the first time. They have a beautiful little grandson called Teddie. You may remember that I painted a mural in the nursery for little Teddie, well, he is finally here.
To help them celebrate, I made them this lemon swiss roll, as I know that Teddie's mum likes lemon - unfortunately I have discovered since that his dad doesn't - sorry Phil!
I can't tell you what it tasted like, as I didn't try any. I think that is actually a first, which is quite scary! However, when I popped round yesterday to see Teddie, apparently the cake had all gone, and they said it was delicious.
As with the previous swiss roll, this was very simple, and speedy  to make. Mary says to put lemon curd for the filling, but as you can see from the picture, I put some whipped cream in as well - I thought I'd push the boat out a bit!!