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.