Bara Brith

Adam and I lived in Wales for three years, and one of the things we left with, was a brilliant Bara Brith recipe that I have used lots of time. I was therefore rather skeptical about whether this recipe would be as good.
There are several difference between the two, the main one being that my one uses marmalade. Also, it has mixed spice, and uses mixed fruit.
I was very pleasantly surprised with this loaf. I did add mixed spice to it, as I thought it would improve the flavour, but other than that, I did as I was told!
It was tasty, and we gave it a score of 8.0.

Bread and Butter Pudding

I admit that I was not looking forward to making this as I have never been a bread and butter pudding fan. However, on Thursday, my Dad came for tea as Mum was away, and I knew he would like this.
I think I have been converted! This bread and butter pudding was really lovely, and was a big hit. I confess that I did put some cream in with the milk, but that was only because I did not have whole milk, only semi, and I thought this was one way to add some extra fat! I also added more mixed spice than the recipe suggested, but then I nearly always do!
We scored it 8.5!

Chocolate and Vanilla pinwheel biscuits

Mary says these are "fun for bonfire night". As Adam had bought some fireworks for today, I thought I would quickly knock these up! I have been eyeing them up for a while, but thought I would wait for this time of year.
As you might imagine, it involved making two different types of dough, rolling them both out, putting one on top of each other, and then rolling into a sausage. It was then refridgerated, and  sliced into 20 pieces.
Mine didn't turn out quite as neatly as Mary's ones in the book, although I thought they still looked quite attractive. Unfortunately they did not taste as nice as they looked. We only gave them 6.5, so all in all, todays baking has been disappointing.
Still, the good news is that I only have 40 more bakes left!

Blueberry Muffins

I confess that I didn't really want to make these muffins as all the other muffin recipes have disappointed. I decided to only make half the amount, and it was a good job as they have not gone down very well.
The picture of them in the book looks lovely, but mine certainly didn't!
The blueberries seemed to either sink to the bottom, or burst and leak!
They did not seem to have much flavour to them, and we only scored them 6.0

Mississippi Mud Pie

Mum and Dad very kindly invited us for lunch on Sunday, so of course I offered to bring a pudding!
I don't think I have ever had a Mississippi Mud pie before, so I wasn't sure quite what to expect.
For those of you who don't know, the base is like a cheesecake base, and the filling is  a rich chocolately mix, containing eggs, cream, chocolate, dark sugar and coffee. It is baked in the oven for just over an hour.
When it came out of the oven, I discovered why it is called a mud pie! It really looked quite unattractive, but I guess that is what the name suggests. Mary says to decorate it with the whipped cream. I decided to smother it instead. This covered up a multitude of sins, including a few major dips in the  top. These were noticed by one of my sharp eyed children, however, the fact that it mean't extra cream made up for it!
It is a very rich dessert, and you don't need much of it. As a result, there was even enough left over for a few of our neighbours to benefit from a slice.
We gave it a score of 8.0, but it does come with a bit of a health warning!

Chocolate Ganache Petits fours

On Saturday night we went out for a meal, and I thought our baby sitter might appreciate these!
I started making them on the Friday evening. The first part involved melting chocolate and then brushing it inside the petits four cases. This proved to be quite fiddly, in fact, I soon decided that I would only make 12 rather than 24! This was the reason why we had enough melted chocolate left over to dip the coconut pyramids in - so it worked out for the best!
I made the filling the next day, and decided to omit the brandy. I also used the heart sprinkles rather than gold leaf - really?! I didn't think they were that special. It was either that or pistachio nuts, and I didn't fancy using those either.
Mary says these are irrestistible, but I am not so sure. The kids seemed to enjoy them, and if you were in need of a chocolate hit, they would be perfect! I wont be making them again however, as I think you can buy nicer ones! They scored 7.0

Coconut Pyramids

We had a few days away near Ross on Wye last week. It was very pleasant to have a break from baking, but since I got back I have been busy in the kitchen. I feel as if I am on the final push to get my challenge finished.
Ben and I made these on Friday evening - we had only got back in the afternoon, that is how keen I was!
They were very easy to make, and quite good fun. I left them mostly to Ben, and he decided on red, white and blue pyramids. Mary says you can you can colour them with a few drops of pink colouring, so we were just improvising. Actually, you cannot really from the photo tell that they were coloured, and I think if I made them again, I wouldn't put any colouring in them. The plain ones looked the best. We used an egg cup, and this worked fine.
Mary does not say to dip them in chocolate, but we thought that they were greatly improved with chocolate on. We gave them 8.0 ( but only with chocolate on, without it they would only be 7.0!)