Earl grey tea loaf

April 14, 2013, 2:16 pm

There's something a bit old fashioned about a tea loaf so it only seemed appropriate to photograph it with my 1940s Berylware crockery.

This loaf is a great way of using up questionable looking dried fruit as soaking them in the tea plumps them up beautifully. Nobody would know that they are quite possibly past their sell by date.

The fruit bursts with orange flavour in this very citrussy flavoured loaf although I think the star of this bake is the syrup topping. It's like a sticky, sweet marmalade. The zingy-ness of it contrasts well the heavier texture of the loaf.

I like to think that this is a healthy bake because of the amount of fruit it contains: dried cranberries, sultanas, raisins, orange and lemon. That's your 5-a-day covered! It's also dairy free.

My only slight niggle is the amount tea flavour. Although Earl Grey is a citrus tea (a black tea blended with the flavour of bergamot oranges) I felt its distinctive flavour didn't quite come through with this loaf (for me anyway) despite the overall flavour being very orangey. If I made this again I would perhaps brew the tea a little longer before adding to the dried fruit.

And that's the end of my mini tea series, hope you enjoyed it! A massive thank you to the folks at Whittards for giving me a lovely tea selection to bake with.

I'm also entering this bake into Kat's Sweet Leftovers Link Party as my dried fruit was on the brink of being thrown out.

Earl grey tea loaf

I came across multiple variations of this Jamie Oliver recipe online. I don't know what the exact recipe is, but this is what I did:

4 earl grey teabags (courtesy of Whittards)

100g dried cranberries

200g sultanas

100g raisins

1 orange, zest and juice

1 duck egg

200g golden caster sugar

400g self-raising flour

1 level tsp. mixed spice

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ginger

1 lemon, zest and juice

100g caster sugar

200ml water

2 earl grey tea bags

Pour 300ml of boiling water over 4 teabags in a jug. Leave to brew for 5 minutes then remove the teabags. Put all your dried fruit and orange zest in a bowl and pour in the brewed tea. Stir, cover with clingfilm and leave overnight (or if you're a night time baker like me, leave them to soak all day.)

Preheat the oven to Gas 4 and line a 1l loaf tin. Beat the egg in a separate bowl before adding to the soaked fruit. Then add the sugar, flour, spices and orange juice. Mix well and put into the tin. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1hr 10 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer/knife is clean when inserted into the centre of the loaf. Mine actually took about 1hr 30 minutes to cook, covering the top with baking parchment for the last 15-20 minutes to prevent it from burning. Start making the syrup in the last 5-10 minutes of the loaf baking.

For the syrup topping, place 2 teabags in a saucepan with the water, lemon juice and zest. Gently bring to the boil, removing the teabags after a couple of minutes. Add the sugar and bring back to the boil without stirring. On a medium heat let it boil steadily for 5-10 minutes until the mixture has reduced by half and is syrupy. Prick the cake and pour/brush the syrup on top of the cake and leave the loaf to cool in the tin.

Disclaimer: I was sent tea products to bake with as Whittards recognised that I'm a cake/biscuit obsessed crazy tea lady. They're a brand I enjoy and have purchased from before. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

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Vanilla kisses

April 28, 2013, 10:42 am

≫ Next: Recent birthday cakes

≪ Previous: Earl grey tea loaf

It has been a week since I baked and ate these biscuits and I miss them already. Although not the most visually stunning batch of biscuits, as their piped shape melted in the oven, they were very tasty indeed.

These kisses have a melt-in-your-mouth shortbread quality with the added bonus of a slightly custardy flavour. If that doesn't sound tempting enough, they are sandwiched together with a deliciously aromatic, sweet, vanilla butter icing.

If you're a die hard custard cream fan you may find yourself eating three of these in one sitting (.... don't look at me like that, I like biscuits, ok?)

I burnt my thumb on the top oven shelf whilst putting the trays in to bake. Needless to say I was not impressed. However I forgive the oven (obviously it wasn't my fault, the shelf attacked me) as I really enjoyed these little sandwich biscuits. They were worth the momentary pain.

Vanilla kisses

Recipe from Lakeland's Cupcakes and Cookies

125g butter, softened

110g caster sugar

1 egg

50g plain flour

35g self-raising flour

100g cornflour

30g custard powder

vienna cream filling:

60g butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (Good quality please! It makes all the difference)

120g icing sugar

2 tsp milk

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan assisted/ Gas 6. Grease two oven trays/sheets with butter then line with baking parchment. Beat together the butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Sift together your dry ingredients in a separate bowl before adding to the butter mixture in two batches. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm fluted tube (I used a wilton 1M nozzle) and pipe 3cm rosettes, swirling from the outside inwards, 3cm apart on the trays. (My shapes didn't hold at all in the oven. Perhaps putting them in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking would help retain the swirls?) Bake for 10 minutes (keeping a close eye on them as the edges can burn fast!) Leave to cool on the trays.

For the filling, beat together the butter, vanilla extract, icing sugar and milk until the mixture goes fluffy and white. Use to sandwich the biscuits together. (I had to make a little extra as I was generous with my sandwiching. No one wants a stingy filling.)

The recipe should make roughly 20 sandwiched kisses in total.

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Recent birthday cakes

May 2, 2013, 3:47 am

≫ Next: Yoghurt, lemon and lime bundt

≪ Previous: Vanilla kisses

Just a quick post on a couple of birthday cakes I whipped up last week.

The first was a little vanilla sponge cake for my aunty's birthday on Saturday. My mum bought me two 6 inch round tins a couple of weeks ago and they make a very cute cake. So cute that I made a vanilla chai tea latte cake the same size for my sister in law's birthday on Sunday. As I didn't alter the quantities I ended up with enough left over batter to bake a tray of buns/fairy cakes too.

To cover up my scruffy edges I piped shell shapes back and forth around the top and bottom of the cake using a wilton 1M nozzle. Here's a useful video tutorial by Sweetapolita if you fancy giving it a shot. I also recommend heavy quantities of sprinkles. They cover all manner of uneven icing!

As I baked these cakes quickly I didn't really have enough time to do a proper crumb coat or level the sponges properly on either cakes, so there were some crumbs running through the icing. To be honest it didn't spoil the overall effect; both cakes still looked pretty.

Apologies for the slightly fuzzy images. I photographed these cakes in such a hurry that I'm not entirely convinced I had my camera on the correct settings.

6 inch vanilla sponge cake

I followed the standard recipe of equal quantities self-raising flour, golden caster sugar, margarine and eggs. For two 6 inch cakes I used the weight of 2 large eggs, about 150g

Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas 4. Beat your sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add your eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tablespoon of your flour with the last egg to stop the mixture from splitting. Add the rest of your flour, along with a tablespoon or so of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract (or to taste). Mix together until everything is just incorporated. Divide the mixture between two tins and bake in the centre of the oven for roughly 25 minutes, or until golden and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack.

Once cool sandwich together with jam and vanilla butter icing. I followed the Hummingbird Bakery's vanilla frosting, making 1 1/2 batches.

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Yoghurt, lemon and lime bundt

May 6, 2013, 1:48 pm

≫ Next: Pyrex and pastels

≪ Previous: Recent birthday cakes

It's a sad evening when only half of your bundt comes out of the tin.

My gut instinct was to leave it in the tin until completely cold, but the recipe said to leave for 15-20 minutes before turning out. Hmmmm.

I assumed I had to turn it out sooner due to the sugar syrup being poured over the top while the cake was still hot. Perhaps the sugar would have stuck to the tin if I left it to cool? Only thing is, the syrup never really soaked in through the sponge, and left the top (or bottom? since it's a bundt) a bit soggy.

Flavour and texture-wise, this is not a bad cake. The yoghurt gives the cake a soft, mooth texture and cool, creamy flavour, and although it is a shame the syrup didn't soak through the whole cake, the (soggy) crust is full of citrus tang.

Personally I like when a cake really packs a citrus punch, so I'm not sure I fully love the yoghurt addition as I feel it almost dulls the lemon/lime flavour. However this really is a personal preference; some may really enjoy the yoghurt addition and it certainly hasn't stopped me from eating a lot of this cake.

Yoghurt, lemon and lime bundt cake
Recipe from Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook by Lynn Hill

375g self-raising flour
500g caster sugar
grated zest of 2 lemons
grated zest of 1 lime
250ml natural yoghurt
250ml sunflower oil
2 large eggs

syrup:
juice of 2 lemons
juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas 5 (I must admit I thought that sounded to high a heat for a large bundt and actually turned it down to Gas 4.) Thoroughly grease and flour a 2.5-3 litre bundt tin, tapping out any excess flour over the sink.

Sift together the flour, sugar and citrus zests in one bowl. In a different bowl beat together the yoghurt, oil and eggs before adding to the other bowl and mixing everything together. Spoon the mixture into your bundt tin, spreading it out evenly, then bake in the centre of the oven for 45-50 minutes (although mine took an extra 15-20 minutes, probably because I had it baking at a lower temperature) until well risen, golden and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

To make the syrup, put the lemon and lime juice into a small saucepan along with the sugar. Stir together over a medium heat until the sugar has completely dissolved. The recipe states to spoon the syrup over the cake when the cake is fresh out of the oven, leaving it to soak into the cake between additions and to remove from the tin after 15-20 minutes. However I would perhaps only pour half of the syrup over the cake whilst hot, wait half an hour or so until the cake is warm to turn it out and brush the remaining syrup over the cake so that it gets an even coating/soaking.

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Pyrex and pastels

May 15, 2013, 3:41 pm

≫ Next: mango chai latte cupcakes and mango lime curd

≪ Previous: Yoghurt, lemon and lime bundt

I haven't baked anything over the last week as I've been on holiday visiting family and friends in Glasgow but I thought I'd share some of my most recent charity shop purchases.

Two more Johnson Brothers Cloud pieces to add to my collection: a medium sized jug and a gravy boat with its original dish.

I was also delighted to find four Sprayware pudding bowls a couple of weeks ago for a mere 5p each! I've seen pieces like these before on ebay, when I've been casually browsing retro pyrex, (on a side note, why do Americans have far prettier pyrex? It's not fair!) so I was delighted to get my hands on them.

I'm aware not everybody likes pyrex or sprayware, but personally I like their retro charm. The hexagonal shape of these bowls really appeals to me.

Still on a pyrex theme, my sister in law bought me this little sugar bowl a while ago. For some unknown reason, whenever I see bowls or containers about this size I have visions of them filled with buttons.

However I'm thinking I might use this as a little used teabag container because, let's face it, those little teapot shaped dishes are way too small if you drink lots of tea throughout the day and empty glass jars aren't as pretty. I could just put used teabags straight to the bin but that would be way too sensible wouldn't it? Plus I sometimes like to reuse my teabags.

On a side note my laptop decided to stop connecting to the internet last week (amongst other suspicious things) which is a bit inconvenient. Thankfully this post was more or less written up last week and my brother doesn't mind me stealing his computer to catch up on blog reading. Fingers crossed my laptop is fixable! I'm so clueless with techy stuff.

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mango chai latte cupcakes and mango lime curd

May 28, 2013, 6:52 am

≫ Next: flower power

≪ Previous: Pyrex and pastels

Perhaps 2013 is my year for baking with different fruit. First passionfruits and now mangoes.

This bake came about when Drink Me Chai offered me some instant chai tea latte powders to play with. They have a great selection to choose from, but I was immediately intrigued by the mango flavour. I had no idea you could get mango flavoured chai latte!

When I decided on incorporating the instant chai powder into a cupcake, I fancied making a mango based curd as a filling. After some searching online I went with a mango lime curd recipe found on My Darling Lemon Thyme and it produced 3 full Bonne Maman sized jars of curd, so unless you want to go curd mad I would suggest halving the ingredients. I should also warn you that sieving mango puree is time consuming and so boring but it is worth doing.

Half of my cupcake batch were filled with the mango lime curd, also mixing it into the butter icing, and the other half were left plain with a mango chai latte flavoured butter icing.

It's hard to pick a winner. The curd batch had an extra punch of fruitiness, really pulling out the mango flavour, whereas the other batch were all about the chai latte flavour. I particularly enjoyed the creamy, spiced quality in the latter's icing. Despite my fondness for curds, I think I liked the more chai-ified (I'm making it a word) batch, but this is only if you're holding me at gun point to decide. I will happily eat tray-loads of either cupcake.

I also tried the mango chai as a drink and needless to say I loved it. The sweet, tropical fruitiness really comes through the warm spices. The powder can also be mixed with hot water instead of milk but I found the flavour disappointing as a water-based drink. Similar to water-based hot chocolates, they just lack that wonderfully indulgent sweetness and comfort you get with a milky drink. I always think if you're going to have a treat, do it properly!

And yes that's a new cake stand I picked up from my Glasgow travels two weeks ago. Is it possible to own too many three tier cake stands? (Humour me, please say no.)

Mango chai cupcakes

makes roughly 18 cupcakes

225g Stork margarine

225g caster sugar

225g eggs (I used three large duck eggs, but 4 normal hen eggs should weigh roughly the same)

2 tbsp instant mango chai latte powder from DrinkMeChai

2 tbsp milk

200g self-raising flour

1 jar of mango lime curd

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/Gas 4 and line cupcakes trays with cases. Beat together the margarine and sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add each egg one at a time, beating between each addition, and adding a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from curdling. Mix together the chai powder and milk and add to the mixture. Sift in the remaining flour and mix everything together until fully incorporated.

Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases, filling each one 2/3 full. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until well risen and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the trays for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the curd version, cut a hollow into the centre of each cupcakes (I just use a knife) and fill with a teaspoon of mango lime curd before replacing the top. Mix some of the curd into a standard butter icing (one part butter to two parts icing). I think I used 150g icing sugar, 75g butter and two teaspoons of curd to cover 8 cupcakes.

For the straight forward mango chai version, top each cupcake with butter icing flavoured with some of the instant chai powder. Once again I used a standard butter icing, but added some chai powder to taste along with a splash of milk until I was happy with the consistency.

Spread the icing on in a child-like fashion (like me) or pipe in swirls using a fancy nozzle, such as a wilton 1M or 2D.

Disclaimer: I was kindly sent products to bake with by Drink Me Chai. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

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flower power

June 3, 2013, 12:38 pm

≫ Next: squidgy brownies

≪ Previous: mango chai latte cupcakes and mango lime curd

Although I was delighted with the cake stand I found on my Glasgow holiday a couple of weeks ago, my favourite find is this little Taunton Vale ceramic canister.

Even better, it matches the big canister my mum got for my 19th birthday. I used to keep caster sugar in it for baking in my uni flat. As it was one of my favourite kitchen pieces I refused to put it into storage when I moved home from uni, so it now sits on my ~~book~~crockery case in my bedroom.

I love the shape and bold floral design. I've always been a bit of a sucker for 1960s kitchenalia (I'm guessing these are 1960s, although it's possible they could be 1970s). When I do get a house, it's going to be a weird mash up of classy art deco, pastel 1950s and funky 1960s designs.

These are also the last of the spring flowers (narcissus?) from our garden. It was difficult finding enough to fill a vase as most of them looked sad and battered. Poor things, they're not really built for the windy Scottish climate.

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squidgy brownies

June 21, 2013, 4:05 am

≫ Next: muesli cookies

≪ Previous: flower power

I tend to bake a lot with fruit, mostly because I love the flavour of fruity bakes and like to pretend it's part of my five-a-day, but every so often I have the urge to bake something unashamedly sweet and down right unhealthy. Enter the brownie.

These are quite possibly the squidgiest, fudgiest brownies I have ever made. They almost had to be peeled off the baking parchment. However they still had that all important crisp, flaky brownie surface. I also chucked some extra chunks of milk chocolate to the batter so there would be little pockets of gooey chocolate with each bite.

For a change I photographed these at the picnic bench in the garden as it was so warm and sunny. Yeah, sunshine happens occasionally, and what's better than enjoying a brownie with a cuppa in the sunshine?

The recipe is ever so slightly adapted from one I bookmarked on Nelly's Cupcakes last year, originally a Nigella Lawson recipe.

Just a reminder to everybody that google reader is shutting down in the next couple of weeks so you'll either need to bookmark your favourite blogs or swap to a new blog reading platform such as Bloglovin', Feedly or Hello Cotton. Personally I use Bloglovin' and I find it easy enough to navigate. My Bloglovin' button can be found on my sidebar if you want to click and follow :)

Here's what I did:

200g unsalted butter

180g Cadburys Bourneville chocolate
20g milk chocolate (40% cocoa solids)

2 duck eggs

260g golden caster sugar

115g plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

75g milk chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and line a 20 x 30cm baking tray. Melt together the butter and chocolate, either in short bursts in the microwave or in a glass bowl over a small pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile whisk together the eggs and sugar, then add the cooled butter/chocolate mixture. Add sifted flour, salt, vanilla extract and chunks of milk chocolate and mix everything together. Spread the mixture onto the prepared tray (I also had enough to fill 4 cupcake cases) and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the surface is lighter in colour and slightly cracking. Leave to cool completely in the tray (if you can resist!) before cutting into slices.

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muesli cookies

June 25, 2013, 12:53 pm

≫ Next: I got my happy feet

≪ Previous: squidgy brownies

There was a disaster yesterday.

The biscuit jar was EMPTY. Not even a rich tea biscuit.

Nothing.

Since nobody was going to venture out to restock our digestive/hobnob/custard cream supply any time soon, I took it upon myself to bake something that evening.

After a quick rummage around the baking cupboard I discovered some dried cranberries and apricots which needed using up, perfect for this muesli cookie recipe I found in my Lakeland book.

I took these out the oven a bit earlier than the recipe stated as they looked golden and I wasn't sure how much they would harden once cool. In hindsight I should have left them in the full allocated time as they're quite chewy, almost like a syrupy flapjack, which is incredibly tasty but I suppose not what they're intended to be.

I'll probably make more in the next couple of days to use up the rest of the cranberries and apricots as I don't think these are going to last long in the biscuit jar!

Crunchy (or not so crunchy in my case) muesli cookies

Recipe from Cupcakes and Cookies by Lakeland, slightly altered to suit what I had

90g rolled oats

150g plain flour

220g caster sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

50g flaked almonds

50g chopped dried apricots

50g dried cranberries

125g butter (I think I used 100g unsalted, 25g salted)

2 tbsp golden syrup (go on, lick the spoon, I did)

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp boiling water

Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas 3 and grease and line oven sheets with baking parchment. Mix together the oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, nuts and fruit. In a saucepan, melt the butter and syrup over a low heat, then add the combined bicarb. soda and boiled water. Mix then add to the dry ingredients. Combine everything together and roll pieces of the mixture into (roughly) tablespoon sized balls. I think the recipe was a bit optimistic claiming the dough makes 36 biscuits, I got around 20 and I personally wouldn't have wanted them any smaller.Space about 5cm apart on the baking trays and flatten slightly with your hand before baking in the oven for roughly 20 minutes. Cool on trays.

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I got my happy feet

June 28, 2013, 7:34 am

≫ Next: custard and white chocolate biscuits

≪ Previous: muesli cookies

I recently bought two new pairs of shiny shoes and felt the urge to share them. It's hard not to smile at my feet at the moment.

So shiny and red. They make me feel like I should be invited to a birthday party.

Nothing is happier looking than bright yellow shoes with an oversized patent bow paired with dinosaur socks. I'm mostly just wearing these around the house at the moment as I'm keeping them for a wedding in August (to be paired with a blue polka dot dress).

Yes I'm wearing socks in June. I have the coldest feet in the world.

And I love socks.

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custard and white chocolate biscuits

June 30, 2013, 9:09 am

≫ Next: Project dresser renovation

≪ Previous: I got my happy feet

I've been on a bit of a biscuit theme this week. First the muesli ones and now these custard and white chocolate beauties which I photographed outside in the sunshine.

I've been meaning to bake these for a few months after spotting them on Lucy's blog, and they certainly didn't disappoint. The flavour from the custard powder really comes through and gives the biscuits a sandy, shortbread texture.

I also love how aromatic vanilla is in a biscuit, it makes a great waft when you open the biscuit tin :)

My only gripe is that I would probably want more white chocolate chunks. I actually reduced the sugar amount by 25g, after reading below the recipe that some people found them almost too sweet, so I certainly think more chocolate could be added without making them sickly.

Any excuse for more white chocolate really :)

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Project dresser renovation

July 3, 2013, 8:25 am

≫ Next: My green dresser

≪ Previous: custard and white chocolate biscuits

Nearly three years ago my mum gave me a second hand dresser for my birthday. It has been languishing in the garage ever since, waitingto besanded down and painted.

Last week I finally started project dresser renovation. Here it is in its boring pine state.

Perfectly presentable but not particularly me; it needed to be painted. I wasn't sure what colour of paint to pick but luckily there was a lot of undercoating to do first!

In the end I went for this super gorgeous green which makes me want to squeal with excitement every time I see it.

Lovely isn't it? (Moorland Magic 2 Dulux Satinwood in case you're wondering)

Stayed tuned for my big TA-DAH moment in a couple of days time. It's worth it!

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My green dresser

July 7, 2013, 5:04 am

≫ Next: carrot and banana cake

≪ Previous: Project dresser renovation

TA-DAH! That is one beautiful green dresser, even if I say so myself.

However project dresser renovation isn't fully complete as I still plan to line the three main drawers and back of the cupboards. I'm thinking colourful vintage wallpaper.

But in the meantime I'm having ridiculous amounts of fun playing with all my china on the dresser.

I can't decide what to put on it. Everything looks so great on the green. Perhaps I need to work a rotation system?

I could spend a worrying amount of time playing with crockery, arranging by different styles, colours and patterns.

Mmmmmm, green and yellow.

As you can guess I got a bit snap-happy with the camera. It's possible I may bombard you all with more crockery pictures as I keep discovering interesting arrangements.

Did anyone else do that thing at secondary school where you filled in a form and a computer churned out the jobs most suited to you? My top results were milliner, illustrator and window dresser. Perhaps I could get a job as a dresser dresser?

Now there's an idea....

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carrot and banana cake

July 19, 2013, 4:03 am

≫ Next: July (food) travels

≪ Previous: My green dresser

I really couldn't be bothered "dressing" these photographs, but perhaps the lack of fuss suits this simple, rustic cake.

I baked this a couple of weeks ago (before the UK's ridiculous heatwave) and it's a cake I've baked before. All-in-one mixing recipes are just so satisfying and any cake with cream cheese icing is a winner in my book.

Anyone else in the UK struggling with the freakish heatwave? I admire all the food bloggers who have put up posts recently, I can barely go near an oven to cook at the moment never mind bake. I'm just not built for heat.

Despite feeling like I'm melting, I've been having a great holiday over the past week visiting friends in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Carlisle (such a jetsetter!) I may not be baking but I've still been eating plenty of cake. And ice-cream!

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July (food) travels

August 6, 2013, 11:49 am

≫ Next: Victoria sponge

≪ Previous: carrot and banana cake

Well, wasn't July surprisingly hot and sunny? I certainly picked the best time for my holidays. Here's what I have been up to, illustrated by shoddy photographs from my phone.

The first weekend I headed down to Carlisle to visit a friend. We drove to a couple of the nearby villages (it's possible I may have picked Cockermouth purely for the name *snigger*) where we sampled elderberry ice-cream and the local fudge.

The fudge was lovely and creamy. I think the eton mess flavour was my favourite as there were meringue chunks within the fudge.

We also went to the very picturesque Keswick to visit the chocolate shop. Possibly the hottest day to be sampling rich chocolates but it had to be done! I also had to take a photo of this cafe as I couldn't resist the cute exterior.

The rest of the time I mostly spent at my brother's in Glasgow. He's moving away next month for a new job so I thought I'd make the most of having free accommodation there and visit my favourite places. I'm really going to miss having a home from home in Glasgow.

Since it was so hot I *had* to visit Nardini's a few times. Their strawberry ice-cream is my favourite.

On another hot day I visited the gorgeous Cushion and Cake. (Hi Pamela!) Unusually for me I didn't have cake or tea but I had some absolutely delicious homemade lemonade. Definitely what I needed to cool down that day.

My other favourite cakey place to visit is the Cup and Saucer as it's full of retro charm. I had a tasty little chocolate cake with vanilla butter icing here.

And I can never go to Glasgow without trawling the charity and second hand shops! I was so close to buying this rose teaset as it's very similar to a cake plate I already own.

I also had some fantastic days out with my friend Alice. We spent a worrying amount of money in both Edinburgh and Glasgow's Mandors (a post on all my fabric purchases coming soon) and our usual amount of money on tea and cake (also a lot!) We had a cake day on her birthday, visiting both Eteaket and Cuckoo's Bakery. We decided to split cakes in Eteaket as we were so indecisive. Although the lemon and coconut cake was good we both thought the carrot cake had the edge. I also had a refreshing peach white tea.

I was keen to visit Cuckoo's Bakery as I have been hearing so many good things about them and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Hands down the best cupcake I have bought and we got these just as they were closing at 5.30pm. I had the pink lemonade cupcake: a fresh, fluffy sponge full of lemon flavour with a zingy raspberry lemon curd centre topped with very fluffy raspberry lemon buttercream.

We went back the following week and tried their triple layer sticky toffee pudding cake and it was equally as delicious. I like to think I was the cake champion as I was the only person in the cafe around me who had managed to eat the whole slice. "Epic Win" as all the cool kids would say.

Also by complete accident we stumbled across The Marshmallow Lady, another place I have been hearing great things about. I've never tried homemade marshmallows before and wow, they are soft, pillowy, sweet yumminess! I tried the millionaire's shortbread, lemon meringue and strawberries and cream flavours. Don't ask me for a favourite, I loved them all!

I also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Glasgow Vintage Fair on my last Sunday. Unfortunately the weather that morning was horrendous but I was more than willing to look at pretty things in the rain.

Other travels included visiting Dunfermline and going to Stirling Castle. Great views from up there!

And that's pretty much it. Congratulations if you got to the end!

Has anybody else been having a "local" holiday this summer? Where have you been?

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Victoria sponge

August 11, 2013, 5:49 am

≫ Next: New crockery and fabric

≪ Previous: July (food) travels

My sister-in-law visited with a freshly baked victoria sponge a few days ago and I thought it was too pretty not to photograph.

Sometimes the simplest cakes are the best. It's hard to beat a classic Victoria sponge.

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New crockery and fabric

August 16, 2013, 4:07 am

≫ Next: banana strawberry yoghurt loaf

≪ Previous: Victoria sponge

New crockery makes me happy, something I need to remind myself on a rubbish week like this one.

I found this Portmeirion "crazy daisy" jug in a second hand shop in Glasgow a few weeks ago. It's a useful size and matches my Portmeirion cake stand.

My sister in law gave me this funky pyrex gravy boat recently (as well as baking this victoria sponge. Isn't she good to me?) I'm starting to gather an interesting pyrex collection alongside all my china.

And onto my fabric purchases! It's safe to say that my friend Alice and I got a bit overexcited in the Mandors fabric stores in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In fact, we were so overwhelmed by the choice in Glasgow that we went away to have tea and cake and ponder before returning to make our purchases.

Tractors, cupcakes, dinosaurs, bobbin reels and elephants. Needless to say, I am a fan of novelty prints.

I've been looking for a suitable dinosaur print fabric for at least two years to turn into a dress and I've finally found one! Usually they're a bit too baby-ish in design or garish in colour but this one's unusually subtle; dinosaur print without being too in your face. I like that the dinosaurs even have happy faces.

The tractor fabric is destined to become a skirt. Who wouldn't want a skirt covered in tractors? It's going to be my first project.

Anyone else got any interesting projects on the go at the moment?

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banana strawberry yoghurt loaf

August 30, 2013, 5:18 am

≫ Next: red velvet cake

≪ Previous: New crockery and fabric

This was a "I need to use stuff up before they go completely out of date" loaf. A bit of an experiment so not completely successful.

This loaf was delicious fresh from the oven. Although I don't think the strawberry flavour in the yoghurt contributed much, the roasted strawberries on the top were delicious. Roasting strawberries most definitely enhances their sweet flavour (believe the hype folks!) and they made what's usually a plain banana loaf look very pretty.

However the loaf went really soggy the following day. I'm pretty sure it was cool before I closed it in a tin, but it went really sticky and heavy in texture (too much moisture from the yoghurt and strawberries perhaps?)

I also seem to struggle with yoghurt in cakes. I can pretty much guarantee that whenever I use it, it makes my cake sink about half an hour after coming out the oven, despite knowing that my cake is fully baked. Is it to do with the heavier texture they create? I have no idea. Oddly, this doesn't seem to happen when I use it in muffins.

Banana strawberry yoghurt loaf

Adapted from this recipe I used last year.

120ml sunflower oil

225g light muscovado sugar

3.5 (ish) medium eggs (I didn't have 3 large eggs)

225g self raising flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 brown bananas

125ml tub of strawberry yoghurt

50-75g strawberries, sliced finely and given a light coating in flour.

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line a 900g loaf tin. Pour the oil into a large bowl, add the sugar and whisk for a few minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking as you go, then stir in the flour and mixed spice. Peel and mash the bananas in a separate bowl and add them to the mixture along with the yoghurt. Mix well with a spoon and pour half of the mixture into the prepared tin. Arrange a layer of strawberry slices on top and pour the rest of the mixture on top. Arrange the remaining strawberry slices into a pretty pattern on top before baking on the middle shelf of the oven

Bake for roughly 1 hour until well risen and golden (or check by sticking a skewer/knife into the centre of the cake. The cake is ready if the skewer comes out clean). Leave in the tin to cool then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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red velvet cake

September 2, 2013, 7:18 am

≫ Next: new pyrex

≪ Previous: banana strawberry yoghurt loaf

On Saturday night I went into town, just like all the other cool, young people. Except I went to the supermarket. To buy cake ingredients. Then I visited my brother's family and told my nephews bedtime stories about Sonic the Hedgehog and Minecraft (I don't understand Minecraft.) Later on I baked this red velvet cake.

Living life on the edge, people.

I've never baked a red velvet cake before although I baked red velvet cupcakes way back in my early days of blogging. Although my cake is more dark pink than deep red I was very pleased with it. The sponge is very light and soft in texture due to the buttermilk, and lightly flavoured with cocoa and vanilla. The vanilla cream cheese icing adds to the overall indulgent, creamy flavour.

The cake also gave me an opportunity to try out my new icing pen kindly gifted from British bakeware company, Tala. As the cake wasn't for anybody in particular, I doodled the word "yum" and some love hearts around the border. I drew it all freehand but I think the direct, unmeasured approach adds charm. It makes a fun change from my usual "throw on a pile of sprinkles" approach to cake decorating.

I already own a larger icing syringe but for smaller, linear details such as handwriting the pen is perfect. Plus it's pink and packaged in a pretty tin which is a lovely stylish touch. I suspect it'll come in very handy for decorating gingerbread men at Christmas. Thanks Tala!

Red velvet cake
Recipe from "Vintage Cakes" by Jane Brocket.

120g softened butter
300g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
220g buttermilk
1-2 tsp red food colouring gel/paste (I recommend buying good quality)
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 heaped tsp of bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3 and grease and line two 20cm round cake tins. Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and salt. Mix then carefully add to the other mixture in batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Add the red colouring and gently fold the mixture until it's a solid deep red colour. In another bowl, mix together the bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar before folding into the cake batter.

Once mixed, divide the batter between two cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25-30 minutes until the cakes are firm and springy to touch (or a cake skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean). Leave to cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.

icing:
110g softened butter
400g icing sugar
220g soft cream cheese (full fat)
a few drops of vanilla extract

Beat together the icing sugar and butter. Once combined add the cream cheese (I added mine cold from the fridge) and the vanilla extract and mix thoroughly until smooth. If needed, level the cakes before icing. There's easily enough icing to sandwich the cake and cover the top and sides. For the writing I mixed up a small amount of icing sugar, water and red food colouring to pipe using the icing pen.

Disclaimer: I was kindly sent a product to use/review by Tala. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

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new pyrex

September 8, 2013, 8:34 am

≫ Next: Lemon drizzle cake and bad raspberries

≪ Previous: red velvet cake

My sister-in-law found these fantastic pyrex glass tumblers for me last week. They remind me of something I may have found at my Granny and Grandad's (on Dad's side) kitchen cupboards when I was little.

I might employ my sister-in-law to become my own professional pyrex finder as she also found a sugar bowl and gravy boat for me this summer. She's definitely got an eye for it.

Cherries, blackberries and strawberries. I don't think I own any tumblers other than a Pirates of the Caribbean one I bought in the Disney Store when I started uni, so these are a welcome addition to the crockery collection.