Lemon drizzle cake and bad raspberries

September 24, 2013, 4:28 am

I didn't actually intend to bake a lemon drizzle cake at the weekend. The original plan was to bake lemon and raspberry cupcakes but on the day cupcakes no longer appealed to me. That's when I thought I'd bake a drizzle cake with some raspberries thrown on top.

When I'm baking with berries I always have to eat at least one before adding them to the batter and this was no exception.

However when I tipped the raspberries into a bowl to coat in flour (to stop them sinking in the mixture) I noticed a little bug inside one of the raspberries...... and another..... and another.... and in the packaging. Basically the raspberries were crawling with tiny bugs.

Ewwwwwww I ate a bug!!!!

Needless to say I put the raspberries in the bin. And I cleaned the fridge.

So it's just a plain old lemon drizzle cake. Perhaps not exactly what I had planned, but alwaysreliable and delicious in its simplicity.

I also noticed that my cake and plate matched my outfit. It's nice when that happens.

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Blackberry bakewell cake

September 30, 2013, 12:52 pm

≫ Next: my birthday

≪ Previous: Lemon drizzle cake and bad raspberries

The recipe for this cake actually calls for raspberries, but after last week's unfortunate raspberry incident I was in no hurry to revisit them. In fact I went as far as glaring at the raspberries in the supermarket and bought blackberries instead. Much more seasonal not to mention bug free, hurray!

I toyed with the idea of replacing the vanilla extract with almond extract to ramp up the bakewell flavour (and I see I had the same thought when I baked this cake last year) but I came to the conclusion that the sweetness of vanilla would compliment and balance the super tart blackberries.

I also see from last year's post that I mentioned this cake would be good served warm with custard. I can now testify this as that's exactly how we ate it at the weekend and the waft of vanilla from the reheated cake is amazing.

Custard snobs will throw their hands up in horror because we made custard from the powder. Quite frankly I don't care, I love custard made from powder!

This is definitely a cake I can recommend to almond fans. My mum was delighted that I revisited this recipe as she loved it the first time round. The recipe can be found on BBC Good Food. and the only change I made was my choice of berry. As my blackberries were quite large I cut them in half to spread them evenly through the mixture. I also found my cake took an extra 15 minutes to bake.

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my birthday

October 7, 2013, 11:34 am

≫ Next: apple, blackberry and almond crumble

≪ Previous: Blackberry bakewell cake

I turned a quarter of a century old last Thursday. I can no longer say I'm in my early twenties, which is quite sad, however I will never be too old to have a chocolate birthday cake adorned with chocolate stars and jazzy candles from my mum.

In an attempt to make me more grown up and sophiscated (ha!) I received a new Orla Kiely travel bag and purse for my birthday as I've been using the same ones since I was 17 and needless to say both were getting grotty and knackered. I love that they match my yellow Zatchel handbag which I bought at the beginning of the summer (and is borderline surgically attached to me.) My new purse only just fits in it though so I'm hoping the leather will stretch over time to accommodate the purse.

Other lovely gifts included necklaces, a gorgeous turquoise scarf, Orla Kiely tupperware (I sense there may have been a theme somewhere...!) and these hilariously cute bunny slippers.

Cake wise I did pretty well this year. Not only did I have mum's chocolate cake, but also a massive slice of Victoria sponge at a cafe for lunch and a banana pineapple cake from my sister in law. I loved that she left the pineapple pieces quite chunky, making the cake really juicy and full of texture. Admittedly my stomach felt a little worse for wear by the end of the evening, but what's a birthday without a few cake sweats?

It has also been one year since I received my yellow kitchenaid. The novelty hasn't worn off as I still get a little thrill every time I use it. Is it sad to celebrate an anniversary with your kitchenaid? I decided to take another self portrait in her shiny mixing bowl. Ooh yeah stretchy forehead!

In other news I went to my first ever yoga class last week. The following day my body felt as if it had suffered some sort of minor trauma! I'll persevere with it though as it should eventually help my rubbish, ageing(!) muscles and joints.

Apologies as well if the layout of my blog looks weird or keeps changing. I fancied a revamp so I've been fiddling with bits and pieces. For some reason when my webpage initially loads my title and tabs are in the wrong font and I have to reload it to get the nicer handwriting font. No idea why it does that, but it's annoying.

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apple, blackberry and almond crumble

October 16, 2013, 9:17 am

≫ Next: Dad's birthday carrot cake

≪ Previous: my birthday

Last week mum and I had a crumble craving. Embarrassingly, I could probably count the number of times I've made a crumble on one hand. They're so quick and easy to make, not to mention incredibly tasty and comforting, that I have no idea why I don't make them more often.

Probably because I would become morbidly obese if I allowed myself to make pudding every night.

But at least with crumble you get to fool yourself that it's nearly healthy. Look, it has *two* types of fruit!

Sweet, buttery crumble with tart blackberries and apples. What's not to like? I toyed with the idea of using cinnamon but went with almond instead. I liked the sweetness and extra texture it added to the crumble topping.

Apologies for the shoddy night time photographs, the grainy quality is pretty horrific. No amount of brightness or contrast could help, but the crumble was too tasty not to share.

Apple, blackberry and almond crumble

I didn't particularly follow a recipe, but this is roughly what I did:

filling:

1 small packet of blackberries

5 or 6 small eating apples - peeled, cored and cut into chunks

demerara sugar for sprinkling over the fruit

crumble:

100g plain flour

100g butter, cubed plus extra for greasing the dish

100g demerara sugar

50g rolled oats

50g ground almonds

handful of flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/Gas 4 and butter a small ovenproof dish. Cut up enough fruit to sufficiently fill your dish. Once you're happy with the amount, sprinkle demerara sugar on top. The amount you use will depend on personal taste or the type of fruit used. At this point you could choose to soften the apples by lightly simmering/stewing them in a pan with a small amount of water, but we were lazy and didn't so our apples were still a little bit crunchy (which I quite liked.)

To make the crumble topping, rub together the butter and flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, oats and ground almonds. Sprinkle your crumble mixture on top of the fruit in the dish and scatter a handful of flaked almonds on top. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for roughly 40 minutes until the crumble topping has browned. Serve warm with custard, cream or ice-cream. Personally, I'm a fan of Bird's custard :)

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Dad's birthday carrot cake

October 19, 2013, 9:11 am

≫ Next: Red and turquoise pyrex

≪ Previous: apple, blackberry and almond crumble

For Dad's birthday this year I decided to make a carrot cake. He has been growing vegetables this year so I thought it would be a great idea to use some of his homegrown carrots.

I used my usual carrot cake recipe as I like its chunkiness. It turned out slightly wetter than usual, and it was definitely fully cooked, so I'm putting it down to the amount of orange juice I added (it was a pretty big orange.)

I decided to keep this cake dairy free by using an orange glaze (just icing sugar with fresh orange juice) rather than cream cheese icing as we're fairly sure now that my eldest nephew is lactose/dairy intolerant. I wanted to bake a cake which everybody could enjoy.

Although I probably still prefer a cream cheese icing, the orange glaze complimented the cake really well. I'm on the look out for more dairy free bakes so I'd be delighted if anybody has any good ones to share.

Now for some funny photos! Dad has quite a few hilariously weird carrots. I used only the best mutants for his birthday cake :)

I drew eyes on the carrot on the right as his "growths" looked like an awesome moustache. You have no idea how much enjoyment I got from this.

Easily amused :)

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Red and turquoise pyrex

October 24, 2013, 10:03 am

≫ Next: cake and crockery clutter

≪ Previous: Dad's birthday carrot cake

Coloured pyrex dishes are like buses: nothing for ages then suddenly two appear at the same time! A couple of weeks ago Mum came back from her sister's with a little red pyrex dish. My aunty was having a clear out and had found Granny's bread and butter pudding dish and decided to pass it on to me. It used to get taken out for Sunday dinner every week when Mum was little and she always had soft spot for it.

Days later, I was in town waiting for Mum to come out from the dentist and what did I spy in the charity shop? A matching turquoise pyrex dish for 50p. Isn't it strange when things like that happen.

Both dishes are heavily marked and worn, but it just adds to their character and charm. They have been well used but still have plenty of life in them to make a few more puddings.

Mmmm, lots of pyrex.

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cake and crockery clutter

October 26, 2013, 9:06 am

≫ Next: dairy free lemon drizzle traybake

≪ Previous: Red and turquoise pyrex

Just a quick post of a vanilla chai latte cake I baked for a friend this week. I've baked it before (see post here) but altered the quantities to make a 6 inch sandwich cake. It was too tiny and cute not to photograph.

It was one of those quickly-plonk-the-cake-down-and-photograph-before-rushing-out situations which actually worked out really well. I thought it looked pretty surrounded by all my crockery clutter on the dresser.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of that shade of green.

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dairy free lemon drizzle traybake

October 28, 2013, 4:43 pm

≫ Next: spider cookies

≪ Previous: cake and crockery clutter

Since discovering one of my nephews is dairy intolerant I have been making an effort to experiment with dairy free baking. Lemon drizzle cake is a family favourite so it was the first recipe I wanted to play with.

For this cake I used Mary Berry's lemon drizzle traybake recipe, substituting the softened butter for Vitalite dairy free margarine and the milk for soya milk.

The only noticeable difference through using a dairy free margarine was the texture. The batter was looser and it produced a very soft, moist cake with a smooth surface rather than the hard sugary top you usually get with a lemon drizzle. Flavour wise it was excellent and received thumbs up from everyone. I don't think anybody would have noticed it was dairy free had I not pointed it out.

If anyone else is new to dairy free baking (or gluten free baking) I highly recommend visiting iced gem bakes. I found her breakdown of dairy free margarines really useful.

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spider cookies

November 2, 2013, 10:23 am

≫ Next: mini fudge cheesecakes

≪ Previous: dairy free lemon drizzle traybake

I don't know why I just used the word "cookies". To me they're biscuits. It's the British in me I suppose.

Anyway, spider biscuits/cookies... I made these for Hallowe'en. I found the recipe here when I was browsing for Hallowe'en themed bakes last week and their cuteness appealed to me.

I didn't have any golden caster sugar left so I used ordinary caster sugar and I misread the recipe by only adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract when it's meant to be 1 tablespoon, so the flavour was a little underwhelming (although still perfectly edible.) At least I know that was my own doing rather than the recipe itself.

I also used two giant chocolate buttons sandwiches together for the spiders' bodies instead of minstrels and little edible pearls for eyes as I didn't have any silver balls.

And I didn't chill the dough for 2 hours before rolling out, I shoved it in the freezer for half an hour instead. I bet you're starting to think I didn't read the recipe at all!

The last thing to note is that this recipe makes a lot of biscuits, I think I had about 50 biscuits in total. It tested my patience drawing that many spider legs, but it was definitely worth it in the end as they had a lot of character and charm. Everybody seemed to enjoy them which is always the main thing.

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mini fudge cheesecakes

November 7, 2013, 6:05 am

≫ Next: addicted to collage

≪ Previous: spider cookies

Last week I had a craving for cheesecake. It somehow felt too indulgent to make a big cheesecake so I made mini ones instead. I'm fully aware that I probably ate so many that I might as well have made a whole cheesecake, but please humour me.

There's absolutely nothing healthy about this recipe. Nothing. But sometimes you need to make something as unashamedly fattening and sweet as this because nothing else will hit the spot.

Creamy and fudgey with a buttery biscuit base (you know I had to go there!) What more could you want? I loved how cute and dainty these looked too.

I also used a fudge which was almost more like a tablet/candy, so it had that extra sugary, melt in the mouth quality. Perfect for an indulgent cheesecake.

Mini fudge cheesecakes

This is what I did:

150g crushed Hobnob biscuits

40-50g butter, melted

100g cream cheese

300ml double cream, lightly whipped

125g fudge, plus extra for grating on top. You can never have too much fudge!

First, cut thin strips of greaseproof paper/baking parchment and lay in the base of 9 muffin tin cups. This will help you to remove the cheesecakes from the tin later. To make the cheesecake bases, mix together the crushed biscuits and melted butter and press into the bottom of the cups. Put the tray in the fridge to chill while you make the filling.

Beat the cream cheese until soft. Grate the fudge and add roughly 100g of fudge to the cream cheese and scatter the rest over the bases. In a separate bowl, lightly whip the cream and carefully fold this into the cream cheese/fudge mixture. Once combined, spoon this mixture on top of all the cheesecake bases and grate a little more fudge on top if you're feeling decadent. Leave to chill in the fridge overnight, or at least 6 hours, before serving.

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addicted to collage

November 18, 2013, 4:18 pm

≫ Next: sticky date cake

≪ Previous: mini fudge cheesecakes

I've discovered the joys of photo collaging and it's quickly becoming a serious addiction. I want to collage EVERYTHING.

*pastel china*

I may even start collaging specifically by colour soon....

*pyrex*

*green dresser lovin'*

*favourite things*

*I love tea*

I've been using PicMonkey, a free online photo editing software for all my collages. This is not a sponsored post for them by the way, I'm just *very* fond of their software at the moment and felt the need to share the collage love.

Now, what can I collage next....

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sticky date cake

November 21, 2013, 5:16 am

≫ Next: funky florals

≪ Previous: addicted to collage

With snow forecast this week I felt the only way to ease myself into the cold, winter weather was with a slab of cake packed with juicy sultanas, raisins and sticky dates.

This is basically a boiled tea loaf recipe (or Smiddy cake if you're Scottish), but condensed milk is used in place of sugar to add a lovely caramel flavour to the cake. I'm one of those people who enjoys drinking condensed milk straight from the tin so it saddened me that the recipe used a whole tin. There wasn't much left for my sweet tooth to scrape!

Interestingly there are no eggs in this recipe, so there wasn't much rise, but the cake has plenty of moisture and a very soft texture.

My Dad in particular absolutely loved this cake. I think we all liked how deep each slice was, a bit like scaling a cliff face! Stupidly I thought this cake would last us a while due to its size, but it barely lasted three days.

As it's such an old fashioned, homely cake I thought I'd photograph it with Mum's 1970s Denby which we picked up from a charity shop for a couple of pounds last month. I suppose like a boiled fruit cake it's something you'll either love or loathe. Personally I rather like the brown, retro charm.

Sticky date cake

Recipe found on pg26 of "Vintage Cakes" by Jane Brocket. Published 2012 Jacqui Small

275g medjool dates, halved and chopped into sixths
175g raisins
225g sultanas
250g butter
275ml water
1 x 397g tin condensed milk
300g plain flour
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp orange marmalade

Gently heat the dried fruit, butter, water and condensed milk in a large heavy based saucepan until the butter has melted. Do not over stir as you don't want to break up the dates. Bring the pan to the boil and continue to boil over a medium heat for 3 minutes until the mixture has turned a darker colour and smells of caramel. Stir the mixture occasionally to stop it from sticking. Leave the mixture to cool.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/160C and grease and line a 20cm round tin with baking parchment. Once the mixture is cool/lukewarm, sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and stir on the marmalade. Mix everything together until well combined and spoon into the prepared tin, levelling the surface. This mixture almost fills the tin but don't worry as it doesn't rise much.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 2- 2 1/2 hours (mine took 2hrs 5 mins, and my oven is usually on the slow side). Check the cake after 1 hour to check the top isn't browning too quickly. If it is (mine was) lay a double thickness of tinfoil over the top of the tin and continue baking. Your cake will be fully baked when a metal skewer/knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave your cake to cool in the tin.

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funky florals

December 8, 2013, 7:34 am

≫ Next: oat and raisin cookies

≪ Previous: sticky date cake

With the poor quality of light recently it has been next to impossible to take decent photographs of my new canisters but I'm fed up with waiting. Who cares if they're a bit grainy and odd coloured, you can still see how funky the canisters are.

I picked these up when I visited my brother's new place last month and I'm happy to report that the charity shops in his area did not disappoint.

I've been hoping I'd eventually come across more Taunton Vale canisters to match my blue ones so I was delighted to find two sitting on a shelf. Perhaps they knew I was visiting that week?

Naturally the first thing I did when I got home was to line them up with the blue canisters. It's the small things which make me happy.

Has anybody else had any exciting pre-Christmas finds?

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oat and raisin cookies

December 10, 2013, 8:36 am

≫ Next: rose cloud

≪ Previous: funky florals

I was actually looking for a different recipe when I came across these from the first Hummingbird Bakery book and changed my mind. Everything about them appealed to me.

They were crisp around the edges with a thick, slightly chewy centre which is exactly what I want in a cookie, not to mention packed with juicy raisins and warming spices.

The recipe didn't exactly specify how big to make the cookies or how to measure them out, so I just rolled smallish balls of the mixture and flattened them slightly on the tray. I think I got 36 or 38 in total so you could easily half the batch if you find that an excessive amount, although excessive is never a word I would associate with cookies/biscuits/cakes/cupcakes. I'm unashamedly greedy when it comes to baked goods.

The only other thing I noticed was that mine took an extra 5 minutes in the oven, but most things do as my oven is on the slow side, so just keep an eye on them. You'll know when they're ready when they start to colour slightly round the edges. Remember they'll firm up properly once they cool.

After a quick online search I noticed that Ros has made these before so if you fancy making them too (and you should!) you can find the recipe on her blog The More Than Occasional Baker.

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rose cloud

December 19, 2013, 8:38 am

≫ Next: festive making and baking

≪ Previous: oat and raisin cookies

I have a new addition to my utility china family: a Johnsons Brothers rose cloud jug.

There it was, sitting on a shelf, waiting to be picked up by me. I'm so pleased I've finally managed to track down a pink piece. It's a very pretty shade of dusky pink. I think I prefer it to the peachy-ness of the Grindley Petalware.

Now I have 5 Johnson Brothers Cloud jugs. A full compliment of pastel colours.

And 7 utility pieces in total when I include my Woodsware jasmine and Grindley peach petalware jugs.

I think I might have to rearrange my dresser display... again. Oh what a chore ;)

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festive making and baking

December 20, 2013, 8:47 am

≫ Next: Almond and apricot banana bread

≪ Previous: rose cloud

I've been a bit slower than usual with all my festive baking and decorating this year but I'm well under way now. The tree is up (although still bare at the moment), presents are wrapped, fairy lights are twinkling and cake, tablet and gingerbread have been baked. Festive decorations have also been sewn whilst watching terrible (but brilliant) Christmas films on tv.

My first festive bake was Mary Berry's Victorian Christmas cake (which I first baked two years ago). I had forgotten how long it took to chop/rinse/drain all the fruit and nuts but it's definitely worth the effort. I gave this as a gift to my aunty and she was delighted with it.

My second bake was my annual batch of boobie angels and perverted gingerbread men/santas.

I don't know why putting jelly tot sweeties on gingerbread angels or drawing pants on santas is funny, but it just is.

Although not a make or bake, I had to include this photo of Bob the cat. He looked very comfy on the bench whilst I decorated the gingerbread. He's certainly not stressing out about the run up to Christmas.

How are all your festive plans coming along? Everybody feeling organised? I would love to feel smug but it's hard to with headache/toothache. I need a filling done and a wisdom tooth pulled out and perhaps somewhat foolishly didn't accept treatment today (I just couldn't handle the idea of it today.) It's scheduled for the beginning of January instead. Great way to start the new year, ugh!

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Almond and apricot banana bread

December 20, 2013, 8:48 am

≫ Next: Strictly Come Dancing cupcakes

≪ Previous: festive making and baking

I think this might just be my favourite banana bread. A big statement to throw around, but I really think it is.

Sometimes the tastiest things are made from leftovers and that's the case here. I had some left over dried apricots and blanched almonds from making the Christmas cake and two incredibly brown bananas sitting on the worktop so I decided to throw them together in a loaf.

The loaf has a good balance of flavours and textures: soft crumb, warm spices, juicy apricots and crunchy almonds. It's definitely a cake I want to bake again.

Almond and apricot banana bread

Recipe adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's banana bread

250g soft light brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 large very ripe bananas, about 225g in weight

280g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

140g butter/margarine (I used Vitalite to keep the cake dairy free)

75g mixture of chopped apricots and chopped blanched almonds (although I may add more next time)

25g ground almonds

a handful of flaked almonds to scatter on top

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3 and grease and line a 23 x 13cm loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Beat together the sugar and eggs until well incorporated. Mash up the bananas and beat them into the sugar/egg mixture. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ground almonds and spices and mix thoroughly. Melt the butter and beat it into the mixture until everything is combined. Stir in the chopped almonds and apricot pieces. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and scatter with a handful of flaked almonds. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for roughly 1 hour until firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack.

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Strictly Come Dancing cupcakes

December 24, 2013, 5:35 am

≫ Next: toffee apple pecan pudding

≪ Previous: Almond and apricot banana bread

On Saturday night my friends and I had a little party to celebrate the Strictly Come Dancing final and this was my glittery contribution.

Chocolate cupcakes with piped chocolate butter icing and adorned with pink sprinkles, a light dusting of edible glitter and homemade toppers of this year's Strictly finalists. We're going to see the Strictly Come Dancing tour when it comes up to Glasgow in February so we have been extra excited about this series.

I have a soft spot for Artem so I may have chosen to eat the cupcake with the Artem and Natalie topper.

Did anyone else throw a Strictly party? Do you think the best celebrity won? I must admit that the inconsistent marking this year infuriated me (turned me into a raging Strictly Come Dancing Hulk) but I still enjoyed this series.

If you fancy a laugh, check out the Strictly Come Dancing themed gingerbread I made with my friend Alice two years ago.

And that's it from me, I'd better go and finish making the Christmas trifle. Hope everybody has a lovely Christmas tomorrow!

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toffee apple pecan pudding

December 29, 2013, 3:56 pm

≫ Next: 2013 baking round up

≪ Previous: Strictly Come Dancing cupcakes

This is what I made for pudding on Christmas day. As we had our main family dinner on Christmas Eve with our traditional trifle I had free reign for pudding ideas on Christmas day. I've had this recipe tucked away for a year or two so I felt it was about time I tried it.

I thought a steamed/boiled pudding was a really good choice as it can be left to simmer away on the hob while you finish attending to/eating your Christmas dinner.

It's a very sweet pudding, toffee obviously being the predominant flavour, so you can make your mind up whether that's a good or bad thing. Personally, I always think it's good. As much as I love cheese, I will never understand people who pick the cheese and biscuit platter as a dessert at restaurants. Really, that's not a dessert!

I really liked the addition of apples to what is essentially a sticky toffee pudding. It added a freshness to an otherwise rich dessert. It was the perfect comforting pudding to tuck into at the end of Christmas day.

So what did you all make for Christmas? Do you tend to make the same thing or try a new pudding each year?

Toffee apple pecan pudding

A Mary Berry recipe. Copied down off the tv whilst watching one of the Great British Bake Off Masterclass episodes last year (I think.)

For the toffee sauce:

300ml pouring cream (I used double cream)

100g light muscovado sugar

75g softened butter

For the pudding:

A 2pt pudding basin, greased with butter

125g light muscovado sugar

125g softened butter

2 beaten eggs

125g self-raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large cooking apple - peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks

75g pecans, chopped

Put all the toffee sauce ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat for roughly 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Pour 1/2 the toffee sauce into the bottom of the greased pudding basin, followed by half of the chopped pecans.

In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and muscovado sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the vanilla extract and self-raising flour and mix until just incorporated. Fold in the chopped apple. Pour the pudding mixture into the pudding basin, on top of the sauce (mine went in as a big lump so don't worry if you can't smooth it out, it didn't seem to affect the finished pudding.)

Cut out a disc from greaseproof paper and lay it on top of the basin. Lay out a large square of foil and fold a pleat in the centre (to allow steam to escape) and seal the foil around the basin. Fold a rectangular strip of foil to make a cradle for lifting the basin. Place a jam jar lid or a sideplate in the centre of a large saucepan/pot (must be taller than the pudding basin) and place the basin on top. Half fill the pot with boiling water and put the lid on. Leave to simmer for 2 1/2 hours.

When ready to serve, reheat the sauce with the remaining pecans and turn out the pudding on a large dish. The pudding easily serves four people.

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2013 baking round up

December 31, 2013, 7:37 am

≫ Next: Mrs Doyle has arrived

≪ Previous: toffee apple pecan pudding

Since I'm still hopelessly addicted to collage I thought I'd make a photo montage of all my bakes this year.

19 cakes, 8 batches of biscuits, 4 batches of cupcakes, 2 brownies/blondies, 1 batch of mini cheesecakes, 1 fruit crumble and 1 steamed pudding (and a partridge in a pear tree?)

Sadly it seems 2013 was not a pastry year as there isn't a single tart in my round up. I'm genuinely surprised about that! As usual cake is by far what I bake most. I'm disappointed that I haven't baked as much as usual this year, but I'm happy with what I did get round to baking.

After a quick snoop through stats it seems my most popular blog post by far was my vanilla chai tea latte cake. I must admit that was one of my favourite bakes too. My other personal favourite was the white chocolate and passionfruit cake.

The other two bakes from my mini tea series, chai latte biscuits and earl grey tea loaf, have also been popular on the blog, along with the passionfruit cream biscuits, blackberry bakewell cake and my failed yoghurt, lemon and lime bundt. I'm not sure why my sad looking bundt cake is so popular. Perhaps you all admired my honesty for posting an ugly cake?! haha!

So what have you baked most this year? Have you got any baking new years resolutions? I'll definitely make at least one tart in 2014!

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