Friday, December 12, 2014

Five on Friday

A few weeks ago the lovely Amy from Love Made my Home had the idea of opening up her 'Five on Friday' posts to other bloggers and quite a few of us wanted to join in.  For the moment we are split into groups for each Friday of the month.  I'm in the group for the second Friday so here is my first post for 'Five on Friday'.....

Five things that have come out of the kitchen over the last few weeks

A chocolate sponge - inspired by having been given, quite unexpectedly,  a free small selection bag of chocolate bars when we bought our local paper at the newsagent's shop at Trentham Gardens when we walked there last week.  They were all miniature bars and were eaten over the next few days but the little bag of chocolate buttons was lurking so I decided they needed to go on top of a cake.  The recipe came from the trusty BeRo book but I don't actually take it off the shelf as I can make the cake from memory.  It's the Victoria sponge recipe with 1oz of flour substituted with cocoa powder and I always use 6,6,6,3 instead of the 4,4,4,2 amounts to make a slightly bigger cake.  (Four ounces of flour, sugar and margarine or butter to two eggs - I still use pounds and ounces but I think 4oz is 100 grams.)

Paul made a batch of loaves over the weekend, as I've probably mentioned before he makes all our bread whereas I'm the cake and pudding maker.  He's been busy over the last few weeks learning about how bread was made in WW1 and helped at a day long seminar about food in WW1 amongst other things at Keele University.  Here is a - link - to his website where you will find many recipes all made at home and tested - even the very early and medieval breads.  His latest 'test' was making Soleil et Lune or Sally Lunn buns.  We took them to friends to share.  It is best to eat them asap as they do go dry quickly but I had one toasted and it was very nice.  You will find the recipe and photos on the website I gave you the link to above in historic breads - 18th century.

Cheese Scones - we just fancied them for lunch one Sunday as we were having a cooked meal in the evening and very tasty they were too.  Again a BeRo book recipe was used.

We had one orange left in the fruit bowl and a jar of marmalade just opened so I decided to make an orange marmalade cake.  I used the recipe from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries as it is always moist and extremely tasty.  One of my favourite cakes.


On 'Stir up Sunday' I made a Christmas pudding.  This time the recipe was from Rose Elliott's book 'Vegetarian Christmas' which we also use every year for our Christmas dinner meal of Chestnut and Red Wine Puree en Croute.  Sometimes we make it on Christmas Eve sometimes a week or two earlier and then it gets frozen until needed.


I am joining in Five on Friday, taking five minutes from our day to enjoy five things.  Please go and visit the other people who are also blogging about Five on Friday this week.

36 comments:

  1. I want to come and live in your kitchen!! What scrummy looking baked goods! I especially like the look of the marmalade cake, I've been meaning to try one of those for a while :) And Paul's bread looks amazing, I bet it was really interesting learning about food for WWI. Have a lovely weekend!

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    1. Hello Helen - do try the marmalde cake it is lovely. Happy weekend to your too:)

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  2. Delicious baked goodies - my baking skills leave a lot to be desired.

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    1. Thanks Elaine - my post makes it look as if I'm always baking but in fact those things were made over several weeks:)

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  3. Ok first four easy. Both me and the wife can make chocolate cake, but buttons are boreing use smarties and make it colorful The bread well I make it every day.My wife make the most amazing cheese scones and I love marmalade cake which I must have a go at, how about Dundee marmalade. Christmas put is one thing I do miss. My late Aunty made great ones, maybe I should try. Happy Christmas

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    1. Hello Bill - oh, yes Smarties would have looked much more colourful but I only had the buttons. You are very industrious to make bread every day it is lovely to have fresh bread though isn't it? Do have a go at the marmalade cake - I used home made seville orange marmalade. Thanks for popping by and Happy Christmas to you too:)

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  4. I had no idea you were such great bakers at your house Rosie!!! Thank you for joining in, such a great post! Your cakes all look delicious and I am so impressed that you know the recipe by heart, I always have to look these things up! Your hubby is obviously a great bread maker too, how great that you both have complimentary baking talents! Thank you again for taking part!! xx

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    1. Thanks Amy, I've enjoyed Five on Friday and have some ideas for further posts if we carry on. We do tend to bake different things so we do sort of compliment each other in that way:)

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  5. Really enjoyed your Five on Friday, so yummy love the chocolate cakexx

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    1. Hello Michelle and thank you for visiting - the chocolate cake was lovely - it just didn't last very long:)

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  6. Oh my what fabulous photos! You have made me very hungry now!

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    1. Hello Joanne - glad the photos made your mouth water, thanks for visiting:)

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  7. The baking looks great. I'll be joining in Five on Friday on the 4th Friday, Boxing day. When I was a child, my grandparents in Trentham, took us to Trentham Gardens a lot. I remember, just, the open air pool.

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    1. Hello Katherine, I'll look out for your post on Boxing Day. Trentham has changed so much over the last few years. The gardens have been reclaimed and re-designed as has the lakeside walk. No outdoor pool now but a designer retail village, hotel, restaurants, garden centre and monkey park and at this time of year an ice rink. It is a very popular place for locals and visitors:)

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  8. Lots of yummy goodness coming out of your kitchen this week! It all looks so delicious! Visiting you for the Five on Friday (I joined up last Friday). Wendy x

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    1. Hello Wendy, thanks for visiting - I'll hopefully get around to everyone on the Five on Friday links very soon:)

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  9. I love visiting fellow Five on Fridayers..especially when there is such yummy food! I need a scratch and sniff screen!!
    Jane x

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    1. I'm trying to think which of the things above was the most aromatic in the kitchen - possibly the cheese scones and the orange in the marmalade cake - but then the rich fruitiness of the pudding as it was being made was lovely too:)

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  10. As a chocoholic I have to say your cake looks delicious. Historical breads sounds so interesting.

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    1. You'd have enjoyed a slice of chocolate cake, Janet. The breads are interesting espeically the roman and medieval ones and the history behind them:)

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  11. What fabulous baking... could just fancy one of those cheese scones!

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  12. Rosie, you and Paul are the Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry of blogland! Paul H being the breadmaker and Mary Berry baking the cakes! All of the cakes and bread look delicious and your Christmas pud is so artfully tied. x

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    1. Oh, my goodnes thank you Simone. If I could be one eighth as good as MB I'd be happy. We had to use garden twine on the pudding as we couldn't find any string:)

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  13. They all look good! I could just eat some chocolate buttons now I've seen that cake!

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    1. I can just imagine you dashing out for chocolate buttons. Actually the ones made by Thorntons used to be the best ones:)

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  14. Your Marmalade cake looks amazing! I think I will try to make one this weekend although I fear I may eat it all myself.

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    1. Thanks, Debbie I hope you do give the marmalade cake a try as it is very tasty and will last awhile as it is very moist:)

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  15. Love all your baking. Historical breads sound interesting. I like tried and tested baking recipes and I know the sponge cake one off by heart also as it's the one I use most often!

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    1. Yes, I think it is my most used recipe too as it is so easy to make quickly if you suddenly have visitors. The historical breads are fascinating to learn about and some taste lovely - others not to our modern tastes at all:)

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  16. Your home must smell amazing with all of that baking! Lovely 5 post.

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    1. Thank, you Shannon - the baking did smell good especially the marmalade cake:)

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  17. This is a great selection of tasty treats. I have the BeRo book and frequently choose their recipes over the many other books that I own. Although I do try to use new recipes, I do like my tried and trusted favourites.

    Marie x

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    1. I do use the BeRo book a lot I have two copies both well thumbed. We did try a new recipe the other day though and that was tasty too:)

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  18. Hi Rosie. I've just enjoyed my first peek at your blog as I will amongst the Five-on-Fridayers this week. Your baking looks delicious! Lucky you having homemade bread on a regular basis! I used the Be-Ro baking website recently for some gingerbread men and was not disappointed. Lil x

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    1. Hello Lil and welcome to my blog and also Five on Friday - I hope you enjoy being part of it. BeRo recipes are the best aren't they? Look forward to visiting you on Fiday:)

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