Just a bit on the damp side

What a morning it's been! 

Wet! Wet! Wet!

 Paths under water

Garden steps broken, I trod on the corner as I went out to feed the birds earlier and hurtled forward but managed to stay upright.   It's not a flood of biblical proportions by any means but it has entered the house, well garage,  which is connected to the rest of the house.

I did have a dental appointment this morning but they rang last evening to cancel so I don't have to go out except to post a birthday card which I can do just round the corner on the next street, when and if it ever stops raining.   In the meantime to cheer up the day I've made a cake, a chocolate cake.  It's not the most attractive cake in the world but it smells wonderful - just hope it tastes as good.

Put the kettle on!  Care to join me for a slice?

Friday Cake Bake
I saw this cake in Saturday's Guardian magazine and thought I would like to try it. I had all the ingredients in the cupboard except lemons and poppy seeds which we bought earlier in the week. The poppy seeds were 50p from the local health food shop and the lemons 99p for a bag from Aldi - so not a great expense to buy in the extras needed to make the cake - here is a - link - to the recipe - scroll down past the meatballs. It is a bit fiddly but I enjoyed making it only panicking slightly when I thought I hadn't got a large enough cake tin - but all was well!

The lemon syrup makes it quite sticky in the middle but it is very tasty!

A Taste of Wales

As it is time for Simone's Friday Cake Bake and as I'm still in Wales in my head and heart if not in body I decided to make some Bara Brith. After we'd walked along the riverside at Beddgelert were went into one of the small cafes in the village and had coffee and Bara Brith in a cosy corner where we lingered awhile looking at newspapers and tourist leaflets. I thought I would try to make my own Bara Brith or Welsh fruit cake.

It is quite easy to make by soaking about 10oz of mixed fruit in hot tea overnight. Next day strain the fruit and keep the liquid. To the fruit add 3oz of brown sugar, just over a teaspoon of mixed spices, (I used cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg) the grated rind of one lemon, one egg and 12oz of self-raising flour. Add the liquid a bit at a time until the mixture is a soft dropping consistency. Turn it into a lined 2lb loaf tin and bake at 180C for about 50 minutes. The cake was lighter in colour than the one I'd tasted in Wales but I used white self-raising flour and light brown soft sugar - maybe next time I'll use wholemeal flour and dark brown sugar to see if it makes a difference. It tastes wonderful sliced and spread with butter - or in my case Flora light spread!


I missed Simone's Tuesday Garden Rake this week but below are a couple of photos from the garden which seemed to spring into life whilst we were away.

I'm not sure what the tree in the foreground is called; it is very pretty but doesn't stay in flower very long. You can see the Spiraea Arguta or Bridal Wreath behind.

The Kerria Japonica, which grows near the green house opposite our back door, always looks lovely at this time of year.

On our way home we stopped at Conwy for a walk around and some lunch. Below are a few photos I took whilst we were there.

Lakes, Cakes and a song from a Robin

On Wednesday we went over to Lincolnshire to meet two of our friends for lunch. We set out at about 8.30a.m. and driving along the A50 we left Staffordshire and passed through Derbyshire. By the time we reached the end of the A50 we were in Nottinghamshire. We drove through Kegworth, Zouche and Rempstone before entering Leicestershire near the pretty village of Wymeswold - one of my ancestors, Samuel Stubbs, was born there in 1822. From there we drove through Melton towards Oakham - we were now in our fifth and smallest county - Rutland - from here we drove to Stamford and our last county of Lincolnshire. Six counties before 12 noon - that's not bad going!

We stopped for a coffee break at one of the parks on Rutland Water between Oakham and Stamford. It was quite chilly and spotting with rain. Luckily we had packed a flask of coffee and a couple of homemade biscuits as the cafe was closed.

From Stamford we struck out across the Fens towards Market Deeping and Spalding. We lived in this area for about twelve years during the 80s and 90s and I'm always drawn by the flat landscape, distant spires and huge skies. We passed barley fields, drainage ditches and wind farms. The yellow in the photo below is a field of daffodils; there were people picking flowers in the fields as we passed by.

As it is two weeks since I last joined in with Simone's Friday cake bake and as I had two large eating apples in the fruit bowl, I decided to make a Dorset Apple Cake.

The recipe is from the Crank's recipe book which I posted about a few weeks ago. It was so easy to make and was delicious as a pudding after our evening meal, with a dollop of Greek yogurt on top.

Last, but not least, I took this photo at Trentham recently. We sat for a while after a walk and were joined by two robins. This one, his soft downy feathers ruffling in the breeze, sang to us for a while before moving on.

Scenes from this week and Tiffin

Although still very cold, especially in the mornings, the weather has been lovely. One evening earlier this week we had the most amazing dappled red sky.

The next day we walked around the lake at Trentham and the sky was so blue and the sun was warm on our backs as we strolled along the lakeside path.

Finally I managed to make something for Simone's Friday cake bake. Not so much a cake bake, more a melt, mix and refrigerate cake. The recipe for Tiffin is from the April issue of Sainsbury's magazine. Just melted butter, chocolate and golden syrup with broken digestive biscuits, dried fruit and nuts mixed in. Place in a small loaf tin and refrigerate until set, dust in cocoa powder and slice.

It's very rich, sticky and tasty!

Things to Look Forward To

I've been feeling rather jaded over the last week; no energy or enthusiasm to do much of anything. I'm just hoping this feeling will pass as soon as the weather improves and we can get out in the garden again - but for some reason this stuff keeps coming along to stop us.

So what is there to look forward to? Well, even though we can't get outside to work in the garden things have been happening inside. Paul has been potting seeds ready for the greenhouse and garden later on plus some herbs for the kitchen windowsill. There's parsley, basil and cress plus radish, lettuce, spinach, beetroot, french beans, leeks and tomatoes - now that is something to look forward to!

Next week we are hoping to visit the - Potteries Museum and Art Gallery - to see the - Staffordshire Hoard. I've been watching the local papers to see how the queues are doing. We've decided to go next week, once half term is over, in the hope that the queuing time won't be as long in this cold weather - it's about two hours at the moment. The exhibition was opened last Friday by historian, writer and TV film maker/presenter - Michael Wood - a huge long term favourite of mine - several of his books can be found on my bookshelves. I see that the exhibition had some special visitors this morning - link - I'm guessing that they didn't have to join the queue ;)

We also have tickets to see the wonderful - Northern Broadsides - on their annual visit to the New Vic Theatre. We are going to see The Canterbury Tales and I've been keeping up to date with their rehearsals via photos and news on Facebook. It is looking good so far!

I'm also looking forward to reading the next book on my 'to be read' pile. 'An Education' by Lynn Barber. This books has been adapted by Nick Hornby for a successful - film - no doubt many of you have seen it already. We missed it when it came to our local university film theatre so I'm hoping that it comes back to one of the local cinemas soon which it may do if it wins some awards over the next few weeks.


Last but not least I'm looking forward to a slice of Victoria Sandwich Cake because it's Simone's Friday Cake Bake and here is my cake sandwiched with home made plum jam and dusted with icing sugar.

Time to put the kettle on!

Friday Cake Bake - Apricot Slices

It's time for Friday Cake Bake again, where has the time gone? It doesn't seem five minutes since my last Cake Bake post.

I decided to use up the rest of the apricots from last week's cake; this time in slices. I've had this recipe for ages scribbled on a ruled page from a shorthand notepad worn thin by time and frequent use.

I've used this recipe so many times using different fillings like dates, or prunes and in the late summer fresh plums. You can serve the slices hot or cold, on a plate as cake or in a bowl with custard, yogurt or ice cream as a pudding. You can cut it into thin slices or huge squares whatever takes your fancy. Here is the recipe:-

8oz of dried, chopped apricots (or dates, figs, prunes etc)
a little lemon juice
8oz jumbo or rolled oats
6oz margarine
2oz golden syrup
4oz whole wheat flour
40z soft brown sugar

Place the dried fruit into a saucepan with the lemon juice and water to cover, simmer until soft - add more water if needed.

Mix the dry ingredients into a bowl and melt the margarine and golden syrup together in another pan then add to the dry ingredients.

Grease a shallow baking tin approx 8" square and firmly press half the oat mixture on the base. Cover this with the softened fruit, smooth down and then press the second half of the oat mix over the top - I use a spatula to press and smooth it all down.

Bake for 20 minutes at 180C/350F or Gas4. Allow to cool in the tin and then cut into slices or squares.

These are great for taking on a long walk with a flask of coffee or tea as they are tasty and filling.

Friday Cake Bake

It's Simone's Friday cake bake time again - I missed last week but here is this week's offering -
Apricot Madeira Cake

Here is the recipe

5oz caster sugar
5oz margarine
8oz self raising flour
3 eggs
3oz apricot jam
3oz chopped dried apricots

Cream the flour and the sugar with the apricot jam. Beat in the eggs then add the flour and dried apricots. Line a 2lb loaf tin and bake the cake for about an hour at 180C - sometimes it needs a little more than an hour - use a skewer to test if the cake is cooked. Mine seemed to cook more quickly this time hence the darker top to the cake - it still tasted good with afternoon tea and as my Dad used to say 'the burnt bits are the best bits'!

It's Bake a Cake Day

I'm joining Simone at Linden Grove with her 'Bake a Cake Friday' project. Such a good idea! It's so nice to have homemade cake to cut into and eat with cups of warming tea when we get back from one of our weekend walks.

The cake above is just a normal '4,4,4,2' sponge cake recipe except I replaced one ounce of flour with cocoa powder. Here is the basic recipe-

4oz margarine or butter
4oz caster sugar
4oz self raising flour
2 eggs

Beat the sugar and margarine together then add the beaten eggs and mix them in. Fold in the flour until mixture is ready to place in the tin. I use a round tin with a cake tin liner.

For the topping I sometimes use a glace icing - I mix icing sugar and cocoa powder with a little warm water until it is firm but spreadable - or in this case a butter icing - cream the icing sugar, margarine and cocoa powder together - again until it is just right for spreading. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings from a bar of chocolate. I can't give exact amounts because I mix the icings by eye until they look right. Of course you could split the cake in two and put butter icing in between and glace icing on top for a special occasion.

Things I am thankful for - 2

I was thankful today for having the ingredients in the cupboard to make a chocolate cake so that I could use up all the chocolate buttons left over from Halloween. We had a slice with a cup of coffee when we got back from our afternoon walk.

Marmalade Cake

Recently I decided to make a marmalade cake. I liked the look of the recipe in Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, and had been meaning to have a go at it for some time. As we had several jars of homemade marmalade, a new packet of golden caster sugar in the cupboard and a huge navel orange lurking in the fruit bowl I had no more excuses. It all went together very easily and cooked just the way the recipe said it would. He did say to pour the icing over the cake so that it ran in dribbles down the side; as you can see from the photos - that's what I did. It tasted wonderful, soft and moist with a tangy orange flavour, the icing really adding to both the texture and flavour just as he said it would. As you can see from the photo below - it only lasted a few days.

Red Sky, Steam Trains and Chocolate Cake

Last night there was the most magnificent red sky a good indication of fair weather again today. We had to buzz round cleaning here and there as we had someone coming from Nottingham to view the house at midday. Since Christmas we've had a few more viewings but again like us, the people concerned are waiting for buyers - we are all in a Catch 22 situation.

After the viewing we popped over to the Consall Country Park and walked down to the canal and railway. It was so warm that the weather felt more like April than February. People stopped to chatter and twice we were asked the way to something or other. I love the Churnet Valley and especially this little area where the steam railway, the River Churnet and the Cauldon Canal all meet each other near the Black Lion Pub. I just managed to photograph the train as it left Consall station - as there was a witch in a black pointed hat leaning out of the window at the station and a picture of a wizard on the front of the engine I'm assuming, as it is half term this week that it was something to do with a Wizard/Harry Potter theme.

The it was home to tea and a slice of chocolate cake - bliss.

Coming Home

Today was my niece's wedding day. We decided to travel to Chesterfield via the A50, A38, up one junction of the M1 and into Chesterfield. Luckily the traffic was light and there were no hold ups so we arrived in Chesterfield in good time. The ceremony itself was lovely and afterwards we headed out to the hotel where the wedding lunch was to be held. The party began to break up at about three-thirty and we all said our goodbyes and wished the bride and groom well.



We decided to travel back across country and drove through Cutthorpe and down onto the main road through Baslow, into Bakewell and headed towards Monyash and Hartington. The road from Monyash was quite icy but the views across the farmland were spectacular. The white of the snow giving the landscape a new dimension, a feeling of light and crisp clarity that was quite wonderful.



The evening crept in as we travelled watching the sun sink in the sky, it's light and colour changing rapidly as we sped towards home. It was quite exhilarating.



I just thought you would like to see a photo of the wedding cake - equally spectacular in it's own way. Nearly everything was edible - the top layer was a chocolate fudge cake, the bottom a traditional fruit cake. It was too pretty to cut straight away.