My mum is in New Zealand on holiday this mother’s day, sunning herself on a beach, whilst I sit in Edinburgh in surrounded by at least an inch of snow.
Category: Cakes and Desserts (Page 2 of 8)
In the run up to Christmas I did eventually find the time to ice my cake, but only just enough time. In the end I went for a very simple Christmas tree decoration.
I’ve been meaning to post this for a while.
Every couple of weeks I have been feeding my Chocolate Christmas Cake with Amaretto.
Of course I can’t tell you much about how it tastes, but it smells wonderful – deep, rich and christmassy. Every time I unwrap the cake the aroma fills the kitchen.
Tomorrow I will ice the cake, however I still haven’t quite decided on how to decorate it, my options so far on this iced Christmas cake pinboard.
Then once I have taken like a billion photos, I will chop it up and eat it.
I’ll let you know how it tastes.
At the end of December I wrote a post about how I had stopped cooking and baking during the stress of planning a wedding. How I had resolved to get myself back into it using a list of techniques and dishes I wanted to create by the end of 2012. Needless to say I can’t strike a single thing off of that list.
My first year as a married woman has not been spent as a domestic goddess, with apron on, baking delicious treats and warming homely dinners. While it is extremely unlikely I will ever be that woman, I can always hope (and pursue) more of a life/work balance for the next year.
However there was one thing that shines out above all others on the list, to bake, marzipan and ice a cake.
Last summer I was growing a whole host of different veggies in my garden, but in the end I never got much of anything. Unless 3 cherry tomatoes counts as a glut.
Towards the middle of last summer my Mum brought me up a rhubarb plant, by this point I had very low expectations of anything in my garden.
However I planted it, not really believing that it would last the winter. (With new rhubarbs you are meant to leave them a year to bed in before picking).
Surprisingly not only did it survive but it’s doing amazingly well!
With my homegrown rhubarb I knew I wanted to something a bit different – not something I could buy in the shops like a pie or crumble and something so good I would have to blog about it.
It’s been a while since I have made the staple of this blog – the muffin – so the decision was easy.
I also have plans for Rhubarb Vodka and Rhubarb Ice Cream.
The weather in the UK and especially Edinburgh has been pretty terrible. Yesterday Matt and I popped out for lunch in the sunshine (with no rain forecast) by the time we were walking home it was torrential.
In my family we have running jokes about the moment you even think of having a barbecue the rain will come on, it’s similar to when the washing machine goes into its final spin cycle. No matter how blue the sky is, or how distant the clouds are, the weather will turn for the worse.
So I am responsible for the terrible weather in Edinburgh this summer. In June I bought a P-O-P-S-I-C-L-E mould.
I apologise.
Since then we have barely had a day of sunshine, and the temperature hasn’t raised above 16oC. I had imagined the summer spent with lots of great experiments with these icy treats. Could you get 5 of your 6 a day from a popsicle? Could you successfully recreate a G&T popsicle? Frozen champagne?
My best laid plans are not to be, however you can’t give up entirely, so I went ahead and made these cherry popsicles anyway.
Definitely worth the effort, even if the tips of my toes were turning blue in sandals as we ate them 🙂
About this time of year I start to really crave sweet things after dinner. Ok I crave them all year round but maybe it’s just I give in a lot more easily when it gets dark and cold…
This is a happy medium, I get something sweet but it’s an apple, so it’s obviously healthy – right? Ok so it’s an apple filled with brown sugar, sultanas, nuts and the tiniest hint of butter. But it is AH-MAZ-ING. You need to try this.
I haven’t been baking or cooking very much this month or last. Blogging has gone much the same way. My weekends have been spent almost entirely outside soaking up the first of the good weather, and in reality gutting our new garden.
However I decided it would be wrong to let Easter pass without at least baking something, so I opted for Simnel Cake.
The traditional pancakes for Pancake Day, I guess, are usually the huge American style pancakes or the thin French crepe. The humble Scotch pancake (or drop scone) is often over looked, but is super simple, quick and just as tasty as its counterparts.
Burns Night is one of the most popular Scottish events of the year, celebrated all over the world, for our great poet – Robert Burns. For years I have wanted to do a traditional Burns Supper, but never got up the courage.