Blackforest Roulade - Great British Bake Off Inspired

Ok so it didn't turn out to be a thing of great beauty but Mary Berry says that a bit of cracking is fine!!!

I used Mary Berry's recipe from here for the roulade.  Once it was cooked and cooled I splodged on some black cherry jam onto the roulade before the cream.  It was really lovely, not too sweet but very moreish.  I ignored Mary's request for good quality chocolate and used value dark chocolate and it was absolutely fine.

I was impressed with Mary Berry's recipe so have decided to try her chocolate sponge recipe (with an added extra of course!) for my birthday cake.

Flapjack Cookies

Whilst I was looking at crochet lampshades (of all things!!!) I spotted these oaty biscuits on Attic24 and decided they were just the thing for a quick bake today.  They were super quick and easy and taste divine, like a cross between a flapjack and a cookie.  Unfortunately after I had made them Mr T reminded me that he doesn't like flapjacks anymore but luckily Miss E loves them and I am more than happy to eat a few extra as well!

The recipe is super easy, just melt 100g of butter with 50g soft brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of honey in the microwave.  Mix it then add 100g of oats and 100g self raising flour and 50g dried fruit and mix.

I then lined a baking tray with greaseproof paper and splodged 16 blobs of the mixture, pressing them down slightly with a fork.  They will spread a bit so give them a bit of space.  Cook for about 12 minutes at gas mark 4 until they are just slightly golden.  I took them off the paper and onto a rack while they were still warm and soft and then ate some warm!!

The Great British Bake Off

Yayyy!!!!!  It's back on our screens, I love watching the Great British Bake Off even though it doesn't do my waistline any good.  This year I have decided to set myself a bit of a challenge.  I love to bake but I tend to rely on a few favorite recipes.  This year I have set myself a challenge, to bake something new inspired by the program each week and blog about it here.  Don't worry I will not be crafting a cake guillotine, attempting lavender honeycomb or Japanese cake art but I will try to make something new to me loosely inspired by one of the bakes on the program.

I mentioned it to my much more baker-ee sister and she is up for the challenge as well so watch this space!  Anyone who fancies attempting one of the recipes from last night can find them on the BBC website here.

I have my ingredients ready and my helpers/testers keen to begin.  Any guesses on what we'll be cooking?!

Weekend Treats - Lemon Curd Cake

The recipe is one I had saved from a magazine at least a year ago and I suddenly remembered it so decided to give it a go.  It is basically a 3 egg lemon sponge with lemon curd and whipped cream in the middle and a thickish glace icing made from lemon juice on the top.  It tasted amazing and will definitely be repeated again soon.  The recipe called for"good quality bought lemon curd or homemade" but due to my usual time and financial constraints I had to make do with Tesco Everyday Value lemon curd but no one seemed to notice, or were to polite!!

Autumn Days

With September arriving I always find my mind turns to autumnal food.  We start back with homemade soup, cakes and crumbles.

I made a lovely apple cake from a recipe from this blog.  The cake was delicious and I totally forgot to photograph it before it was eaten!

Now that the children go and stay at their Dad's every other weekend I get a chance to cook my favourites.  At the moment this seems to always involve roasted vegetables, balsamic vinegar and melted goats cheese!

On my quest for damsons to make damson gin we found ourselves in the market.  I was easily persuaded to buy two huge tubs of blackberries for less than £2 and they made a fab blackberry and apple crumble.

Banana Pancakes

Ok I know they aren't the best pictures but they really are the best pancakes!  The recipe for the banana pancakes is from A Girl Called Jack and so simple yet sooo yummy.  I get requests most days and am considering teaching Mr T to make them himself to take the pancake pressure off me!  Jack recommends lemon and sugar or warmed peanut butter but we found them amazing with stewed victoria plums from my parents garden, and the children always choose jam if there is nothing else.

The Best Banana Cake Ever!

So proud of both children, it wasn't so long ago that Mr T would go nowhere near the mixer but now will use it on his own.  And cake making is much more relaxing now they can work together instead of fighting with each other, I even managed to knit a few stitches while they mixed everything up.

The recipe is from Whats For Dinner by Fay Ripley.  It is what I would call an ordinary banana loaf recipe but with a bar of dark chocolate added (really it should be a bar and a half but I only had one in!).  I always use the Supermarket value dark chocolate for cooking now, its great and less than 40p a bar!

I know it is a bit...burned on top but for some reason I struggle to get the middle cooked before the top gets a little over brown.  No one has complained so far though!

Sunshine Bread

Since I found it I have been a keen follower of the blog A Girl Called Jack.  Her budget recipes are amazing, so far we have enjoyed the falafels, chilli, lemon and jam sponge puddings and today we made the Sunshine bread.

The recipe is here.  I don't think I weighed the flour out quite right as i had to add a lot more in to enable the children to knead it.  The resulting loaf is lovely, not too sweet but very moreish (in fact I made 2 so that both children could have a decent amount to knead so although this one is almost gone now we have another loaf waiting in the freezer)!

Easter Bunny Hats

I have been busy busy busy as usual.  So busy knitting and crocheting I started to get a sore wrist!  I reckon its my wrist telling me I "need" a new fancy dancy crochet hook.  I have seen some ergonomic ones, but I have also seen some gorgeous ones with handmade coloured handles and of course I know which one I really want ;)

Anyways I now have a range of different coloured bunny hats ready for Easter.

They are all available ready to go here on Etsy.  Miss E and I were telling stories the other evening and she said "runny babbit" for bunny rabbit.  I thought it was a great name for those fast little creatures and am currently resisting the urge to rename them on Etsy!

Both littlies have had viruses.  Well they have had the same virus but isn't it strange how the same thing affects different people in different ways.  Mr T of course got pukey as is his way with just about any illness, and Miss E got truly miserable each night because she will not blow her nose herself or let anyone else do it. Her colds tend to be short lived but then develop into a hacking cough but thankfully that has gone now.  

Because of the germiness we have stayed in the house which means a grumpy housebound Mum but also lots of craftiness and baking.  I would love to show you the valentines cake we made but I wasn't quick enough with the camera and its all gone.  When I was little my Mum would make a victoria sponge cake filled with cream and fresh raspberries on Valentines day so we do that too.  The fresh raspberries are such a treat on a grey February day.  The littlies enjoyed making jam tarts as well.  Mr T did all his on his own and Miss E was pretty good at all the rolling and cutting and jamming.

The mark on Miss Es nose isn't raspberry jam but a tennis wound from a big fall on the gravel outside the tennis court when "Real blood leaked out".  It has healed up now but has been a big talking point in our house the last few days as she likes to tell the full gory story to everyone she meets.

The jam tarts were lovely, I wish we had made double to be honest as they were fab with a pot of tea.  We used this recipe here if you fancy some, just did the pastry in the food processor to save the faffing of small children and lots of flour!

No soggy bottoms here

As usual I have been pretty much glued to The Great British Bake Off again this year, and Mr Man has watched it as well.  After a busy few weeks I had zero energy on Sunday so instead of me making lunch and attempting a pumpkin pie Mr Man stepped up to the plate and cooked up a storm in the kitchen.  It was his first attempt at pastry and it was nicer than mine, and no soggy bottom in sight.

I'd never had pumpkin pie before so don't know whether it tastes authentic or anything but it was strangely nice with a drizzle of cream.

After the pumpkin pie we had a bit of apple bobbing which both children loved, although I'm not sure catching apples by biting the stalk is really allowed!!

Carrot soup

The kids favourite soup is this one from a very old and tatty Cranks book.

As you can see it has been very well used, especially the soup section as its a sure fire way to get my two to eat lots of veg.  Their favourite at the moment is Carrot Pottage, I reckon I could make it every day and it would still be gobbled up by both of them.

Mr T loved carrot soup so much when he was a toddler my mum bought him this lovely book.

It is a simple story about rabbit planting and growing his carrots and waiting patiently until they are ready to make carrot soup.  Its nice and short (so great for bedtime stories on tired evenings!) and I love the illustrations.

When your fridge gives you wrinkly lemons..

make lemon cakes!!!!!

Here is our family recipe, kindly given to my Mum by a lady who lives in her village.

Lemon Loaf Cake  Makes 2 large loaves

10oz sr flour
8oz soft butter
8oz sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon curd

Preheat oven to 160 degrees (about 2.5 Gas)

Mix all ingredients with electric mixer

Put into 2 large loaf tins (greased and lined or whatever you need to do for your tins)

Cook for about an hour until done, my oven is slow so it may be done quicker in yours

Make topping by putting juice and rind from one lemon and some sugar into a bowl and microwave to warm and melt sugar (or do it in a pan, anything to melt the sugar)

When cakes are done leave in the tins and prick the tops then pour the drizzle over.  Leave to cool as long as you can/want in the tin to allow the topping to soak in

I usually leave one for immediate eating and the other I put in the freezer!

I didn't manage to take a photo straight away and this was all that was left when I finally got round to it!

Butternut Squash Soup

Well my photo prop met its match yesterday!  It had been hiding out in amongst my potatoes for long enough.  I love butternut squash and could eat it everyday but the children seem less keen but a few months ago I found a recipe that we all like.  It's the soup from My Daddy Cooks.  I love the website, and the video is funny if you get a moment to watch it.  I just use whatever onions I have in, and I found that my children will only eat it with finely grated ginger as the zingy lumps put Miss E right off.

 I didn't take a photo of the soup as it disappeared too quickly, but here is the before shot...

Baked Apples and Custard

Baked apples are a staple autumn/winter pudding in this house.  Both children love them, especially with lots of custard (and shop custard is even more of a treat apparently!).  Usually I manage to explode them so I tend to cook them with the lid on to save cleaning apple fluff from the inside of my oven but for some reason this time they didn't explode.  Mr Man even asked if that was why I was photographing them, because the children had never seen them cooked in one piece before!

I don't really use a recipe as such but I tend to grab enough bramley apples for everyone to have half an apple each (or a whole apple if cooking for adults or feeling generous!), take the core out and cut a slit all the way around the skin.  This apparently stops them bursting but it hasn't stopped mine in the past!

I then add a sprinkle of cinnamon down each hole, and sometimes a sprinkle of clove powder as well.

Next fill the holes with dried fruit.  Usually just sultanas in our house but dried cranberries and sultanas mixed are good, as are glace cherries and sultanas.  Nuts would be nice but Mr T isn't keen, and mincemeat left over from Mince Pies at Christmas is delicious, esp with a bit of brandy, although not for the little peeps.

I then drizzle over a small amount (less than a teaspoon) of honey.  If you don't have honey golden syrup or brown sugar would be good.  About a tablespoon of water in the bottom of the bowl and a small knob of butter on each apple finishes them off.

Then just bung them in the oven at Gas Mark 4 and cook for about 45 mins to an hour and serve with custard (or ice cream, cream or yoghurt)

Baking Day

Other than a few chores we had no plans for today so we made Ovaltine Loaves.  This is a recipe I remember from my childhood and is so simple to make.  I think it comes out quite sweet so tend to be a bit mean with the golden syrup.  It can be eaten on its own but is even nicer with a bit of butter and a cup of tea!

Ovaltine Loaves

(Makes 2 using a 1lb loaf tin)

12oz SR Flour
4 Level tblsp Ovaltine
2 oz Caster sugar
6 oz Dried fruit
4 Level tblsp golden syrup
1/2 pint milk

Preheat oven to 180C GM 4

Grease loaf tins well

Put all dry ingredients in a bowl

Add syrup and milk

Mix well

Pour into tins and bake for approx 45 mins to an hour

Turn out and cool


I don't have any 1lb loaf tins so I do mine in bigger ones so end up with a flat looking loaf but it tastes as good!

And here is the finished article, cunningly angled so it doesn't look as flat as it is...and to hide the end that has been eaten already (although the crumbs do give it away!!)

Beginning to look a bit like Autumn

Its raining again here.  I have heard that everywhere else in the UK are having a heatwave, well it seems to have missed us and instead the garden is under water again.  Some lovely friends brought us a playhouse for the garden and both children have been an almost permanent fixture in it since its arrival although Miss E is a bit worried because its now wet!!!

At a quick visit to the market I bought home these

Damsons!!!!!  They are sitting there looking at me and reminding me that autumn is definitely not far away.  Hopefully by the end of today they will become a Damson Crumble.  If I am feeling brave I may even allow Miss E and Mr T to make it.

Whilst my sister was here I managed to complete another hat, this time I used purple for the berry section.  I ordered the wool online and when it arrived it was much more Cadburys purple than I had expected.  I'm pleased with how its turned out although I'm not quite sure what to call it, blueberry, blackberry, blackcurrant??!!  I cast on 80 stitches and it has come out almost big enough for Miss E so probably a 1-2 year size (she insisted on squeezing her head into it as she is sure one of these hats should be for her even though most days she refuses to wear anything that is not at least partially pink!).

(Sorry the photo is soooo dark but so is the house today the weather is so awful)