Lemon Drizzle Cake

Good morning - it's Friday and the last day of the school holidays for me. Lucky Pickle-Lily doesn't go back till Thursday next week! So I thought I'd cheer myself up with some lemon drizzle cake. I  said I'd share the recipe in my next post and with son due back from cadet camp later today, the cake tin needs refilling.

lemon drizzle cake

So here goes ...
You need
2 lemons - zest for the cake, juice for the topping
225g soft margarine
225g caster sugar
275g self raising flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder - level ones please
4 eggs
4 tablespoons of milk

To make
Mix all the cake ingredients together - you can use a hand mixer or Kenwood to make it easier.
I should say this is my basic tray bake cake mixture that I add flavours too, and you can do the same if you like.
For my tray bakes I use a square tin ( 9" or 23cm) that I got from Lakeland and line it with one of those paper cases that you can get from supermarkets or again Lakeland.
Bake at 160 fan for about 30+ minutes until it is golden and a skewer comes out clean.
Now lift the cake out of the tin, still in it's paper case and leave to cool on a rack.
While it is cooling mix the juice of the lemons with175g of granulated sugar. This will seem an awful lot but don't worry!
When the cake is warm, rather than hot, put it back in the tin still in it's paper case. Stab it with a skewer, about every 2cm, there is no need to be precise!
Spoon the lemon juice mixture over the cake surface and leave to cool in the tin.
My theory is that by leaving it like this, all the icing mixture really soaks into the cake and makes it very lemony and moist. Be warned it is very sticky!
Cut into squares when you need to eat it!
Enjoy!

The Great British Bake-Off is back!

In our house The Great British Bake-Off is must watch viewing, and on Tuesday evening the new series starts, filmed here in sometimes sunny and sometimes torrential Somerset.
Last Wednesday Pickle-Lily went to Millie Moon's in Frome to do a teenage skirt workshop, you can read all about it on her blog - In a Pickle. I had a lovely browse and came back with a bag of fabric, including some Riley Blake Bake Sale. So in honour of TGBBO I made some baking bunting for my kitchen, but I'm so pleased with it has pride of the place in the hall!

Bake sale bunting

As you can see, it matches the cute little one cup tea set I got from a charity shop a while back, and Pickle the penguin photo bombed my picture!
I've also been busy baking - lemon drizzle cake is cooling in the kitchen as I type and I also made a batch of coffee cup cakes as a holiday treat. I love coffee cake, but no-one else does .. or do they? I was very sneaky and gave one to Mr P-L and No1 son without telling them what it was, and guess what they both liked them!
So here is the recipe just for you...

To make 12 generous cup cakes, you need
175g plain flour
175g soft margarine
175g caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon coffee extract

To make
Mix all the ingredients together until light and fluffy.
Divide between 12 muffin cases and bake at 170 degrees (fan) for 15 minutes.
Allow to cool.
You can use this basic recipe for any flavour you like, just change the flavouring.

The icing I used for mine was coffee fudge - again very easy.
55g soft margarine
115g soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons of milk
half a teaspoon of coffee extract

Put all of these into a large saucepan and melt over a gentle heat, stirring. Then bring to the boil and boil for two minutes - keep stirring. Remove from the heat and stir in 400g of icing sugar. I know it seems a lot! Stir until smooth and thick. Then pipe over your cakes.
Yummy!
I'm going to join in with Handmade Monday this week - why don't you?

The power of blog and chocolate cake

As you may have guessed by now I really enjoy blogging and reading other people's blogs ! Sometimes it gets squeezed out in the hurle burly of life , especially as I know a quick five minute catch-up can turn into a couple of hours.
This week I am enjoying blogging as Pickle-Lily is away at Guide Camp and they have set up a blog for families to follow. I checked it to see if they had got there safely - they had, of course , and I'm enjoying the pictures and reading the girls posts. I am not a worrying mum, P has been to camp on many occasions and I know she will be safe, happy and well cared for, but it's good to see her enjoying herself, and have an idea of what she may be talking about on her return!
I also used a blog to create Mr P-L's birthday cake last week.

Happy Birthday!


The idea came from the Crafty Ribbons blog - using the basic chocolate madeira cake recipe below.

You need - for the chocolate cake
250g caster sugar
250g soft margarine
4 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk
260g self-raising flour
40g cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

To make
1. Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder in alternate batches with the eggs and milk.
This means I stir in about quarter of the dry ingredients then an egg, then another quarter, then another egg and so on until it's all mixed together.
3. Put in a lined 8" cake tin and bake at 140C (Fan) for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
4. Cool.

To decorate
Pickle-Lily then mixed up a batch of chocolate butter cream, I can't give you the ingredients as she does this by taste, to spread on the top and side. We thought the Crafty Ribbons idea of kit-kats were better for an adult, so it took 18 of the two fingered kit-kats to go round the cake and four tubes of smarties on top. All held together with a ribbon we found.

I'm hoping I'm not too late to join in Handmade Monday - then it is just the case of throwing teenage son off the computer to visit the other blogs!

Hot X Pudding and the continued quest to fill a teenage son!



Hot X Pudding

 A very simple recipe using stale hot cross buns was created last week., in my ongoing quest to fill the tummy of my teenage son! Why hadn't he already eaten them? To be honest, I think they were put away in the bread bin and he simply hadn't looked there when they were fresh!

You need
hot cross buns - I think the pudding in the photo used four
butter or sunflower spread to spread them with
350ml milk
50g caster sugar
3 eggs
grated nutmeg

To make

• Pre-heat your oven to 160C fan or 180C not fan.
• Grease a large (2 pint / 1 litre) baking dish.
• Butter the split buns and I then cut them into quarters.
• Arrange all over the dish.
• In a large jug mix the milk, caster sugar and then whisk the eggs in,
• Pour over you mix, and just lightly push the buns into the mix.
• Sprinkle with nutmeg and bake for about 35 minutes.
• Enjoy!

Winter Warmer

... and bottomless pit filler!
In my never ending quest to fill the bottomless pit that is my teenage son, this week I created -

Zap Pudding

This is a simple sponge pudding, like a steamed pudding that can be made in minutes.

You need ...

110g of butter or margarine

110g caster sugar

110g self raising flour

2 eggs



Before



Mix these altogether - the all in one creamed method.

Grease four large cups or mini plastic pudding bowls (I got mine from Lakeland), put a large spoonful of jam or syrup or marmalade in the bottom of each one and then share the sponge mixture between them.

Cover with microwave film, and then

ZAP in the microwave.

Mine take 1 minutes 20 seconds in a 800W / E microwave.

Leave for at least a minute before eating as the jam is HOT!

You can substitute two tablespoons of flour for cocoa powder for chocolate pudding, and I'm going to added currants to the next batch.

After



Jam sponge with custard

I'm sharing this on Handmade Monday this week, I wonder if there will be any more yummy recipes on there? It is also the 100th Handmade Monday this week, so pop over to join in the fun! A big thank-you to Wendy for hosting every week.
Inspired by the snowy weather I've made some felt mug hugs ready for Valentines or Mothering Sunday, and I'm hoping to share them with you as a tutorial soon. I've also been watching the birds from the kitchen window and the bird feeder has been mobbed at times. I've discovered I am no wildlife photographer, as every time I've tried to take a photo, they've flown away! We have had some new visitors to the garden, a group of redwings, very pretty to watch.


redwing

As you can see most of the snow has now melted, leaving our lawn looking like a swamp, but more snow is forecast tomorrow...

Blueberries

Blueberry muffins

Last year I bought a rather sad looking blueberry bush from the reduced section in Homebase - I felt really sorry for it! I popped it into a pot and watered it occasionally and this is what happened ...

My reduced price plant!

I got blueberries! I have to admit my garden is really unloved this year, after all the rain lots of green grew into triffid proportions and none of my annual flower seeds came up. At the moment all I have is lavender and buddlia in my garden in flower, so I was amazed by these. Pickle-Lily picked them, I gave them a wash and made them into blueberry muffins this morning.
The recipe originally came from the lovely Helen at Made from Scratch who emailed it to me many moons ago. I tend to write recipes down on the back of old greeting cards that I particularly like, and then as with everything I do, amend it and usually simplify it, so it may not quite be your original recipe Helen. So here goes ....

You need

75g butter / sunflower margarine - melt in a pan on a low heat.

200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
2 teaspoons baking powder
75g of caster sugar - Mix these all together in a large bowl.

200ml milk
1 egg - mix these both together in a jug

the crop!!!!


 And blueberries - here I can not be too precise as I use a punnet from the shops or the bowl P had picked!

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well - it can be rather lumpy, but don't worry!
Add the blueberries and then share between 12 muffin cases.

Bake at 180C fan assisted for about 15 - 18 minutes.

Yum!!!
Son has eaten three already! On a news note he is now back in plaster as he went to cadet camp, lasted three days before he fractured his ankle (same one, same place) again, and Mr P-L had to drive all the way up to Stafford to collect him and bring him home early.
I am linking up with Handmade Monday this week, so go and visit all the other lovely blogs, I will! I wonder if there will be a baking theme as The Great British Bake Off is back on this week?

Chocolate Chip Crumble Muffins

Chocolate Chip Crumble Muffins

 Just a quick post as I had to share these with you....
They are sooo good, especially eaten warm from the oven. I found the recipe on PuppyFly Boutique's blog and made a dozen big muffins and a dozen mini muffins from the recipe. The mini muffins are perfect for putting in a Pickle-Lily lunch box, the big muffins ... well there are only two left!