Progress

After my little rant about the bad weather last week, the sun has decided to make amends and we have been basking in glorious sunshine all weekend.  This is what we have been waiting for and not wanting to waste even one minute of this sunny goodness we spent every possible minute just being outside. Happiness!

  

The setting sun and a very tired Little T did make us head back indoors again at the end of each day, but that didn't stop me from carrying on with this sunny theme. Dinner was a cool and refreshing mix of salads, French cheese, cold cut meats and pitta breads and ended with a bang with a (large) slice of my "Sunshine Cake".

A lemon drizzle cake base, covered in sweet, sharp and mouth-droolingly delicious lemon curd. A second round popped onto that, making the curd ooze out and over the sides. Top that with a generous amount of very cold, lightly sweetened whipped cream and quarters of bright red, juicy strawberries and you have yourself a treat to make the perfect end to the perfect day.

I did have to fit in a little bit of crochet to make this already amazing weekend even better and feeling rather adventurous I took on something I have never attempted before, Amigurumi. I have been admiring these adorable little crochet critters for a while, and now I finally have one of my own! My little bunny is in no way perfect, but I love her even more for it.

The sun is (unbelievably) still shining out there and as we have been promised that these hot and sunny days will last all week, I intend to enjoy every single moment of it, so...
Watch This Space :) 

Make your own sunshine

Summers in the UK are not known for being brilliant, but this year the weather is truly dismal. I can hardly remember what sunshine looks like and all my other shoes are getting jealous of my Wellies for getting taken out every day. These permanently dark and dreary days are really starting to get to me and I find myself sulking around the flat more and more. Something has to be done about this, and as I have no control over the weather I had to make another plan.

A decadent chocolate treat is sure to lift my spirits. Make that my extra special, intensely chocolatey, super gooey brownies and you won't be able to wipe the smile off my face. Just melting the chocolate and butter already made me feel better and by the time I was sinking my teeth into the end result, I had already forgotten about the weather.

As you can see, they went down so well that no picture was taken of the finished product, but you can see one here if you want. And before you even ask, no I didn't eat everything by myself!

My chocolate high didn't last as long as hoped though, so I turned to my box of colourful yarns for some replacement sunshine and hooked up this lovely little hat, complete with a few of Lucy's May Roses.

It probably won't be very good for going out with in the rain, but my blue mixing bowl is modelling it rather nicely until the sun comes out again.

Yesterday I got the biggest cheering up of them all, my sweetheart of a hubby bought me new kitchen shelves! This may seem a bit strange to you, but trust me these few planks of wood made my year. For many years now I have been slowly building a collection of gorgeous bowls, plates, jugs and cake plates. But due to living in a small London flat with limited cupboard space most of these delicate things were safely wrapped up and stored away. Once P had skilfully put them up for me, I spent a wonderful, happy evening taking everything out of their protective wrappings and displaying them for me to admire and use as I please! I am in kitchen geek heaven :)

There still hasn't been any improvement in the weather, but I am most certainly in a much better mood today. Little T is happily playing at my feet while I make these adorable little hearts to decorate my wonderful new shelves.

Here's to you all creating your own happiness :)

Obsessions

I mentioned in my previous post that I have fallen in love with crochet again, but to be honest with you, I have become slightly obsessed with it! If I have a spare moment I immediately go for my crochet hook, or read something on the internet about someone else's crochet project or visit one of my local yarn shops. I even found a local group of ladies that meet every Saturday in a coffee shop to have a chat and crochet, and I had made up my mind to join them this weekend.

 After cooking and eating a hearty breakfast I packed my latest project in my bag and very happily set off to go and meet these like-minded ladies. But, before I even got down the street, the Heavens opened up in all of its glory. I was soaked to the bone within seconds and had to run like mad to get home and under shelter. I wasn't going anywhere, any time soon.

Needless to say, I was feeling ever so slightly sorry for myself and was in need of some cheering up. Lucky then that P came up with the great idea to go to one of our favourite places, the RAF museum! I love this place, giant old hangers filled with all sorts of amazing planes to admire and lots excited kids (of all ages) running around, having fun. There was even a brass band playing under the enormous wings of a plane to add to the wonderful atmosphere. With Little T staring wide-eyed at it all and smiling form ear to ear, it wasn't very long before I had completely forgotten that my morning had started out less than perfect.

Hopefully everything will work out next time and I will make it to the crochet group, but until then I am happy to carry on working on my colourful little granny squares, to play with Little T and I will even make some time to bake something too!

Neglected and forgotten… time for a change

Once again life has run away with me and as a result this blog has become sadly neglected and somewhat forgotten, looking very sorry for itself with nothing new in months. Every so often I will resolve to write a little something, but before I know it another week has come and gone, we've had a hundred and one other things to do, the cake was eaten without a picture being taken and the blog was put on the back burner, again.

This is such a shame though as I love my little blog, putting my rambling thoughts out there for others to read and hopefully inspiring a few people to bake something delicious.

So, to get me to blog more often, to include it in my everyday life and to neglect it no more, I am making some changes. From now on I will not only be sharing my adventures in the kitchen with you, but also all the other things that Little T and I get up to, with lots of pictures to go with it.

To kick things off, here is a taster of what we got  up to over the past few months:
 

 

We visited one set of grandparents and had Easter in Poland,

we visited the other grandparents and got some sunshine in South Africa,

 

we had some cake to celebrate Little T's first birthday 

 

and we had all things British to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee!

 

I have also, thanks to lovely Lucy at Attic24, fallen in love with crocheting again and have just finished my gorgeous Granny Stripe blanket...

 

and will soon be jumping into this colourful yarn stash for the next big project.

Right now the sun is shining (for a change) and Little T and I are off to the park to make the most of those Vitamin D filled rays and tuck into our afternoon berry treat :)

 

 

Nothing Fancy

Sometimes it is the simplest things in life that give us the greatest pleasure. A smile from someone you love, spotting the first daffodil flowering in March, a leisurely stroll through a leafy park, the smell of freshly baked bread, your favourite song playing on the radio. It needs no bells and whistles and really doesn't need to cost a fortune to make your day perfect.

This is also true when it comes to food. Dishes containing a hundred and one ingredients and recipes with a seemingly endless list of steps are amazing in their own right, and definitely have their place in the culinary world. But sometimes all you want is something simple and homely to satiate your mid week craving for a little sweet treat. This is when you turn to your most dog-eared cookbook, let it fall open by itself to the right page and bake your favourite carrot cake.

Flour, sugar, eggs, oil, cinnamon, a couple of spoons of honey and of course lots of bright orange carrots, there is certainly nothing fancy about this cake. But cover it lovingly with a soft cloud of cream cheese frosting, dot a few wrinkly walnuts around the top and cut yourself a big slice... I guarantee you that there is nothing else that will beat it in taste right at that moment.

Even the Best Plans...

The past week or so has been absolutely amazing weather wise. With gloriously sunny days, we were all basking in the warmth of early Spring and shrugging out of our Winter jackets ready to say farewell to the cold, dark days. I have been dishing up lovely, light salads for lunch and dinner, happy to no longer feel the need to fill our tummies with heavy, stodgy food. I can therefore be forgiven for getting carried away by planning a lovely picnic in the park to celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary this past weekend.

I had visions of us finding a sunny spot in our favourite park, spreading out one of my mum's colourful quilts, sitting down, sipping glasses of chilled champagne and snacking away on loads of crisp salads, deeply filled sandwiches and all sorts of other delectable treats. I had even made us a gorgeous dessert of milk chocolate mousse, topped with Irish cream "cheese cake". Unfortunately, all of my plans were squashed when we awoke yesterday morning to a grey drizzle, freezing winds and even the odd snowflake drifting by. That's England for you...

We still managed to make the most of our day together, someone else made lunch for us (and washed the dishes too!) and we did get to enjoy our champagne and dessert. After all, when you still want to spend the day in each other's company when you have been married for seven years, it really doesn't matter where you go or what you do:)

Show some Love

It may be a terrible faux pas to wish people a Happy New Year when it's nearly February, but I'm doing it anyway. I hope everyone had a lovely, safe and delicious Festive break and that 2012 is treating you well so far.

I love the feeling you get at the beginning of a new year, thinking ahead of what the year will bring, looking forward to coming visits, holidays and special occasions and making optimistic or even unrealistic resolutions to try and keep. It's that feeling that anything is possible and that This year you will loose those extra few pounds, learn that foreign language or get that dream job. All too soon though you find yourself looking at the wrong end of January, no closer to doing anything you set out to do, still struggling to get that zipper all the way up... but you know me, as long as I'm baking and cooking I'm happy no matter what. Lucky then that it was my husband's birthday this weekend and that I had a great excuse to bake (and eat) some cake.

As you may remember, I usually bake P's favourite cheesecake for the celebrations, and I had already bought the cream cheese to get going when I luckily caught myself just in time to realise that this year I will make at least one change. I'll bake something else! Now, I know it's not exactly what you would call a life-altering change, but surely it's better than nothing. Not wanting to let the cream cheese go to waste, I baked a buttermilk cake to cover in glossy, glorious cream cheese frosting.

Now, don't laugh, but I was feeling slightly silly and wanted to show the hubby some love and got totally carried away with my heart shaped cookie cutters and sprinkles. The end result was these little individual heart-cakes that, although they looked a bit naff tasted great and made P feel a little bit special for a while :)

So, go on, why don't you show someone some love and give this yummy cake a go!

Buttermilk Cake:

• 280g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 130g golden castor sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 240 cultured buttermilk
• 60ml water
• 90ml vegetable oil

Lightly butter a 20 inch square cake pan and preheat the oven to 200°C
Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and sugar and make a well in the middle. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, buttermilk, water and finally the oil, stirring well to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients and stir quickly with a big metal spoon. Make sure you only mix until all the flour is worked in as you do not want to over-mix the batter. Immediately pour this into your cake pan and bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Leave in the pan for a few minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Once the cake is completely cold, you can either keep the cake whole and cover it in the frosting as is or you can go crazy and cut out shapes to make little cakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 100g cream cheese, taken out of the fridge at least an hour before using
• 250g icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon butter, very soft

Beat all of the ingredients together in either a standing mixer or using hand-held beaters for about 5 - 10 minutes, until it's glossy and smooth