Baking bonanza

Having spent a lovely weekend visiting step-daughter #1 and her family I needed a day to catch up on domestics.

E and I had VIP tickets for Cake International at the NEC and spent a lovely day wandering around, making the odd purchase, visiting the craft and Christmas shows in the next door arena, and making the most of the refreshments and sit down opportunities our VIP tickets allowed.

There were a lot fewer stands this year, understandable in the circumstances. There were a few big names noticeably absent too. Squires Kitchen and Purple Cupcakes to name a couple.

In previous years we’ve also taken part in the Renshaw modelling sessions and have have drunken snowmen, rabbits and reindeer toppers as evidence. We didn’t do that this time.

There were a lot fewer punters there too, which was no bad thing. Our Covid jab status was checked on the way in. Maybe that kept a number of people away if they hadn’t had their second jab yet.

So having taken Monday off from work to catch up with domestic stuff, I needed to get breakfasts and lunches ready for the rest of the week ahead. I’d seen recipes for roasted parsnip, garlic & haricot bean soup, which I thought would go well with a pumpkin, cheese and rosemary scone.

For the love of man there was no pumpkin puree to be found in any of the major supermarkets. I went to all of them to check. So I substituted it with butternut squash that we had in the freezer instead.

C was making bread rolls so we had competing needs for the oven but roasting the butternut coincided with baking his rolls so all worked out OK.

Whilst the soup ingredients were in the soup maker, I made my biscoff pancakes for breakfasts. They turned out probably the best looking I’ve ever made them. Nice and golden colour. I guess I wasn’t rushing unlike usual.

Then all the ingredients for the scones got mixed and kneaded. I forgot to take my rings off so they all got a bit gunned up with mixture. They smelled lovely whilst they were baking so I’m looking forward to tasting them.

The soup looks a bit insipid (I suppose it would do really) but I’m sure it’ll taste fine.

After lunch I got on with one of my least favourite domestic chores, the ironing. Still, got it done and out of the way.

Ready for a three day working week.

An impromptu Bank Holiday outing

We had no real plans for the Bank Holiday. An extra day to catch up with house chores or completing some paperwork, reading and meal prep for the week ahead. C had noticed an advert for our local RHS Garden Craft Fair. It’s only about 10 miles away, so we jumped in the car and headed off.

The weather wasn’t that great, overcast and occasionally spotting with drizzle but it didn’t really rain with menace, and it wasn’t too cold. The fair was on it’s last day and I’m not sure whether it had quite the volume they’d hoped for but there were still plenty of people about. Maybe some didn’t realise that the fair was on and just came out for the day anyway.

We meandered around the stalls. There were a few outdoorsy booths selling garden furniture and ornaments; one guy was whittling furniture out of ash. There were a few food stalls but nothing that tickled our taste buds particularly. There were three main, large marquees with small, individual “booths” within. Most of them were jewellery, glass or wood crafted objects. There were some clothes made of wool and yak’s wool. There were a couple of stalls selling soaps and hand creams in all sorts of strange combinations of scents.

We went round everything once before deciding to go to one of the main Garden cafes for a soup lunch and had a bit of a wander around the top garden areas.

Then we went round everything again. This time with intent to purchase. C bought something for his granddaughter for Christmas. I bought a couple of real leather belts; one brown, one black. I also bought myself a gold necklace and a pair or pearl earrings. I found a couple of cute tea light stands in the shape of Santa and a Christmas Tree that would look cute on the mantle at Christmas.

I did look at a gold bangle on another stand which was simple but rather nice. Then I turned the price tag over. £850. The woman thought that we were genuinely interested and let me try in on. It was the only one there in gold and I feigned that it was too small. She decided that she would write a full quote for me to have one custom made, took measurements and wrote it all down and may be expecting us to call her to confirm a purchase. Luckily, we didn’t give her any of our contact details so she can’t chase us. It was a nice bangle and all, but fairly simple in design. I wouldn’t have though it worth that much.

As usually at these things there are lots of lovely things, lots of tactile objects and if you have the right home and the right budget you could spend a small fortune. My few purchases cost enough as it was and I didn’t see anyone taking larger objects, unless they could order them for delivery later on. I wonder how much these exhibitors have to pay for their space for the weekend and whether the actually get enough custom to cover their outlay. I guess they must otherwise they wouldn’t do it.

It was a pleasant enough way to spend a few hours, got my daily step count in and still left time to get the chores done when we got back home.

How did you spend your Bank Holiday?

When is a cake not a cake?

It’s been far too hot recently to want to spend much time in the kitchen, and thankfully I don’t do the cooking in our household anymore. But I would hate to be a professional baker or chef when its hot outside.

I love baking cakes when I get the time and of course, I love eating them too. But during the summer months my favourite kind of cake often does not require any baking at all. I do love a cheesecake. I could eat cheesecake every day. Its another type of cake I don’t get to make very often.

C and I sort of follow a Slimming World diet in as much as we use either their recipes, or Pinch of Nom or similar. I try to count calories, but I like food too much and often see that I have exceeded my recommended daily amount. Small wonder I’m not actually loosing much weight, just the odd pound here and there.

This past week we have been using the recipes from the July Slimming World magazine and I was happy to see that one of the recipes was for a vanilla and chocolate cheesecake. We don’t often have homemade desserts, generally don’t have the time to make them but not one to miss out on the opportunity of cheesecake, I decided that I would make our dessert for Sunday lunch.

I made the cheesecake on Saturday afternoon, so it had plenty of time to set. It was a chilled one rather than a baked one, so no slaving over a hot oven. There’s always that moment of apprehension when you loosen the springform pan sides and hold your breath hoping that it won’t slip and slide all over the place. Fortunately, it had set very well. And I’d remembered to put a sheet of baking paper under the biscuit crumb to avoid it getting stuck to the bottom of the tin, meaning I could slide it easily on to a plate. Just to make sure though, I didn’t take it out of the tin until Sunday morning.

Perfect.

As there’s only the two of us at home, the next question is how many servings we should cut it in to. The recipe says eight, even if we were generous, we’d only make it six. But given that there’s only the two of us, we have a whopping quarter of it each. Somewhat negates the Slimming World part, right? What’s the point of dragging it out over several days, it won’t keep that long, will it? That’s our excuse and we’re sticking to it.

This particular cheesecake tasted very nice but the consistency was a bit strange. It was more of a panna cotta style wobbly rather than a light, fluffy filling. Maybe that was the combination of cream cheese, yoghurt and quark, with the gelatine.

Anyway, it satisfied by cheesecake craving for now.

When life gives you lemons

My next Bakedin bake is lemon viennese whirls. I didn’t get my box until late as you may have read previously there was an issue with my subscription. Anyway, the box is here and my Bank Holiday afternoon will be time to bake.

My first issue was buying a lemon. The supermarket only sold them in bags of about 8, I only need one. And the ones in the bag were tiny. Fortunately we have a marketplace in the High Street and there’s an epic fruit and veg stall. I was able to buy one giant lemon for 40p.

The good thing about getting the box later is that everyone else has made them and posted their pictures on the Facebook page. They’ve also told you about any problems they had and any recommendations. A few people had mentioned that their lemon curd didn’t thicken and other suggested making it the day before and putting it in the fridge. I had some time on Sunday afternoon so decided to take that advice and make the curd early.

I’ve never made lemon curd before and I do like it. It was so simple. Caster sugar, zest and juice of a lemon, butter and a whisked egg. Heat it all gently until it thickens then strain out any bits. Only took a few minutes. So simple. Naturally I sampled it before putting it in the fridge and my word it was delicious. I may never buy it in a jar ever again.

I shall use it in the biscuit bake as instructed and if there’s any left I may just slather it on a slice of bread.

When life gives you lemons…. make lemon curd!