Cook - cake

A quick post today - I've spent this afternoon (between naps to re-energise after a late night and early run this morning) making a cake for my friend whose birthday it is today. I'm quite pleased with the result.

A simple all-in-one sponge flavoured with lemon zest and juice, layered with lemon curd, blueberries, whipped cream and strawberries and topped with fruit, cream and chocolate curls.  Hopefully it will go down well tonight (literally).

Cook - batch baking

Hopefully we'll be doing lots of walking in the next few days, so we've been busy making fuel to keep us going.  With a bit of help my youngest made the cupcakes (caramel flavoured - and they'll have a chocolate topping tomorrow but bedtime arrived before we could finish them), and my middle child made lemon drizzle cake unaided. I made flapjacks as usual.  It looks like a lot but I don't think it's going to take long for these to go.

Cook - Friday treats

I love Fridays. I didn't used to - I used to have a Friday evening committment that filled the preceeding day with anxiety as I worried whether everything had been organised properly, had I forgotten anything, was all the paerwork correct? And then, when I got back home afterwards, I was anxious again about all the things that needed following up before the next Friday.

But I gave it up just over a year ago and I still get a delicious feeling of freedom on the way home from work every Friday afternoon, as the weekend truly starts for me. Often we have things to do after school or places to be, but today we came straight home and I started some easy baking with Alt-J playing gently in the background as the boys depressurised from busy school days. Half an hour later and a plate of flapjacks was ready as a pre-tea snack.

My flapjacks are loosely based on Delia Smith's Whole Oat Crunchies (although this is slightly different from the recipe in my battered cookery book) but I usually wing it by throwing 4oz butter (this is the only recipe I measure in ounces), 4oz sugar (any sort - usually a mixture - these contain dark muscovado hence the toffe-colour) and a splodge of golden syrup in a pan, letting it heat up till bubbling and then adding enough rolled and jumbo oats to make it a stiffish mixture.  Plonk in a lined tin, bake for 15-20 mins around 175 degrees and you're done.  Actually, on reading Delia's recipe again, I think mine have evolved into something completely different.

I've even managed to take a photo in (grey-ish) daylight today!

Cook - Lemon drizzle cake

It's not really lemon drizzle cake, it's 'Lemon-syrup loaf cake' from How to be a domestic goddess , but we always forget to call it that.

I take a more slapdash approach than Nigella and bung everything in the bowl together, mix fiercely and bake - seems to work out ok most of the time. I made this because a lovely friend came round for a cup of tea and a chat and it always feels welcoming to offer freshly baked cake.

Too much glare and the odd shadow in this photo.  I think I need to work on styling my photos - not much in my life is 'styled' but it might help a bit here.