Gingerbread House

I have stopped making a fruit Christmas cake at Christmas time as only two of us like it so we end up throwing away about half a cake in February. However, I still want to have a special cake for Christmas. A few years ago I bought a Christmas Tree cake tin (which you can see here) which worked very well, but I fancied something new, so when I saw this Gingerbread House shaped tin I had to have it! I bought mine on Amazon as it was £10 cheaper than in the shops.

Again, I was a bit apprehensive about whether it would turn out properly with the little tree shapes & gables so I had a trial run.


I made the recipe that came with the tin which is a spicy, gingery cake which is nice & moist. I think I will bake one for the Vintage & Handmade Christmas Fair Tea Room this year.

What do you think? And what sort of cake do you like at Christmas?

What's For Pudding?

"What's for pudding?" is a question which is asked quite often in this house....they all like a nice pudding!

Last night I was going to my monthly book club meeting where we all bring something nice to eat so we have dinner as well as a chat. I have to admit that most of the chat is not related to books as we all catch up with the latest news.
There are 7 of us & we all met when our children were at primary school, so saw one another every day at the school gates. We decided to get together & form a book club & have been meeting monthly for 10 years now! We don't see one another as often these days as our children are either in secondary school or university & no longer need to be picked up at school, so it is a great way to keep in touch on a regular basis.

Anyhow, I am known as the provider of puddings, so yesterday I made a fruit cobbler - the recipe was given to me by my friend, Trish, and is really easy (and very tasty). Ideal for the weekend.

It uses just a few ingredients - you can use any fruit, but I used this pack of frozen berries which worked out very well. Serve it with custard, cream or ice cream, whichever you prefer.

• ½ cup butter
• 2 cups fruit
  
• 1 cup self rising flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup milk
• 1 egg, well beaten

Melt butter in dish.

Mix all remaining ingredients and pour over melted butter.

Place fruit on top of batter.

Do not stir

Bake @180 C for 45 minutes. Let set 10 minutes then serve.

Blueberry & Lime Cake Recipe

By popular demand here is the recipe for the cake in my previous post - if you click on it it should enlarge.

Blueberry & Lime Drizzle Cake

Today's Harvest & Freshly Baked Sourdough

All the above were picked this morning & the sourdough bread I baked yesterday.



PS.....for those who were wondering....the pattern on the bread is from a bread
proving basket!
You put the dough in it to rise & then tip out to bake it & the basket makes the pattern.

Our Daily Bread

I had a lovely day on Sunday! An entire day dedicated to learning how to make a good loaf of bread.
I have made bread before & the results have been fine - especially when baked in the Aga, but I've always wanted to learn more & to try something more adventurous than a plain loaf.
So, early on Sunday morning I headed off to Nailsworth to do a full day's bread making course at the well known Hobb's House Bakery.

There were just seven of us plus Claire from Hobbs House HQ & we had the entire place to ourselves. My fellow bread making enthusiasts were from far & wide - I was the only local one!

We were met by our tutor for the day - the very enthusiastic baker Tom & were then whisked upstairs to the cafe area to meet everyone & to enjoy coffee & a delicious breakfast made by their talented chef, Anthony.

It would take ages to tell you everything we were taught but the highlight was of course when we were able to see the finished results - we made sour dough, soda bread, white bread, bread rolls, focaccia, pita bread & cholla. They all turned out beautifully & made us feel like quite the artisan bakers!
In between we had elevenses & a delicious lunch once again made by Anthony, coffee, teas & juices.




It was a thoroughly enjoyable day & I would recommend it to anyone. We eventually bade fond farewells at about 6pm & toddled off laden with bread, recipes & a tub of "Monster" - Hobb's 55 year old sour dough which we have to keep alive & kicking for our own baking.



You may recognise Tom from "Mary, Queen of Shops", he is also co-presenting "The High Street" which is currently being filmed in Shepton Mallet.

Here we are at the end of a busy day in front of the fabulous wood burning oven where all the bread was baked.

Macaroons

After buying the latest issue of 'Delicious' magazine I was dying to try out their macaroon recipe, so I made my first attempt at baking them today....the Aga does make making meringues a doddle.
They were surprisingly easy to make, although I think I used every bowl & spoon in my kitchen & I only used two colours - I couldn't find a raspberry or strawberry extract at the supermarket though - they only had lemon, orange & vanilla....any idea who sells other flavours?

As they were so pretty I had to take them into the sunny garden for a photo shoot.
It was a good excuse to get out one of my glass cake stands & other vintage goodies.

If you fancy having a go yourself you can find the recipe here.

Come into my parlour....

...for some tea & cake! I haven't done much on the domestic front for the past 6 weeks or so due to brokenfingeritis, but now that the splint is off I can do more. I haven't baked a cake for ages so I thought I'd whip up a coffee cake for afternoon tea.
The Boy loves his cup of tea when he gets home from school & of course you have to eat something with it after all those hours of using your brain & learning things!
I like to see a cake in my glass cake stand with dome - it just looks so very civilised don't you think?


So, perhaps you'd like to join me for a slice while I tell you a bit of my latest news?

As you know, I have an online shop which Mr Cottage created - he did a great job but the shopping cart software that we had wasn't brilliant so he decided to do it all again & has been working on it for the past couple of weeks - he calls it his "second job"!
It all looks very nice now - a bit different from before with a few new & improved features such as multiple photos, a search box & a mailing list.

One of the things I have been working on are my new range of Coronation Candles - these are natural soya wax candles made in vintage Coronation & Jubilee cups & mugs - some are genuine antiques dating back to 1902. You can find them here.


As an introduction to my new shop I am having a giveaway - everyone who has joined or joins my mailing list (on the home page) this month will be entered into a draw for the Coronation Candle of their choice.


I thought I'd just offer you a peek of some of the new goodies on offer......

Vintage Easter tin

Gorgeous pyjama case Boudoir Doll

Vintage Easter cards

Sweet little beaded velvet evening bag

Harlequin egg cups

Hope you've enjoyed your cake & will pop into the shop for a browse!

Mmmmm....mince pies...

I've just made my first batch of mince pies - I spotted cream laced with Bailey's at the supermarket & it was a wonderful addition - the two in the photo below are now history!

Cake Trial

In our house only The Boy & I eat fruitcake, so every year I make a lovely Christmas cake which ends up half eaten & thrown away in February. This year I decided to do something different. Last year's Nigella's Christmas recipe book inspired me to find the tin to make this Christmas Tree shaped cake. I was a bit concerned about whether it would actually turn out in one piece so decided to give it a trial run and if it worked I would make one for the Vintage & Handmade Fair Tearoom - have I mentioned that it is THIS Saturday??? ;-)

Anyhow, Mr Cottage thought it would be fun to photograph it step by step & see what happened. So, here we have the batter - this mixture is very easy to make.




Here I am pouring the mixture very carefully into the tin to try & get it settled into the pointy bits.


Once all the mixture was in I gave it a few good taps on the kitchen floor (on the rug while keeping the dogs out of the way) to eradicate any air bubbles.

50 minutes later it is cooked....you have to then leave it to stand for 10 minutes in the tin.

The moment of truth......

Tada!

A quick sprinkling of snow......

I was so pleased at how well it turned out so I'll be making another one for Saturday - fancy a slice?

National Baking Week

It's National Baking Week this week, so why not tie on your vintage apron, get out your favourite recipe book & whip up a tasty treat?
Or have a look here for inspiration.

There's nothing as nice as a piece of homemade cake, a cup of tea & a little sit down!

Quick & Easy Muffins

I haven't posted a recipe for ages so I thought I'd share a quick & very easy muffin recipe with you as I made some yesterday. This is a basic muffin recipe to which you can add dried fruit, choc chips or fresh fruit such as blueberries. It is from a recipe book which I bought many years ago writted & published in South Africa - it is filled with many nice muffin recipes.




You will need:

375ml flour
10ml baking powder
125ml sugar
125ml milk
1 egg, beaten
60ml melted butter

Preheat oven to 180C
Stir dry ingredients together.
Add the milk to the melted butter & egg.
Add egg mixture to dry ingredients & stir until just combined.
Leave plain, or add fruit etc (I added dried cherries, berries & sultanas to mine).
Spoon into greased muffin tins & bake for about 20 minutes.

It's quicker that going to the shops to buy some but they go quickly too - only 2 left today!



We are starting to harvest quite a lot of vegetables from the garden now - here are yesterday's courgettes & peas.....

Sweet Treats

Today Miss Cottage & I have been immersed in flour & sugar, butter & eggs, chocolate & icing sugar as we prepare baked goods for the Vintage Tearoom at the Vintage & Handmade Fair tomorrow.
We made the cup cakes above (iced by Miss C)

Tiffin

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Scones, which will be served with jam & cream

All our stall holders are probably in the same state today so we can offer you oodles of delectable treats to eat along with a cup of tea or coffee.
My lovely daughter & her beau are giving up their Saturdaay to take charge of the kitchen & will be at your service tomorrow serving teas & cakes.

I know many of you won't be able to come & will miss all the fun, but I do have a little treat for you too - Mr Cottage has agreed to be our "official" photographer, so will be taking photos during the day. He has promised to pop home now & again & post some photos on the V&H blog so you can perhaps imagine you are there & see all the lovely stalls & goodies on offer. So, if you'd like to join us in spirit do check on the blog during the day.

I'm sure everyone will blog about it afterwards too.

So, we still have the car to pack & that's about it - pizza for supper tonight I think!
I'm so looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow!