Degustabox the June Picnic Box

I am very late to the party with Degustabox, I have seen these monthly food goody box subscriptions on other blogs for such a long time but never tried one. But now I have tried one and what a great parcel to receive - the June Picnic Box. Who doesn't love a picnic?

First to get into the box was Billy my terrier who could quickly smell the goodies and what a fine assortment there was inside......

The best summer cakes

A pot of tea and a slice of cake in the garden, sat on wrought iron chairs at a little table listening to the hum of the insects and the quiet murmur of people in their own little green oasis.

But what sort of cake to bake? The allotment plot is starting to offer bushes laden with currants and raspberries, strawberries in raised beds and big fat gooseberries. Summer cakes should surely feature fruits and maybe fresh cream too. Here are my 5 cakes for the ultimate summer bake off.

1. Victoria sponge
The classic cake for tea parties and summer fayres. I make this cake by simply weighing 3 or 4 eggs and then using the exact same weight of self-raising flour, butter and caster sugar with a dash of vanilla essence. Fill with whipped cream and add some fresh home-grown strawberries or raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar. Named after Queen Victoria, a true British cake that's part of our history.

Picture credit Victoria Sponge Shutterstock

Planning a vintage summer tea party

With the weather being so unpredictable, showers then sunshine, we have needed some activities for indoors. Since my son is cake mad, really cake crazy, we thought we would bake some cupcakes using my latest pretty paper cupcake cases. And how lovely and quirky they are! 72 pastel cupcake cases with a charming vintage childhood illustration on the bottom and a sweet pattern around the sides. They would be perfect for an afternoon tea party.

Home educating is better with cake

It is no surprise that I have a son who loves cake.

From the first ever piece......

 ...to the parties from age 1-5.
And for all those occasions in between.
Or just because it makes us happy.

Just because it is a rainy day and we can't go out to play
Or the day has started badly.
I quickly grab some cake and Toby and I have a little party.
During the holidays, well it's all the same to us as we home educate so our holidays are whenever we choose but we do love a slice (or two) of cake whilst we learn and play at home.

In fact, cake motivates my son when he's struggling. It cheers him up and puts a smile on his face. I love the process, it is pure magic - eggs from my father's chickens, flour, sugar, butter and a dash of vanilla. Warm cake shortly after with crunchy edges and a soft, crumb texture. I have the art perfected, rustic of course but delicious.

Cake baking is also part of our home education and the boy will be a great baker one day :)

We bake cupcakes and then take them on our day trips for we venture out a lot, so a tin full of treats is always there ready. Over Easter we had chocolate egg cakes and ate them in castles and parks. Through tantrums and tears and our tired cross moments, cake made it all better.

This post is an entry for #betterwithcake Linky Challenge , sponsored by Mr Kipling. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/mrkiplingcakes

Snapshots of my Spring so far

 It has been a busy few weeks with birthdays - mine and my mum's either side of Mother's Day, so plenty of cake and treats. I've had some lovely bunches of flowers brightening the house and my favourite had to be the purple hues of the Cape Flora bouquet from M&S with the exquisite Protea in it.  They are still going strong now and make a nice change from my usual roses. I do still love roses though and received another bouquet with yellow roses, chrysanthemums and what I think is Bishop's flower (Ammi majus), a beautiful cow parsley-like white umbellifer. I need to grow this! Such a great filler in a posy.Some of my birthday treats were the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette, a kitsch unicorn that you fill with cake sprinkles, tea-towels, a frame for my book map, an owl mug cosy and a cute stripy plant pot. Mustn't forget my Graham Turner Battle of Bosworth cards too. Being a Richard III enthusiast shall we say, well I joined my local group (more on that here) I therefore always receive something related to my favourite king.Thrilled to have my book map finally up on the wall. Highly recommend this poster for any book enthusiasts. I can spend ages looking at it, searching for my favourites. Run past Jurassic Park, peer in Tom's Midnight Garden, cross the estuary to Treasure Island and around the corner to the Enchanted Wood.......Of course there have been a few rainy days where we have cuddled up, dogs included and played or watched Cbeebies. Plenty of cups of tea and some plans put together for the rest of the year. Despite the cake, I have started to eat healthier and clean up my diet. I've reached the stage where I am annoyed with myself for being so unhealthy so changes are happening......Happy Monday to you all.This will be a busy week for me. Lots of blog posts to write, allotments to tend to, Easter to sort for Little Bird - a sensory tub with Easter Grass and some Easter games to help him understand more about this time of year xx

Creme Egg Cake

Creme eggs. Love them or hate them?
I love them and think they are really pretty so wanted to use them in a cake. I actually made this a few weeks back and then also saw that Mammasaurus had made a delightful Creme Egg Chocolate Quiche (you have to see it - yummy!) So.....I thought I'd share it on here. It didn't turn out as pretty as I wanted it but then my baking never does.

Firstly.... I made a chocolate mousse to sandwich the cake together with and then cover it.  This needs about 225g of chocolate, broken into pieces and two eggs. I melted the choccy in a glass bowl in the microwave - very carefully, taking it out frequently and stirring it. It can burn so easily. Separate the two eggs. Whisk the egg yolks into the warm mixture. Leave to cool.

Whisk the remaining egg whites in a clean bowl and with a clean whisk - the slightest bit of grease can ruin this. When you get soft peaks you are there! Fold into the chocolate mixture and there you have a lovely airy mousse. Chill in the fridge for about 40 minutes.

I made a basic sponge so it wouldn't be too sickly using my usual method of weighing 3 eggs and matching the same weight in caster sugar, self-raising flour and baking margarine.
Firstly beat the caster sugar and margarine together until the grittiness has gone. Add a cap full of vanilla essence. Then alternate between adding the eggs and the sieved flour.
Once the mixture is smooth, add to a greased cake pan. I use silicon ones. Pop in the oven at about gas mark 4 / 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes.

Once cooled sandwich with the mousse and cover it too. It is quite gooey but it will firm up later. Break several Creme Eggs, have a little nibble :) and put the rest on the cake. I added some white chocolate stars too. I put the cake in the fridge for a while to do this.

Enjoy xxx

Cake Club

I joined the Clandestine Cake Club recently and have so far been to two meetings. I absolutely love it and get a real thrill from planning what to bake - each month there is a different theme. So far we have met at a couple of pretty local café's and it's really given me a new buzz to get out again after being very solitary for the last few years. Finally, a little social life for me. 
The first meeting I went to was loaf cake month and I baked a lemon curd and blueberry loaf topped with mascarpone cheese. I wish I had taken pictures of all the other cakes as there were some absolute beauties but as it was my first meeting I was too shy. All my cake was eaten which was fantastic - not bad for a newbie hey?!? It's also reignited my love for lemon curd - yum. 
This month the theme was Halloween/Bonfire Night and I challenged myself to make some ghost meringues. First time ever to make meringues and I was polishing my badge afterwards as they turned out well. Not difficult at all although I was worried as they took ages to get to the right consistency in order to pipe with an icing bag onto the tray. When they were baked and cooled I added black food colouring eyes. The cake itself was a cappuccino cake iced together with mascarpone again - I do love this stuff, creamy loveliness. I called it my spook-a-ccino cake.

It was a quiet meeting this month, I blame the wet and windy night but the four of us nattered, drank coffee and ate our lovely cakes. There was an apple and custard cake with a honeycomb topping - out of this world and so pretty looking. I really like the smaller and taller cakes - a 6 inch cake tin I found out. 

 It was one of the girl's birthday so we had a few candles - sparkler candles of course. The cafe was so pretty, the perfect venue for a cake club and I will be popping in here whilst Little Bird is at school.
 A gorgeous spooky Victoria sponge made with home made jam - yummy, yum!  A fantastic night with entertaining company and lovely treats. Hopefully we will get some more members in the New Year- it's still a new group. We are based in Cheshire if anybody out there is interested you can contact me through the blog and I can put you in touch with our organiser. 

Trick or Treat Cake

 After a little ride out to get firewood I couldn't help but notice Halloween everywhere- from houses to shops. So with a bag full of jelly sweets and looking for something to do as the heavens opened with rumbles of thunder and lightning flashing, we baked and then decorated.

A chocolate sponge of three layers with cream cheese frosting, topped with all sorts of sweeties and mini chocolate bars. Drizzled to excess with a  rich chocolatey sauce.Very sticky, very gooey and oh so very yummy. Just what we needed on a wet half-term holiday.

Loving Yoghurt Brownies

This year I decided that I would start trying some food blogging challenges and after seeing a competition held by Foodies100 and Greek Gods Yogurt I had to give it a go. The challenge was to create a love-inspired recipe to wow Aphrodite using the Greek Gods range of yoghurts - Honey, Honey and Vanilla, Honey and Clementine and Honey and Strawberry.

I chose Honey and Vanilla and decided to make some Yoghurt Brownies for my little boy as he is the love of my life and he's had a stinker of a cold all week :) Here is my recipe (I work in cups a lot now as I received some measuring cups for Christmas)

Ingredients:
3/4 of a bar of milk choc cooking choc (75g)
1 cup of baking margarine
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
2 cups of caster sugar
1 cup of flour
1 tbsp Vanilla extract
3 eggs
9 inch square deep cake tin
chilli flakes and sea salt
1 cup Greek yoghurt
white choc stars for decoration
poorly little child to cheer up

Grease the cake tin and put the oven on at gas mark 4 (350 degrees)
Melt the margarine (or butter) in a small pan on a gentle heat
Break up the chocolate into pieces and add to the pan, melt gently to avoid burning.
Add the cocoa powder and whisk in. You will have a lovely silky chocolatey mixture.
Add the caster sugar and vanilla extract and whisk.
Alternate adding eggs and flour in, whisking all the time

Pour mixture into the cake tin.
I sprinkled a little sea salt and chilli over the top (I often add these to my choc bakes for an added kick)

I then poured lovely Greek Gods Honey and Vanilla over the top and swirled it into the chocolate mixture to create a marbled effect.
Put in the oven for about 45 mins until firm on top.

Allow to cool before slicing up into lovely brownies for your sweetheart or cheering up a little boy with sore throat and snuffles.

The rest of the Greek Gods Yogurt was also a yummy treat in itself and once the germs had of course passed from my son to me it was the most soothing thing for my firey throat. That was my excuse anyway for sitting there and eating it all to myself. 

3

Little Bird turned 3. Happy little boy who loves animals, especially giraffes.
Daddy Bird brought home two huge balloons and his big smiles have brightened up the darkest of months. I know you can't tell us how happy you feel but your look says it all.
Here's to the year ahead my 'besty bear' xx

Warm Vanilla

I had said absolutely no cakes would be baked for a while so I could lose a few pounds stone. However, I missed the mixing, the sloshing of vanilla extract, the chemistry and the 'Oh just bung it in and see what happens'. I rarely do exact measurements. 

So... in the past week I have baked a coffee cake and loosely based on blondies  although I substituted the sugar type as I only had golden caster sugar. See what I mean, throw it in and I'm sure it will be fine. They were actually very tasty even though I threw in white chocolate buttons and they all sunk to the bottom. 

Baking equals comfort, all warm vanilla tones hanging in the air, a quick dip of cake mixture, press of sponge and crispy bits on the side of the cake pan. Comforting. Homely. 

This weekend the question is, what to bake? A quick rummage in the back of the baking cupboard will surely throw up some forgotten ingredients - a jar of cherries, rose water, heaps of sprinkles and glitter, all ready to be thrown in to baking alchemy. I'll surely have some rough around the edges concoction to show you on Monday.