Going going gone!

The favourite Christmas cookies this year
were definitely Nigella's Christmas Chocolate
Biscuits.
Basically chocolate shortbread with icing &
sprinkles on the top.
Two tins full - now nearly all gone - though
maybe I should make one more batch for
this weekend's visit to my mother-in-law -
a self confessed chocoholic.
A good excuse if ever I heard one!

Comfort Food

No time for blogging recently as children move out and others move back in!

Instead endless shifting of boxes, rebuilding flat pack furniture, rearranging the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedrooms in fact most of the house. Back to cooking and shopping for five - all adults now!

Sharing your house with your grown up children and their friends is both delightful and demanding!

Blissfully have three weeks away booked soon!

In the meantime comfort food - Marble cake for a birthday celebration and lavender biscuits from the Edible Garden

Yum.

Afternoon Tea

Mother's Day provided a good excuse to make

some cakes, get out the teaset and enjoy a

family tea party!

Presents and cards were received by the Mums

who were there and a good time was had by all.

Always time for cake!

No sooner do we finish all the
Christmas baking and resolve to
eat healthily for a while than it is
time to start making birthday
cakes. This one was for J's birthday
last week. He helpfully agreed to
eat most of it himself!

Dutch Apple Cake

Also made Dutch Apple Cake today - still
using apples from the garden which we
picked and stored in September.
Very yummy & fit the Autumnal theme of
the day quite well I thought!

And in the meantime.....

In between blogging holiday photos
I have been busy enjoying some of
the things you can't do on holiday!
Apricot muffins here - maybe I'll
bake my way through the
alphabet!

More birthday cake

Time for more birthday celebrations
and of course cake - this time to
celebrate Nick's birthday.
The cake is chocolate made as always
from a Nigella recipe and filled with
raspberries and cream.
Candles were lit and cake sampled
before heading off to the New Forest
and Dorset for the weekend.

Birthday time again

Last saturday we had a belated birthday
celebration for my mum.
My contribution to the food was as ever
cake!

Birthday cake

The birthday cake was classic
victoria sponge - set off by crazy
candles which re-light every time
you blow them out - supplied by
my mum and caused great hilarity
as I tried in vain to blow them out!
I was eventually rescued and helped
when the onlookers had stopped
laughing long enough.

Simple white bread

Bought a box of recipe cards on our
recent trip to Edinburgh. This was
recipe number one and tasted as
good as it looked.

lemonylicious!

These were the lemon cupcakes
I made for Mother's Day.
Bit of a yellow theme going on
with these and the daffodils

Afternoon Tea

Mother's Day fell last Sunday so
nine of the family - including my
mum- gathered for afternoon tea
There were more good things to eat
than this picture shows. This was
just my contribution.
Gifts and cards were also received
(by the mothers) and the house got
a major tidy-up - bit like a mini-
Christmas really!

happy birthday

Jon's birthday cake - reminded me
of a scene from Matilda!

Snowy Gingerbread

This snowy gingerbread filled the house
with spicy, gingery, festive smells even
though time pressure defeated the plans
to include it in the Christmas baking
marathon. Tasted even better with
no presents to wrap while eating!