This week!

I was told it takes two years to recover after paid work and now I know what was meant. Let’s see if I can convey what life in so-called retirement now looks like  two years in.

There’s time to appreciate nature.

The changing seasons and beautiful sunsets.

Time to stop for lunch when you have gone sofa shopping again. ( We started this back in the January sales of you remember. We couldn’t agree.  Finally a sort of compromise was reached with Mr E. He would choose one and I would choose another. The one I choose was delivered back in June. He has finally made his choice.) I digress. Lunch.

The Humble Pie in Erlby.

Just loved the interior, and my food.

Chicken Caesar salad. I love the chicken salt pot. The fish milk jug was cute but messy. OK so it was me that was messy.

There’s  time for baking

Rosemary biscuits. And for processing the last of the greenhouse crop.

I was gifted these apples by a lady at the family history group.

Multi purpose apples as they can be eaten raw or cooked and then  eaten. I made Eve’s pudding(apple sponge) and have enough left over for some apple flapjacks.

And gardening. Bags of crocus, daffodils and tulip bulbs from the local nursery to plant.

And then the unexpected. Four years ago when I started this blog I joined a CAL organised by Rachel

We worked our way through the book 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton. I created this.

A gorgeous garden inspired blanket. It came back to me this year for some repairs. Anyway long story short, Rachel completed her blocks but other projects came along and she didn’t join her blocks together. This week she gifted them to me.

All of them. Oh boy do her crochet skills knock mine into a tin hat. She is so good. They are so neat. These won’t come undone. They are lovely. Rachel is left-handed. Do have a look at her blog if you aren’t familiar with it already.Lots of information for the left handed hooker. I had a happy afternoon sorting the blocks into three piles to make three lap blankets.

One

Two, sorry about the blur

And three. I plan to then gift the finished blankets to a care home where I know they will really be appreciated. Thanks again Rachel.

So that’s just a week in retirement, and of course the washing , ironing, cooking ,cleaning and yarning along!

Wonder what next week will bring? What will your week bring?

Have a great weekend.

 

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Coffee Fudge Cake.

Now did anyone watch The Great British Bake for Comic Relief this week, and did you laugh as much as I did?. It made me feel a whole heap better about my attempt at yet another Mary Berry recipe! In fact what happened would have been perfectly in keeping with the bakes attempted by the celebrities.

Oven at 180C Gas 4

Cake tin 30x23cm

175g butter- softened

175g caster sugar

225g SR flour

1 1/2 level tsp baking powder

3 large eggs

2tbsp milk

1tbsp coffee essence or 2tsp instant coffee in 1 tbsp hot water

Now the recipe says beat the above together, but I creamed the butter and sugar then added flour in the usual way.

Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins. Leave to cool in the tin. Do not take out of the tin

Fudge Topping

This is where it went horribly wrong. I will tell you. The Recipe says

50g butter

115g light brown sugar

2tbsp milk

280g icing sugar

Melt the butter, brown sugar and milk gently until the sugar dissolves then boil briskly for 3 minutes. So far so good.

Then… Remove from the heat and add the icing sugar gradually,  beat till smooth . Spread quickly over the cake and sprinkle over 25g chopped walnuts.

It instantly became obvious to me that the fudge could not take all that icing sugar. After a couple of spoonfuls I just had tiny lumps of fudge.  BUT I had a friend coming for tea, I needed the cake. Scene as you see on Bake off now ensued!!

Trying not to panic I put  most of the icing sugar back in the packet. I put the pan back onto the heat, added a bit more butter and milk , stirred and hoped for the best, and all was ok.

On reading other recipes for fudge icing it is clear that there is far too much icing sugar and not enough milk in this recipe. I will try another recipe.

Cake and fudge icing very nice, but it is clear I still don’t have the Bakes Like Berry.

 

Seville Orange curd

Now I was having trouble resisting making marmalade this year, we just don’t eat enough marmalade, but those oranges at this time of year are just so tempting. Then Anne posted her little pot of sunshine and I was undone. I just had to make some. I made a few minor alterations to Anne’s recipe. Mine I suspect is much sweeter, and I think that was a mistake as it lost the marmalade bitterness. But it was very simple so here goes with my version.

50 g butter- cut into small pieces

125g cater sugar

2 small Seville oranges, rind grated and juice thereof

1 large beaten egg.

Place in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until melted, then keep going until thickened, around 20 minutes. Gently does it, you don’t want scrambled egg!

Strain if you like, but I wanted the bits so didn’t.

And here you are.

One little pot of deliciousness. Bake one Victoria sponge , fill with the orange curd and you have heaven!

Supper will now be one hour late- too full of cake!

Bakes like Berry!

So pleased the Great British Bake Off did well in the TV awards! During January my mind always turns to Marmalade, must be the Seville oranges that appear in the greengrocers. And I always have to tell myself not to make any as we just don’t consume enough of it. I had half a jar in the cupboard, and all of a sudden this week I fancied a marmalade cake. Time to turn to my Mary Berry cookery book. This one is YUM!

Marmalade Traybake

Cake tin 12 x 9 inch or 30x23cm, greased and bottom lined with baking parchement

Oven at 180C (fan 160C) gas 4

175g soft butter

175g caster sugar

175g sultanas

175g currants- I didn’t have any so used up the dried cranberries

3 large eggs

250g SR flour

11/2 tsp baking powder

50g glace cherries

2 level tbsp marmalade

3 tbsp milk

I creamed the butter and sugar, then added the eggs one at a time then the rest of the ingredients. Put in tin and bake for 40-45 minutes.

Enjoy

Mr E liked it so much he had TWO pieces! Maybe not as marmaladey as I would have liked but jolly nice after a walk with a cup of tea.

Would love to hear of any other marmalade recipes, if you have any.