Bank Holiday weekend

Ah, bank holidays! Why can't every weekend have one? Ours has been a good mix of home and away, practical and pleasure.

It started on Friday evening with a charity belly dancing event. I wore this tunic which I found in a charity shop this week for a bargain £3! A lovely evening though maybe not what I was expecting. I definitely didn't expect to find that the only drinks were mint tea and water!

Saturday, I went to the theatre with two friends to see I capture the castle. It was a musical production and very good. Later, Chickpea and I watched the film as she'd missed the play because she was out being fitted for a bridesmaid dress. Yes she's being a bridesmaid for her best friend whose getting married in October.

Bank holidays usually mean baking and this one was no exception. One of my all-time favourite recipes, Delia's ginger cake with lemon icing. Yum! And even better the day after when the ginger has had more time to develop.

Less successful were the waffles made in my new cast iron pans. The mixture stuck and burned. Back to the drawing board and the internet to find out how to use the pans properly as the instructions on the box were clearly no help.

This seems to be one of my most common positions on bank holidays: constantly washing up! All that baking and scrubbing of burnt pans. And yes, I still use the old-fashioned method. No dishwashers here.

Water of a different kind in my latest jigsaw. Not my usual subject but I enjoyed this one with all the patterns and colours. I always have a jigsaw on the go and have already started the next one - with a picture of ice cream!

More water and the grebes are back! I was really hoping they'd return after raising two beautiful stripey babies last summer. They're much earlier this year though as it was towards the end of 30 days wild in June when the babies hatched last year. She's been on the nest a couple of weeks now so it looks like we'll be having grebelings before long. So exciting!

There are already babies on the lake though - the first ducklings of the year born earlier this week. Eight here but she only had seven yesterday. I never get tired of watching ducklings.

And so to today and a walk in the woods. Carpets of wild garlic...

...and bluebells.

And smaller patches of wood anemones. My favourite time of year to be in the woods.

Especially when being entertained by water-loving dogs bounding around and chasing sticks.

Back home, I've put up a hanging basket bracket this afternoon from which I'll be hanging bird feeders. I only had a fat ball to hand until I can get a feeder. If you look closely you might be able to see a yellow daffodil in the background. That's also a feeder but the birds have steadfastly refused to have anything to do with it. There are sparrows nesting in next door's eaves and they pop by each evening for a dust bath before bed, squabbling over the best spots. So cute!

And that was our weekend. The cherry blossom has almost blown away now but it's been absolutely glorious this spring.

Hope you had a lovely weekend too. Not long until the next one! xx

Blueberry and amaretti cake

It's been a while since I shared a recipe but I did promise to share this one for Blueberry and amaretti cake if the taste was as good as it smelled when baking. It most definitely was: moist, almondy, sweetly fruity - mmmm!

The cake was inspired by a couple of things. First, I had a bag of amaretti biscuits in the cupboard which needed using up. You know, one of those ingredients which are on special buy in a supermarket and end up in your trolley because you'll have so many uses for them. Then they spend a year in the back of the cupboard until the expiry date has gone by. Second, I wanted to used the new bundt tin I got for Christmas.

I searched through my books but couldn't find just the right one, though two cakes in my favourite Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook had the kind of idea I was looking for: the Blueberry, peach and amaretto and the Dark chocolate and amaretto. I've made both of these in the past and both are absolutely delicious. Here then is my combined version. Enjoy :)

Blueberry and amaretti cake

150g self-raising flour
100g amaretti biscuits, finely crushed
50g caster sugar
150g blueberries
4 eggs
200g melted butter
2tbsp amaretto

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients, including the blueberries.
2. Melt the butter and leave to cool slightly before adding the eggs and amaretto. Mix well.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
4. Pour into a baking tin.
5. Bake in an oven on 190C/170C Fan/Gas 4 for about 35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. It may take longer in a conventional cake tin. If you use a bundt tin, leave to cool in the tin. Otherwise, leave to cool for a few minutes and then turn out onto a rack.
6. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Bananas and custard cake

I read somewhere that bananas are the fruit most often thrown away and that's definitely the case in our house. I'm fussy about my bananas. They have to have only just turned yellow or even still have some green on them. As soon as brown spots appear and they smell like banana, they are destined to stay uneaten in the fruit bowl.

At the weekend I had a couple which had been lingering in the bowl for some time. They weren't just spotty, they were completely black. I hate to throw food away though and I fancied some Bank Holiday baking. After thinking of a few combinations, bananas and custard appeared as the complete favourite. I couldn't find the right recipe though so ending up adapting a couple from the two Clandestine Cake Club books*.

It was so easy to make and so delicious! The only thing I'd change would be the decoration. I took the lazy option in plonking some dried banana pieces on top. Next time I think I'd use icing.

If you'd like to have a go yourself, the recipe is below. We'll be eating a different kind of cake today though as it's my daughter Chickpea's birthday! We're going for afternoon tea at a French patisserie - very posh - and there'll be birthday cake later. Happy birthday to my (not so) little girl :)

Cake

200g unsalted butter, very soft
200g caster sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
2 small, very ripe bananas, mashed
1tsp vanilla extract
175g self-raising flour
3tbsp custard powder (not instant)

Filling

250ml milk
1tsp vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
75g caster sugar
25g cornflour
1-2 fresh bananas, sliced

To make the cake:

• Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan 170C/Gas 5.
• Grease and line two 8"/20cm sandwich tins.
• Put all the ingredients in a food processor or mixer and blend. This makes a slightly denser cake so, if you prepare one that's lighter and fluffier, use the creaming method, adding the bananas at the end.
• Divide evenly between the two tins and bake for 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Leave in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the custard:

• Heat the milk and vanilla extract in a pan until hot. Remove from the heat.
• Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy, then whisk in the cornflour.
• Pour the milk over the egg mixture, whisking continuously.
• Pour everything back into the pan and heat, again whisking continuously. Don't leave it alone as it will suddenly thicken. Once thickened, take off the heat and pour into a bowl. Put some clingfilm over the surface to prevent it forming a skin. As soon as it's cooled, you can pop in the fridge until you're ready to assemble the cake.

To assemble the cake:

• Spread the custard generously over one of the sponge halves - you might not need all of it.
• Put the slices of fresh banana over the custard.
• Put the other sponge half on top.
• Decorate how you choose. I just put a few dried banana slices on top but you could dust with icing sugar, or cover with icing (maybe coloured yellow).

*The cake was adapted from the Rhubarb and Crumble cake in A Year of Cake. The custard is from the Manchester Tart cake in The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook.

Random selection

Well, I was going to show you another of our days out from when I was on leave but decided to show you a random selection of things I've been getting up to instead. Something for everyone, I hope!

So, lately I've been...

Cooking...from the latest book by the Hemsley sisters, Good and Simple. I really needed some healthy and tasty food after the tummy bug and a lot of the recipes appealed to me. This one is their lentil bake and very tasty it was too; even better as leftovers a couple of days later. Also very good was their prawn and carrot stir-fry with a peanut lime sauce. They are part of the coconut oil brigade so some of the ingredients are a bit obscure but it's pretty easy to substitute normal foods. A good addition to my cookery book collection.

Baking...Chocolate and fudge cookies using my favourite cookie recipe. Well, a woman can't live on healthy recipes alone! I made these to use up some packets which had been lurking at the back of the cupboard with all the half-used sprinkles, gel colours and flavourings. I need to develop better willpower in front of the baking section!

Researching...my family history. There was free access to the census records on Ancestry the other day so I looked up some of my ancestors. I can't tell you how exciting it was to find out that one of them, Maria Hatton, was a milliner! Being so into sewing and crafts myself, it was a real thrill to find someone from my past with a creative gene.

Sewing...a new picture to satisfy that creative gene. The pattern is from a past issue of Stitch magazine and is by Stephanie Redfern. I still have all the embellishment and embroidery stitches to do yet and will show you when it's finished.

Gardening...It's been such a glorious day that I decided to tackle the garden. The grass had its first mow of the year and I've generally been tidying and digging. My friend gave me a garden centre voucher for my birthday and I want to use it to buy a couple of new shrubs. Unfortunately that means digging out all the old ones and the endless crocosmia bulbs. Do not ever plant crocosmia as it takes over your garden. It took me twice as long to clear them because I discovered that worms like to hide in the clumps of bulbs and I couldn't throw worms away so I had to carefully pick through every clump.

The most exciting thing in the garden though is the appearance of purple-sprouting broccoli. I mentioned a few weeks ago that the plants had been decimated by caterpillars but I had left them in the ground and hoped for the best. Realistically I wasn't expecting much but, look! Purple bits! It looks like we'll be tasting some after all!

Visiting...John Rylands Library in Manchester to see the Magic, Witches and Devils exhibition. You can see a copy of the booklet on the web site. Lots of fascinating information including a recipe from 1555 for youthful looking skin: water distilled from cinnamon, eggs and donkey's milk!

Buying...a new bird tile by Lee Page Hanson to add to my collection: it's the one on the right. Well, you can't be in Manchester and not look at the shops too. I bought the tile on the left a few years ago. I love how they make a pair with the little and large hearts.

And, last but not least, I've been continuing with the kirigami. As always, a really mixed range of designs and I'm still looking forward to what each day brings.

Well, time to unwind before bed. Next time I'll try to show you one of those days out. Enjoy your week. x

Easter makes and bakes

So Easter is over for another year and it threw every kind of weather it could at us: thunder, lightning, wind, rain, hail and sunshine.

For most of it, we stayed inside and did some reading and crafting, only venturing out for new supplies. The pom pom tree is a new make. I did try gluing the balls onto the polystyrene cone but they fell off and rolled in all directions. What worked in the end was threading them into different sized rounds and simply dropping them over the cone.

Chickpea and her boyfriend made biscuits. He's never made them at home so she's introducing him to the joys of baking. Last time they made a cake just so he could experience licking the spoon.

On Sunday while the thunder and lightning raged, Chickpea and I made a start on some decopatch. The dragon and unicorn are hers and the bird is mine.

Just the legs to finish now.

I also started my bird embroidery from the Feb/March issue of Stitch magazine. Tracing round the pattern, listening to my favourite Bon Jovi song, 'Dry County' on Planet Rock, whilst sipping fragrant Lullaby Dreamcatcher tea. Pure bliss.

And, of course, there was kirigami.

We didn't stay inside all weekend though. On Good Friday we ventured to Dunham Massey. It seemed like everyone else did too so our journey took three times as long as usual. However, it's a big place so there were always quiet corners to be found. More photos coming soon.

Finally, there was excitement in the garden as I spotted our first ever willow warbler! After watching it for ages, it of course flew off as soon as I went to fetch the camera so here's one from last summer.

The best thing about this Easter? That it's not really over as I still have this week and next at home. Yippee! I have a whole list of things to do and see. Don't you just love holidays? :-)

Divil's nose

Today I thought I'd share with you a sweet treat for Halloween. And I have to be honest, it's purely because of the name: my Great Grandmother called it Divil's Nose!  It probably goes by different names around the country but this one seems to be unique to the Wigan area where she grew up. In fact, I found out that it also goes by the name of Singing Lily, possibly in honour of the Wigan lass, Lily Brayton, who was an actress and singer in the early 1900s.

But what is this Divil's Nose? Well, actually, it's what I've always known as a Chorley cake: a layer of raisins between 2 layers of pastry. A frugal dish born of a time when you had to use up every last scrap of food. The ingredients are simply:

Leftover pastry
Currants, or other dried fruits
Sugar
A knob of butter

Roll out the pastry into a round. Put the dried fruit in the centre, sprinkle with sugar and add a knob of butter.

Run a wet finger around the edge and then fold the edges of the pastry into the centre.

Turn it over so the folded edges are underneath. Roll out until the fruit shows through. Put on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and bake in the oven on 160C/Gas 3 until lightly golden.

Serve as it is or, as we used to when I was little, spread with butter. Mum said mine was a bit thin and I'd browned it too much! Oh dear. It didn't stop her having a piece though :-)

However, she had no complaints about my second version. I wanted to spice it up a bit and, as Chickpea isn't keen on currants, use a different dried fruit.

Instead, I used chopped dates and soaked them in a good splosh of dark rum. Then I spread it out over the pastry as normal.

My pastry was a cobbler mix and already on the damp side. As I folded it in, the extra moisture from the rum made it tear. For this reason, I didn't bother to roll it out but just plonked it on the baking tray.

Rather more rustic in appearance but, oh so good! We actually preferred this version as the rum-soaked fruit made it moist and the cracks in the pastry made the buttery, sugary juices ooze and caramelise on the top. Yum yum yum! I'll be making this version again.

So there you have it, 2 versions of Divil's Nose. What is it called where you live?

I'll be back on Halloween but not with anything spooky: it's Scavenger Hunt time. In fact, I don't even know if we'll be doing anything Halloweeny as we're meeting a group of friends in Manchester for pizza and James Bond! I do have my pumpkin head boppers at the ready though...

See you on Saturday. Almost the weekend. Hurrah!