Autumn

So, it’s November. Already. Autumn; the season of all weathers in one day. Waking to a foggy or frosty morning, the sun rises to highlight the Autumn leaves of yellows, oranges and reds. If a dry day, the sky is just so blue, and the grass so green. A veritable palette of the best artists’ colours. A nice fresh crisp, non rainy, Autumnal day is a great one for a walk to make you feel alive. So why not venture outside before the weather turns? Continue reading “Autumn”

Easter eggs

Easter is almost upon us. Religious or not, we all love Easter and especially the excess of chocolate. You’ll be inundated with adverts for Easter eggs; pressurised that they’re ‘perfect for Mum’, ‘perfect for the kiddies’, ‘perfect for your partner’, ‘perfect for YOU’! Easter eggs these days may be relatively cheap – if you don’t mind the matching relatively small, but also tend to be made of cheaper chocolate than the same-brand’s regular choccie bars. Continue reading “Easter eggs”

Chocolate and raspberry sponge

How is everyone this snowy day? We’ve been stuck indoors since Tuesday, with boiler issues and, well, snow. Now, craving chocolate sponge!

As we’re now back up and warm (thank you engineer ‘Andy’!), it’s time to get back to the passion – and do some baking.

I love my old 1970s Kenwood mixer (other, and newer, mixers are available!!). I popped in the eggs and sugar, and left it whirring away while I emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, fed the menagerie and made myself a coffee. Don’t scrimp this stage; you want your eggs and sugar to really fluff up; it’s worth just taking some time. The mixture should rise massively, and resemble cream (remember school cookery lessons – everything has to resemble cream; I wonder what they chose before someone churned cream?). Anyway, the lighter you get this now, the lighter your cake will be. Continue reading “Chocolate and raspberry sponge”