So, dear reader, I have a dilemma. I have been baking and cooking away lately but haven’t managed to blog it because SOMEONE had misplaced the memory card for the camera…

Findlay says, “It wasn’t me…”

Nairn denies all knowledge

Erica looks at the camera and shouts, “CHEEEEESE”

Whilst Greer looks cute

So in the meantime I’m afraid you’ll need to make do with photos from my phone. Luckily we have now located said memory card so when I’ve blogged up the camera photos we should be back to normal service. Well, I say normal because knowing my terrible children and messy house I don’t doubt that something else will go missing soon!

Anyway. Today I’m going to show you another wee taste of my childhood. My Nana and Grampa are children of the war era and so had a fantastic ability to eke dinner out on a budget. As classic Scottish weans* we’d get mince an’ tatties and if we ate all that, we might get bread an’ butter pudding after. What a treat that was! As I was the eldest grandchild it was my job to help my Nana and I can remember standing on a stool at her kitchen sink when I was probably about Findlay’s age, peeling potatoes and turnips and being allowed to help bake in return.

Thus, I decided last week that my kids should have some bread an’ butter pudding. Admittedly this was influenced in part because we were skint and had very little food in the house, and in part because I had about 20 million eggs needing used up! Nana always told me to use bread that was a little past it’s best, but bread doesn’t get a chance to go stale in my house so I used an outsider on the bottom layer.

You will need:
6 slices of bread
Butter
Raisins
Cinnamon and/or nutmeg to taste
2 egg yolks
2 tbsps sugar
3/4 pint milk (or more if it’s not enough to cover your bread)

Preheat your oven to gas mark 5 (375F). Butter the dish you’re using to make your pudding in, then butter the slices of bread and cut them diagonally in half. Cover the bottom of the dish with bread slices then sprinkle over a small handful of raisins. I really like cinnamon so at this point I sprinkle a teaspoonful of cinnamon over the top but I know my Nana prefers nutmeg – do whichever suits best or leave it out altogether. Repeat this layering again before topping off the dish with bread. Do NOT put raisins on the top of your dish because they’ll burn in the oven, and nobody likes a burnt raisin.
In a saucepan, mix your milk and sugar together and heat until the milk mixture is bubbling. Make sure you stir regularly to help the sugar dissolve and ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan but be careful not to let the milk boil. Beat the egg yolk quickly in a jug then add the milk, whisking gently to combine. Pour the mixture back into the pan through a sieve and simmer for five minutes, stirring regularly. Pour over the bread slices and leave for at least half an hour, gently pushing the bread into the custard occasionally before sprinkling the top with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Pop in the oven for half an hour until the top is a golden brown colour. Serve with custard or vanilla ice cream.

*Wean means child, literally “wee ‘ane” or “wee yin” meaning “little one”. You’re a wean until yir Granny tells ye itherwise!

Posted under baking, family, recipes

No, I’m not referring to the New York Times perfect chocolate chip cookie, alas. I have been trying to find an easy, quick and tasty recipe to add stuff to and I think I might have cracked it. For me, the perfect cookie is crispy round the outside and squidgy in the middle and this is it! In the interests of fairness I must openly disclose that I am a peanut butter fiend but if you’re not, I’m sure the peanut butter M&Ms could be replaced with smarties, plain M&Ms or indeed chocolate chips.

These spread a little more than I was expecting so they’re not the neatest. Bear this in mind when you’re baking these! Next time I’ll split them between two cookie sheets.

You will need:
100g of butter, softened
100g light brown sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
150g self raising flour
100g peanut butter M&Ms (I bought these on eBay)

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy, then beat in the syrup. Add roughly half the flour and mix until combined, then add the rest of the flour with the M&Ms. Get in with your fingers and make sure the M&Ms are evenly mixed in. Divide into 14 balls (or more if you prefer a smaller cookie) and place onto baking sheets lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes until light brown around the edges. Place on a wire rack to cool.

Posted under baking, recipes

Nothing ever goes easily in this house of mine! I threw this mixture together, got it all in my piping bag and managed to pipe 8 rounds before my piping bag exploded! If you decide that you want to make piped biscuits like these can I heartily recommend acquiring a piping ball like this one as it’s less fragile than a bag. I got mine years ago from a Tupperware catalogue but I’ve lent it to Kirsty so I ended up just placing teaspoonfuls spread well apart on a baking sheet. It meant these were slightly less pretty but still very yum!

I also cheated as I made these at 11pm the night before we left to go on holiday so instead of using the ganache to sandwich the biscuits together, I used chocolate spread which worked wonderfully.

You will need:

225g butter, softened
60g icing sugar
25g dark chocolate, melted
170g plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp icing sugar for dusting

for the filling:
225g unsalted butter, softened
180g icing sugar
25g dark chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy then stir in melted chocolate. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and rice flour and stir into the creamed mixture.
Pipe the mixture using your largest fluted nozzle into 2 inch rosettes spaced 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

For the filling: Beat butter and icing sugar, then stir in the chocolate. Spread the filling onto the bottom half of the cookies, and then sandwich together with the other halves

Dust with the icing sugar.

Posted under baking, recipes

It’s turning into a bit of a baking blog here! I do feel a bit guilty because I don’t really do well with pretty cakes – I’m a necessity baker rather than a pretty baker – but I haven’t really managed to complete much else recently so you’re being overloaded with recipes just now! Normal service will resume soon (when the children have grown up, stopped fighting and keeping me up all night…)

Flapjacks are the first thing I ever baked by myself. I’ve mentioned before that my Nana the person who encouraged me to bake, knit and sew and I can remember standing in her kitchen making these in a baking tin that is probably older than I am! They’re so easy to make and my kids go mad for them. This is the recipe I’ve developed over my flapjack making years but it’s very easy to swap ingredients in and out.

You will need:

90g butter
90g light brown sugar
100g ground almonds
190g porridge oats
Generous handful of raisins

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4. Melt the butter and sugar together then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix thoroughly before dumping into a greased square baking tin. Bake for about 20 minutes until the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for five minutes before marking out your fingers then leave to cool completely (preferably overnight). These flapjacks are quite squidgy – if you like yours a bit more crunchy then use a little less butter.

Yum yum!

Posted under baking, recipes

I’ve seen these glorious things of beauty on so many blogs over the last few months. In a multitude of colours too, they just scream EAT ME! So when I came across this apparently simple recipe I decided to have a go for myself. My first attempt wasn’t so good – we didn’t make it to the sandwiching stage this time – but apparently once you’ve mastered them you’ll want them all the time.

Firstly, you’ll notice that my macarons are a bit lumpy. The reason for this is that my ground almonds were not fine enough – it’s not enough to pass it through a sieve, ideally you want to have these mixing in a food processor with the icing sugar and cocoa. Alas, avid fans may remember my food processor had a bit of an accident and I haven’t been able to replace it yet. I have subsequently been told that this is the definitive recipe for chocolate macarons but it’s slightly different to what I did.

You may have noticed that my photo quality has been – well, abysmal lately. Unfortunately I’m relying on my mobile phone just now until I get my camera sorted so please bear with me!

You will need:
3 egg whites
50g granulated sugar
200g icing sugar
110g ground almonds
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat your oven to 150C/Gas 2. Combine the icing sugar, ground almonds and cocoa powder and put them in a food processor to get rid of any lumps. In a glass or metal bowl, beat the egg whites until they begin to hold a shape then and slowly add the sugar. Beat until they are stiff then fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites half at a time. Pipe them on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper and bake them at 150C for 12 to 15 minutes. Sandwich them together with a chocolate ganache or if (like me) you’re a bit lazy, get some nutella on the go.

Let me know if you’ve made these and have had better success than I did!

Posted under baking, recipes

I used to love English and Drama at school and I remember my teacher telling me that background actors in TV shows are mouthing the word, “rhubarb” over and over again. Isn’t it funny the things your brain suddenly kicks in with when your mind is wandering?!

ANYWAY! As I showed everyone in my attempted self-sufficiency blog post the rhubarb I’m growing in my garden might feed a couple of gnomes, but it’s not really up to feeding a family of six! Luckily, my wee Nana has an abundance of rhubarb in her garden which she actively encourages me to half-inch as she doesn’t use it.

I’d collected some when I was last over to visit but hadn’t used it yet. For me, rhubarb is one of those ingredients that I could use every day. I was raised on rhubarb crumble, rhubarb sponge, rhubarb jam etc and I love it. In fact, I think rhubarb was the first thing I ever cooked on my own with my Nana when she taught me how to stew it! Problem is, I haven’t been terribly adventurous when cooking with it and this batch was going to end up in the bin if I didn’t use it.

So! I had read this entry on Laura’s blog where she’d used rhubarb in cupcakes. Sounded excellent, but I’ve “sampled” so many cupcakes over this last week between Bob and I’s bake swap practice runs that I couldn’t face anything too sweet. This was my compromise.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that these don’t look like much, but they really hit the spot. Not achingly sweet but enough to curb a craving. I was quite surprised when both Bob and Findlay ate these too and declared them delicious – definitely a recipe I’ll use again.

You will need:
300g rhubarb
3tbsp caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract

300g plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
200ml milk
100g butter, melted
Brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas 4. Chop your rhubarb up into reasonably thin slices (I’d say no more than 0.5cm thick) and place in a baking tin (I used a 20cm square tin but any tin will do). Sprinkle your rhubarb with the caster sugar and vanilla and pop the tin into the oven.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl then add the sugar. In a jug whisk together the milk, butter and eggs. This will hopefully have taken you around ten minutes by which time your rhubarb should be nicely softened. Scoop the rhubarb into the dry ingredients bowl, trying to hold back the liquid if you can as you don’t want your mixture to be too wet. Pour the jug contents into the bowl too then stir until just combined – with muffins, you want the mixture to stay a bit lumpy.

Split the mixture between 12 muffin cases, sprinkle with the brown sugar and pop into the oven for roughly half an hour (mine took around 35 minutes and my cooking times are notoriously dodgy so just keep an eye on them raising and looking golden brown). These are amazing warm and I can imagine them being glorious with some warm custard.

Let me know if you try them!

Posted under baking, recipes

I’m not sure what to call this post! The cake wot I made has so many different identites that I know – millionaire’s shortbread, caramel shortcake, caramel cake to name but a few – that you will probably all call this something different. Whatever you call it, I found an old recipe that my Mum used to use and decided that I’d try this out. I must admit that I’m not a big fan of caramel cake so I only had a little bit of this, but Bob and my Nana liked it so I must be doing something right!

Now, being the kind soul that I am I’m going to give you two alternative recipes for the caramel. I misread the recipe from the side of the condensed milk can and ended up with a treacley caramel which made more of an adult cake. My Mum’s is a lighter caramel.

You will need for the base:
100g butter
50g caster sugar
150g self raising flour

Preheat your oven to 200C/Gas 6. Cream together the butter & sugar then add the flour. Spread into a greased & lined 20cm square tin and bake for 20 mins. Allow to cool.

You will need for my Mum’s filling:
100g caster sugar
100g butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
400g tin condensed milk

Place all ingredients into a pan, bring to the boil stirring constantly. Boil for 4 minutes then spread over your cake base and leave to cool.

OR, you will need for the filling I used:
25g butter
150g dark brown soft sugar
400g can condensed milk

Place the butter and sugar in a pan and stir over a medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar has mostly dissolved. Add the condensed milk stirring continuously until the first bubbles appear on the surface. Remove from the heat and spread over the base.

Once your caramel has set, melt 200g chocolate (I used 100g milk and 100g dark) and spread over your caramel. Leave it for 15 minutes to cool and if your chocolate has semi set, lightly mark out the squares on the surface before leaving in the fridge to set properly.

Posted under baking, recipes

So, the third and final cake that was baked at the weekend for Fathers day! Loyal readers may remember the cream and jam-laden confection surprise that I made my Dad for his birthday. What you may not remember is that my Dad ate maybe half a slice before discreetly handing his plate over to one of my siblings because he’s really not a sweet tooth. And yet, I still made him a cake! My poor wee Dad is awfy awfy thin and I’m determined to fatten him up a little so he was given a Nigella Chocolate Guinness cake. Luckily he works on a building site so at the very least his workmen will have had a tasty treat with their tea!

Before icing:

After icing:

You will need:
250 ml Guinness
250 g unsalted butter
75 g cocoa
400 g caster sugar
142 ml sour cream
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
275 g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the icing, I used a third of this icing recipe and it was plenty enough to cover the cake.

1) Preheat the oven to gas 4/180C, butter and line a 23 cm springform or loose-bottomed tin
2) Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter gradually and heat until the butter has melted. At which time, whisk in the cocoa and sugar.
3) Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and pour into the pan before whisking in the bicarb and flour.
4) Pour the cake batter into the greased, lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour (actually, I had to leave it for nearer 1h 20m). Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack.
5) Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of a pint, or like me smooth the icing across the sides and top of the cake. Devour with a good cuppa.

Posted under baking, recipes

Yet another offering from Fathers day for me – this time, the carrot cake I made for Bob’s Dad. David kindly shared his cake with us and although it was really tasty, for me it was a little too nutty. I’d make it again purely because it turned out so well!

You will need:
150g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
150g caster sugar
250g carrots, grated
100g shelled walnuts, finely chopped
150ml vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Grease and line an 18cm diameter round cake tin.
2) Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cinnamon powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in the caster sugar, carrots and walnuts.
3) Pour in the corn oil, and add the eggs and vanilla essence. Stir to mix and keep stirring for a minute to let the egg mixture pull everything together.
4) Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of an oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until risen and firm to the touch. Remove the cake from the oven, leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.
5) To frost the cake, I used a third of the icing from this recipe. Using a spatula, smooth a thin layer of the frosting across the sides and top of your cake to catch any crumbs before icing the cake to your taste.

Posted under baking, recipes

I should guiltily admit that this cake was actually made for my very lovely brother-in-law, Gary, who celebrated his 27th birthday on the 15th. This was supposed to be his birthday cake but since I didn’t get to see him as I’d expected at the weekend, I generously told Bob it could be his Fathers day cake.

Before icing:

After icing:

You will need:
2 bananas (the riper the better)
170g caster sugar
170g self raising flour
170g butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease & line a 2lb loaf tin.
2. Slice up your bananas, place in a bowl and add the other ingredients.
3. Using a handheld whisk or blender, mix up the ingredients until completely blended and your bananas are mushed to bits.
4. Pour the mixture into your tin, place in the oven and bake for an hour until your loaf is done.

For this loaf and the two cakes which I’ll be blogging later in the week, I used the cream cheese icing from Nigella Lawson’s Guinness cake recipe. This made enough to generously cover all three cakes so bear that in mind!

You will need:
300g cream cheese (like philadelphia – I use the generic version)
150g icing sugar
125ml double cream

Whip the cream cheese until smooth, add the sieved icing sugar and whip after every few spoonfuls. Add the cream and mix until you have a spreadable consistency with no lumps of sugar. Using a spatula, put a very thin coating of this icing over your cake – this will seal in the crumbs. Once you’ve done this, load up your spatula and frost the cake. Slice and munch!

Posted under baking, knitting, recipes