Holidays & Quiet Times...

The summer holiday period is a strange one....the town feels very quiet (we are not in a tourist area)...parking is easy, the streets relatively empty...no queues in the shops...I love being at home during August. The Coffee Tree, though, is very busy right now...lots of children around, of course, and it is very close to the County Museum & attached Roald Dahl Gallery which makes it a prime spot for a lovely cup of coffee & a slice of something sweet...which, of course, is where I come in! I try and make a few more child-friendly cakes during this time...like this cake, for instance! I call it 'Proper Chocolate Cake' because that's what it really is ...a dense, moist confection filled with my special whipped buttercream and topped with milk chocolate glaze...

The pastel M & M's are from my tin of decorating treats...if any 'special edition' sweets come into view, I buy them and squirrel them away in this tin! It's proved so useful on many occasions. This cake didn't last very long this week!
Another really popular delivery were these Treacle Tart Bars...recipe will be in the book but they contain lots of sour cream which, along with the sugarless shortbread base & the lemon, seems to counteract the tooth-aching sweetness of the golden syrup...

When I made this Vanilla Cake I thought of my friend Nancy who lives over in LA...I knew this would be her pick from this post as she loves anything vanilla! Often when I bake I imagine it's for someone special...friend or family...it helps to add a little love to a recipe!

I hope you enjoy your virtual cake, Nancy...one day for real, I promise!

Last week I baked vanilla cupcakes (and a big cake) for a wedding party. I always find baking for weddings particularly nervewracking as it's such a momentous occasion and everything has to be absolutely perfect! The bride had had some beautiful purple sugar butterflies made for these...so all I had to do was provide the background! I think I did ok...:-)
And that brings us to this morning...as well as 3 Cheese Scones (cheddar, gruyere & parmesan) and Date/Coconut Bars I also walked through the mizzly rain towards the Coffee Tree with...

Harvest Cake, which is basically a light fruit cake (I also added dried sour cherries for some contrast) with cinnamon & a crunchy demerara sugar top...it keeps very well and is perfect on a rainy day such as this with a steaming cup of tea. Also, inspired by the blogpost of my good friend Hummus Boy in which he described the wonderful Orange Polenta Cake his wife made recently (which, I suspect was from a recipe in the first Ottolenghi cookbook!) I made one myself..

It really is a beautiful cake...caramelised orange slices on top and a rich almond/polenta sponge below. A delicious way to start the weekend! I hope yours is filled with good things too xo