Birthdays & awaydays!

It's a strange fact that 3 of my very favourite men in the world have birthdays within 5 days of each other in January....first my Dad, then Wolfgang Amadeus and finally Paul! So I suppose you could say that I'm a true Aquarian-phile...my oldest friend (40 years in 2013) is also one. As my darling oldest nephew & my youngest sister were born a little earlier in January, too,  it can be a very expensive time of year in our household!

So my Dad turned 75 a week or so ago...as he has suffered ill health through most of his adult life, this is a huge reason to celebrate for all of us! His birthday is also our wedding anniversary (we married as a special surprise on his 70th!) so it's quite a day...

We just had a small family dinner at a local restaurant owned by our great friend David...Annie Bailey's . It's where Dad's surprise 70th party (and, therefore, our wedding reception!) was held...so the place is full of happy memories for all of us. I, naturally, baked the cake...

which was chocolate...with malted milk chocolate frosting...

and it was absolutely enormous! We told the guys in the kitchen to take a large slice and then the rest went home with my parents to be finished off ...which it was, eventually! A lovely, lovely evening.

Paul & I have a little tradition of going away for a long weekend near to his birthday. We try & go somewhere new, and make sure that Alice can come too. You may remember that last year we stayed in West Wittering in Sussex...this year, we chose Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. You can read more about the weekend on my other blog but I thought you'd like to hear about Paul's birthday lunch on this one! We went to a place we've often read about and wanted to visit...

The British Larder near Woodbridge.

It didn't disappoint. Everything was gorgeous...the menu changes daily, and they strive to be truly local. There is even a set of weighing scales on the bar and customers are encouraged to bring surplus fruit & vegetables from their own gardens...or any other produce...to be bought & used in the restaurant. Great idea!

Paul chose the venison scotch egg with homemade piccalilli & celeriac remoulade to start with...

I loved the pickled carrot & radish salad with toasted sourdough...but the real star for me was my dessert...

vanilla pannacotta with blood orange granita & a garibaldi biscuit. I can taste it still!

The granita was sharp, sweet, bitter...absolutely divine. The British larder is highly recommended and we look forward to returning!

A couple of weeks ago, I met my great friend and fellow blogger Hummus Boy for lunch at a favourite London restaurant, Great Queen Street in Holborn/Covent Garden. It's always fabulous here, to my mind...I've reviewed it before on this blog so I won't do so again. But I MUST mention our desserts...(see a theme here??)

Salted creme caramel...(only a touch of seasalt, not actively salty!) I can't believe that I ordered this (neither will Esther!) I have a lifelong aversion to anything eggy or milky...but my brain misread the creme caramel as creme brulee and when it arrived I was SO glad! Just so gorgeous...vanilla-y, caramel-y, not too creamy. A delight.

HB's featherlight 'beignets' (or tiny sugared doughnuts) with rhubarb jam and thick cream...ooh, so glad that he's the sharing type of friend! We almost clashed forks in our eagerness to devour the hot, crisp-yet-soft delights!

January was a good month - but I confess that I'm happy it's February! It's just that bit closer to Spring...and I'm planning my vegetable garden for the year. It's only tiny, so I allow myself the luxury of growing a few unusual things instead of carrots & potatoes. More soon...the ground is still hard as iron, after all!

I hope that you're full of inspiration and excitement for the seasons to come, too. xoxo

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