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

Treats for May

These are the Cinnamon Pecan Sticky Buns that I delivered about an hour ago to The Coffee Tree...sadly, I had a couple of small offcuts left...which of course I couldn't waste. I fear the WeightWatchers scales tomorrow...:-)

But honestly, they smelled and tasted so good - and it's in the interests of my consumers to occasionally check the goods I think. Well, that's what I'm telling myself...as I run on the spot to burn off the calories!!

I had some of the sugar crowns that I made for the Royal Wedding left, and thought that they'd finish off these Orange & Poppyseed Cupcakes perfectly....

I love the taste & texture of poppyseeds....I brought these organic blue ones home from Australia last Autumn and I keep them in the fridge...

And lastly, for this post, a magnificent Nutella Cake. It's a chocolate cake, with hazelnuts and Nutella filling and topping...

Luscious! Hope you are having a wonderful week so far....xoxo

A happy accident...

Today is such a gorgeous, warm sunny day...hardly like early April at all. If it weren't for the lack of leaves on some of the trees, I'd be convinced it was late May. To celebrate I made this Sunshine Orange Drizzle Cake for the Coffee Tree this morning. Flavoured with orange zest, soaked in orange syrup while still warm and then finsihed with an orange sugar glaze. When I took the lid off the delivery box we all 'aahhed' as we breathed in the smell!

Sometimes, a mistake can turn into something unexpectedly good. So it was when I created these Pecan Caramel Custard Bars...

I was going to make something completely different, and began to make my favourite caramel sauce. I boiled the sugar and water, and when I had a beautiful burnished brown colour & that unmistakeable toffee smell, I added double cream. But in my enthusiasm, I added far too much! I was left with a thick, creamy caramel custard that would never have done for what I'd intended...but of course, i couldn't waste it! I'd already made a shortbread base, so I toasted some pecan nuts I had....added some egg yolks to the custard ...added the nuts and poured it over the cooked shortbread before baking it for around half an hour at a low temperature. It turned out perfectly...smooth and rich and the caramel went perfectly with the pecans.

The recipe is now going in my book! You'll know the story behind it ...it proves that sometimes it can be good to make mistakes!

Have a great day xoxo

Puddings & other stories...

Busy is not the word at the Bakery right now...this is the first chance I've had to post in almost a week. I keep forgetting to take pictures! Every time I have left a delivery recently I've smacked my forehead as I remember that I forgot (!) to snap my creations! Anyway, here I am. It's mainly brownies, brownies, brownies right now. Charlie, my biggest customer, is well into his new season on the equestrian eventing circuit. Each weekend (and during the week too) he tows his wonderful trailer, complete with Italian coffee machine, all over the South West supplying tired and hungry competitors...and excited spectators...with coffee & cakes to sustain them! So I am kept busy at my kitchen unit, producing trays by the dozen ready for pick up. There's only so many pictures of brownies you can take!

Still, there are my other customers too of course. It's a big weekend for the catering industry here in the UK. Mother's Day is one of the most popular 'going out' days in the calendar, so the pubs and restaurants I supply are ordering extra.

Bread & Butter Pudding is a huge seller on the menu. A traditional British dessert that most people love (I say most because I can't stand it....!) I make these with brioche instead of regular white bread, for extra richness. And I flavour them with real orange zest, as well as plenty of raisins. The liquid is cream too...to make them luscious.

They are eaten hot with either custard or more cream. Yum!

The Coffee Tree, too, will be busy this weekend...

These 'Charlie Bars' are my own creation...crunchy, crumbly peanutty shortbread (there are some chopped Reeses Pieces in there too) with a middle of peanut butter & chocolate. Perfect with coffee.

It was Fresh Raspberries & Cream Muffins this morning....made with cream, studded with ruby raspberries and dusted with icing sugar...

and an Almond Tosca Cake too. Based on a Swedish recipe, it's very, very moist & almondy with a lemon glaze & toasted flaked almonds too. This is one that I would love! I may make it at the weekend too, as we have some dear friends from Italy visiting...and Roberto adores CAKE!!

Happy Thursday....can you believe that it's April tomorrow? Have a wonderful day xoxo