Almost the weekend..

This morning was dark, rainy...the sort of morning when I'm so happy that I do what I do! Getting to the kitchen, switching on lights, ovens....weighing, pouring, mixing...the brightness, warmth and gentleness of working early in the day. It'll be different in a few months when the sun will be up, the air will be soft & I'll be longing to be outside. But for now, I'm happy to be in my kitchen for as long as I need to be...

For the Coffee Tree today, I made these Double Cheese & Poppyseed Scones. Extra  mature cheddar.  Sharp, blue Gorgonzola piccante. And organic poppyseeds bought on my trip to Australia in the little dairy town of Maleny. Just delicious!

Next, I decorated the cake I made for them yesterday afternoon...Lemon Curd Layer Cake. Lemon is such a popular flavour that I'm always thinking of new ways to use it in my baking. This is a light sponge with lots of lemon zest in the batter...

and then I filled it with lemon buttercream and fresh lemon curd..topping it with more buttercream and lemon zest...

I think it looks so fresh and Spring-like (even though I know that Spring is, really, a little way off yet!)

And lastly, I made a batch of cookies. The recipe was sent to me by my dear friend Sue and I had to try it right away...

they are really chewy, coconutty, chocolate chippy....dee-licious! I won't print the recipe in case it's needed for her wonderful website. It didn't come with a title. So when I delivered the boxful to the coffee shop along with the other goodies this morning, the label simply said 'Susan's Cookies' !!

A special hug today to my friend Dawn, otherwise known as Country Girl as it's her 30th birthday! Much love to you sweetie - I remember being 30...30's are fun!!

xoxo

The weekend arrives...

and with it comes my last Coffee Tree delivery of the week...beginning with these Corn & Cheddar Muffins. I love savoury muffins, still warm and crusted with cheese...but I'm not sure how they'll go down with the customers. We British are a funny race. Muffins = Sweet. So, I caught them out...I called them Popovers! Now, for my American readers...I know that these aren't popovers at all. But as we don't have those here, I thought it a suitably flabbergasting word to describe these without using the 'M' word! I hope that it worked, because I was really pleased with the way they turned out...

I used both corn kernels and polenta/cornmeal...plus LOTS of extra matured, sharp cheddar. Yum.

Next were these Toffee Bars.Another recipe from my new Fat Witch Bakery cookbook. Again, I twiddled the recipe...this time doubling the topping ingredients as I didn't think that the brown sugar cream layer would be deep enough. I'm glad I did. I sprinkled with powdered sugar too for added contrast...
And lastly, I made a Coconut Cake with Passionfruit Glaze...

The cake is 1 and 1/2 times the recipe for Coconut Tea Cake from the wonderful Dorie Greenspan's book 'Baking -from my home to yours' which has given me so much inspiration that I should hate to be without it! It's a beautiful white and intensely coconutty cake which doesn't need filling (I think this would detract from it's subtle flavour) but I like to make a glaze from powdered sugar and fresh passionfruit pulp as I think it sets the tropical themes off nicely and gives a beautifully fragrant 'tang' too.

It does drip a little down the sides...but that's part of it's authentic homemade charm (as I like to tell myself!)

I'd love to share a slice with you now, over a cup of hot Earl Grey tea. You'd be so welcome in my cosy kitchen this blustery but fairly warm afternoon!

Enjoy your weekend xo

The weekend...and a Saturday Giveaway!

Welcome to Saturday! I'm a little late posting today, as Paul & I have just come back from a fantastic lunch...of which more tomorrow. As the only day I don't deliver is Sunday, I've designated that to be my review day - or sometimes a rest one!

But this morning, which was dull and grey...although it cleared and now is beautiful with the tiniest of silver 'fingernail' moons just showing...I baked for The Coffee Tree as usual. Saturdays are a little different in that usually they are my only order of the day....so I drop the goodies off, grab a coffee, and head home - all done by 9am, and the weekend is mine!

First I made a tray of Pistachio Sour Cherry Bars.The middle of toasted pistachios,dried sour cherries & milk chocolate chips with caramel sauce is sandwiched between two crunchy oaty & quite plain layers....

I think you can just see the contrast in colour and texture in these pictures...it's quite hard to capture! I made them last night as they need a few hours to settle and set properly.
Then came a batch of Double Cheese & Fresh Chive Scones...

I made these as late as possible so that they were still warm when I delivered...the smell when the lid came off the box was amazing! I must confess that with the little bit of mixture that was left, I made a few miniatures to have at home....I don't have a really sweet tooth any more, but cheese is a different matter...!

especially with the slight onion flavour imparted by the snipped chives...mmm.

So that's a week of deliveries! And now to my first foodie giveaway...
It was quite hard to choose something that would appeal to those who maybe don't cook so much, but still enjoy reading about it. In the end I came up with the following - I hope I got it right!

This lovely memoir with recipes tells of Colette Rossant's life as a Frenchwoman in 1955, newly married to an American and just arrived in Manhattan to start their life together. Bemused by US customs, language and food...it's a sweet, funny and interesting book. I especially loved her discovery of the authentic ethnic delis and foodmarkets that were still so independent and individual then...it's fascinating. So there's that...
and also:

these two dear little blue & white 'yin & yang' dishes....with fish decorations. I've long used them on the dinner table when we're entertaining as they're great for putting seasalt flakes in one half & cracked pepper in the other....but maybe oil & balsamic vinegar? Or salted pistachios & peanuts? Anyway, the choice will lie with the winner!

This little bundle will wing it's way to someone who leaves me a comment after this post between now & next Friday,14th. I'll draw the winning name when I return from my Coffee Tree delivery on Friday morning and announce the winner in that day's post!

Good luck , thanks so much for reading - and I hope you have a wonderful weekend xx