Neglected!

My poor sad neglected blog. I'm not sure I'll every return to the days when I blogged two or three times a week, with posts about a variety of subjects that were not just cakes and puppies... Although to be fair, cakes have always featured pretty regularly right from day one.

It seems absolutely ages since I last did a post about what I've been reading but I don't seem to be reading as much over the last few weeks, so that's probably why! My favourite time to read is first thing in the morning with a cuppa in bed but lately I've been getting straight up to walk Hector. Stewart bought me The Past by Tessa Hadley and The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks for my birthday last month. I started with The Past, a story about a family of four siblings getting together in their grandparents' house for one last holiday. I liked the style, I liked the characters and read eagerly thinking something momentous was going to happen because it had that sort of build up... but it never did. So although I enjoyed it I was left feeling disappointed. I had heard good things about The Shepherd's Life but after a few chapters in I didn't think I could take much more about sheep! However, I persevered and ended up really enjoying this autobiographical tale of the life of a Lakeland shepherd despite some poor editing and a fair bit of repetition!

Currently I am reading two books, although have almost finished both of them. I recently read Picnic in Provence by Elizabeth Bard which I enjoyed so much that I ordered her previous book Lunch in Paris. The format is similar, autobiographical with two or three recipes at the end of each chapter but I haven't enjoyed this nearly as much... perhaps the lifestyle in Provence is more appealing than the thought of living in Paris. So in between chapters I've also been reading the classic, The Periodic Table by Primo Levi as this was our bookclub read for August. After three pages in I thought I was going to hate it, I just couldn't get to grips with it at all. So instead I listened to a few chapters of the recent dramatisation on the BBC iPlayer and gradually it drew me in. Each chapter is based around an element from the periodic table, some fiction but mostly autobiography, written with great insight, humanity and humour as Levi writes about his life as a chemist spanning the years of the second world war. I've almost finished it now with only about three chapters to go but for some reason, I'm struggling to get to the end. Equally I don't want to leave it unfinished because I have actually enjoyed it.

It wouldn't be a blog post from me without at least a little bit of cake and this week I've been inspired by the return of the Great British Bake Off, which I absolutely love. The signature bakes were drizzle cakes so I made some gooseberry and elderflower drizzle cakes for the Farm Shop this week... mostly because I had some homemade gooseberry and elderflower jam which I stirred into the batter before baking. The drizzle was elderflower cordial.

Then this morning I thought I'd give the technical challenge a try and made Jaffa Cakes... it hadn't even occured to me this was a cake I might make at home. I think my jelly blobs were too big but this was smallest round cutter I had! It was all going so well at this stage... but spreading the chocolate proved tricky. After one or two disasterous attempts I gave up trying to mark a pattern on the chocolate... as soon as I started to drag a fork across the surface it started to pull the chocolate off the jelly so I just spread it on the top. Despite looking a little rough they have been given a big thumbs up from my tasters.

Just a pity I don't like Jaffa Cakes really!

*Update* I've just discovered there is a whole Bloggers Bake Off going on hosted by Jenny Paulin of Mummy Mishaps. It would be rude not to join in really, wouldn't it. So this week I'm entering my Jaffa Cakes! Biscuit week next week!