Cables and Cake

Hello... it's been a while, but we're on holiday in Norfolk and the weather is rather damp today so we're having a lazy morning sitting around reading, knitting, drinking tea etc in the hope the rain might ease a little so we can walk this afternoon. So I thought it would be an ideal time to drop by this sadly neglected blog in the hope there might be someone out there!

It has been so long since I was last here I'm not sure where to start, but the one consistent feature in my life over the past six weeks has been knitting! My hand has virtually mended now and except for heavy lifting or bare knuckle fighting I feel I can tackle pretty much anything I did previously. (For new readers... I'm not in the habit of fighting, honestly!)  I'm sure knitting has helped to keep my fingers flexible. Mostly I've been making hats and have fallen in love with cables. I don't think any of this woolly headgear will be destined for me as I look about 103 in woolly hats... it's not a pretty sight.

Once I was able to wield a pair of scissors safely, I also cut out the fabric to make a new dress... It's the Factory Dress by Merchant and Mills since you ask. It's a lovely dusty pink linen that I bought over a year ago. I don't like to rush things! And it just so happens that it is a perfect match for the beautiful yarn that I bought from Whistlebare last week. I'm progressing from hats and intend to make myself an Aran cardigan in the pink, although the blue is already another cabled hat.

Talking of Aran cardigans, I have also been doing some surgery on an Aran jacket that I knitted over 40 years ago from yarn that my parents brought back from Scotland in 1978, bought directly from the mill.

As you can see it has been sadly neglected in recent years, often just worn around the garden or to keep me warm in the studio (hence the paint on the very worn cuff) It has been given a good wash, seams have been repaired and both cuffs have been ripped back and re-knitted, with a ball of yarn that was spun from my friend's Ryland sheep. And I have to say it is as good as new!

This is me wearing it about 37 years ago... I know because the small child I am dragging along is my eldest son and he recently celebrated his 38th birthday. Which makes me feel very old... maybe I really am 103 so it's no surprise that I look like an old lady in woolly hats! I do wonder if the jacket will still be going strong in another 40 years (when I actually will be 103 in the unlikely event I am still around). I have a feeling the jacket will outlive me and hope there will still be someone who wants to wear it.

In other news... there has been baking. As the weather cooled, the Aga was switched back on which means once again I have an oven and can bake. My lovely sourdough starter Vincent Van Dough has gently bubbled away in the fridge, occasionally being fed or being added to pancakes and is now incredibly vigorous.

So now it is supplying us with bread as well as pancakes.

Of course I have been making cakes too whilst still basking in the novelty of having an oven, after a summer without one.

So that's what I have been up to... as well as seeing family while we still can, getting out to walk, reading lots of books and generally avoiding the news. I think this might be the pattern of our lives for some time yet. I'm also continuing with my online teaching which fortunately is going really well as this morning I have had conformation of yet another face to face class being cancelled. Details of my latest class are in the link below but the best way to keep up to date with what I'm teaching is via my newsletter which you can sign up for via the link in the sidebar. I think online teaching is the future for me now and it certainly has its appeal without all the bags to pack and load in the car, not to mention the long car journeys around the country too.

Free Machine Fun - Thread Painting

So that's my news... how have you been?

Since I was last here...

You might have been forgiven for thinking that I had run away to join the circus but no, I've just been here, keeping my head down, doing this and that, nothing really worthy of writing about. I think maybe it has something to do with the time of the year, February always feels like a bit of a transition time... the space between the new year and spring arriving. Most days I have been trying to spend a couple of hours in my studio doing something creative. My 30 second daily commute is rather inspiring as the garden is awash with snowdrops and hellebores

It has been one of the lovely things about moving to a new house, that we are constantly surprised by what pops up in the garden. I didn't bother with my little commute today though... I've just sat inside the house watching fence panels come down. It's not safe out there!

I have been taking another short online course, this time with Este Macleod. I like her work and was interested in her techniques, but although I have found it a good course that is packed with content, it has been too prescriptive for me. And I have realised I don't want to paint like Este Macleod! I guess I already knew that but the journey to finding my own artistic voice feels precarious at times and it's hard to listen to that inner voice that knows what I want to do.

I did make a couple of finished pictures as a result of the course that I am quite happy with, although they don't feel authentically mine. There were a lot of very similar looking pictures from everyone else taking the course. But I figure learning what we don't want to do is just as valuable as learning what we do want.

I have also been making some acrylic paintings that have come straight out of my head - semi abstract landscapes inspired by my weekend in the Lake District last year.

Possibly not everyone's cup of tea but at least they feel authentically mine and that is important to me.   Even if a well meaning friend named the one below 'Blue Slugs on Autumn Leaves'. I believe it was an attempt at humour as he rapidly renamed it 'Tarns of an Autumn Dawn' which is far more poetic but I am trying to be impervious to criticism or otherwise about my work!

There's not a lot else happening really... I'm trying to create a new website specifically for my painting. My old textile website died quite a while ago but it was outdated and clunky to use so there didn't seem much point reviving it. I had to write html code if I wanted update it or change things which was a challenge to say the least. Now I'm battling with the challenge of Squarespace or Wix... anyone here have experience of either? I keep watching online tutorials that tell me how intuitive it all is but I'm not buying it. It might be intuitive to a twenty something but not to this old girl!

The running has had a bit of a hiatus due to painful knees. It feels like muscle pain rather than joints so I'm hoping I just need to take things back a notch. I was putting ice on them but came to the conclusion it wasn't really helping and just making me cold. The pain has gone now and I thought I might venture out for a gentle jog this weekend but I was working all day yesterday and I wasn't going to battle with the wind today. I'm not that silly... running is hard enough without adding in extra resistance.

I have also been knitting tiny little garments because after having a year of weddings in 2018 we are now about to have a year of babies. Eldest son and his wife have a son due imminently and then we have another two due later in the year. It is just a little bit exciting!

Oh... and I made a cheesecake which given the love hate relationship I have with this Aga was something of an achievement. The instruction 'turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake in the oven until cold' was a bit of a challenge for an oven that never gets cold and reminded me of why the only cooking I now do is what is absolutely essential. But we had friends over for supper last night and I felt I should at least attempt to make a dessert. All those cakes are a thing of the past though. You would think the weight would be falling off me but it's not!

So that's what I've been up to... what about you?

The Aga Saga

I knew I was on dodgy ground when I said I wasn't sure about whether we would keep the Aga but I didn't expect quite the response I got both on here and on Facebook... there are some strong opinions out there! So just to put the record straight I didn't say it would definitely go and I did say there wouldn't be any rushed decision. Like the garden, we will live with it for a year, keep an eye on the electric bills and see how it goes. I like cooking with it well enough but probably no more or less than with my old fan oven.

Tonight I came in from a day working in London and it was good to put a baked potato in the already hot oven to have it ready in a little over an hour... although to be fair the fan oven only took five minutes to heat up. Of course, everyone was at pains to tell me I need an alternative cooking method for the summer months when the Aga can be turned off, but therein lies the problem. We don't have an alternative and the kitchen has been designed so that there is no obvious space for another oven and/or hob. And remodelling the kitchen is definitely not on the agenda.  I guess I don't really understand why anyone needs two separate cooking methods either... one for summer and another for winter feels a little extravagant! Our other problem is that if the Aga was replaced then we would also have to find alternative heating for the room in the winter. We first viewed the house in December and it was very cosy but without the Aga I think it would be rather cold. This week when the weather has been cooler it hasn't been too much of a problem to have it throwing out heat, at least nothing that can't be solved by keeping the windows open but last week it really was unbearable... although I guess there aren't really many days in the year that are that  hot. So like I say, there's lots to consider, for every arguement ther is a counter arguement and there won't be any rushed decisions, but thank you for your input!

 

On the positive side, I made my first cake in the Aga at the weekend and it was a resounding success. Just a simple jam sponge - four eggs (at room temperature) were weighed in their shells and then an equal weight of soft unsalted butter (butten softens very quickly near the Aga!) and sugar were beaten together with some vanilla paste until light and fluffy. The eggs were added, beaten in one at a time and the finally an equal amount of sifted self raising flour was folded into the batter taking cake not to over mix. It was divided between two 8" (20 cm) lightly greased and lined tins and baked for 23 mins in my baking oven (180 deg C or 160 fan). When cool, it was sandwiched together with jam, because I have a ridiculous number of pots of old jam that made the move with us, but other fillings are available.. buttercream, lemon curd, nutella would all work.

The result was a light, moist and very evenly risen cake so the Aga might well stay after all!

A Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Cake...

And some good news!

Shall we get the news out of the way first?

We have finally exchanged contracts and in a little over weeks time we will be in our new home. I had got to a stage where I never believed it was going to happen so I’m definitely wearing my happy pants this week. Smiles all round are the order of the day! And maybe even a cake to celebrate.

So now for that cake.

It's time again to join in with the Cake Slice Bakers (all the details are below). With the house taking up so much time I didn't manage to join in last month and almost didn't this month - this post is already three days late. I remember why I took a break from joining in with the Cake Slice Bakers last year... much as I love baking I often find the choices too complicated for my busy life, with too much frosting and frequently too sweet. And then I'm never that good at writing a post in time and doing all the links etc. But there was one cake this month that sounded too good to miss. Simple to put together, no fancy assembly required, no elaborate decorating. It's an everyday cake, good to eat at anytime of day and far too good not to share the recipe. The only downside is you are likely to eat too much of it in one sitting... a second slice is so tempting!  It is packed full of luscious jammy blueberries, flavoured with a subtle hint of lemon and the ricotta makes it unbelievably light. I don't think I have ever used ricotta in a cake before... who knew!

Blueberry  Lemon Ricotta Tea Cake

300g fresh blueberries

2 tbsp cornflour

227g softened butter

200g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste

zest of 2 lemons

4 large eggs

250g tub ricotta cheese

250g plain flour, sieved

48g ground almonds

4 tsp baking powder

icing sugar for dusting.

1. Preheat the oven to 170 deg C (150 fan) and grease and line a 23 cm springform pan
2. Wash and dry the blueberries and toss them in the cornflour. Set aside
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time with a little of the flour and beat until well mixed. Finally whisk in the ricotta to give a creamy batter.
4. Combine the dry ingredients together and fold into the batter. Finally add 250g of the blueberries, folding them in
5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, levelling the top and scatter the remaining blueberries over the surface
6. Bake the cake in a preheated oven for about an hour - this is how long it took in my oven but the book says bake for 80 - 90 minutes so do check to see if it is done by inserting a skewer and checking it comes out clean.
7. Cool in the tin for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar.

This is best eaten warm, although still very good cold the following day (ask me how I know) and a dollop of creme fraiche on the side doesn't go amiss either! It is definitely one I will bake again.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

Our choices for June 2019 were ~

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Tea Cake

Raspberry Cremeschnitte

White Chocolate Raspberry Pistachio Mousse Cake

Tiramisu Cake

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Tea Cake

Karen's Kitchen Stories

My Recipe Reviews Needs update

Sweet Sensations

Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Raspberry Cremeschnitte

Amandie Bakes 

Tiramisu Cake

All That's Left Are The Crumbs

A Day in the Life on the Farm

White Chocolate Raspberry Pistachio Mousse Cake

Note - this cake was not chosen by any group members

The Elephant in the Room

I'm  not going to talk about that elephant in the room... the thing that everyone wants to ask... any news, have we got a date? No I'm going to talk about everything else that has been going on instead.

Crochet

I finished another blanket.

I know... I finished a blanket just a week or so ago but this one has been on the go for many years. At least six years as I first mentioned it here. I would go through phases of  making squares and then leave it for months before picking it up again to add a few more. Even when I had finished the 168 squares, each one subtly different from the last, it took me almost as long to sew it all up... all those loose ends! Was it worth it? Yes I think so, although what I will do with it now I don't know. I do know I might take a break from blanket making!

Reading

This is going to be in the order that the photos have loaded rather than the order that I have been reading, although to be fair I seem to have read a lot in the past month  and I can't really remember the order in which these book were read!

I had high expectations for The Lost Letters of William Woolf. It seemed such a great idea, such a wonderful premise... a lost letter department of the Royal Mail where letters were reunited with their recipients. The romance of hand written letters gone astray, finally arriving at their destination seemed to offer such great potential for a story. But I was disappointed, finding it far fetched and over romanticised and mostly about the failing marriage of William Woolf.

In the need for a quick satisfying read I have turned to thrillers. The Dark Room was okay but felt very dated, and The Taxidermist's Daughter was okay but wasn't really engaging me... probably more to do with that elephant in the room effecting my concentration rather than the quality of the writing. However I did read The Killing Habit by Mark Billingham in just two days... I do rather like DI Tom Thorne!

I also enjoyed The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths, Normal People by Sally Rooney and I am now part way through An American Marriage which I am thoroughly enjoying. Maybe my powers of concentration are returning!

Knitting

I have been picking up my knitting on and off since the start of the year and it has taken me this long to finish this Hitchhiker scarf. At the beginning of the year I made a pledge to finish nine projects in 2019. This is the third project that I have finished which  doesn't bode well for getting them all done by the end of the year does it.

Looking at that photo I am slightly alarmed that my neck looks like a turkey's... oh dear one day you look in the mirror and all is well with the world then suddenly before you notice you have turned into your grandmother. Not that I have a problem turning into my grandmother as she was a wonderful woman... but you know what I mean! At least the scarf looks good!

Shopping

I bought the dog a new bed because I felt sorry for him.He chooses to sleep on the floor as he only has a hard plastic bed... his own fault as he eats his beds. But do not be fooled by him curled up looking cosy... he loved it for one night before he dragged it out and chewed it, pulling out half the stuffing. Which of course is why he didn't have a comfy bed to begin with. You think I would learn wouldn't you.

Baking

I have made two chocolate cakes this week. The first was for Free Cakes for Kids, although this time it was not for a child's birthday. The Cambridge branch of the charity also supports a couple of homeless charities and so this chocolate cake was delivered to Wintercomfort. Everyone with a June birthday was entered into a draw to win the cake.

 

Donna won the cake and then shared it with all the clients using the services that day. I was privileged to be asked to stay for a cuppa and a chat. It always leaves me humbled that just a cake can mean so much.

 

 The second chocolate cake was for this gorgeous baby... except he's not a baby anymore (although still pretty gorgeous but I am biased). Son no. 3 Joe celebrated his 30th birthday this weekend! Where did those years go?

We had a family barbecue to celebrate. At Easter we thought it would be the the last family gathering in this house. Little did we know...

 

Painting

Each week I take my Mum to her painting class. Mostly I just sit and draw in my  sketchbook  but the for the past couple of weeks I have been joining in with the class. Last week I painted that proverbial elephant!

Talking of which... today we had a bit of a break through. I don't want to tempt fate by saying too much but I might actually be shooing that elephant out of the room by the end of this week!

I’m Still Here

Yes, I am still here... both virtually in this little online space and physically in our house still waiting to move. 

I enjoy writing this blog and if there are a few of you out there enjoying it too then it makes it worthwhile. Especially if I can read and comment on your blogs too, should you happen to write one. The interaction with others makes it feel like a conversation. But it has become increasingly more difficult to leave comments on some of my favourite blogs. There have been times when I have typed out a comment three or four times but each time I hit the publish button, the comment disappears... which is so frustrating! And I know others are having the same problem so it does feel like being in an isolated bubble. So just saying I am reading, I'm still here ... and I would comment if I could!

We're still here waiting to move too. It was meant to be this Friday but contracts haven't been exchanged and so it looks like completion date will be pushed back once again to next week... or later possibly... possibly not. After what feels like months of clearing out we have got rid of furniture and possessions so we are now living with empty rooms and boxes, which is very unsettling.

But we are trying to carry on as normal as best as we can. I'm doing lots of reading but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate and stay focused when I read, although to be fair those late night ten minutes before nodding off are probably not the ideal time for retaining information. I frequently have to reread what I've already read!

The were a couple of books for our reading group lately that I didn't really enjoy. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwen is a spy story set in 1972. The female voice of the narrator, Serena just never rang true for me, which actually made sense by the end of the book so may have been a very cleverly written ploy. (Trying not to give a spoiler here) But there seemed little point revealing something clever at the end if it didn't resonate all the way through. Our latest Reading group book was Everything Under by Daisy Johnson, a retelling of the Oedipus story which I just found too weird and complicated. I didn't even get the Oedipus connection! It did lead to a really good discussion though  and the group were strongly divided in our opinions.

I picked up The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul in our phone box lending library. I thought it would be a light easy read, which I suppose it was but it felt like it had pretensions to be something more. It tackled heavy subjects such as the Taliban and the role of women in Afghanistan but I felt the story was too lightweight to carry them off. And then I picked up the first Rebus story by Ian Rankin... surely Ian Rankin could take me away from my busy head but I didn't particularly enjoy that either. Rebus is a bit too morose and dour for me, although I'm willing to give him another chance, which is just as well as I think I may have packed another half dozen or so Rebus novels.  I was despairing of picking up a book that I would enjoy, ever again... until I found this. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. I found the writing intelligent and concise as it builds the story of Frances and Bobbi, students who have been friends since school. It's about flawed characters and complicated relationships and I found it refreshingly different to what I had been reading.

I actually bought this in a bookshop, rather than on-line or picking it up in the phone box and had a pleasant surprise. Inside someone had tucked a little folded homemade book. With a bit of research I found it was the work of some Anglia Ruskin students who claim to be "celebrating the ordinary" by posting these little newspapers around Cambridge.

 

A fun thing to do that brought a smile to my face!

There are more books piled up at the side of my bed. I'd like to think we will have moved before I get through these but at the rate we're going it seems unlikely.

Meanwhile we are trying to carry on as normally as possible and on the plus side every nook and cranny of this house is getting sorted out and cleared... nothing is safe! That includes the food cupboards too. Baking has involved using up store cupboard ingredients... goodness knows how long the tin of pineapple had been there but as it was just about in date it got put into these tropical fruit muffins along with a packet of coconut.

The six egg whites I found in the freezer were used to make blueberry friands. I have no idea what the yolks were used for but the freezer is now empty and the cupboards are bare so I hope we move soon!

Wishing you a happy bank holiday weekend here in the UK. I hope by the next time I write something it won't be from here but will be from somewhere else... but I'm not holding my breath! I'm now going to read some blogs... and apologise now for not leaving a comment!

A Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

I'm joining in with the Cake Slice Bakers again this month baking from The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk

A couple of the choices seemed really complicated but I was immediately drawn the the Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt cake as a chance to use my beautiful Rose Bundt tin, which has languished unused in the back of the cupboard. And being the Easter weekend chocolate seemed a good choice.

The photograph in the book shows a simple glaze that shows off the beauty of the shaped cake and I was anxious whether my cake would turn out quite so beautifully.

 

I greased and floured my tin well. The actual cake was straightforward to make, it baked beautifully and  turned out of the tin like a dream... I just wish I had taken a photograph at this stage! I then made the glaze according to the recipe and didn't really clock that it seemed more like an icing than a glaze. I poured it liberally over the cake but instead of sinking in and leaving just a touch of frosting as in the book it just sat and looked gloopy all over the surface! Not an attractive look!

I almost didn't share these photos! It's definitely not my best effort and it is hard to believe I used the same glaze recipe as the book, but I did! Fortunately my chief cake tester is not that discerning thought it looked just fine.

 

Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating... and it tasted okay but for me it was neither one thing or another. Not quite orangey enough to be an orange cake, yet not overly chocolately either. So I'm not sure I'll be making it again, although if I do the glaze will be replaced with an orange drizzle... or I would bake it in a plain tin.

 The recipe should you want to try it for yourself:

Ingredients

227g unsalted butter, softened

200g caster sugar

4 large eggs

1 tspn vanilla essence

1/2 tspn orange oil

Grated zest from one orange

227 ml milk

250g

plain flour

4 tspn baking powder

100g white chocolate, melted

100g 72 % dark chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C (160 fan) and grease a 23 cm bundt tin. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, along with a spoonful of flour with each addition and beat in well. Combine the flour and baking powder and fold into the batter with the zest, vanilla, orange oil and milk. Divide the mixture into two bowls and stir the white chocolate into one and the dark chocolate into the other. Gentle fold the two together to give a marbled effect and pour into the prepared tin. Bake for approximately 55 mins until baked through.

Cool in the tin for 15 mins and then turn out and cool completely. Combine 50 ml double cream with 125g icing sugar and the zest of an orange and pour over the cake for a nice gloopy topping!

**********

My other chocolate offering this weekend was a Mint and Pistachio chocolate fridge cake from Ottolenghi's book Simple. This is not hanging around and will definitely be made again!

Wishing you all a happy Easter and I hope there will be chocolate for you too!

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

Our choices for April 2019 were ~

1. Poppy Seed Smetanik

2. Rhubarb Strawberry Tea Cake

3. Opera Cake

4. Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

Poppy Seed Smetanik

Amandie Bakes - Amanda

All That's Left Are The Crumbs - Felice

Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt

Karen’s Kitchen Stories - Karen

Fan My Flame - Gina

A Little Bit of All Right - Kim

My Recipe Reviews - Susan

Rhubarb Strawberry Tea Cake 

Culinary Adventures with Camilla - Camilla