This weekend has been designated a gardening weekend, there’s loads to do out there, but we will find time to sit & have a cup of tea & a slice of cake in our new, little summerhouse. Lemon polenta is a perfect bake for a busy weekend when time is short. Firstly it tastes deliciously […]
Elderflower & Gooseberry Cake
As a last hurrah for elderflowers and because together with gooseberries they are a match made in heaven, I’ve made a cake that combines both of these lovely summer flavours. For the sponge, you’ll need: 250g self raising flour 250g softened butter 225g caters sugar 4 large eggs, mixed together in a bowl the filling […]
Flowers and cake for a special wedding.
May is a fabulous month, suddenly the wisteria has appeared everywhere in full bloom and the road-sides are billowing with cow parsley, and from now onwards it’ll also be the month to remember as the anniversary of my daughters wedding, Family and friends helped get everything ready on Saturday, kitting out the marquee in a […]
Currently making wild garlic pesto
I love this time of year with so much fresh, green growth everywhere, there’s a chill in the air, but the days are longer and there’s a fair bit of sunshine around. I hope you had a good weekend, did you have any sunshine? I seem to start a lot of my posts talking about the […]
Rhubarb-almond cake & growing rhubarb
How is your Easter weekend, have you had a good time and did you remember about the clocks changing? Isn’t it nice to have more light in the evenings now. It’s been busy here, the kitchen is finally being re-fitted after a leakage of water nearly 5 months ago and Clive was in hospital 4 […]
GYO fruity cake icing
I’ve just discovered another way of using home-grown berries, and it involves cake, a perfect combination as far as I’m concerned. I’m all for using berries from the allotment in crumbles, but I realised a few days ago that they can be used to make cake-icing, instead of using synthetic food-colouring, and it was a […]
Recipe for an easy & delicious apple cake
I’m looking for inventive ways to preserve the buckets and buckets of apples that our two trees at the allotment have produced. The truth is that they’re not very tasty eaters and in the past I’ve simply partially cooked and frozen them, and whilst it’s lovely to have a supply of fruit for crumbles [favourite […]
Mint tea anyone?
Mint is such a wonderful herb, it’s useful for sweet and savoury recipes and has lots of health benefits too; it’s free of caffeine, choc full of vitamins, antioxidants and minerals, helps digestion and is a quick cure for indegestion and nausea. It’s also easy to grow, as long as those ambitious roots are contained. […]
Growing rhubarb & making rhubarb cake
A home baked cake is always a lovely thing, it’s as fresh as you like and you know exactly what’s in it. In this case it’s rhubarb from the allotment that’s been stashed away in the freezer since last year. Planting fruit makes sense for sustainable growing, once it’s in the ground it carries on […]
Preserving fruit and vegetables.
The great thing about growing your own, herbs, fruit and vegetables, is that you get lots of lovely, fresh food, but no matter how hard you try, there’s always a glut. The answer to this happy problem is to preserve fruit and vegetables and squirrel them away for another day, it’s so nice to have […]
Easy elderflower cordial – freezing a bit of summer for later in the year.
Hedgerows are full of flowering elder trees at the moment, the creamy flowerheads look so pretty. For longer than I really like to admit I have intended to pick the flowers and make elderflower cordial. The flowering season is short and they have to be picked at just the right time … and my timing […]
Roses, cake and jubilee celebrations.
I hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine here in England, it’s a lovely time of year… the roses are starting to bloom and gardens still have that fresh, green look. We’re all hoping the sunshine will last through to next weekend, when most of us have an extra day off work to celebrate the Queens diamond jubilee. You […]