Thank You and Cake

First I wanted to say a big thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post. I can't believe that people I have never met can be so kind.
I have started to feel a bit better I'm glad to say, I hope it continues.
Anyway, on with the cake.

I made Banana and Chocolate Bread on Sunday, another one from the new book.
Here it is before it went into the oven.


Here is what it looked like in the book.


Here is what mine looked like just out of the oven

and here after it had been cut.


This one turned out well, I did have to cook it for a bit longer but that is par for the course with my oven. The family gave it the thumbs up although I have to say I found it a bit tasteless. There's no pleasing some people!

Thanks again for the support, enjoy your week,

Sue x

Fog

There has been dense black fog filling the kitchen for the past few weeks. It has been getting worse as the days have passed. This has made it difficult to achieve anything. I think Winston Churchill called it his black dog, however I like dogs too much to want to associate them with these times and anyway I wouldn't want to upset Florence.

Over the last day or so I think the fog has started to thin a little, enough anyway for me to see to make another cake from the new book.
I made a Lemon Drizzle Cake. This is what it looks like in the book

and this is what mine looks like.



I think it's a bit too brown on the outside and that is because I had to cook it for 20 minutes longer than the recipe said. I have a c**p oven obviously!

It tastes delicious and there is a lot less than this left now. As this is the third cake I have now made from this book and I have had to tweak each one I'm beginning to wonder if anyone actually tried the recipes before they published it. Perhaps I'm being unfair, I'll have to try a few more to be sure.

Hope you all have good weeks, hopefully I'll be back soon.

Sue x

Green and Gorgeous

Yesterday we visited here

Green and Gorgeous grow flowers which they sell as bouquets, they also do wedding flowers. Everything is grown organically. They have a beautiful site in the Oxfordshire countryside.


This is a general view across the site, there were several large polytunnels this one with dahlias


the others had roses and also vegetables. This plant was growing on supports around the beds


it's called a cup and saucer vine, it's an annual so obviously grows very quickly. There were sunflowers

and lots of beautiful roses

like this one. Don't know what it's called unfortunately.
We had a lovely afternoon walking round in the sunshine, we finished up with tea and scones. Couldn't ask for more.

On Saturday I made cake 2 from my new book, a Bara Brith.

This one turned out ok,although the recipe needed tweeking. It needed more fluid than the recipe said but apart from that it worked fine. It certainly tasted good and it didn't last long, we had the last bit this evening.
Not sure what the next one is going to be but I'll be sure to share the results with you.

Hope you all have good weeks,

Sue x

Thank You

Just a quick post to say thank you for all your suggestions regarding the sinking cherries. I did in fact do most of the things suggested. Still as was said, it doesn't really matter as it tasted fine . If I make it again I will definitely put more cherries in it and I'm going to try rolling them in ground almonds

Thanks again, I'm now trying to decide which cake to have a go at this weekend.

Take care

Sue x

Cake 1

Well, I made the first cake from my new book on Sunday.

I decided to have a go at the cherry cake. It looked fine in the tin


and it looked fine while it was cooling down

but when I cut into it all the cherries had sunk to the bottom.

It tastes fine, thankfully but has anyone got any ideas about how to stop the cherries sinking? I did everything it said in the recipe but that obviously didn't work.

Oh and Cheryl, it has managed to spend one day in one of the new tins! Don't think it will be there much longer though.

Sue

Cake Tins

These arrived today

to go with the new recipe book.
All I need to do now is fill them up.
Watch this space.

Sue x

Baking

I bought this recently

it accompanies the BBC programme The Great British Bake Off. It's got some delicious things in it


I'm not sure which to make first. Maybe I should just work my way from one end to the other!
Maybe not, we would then require some serious dieting I think.
Whatever I decide to do I'll post about the results.

Hope you've all had good weekends.

Sue x

Greys Court

Yesterday we went to Greys Court in Oxfordshire it is near Henley on Thames and about an hours journey for us. The house that is there now is Tudor but there have been people living on the site for nearly 1000 years. The estate has only been owned by five families in all that time.
The house is not very big in fact it is a very homely and welcoming house, it's very easy to imagine living there. Unfortunately photography is not allowed in the house so there are no piccies I'm afraid.

In the grounds there are the remains of some of the earliest buildings, this tower


and some of the walls that used to surround the manor.

The gardens are beautiful

this is the white garden which is around the base of the tower.




this is the cherry garden, this is also grown amongst the old walls. There is a walled kitchen garden


which as you can see was stuffed to bursting. Among the things growing were these amazing applesit was very tempting to pick some, I didn't I hasten to add. If you are ever near Henley it's definitely worth a visit.

We are off to a one day event tomorrow, another early start! We are hoping for a dry day so fingers crossed.

Hope you enjoy the long weekend and that the sun shines on you.

Sue x

Savill Garden

Yesterday we went to Savill Garden which is near Windsor in Berkshire. It is in Windsor Great Park and is one part of a group of three gardens which make up what is known as The Royal Landscape. The other two parts are The Valley Gardens and Virginia Water. Savill Garden is the smallest of the three.
It is very well kept, these steps lead down into the garden.

It's a bit late in the year for lots of things in the garden but the summer borders were still looking beautiful.


The large greenhouse in the picture is the temperate house it has lots of tender plants in it. It also has this water feature.

It was quite hypnotic watching it.
There are well laid paths leading all round the garden although you can wander wherever you like, no Keep of the Grass signs anywhere. We came across this walking through some trees

it is a wisteria, we couldn't see the top of it as the tree it was climbing was so tall. We sat for a while in the Jubilee Garden

this is just one of the borders. It was very peaceful sitting there and as it is sheltered we were out of the wind.
It is a lovely garden to visit, the restaurant is very good and the shop had some interesting things in it. We will certainly be visiting again.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,

Sue x

Gifts

This is just a quick post today to say thank you to Lorraine for the pay it forward gifts. They arrived cheerfully wrapped

and they smelt good too, thanks to the lavender. When I opened the parcel I found these

a dish cloth, a brooch and a heart. Thank you Lorraine, they are very much appreciated.

We went to Savill Gardens today, hopefully I'll do a post about our day out tomorrow.


Sue x