Attempt numero uno

We bought a Nordicware pirate cake tin ages ago to use for the boys



and I'm getting it out for a pirate cake for Leo, who will be 1 on the 22nd. Getting family and friends here to celebrate his birthday has been a bit of an undertaking and in effect there will be 3 - yes, count them - 3 parties. Well, opportunities for tea and cake more like.

Having had some difficulty with Zachary's train birthday cake



(it took me 3 attempts to get the cake mix the right consistency, the right amount in each little section and to make sure I'd greased and floured everything sufficiently!), I thought I'd have a trial run today to see how I got on. So here is attempt 1.



Not too bad, but could be better - by the way, all the cake showing at the left side of the cake is where Leigh snagged some for sampling it came out of the tin fine! I'd had in mind to simply put my usual Victoria sandwich mix in the tin and see what happened, but Leigh thought a Madeira cake would be better. Having failed to find a pirate cake recipe on the internet I got out my Madeira cake recipe today only to discover I don't have an ground almonds or a lemon. So back to Victoria sandwich. So, a lot of detail came out well, the cake fairly slid out of the cake tin (thank goodness - that was my worst fear, a sticking cake) and it tastes good, although my 3-egg mix is clearly not enough. I now have this link to read for some help and Leigh found a recipe in Nigella Lawson's "Christmas" book in which she gives her recipe for a tree Bundt tin cake. The tin seems to be similar in approximate size so I'm going to give that a go for a second run through and then make a decision... Hopefully it will also survive longer than the sandwich would out of a tin, and here's a piccie of a suggested decoration.



Oooo - look at all that piping. Hmm...not sure I'll stretch to that - this one looks more manageable!

And shorn

Went to a great little local hairdressers today called Kidz Kuts to get Leo's hair cut. It's got to the stage now where it definitely needs doing and my hairdressing 'skills' are without a doubt not up to the job!! I keep passing the sign for this place when I go the back way into Spondon so I made an appointment with the hope that they would be well used to dealing with young children and that they might be able to help with Leo. So off we went - it's a very small salon, with just three stations, but the middle one is a car! So Leo was very happy sitting up there, there's a TV screen in front of the chair rather than just a mirror and the stylist had a variety of toys he could just keep on coming as Leo got bored with the last. In all, Leo seemed pretty much unconcerned with what was going on on his head and sat very well for most of the cut - just got to his feet towards the end. At the end of the salon there's a play are with another great selection of toys so Zachary was well occupied and quite throughout the whole visit. Success. And here he is

Possibly the best bed-hair in the world?

Big boy pants

Tried and failed. Two wees and two poos in the pants - Zachary seemingly unconcerned by these events and they certainly didn't prompt him to let us know next time he needed a wee. So decision taken to step back from potty training til after Christmas. Although intellectually he seems to understand the process, I don't think he yet really relates it to himself somehow and I'm guessing he still doesn't recognise the signs which tell him he's ready to do a wee or a poo. So we'll see how we get on in a couple of months.

Weekending

Had a great weekend, all the better for being at home. Saturday we visited Hobbycraft - always a mistake even with list in hand! Came away with much more than we went for, but all will be useful in time. Several things were returned to the shelves!! Unfortunately my handbag got left in the car park and when I rang the store after we got home to see whether it was still there, I thought for a moment the manager was going to refuse to go and look as she told me 'we are very busy here!' It wasn't there, and hadn't been handed in at the store next door either. So I rang my phone, not really expecting any luck, and it was answered by a kindly gent who had found the bag and taken it with him. Leigh went out to collect it and it is now safely home all complete. Phew!

I should say here that there has still been no progress on the potty front. Was intending to try big boy pants this afternoon, but didn't quite get there. Am going to stay in and try tomorrow morning...

In the afternoon it was the 1st birthday party of the little girl of one of my friends - lots of cake, pass the parcel and presents! Today I went to church with the boys, then we had a spontaneous lunch in Tesco, spent far too much in the toy department, dressed the boys up in their Christmas kits for a photo session when we got home, and then I made a lovely hazelnut cake. The recipe is at the end of this blog.

The next cake in Bake we cooked was actually the coconut macaroon tart



which Leigh made last week, and let me tell you it was absolutely delicious! He put a layer of jam on the pastry under the coconut topping and it was totally brilliant. So next cake is the Italian Hazelnut cake - lighter than you think it'll be. I had been putting this off to a weekend as on re-reading the recipe I realised it was quite fiddly, rather than one of my usual 'tip everything into the Kitchen Aid and beat' cakes! I also found we had enough kitchen gadgets to make the cake without having to wash anything up in between - not sure whether that's good or bad! I ground the hazelnuts in our stand blender, then used a hand-held electric beater to whisk the egg yolk mixture, and the Kitchen Aid to whisk the egg whites. It cooked in the allotted time and is very tasty. Just waiting to see how it is on the second day...



200g hazelnuts (with skins on)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
100g butter, softened
5 eggs, separated
175g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

1. Grease and base line a 20cm diameter spring-form tin. Preheat the oven to 170C/150C fan/325F.

2. Grind the hazelnuts with the baking powder and ground cinnamon in a food processor until fine. Combine with the butter.

3. Place the egg yolks in the bowl of an electric food mixer or use a hand-held electric beater. Add the sugar and whisk until the mixture becomes slightly 'moussey' and the mix holds a trail when you lift the beater. Add the hazelnut mixture and the vanilla extract and whisk until combined.

4. Whisk the egg whites and salt together in a large, spotlessly clean bowl until stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the nut mixture in three stages so as not to deflate the whites.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, smooth the surface and bake in the oven for 55-70 minutes (it took 55 mins at 150C in our fan oven) or until the cake feels firm and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. The mixture is quite delicate so don't be tempted to open the oven until close to the end of the cooking time.

6. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then very gently ease the sides of the cake out of the tin using a palette knife. Remove the base after another 15 minutes and leave to cool before cutting into slices.

We served with vanilla ice cream - also homemade!!

In Leo and Zachary world

Today and yesterday no joy on the potty. We read Pirate Pete's Potty and Zachary seemed to connect really well with it - he appeared to understand the concepts, identified with Pirate Pete who has a Mummy, a Daddy and a younger brother (and an older sister, but we glossed over her!), engaged with the pages where he's invited to pick his favourite potty and pair of pants, and loves the page which has a picture of the poo Pirate Pete did in his potty, but still hasn't managed anything himself. One time when I asked him if he needed to do a wee he said "not today Mummy." Hmmmm.

He's also started using an 'f' word. Now I'm not saying it's the 'f' word because it's not completely clear what he's saying, although it sounds suspiciously like it! He seems to use it when he's throwing or flicking things (ah, could it be 'flick?') and gives a really cheeky grin when he says it like he's knows it's dodgy. He certainly hasn't heard the word from us and I hope not from nursery (unless it's another child) so I suspect it's something else that he's just not quite saying properly. At least that's the basis we're working on and trying not to make a huge fuss about it.

Leo can now climb an entire flight of stairs, has worked out posting letters into the wooden post box and can hammer balls into the toy chicken (which is what you are supposed to do!). He's 1 in 3 weeks and I really don't know whether Zachary was doing these kind of things when he was 1. I think he was. But my recollection of Z at 1 is of a child more mature looking than Leo and seeming more grown up - I suspect however that my thoughts and memories are coloured by the fact that he was my first child, and now when I look at Leo I have a 2 year old to compare him against so he may seem much younger anyway.

In my world I've had an annoying time with Mothercare. In the store they didn't have the size I needed in the vest I wanted to buy. So I thought I'd order it through the shop as it then doesn't cost me any postage!! But their computers were playing up so I ordered it from home (complete with £2 delivery charge - scandalous!). The internet said it would be in on 3rd November. So I dutifully turned up to be told that it wasn't in yet - apparently they'd had an audit the day before so there were no deliveries and anyway I should have waited for an email to confirm. But the computer was checked, and delivery the next day was confirmed. I got an email the next morning to say it had been delivered. Went to the shop - shop assistant spent 20-25 minutes in the storeroom with 3 colleagues looking for my item of clothing. No joy. Added to which I had both boys with me who were getting increasingly bored. Leo did not want to sit in the trolley any longer and Zachary was running across the store to fling the toilets door open every so often. We rode the Iggle Piggle machine, ate a cereal bar and played with the display of electronic books which were by the tills. Also by the tills were a large array of chocolate lollipops and jelly lollipops - not tempting in any way at all...so spent another few minutes dragging them out of the grasp of my children and trying to keep the trolley far enough away so Leo couldn't grab them while not blocking the exit for all those lucky people who had actually been able to buy what they wanted.

Not frustrating at all. I was advised to come back again another day - at which point presumably another 3 assistants will spend another fruitless 20 minutes searching through stock. I'm going to ring first.

Wednesday

Still no luck with the potty although Zachary seems happier to sit on it - at times. I've been getting Leo to sit on it as well when they're getting dressed, and did again at bathtime tonight to try and encourage Zachary. He seems to respond to "look, Leo's doing it too," more than "you're doing it on your own because you're the big boy" type stuff. Leo thinks sitting on the potty is hilarious and at bathtime I almost thought he was going to do a wee! Would be one up on Zachary..

Also bought a book today - Pirate Pete's Potty to read with him. But I'm getting more convinced that while the pull-ups are catching everything, he's got no motivation to use the potty or toilet. I suspect that I'm going to need to move on to proper pants soon and see how that goes when he starts getting wet. An afternoon in our kitchen with the tiled floor I think, although it won't be for a few days. Will stick with the pull-ups in the meantime - I don't want to go backwards just yet.

Day 2

Still no deposits in the potty although apparently Zachary did ask to use the toilet at nursery. At which point he declared that the wee and poo weren't coming. Nice. Am trying not to make him fed up of the potty at home before he's even used it - if I ask if he needs a wee, he usually sighs, rolls his eyes and says no. Although I think I caught him unawares this afternoon - he actually said yes, then when I suggested he sat on it, he quickly backtracked!!! I suspect that he thought going to the potty would mean missing Mister Maker! Need to put TV in the toilet...

Girding my loins

Right, well we've decided to start potty training with Zachary. Bit apprehensive about it really, but I have in mind that I'd like to at least have a go before Christmas, with an ultimate aim of having him potty trained in the day by Easter, which is when he will hopefully be starting a different nursery. Now, I know that this may not happen but I feel I need an aim otherwise I'll just keep putting it off!! We've not got any trips away planned for the next few weeks, so it seemed like a good time.

So today I cracked open the pull-up pants, and if all goes well this week hope to move on to training pants next week. Zachary sat happily on the potty for me a few times, but no actual wees or poos made it in there. I'm also asking him fairly regularly if he needs a wee, but I think he's fed up with that already! Tiny steps though and I'm pleased I've made a start, I just need to be patient. See how it goes at nursery tomorrow too.

Off his trolley?

Here is a picture of a magnet we have in the kitchen...



Zachary looked at it yesterday and asked "who's that pushing his trolley!"

Yes, I am working through the cake section of my cookery book!

Today's effort - Mocha Cake :



Hmmm, the 'easy chocolate curls' (not described here but detailed in the book) turned out as 'easy chocolate dust,' and my butter was far too soft for the icing (you can see how it's seeped out the end of the cake!), but otherwise a very delicious cake.

175g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
225g soft light brown sugar
175g butter, melted
4 medium eggs, separated
60ml very strong coffee, cooled
3 tbsp water

Icing :
100g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
1 tbsp water or milk
2-3tbsp very strong coffee, cooled
1. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Oil and line a 2lb loaf tin with parchment paper (yay! finally a chance to use my Lakeland loaf tin liners and they performed brilliantly!) so that it comes over the sides of the tin. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a large bowl, add the sugar and stir to combine.

2. Using a wooden spoon or a hand-held whisk, beat in the melted butter, egg yolks, coffee and water until smooth.

3. Whisk the egg whites in a large clean bowl until fairly stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the cake mixture in three batches making sure there are no lumps of egg white left.

4. Turn the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth the surface. Give the tin a tap to remove any air bubbles. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 160C/gas 3 for the last 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. As I use a fan oven, I reduced the heat to 140C (I usually reduce by about 20 degrees) - however the cake then took a further 40 minutes to cook, rather than the 20 described in the recipe. This sort of thing has happened before, and I wonder whether if the oven temperature reduces below a certain point, I either don't need to reduce it so much, or don't need to reduce it at all.

5. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then lift out by the parchment paper onto a wire rack to cool completely.

6. Make the icing - Place the butter in a large bowl and beat it thoroughly with a wooden spoon until it is very soft. Add the sifted icing sugar and coffee and beat until smooth (as my butter was so soft I didn't need any milk, and even had to add more icing sugar to get it to a consistency where it would actually stay on a cake!). When the cake is cold, remove the parchment paper. Using a breadknife, split the cake horizontally (I also removed the top as it was no way flat enough for the runniness of my icing) and spread about a third of the icing on the lower half. Place the other half of the cake back on top and spread the rest of the icing over it.

7. Decorate as desired - it's best to leave the cake for 30 minutes to settle before cutting.

Okay Rachel Allen - Italian Hazelnut cake next...

Poppy Seed cake

Saw a lovely looking poppy seed cake in Rachel Allen's "Bake" and thought I'd try it today. Firstly, 75g of poppy seeds seem a massive amount!!! The cake went well, although I wasn't sure it had risen as much as it should. That said, it didn't look too different from the picture in the book. The buttercream icing was interesting though - it's essentially a custard whisked into butter. My very helpful and talented sous chef made the custard for me, and the icing came out really well - it tastes very buttery, but creamy, not greasy. I find that when I'm making regular butter icing (butter and icing sugar), if it's too buttery, it just tastes wrong, but this icing here is great and much lighter. Although it was only when typing out the recipe this evening I realised that I had told Leigh to use 3 egg yolks, rather than the 2 of the recipe! Extra rich then!

Here is the cake uniced



Iced



And cut open to show the inside.



The poppy seeds give it a grainy texture and a very distinctive flavour, and the icing is a great complement to it.

I have also been spending time making more Caralot goodies this evening instead of ironing...this time, cushions!



I need to tell Jamie that his branding is definitely working - Zachary can recognise the colour and 'a' at 50 paces!

And finally, Zachary was taking some photos from the kitchen table while we were clearing up after dinner tonight - he got this great one of Leo enjoying an apple.



(Rachel Allen - Bake)

150g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
75g poppy seeds
Icing :
150ml milk
125g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
175g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract (i did not use this as had some vanilla sugar in the cupboard - a jar of caster sugar with an old vanilla pod inside).

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3. Butter the sides of a 20cm spring-form/loose-bottomed tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

2. Cream the butter in a large bowl or in an electric mixer until soft. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs, beating well between each addition.

3. Sift in the flour and baking powder, add the poppy seeds and stir until combined.

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, making a slight hollow in the centre with the back of a spoon. Bake in the oven for 25-28 minutes or until it is cooked in the centre and a skewer comes out clean.

5. Allow the cake to stand for 5 minutes before carefully removing it from the tin and transferring to a wire rack to cool.

6. Make the vanilla buttercream icing : Place the milk and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

7. Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl, then pour the milk onto the yolks, whisking continuously. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a low-medium heat, stirring all the time with a wooden or silicone spatula until it thickens and the mixture just coats the back of a spoon - this may take about 10 minutes. Do not allow the mixture to get too hot or it will scramble (if it does, quickly remove from the pan and pass through a sieve). Pour into a bowl or jug and allow to cool slightly.

8. Meanwhile, place the butter in a bowl (I did this in an electric food mixer) and whisk until soft and light.

9. Gradually add the almost cooled (not cold, but room temperature is fine) custard to the butter, whisking all the time until it is combined. Add the vanilla extract and mix. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the icing and serve.

Cakes Galore

So the Christmas cake is now cooked and in storage for the big day - must remember to feed it this year....



I've also made a cake for my brother-in-law with his new business' logo on it. This is the full logo



- I was intending to make a rectangular cake with the full name on, but then saw how much mixture I'd need for a 10" square cake. Yep, so decided to stick to a regular Victoria sponge. And the full name was dropped - my plan was to use thick water icing and pipe the name on, but to be honest, my icing skills are few and far between and the last time I tried to write a name on this size of cake, I started off way too big and the end of the word looked ridiculous!!!! Leigh's suggestion was to just stick to the car logo and it doesn't look too bad. A couple of things though - turning a pack of white royal icing black is not as easy as I thought it would be. Took about half a bottle of colouring to actually get to black - dirty grey was no problem, but black more difficult! And because of the extra liquid being added, the icing became really sticky and unmanageable and I had to keep adding icing sugar. I think it came out okay in the end though.

Nigella

Watching a Nigella Kitchen from the other night - she's showing us to make a magnificent looking cheesecake and describes how it should look once baked - there should be an inner thigh wobble. Oooooo!

Day at home

We decided to have a quiet day at home today to recover from the festivities yesterday, but still managed to get a remarkable amount done.

I got my fruit macerating for my Christmas cake (macerating is an odd word - sounds vaguely rude or threatening, depending on the mood!)...



peeled and cored a shedload of apples from Leigh's parents' garden. I was going to puree them all up for Leo, but I also made him another batch of dinners (chicken with winter vegetables) today and wouldn't have had enough freezable containers. So the apples have just gone into bags and into the freezer ready for pies/crumbles/anything else appley which grabs us.

And made a Raspberry Bakewell slice which is delicious! Pics to follow. Leigh was also busy - planted up all his bulbs with Zachary this morning, then turned a load of tomatoes from his parents' garden into a pasta sauce for tomorrow, made Mexican strawberry jam (it's got limes in it) with the fruit we had in the freezer, and then turned out a fab risotto for dinner. In between all this we managed to watch Up with Zachary, play a bit of Wii golf and 'supervise' him doing some gluing. Yes, the kitchen is now covered in glitter!



Raspberry Bakewell Slice

375g pack sweet shortcrust pastry (I made my own - the recipe is at the end)
5 tbsp thick seedless raspberry jam (I didn't have any in and used our homemade summer fruits jam instead - strawberry, raspberry, blackcurrant and gooseberry)
100g/4oz frozen raspberries, just thawed (I missed these out altogether as had none!)
25g flaked almonds
4 tbsp apricot jam
Sponge :
200g butter, very soft
200g golden caster sugar
100g ground almonds
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp almond extract
4 eggs, beaten

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line the base and sides of a buttered traybake tin, about 18-20cm x 30cm, with baking parchment. Roll out the pastry to line. Lift into the tin and evenly press right into the corners. Prick with a fork and chill for 20 mins.

2. Bake the pastry for 8-10 mins until it's cooked but not too coloured. Cool for a few mins and turn down the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Dot the jam over the pastry (there's no need to spread) and scatter over the raspberries.

3. For the sponge, put all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until soft and very well mixed. Spoon this over the raspberry layer then smooth evenly. Scatter over the flaked almonds and bake for 35-40 mins until golden and firm. Cool completely in the tin. (Will freeze for up to 3 months - overwrap the tin with baking parchment and foil beforehand).

4. To serve, thaw for 4 hrs at room temperature then reheat in a low oven. Melt the apricot jam with 1 tbsp water and brush over the top of the sponge just before serving.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

200g plain flour
1 tbsp icing sugar100g chilled butter, cubed
1/2 - 1 egg, beaten

Place the flour, icing sugar and butter into a food processor and whiz briefly. Add half the beaten egg and continue to whiz. You might add a little more egg, but not too much as the mixture should be just moist enough to come together. Flatten out the ball of dough until it is about 2cm thick. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for about 30 mins.



Can't wait to try it with custard!

Cracking wedding

So, the wedding for which I stitched the Lowry picture was yesterday and it was truly fab. It was my first civil partnership ceremony and I had a brilliant day. The boys were invited too so we decided to take them with us - it was a bit tiring as you tend to forget as an adult how much waiting around there is and how long they'll have to sit for at the meal, but they were both really well behaved and had an excellent time. Zachary in particular made friends with Rose and Alfie, both of whom shared his passion for stone throwing!

The ceremony was punctuated by live music from a great singing group (much better than CD/iPod option) and it all went very smoothly (despite Zachary managing to remove an handle from a cupboard in the venue which was situated right by my chair and Leo banging his head on the same cupboard as he slightly toppled into it...but disaster averted, no crying!). It turned out that I was one of the witnesses - I put it like that as the first I knew of this was when the Registrar announced that I was one of the witnesses! But we were all friends there and it was all very relaxed. Leigh was best man and gave a speech during the meal, which went down very well (both meal and speech!), and Leo ate his own body weight in food I'd brought from home and pickings from my plate. The cake was designed especially for the couple, incorporating representations of their hobbies and passions, and it was something very special indeed (tasted good too!).

I drove the boys home for bed after the meal - the turnaround took about 2 hours but it was worth it and I was glad I did it. Didn't manage to get a dance in unfortunately, but I was able to witness the might of all the men dancing a fertility dance - which included steps like dancing as a bear, rubbing your back against the wall, and rubbing bums with the man next to you. I think Leigh was glad it was someone he knew!!!! All very virile and manly.

Marvellous day.

Lowry cross stitch

I've just completed a cross stitch picture of a CS Lowry painting - Street Scene. I have really, really enjoyed this project and decided to try and take a photo each week to see how it was taking shape. I've uploaded everything to Flickr here, so I thought I'd just put the link here rather than set out all the piccies again. But here it is after week 1



Once the cross stitching was complete and the back stitch still left to do



And all complete and framed.

Uncle Becki

Have had a great weekend being visited by my sister, her husband and little girl. Zachary well has the hang of 'uncle Jamie,' and 'uncle Ralph,' but seemed a little confused with Becks. Often he called her 'uncle Becki,' and sometimes it even came out sounding more like 'auncle Becki!' Hilarious!

Pondering

Was lying in bed last night thinking about my last blog post - hmmmm I do seem to get excited about small things!!! I think all I need to say here is buses.

Ebay hooray!

I love selling random stuff on ebay. Had a great time last year selling off a load of my old Guide and Brownie camp badges - which went quickly and successfully. Obviously a big market for those. I also sold a spare waterproof cover we had for the shopping buggy - Leigh was dismissive and thought noone would be interested. From my memory it went for about £10 - brilliant.

Dug out a couple of maternity items I'd never worn yesterday - some pants and some tights. I put the tights on for 99p and nearly set a Buy It Now price of £2. So glad I didn't - they sold for £4.20!! The pants haven't sold (yet - relisted them after the first sale). Mind you I'm not surprised. I bought them, got them out of the pack, realised that they were almost as big as our double duvet cover and decided then and there I would manage with what I already had. Over the bump knickers are not pretty!

Only 4 ratings away from my blue star...

Lemon, almond and demerera sugar loaf cake

I wanted to try a lemon cake and found this on Nibblous. It is delicious! My only comment though would be that I assumed that the oven temperature given (160C) was for a regular oven so I reduced the temperature for my fan oven, The cake took about twice the time to cook! So I am now taking 160C as the fan temperature. Uses a 2lb loaf tin.

From Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries via Food Glorious Food.

Cake:
200g butter
200g demerara sugar
90g plain flour
90g ground almonds
half teaspoon baking powder
1 large lemon
4 large eggs

Topping:
1 lemon
2 tbsp demerara sugar
4 tbsp water

Syrup:
2 tbsp demerara sugar
the juice of 1 large lemon

Pre-heat oven to 160C. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

Make the topping: slice the lemon thinly and put into a saucepan with the 2 tbsp sugar and water. Bring to boil and simmer for around 5 minutes until most of water have evaporated and the lemons are lovely and sticky. Set aside.

Make the cake: cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Mix flour with almonds, baking powder and zest of the lemon. Set aside.

Beat eggs lightly and add to creamed butter and sugar. It will curdle a little but fear not - it comes good in the end! Gently fold in the flour and almonds by hand with a large metal spoon.

Scrape cake mixture into the prepared tin and lay the lemon slices on top, overlapping. Bake for approx 45 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

Whilst cake is baking, prepare the syrup: stir sugar into lemon juice and stir until partially dissolved. Spike top of warm cake and spoon over lemon and sugar.

Leave to cool in tin and then wrap in foil.

Hols in Yorkshire

Just got back from a lovely week's holiday in Yorkshire. We stayed in a little cottage in a village called Ellingstring, which is about 4/5 miles outside Masham (home to the Theakston brewery), and we found it was perfectly placed to go out and about with the boys. The cottage was great - all mod cons but still cottagey and very cosy. Zachary had a great time bouncing on all the beds to test them out and Leo was in his element - lots of drawers on his level to open and explore. Thanks to Nanny, we've also recently become members of the National Trust and made good use of our membership!

On Sunday, we took a trip out to Harrogate where we discovered Bettys (where I could easily bankrupt us!), and the beautiful Valley Gardens. The gardens were lovely and there was a great play park there, not to mention wonderful Ripley ice cream in the tea shop. We also took a trip to Ripley itself (about 3 miles out of Harrogate), took a turn round the town and bought lots of sweets and expensive sausages.

On Monday we went to Fountains Abbey in the morning and discovered that we could walk round and through the ruins, which was ace. Zachary was fully wellied up and spent the entire time searching for muddy puddles. He found lots! In the afternoon I'd booked us into The Forbidden Corner, which is quite indescribable but really great. It was a bit difficult getting round with the pushchair, and even when we dumped that, carrying Leo was not easy. So we'll be going back in a few years' time when they can both walk round. It's a big kind of garden with lots of hidden doors and tunnels, and underground rooms and chambers, and all sorts of hidden goodies. Well worth a visit.

On Tuesday we went to York - just over an hour from where we were staying. Used the Park and Ride which worked really well. We visited the Jorvik centre, the Minster (but didn't go in - £8 each!!!), walked along the Shambles and found the Travelling Man (board game shop). Also bought some very expensive (but very delicious) fudge from The Fudge Kitchen.

Wednesday saw us attempting a visit to Masham in the morning which was quickly abandoned due to a poor market and very blowy weather! Went instead to the Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes where we could basically eat our own weight in cheese in the sampling room. Back to Fountains Abbey in the afternoon and we explored the water garden and deer park as well. Plenty of exercise for us both pushing the double pushchair!

On Thursday we went to Brimham Rocks in the morning, which was fab. The weather started out iffy but was glorious by lunchtime and the views from the rocks were amazing. There was also a very handy pushchair path which was appreciated! We stopped at a new ice cream parlour called G&T's on the way back to the cottage and then went to Harrogate again in the afternoon for more play park.

A very busy week, tiring but great. And we managed to watch the entire 4th series of the US Office in the evenings - hilarious! All the holiday pics are on Flickr, but here are some good ones

The cottage


On the swings in Valley Gardens


Icecream!


Fountains Abbey


Brimham Rocks

Economy Gastronomy

Leigh bought the Economy Gastronomy book recently and we've been trying out some of the recipes. Now, I confess that I haven't read the introduction to the book and just am just relying on what Leigh has told me and what I've picked up from the recipes as to the ethos behind it. The way I understand it is that the book shows how you can make a joint of meat, or other base meal (like the chickpea one we tried today) last for 2 or three dinner meals and save you some cash because you can make it go further. We try to be pretty good about making food go further than one meal, but it does tend to be fairly basic fare - so making our spag bol last 2 meals rather than just one.

However the recipes in this book are not particularly simple and use quite a few ingredients I wouldn't normally have in my store cupboard, so although the base mix/meat goes further, I still had to spend on the additional ingredients. We tried the poached chicken base last week - so from a whole poached chicken we made chicken and sweetcorn pies (6 small pies, each one enough for a main meal - yummy), coronation chicken (tasty but had no dried fruit in it, so not quite sweet enough for my taste, but easily resolved when made again), and got about 3 litres of chicken stock. Half of this went into the pies and I used the other half in a sweet potato risotto, which was very tasty. The book's suggested third meal is a hot and spicy soup with the stock, but we went a different way.

Today's foray was into the world of chickpeas. The third recipe is coming tomorrow, but so far they've been what Leigh calls 'weekend' recipes - that is, they are a bit fiddly and time consuming - ideal if you have a weekend afternoon free to spend in the kitchen. So not ideal for me to be making with the 2 boys running around, but I was able to make good use of Leo's nap times today and got the base and houmous made in the morning and the pie made well ahead of dinner time. I was concerned about getting the pie done because that itself (not counting making the base) was estimated by the book to take 35 minutes to make and 50 minutes to cook. Fortunately Zachary has been glued to the new series of Show Me Show Me this week so I was able to pop him in front of that while I cooked (bad mother that I am! Although I did ask if he wanted to help me, but the answer was no ... probably because there was no egg cracking involved!).

So here we have the chickpea base



Which made red pepper houmous - delicious



And Othello's Chickpea Filo Pie - ready for the oven



And out for the table



Hmmm. The writers of the book rave about this pie but we weren't too sure. It's okay but not fantastic - not sure if the problem is me not seasoning it enough (something I'm guilty of a lot) or whether it's going to be one just not to our taste. Essentially it's a filo pie, bottom layer being the chickpea base mixed with toasted coriander seeds and ricotta cheese, then pastry, then a layer of grated courgette with ricotta, pepper and lemon zest. Although the pie doesn't look too bad, I had a bit of a mare with the filo. It was the first time I've used it, and to say that I and my cooking aren't known for their delicacy and elegance would be an understatement! A lot of my cooking looks on the rustic side of agricultural, so trying to get to grips with really fine, cobweb-like pastry was fiddly!!! But I got there - maybe needed some more melted butter though as it tasted a bit floury when it came out.

Tomorrow, all hail the Anytime Spicy Chickpea Loaf. And then we need to decide on our next meat - ham??

Family pictures

Inspired by one particular You Tube video I saw of a lady who took a picture of herself every day for 2 years, and (believe it or not) the BBC1 drama Framed (in which, amongst other things a teenager took a photo of her baby brother every day) I thought I would try to take a photo of Leo every day for the first year of his life. Time goes so quickly, and as I see him every day, I don't often appreciate the changes he is going through at the time, until I look back over old pictures.

I talked about this with Leigh and decided that every day was probably a little unrealistic! So it became every week, and we thought it would be good to take a family shot to see how we all grow and change over the year. We've managed to keep it up pretty well (there's only been 2 or 3 weeks we've forgotten or time has got away from us), and we're now well into the second half of the year. The photos aren't especially close up of our faces, so for example you can't see Leo's teeth as they are arriving (he's onto number 3 now!) but I'm keeping a note with each piccie about what we've been up to in the week, and any key events as a reminder. The full set is here on Flickr, but here is the first photo :

12th December 2009 - a little early really, but a test for the new tripod!



1st January 2010



and here is the most recent - 4th September 2010

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Zachary helped me make these - when we got to the icing stage, he was very excited about the prospect of putting sprinkles on (which is what we do with the basic fairy cakes I often make with him). I tried to explain that these cakes have a nut on the top and not pink/multi-coloured sprinkles, but he would not be persuaded! We got the sprinkles into a bowl (so that he didn't manage to use up the entirety of the packets I had!) to be used on a few of the cakes, then Zachary declared he needed a spoon, went and got one from his cupboard and immediately ate a full spoonful of sprinkles!! Cheeky monkey. I took the spoon off him, explained he shouldn't just eat them and he appeared to acknowledge this. He asked for the spoon back, which I foolishly gave to him, and when I turned back, caught him with it mid-way to his mouth, again full of sprinkles!!!! Managed to get a few on the cakes...

(Good Food magazine, October 2010)

1 tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp boiling water
115g butter, softened
140g self-raising flour
140g caster sugar
2 tbsp milk
2 large eggs
25g walnuts, chopped
For the icing :
2 tsp instant coffee granules
2 tsp boiling water
100g butter, at room temperature
225g icing sugar
12 walnut halves, to decorate

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Put the coffee granules and water into a mixing bowl and stir until smooth. Add the butter, flour, sugar, milk and eggs. Mix with an electric whisk until smooth. Stir in the walnuts, then spoon into the cases.

2. Bake in the centre of the oven for 20-25 minutes (about 18 mins if going into a pre-heated fan oven) or until risen and golden brown. Transfer onto a wire rack until cold.

3. To make the icing, put the coffee granules and water into a bowl and stir until smooth. Add the butter, sift in the icing sugar and stir until smooth and free of streaks.

4. Spoon onto the cupcakes, then decorate each one with a walnut half.

Cream cheese icing quandry

I seem to have a problem with cream cheese icing. I cannot get it to stay nice and thick and spreadable. It seems that as soon as I add the icing sugar to the cream cheese, the whole thing just turns to water...well, very runny anyway and often far too runny to even put on the cake. Ends up as more of a dip really.

So I have had a look on the internet to see if I can find any help. What I really need to know is why it is going wrong and if there is a simple solution I can employ when making it in the future.

The first few sites I looked at appeared promising from the subject heading, but was just a lot of people replying saying, "oh, I don't know why yours has gone wrong. Here's my recipe which works for me every time." Yeah, okay, but I don't really want to just be trying lots of slightly differing recipes just to work out one I can use. I think that if I know what's going wrong, I can just adapt the recipe I have. Also, some suggestions are to exclude any milk. Yep, not using any milk at the moment.

There is however a useful thread on Flickr - Cupcakes Take the Cake. Some suggestions are to add more icing sugar, but I feel like I'd have to add a shed more to even get the icing to a vaguely spreadable consistency, and it's already pretty sweet! There does however seem to be an agreement of opinion that overbeating causes some of the problems, and the post from Rebecca's Cakes suggests making a butter icing first, then adding the cream cheese last mixing only until combined. This sounds doable - although the quantities she suggests are huge!

Finally I had a look on Nigella's website at the thread there and that's just offering up recipes which work. One posting suggests Rachel Allen's recipe as a really good one - how on earth did she/he get it to work!

I'm going to try making the butter icing first, and then add the cheese. See how it goes!

Rachel Allen's carrot cake

Tried another carrot cake today - this is Rachel Allen's recipe from 'Bake.' The cake is gorgeous and really tasty, however it is supposed to be topped with cream cheese orange icing.

The more astute among you will note the lack of icing on this cake! I'm not sure why it happens but ever time I try to make cream cheese icing, the mixture loses all its integrity as soon as the icing sugar hits the bowl. It's happened the last few times and I don't know whether it's something I'm doing, or whether I just haven't found a good recipe yet. So we ended up with a cream cheese orange dip with our cake this evening!

The secret life of a cardboard box

By day - ridiculously oversized packaging



But by night - super duper ace computer!

Random questions

I'm having some trouble with one of the wheels on my double buggy. So as we bought it from Mothercare I am having a look at their website to submit a query about whether I can get a replacement. Went to the Contact Us section, and here are the FAQs. Spot the odd one out? I think the Mothercare site does provide all sorts of advice about general matters as well as what they sell, but it just seemed a little out of place with the rest of the questions!

frequently asked questions

Ask your question using the search box above or browse through the categories on the left.

* I have lost my set of instructions, how do I get another set?
* What time does your customer care team operate, and how can I get in contact?
* Where is my order?
* When is the best time to conceive?
* How do I make a complaint?
* Can I track my order online?
* How can I apply for a store card?
* How can I find information on my local store?
* What are the terms and conditions?
* Does my local store have a particular item in stock?

Aha - have just noticed this is only page 1 of many questions you could look at. So maybe there are more later on in the same vein!

You know you're a parent when...

You leave the house with googly eyes stuck to your shoe.

You return from a trip to the supermarket to only then discover a large yoghurty smear over your right boob which has been there the entire time. You then realise that what you thought were simpering looks at your beautiful baby were actually sympathetic looks at you!

You feel slightly affronted when Cbeebies changes its schedule and moves your son's favourite programme. How on earth are you going to get him to sit still now while you race around trying to get everything together to leave the house??!

You judge a hotel by the size of its bathroom - after all that's where you'll be spending most of your evenings waiting for the boys to go to sleep.

Your multi-tasking skills are second to none - changing nappies, playing games and holding conversation all at the same time!

You are not sure whether to be embarrassed or proud when your son announces at the breakfast table in a hotel that he's just done 2 trumps.

You find a banana stuck in the end of your vaccuum cleaner hose.

Holidays!

We've just returned from our first, what I call 'holiday' with the boys (okay, it was a holiday, everyone calls it a holiday, but I've just been listening to too much Miranda Hart!). We spent a few days in East Anglia - visiting our old favourite haunt in Southwold and spending time with my family in Lowestoft, Norwich and Stokesby. So a busy time anyway added with the fact that although a lovely holiday, it was by no means a break or a rest!!

So we started with a B&B in Southwold - Newlands. A bit more expensive than I was expecting to be honest, but then it is Southwold in the summer! The B&B was great though, very accommodating of the boys (it was surprisingly difficult to find a B&B that would take children) and they had an indoor swimming pool. We didn't use it in the end but it was handy to have somewhere I could take Leo when he woke up so that Leigh and Zachary could have a bit more of a lie in. Zachary loved being away - within 2 minutes of arriving he was bouncing on the bed, and Leo had managed to open a drawer! Spent the first afternoon discovering we had left all the nappies at home, buying some very expensive nappies in the town, wandering along Southwold prom, introducing Zachary to the sea (which he adored)



fish and chips for tea, and a session with the Expressive Photo Booth on the wonderful Southwold Pier...



from which we learn that Leo only has one expression - confused! Then back at the B&B discovered we had also left ALL the toiletries at home. Great.

The next day we headed up to the cannons at Southwold to try and repeat a photo opportunity from when we came with Zachary as a baby

(2008 - I'd forgotten how mardy Zachary looked that day!)


(2010)


and then headed over to Lowestoft for some paella and an afternoon on the beach with my dad and his wife - more sandcastles,



and a play with the sunglasses.



Again a lovely afternoon - doughnuts this time!

Next we headed to Norwich where we planned to stay 2 nights at a Holiday Inn and the final night with my sister and her family. Spent time with my mum and my sister and also managed to catch up with a couple of friends I haven't seen for more than a year, which was fab. Had a good wander round Norwich cathedral, a lovely lunch at Cafe Morello (highly recommended), and an afternoon at Melsop Farm Park where we met a burping sheep and where Zachary would have been happy just spending the whole time on the trampoline, without us forcing him to feed animals!



So a great holiday all in all and the boys had a fantastic time, despite both of them being slightly under the weather at varying stages. Some of the Zachary highlights - the look of absolute amazement on his face when he saw the self-closing seat on the toilet working, his declaration that "I like trumps," and randomly in the middle of the night he turned over, said "clap" and then went straight back to sleep! At breakfast on the final morning at the Holiday Inn, Zachary looked at the TV showing Sky News Sunrise presented by Eammon Holmes and announced that Mr Holmes was in fact Shrek, and then proceeded to tell us very loudly that he'd just done a trump. When Leigh tried to gently tell him that we don't usually say that in public, the volume increased and Zachary repeated himself and carried on saying "trump, trump, trump, 2 trumps..." until we managed to distract him with Coco Pops. We could not stop laughing and I'm still having to make a real effort not to burst out now as I'm typing!

Naive, Naive, Naive

I have been passing the PixieFoto studio every time I visit Mothercare and pondering whether to arrange a shoot with the boys. They've got an offer on over the summer (which included up to 60% off an order of photos made on the day) so I took the plunge and we went there today. Leigh warned me I might end up spending lots there but I was confident I would be able to resist temptation and just come back with the complimentary photo. Oh how naive I was!!!

The shoot went brilliantly and both boys were absolutely adorable. Then came the viewing of the photos. Oh they were beautiful and it was so hard to just pick a few of them - in some weird way it felt like I was rejecting the boys if I didn't choose a picture!! Anyway I settled on a few and they totalled them up for me - £636. Yes, that's with the discount. So I picked myself up off the floor, realised that the prices I had been quoted over the phone must have been already reduced (!) and reset my expectations. I didn't manage to not buy any, but I was reasonably restrained and we do now have some good presents for grandparents at Christmas. That said, it still seemed pretty expensive..but the photos were so lovely!! I'm such a sucker!

Zachary was really good, although he got a bit bored when I was trying to select pictures and make an order. He'd picked up a balloon from the display outside and then started bashing the photographers with it! Fortunately they were really good about it (I guess they're used to children!) and it was a good job there was noone else waiting. But Zachary had a great time and one of the photographers took him under her wing and let him play with some of the props and toys they use. He loved it, and I had to laugh when to call the photographer over, I could hear Zachary just shouting 'lady, lady!' Nice.