Hello, I'm back! Sorry it's been a while. I should have known that a week off work would make me far less inclined to get onto a computer than normal, so I'm sorry you were not kept up-to-the-minute on my goings on.
So, how did my week go? Well, as you know, I went to Bradford-On-Avon on Saturday 5th. Sunday was a Very Rainy Day, but I made it down to Green Park Station for the Love Food Festival, got a 10-minute backrub, and purchased the most enormous courgettes I've ever seen:
The flyer is a standard A6/postcard size, to give you an idea of scale. I love their artwork, incidentally. See all those cherries? £2.50 - a sweet, sweet deal in every sense. I had a nice chat with the farmer (a proper farmer - flat cap and everything) about how terribly brief cherry season is, and British cherries? Well, all too few and far between. I can confirm they were delicious.
Then on Monday, The Nerd failed his MOT (for my international readers, that's an annual compulsory inspection on your car) so I had to fork out £300 for two new suspension arms (no, I don't know what they are, either) plus I'd paid extra to give him a full service, in the hopes that after a little pampering he would be on his best behaviour for the test. Alas, he is a 17-year-old, and we all know that 17-year-olds are rarely on their best behaviour. Despite such expenditure, the little bugger has decided to break down again within the last 48 hours! It seems the spiffy new battery that I bought him in April is not quite doing its job...
So after pouring all my hard-earned pennies into The Nerd at the very start of my week off, I was loathe to go out and about spending any more of it during the rest of the week (although the dentist somehow got £17 out of me on Tuesday for telling me that there's nothing wrong with my teeth). The rest of my holiday (apart from a lovely gig, which I'll tell you about next time) was spent catching up on some quality time with my boyfriend: lie-ins, cooked breakfasts, movies in bed, you know the drill! It was wonderful. And of course, it was all building up towards Saturday: the double birthday party! Oh yes, I also did quite a bit of baking on my week off, as you can see:
On the cake stand on the left we have honey loaf and banana bread, both Rachel Allen's recipes of course. The honey loaf has changed my life somewhat, being ridiculously easy to make, and using honey instead of sugar, so I have convinced myself that it is better for me than the average cake. On its own it's lovely, but toasted, with butter on? Good Lord, it's a revelation! And, I have discovered, it is appropriate for literally any time of the day.
A further revelation were the muffins in the middle: cheese-and-onion and cheese-and-bacon! That's right, bloggers: savoury muffins! These were a conglomeration of Hugh's recipe here, and Delia's recipe here. I took Delia's idea of splitting the batter in half so you could have two different flavours (and the idea of adding sage) but I couldn't resist Hugh's wholemeal flour and additional bacon. So, the veggies and the carnivores were all accounted for, and everyone (including your gracious hostess) was surprised by how yummy they were. These would be great to bring to work for lunch (although none survived the weekend to prove this theory) and also for picnicking (more on that another time...oh yes, I did manage to squeeze one fun day out into my week off work!).
Let's see, what else is on the table? The usual crisps and pizza of course, plus on the right hand side you can see two plates of fudge, handmade by my good mister at his place of work, the Fudge Kitchen. Yep, I get handmade fudge pretty much on tap! They whipped up a particularly spicy batch of chilli chocolate fudge for the party, plus some peanut butter fudge and cherry bakewell fudge...I'm drooling just reminiscing!
And last but not least: the cakes. The Birthday Boy requested a Coca Cola Chocolate Cake (of all things!) so that is what he got. I would like to reassure my British readers that not only do such things as Coca Cola Chocolate Cakes exist, but that they are by far the moistest, tastiest, most eye-rollingly good chocolate cakes, and I suggest that you click here immediately to try the recipe out for yourselves (apologies for linking you to the Daily Mail, but this version of the recipe was the simplest, most English one I could find, lacking ingredients such as mini marshmallows and vegetable oil, which I didn't like the sound of on the official Coca Cola recipe page, plus, I'm not entirely sure what the English equivalent of confectioner's sugar is...)
I wasn't planning on making us a cake each, but I wasn't sure how many people were coming, and it would have been a complete social disaster if there had not been enough cake to go round, so I threw together a Victoria sponge with cherry jam at the last minute and used up the rest of that useless red food colouring for the icing, all the while marvelling that I am now the kind of person who is able to whip up a Victoria sponge at the last minute. I am also, for the record, the kind of person who is incapable of keeping a straight face for a photo, as you can see here:
I'm especially sorry I missed your party now that I have seen the cake! ;-) Hope you both had a fab time. Oh, and Confectioner's Sugar is just plain old Icing Sugar!
ReplyDeleteHello Eleni:
ReplyDeleteNow if only we were as interested in actually making things to eat as we are in consuming them, then we should be straight into the kitchen this evening, out with the wooden spoons, scales and mixing bowls and get going on any number of these delicious looking cakes, muffins and breads. And most likely we should start with the wonderful sounding honey loaf which, in any event, we may well be drawn to try.
Re: The Nerd! Now this, as our friend B, former actress, commanding voice, would say, is BAD NEWS! The 'a' to be lengthened as far as is possible - baaaaaad. We really do sympathise and our so grateful that we have abandoned car ownership once and for all. There is, in these cases, usually nothing for it but to continue to pour good money after bad [or baaaaad].
You all look so jolly at the party.
That rotten The Nerd, letting you down like that. Only a tableful of fine food could remedy the situation, and voila. I must make that honey loaf, as it can be eaten at any time of day. I find my own cakes pale after 7pm, though I struggle on regardless.
ReplyDeleteEleni, what a feast you had for the party! I am so envious that you have endless supplies of fudge, I loved that shop when we visited Bath last summer. Bummer about the car, our old one was like that too. But glad to hear you had an awesome double birthday. X
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! What a lot of baking..
ReplyDeleteFudge on tap.... That sounds very dangerous, but very yummy.
Such a pain about the MOT, espesh at holiday time.
Cheers
Fi
Woah very impressive food selection! Savoury muffins are great, you should try spinach and feta ones because they're amazing. I am dripping with envy that you can "throw together" a caked just like that, as my baking skills (or lack thereof) generally means that I spend a good 4 hours in the kitchen before anything edible gets produced, if at all.
ReplyDeleteHappiest of Double Birthdays to you and yours. I must say those recipes have got me itching to get into the kitchen and start baking!! Thanks for the inspiration! :-)
ReplyDelete