Fold in the Flour ...

Grey days deserve roaring fireplaces, comfy sofas, snug slippers, a mug of steaming hot tea, and cake.   An absolutely splendiferous cake.  This is mine. For a cake that contains a mahoosive amount of chocolate, sugar, cream, and cocoa, it balances the flavours perfectly. Moist chocolate sponge, with a fudgy frosting.  It's not overly sweet, but is very rich, so if you are calorie conscious, the merest sliver will satisfy the cravings of the chocolate deprived. If, on the other hand, you're a complete greedy guts, *ahem*, you will still get a significant number of portions out of it (think at least 12). Devil's Food Cake* (makes one 9 inch cake) Ingredients  330g plain flour 90g cocoa powder 1 1/2 tspn baking powder 1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda 1/2 tspn salt 185g unsalted butter at room temperature 500g (yes, that's 500g!) soft light brown sugar 2 tspn vanilla extract 4 eggs, each around the 60g mark  375ml buttermilk at room t...

That probably sounds a bit dramatic, after all this is only a cake. But it is one of the few cakes that I have made over the last six months. And it's so simple (easy to remember), and so delicious that I've made it repeatedly. As it's New Year's Eve, and tomorrow is supposed to bring the promise of new starts, I thought it was the perfect way to get back to baking on here. When I didn't really feel like doing anything, let alone heading into the kitchen, it's been my comfort food stand-by, and has been something that Mike and I have regularly enjoyed with an afternoon cuppa. It's helped me focus on something, and its simplicity when it delivers such great results, feels like it is one of the keys to getting me back into baking more often. The recipe is adapted from one in the Great British Bake Off Everyday book, but having made it once with the original blackberry filling, I then tried raspberries, and have made it that way ever s...

I know this is not exactly a baking post, but being the complete nosey parker that I am, I couldn't resist this month's Random Recipes challenge, hosted by Dom over at Belleau Kitchen . He dared us to bare our pantries, so that the voyeurs among us can have a good gander. I've really enjoyed reading the posts circulating so far, and as sorting out my kitchen cupboards has been a project of mine over the last few months (I'm afraid I'm turning into an organisation junkie), I thought I could join in on this one. Although I would love to have one of the traditional walk-in pantries, our kitchen does not have enough space for that. We do have quite a few cupboards, and so supplies are spread out between a few of those. This first one is where I keep breakfast cereals and some baking ingredients like nuts, chocolate, yeast, extracts etc. You get the idea that I am addicted to Kilner jars, yes? To put my addiction into perspective, I've been collecting them for...

... pretty horrendous. I cannot believe that I'm sitting here typing this more than six months after my last post. My apologies for my silence since June. By way of explanation, all I can say is that I have been ill. The stresses and strains of the last few years finally took their toll, and in a way I never expected, I was literally knocked for six within the space of a weekend. While things are slowly improving, the last six months have felt like an ordeal just existing, never mind blogging. So I must admit that I will be glad to see the back of 2013, and hope that 2014 can see me start to move forward a bit more. Getting back to baking, and blogging, I hope will be part of that process. I hope that you've had a great Christmas, and that the New Year brings all that you wish for. I'll be back pretty soon with some baking. Until then, take care, Susie xx

I suppose that's a bit of a misnomer for a start. After all, a classic Victoria Sponge, as beloved by the Queen it's named after, is filled with raspberry jam and cream. But I had some rhubarb lurking in the fridge that I wanted to find a use for. I'd bought it at the weekend. An impulse buy. Partly initiated by the fact that I'd never actually prepared rhubarb myself before. I remember my mum cooking it when I was little. My granddad used to grow it on his allotment, and so at this time of year, some of the crop would find its way home on the back of his bike. Sometimes it would go into a crumble. More often than not, though, it would simply be stewed to an inch of its life alongside the Sunday roast. The rosiness of the rhubarb would glow against it's usual companion of pale golden custard.   As a child, I didn't really enjoy the taste. Now, though, I can appreciate its tartness, especially when tempered with a light sweetness of suga...

Sometimes, the simplest things are the best. Nothing fancy. Just something fairly plain, made with love. Something that sometimes gives back to you in ways you least expect. But you're probably thinking, this is only a cake, after all. I should explain. I was surprised by how much Sam enjoyed this cake.   Given that he has now launched headfirst, it seems, into his toddler  days, getting him to sit in one place for longer than a minute or two is an achievement in itself. Yet he was very happy to clamber up and sit snuggled on the sofa with me, sharing a slice. A few precious moments stolen from an otherwise hurly-burly kind of day. And that made it really special.   Although I have made loaf cakes before, the results have been a bit hit and miss. I don't know why. The last one I tried (Primrose Bakery's Lemon Drizzle) I simply binned, as although I followed the recipe exactly, something happened and it just didn't turn out righ...

In a fairly off hand way the other day, Mike commented to me that he loved bread and he didn't think he would ever want to give it up. It might've helped that at the time, he was chomping on several squares of this. But it made me think. Every so often, Mike and I indulge in one of our favourite little treats: a loaf of freshly baked bread.  Purely for convenience, and because we tend to fuel this urge as it strikes, we tend to rely on our local supermarket for this (it's a great ploy to have in-store bakeries and while there are a few artisan bakeries in and around Cardiff they're, sadly, not easily accessible for us).  Sometimes it's a simple Farmhouse loaf, sometimes it's one of those fancy flavoured breads the supermarkets have started to introduce.  One of my favourites is a Rosemary Focaccia. Freshly baked, it's heady aroma is irresistible.  It's on the days when I fancy something sav...