Fold in the Flour ...

Hmmm. So, it's been nearly a year?  My resolutions and good intentions don't seem to count for much, do they? All I can say is that stuff happened. And look marginally shame-faced, at least.  Anyway, if there is anyone left to read this, I thought I'd pop by, wish you a Happy New 2017, and show a few highlights of our 2016.  It's been a busy - and complex - year. Our coffee shop is still there, nestled in the heart of Whitchurch in Cardiff. We still specialise in artisan cakes and sweet treats (yeah - get me - I think I've started to value my 'talent' sufficiently to call it artisan).  We do other things though, such as paninis and home made soup, and aim to use local Welsh food producers where we can. Our bread is from Brutons - one of the oldest bakeries in Cardiff - and our meat comes from a farm in the Vale of Glamorgan sold at our local butcher. I use Bacheldre Mill flour for baking. Welsh and proud.  All good, all good. Birthda...

Oh my goodness! Where has time gone? Is it really January? 2016? I'm so sorry - I'm clearly guilty of neglecting this blog, mainly due to being incredibly tired and/or busy. 12 months' of sleep deprivation got in the way. Anyway, as a few of you were kind enough to enquire how things are going (waving to you Gem and Denise), I thought I'd post an update on our foray into small business. Firstly, the purchase of the shop took much longer than we'd anticipated. It's really not that clear to us why, other than solicitors and surveyors etc seem to operate in an entirely different time zone of their own. Sometimes gobsmackingly so. To give an example, our solicitor had the nerve to say to us in early December: "Oh well, as we won't complete before Christmas now, I suppose there's no rush ...".  No, it's only that this deal has been dragging on for six months now, and Mike and I need to get on, get with it and hopefully s...

Gosh, where has the time gone? So how've you been? Good I hope. Great stuff. And Me? Not so much. But getting there. I've been away a while, I know. Lots of things happening. Some not, but hey, that's life. Since we last spoke, I've left my job of 19 years (health reasons), and that seems scary. Mike's job was victim to a reorganisation, so that gave him the opportunity to take redundancy. That seems scary, too. As they say, timing is everything. So in a burst of mid-life shenanigans, we've decided to start our own business. A coffee shop. With a bakery - cakery attached. O. M. G. That seems very freakin' scary! But exciting, too. Hopefully soon, we'll be taking on the lease of a small shop near us. Fitting it out, and then opening our doors to entice hungry shoppers with the delicious smell of good coffee and freshly baked cakes. It's going to be a lot of hard work. I can't wait. But I have to. The legalities, yo...

Over the last few months, I've been trying to get organised around the house. That's included having a mega clear out of 'stuff' . All different kinds of 'stuff' . It's been liberating, but there is still a lot around the house (not that I'm a hoarder or anything ...). So, last week, I decided to weed out the recipes I wanted to keep from a pile of foodie type magazines I'd accumulated. Rediscovering recipes I had forgotten about was fun - and got me back baking again. This cake is adapted from a recipe I found in an issue of 'Baking Heaven' (the original, though, uses blueberries). It's a great big comfort blanket of a cake - billowy sweet sponge which shakes you up whenever you hit a cranberry. (Yes, I'm one of those people that love the tingly taste of Haribo Tangfastics). It's lovely just warm from the oven. A scoop of vanilla ice cream would seal the deal. Cranberry and Orange Cake Ingredients 3...

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...