This and that ...

I just quickly wanted to pop in today to say HELLLOOOOO. It has been so wet and grey here in the North of England, but if I am honest, I have rather welcomed it. I am not sure how I will feel by Thursday with half term upon us and kids at home being cooped in, but for now it has been rather fun and mostly quite chillaxing.

 

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Today I even managed a little time in the garden, yes with my rain coat on and I feel rather satisfied that things are slowly starting to take shape out there.

 

 

 

In fact I am actually super proud of my veggies (OK, there are only a few), but they are all planted from seed, which has been fun. The potatoes and kale is doing tremendously well and the spinach and beetroot is slowly coming into their own. Today I planted out the broccoli and rather sad looking cucumbers, so we will see what happens to these.

 

I am feeling just a tad excited bout the beautiful Camelia Japonica that I bought yesterday for a little spot in the back of our garden that has been rather neglected for quite some time. Largely because this gardening lark can be quite expensive, so it really does take time to get where you want to. It has also been one of those spots that I had far too many ideas for what I wanted to fill it with, but I am really pleased with my final decision and look forward to seeing this beauty grow.

We also bought another couple of  beautiful Hydrangeas, one blue and one pink and just for fun I bought a St John's Wort. So for now I really haven't the foggiest what I am going to do with it, but I reckon that I will find many a good use for it somewhere along the line, especially seeing that I have recently been discovering that there are quite a few nifty tricks one can do with the odd herb and weed growing in the garden.

So for anyone who struggles with a cough that won't go away and one that's been lingering for a while,or for anyone who just fancies a little lymphatic cleanse (we all need it!), or for anyone who wants to boost their immune system, clear their skin or calm the nerves (reckon I will be needing it again towards the end of the school holiday!), wander into your garden and look for a weed called a 'Cleaver' (pictured above), and for anyone up for a giggle it also goes by the name of 'StickyWilly', so for once we might actually be happy to enjoy a little sticky willy every now and then (who would have thought! pardon me!!!). So basically what you do, pick a very generous handful and make sure to rinse it well and then chop it up, pour some cold water over it and let it stew overnight (with a lid on) and then the next day you can strain it off and drink up to five glasses of the water. To be honest it's actually quite tasty and the good news is that you won't die, I am still here. So for a full lymphatic cleanse you really need to drink it for a week, somewhere between three to five glasses per day and for those of you who can't be bothered with the overnight soaking, you can always stew it up as a tea with hot water if you like, either way it taste quite good.

So after this morning's little session in the garden, I enjoyed a little time playing games with the kids before embarking on a spot of Paleo baking. I have decided to try out the Paleo diet again, even though I have been here before as I am a firm believer that if something didn't work for you once it doesn't mean it won't work for you at another point in time. Our bodies are constantly changing and especially when you are ill. Take for example my attempts to remove ALL sugar from my diet (no honey, syrup, dried fruit, no nothing!) for over a year and if I am honest it felt like it made ZERO difference, now on the other hand I have seen the most AMAZING changes in my body since cutting it out since the 6th of January, so my motto: Keep on trying. Now I feel ready to slowly embark on the odd treat every now and then and today's cake is no exception. In fact it is just a tad indulgent and very chocolaty and has a smidgen of palm sugar and some delicious forest honey to tickle my fancy and reignite that little sugar devil in me!

 

 

 

So basically Paleo baking is tricky as most gluten free flours are rice based and seeing that you can't eat any rice or other grains, I used almond flour and coconut flour and I must say the cake turned out rather scrummy. For the ganache I used coconut cream and cacao and rice malt syrup. Lets just say it made the perfect Sunday afternoonsie.

So despite the fact that I have mountains of crochet awaiting, as I am in the midst of having to pull out my entire Nordic shawl that I crocheted whilst on holiday, as it seems that for some reason I have this massive triangle at the top rather than a straight end (don't ask as I honestly don't have the answer!). I have been putting it off as I think I need to be in the right frame of mind for this job!

 

I am also nearing the end of weaving in some ends for another little project I am working on, but more on that next time.

 

 

 

So why not start another project just when I should really be focussing on making a start on my starflower mandala?!! Seeing that 'should' no longer features in my vocabulary, I figured why NOT. So this afternoon when the kids went off to a party I quickly started cutting out the pattern for a dress I have been wanting to make for a while. Now don't hold your breath as dressmaking really isn't my forte, but I am determined to make at least one this summer.

 

 

You see when we went to South Africa, Ma bought me heaps of gorgeous fabric for my birthday which means no more excuses and basically that the girl's got to get on with it. I am actually quite excited by the prospect, just wish I knew a little more than I do, but hey that's all part of the fun, so watch this space!

 

 

So that's it for today. I hope you all have a lovely week ahead. Before I go I just want to say a big thank you for all your lovely comments on my previous post, you are all quite special and for those of you who wanted to know how the Prince concert went, lets just say that it was MAGNIFICENT!!!! I am just a little more in love with the man and his music than I was before I went, my golly he has oodles of talent!

 

 

Time to sign off.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxoxo

 

Weekly Bake - Cookies in a Jar - a Christmas gift

Helloooo. It's Friday again and oh my its less than three weeks till Christmas (did I just say that?, sorry!). Not sure whether I am feeling excited or just an itsy bitsy frazzled by this prospect as my to-do-list is forever increasing, I mean how does this happen? So the plan this morning, once I got over the shock of Mandela passing (more on that later),  was to start getting to grips with this pesky list that clearly seems to be off with the fairies. Not only did I busy myself in the kitchen making cakes for the School Christmas fair tomorrow, I also managed to make three Christmas presents, hooray!! Tick, tick, tick! 

Now these gifts are such a wonderful idea, which I can't take credit for, and seeing that it fits in perfectly with my weekly bake I figured I might as well share the idea and hopefully inspire a few last minute gift ideas. These very simple 'Cookies in a jar' are so easy to make and fairly inexpensive too. Going on the premise that I reckon most kids love doing a spot of baking, I am sure these little gifts will be a big hit. I made three of them, using two different recipes with a few tweaks here and there, so if you want to give it a go, this is what you will need to get started.

 

 

A large jar, I just used some very large old mayo and chutney jars I had in the cupboard

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups flour

1tsp baking powder

1tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cocoa

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup m&m's or something similar. I like the idea of a bit of colour

Mix together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt and set aside

Start by filling your jar with the dark brown sugar as it is the heaviest, then white and then some of the cocoa followed by some chocolate chips. Then start adding your flour mixture and alternate with cocoa powder and chocolate chips till all the ingredients are used. Decorate your jar as you chose and attached the instructions  below.

Hopefully you can just print out the instructions below that needs to be attached to the jar.

Instructions         

1.        Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C

2.      Empty cookie mix into a large bowl and thoroughly

 blend the mixture by hand

3.      Mix in ¾ cup of softened butter or margarine

4.      Mix in 1 egg, slightly beaten

5.      Mix in 1tsp of Vanilla essence

6.       Shape the mixture into walnut size balls and

place around 2 inches apart on parchment paper

7.       Bake for 10-15 minutes

The other two jars were filled with ingredients for Chocolate Brownies, a definite favourite with my kids.

 

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour

1tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2/3 cups of cocoa powder

2 1/4 cups caster sugar

1 cup chocolate chips

To fill your jar, simply mix the flour, baking powder and salt together and fill the bottom of the jar, then add some of the cocoa powder and then the majority of the sugar, followed by the last of the cocoa powder and the last the last of the sugar. Put the chocolate chips on top. Decorate your jar if you wish and add the following instruction for your little recipient.

Instructions    

1.         Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C

2.        Grease and flour a baking pan (9 x 13 inch)

3.        Empty jar of brownie mix into a large mixing bowl and mix by hand

4.        Mix in ¾ cup of melted butter and 4 eggs

5.        Spread batter evenly into prepared baking pan

6.        Bake for 25-30 minutes

7.        Cool completely before cutting into 2 inch squares

 

 

 

Tomorrow is our School Christmas fair and I wanted to make some reindeer cupcakes for the kids that I made last year for our annual Christmas get together as the kids absolutely loved them, but this time I made a few improvements. Firstly I used small marshmallows, which I cut in half and then marked the eyes using an edible food pen.

 

Secondly I used some Giant Buttons for the base of the nose and then made some red noses out of royal icing (using food colouring paste and not liquid) and cutting the shapes with the lid of my almond essence bottle. This looks so much better than the smarties I used last year and it also seems a great deal sturdier.

 

For the cake mix I just used my Gluten and Dairy free Chocolate Cake recipe to make 24 cupcakes, the recipe can be found here. From experience I know now that there are always a need for allergen free cakes at the school and needles to say I am more than happy to supply these. For the antlers my doh came to the rescue and managed to find some chocolate pretzels.

 

This week little Es and me had some special time without the boys so we made the very most of it by unwrapping some baubles..

and putting a few decorations here and there and all this whilst blissfully singing full pelt to Michael Buble's Christmas album without the constant nagging of the boys to change the record 'cos its boring'. Instead we giggled and repeated a few tunes and Mummy even got a little excited that she might just again be kissing Santa Claus on Christmas eve...

 

 

We are off to get our tree tomorrow after the School fair and needless to say we are all very excited.

Before I go I just wanted to pay tribute to the most remarkable man of our time. Not only did he bring a rainbow nation together, but somehow he united the world. We all respected and admired him, and I can't think of another leader that achieved global success in the same way that Nelson Mandela did. He fought for equality in South Africa, but also around the world. He was a beacon of hope and he leaves behind the most remarkable legacy that will continue to drive and inspire many generations still to come. He touched my life personally and being a child of apartheid, I was there when he was released, and there when he was inaugurated in 1994, and today I lit a candle for Madiba for being a saint who brought some level of peace to the world. I will always remember him as a strong and gracious man who wore wonderful shirts, laughed and stood up to the world for what he believed in. Madiba you were a truly remarkable man, may you rest in Peace.

photo borrowed from newsinfo. enquirer.net

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo

Weekly Bake - Victoria Sponge with Sugar and Spice

..and all things nice.

 

This week we celebrated our god-daughter's birthday and I figured a celebratory meal followed by a vanilla sponge with pink icing would do the trick for a girl who loves everything pink.

I didn't just want to make an ordinary Victoria Sponge, so I used a little trick that I have learned along the way. I added some fresh vanilla to the sponge mix and

 

whilst it was baking I used sugar, water and the emptied vanilla pod to make the sugar syrup to soak the cakes in once baked.

 

The best way to get the syrup on to the cakes is to use a pastry brush about 10 or so minutes after they come out of the oven. They need to still be warm, but not hot.

 

To get the best results I would advice you to bake the cake the day before, and wrap the soaked sponges in cling film and leave at room temperature overnight, otherwise bake it first thing in the morning and ice it as late as possible. It really does make a difference in giving the cake time to absorb all the syrup and letting it settle.

 

 

To assemble the cake, you can either just fill it with the buttercream or just jam, so NOT both as pictured above as you will find your cake does a little dance when you start cutting into it, as the cakes are pretty moist as a result of the sugar syrup. Personally I would recommend filling it with strawberry jam.

 

You don't have to ice it, but personally I think this icing just adds another dimension to this beauty of a cake. I just piped a few swirls to make it look a little more girly and pretty, but I will add here if you are making this dairy free then be warned Pure sunflower spread doesn't make the best buttercream and it can prove really difficult to work with.

 

As you can see the swirls are very sloppy, the product of dairy free spread. So be warned you might feel a little disgruntled that the piping doesn't quite give the results that you were hoping for. The problem lies in the fact that it needs to be handled in a piping bag and it therefore softens a great deal more than ordinary butter. My advice here is to make sure you put your icing in the fridge for a good few hours so it is as firm as dairy free butter ever will be.

 

 

This cake was, yes it is already all gone, delicious!!! It is really moist and I love the taste that the real vanilla brings to both the cake and the icing. One of the things I miss eating since learning that I am allergic to Casein (milk protein) is cream, yes good quality cream, Cornish clotted, double, you name it and a Victoria Sponge is always the one thing I might drool over or a good scone with jam and clotted cream (yum!). This however comes so close and in fact the majority of us preferred it and my be apt to say that it tickled us pink.

So here is the recipe for anyone interested. I have given gluten and dairy free ingredients, but you can simply substitute with normal self-raising flour and unsalted butter and I know you won't be disappointed.

Sponge Ingredients

200g Pure sunflower spread, softened

200g caster sugar

Pinch of salt

Seeds of 1/2 vanilla pod

4 medium eggs

200g self-raising flour, sifted

Sugar Syrup Ingredients

100ml water

100g caster sugar

The scraped vanilla pod

 

 

Buttercream

300g Pure sunflower, softened

360g Icing Sugar, sifted

Small amount of food colouring (optional)

Strawberry Jam

Method
Preheat the oven at 180C, then grease and line two sandwich tins (I used 18cm).
To make the sponge cream together the sugar, butter, salt and vanilla in a mixing bowl until pale and fluffy. Slowly add the beaten egg into the mixture, scraping the sides to ensure everything is mixed in. If the mixture starts to curdle slightly then add a little flour to bring it together again. I find that you can avoid the curdling by increasing the speed of your mixture when you start adding the eggs, if this doesn't work or you are doing it by hand then just add a little flour to stop the curdling. Slowly add the flour, again scraping the sides to ensure that everything is folded in.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two sandwich tins (I use a scale for this) and then pop then in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. The bake time will depend on the size of sandwich tins you have used and your oven, so start checking sooner if you are using smaller tins.

Whilst the cakes are in the oven, make your syrup sponge by putting the water, sugar and scraped vanilla pod in a pan and by letting it slowly come to boil. I find this is better way to for all the sugar to dissolved. Once it has all dissolved let it bubble (on a low heat) for a couple of minutes just to get the flavour of the vanilla pod and then take it off the stove and let it cool slightly.

Once the cakes are baked, let them cool for 10 minutes and then brush on the syrup with a pastry brush, leaving them in the tins. Once the cakes have cooled completely, you can pop them out of the tins and wrap them in cling film and leave them at room temperature for the rest of the day or overnight.

To make the buttercream, just cream the butter and sifted icing sugar together and add the seeds of half a vanilla pod. If you are using food colouring add a few drops or a little paste at the end and mix in. If you are using Pure sunflower spread, I would put it in the fridge for a good few hours before you want to assemble the cake, but make sure you mix it thoroughly before using it. If you are using ordinary butter, I would just make the icing before you want to assemble the cake.

I do hope you enjoy making this and giving it a go, I know our household requested that I baked another last night when the last slice was scoffed, but I think for now I might need to assess December's plan.

I think it might be a good idea to start looking at doing some Christmas preparations every Friday, as not only can I do with a month of fasting before the feast begins, but it will also give me the opportunity to get a few things prepped and in the freezer in time for the big day. So if anyone is interested in joining in on Friday's under the usual Weekly Bake with Christmas food that can be popped in the freezer or chutneys or relish or cake, then please join in so we can all get a little inspiration for the festive season that is upon us. What are your thoughts on this??

Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments and well wishes on my previous post, I really love how supportive this little blogging community is and it makes me feel grateful for the gifts that we as humans have to be kind and caring, it truly is a gift. I am off to read some blogs as I am a little behind and then to finalise the last bits for my sale tonight.

Happy thanksgiving to everyone in the America and Canada!

 

 

Wishing you all a very enjoyable weekend.

 

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo

Weekly Bake - Stem Gingernuts

This week I wanted to have a go at making these Stem Gingernuts as I have been having such cravings for ginger, one would think that I was pregnant again...

 

I have come to conclusion that I am pretty useless at following recipe's or any instructions for that matter, I much prefer the excitement of experimenting a bit to see what might materialise or go wrong. So again I adapted the recipe to make it Gluten and Dairy Free, but I also wanted to try and make them a little healthier, yeah I know, I mean how healthy can a cookie be??! One do like to fool oneself at times..... and I did a pretty good job of it this time, that's for sure.

  

So I figured that if I replaced the golden syrup with Agave syrup, which is a great deal healthier in that not only is it nutritious (whilst refined sugar is actually nutritionally bankrupt) it also has a very low GI, which means that it only gradually raises blood glucose levels, giving a much steadier supply of energy, therefore making it ideal for kids and also grown-ups with slightly fatigued adrenals (and some of you might know your DHEA-S levels usually decline with old age, so being kind to these two little adrenal glands can only be a good thing) and it is very common for people with M.E  to have Adrenal Fatigue. So using substitutes for sugar can really help and whilst I appreciate many people would argue to just illuminate sugar from your diet as much as possible, I would argue that the endorphins released from the pleasure of baking and then eating could outweigh some of that (yeah I know a pretty lame theory but it works for me). I simply enjoy baking too much to stop doing it, so I tend to look for ways to make it a little healthier where I can.

 

I also replaced the caster sugar with Palm sugar, something I have been doing for years and if I am honest I actually prefer the taste of it and really like the texture too. It is slightly grainier and a little stickier and it will always make your bake a little browner. So where does Palm Sugar come from? Well interestingly it is made by boiling the nectar of the coconut palm in a two stage-process which then leaves a hard caramel substance that is then ground to a powder form that we get to buy in the shops. It really is a good substitute for sugar as it is believed to also reduce the associated sugar cravings that we get from eating ordinary sugars, and I try and use it as much as possible with the kids even though it is a little more expensive to buy.

 

 

 

 

To sum it up, I substituted the golden with Agave syrup, the caster sugar with Palm sugar, used 100g of Coconut flour and 250 Doves Gluten free Self Raising Flour (instead of the 350g SR flour) and PURE sunflower spread instead of butter. Then lastly I just doubled the stem ginger to 70g instead of 35g, which I knew would work for our kids as little J's fave ice cream is Booja Booja Ginger, but if you're not that Ginger loving then keep it to the 35g.

 

 

Once I started mixing all the ingredients together I very soon realised that this Agave syrup wasn't going to hold its own, so I added two tablespoons of Golden Syrup (heated up) to the mixture to bring it all together, you can see just how healthy these Gingernuts are turning out to be, yikes so much for all the low GI malarky!!

 

 In the end the mixture worked and they were baked in 15 minutes tops and even though they really are just a little healthier, they are so so so very delicious!!

 

I was told by a friend today that these are far better than any shop bought ginger biscuits she had ever tasted and I must say I agree. I can't take any credit as the recipe is yet again from my current fave recipe book Great British Book of Baking, which needless to say I am LOVING!

 

I am more than certain that there will be another attempt at making these, maybe next time I would do half Agave and half Golden Syrup for now though we have biccies to dunk into hot mugs of tea whilst enjoying cosy fires, exactly where I will be later this afternoon.

 

Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments on the crochet classic snood, I appreciate each and every one of them.

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and if you have done a spot of baking and fancy linking in, just add your bake below.

 

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo 

Weekly Bake - Coffee and Walnut Cake

This week we celebrated my darling other half's birthday and seeing that he LOVES coffee I wanted to try this Coffee and Walnut cake from the Great British Book of Baking. For anyone interested in this book you can read a little more about it here.

 

 

 

It would please some of you to know that I actually had one of the worse days baking, everything spilled, eggs broke before they were suppose to go into the mixing bowl, you name it, it went wrong. My reasoning was pressure, as I wanted this special man in my life to have a lovely day and I just wanted everything perfect. It did make me laugh as I normally just throw and go and it generally always works, but this time all odds were against me. Why does this always happen when we least need it?? A question that really puzzles me!

Once again I adapted the recipe to make it Gluten and Dairy free by replacing the flour with Doves Self Raising Gluten Free flour, I used PURE spread instead of butter and I used decaffeinated coffee instead of the real deal, largely because I knew this was going to be eaten at night and I didn't want hyper kiddies running riot in the house around bed time. For the icing I used Oat cream instead of normal cream and I will say this, the icing is simply delicious!!! I did however have two attempts at this as the first required far too much coffee for my liking, so I only used 3/4 of a teaspoon instead of the three required and the result was far better.

I also had a go at making these River Cottage Chocolate and Beetroot Brownies as I wasn't too sure that the kids would eat the coffee cake. Yes I hear you think, but surely the kids won't eat beetroot brownies, well look no further if you want to get some beetroot into your children, this is the way forward even if its not the most healthiest of ways. The kids loved these and if allowed would have happily had about three each. Friends who had some also really loved them but for me the verdict is still not out on these brownies, I think I might have a love-hate relationship with them. I am a massive fan of beetroot, I love it raw, cooked and to be honest in any way possible, but I wouldn't say these were the best brownies that I have tasted, for me Nigella wins hands down every time with these Flourless Chocolate Brownies. They are simply THE best!!

 

 

The kids helped putting up a few balloons and wrapping the presents, they were so excited to celebrate Daddy's birthday with him. Little Es even practiced a little birthday tune on the harmonica and she even got her little chair ready to sit on to do her little birthday performance, so sweet. It is tough when you work and get home late, but I think the doh was delighted and really enjoyed his evening with the family. I cooked a meal, lit some candles, opened a bottle of red and it really felt like a little celebration.

If you are a coffee and walnut fan, then look no further. This recipe is wonderful and the cake turned out far better than expected. The icing was a little runny at first, but it settled, so note to self, next time leave the icing a little longer before icing the cake.

This is the kids on their way to school this morning dressed in PJ's for Children in Need day. I know that our school will be giving 50% of the donations to the crisis in the Philippines. My heart goes out to all those people so badly affected and I do hope that people keep on contributing in some way or another. If you haven't gotten around to donating and would like to you can do so HERE.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, mine will be mostly spent sewing and sewing and more sewing and resting of course. What do you have planned for this weekend? Thank you for all your lovely comments on my neck warmer, you bring a little ray of sunshine to my life. A warm welcome to my new followers too.

For anyone interested to add your bake, you can do so at the bottom of this post.

Warm Wishes

Hannapat

xoxo