Dutch Apple Cake

Oh my goodness this is another must try from Rachel Allens book "Bake"...I know I must be a real yawn banging on about this superb book. But it is, when I went to purchase it from Amazon I read the reviews and lots of people had baked more than 1/2/3/4/5/ and more recipes from this book...as apparently on average people maybe do 2 to 5 recipes from a book. Unless that is you do have a personal favourite book. But somehow this darling book ticks all the boxes.....its what I call home comfort food and well the Dutch Apple Cake surely does that. It is basically a batter on which you lay the apple slices..I used one apple but two would do it superb justice too. So I have just finished a lovely plateful of this with ice cream....scrumptious....and this is my 6th recipe with loads more still to do...they have a lovely section on savoury baking as well.

On another topic have you ever added up the total amount in monetary terms that you have bought on cooking books. Well my main books are in a shelf in my larder ....I always seem to have two or 3 out at a time..... and believe me I was really suprised at the total...I averaged about £10 per book, with others costing more and phew!!!! I have spent about £600.....but then again (and my family smile at me) well I read them...oh yes! I love it when the author/ress has written little anecdotes to go with recipes etc. My daughter cannot understand it at all but I love nothing better than curling up with a coffee and turning the pages of a cookery book and generally I tag the pages on recipes that interest me etc.

So "Whats on your shelves?". Byeee for now.....x

Oh my goodness I you fancy a loaf that isn't made with yeast then believe me you just have to try this one. Its made with bacon lardons and I used grated red leicester cheese instead of the cheddar which the recipe calls for. Its from Rachel Allens cookbook called "Bake". I thoroughly recommend this book it has a bit of everything and so far I have cooked 5 recipes from it.

Talk
Talk about bread baking....well one of the best investments I have made in the past (apart from my beloved Rayburn ) is a bread machine. To turn out lovely home made bread without all the extra salt, which somehow shop brought bread seems to have is wonderful. The only downside is we eat it too fast.

I made a lovely rocket and gruyere cheese flan...the 4 eggs mixed with 20 fl oz single cream and baked in parmesa pastry. This flan is supposed to feed 10 hehe!!! it fed me hubby...daughter son in law and two 16 month old toddlers....I think it was a hit.

Of course no tea would be complete without some chocolate cup cakes. These are from Nigella of course...Domestic Goddess book...mind you I do have a confession to make I curdled the chocolate and cream topping duh!...I just toke my eye off the pan for a 2nd. So with family due to arrive any time, afraid I had to resort to good ol' glace icing. The chocolate logs are shop brought and I tried one after my home bake cakes and they tasted absolutely yeuk...so synthetic. Oh yes the cup cakes are made with 100g dark chocolate and mixed with a jar of morello cherry jam....honestly they are heavenly. So have been busy all round lately. For now...byee

Erm.....not perfect....but tasted so yummy.

Ok this might look like a piled on mess and yes maybe the end decorating wasn't up to scratch...but this was very moreish. Its a chocolate savarin with a wine and brandy syrup ....strawberrys and chantilly cream.

and then with coffee we had

Rocky Road from no other than the Goddess herself Nigella "Christmas"....these are very rich so two for me is about right.

Whats a girl to do but show off her new toy. I know I know its not a kitchenaid but after having spent a great deal of time drooling over them on Amazon and elsewhere and kept thinking £330 odd is a lot of money for a mixer. I started reading some of the reviews on this little Kenwood beauty. The reviews raved about this lovely machine...like me most of the other people hankered after the Kitchenaid...after all this make is what Dualit is to toasters...(have one of those) love it. anyway where was I oh yes!! So read, studied, digested and then when I saw that this Kenwood Patissier was on offer at £97 how could I resist. It arrived 6 days later even though it said 4-6 weeks. Believe me I am very very pleased, it does everything it says on the box, looks lovely in my kitchen, so I hope we will have a lovely baking time together.

Talking of which, purchased Rachel Allens new book and it is lovely. Recently made the Date Slices.....as there are only me and hubby at home now, froze half. At the time didn't have enough of the light brown musqovado so substituted dark brown, must say it has made them such a rich taste which I love. Even my twin Grandchildren one year and four months old... had a taste for mid afternoon tea.....they loved it. All for now back soon.

Hello....

Hello and welcome to my very first posting on my new blog. I have another blog http://happyyarns.blogspot.com/.... I have come to the conclusion that I needed another place for my up and coming cooking exploits. Well I say exploits....erm does that describe my cooking, I suppose not really. I have been cooking/baking since my early 20's, years ago now and have always been very keen. But when my children left home and me and darling hubby became empty nesters, well my love for the kitchen over the last couple of years became purely functional. I suppose I lost my mojo....I mean I still cooked for me and hubby and when the family come round, but that real excitement of going food shopping and getting all those ingredients together somehow eluded me. Then we decided to have a kitchen refit and the gas boiler was not efficient enough....so one day I was out and popped into a Aga shop....well whats a girl to do....I fell madly in love....a Aga on its own would have been wonderful, but a boiler was needed as well. So a beautiful red Rayburn complete with central heating boiler was installed and woosh my love for cooking was reignited. Although it has been a slow process I must admit...but it has and is returning and I find I have more interest than before. So this is my very first posting and I hope that I can post often....one thing I must get used to and remember to do is take photos....anyway thank you for stopping by and Hello and Welcome.