Conkers and chocolate cake

A trip into town today confirmed that Autumn is here, besides the warm weather trying to hang on! There were loads of conkers on the main street in Cheltenham and lots of people picking them up. I can never resist picking up as many as a can find!

I especially love it when you see them picking out of their shells - just a little glimpse of what is inside - all shiny.

A favourite when we were children - a doubler! I may even look for an old shoelace and have a quick game of conkers!

I spent the afternoon practicing for my bake of again - taking the cake to be enjoyed with friends. Still not 100% right but I think one more practice and I will have the right combination. How have you spent your Saturday?

Vinnese whirls

So here is my attempt from the second week of the Great British Bake Off.

As you can see they didn't turn out very well! They broke up as soon as you touched them and they didn't taste very nice! I will try them again at some point, I might look for a specific gluten free recipe this time though!

We had a charity bake off at work - I made the below ice cream cone cakes - I got through to the final! Whoop Whoop - now on to planning the next bake.

Who doesn't take a selfie with their cakes!!

The Great British (Gluten free) Bake Off - Jaffas

Hello All

It has been a while! I can't remember if I told you last time I was on here but I have been diagnosed as a Coeliac so am now following a gluten free diet. My baking took a bit of a knock as I got to grips with using gluten free flour and there were a lot of failed bakes and yucky food. I didn't feel like blogging about it! But anyway I am much more confident in my baking now, so I am back!!

I am going to try and bake as many things from GBBO as we follow the series and here is what I chose from week one (sorry about all the photos I got carried away!)

 They worked really well - I just used the recipe that they did in GBBO but subsituted the flour for GF flour. I also used Terrys choc orange for the topping and it made a big difference -they were delicious and didnt last long when I had family around! One final photo, because I was so happy with them!

Goats cheese, sun dried tomatoes and basil muffins

I think I may have a new baking obsession - savoury muffins! These are the first ones I have made, they were super easy and really tasy. Have you got any savoury flavour suggestions  I want to try the welsh rarebit version next I think!

All aboard, the annual train cake - choo choo

Every year I ask my brother what cake he would like for his birthday, every year he asks for a train cake. I am not sure when the tradition started (it was when I was still living at home so quite some time ago) and he has just turned 23!!

It is always chocolate, and always made out of swiss rolls, this year is the first time I have done windows. Something changes every year - I will have to try and hunt out all the photos of the past ones.

Here is a mini train cake I made for my nephews last night. I was babysitting them in the evening and after bed time I secretly baked it so it would be a surprise for them in the morning for being so good! 

Movies bake off

We had a movies bake off recently. I was inspired by all the snacks people have and made a triple layer cake. The bottom layer is pick and mix flavoured with a mixture of jelly, foam and chocolate sweets with a cream cheese frosting (with hundreds and thousands in!) the next layer is inspired by popcorn (the stripes are meant to be like the popcorn bags you get) and it is toffee flavoured. The top layer is a coke and chocolate cake! I had great fun making this and it tasted good too! 

I will pop back soon and show you what everyone else made!

Ps a quick thank you to twinkle star and puddleduck for passing on the super sweet blogging award to me - I am very honoured and will do my post on this soon too! 

Have been super busy recently and blogging has taken a backseat (although I have still read all your posts!)

Mini egg cake and pancakes

This is a birthday cake I made for my boss for her birthday. Just a simple chocolate cake, chocolate butter cream and lots of mini-eggs!!

I am a little late with these but I also have a few pancake shots for you. We had our pancakes after a roast, so only wanted them a pudding. I made little scotch pancakes in my new one-egg pan (I love it!)

They turned out really well and puffed up to be light and fluffy. I havent had much luck in the past with pancakes so I was really pleased with them.

Home-made pop tarts, pretzel sticks and a lovely blog friend

Look at the lovely parcel that arrived for me - I took part in prudence puddleducks's guess who post, and after some digging around I guess right! This little gift popped through my door soon after! Thank you so much

At the weekend we had people over for the superbowl so there were many things being cooked (forgot to photo them all!) Here were the first things - pretzel sticks. Recipe here I have only just found a beautiful mess and now I am hooked - it is a lovely blog - go and have a visit.

They didn't brown very much but they tasted delicious!

I also made pop tarts - again I am not a fan of measuring pastry for hours so I made mini round pop tarts. I did 2 fillings, chocolate and marshmallow and cinnamon. They were really nice, something I will be doing again. Recipe here

Did you do anything for the superbowl?

Red velvet smores recipe

I keep forgetting to give you all the recipe I used for my smores so here it is!

First of all I made the marshmallow - for this I followed this recipe I made them the night before and stored them in an air-tight container. I had way to many and the rest kept for about a week after.

For the red velvet graham crackers I used this recipe as I didn't have any buttermilk I just used mile (semi-skimmed) and they turned out fine! I also used a cookie cutter to shape mine as all the measuring to make perfect rectangles seemed like a lot of extra work - when I could just make them round! I also chose to use a small star cutter to cut a shape out of the middle of the top cracker of the cookie - I really love seeing the marshmallow poke through.

Then came piecing it all together. I first melted some chocolate and coated each side of the graham cracker. Then I roasted the marshmallows (in truth they were put under the grill in the oven until gooey, but roasting them on a camp fire would have been more fun) then all you do is squidge it all together! 

Enjoy - let me know if you make any - share your pictures too x

(sorry for the blurred picture, I wanted to include some photos I hadn't already shown you!)

American bake off!

As promised here are all the entrants, above are my smores.

Peanut butter and jelly cupcakes

Chocolate cake

Apple and cheese cake

Oreo cheesecake

The table was very full! We had an amazing time - but all left feeling very full!! 

Red velvet smores

This was my contribution to my friends American bake-off. I wrote out all the links for the recipes and everything to go with the photos, saved it and came back and everything but the photos were gone - grrr. But maybe it is a good thing as I want to test the recipe again with a few changes so I will come back soon with it!

I made red velvet graham crackers and my own homemade marshmallows (never done this before)

I will return soon with pictures of all the entrants!

Soda bread and my weekend

I have been watching 

The Fabulous Baker Brothers and I was inspired by there quick and easy soda bread recipe. I gave it a go and it turned out really well. It is so easy too!

This weekend I have done paper maiche pinata with my sister and my nephews, I was helping them prepare for a party in the evening, we had lots of fun. I then popped by my parents to see them after there holiday. So a pretty busy saturday!

Today I went with a no plan day and just did what I fancied  I popped in to town for a little bit on a hunt for an oil filled radiator, after I failed I came back home.

I am very lucky to have waitrose walking distance from me, so every now and then, as a treat, I take a wander there and buy a few things. The walk is a nice one as well - lots of autumn changes going on!

It is a good job I walk there because I always want to buy so much, but it is a bit out of my price range for everyday shopping.

Today the fancy packaging on this iced coffee jumped out at me so I got it for Manny, he is a BIG coffee lover. I love the detail on the carton, every side had something different!

I have jsut realised how out of order this post is - oh well! Whilst in town I saw this amazing musician - he walked along the rope whilst playing the fiddle - it was amazing!

Last week I also spotted babar in town,  I used to watch him as a child!

I hope you have all had a great weekend x