One a penny, two a penny...

Hot Cross Buns!  I thought I would give hot cross buns a try, since it's an appropriate time of year to give them a whirl.  I used a Paul Hollywood recipe which was in the Radio Times, but is also on the BBC Good Food website.  Whilst I am not convinced about his status as Silver Fox (sorry Paul, you're just not my type!) the recipe was pretty easy to follow.

As you can see, they look like the genuine article, and they taste pretty good as well.  However, I don't think you could do them in much less than four hours with all the kneading and rising and resting that's required.  So next year, I won't feel guilty about buying them from M&S :-)

Cherry Cake and School Crafts

Zoe and I made the English Cherry Cake from Mary Berry's Baking Bible, and I must say it was absolutely delicious!

It was supposed to be in a slightly smaller tin, so should have been a bit deeper (and cooked for a lot longer) but it was still lovely.  It was an all in one cake, so it was really easy to make too - just whack all the ingredients in the bowl and stick the mixer in till it isn't lumpy anymore.  I this would be a good picnic cake, because I think it would survive quite well being carted around in a plastic box very well, as long as Ben didn't eat it all first.  Will definitely be doing this one again.  Not sure what the lego man is doing.  Zoe said he wanted his photo taking with the cake.  As long as he doesn't eat it all, I don't mind!

Towards the end of term, Ben and Zoe have both been doing crafty foody things at school.  Ben had a mini topic on chocolate (don't remember doing anything that interesting when I was at school!).  He brought home some chocolates that he had made in a box that he designed himself too.  I managed to get a photo before he ate them all.

 I'm not sure about his pricing structure though!
Zoe made a bunny basket and chocolate nest, which she was very pleased with.  It didn't last very long either. :-)

Did you miss me?

I've been thinking about resurrecting this blog for a while, especially as Facebook is losing it's sparkle.  I like it for being nosy and stalking people keeping up to date with what folks are up to, but I want something a bit more personal. (and that I won't worry about whether people read or comment or 'like')

I want to keep a record of what I've been doing and making so that's what this is going to become, and luckily the title still fits.  So be prepared for a modest outpouring of cakes, knitting, sewing, garden projects, jewellery, eggs that look vaguely like people (that will be a one-off!) and anything else that takes my fancy.  You never know, I might even sneak some pictures of the kids in, although they're not keen on having their photo taken at the moment.