A Day of Baking - For My Dad's Birthday

Sunday tea has been a tradition in our family since I was a child.  We used to go to my grandparents’ house in  Portishead (near Bristol) every single Sunday with all the aunties and cousins and feast on sandwiches, jam tarts, trifle and usually two or three types of cake.  Grandpa always used to smear the beef dripping from lunch (which had only been eaten four hours previously) over his bread.  We no longer have the time or the waistline to do that every week, but now and then we like to indulge. So when we invite people to Sunday tea – it’s not just a cuppa and a biscuit, it’s a full –on calorie fest.

I started in the morning at 8am by making soda bread for breakfast.  Smeared really warm with fridge-cold butter and homemade jam there's no better start to a Sunday.

My daughter, Giggling Wombat, and I like nothing more than an excuse for a whole day in the kitchen baking up sweet treats.  She is twelve and loves cooking....as long as it's something sugary and baked.  She's not quite so keen to make a regular week night dinner - I wonder why.

It was my Dad's birthday and we started off just making a cake....which turned into quite a few other things too.  The overall effect was a little bit beige - not sure why everything we made was so brown, just happened to be what we fancied making

Clotted Cream cake, treacle tart and Cornish fairings from the ‘Great British Bake Off’ book (thanks Libby for the great present!)

And there were two types of sausage roll (the ones with green tomato chutney were excellent), cheese straws, sandwiches (cucumber, marmite, ham), Cornish fairings

It was a great way to celebrate my lovely Dad’s birthday.

Morning Coffee at Bovey Castle, Devon - A Surprising 'Frugal' Tip

My parents took my sister and me to Bovey Castle for morning coffee on my 40th birthday in October.  It was such a great idea.  We had a reservation to go to Riverford Field Kitchen in the evening and knew there'd be a lot of food served , so decided that, rather than go out for lunch, we'd have a 'posh' morning coffee and save ourselves for the evening.

Bovey Castle is a luxury hotel in the heart of the countryside within Dartmoor National Park.  It is really difficult to find!  I was following signs to North Bovey, and it's close to that village but not within it as I had assumed.  I had to ask two dog walkers, a motorcyclist and two horse riders for directions and was half an hour late (no mobile reception and no Satnav).  If you visit, do yourself a favour and follow the directions from the website and don't make assumptions that because you're a local you can navigate those lanes.

The car park was full of high spec luxury cars (and my rubbishy old filthy estate car looked hilariously out of place) so I was too embarrassed to let the Plus Fours-clad valet park my car (wish I had a photo of him!)  But I wasn't here to be over-awed by the luxury, I fully intended to immerse myself in it.

 

My parents had chosen well.  The main high ceilinged drawing room had a minstrel's gallery and they had sunk into the deep sofas with the most spectacular view over the valley.  Look how the brass handle gleams.

There was the option of sitting in the informal bistro area for a morning coffee, but we wanted the plumped up cushions and wood panelling of the drawing rooms:

I chose a supremely rich chocolate tart to go alongside my pot of tea.  Took no photos of the food or drink - it was almost irrelevant to the surroundings.  There were some really appealing things - the round table with 100 magazines fanned out like the dial of a clock made my sis and I (busy mums most of the time) wish for a bit more luxury time to curl up on a hotel sofa and chill.  I also adored the cheeky parrot in the neighbouring room that would call out and whistle if he spotted you walking past.  The tweeting cage of birds at Reception gave the entrance hall a homely feel, despite the grand setting.  Also the waitress was a bit of a cheeky bird herself and was eager to show us around the whole of the ground floor and even let us be nosy and look inside the private dining rooms.

Can you tell I was enjoying myself?

The bar area - for my next visit?

I have ambiguous feelings towards boxed butterflies.  So beautiful and yet so hunted and dead just for the decor.

 Children are welcome.  I doubt my kids will ever come here, to be honest.  (And this is why: a Junior State Room for two adults and two children costs from £419/ night.)  It's quite a 'huntin', shootin' and fishin'' kind of place and there was a tweed jacketed chap showing some smartly dressed kids around the garden - no idea if he was a member of staff or their Dad. Children are invited to go and collect eggs every morning and the list of country pursuits is phenomenal if that's your kind of thing, some of them e.g. the daily falconry display, croquet are free of charge.  (I wonder if I can rock up as a non-resident and do all that stuff too?!)

 Welly rack inside the front porch

Morning coffee and cake for four in these luxurious surroundings set my Dad back about £30.  I was very grateful for the treat, but I also felt that it was a great idea - if you feel like you crave a bit of luxury, but can't afford to go the whole hog and go on holiday or go out for a three course meal, a pot of tea in a posh hotel can make you feel like a very happy and lucky (forty year old) princess.

Igloo and Penguin Cake for a Child's Birthday Party

I have written before about my rather amateurish attempts at making children's birthday cakes, e.g. the bizarre looking hedgehog cake that I had to make for years for both my children.  So, my 12 year old daughter threw me a curve ball when she asked for an 'Igloo and Penguin' cake.  In Tavistock Rockin' Beads (brilliant place with tuition and some amazing beads for sale, currently running drop in Mince Pie Monday workshops) we found these penguin beads and the deal was done.

I made a chocolate sponge mixture and put them in a greased pudding basin and a ramekin.  Not looking very igloo-like yet...

 I wanted snow-white icing, but thought regular water and icing sugar would be too runny, royal icing would be too thick and heavy, so I created a cream cheese frosting and slathered it on.  Uh-oh, it felt like it might turn into a hedgehog again.

 It wasn't quite as bright white as I had intended, but I had committed to it and there was no turning back.  I marked on some rather messy brickwork on the igloo, added white chocolate drops for a pathway, made a small pond out of blue 'ready roll' icing that I found in the back of the cupboard and sprinkled it with edible blue glitter.  A couple of handfuls of icing sugar later, I decided to add a Playmobil tree (nope, no trees in the Antarctic, but then again, penguins don't really live in igloos either!)...and da-daaaah:

 I broke the cardinal (and somewhat weird) rule of novelty cakes where everything on the plate is supposed to be edible.  Doh! one plastic tree and Doh! two china penguins.

And the girls went mad with some Baking Mad products I received through the post and decorated six cupcakes each and had a great, messy, sugary time.  We loved the Gold Lustre edible paint and the Giant Snowies.  The strawberry flavour chocolate buttons were pretty good too. 

Posh Devon Cream Tea at Lewtrenchard Manor Hotel

We were treated this week to a 'posh afternoon tea' at Lewtrenchard Manor Hotel.  In the middle of stunning Devon countryside (bordering on Cornwall) that feels like it's miles from anywhere, this is an oak-panelled Jacobean mansion with a roaring log fire that was just right for a cold winter's day.

The ten of us were celebrating my Dad's birthday and we had a huge circular table in a panelled room to ourselves.  The children were determined to run around and around the outside of the table.  So they did.  We were brought out freshly baked (sultana) scones and small bowls of clotted cream and jam.  Rather embarrassingly (they didn't know about our distended Christmas bellies) we had to ask for more cream and they brought us a cereal bowl full.  The finger sandwiches weren't dainty, but the smoked salmon and cucumber ones were tasty.  Too much mustard on the ham version.

We ate all the chocolate cake, most of the lemon cake and only one piece of the seeded carrot cake.  We're that kind of family.  Shall I mention the member of our party who brought out their freezer bags and pocketed the remaining cakes to take home.....?  (wasn't me!)

Top marks for the scones - difficult to get right, superb when they are; sandwiches pretty good and the cakes were good, but could have been smaller and a little more....elegant... to fit in with the surroundings, rather than hefty big rectangles that looked straight out of a tray bake.

A lovely afternoon with family - thanks, Mum!

Lewtrenchard have the interestingly named 'Purple Carrot' experience where up to eight diners sit in a row and watch their meal prepared for them on flat screen monitors in front of them.


Chef's commentary is apparently optional.  Wouldn't be my first choice of a gourmet night out, but I suppose if I was getting bored of my dining companion, or needed something different, eating gourmet food whilst watching a kitchen on CCTV cameras might be a fun way to spend some time...

8 Children's Chocolate Birthday Cake 'Ideas'

Our good friends came to stay during the Half Term  break and it was A's birthday, so my daughter and I cooked up this little treat.

It was supposed to be a Victoria sandwich, but little E said 'I only like chocolate cake'.  We'd already done a three egg sponge batter (using Hugh F-W's method: weigh the eggs and use the same weight of SR flour, butter and caster sugar), so just sieved in some Green and Black's Cocoa Powder, put it in the oven and rustled up some chocolate butter cream.

A was delighted to receive this for her 39th birthday - I could tell she particularly liked the ballerina on the top!

While I'm here I'm going to show you some of the other birthday cakes I've made.  They're definitely not particularly perfect or immaculate, but they're pretty funny....this one was for my daughter's Puppy Party - her 8th birthday:

This was for my son's 8th birthday (yes, they both love chocolate buttercream icing unfortunately, it's got to be one of the unhealthiest things in the world.)

Oh look, there's the ballerina again, with some rather melting Maltesers!

This one's looking fairly understated...just candles, flakes, mini stars and writing.

This one is a scary-looking hedgehog - those chocolate fingers kept falling off:

This was for my daughter's 'Fashion Party' - heart shaped cake with loads of Barbie shoes and a tiara on top.

....and another hedgehog cake - that's what my son wants every year - it looks kind of like a rat.

There, I feel that I've really 'shared' with you all.  Perhaps I should submit them to http://www.cakewrecks.com/ - no actually, I don't think they're good enough for that - the cakes on that site are actually amazingly made - these are just proper Mummy made chocolate-fest, unhealthy but fun, messy cakes.