Cake, Tea and Flowers

My simnel cake, which I am very proud of. It took three hours to bake and had a collar of brown paper and string. I only had room for eight disciples, and all my fruit sank to the bottom, but it tastes good! My Mum and brother were here today for Easter lunch. Andy cooked while we went for a wander in Greenwich. Delicious lunch and I managed to come second in scrabble rather than last.

Another tall, thin painting, representing the many cups of tea drunk today.

I have missed shadow shot Sunday again, but these would have been perfect. I do like green flowers. I have Euphorbias and Hellebores in the garden, and also a variety of tulip called Spring Green-if it appears again. Snowdrops have that little flash of green too. These are from the flower shop and are teamed with another green flower and two pink roses with green tinges.

A Mad Tea-Party!

Alice remembered something strange that had happened to her one day... It all started with the white rabbit and a fall.......

There were keys and cups and teapots and watches involved, if she remembered correctly. And a strange tea party with a Mad Hatter and his animal friends...

If Alice had the choice, I think she would have liked a strawberry or two and a fondant fancy to accompany her tea. Please help yourself!

Today though, she is enjoying a tea party in the company of her new acquaintances. It all seems so familiar...It may be a little strange, but at least the sun is shining.

We could join Alice for a little while, have a tiny cup of tea and then meander over to see Miss Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist, who is organising this Mad Tea Party! I am going to rush off there now to see what surprises will unfold and to eat a delicious morsel or two!Before we go, look who has gatecrashed the party! Perhaps she will sing us a song and then we can be off...Please take some flowers with you, they smell so lovely! Before you go-have you seen this? I had no idea that this was being made so thank you Renee! It looks great.

I will leave the washing up for later!

Picnic Time

Kendalee invited people to join her for a midweek picnic. A picnic in blogland is lovely as it is a chance to meet new people but can be prepared for in a sporadic manner when time allows! Imagine that time is blurred and no longer matters so that things made on Saturday are served on Wednesday and photographs taken in the daytime look as if they were taken at night. Kendalee asked us to bring a recipe and a flower and to wear something pretty. You will have to take my word for the last bit! My recipe is a favourite one from Nigella Lawson (in 'How To Eat')-clementine cake. She recommends making it at Christmas which I have done but I think it is quite summery too and they happened to have clementines in the shop the other day. Put five or six clementines in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil then simmer for two hours. When they are cool, drain, then mash them up-food mixer or, if that is too much faff then a fork-it works! You need to cut the knobbly bits off the ends and remove any pips but everything else (skin and pith) is used.
Beat six eggs, mix in 225g sugar, 250g ground almonds, a teaspoon of baking powder, then the oranges. I didn't have the right sized tin so used two different sized ones. A 21cm springform tin was reccomended. Bake for an hour on gas mark 5 or 190C-a skewer should come out clean. Cover the top with paper or foil to stop it burning. It is a delicious cake-puddingy served warm but lovely cold too. Very moist and it keeps well.

So, have a piece of cake and a cup of tea-the picnic is just in my garden so the kettle is nearby!

Pull up a log and talk to Tiger while I get the drinks.

Lily has come to see what is going on too!

The jasmine smells delicious at this time of year and it gets better as the evening goes on.

This moon in the moonlight is a lovely present from a friend-thank you! It shows the evening is getting late.

I have got you a lantern to light your way home. Thank you for coming and thank you to Kendalee for bringing you here! Safe journey home!

Ridiculously Labour Intensive Coffee Cake

I bought a Woman and Home, Feel Good Food magazine at the weekend, tempted by the delicious pastel cupcakes on the cover and the coffee cake recipe I found when leafing through.

I rushed home from work tonight to make the cake. It involved four separate processes-the mixture, the syrup to pour onto the baked cake, the butter icing and the glace icing. It took me ages! It is very moist and delicious though so it was worth it. I think the syrup is the secret. You are all invited round for a drink and a slice! I often choose this cake in tea shops and then have the dilemma of should I have tea or coffee to accompany it? Hmmm!

The cake in the magazine is below.

We have a school trip tomorrow and Wednesday, going to The Horniman Museum, mainly to see the aquarium. I can now not worry about whether I can get a cup of coffee as I can just have a slice of my cake at lunchtime!