Cosy Weekend

Lily is summing up how I feel today-like staying in and being cosy as it is cold and wet outside. I was working on my blanket this morning and she wanted some lap time, so we combined the two and she ended up cocooned in colours. Now all three cats are cosied up on the bed and I have been pottering around, watching films and making a cake. I made a banana cake the other night-following a different recipe than normal. It had the addition of yoghurt. I didn't have any plain yoghurt so used a pot of Activia strawberry yoghurt. It has made a tasty cake even better!
Today I made a pound cake. I have not tasted that yet, but am waiting for Andy to come home-he has been to see his Mum this weekend. I also discovered a delicious brand of chai tea. I love Starbuck's chai tea latte, and have been searching for a teabag that tastes like it. All the types I have tried have been disappointing, until this weekend when I discovered Natco's.
I have made it in two ways-first by brewing the teabag and heating up and frothing milk, then adding a sugar, second by heating the milk and sugar with the teabag, frothing this and then topping up with boiling water. The first way was good but the second was delicious and had that spicy kick. Better than Starbuck's!
In addition to 'Seraphine' which I watched last night and loved, I have watched 'Enid' today-about Enid Blyton. Quite depressing really-if the film is accurate then she was a person who had a sad childhood which seemed to damage her and make her almost retreat into her world of stories, needing the affirmation of her child fans or 'friends' as she called them, and not be able to be as loving as she could be to her own children. I enjoyed it though-mainly because of Helena Bonham-Carter who I really like. Now I am watching 'Pride and Prejudice'-the Kiera Knightley one as opposed to the BBC one. It is good but the BBC version created the characters so perfectly, that they are forever etched in my mind, and the people in this film are like imposters. Though the actor playing Mr Collins is just as funny as the actor in the other version. Judy Dench is also very good.

Satis House, Failed Cake and Good Lunch

This is Restoration House in Rochester. Isn't it beautiful? We walked through a park from the back of the cathedral, and as we came out were faced with this house. It is called Restoration House and is Satis House in 'Great Expectations'. I got this information from the signs next to the gate. I have not seen this before either, and will be back in June when it is open.
"Within a quarter of an hour we came to Miss Havisham's house, which was of old brick and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred. There was a courtyard in front and that was barred; so we had to wait, after ringing the bell, until someone should come to open it." This is my peanut loaf. Looks good doesn't it? It isn't though. It is weird. Topped in cake weirdness only by the courgette cake I made many years ago. At least this one isn't green. I got a lovely cake baking book from my Mum for Christmas, and this is the first thing I chose to make from it. I hope the next one is better!

Below is the scene of our good lunch on Saturday. I thought I would give it a mention just on the off chance you get an opportunity to go there. The food was delicious. Topes website here.

Door 3, a cake and a lost website

This is a delicious cake. It is also really easy to make. The recipe is from Nigella Lawson, and is middle eastern in origin. I have seen similar recipes but this is the one I like as it is so simple.

Put five clementines in a pan (these were large ones-I would use 6 if they were small), cover with water and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and cook for two hours. The smell of doing this is lovely and I wish I could blog it!
When they are cooled, drain them, then pulp them in the blender. I had ones without pips-but if they have pips cut in half and remove first. The skin, pith and flesh all go in-they are all lovely and soft after two hours cooking.

Beat six eggs.

Add 225g of sugar, 250g of ground almonds and mix in.
You also need a heaped teaspoon of baking powder-I didn't use this as I had to use 50g of flour as only had 200g almonds.




Mix the orange pulp in last.
You need a 21cm cake tin-I only have these two and the mixture filled them nicely. One of my cakes came out thin and one thicker!
It is a very moist cake with a lovely bitter orange taste-it goes really well with coffee and is good with a little cream if you like.
Here is a conversion list for U.S. measurements to metric-Leenie made me think of that when she made the fig cake! I forgot the baking times and temperature-sorry!

Time-about an hour-and put foil on top after 40 minutes to prevent burning. Temperature-gas mark 5 or 190C-in my oven-a fan oven-I did 160C.

I have been looking for this website for ages. I found it when I was first on the internet in 2007 and lost it-well it was still in my favourites list but I didn't know that! I like the main page with the little rooms, and the dolls are interesting. This was before I started making dolls.