We got given a whole load of gooseberries, so as an experiment I tried half apples/half gooseberries in my spiced apple cake.

I’ve got a bit of a cold so things don’t taste of much, but Cecilia informs me that it tastes delicious. I think it would work with 100% gooseberries but you might want to add a bit more sugar depending on the ripeness of the gooseberries.

I’ve updated the recipe with some variations on the apple cake – rhubarb, carrots etc. Has anyone else tried any variations? I’ve tried banana but that was very disappointing – very solid and bread like, it tasted ok when toasted and spread with butter.

I thought I would bake some mini spiced apple cakes to hand out at woolfest

The only problem is people keep quality testing them, so who knows how many I’ll have left by woolfest! Haven’t they heard of non destructive testing???

What to do when you accidentally buy seville oranges instead of clementines? You don’t eat them – its like eating a lemon!
You can make marmalade…except we don’t eat marmalade much. Or you can make Orange Chocolate Chip cookies!

Orange Chocolate Chip

Simple to do – add the juice and grated rind of one seville orange to your favorite chocolate chip recipe.

Or you can use this recipe:

• 3oz of butter
• 6oz of sugar
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 6oz of self raising  flour ( add 1tsp of baking powder if using plane)
• pinch of salt
• 2oz of roasted hazelnut pieces
• 2oz of chocolate chopped into small pieces ( green and blacks maya gold works well)
• Grated rind + juice of one seville orange

Cream butter and sugar together, add the egg / orange and beat well. Now mix in the flour/ nuts /chocolate  which should end up with a very stiff mixture. Place spoonfuls onto two baking trays as far apart as possible – this should make about 20 cookies. They are going to spread out and probably merge together when cooked. Bake in the oven at 180 C for 12- 15 minutes. Leave to cool for a few minutes before taking off the baking tray – if the cookies have merged then cut between them with a knife before they cool.

I was instructed to bake a cake for the weekend. Oh but its two days, so we’ll need one for Sunday too. The third one is for the goat herd, without whom we wouldn’t be able to go

Well after all that cake, here’s a nice healthy lunch. Recipe here

I’d forgotten to post this, recently we went to a wedding where the bride requested that friends made cakes for the reception. Here is the table of cakes before they were eaten.

Mine is the one in the bottom right corner, recipe here. It was also the first to be finished by the guests!
Congratulations to Lucy and Jez.

I finally got round to writing this recipe down so it could be used for the vegetarian option at the Tatie Pot/Spin In at Woolfest. Afterwards I got a few requests for the recipe, so here it is!

Not your standard christmas cake, but this year was a competition between my spiced apple cake and my mother’s chocolate cake.

Shown on a chopping board designed and burnt by my 8year old niece.

I love my spiced apple cake, so I’ve put up a link to the recipe.

It was based off a “chuck em all in” recipe from Niki in Australia. Not having to peal your apples made me try it the first time. However I’m not used to measuring things in cups so I had to convert it, plus I didn’t have all the ingredients so I had to substitute a few things.
It works, and its delicious. I even made it for a friends engagement party where it was really appreciated.