Dr Seuss

I wasn't sure what to do for Betsy's Birthday Cake.  She is however a little obsessed with Dr. Seuss so I thought I would do her a book, Dr Seuss, Cat in the Hat and it seemed to go down pretty well!

Happy Birthday to you

A little number I created this morning for Fran - who is 8 today! Where has the time gone?

Shiver Pie

Inspired by Mum and creating a sort of version of something that she herself created, I made Shiver Pie. Poppy loves blackcurrants but they always make her shiver - hence the name of my latest creation! I had some cream, a bit of greek yogurt and some frozen blackcurrants. I cooked 'em up, thickened 'em, made a pastry base and sort of threw it together. Voila - Shiver Pie for pudding and you know what they say, 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating', no doubt we'll all be shivering together, brrrrrr!

Pretzel Mania

OH MY GOD, I have just stuffed myself with Pretzel! We are lucky enough to have one of just 10 Auntie Anne's Pretzel places in Derby and we all love a pretzel. I've made them before but not successfully and when I am home I love to bake! So, today, I thought I would give the pretzel making another go.....

In this pic, I've prep'd up and had my soda solution in the bowl all ready to dip

the pretzles, chorizo chopped for the savoury ones...ready to roll (and twist!)

Once I had divided the dough into 10 pieces I rolled them out - not as easy as it looks to get them an even size all the way along but these were more or less ok!!

When I had twisted them, dipped them in soda, put them on the lined and well greased tray they went in a hot oven for about 8 - 9 mins and then the fun bit, melt the butter and dunk the cooked pretzels and then give them some serious sugar treatment and voila - the finished article. I made some savoury ones too from chorizo and cheese - they were yummy too!

Another successful baking challenge accomplished - something else I can tick of my list of baked goods! Thing is, they all get eaten so quickly!

Paul Hollywood eat your heart out!!

Watching the Great British Bake-off has really got me going. How I missed out on that one I'll never know. I frequently check the 'be on a show' pages for all of the main tv channels in the hope that one day I will make it onto some sort of cookery type prog only to discover that I have missed out. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

So, after watching last night's instalment of the above

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tndz9, I decided I could do FAR better than any of them and set to work making Paul Hollywood's crusty cob loaf. What a doddle! Picture 1 is the loaf going into the oven, 30 mins later and here it is all cooked and ready to sample.

Never mind though, I'll get there - one day!