11th Birthday cake part 2......a "Tatty Teddy" Cake...

As the older of the 2 Smallish Ones has a birthday that falls in the Summer Holidays, we always celebrate twice...once with friends...and cake number 1...and once with family...on the actual day...and of course, this means a second cake...

Mini Victoria Sandwiches...

I treated myself to a new tin a while back from the fab Lakeland (one of my fave stores!!) and have only just gotten around to trying it out!! 

A Giant Cupcake for an 11th Birthday...

...I took my inspiration for this cake from Jo Wheatley's great new book "A Passion for Baking"...and a variation can also be found on Jo's Blog, "Jo's Blue Aga"...I got the book a month ago as a belated birthday present to myself!! That same day, both my Smallish Ones poured over the pages, ooohing and aaahing and choosing various bakes for us to try...one of which was this cake...

Marbled Cheesecake Brownies...

...a little square of chocolatey cheesecake heaven...Now all us here at Sew Appetising love a brownie of three!! But we also quite like a decent bit of cheesecake too...so what could be more perfect than a sneaky combo combining both?

Herman the German...the Strawberry and Dark Chocolate one...

...as I mentioned in the previous post about my Lemon Drizzle Herman, I am determined to be a bit adventurous with my Herman Friendship Cakes...I have to date tried 4 flavours...my favourites being the original and the Lemon Drizzle...but this one comes a close second...

Herman the German...the Lemon one...

...I was determined to try something a bit different with my next Herman starter...and

after a few hours going through all the sites with recipes for all the varieties already tried I decided upon a classic Lemon Drizzle Herman as experiment number 1...

Chewy Cereal Bars with a "Tweak"...

...a while ago I posted the recipe for my home-made Chewy Cereal Bars...which are lovely (even if I do say so myself) and get made every other week in our house!!! But I decided enough was enough..I needed to have a little play around with the idea...

Just a quick hello...

...to say I am still here, but have had a very busy couple of weeks, including almost a week away...hence the lack of new recipes and posts on the blog...
However, I do have some garden updates in the pipeline (the tremendous amount of rain we've had has done all sorts to the garden and veggies!!) and am baking another, different Herman tomorrow (all will be revealed then)...plus with school going back this coming week there will be lunch box bakes (still deciding what to do) to make and bake...so am hoping all will become as it was...and the blog will have posts aplenty in the coming weeks...
Keep watching and tuning in...xx

Chocolate Chip Herman...

...Part 2 of "The Herman Adventure"...using the portion of the original Herman the German Friendship Cake starter that I popped in the fridge whilst we were away for a long weekend...

Herman The German Friendship Cake...

...the other day (well 12 days ago to be precise!) Hubby came home from work clutching an old chinese take-away carton wrapped in a plastic bag and fastened tightly with an elastic band...

Coconut Milk Cake...

...have had my eye on this one for a while now...I got Marion Keyes new recipe book "Saved by Cake" out of the local library a few weeks ago, and have only just found some time to bake one of the cakes from it...

The Best Ever Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies...

...or at least that's what my two Smallish People call them!! Although I think I may just have to agree with them!!

Chewy Cereal Bars...

...this is basically a tray-bake...but one with a purpose...it is there to pick you up mid-morning if you skipped (or didn't have time for) breakfast (not that I am advocating missing your brekkie in any way shape or form!!)...or it is simply a different type of breakfast, one that you pick up and run with...(again, not advocating running whilst eating!)...as in a "take-it-and-go" style brekkie...That said, it is also a delicious after school snack too...

Rocky Road Chocolate Brownie Bites...

...in our house we are suckers for chocolate goodies...especially most variations of brownies...so as we are visiting friends this weekend, I thought some brownies would be a nice gift to take along...but I wanted to up the stakes slightly, I wanted a smaller bite-sized brownie...and possibly one with a topping (or two!!) I remembered a "hot brownie muffin" recipe form one of Small Ones cookbooks, but it was more of a hot pudding, but I was confident that I could 'tweak' away at it until it was what I wanted...

Focaccia...

My bread-machine cheat method...I haven't made Focaccia before...so was pleasantly surprised by how easy this method was...

Chocolate Sables...

...via Edd (The Boy Who Bakes) Kimber...Wow! that is all I can say...they are delicious...if you like chocolatey things...as they are indeed very chocolatey...in fact, they should probably be renamed too, as there is a hidden ingredient in them that really comes to play once baked and tasted...

Remember the Rainbow Cookies?...

...I think it's probably hard to not remember them...they were rather bright after all...look, here they are... and here's a photo to jog your memory...just in case...

The Making of a Madeira Cake...

...this is one cake that I love to eat, but have never attempted to make before today...


There are so many marvellously rich and complex cakes out there, but I often crave the buttery, lusciousness of a thick slice of 'Plain' Madeira Cake...I find there is no other 'plain' cake like it...moist, yellow and totally addictively delicious, loved by all our family...and to my shame I have to say I always buy mine!!! But not today....today I have set myself the challenge of baking one with my own fair hands...

Weekly Bake-Off Challenge #5...

...and this one was just in time for my birthday...

My Cupcake Adventure...

...well, more of an experiment really I suppose, but adventure sounds better!!! As it is The Queen's Diamond Jubilee coming up and then The Olympics here in London...I thought I would get a bit of patriotic practice in...(oh yes and it's my birthday this weekend, so an even better excuse to make cakes!!)