For the many cups of tea to come | Recipe {Baking}

Mr MiH is leaving... It is his turn to go travelling on business - for FOUR days, i.e. THREE nights. On the one hand this means no world cup matches on TV, whoohoo! On the other, the logistics of looking after Baby MiH on my own needs precise organisation, and nothing can go wrong (ie no train delays, meetings over-running). Luckily, my Mum is coming to help out - and I baked some biscuits for when Baby MiH has (finally) gone to bed to keep our energy levels up. The recipe is again from My Granny's Baking Book by Catherine Best. I adapted the recipe - Shrewsbury cake - slightly (all changes in bold in the recipe). 

The biscuits - not sure there are cakes - are so simple, but with a hint of lemon and vanilla, they are really different from your usual shortbread biscuits and delicious with a cup of tea (just the right texture to be dunked). Also, they happen to require little ingredients, and these are quite basic so probably already in your cupboard. 

I made 25 cakes with the recipe - that number depends on the thickness of the biscuits. 

You will need:
- 115g soft butter
- 140 g caster (superfine) sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 225 g of plain flour
- finely grated ring of 1 lemon
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

How to make these:

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat the softened butter with the sugar until pale, light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg yolks to the butter and sugar mixture, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
4. Sift the flour over the top and add the lemon rind. Stir in. 
5. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. 
6. Gather up the mixture to make a stiff dough (you may need to add a bit flour to take into account the addition of lemon juice and vanilla extract). 
7. Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface then roll it our to about a 5mm thick.
8. Using a cookie cutter, cut out circles.
9. Arrange the cookies on the baking sheets - and flatten each with your fingers. 
10. Gather up the offcuts and roll out again to make more biscuits.
11. Put into the hot oven and cook for about 15 minutes, until firm to the touch and lightly browned. 
12. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to crisp up and cool completely. 
13. Enjoy!

Nothing fancy, but just some comfort eating biscuits. Sometimes it is the best thing to have in the house witha cup of tea, and hopefully get on with some of my projects! 

Gone bananas {Recipe}

Sunday is cake day at ours - not on purpose, it just always seem to happen on a Sunday. And this Sunday I had a few bananas to get rid of. Baby MiH and I have a thing for bananas but it seemed that I was over-enthusiastic on my last food shopping day and got a few too many. 

It was also an opportunity to test some recipes from the latest cooking book I took out of the library - My Granny's Baking Book - great book, many pictures and everything looks yummy. And there was a banana bread recipe, bingo! I have never tried banana bread - I know, shocking. So I am not sure how this compares, but Baby MiH and I loved it. 

However Mr MiH is not the biggest fan.. I was surprised because he does not have as sweet a tooth as Baby MiH and I have - and this cake/bread has no sugar (I added the icing sugar on top specifically for that reason). This cake is probably healthier alternative to his usual tea on Sundays.

I have changed the recipe slightly so that I could use what I actually had in the house - this is how I made mine. 

You will need: 

• 115g of unsalted butter
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 220g of flour
• 2 tsp of mixed all spices
• 25g of wheat bran
• 2 eggs beaten 
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 2-3 tbsp milk
• icing sugar for dusting

So how to make it

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease and base line a loaf tin. Cream the butter in a bowl until it is fluffy. Sift the bicarbonate of soda with the flour and spices, then add to the creamed butter, alternately with the eggs. Add the bran. 
2. Peel the bananas and slice them into a bowl. Mash them well, then stir them into the cake mixture. Add enough milk to give a dropping consistency. 
3. Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin and level the surface. Bake for 75 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. 
4. Sift the icing sugar - if you want...

A new Sunday cake for this week - and look at that (dirty) little  face, I will just have to bake more cake to see that face again.

Hope you had a great weekend, as you can see from the pictures, we had wonderful weather and made the most of it!