The easiest fruit cake - starch and gluten free

This recipe is adapted from Pauline's fruit cake recipe. Pauline is my sisters step grandmother in law. Sis and I have done this recipe a million times (in the starch format) even as our Christmas cake for several years; its that good.  Its so quick and easy, beautifully moist and a great filler upper, a major plus in my book.  The original recipe adapted very easily to a starch free version with no compromise on taste or texture.

It is also a very forgiving recipe. You can vary the quantities/types of dried fruit and nuts with good results.

Pauline's fruit cake

600g mixed dried fruit of your choice

100g nut pieces of your choice

50g desiccated coconut, unsweetened 

3oz of liquid (sometimes I use brandy, orange juice or just water)

1 1/3 cup of almond flour (ground almonds)

1 egg beaten

1 tin of condensed milk

generous shake of mixed spice (cinnamon & ginger)

2 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 320F (160C). Grease and line your preferred tin, usually 2 loaf tins for me.

Simmer the fruit in your chosen liquid for a few minutes, or until the fruit absorbs the liquid a little.  Transfer to a large bowl.  Add all the other ingredients and stir thoroughly to combine.  Spread evenly into the tin and bake until a tooth pick comes out clean. I tend to check it after about 45 minutes as it may need covering, and leave it in for another 10 mins or so.

A mighty fine looking cake in my book... 

Polka dot party

Last years birthday party theme was the Octonauts, you can read about the party here.  This year we went dotty! Polka dotty to be precise, or poke her (said with posh English accent) dotty as the birthday girl insisted on saying. 

The polka dot train started with the party bags.  Connie & I spent a happy morning stamping corks into paint and onto sandwich bags.

The polka dot cake was fun to make, with its polka dot cake pops inside. There are plenty of recipes out there on "how to" which I perused before starting this one. 
A kind school Mum lent me her cake pop machine, which is little bit like a waffle machine but it makes balls of cake.  I made up a two batches of my regular sponge cake mix then divided it into 5 portions to which I added radioactive food colouring. I ended up with extras; better over balled than under I thought.  Some of the cake balls (why are they called pops?!) were slightly brown on the surface from over greasing the machine.  It barely noticed in the finished cake.  Then when they were cooled I popped the pops in the freezer.

The next morning I set to work building the cake.  A thin layer of batter on the base of the tin then evenly spaced the pops on the surface, see below. Apologies for the bad photo.

Originally I made up double quantities of cake batter but that wasn't enough; a last minute panic mix of a third batch and the balls were covered. As was the kitchen...

My preferred frosting is buttercream icing which I then decorated with lovely Smarties.   

The cake got a little squished at the park!

Pretty much every piece had a polka dot in it which went down well with the party goers!

The rest of the party food was polka dotted - dot sandwiches, crackers and dots of cheese, mini tomatoes, circular tortilla chips, cuties, sugar cookies with polka dot icing, oh and hula hoops. A great English crisp!

the birthday girl tucking in

If you don't know Oriental trading head over there for a browse; it is brilliant and reasonable! I got the plates, napkins, balloons & party bag toys from there.

Have you got a birthday party coming up? Come on, join us; its fun being dotty!

Camping Heaven

We are a family of happy campers and even happier since we've been camping in California. The whole process is easier than in the UK; from the packing up (crates in the garage straight into the boot of the car vs. grovelling through the loft space down 2 flights, walk down the street to the parked car then into the boot) to the packing up at the end of the trip. No wet tent draped over the banisters.


If you are not a camper I urge you to try it, you'll like it!  My friend Nicola at A Pip & Peach has a good list of camping essentials.  Here are some pictures of our latest trip to El Capitan State Beach.  A fantastic spot next to a lovely long sandy beach with rocks for rock pooling.  We even had a swim by of at least 20 dolphins frolicking in the waves. Amazing. As you can see from the map its snuggled up to the freeway; enough beers and you don't notice the trucks any more...

Girls like to climb trees too!

Supper time

Beach action

Camp swing

Compulsory camp food in the USA is s'mores (a biscuit sandwich of chocolate & toasted marshmallow) but we decided to break the mould one night and make chocolate cake baked in oranges. It was worth it!  It was really easy as it uses a packet cake mix (not something I would do at home but very convenient for camping)


First up scoop out the inside of the orange and give to passing child to munch on.

Fill hollowed out orange with cake mix. We filled ours about two thirds full (we had 6 oranges for one box of cake mix) of chocolate mixture.  Put the 'hat' back on the orange and wrap in tin foil.

Put orange parcels directly in the fire & wait! I can't remember how long they took, best to check by opening up one.  

Some exploded out and made light fluffy cake, others were deliciously gooey and uncooked.  Next time we'll rotate their placement in the fire...

Happy Camping!

Octonauts Party

I'd like to use the excuse that its taken a month to recover from the birthday parties - but that's not strictly true.....Although there is no denying a full on kiddie party is hard work!  It was  all worth it, to see my eldest squeal with delight to have her friends at HER party.  It was Octonauts themed as requested, most ideas stolen used from Pinterest.  
I hung blue streamers from the archway to create an entrance way into the underwater world.  As kids arrived they went straight to a craft activity, making either jelly fish (from paper bowls, streamers & googly eyes) or fish from paper plates. I would recommend having an activity to hand as people always arrive in dribs and drabs.  

They then played 'Pin the patch on Kwazii', unfortunately we forgot to take a picture of this. I order the poster from Etsy and Mr Maker printed off a super sized version at work.  
Speaking of Mr Maker, his mornings preparation for the party was the map for the treasure hunt. And what a creation that was! (one would hope so as it took him 1 1/2 hrs to draw, yup, really).  The treasure hunt was a great success, and took longer than anticipated which was a bonus.  He put the kids in teams for 2 or 3 and gave them an empty party bag each.  The hunt started when each team was given a picture clue. At this location (e.g. inside washing machine, BBQ etc) they found their beautiful map which was marked with red X's - the treasure bags.  The treasure bags were marked with a letter and contained 'goodies' which they all took, one of from each location.   After visiting every treasure bag they unscrambled the letters to make the word, and win the treasure hunt!
Anyway, enough games onto the food....

The table

Menu

Cheese straws

fish sandwiches

Goldfish (obs!)

carrots & toms + dip

hot dog squid

strawberries

clam & pearl biscuits/cookies

Captain Barnacles cake

fish sandwiches on seaweed

Octopus dip

squid

Pearl clams

My personal favourite are the clams, aren't they cute?!! I bought the biscuits (cookies) and made some butter icing which I coloured pink.  The pearl is a yoghurt covered raisin and the eyes are dots of black icing. 

Captain Barnacles cake

And here is the man bear himself.  Phew, glad the parties are all over for another year! Happy 5th year to a gorgeous girl xxx

April - the birthday month

If you like cake April is a good month to visit our house.  Three birthdays in one month = back to back cake eating.  The gorging is usually sufficient enough that I can't bring myself to look at a cake until at least June, let alone think about making one.  It's the off cuts that pull me in...
In case you didn't know, both daughter's are completely Octonauts OBSESSED at the moment so it kinda made it easy on the cake design.  Connie's Octonaut of choice is Peso.

Pretty good hey?!! I was really pleased with my first foray into fondant icing.  The whole process took took longer than I thought - with cutting out his shape, a first ice of butter icing, then the rolling and laying of the fondant and of course the gentle coaxing of said icing into the creases and corners.  I made the hat and collar from blue sugar paper and the feet from a tube of yellow icing.

Birthday girl

  The next birthday cake was Mr. Maker's 5 days later. Fortunately no requests had been put in for sea creatures or other animals.  As a parent, you soon realise that you are way down at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to birthday's (isn't that right Will?!), hence no photographic evidence. His was a banana and chocolate chip loaf, yummy all the same.  


I have also had my in-laws visiting this month who kindly carried out (along with my precious Earl Grey tea bags) a Clothkits parcel.  I grew up with Clothkits as they are based in Lewes, Sussex where my cousins live.  For those of you not born in the UK in the 70's to middle class parents, Clothkits print their patterns onto the fabric for you to make into clothes and in my case, dolls.

The kit arrives will all you need to make up Kitty (you can even order with the stuffing), including easy to follow instructions. The doll didn't take long, the dress longer.  Bias binding on a tiny neck is very fiddly!  

A birthday gift made this month for it's recipient in a few months time.


Finally we come to my eldest daughter's birthday this weekend.  The invitations have been sent out, RSVP's received, games formulated and food shopping done. The effort gone into it deserves (and will have) its own blog post, so come back soon! 

Blueberry & flaxseed muffins

Friends from the UK are coming to stay this weekend - yay! I have got my menu's planned - BBQ tonight & Mexican the next.  I think that covers the American cuisine.  These breakfast (or brunch) muffins are easy to knock up, healthy and tasty. Hopefully they will soak up any hangover we may have...

The recipe is mildly adapted from the Bill's book. Those Aussies really do know how to do a good breakfast.

Blueberry & flaxseed muffins

30g butter

3/4 cup honey &/or agave

1/2 milk

1/2 vegetable oil

3 eggs

3 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

cinnamon

2 mashed bananas

1 grated apple

250g blueberries

halved strawberries & brown sugar to top

Heat oven to 180C(350F). Melt butter & agave (or honey).

Whisk together milk, oil & eggs in a seperate bowl.

Mix together flour, baking powder, flaxseed meal & generous dose of cinnamon in other bowl.

Stir in grated apple, mashed banana & blueberries to flour mixture. Add in the milk mixture and combine.  Lastly mix in agave & butter mixture. Bill says to fold it in, but I always have to give a good beat to prevent lumps of flour remaining.

Fill muffin cases to 3/4 and top with half a strawberry & sprinkle of brown sugar.

Bake for 30/40mins until skewer comes out clean.  They don't seem to brown too much (although the sugar helps).

Cool slightly in tin before putting onto wire rack.  Makes 15.