I don't need to remind you about how very much I love blueberries do I??? Well . . . just in case I do . . . it's a lot, Lot, LOT!!



I love them in pies and in cakes.



I love them in sweet crumbles and buttery cobblers.



I love them in fluffy pancakes and . . . I simply ♥adore♥ them in muffins!!



Especially when the muffins are huge and buttery and so stogged full of the lovely delicious sweet little blue babies that you couldn't possibly stog any more of them in.



Oh . . . and a buttery . . . crispy . . . crumbly . . . sweet streusel topping doesn't hurt either!



Moreishly scrummy!!!



*Blueberry Streusel Muffins*
Makes 8 medium/large muffins
Printable Recipe

Deliciously moist and buttery, with a crisp streusel topping.

210g plain flour (1 1/2 cups)
150g caster sugar (3/4 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
75g butter, melted and cooled slightly (1/3 cup)
1 large free range egg, beaten
150ml of milk (2/3 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
150g punnet fresh blueberries (about 1 1/2 cups)

For the streusel topping:
100g granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
35g plain flour (1/4 cup)
4 TBS cold butter, cubed
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/gas mark 6. Line 8 medium to large muffin cups with paper liners. Set aside.

To make the streusel topping mix together the sugar, flour butter and cinnamon with a fork until it looks like coarse sand. Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In another small bowl, beat together the milk, butter, egg and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once. Stir just to combine. Gently stir in the blueberries. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling to the top and sprinkle with the streusel topping.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.



Baking over in The Cottage today, a delicious Moist Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

I had the pleasure recently of having been sent a lovely baking book to review. You all know how much I love baking (and eating baked goodies, but we won't talk about that!) It's entitled The Great British Bake Off, How to Bake the perfect victoria sponge and other baking secrets, and is the companion book to the newest 8 part series of the hugely popular Great British Bake off on BBC2.

This is the brand new book to accompany the latest Great British Bake Off series, and features over 120 new recipes, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood's 'technical challenges,' and the best contestants' recipes!



Divided into 8 delicious chapters, there is plenty to challenge keen bakers here, showcasing everything from brandy snaps to elaborate pastries, pavlovas to iced celebration cakes, and everything in between!



Two guesses as to which is my favourite chapter!!



It is filled with Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood's expert advice and tips which can help just about anyone to achieve baking perfection. Each chapter begins with a specific baking skill, which once mastered, allows you to tackle Mary and Paul's technical challenges, as seen in the series, with the utmost confidence.



There are over 120 recipes in the book ranging from mary's Coffee and Walnut Battenburg and Tarte au Citron to Paul's Pork Pies with Quails' EGgs. It's not just a collection of tasty recipes however, as it also covers the essential techniques, terms and ingredients to help your baking taste, look and smell it's very best ever!



I am most impressed with the variety of recipes and it's practical yet pretty design as well as the full-colour, step-by-step photography included.



Of course you know I wouldn't judge any book by it's cover alone. I need to put it to the test before I can actually declare it a winner or a dud, and this one is a real winner by all counts!



So far everything has turned out beautifully, including this delicious Sticky Orange Marmalade Cake which I baked this afternoon.



It's moreishly moist and chock full of flavour, with a delicious old fashioned appeal. I love the stickiness of the marmalade glaze which covers all that buttery cake goodness, and lurks just beneath a simple icing sugar glaze. I gave it 10 out of 10 and Todd gave it a definite two thumbs up!



*Sticky Orange Marmalade Cake*
Makes one 9 inch single layer cake
Printable Recipe

You want to use a really good Seville Orange marmalade for this cake, with an intense bittersweet flavour, plus decent chunks of peel in it.

For the sponge:
175g unsalted butter, softened (3/4 cup)
175g of caster sugar (3/4 cup)
3 large free range eggs, at room temperature and beaten
175g self raising flour (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 TBS chunky Seville Orange Marmalade
2 TBS full fat or semi skim milk

To finish:
3 TBS chunky Seville Orange Marmalade
100g icing sugar, sifted (1/2 cup)
2 TBS warm water

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 inch round cake tin and line with baking paper. Butter the paper. Set aside.

Cream the softened butter with an electric mixer or spoon until nice and creamy. Beat in the sugar gradually, then continue to beat until it becomes pale and fluffy.

Gradually beat in the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add a TBS of the flour with the last portion of the egg. Sift the remaining flour, the salt and baking powder into the bowl and gently fold into the mixture with a large metal spoon. When thoroughly combined, stir in the marmalade and milk.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Run a round bladed knife around the inside of the tin to loosen and then carefully turn the cake out onto a wire rack. Flip to right side up. Gently warm the marmalade to finish and brush it all over the top of the warm cake. Allow the cake to cool completely before proceeding.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the warm water and mix to a smooth and runny icing using a wooden spoon. Spoon the icing over the cake, allowing it to run down the sides a bit. Leave to set before cutting into wedges to serve.

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.







There is a tasty Roasted Vegetable Lasagne Verde cooking over in the Cottage today!

I saw some Irish Pancakes (of the Paul Rankin variety) in the shops the other day and I found myself wondering what was the difference between them and Scotch Pancakes or even the buttermilk pancakes from back home.



I decided to find out myself what it was, if any, and so I set out to do some research. What I discovered was quite, quite delicious!



These tasty buttermilk pancakes are a lot fluffier than the American version, but very similar to the Scotch. I don't know why, or how it works, but only that it works. Perhaps it could be that our buttermilk over here is a bit different than the buttermilk from back home. Ours is a lot thicker.



The idea of eating pancakes merely with some butter and jam was never something that I ever considered before moving over here. It seemed that they always tasted fab with butter and Maple Syrup, and I was never tempted to have them any other way, and in truth that is probably the best way of eating American style pancakes.



These however just beg to be spread with softened butter and dolloped with preserves a-la-scone like! Golden, light and fluffy they have a beautiful texture and flavour.



Do be sure to cook as soon as possible after mixing them together. The Soda reacts immediately to the buttermilk and if you delay you won't get the right lift!



Enjoy! (A hot cuppa is a must!)



*Irish Pancakes*
Amount is variable on how large you make them,
but generally speaking makes 4 to 6 servings
Printable Recipe

Better than the American kind I think. Golden, light and fluffy. Serve hot with some softened butter, preserves (or syrup) and a nice hot mug of whatever floats your boat.

8 ounces plain flour (2 cups)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 large free range egg
1/2 pint (1 cup) buttermilk

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Whisk well together and then make a well in the middle with a wooden spoon and add the egg. Break the yolk and pour in the buttermilk, mixing quickly to a thick batter. Do not beat, as this would develop the gluten in the flour and prevent the pancakes from rising. Fry in large dollops on a lightly-greased, hot griddle or heavy frying-pan. These delights are best served hot for tea, thickly spread with softened butter and preserves or golden syrup.



There's a delicious Califlower and Cashew Nut Pilau Rice dish over at A Year From Oak Cottage this morning!

We took advantage of the warm sunny weather on Saturday morning and decided to take a trip with our Mitzie in tow to Llangollen in Wales. Llangollen (pronounced Clang-gock-lyn) is one of my very favourite places on earth to visit. It has a rough rustic beauty that is quite breathtaking to say the least. With more sun than Cornwall and less rain than the Lake District, it is no wonder that this beautiful little gateway to Wales is one of the most popular Welsh destinations in the North West.



It hosts the the famous International Music Eisteddfod where singers and dancers congregate from every corner of the earth each year amongst a multitude of other activites . . . but we go just to walk around and take in it's beauty.

As we are going up to Cumbria for a week in September and bringing Mitzie with us, we thought it would be a good experience for her to come along with us today, and she didn't mind a bit. It is probably less than an hour's drive from us here in Chester and is always very busy and we thought it would get her used to being around crowds and to travelling in the car for more than just to the dog groomers and the vets!



We always like to take a nice walk along the river in Llangollen. It is so pretty and filled with mini white water rapids, flat rocks you can walk on and lots of birds and other wildlife. Our friend Colin swears he saw a Kingfisher there last summer when we took him and Jo (his wife) there, but . . . he was the only one.



Mitzie enjoyed it very much, even if her nose was to the ground for most of the time. (she is such a sniffer!) She didn't even bother to chase the ducks, which I was happy about. I have come to realize that she is a bit timid of other animals, especially cats and large birds and of course dogs that are larger than herself. I don't think the sheep in Cumbria will be a problem.



WE always like to visit the old railway platform. There is an old Steam Engine there and you can take a trip on the old Steam Railway if you want.



Today there was a 1960's event going on with lots of old cars and vehicles, people dressed up in pschcadelic clothing and all sorts.



The classic cars were beautiful.



And there were quite a few of them. I was particularly fond of this old Mini. One of my first cars ever was an old green Austin Mini Station Wagon, that I never really did learn to drive properly . . . but I had a lot of good laughs in it anyways, with it slipping out of gear, etc.



Of course we must stop for refreshments when we are there. This is our favourite tearoom. It's very quaint inside, and of course you can also choose to sit outside on a nice day, as we did today. It's so pretty. We feasted on



Cheese on Toast on Brown Bread



And Todd enjoyed some Bara Brith, which is a traditional Welsh Teabread, and really scrummy.



Mitzie just enjoyed laying next to our table and watching all the people having fun. She did also get to enjoy the odd crumb which fell her way. I think she charmed a lot of people today, which was nice. I would hate to have an obnoxious dog.



When we got home I surprised Todd with another treat that I picked up for him while we were there. A good old fashioned Bread Pudding, which would differ quite about from some people's ideas of bread pudding. This is a very old recipe which was originally devised to help to use up the stale bread way back in the day. Todd's mum apparently made wonderful bread puddings . . . all stodgy and spicy and chock full of fruit and spices. Todd has very fond memories of his mum's puddings, so he was well pleased when I set this little gem down in front of him today. (The recipe is from the National Trust Complete Traditional Recipe Book, by Sarah Edington, another gem!)



*Bread Pudding*
Serves 6

A thrifty recipe devised by old bakeries to use up yesterday's bread. You can create your own mix of dried fruit. (candied peel, crystallized ginger, chopped prunes and dates, candied cherries, chopped dried apricots, sultanas, currants etc.)

425ml of milk (1 1/2 cups)
150ml of cold strong tea (1/2 cup)
4 ounces butter, melted (1/2 cup)
1 TBS mixed spice**
3 large free range eggs, beaten
350g of mixed dried fruit (3/4 pound)
450g of fresh bread crumbs (1 pound)


Combine the milk, tea, melted butter, beaten eggs, mixed spice and dried fruit. Combine together well. Stir in the breadcrumbs and leave to soak for an your or overnight if you wish.

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter an 8 by 11 (2 inch deep) pan and line with baking paper. Butter the baking paper. Spread the soaked mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Cool and serve cut into squares.

And if you so fancy it, here's a look of a short film I took of some fit kayakers that came down the river whilst I was standing there enjoying . . .



And another short film of Todd and Mitzie down on the rocks. If yoy listen very carefully you can hear the water, so nice to listen to.

I was recently contacted by the people representing Quirk Publishers and asked if I would like to review a new cookbook, The Cookiepedia, by Stacy Adimando. I didn't have to be asked twice! I love cookbooks and I love cookbooks that are about baking even more . . . and I love cookie cookbooks MOST of all!!



True to their word it was pushed through my mailbox just a day later. I was surprised! It arrived very quickly. I couldn't wait to get stuck in.



At first glance it's a very attractive little book, with a delightfully whimsical cover. It almost reminded me of the paper bags I used to bring my lunches to school in, except much prettier! I love the colours and the way it feels in my hands. Plus it has a lovely sturdy wire lie flat binding, which I really liked. I hate it when I am using a cookery book and it keeps closing on me.
It's also chockerblock full of beautiful hand-drawn illustrations which spoke to the artist in me, lovely photographs which spoke to the glutton in me, and most important of all . . . very scrummy looking recipes! They've even made provisions for you to add your own notes to the various recipes, enabling you to make them your very own.



It's deliciously divided into sections:

• The ABC's of Cookie Baking
• Buttery Cookies
• Chocolaty Cookies
• Fancy Cookies
• Fruity Cookies
• Spicy Cookies
• Nutty and Seedy Cookies

The only problem I had was in choosing what to bake first! Featuring over 50 classic recipes, which the Author has put her own twist on . . . recipes which include such tasty favourites as Snickerdoodles, Gingersnaps, Rugelach and dozens of others I had a really difficult time making up my mind which one I wanted to feature.



I finally chose Everything But the Kitchen Sink Cookies. These were humongous and included . . . well . . . everything but the kitchen sink!! It looked like a fabulously tasty way to use up some little bits and bobs that I had in my larder, that were not enough, in measure, to make anything on their own with, but were just perfect for this recipe! After reading the list of the author's add ins, I was sorely tempted to go out and buy a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos because they sounded, oddly enough, like an incredible addition . . . but I resisted temptation and stuck with what I already had on hand.



I was so very pleased with the results. You can see what I used as my sweet and savoury add ins at the bottom of this post. I ended up with more than one and a half dozen moreishly scrummy cookies that are almost too dangerous to have around.



The author is Stacy Adimando, who is the current deputy lifestyle editor or Everyday with Rachael Ray, and is also a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education and a weekly contributor to Serious Eats. All in all I think she should be very proud of this first book of hers. I, for one, love it and I am sure it will be very popular with anyone who loves baking cookies and is looking for something that is at once familiar and yet at the same time quirkily different. This book has immediately been placed in the section of favourites in my vast cookbook collection.



In short I highly recommend! Many thanks to Mat at PGUK and Quirk Publishers for affording me this wonderful opportunity, and also to Stacy Adimando for having written a beautifully tasty book, full stop!

Available for purchase at most booksellers, both online and off.



*Everything but the Kitchen Sink Cookies*
Makes a dozen and a half very large cookies
Printable Recipe

What can I say . . . very moreish!!

8 ounces of unsalted butter at room temperature (1 cup)
7 ounces caster sugar (1 cup)
3 3/4 ounces soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup packed)
1 large free range egg, plus 1 egg white
2 tsp vanilla extract
8 1/2 ounces plain flour (2 cups)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine sea salt (1 tsp kosher)
1 cup of your favourite sweet add ins (peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, dried cranberries, sultanas, coconut flakes etc.)
1 1/2 cups of your favourite salty snacks (corn chips, tortilla chips, potato chips, pretzels, peanuts, etc.)

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 6. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs and continue to beat until well combined on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as need be.

Whisk together the soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Add to the wet ingredients in two batches, mixing well each time to fully incorporate.

Pour your sweet mix ins into the bowl. Break up the salty snacks as necessary and dump those in as well. Use a spatula to mix all together. (It should like quite full of bits, but that is a good thing!)

Drop by 2 heaping tablespoonsful onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between each one. Bake, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time, for about 16 to 19 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.



Other tasty add ins:
Honey roasted nuts
whole espresso beans
cupcake sprinkles
white chocolate chips
tortilla chips
cheese puffs
toffee bits
yoghurt raisins
asian snack mix
wasabi peas
chocolate shavings
breakfast cereal
cool ranch doritos
granola
salted corn nuts
chocolate covered peanuts



What I used:
Cinnamon chips
white chocolate chips
dried cranberries
salted potato chips
salted macadamia and cashew nut mix