Coconut Cubes

This week I've made Coconut Cubes.  They consist of a lemon sponge with raspberry jam spread on top which is then covered in desiccated coconut and decorated with a half cherry.  A very tasty moist cake from the Gorgeous Cakes recipe book by Annie Bell.  Her recipes really are gorgeous although some of them are a little too fussy with the decoration for my liking - I can't be doing the glitter on something I'm going to eat.  

Flapjacks

This week I've made flapjacks.  These are great for when I'm really busy, which is going to be more often now as I start my next Open University module in a couple of weeks time.  They are so simple to put together - you just melt everything together in a saucepan then bake in the oven for 25 minutes.  The best bit is you can freeze them so I've made a large batch now and then for the week when I have an assignment to write these just need to de-frost and they are ready to go.  The recipe was given to me by a lady I used to work with, thanks Hilde. 

Victoria sponge

It is my birthday this week and as is tradition baked a cake to take into work with me.  

So often these cakes are chocolate monsters, so I decided mine should be a nice light Victoria Sponge filled with raspberry jam and butter icing.  This is one of the easiest cakes that I know how to make and always gives a good result.  If work don't like it, then I know someone who will.  

White bread

After the success of last weeks double cheese and chive bread, I thought I'd have a go at a simple white loaf, which is the same recipe just without the cheese and chives.  Once again it worked like a dream.  Dan Lepard really is a bread god.  I wonder what his cakes will be like?

Double cheese and chive loaf

I've tried making bread before and never really had a satisfactory out come.  But for Christmas I received Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet, the best of home baking, and thought I should have another go.  Dan says its all about the length of time you leave it to rise, not about the kneading, so I had a go at this double cheese and chive loaf and was very pleased at the results.  

The last couple of loafs I made were sticky right up to the end and were hard and didn't taste so good.  This time I had a loaf that had stopped being sticky after the first knead and is soft and full of air.  And not only that it was so easy to make.  I'm really looking forward to trying his other recipes.