Baking up a Storm

Oh how I love to bake...

I hope you are all doing well, wherever you live. It is getting quite cold here in the Southern Hemisphere, a perfect time for lots of baking!

And thank goodness all my family love to eat it! It gives me a lot of pleasure to bake and be creative. I love to bake all the old favourites and I also enjoy exploring new recipes.

My mum always baked every week when we were growing up and both my siblings and myself love to be creative in the kitchen. My big sister is even a baker for her profession.

Here is a selection of what I have baked over the last week and the recipe books I used.

Old fashioned Kisses are one of our favourite biscuits. Straight from the Edmonds Cook Book.
These ones turned out particularly well, soft and melt in the mouth.

Banana Cake is a favourite with my boys and this recipe from Alison Gofton's Bake book is so easy
and it keeps fresh for days. This was extra special with apricot jam and whipped cream in the centre of the cake. I made a lemon icing with zest from our own lemons. It was really tasty and the lemon gave it some fresh contrast with the cream.

These little cookies are a vintage American recipe and were quite yummy, very chewy with the coconut which I liked.
They were easy to make and they didn't last long with the family!

An all time favourite, Whittaker's Chocolate. I usually prefer a darker chocolate but on these macaroons the milk chocolate worked well and my sons prefer milk chocolate anyway.

The library is great for checking out recipe books when you want to try new recipes but wouldn't
necessarily buy the books.

Here I forgot to take a photo of this delicious slice once it was cut up into squares and before

I remembered we had eaten the lot!

Everyone enjoyed this new recipe which was great. If you like caramelised condensed milk then you will love this.

This is a really lovely baking recipe book that I borrowed from the library. It has recipes from a variety of farming families from around New Zealand with a story of the farms history with beautiful photos of some of the old homesteads and farm houses.

And what do you need to have alongside all this delicious baking? Why a cup of tea of course and recently I treated myself to some new special teas as the online store of this tea company was having a huge sale and I got 2/3 of the price reduced.

I just love the process of making the sticky turmeric chai tea and it tastes so warming and spicy. It is a perfect tea when you want hot chocolate but don't want hot chocolate if that makes any sense!
Hygge in a cup.

Especially on these cold chilly days.

And of course all my baking is used with the eggs from our hens and currently we are getting four every day so there is plenty of baking to be done if no one wants eggs for breakfast.

I hope you are all doing well where ever you are. You are in my prayers.

Have a blessed week.
Fiona

"I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime, moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labour -  it is the gift of God."
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13