Love...the Rustic Baker Winter Collection part 1

I love Winter. All those spices, mince pies, Christmas pudding, brandy butter and lots and lots of Baileys. Yum. It is the season to grab a blanket, chuck a large measure of baileys into a glass and eat fabulous food. This was also the time of year that I received my very first Bundt tin. Be still my beating heart. I had to find a great recipe for this delicious item and so I did. Jo Wheatleys Christmas Cake. Please try it. It is delicious, so light and a great alternative to your usual cake.

I love making mince pies too. I generally use an orange pastry but this year I experimented with adding in cinnamon. This proved to be a great addition to the pastry. Additionally, I also jazz up store bought mincemeat by adding winter pimms, orange zest, dried cranberries and sometimes chopped apple. These make delicious pies. To end my Christmas feast my lovely husband bought me another bundt tin and I was finally able to make my ultimate cake, the Tunnel of Fudge Cake. It has to be eaten to be believed.

So the bakes so far this winter - with a couple of months to go - have been Mince Pies, Christmas Cake, Kugelhopf, Tunnel of Fudge, Christmas Spice Macarons, Ginger & Choclate Cookies

Love.....the rustic baker birthday style

To my gorgeous Oldest One a birthday cake supreme. We love Lego and Star Wars here so this year I decided to take the challenge of making a Death Star in cake form. My friend AtNumber29 sent me a link to a youtube guy who had made a similar cake. But as usual I wanted to go one better!

I used a recipe from Jo Wheatley's A Passion for Baking, yes I am a fan, but added a few twists like popping candy and using  ground almonds and more melted chocolate as I didn't have cocoa powder to hand. A lovely lady who sells cake decorating bits 'n' pieces gave me an excellent tip to make grey icing; use some ready made black icing and knead it into the ready made white icing. Genius. No black hands to explain to my child!

This cake had the works, allergy friendly butter cream courtesy of Betty Crocker, popping candy, chocolate, marzipan and finally icing. Must not forget Darth Vader!

Love........the rustic baker

I am following the 5:2 diet where for those who don't know, you fast for 2 non-consecutive days of the week and feast the the rest of the week.  Each fast day you consume 500 calories for a woman or 600 if you're a man. It's only the second week and the fasts do get easier.

The Rustic Baker has been doing other things or using pre-prepared packs for easy baking so I knew I had to do some proper baking and not just adding eggs and oil! And it had to be today. Something to break my fast. Nothing wrong with pre-prepared mixes. Some are excellent. Maybe I'll review in future. 

But I miss baking. So last night I left a message for Jo Wheatley via Facebook asking what she'd make to break a fast. She came up with apple cake. So as usual I looked at the recipes in her books, chose a yummy one and then as Fleetwood Mac say "go your own way". So in homage to Jo's recipe of Blackberry and Apple Loaf Cake I made mine with cinnamon added to the crumble crust and cake base and then upped the numbers for each of the ingredients. I haven't baked for a while and normally  take samples for the lovely mums at school. So lets hope they like this one.

I also decided to bake a loaf of white & brown, Paul Hollywood style. At 8.20 this morning I was still kneading and we have to leave at around 8.30...... Let me know what you think.

Love or Loathe......

This was a clear case of love quite frankly. I was watching the old reruns of The Great British Bake Off 2011 and had forgotten how brilliant all the bakers were but in particular Jo Wheatley. I bought her first book a while ago and loved her easy style and simple to follow recipes.  Then I was in a well known supermarket the other day and spied her second book. Cup of tea and a rustic baker treat and hooked again. So shameless though this is, well done Jo for another fabulous book