It doesn't mean I'm not baking - but it probably means I'm making chocolate chip cookies every week because they are quick and I have everything, and I don't need to look at a recipe.....
However, it was a special birthday for Granddad and I am a great believer in birthday cake. Mainly birthday cake with a lot of chocolate and frilly bits.....but I reigned in my desires and recalled the beeline Granddad made to the school fair cake stand and the sultana cake he chose when we stayed with him last.
(As a side note I was very surprised to discover someone might choose the sultana cake over the other more exciting desirable cakes..... sultana cake was always a reliable, tasty, beige tracksuit in the clothes shop of cake stands for me. I mean sure, I'll eat, and love, 13 slices of it before afternoon tea - but I'd never actually choose it over something gooey, shiny, chocolatey...)
So I rocked out my Edmonds cookbook - which is of course the place you go for beige-coloured recipes and anything your nana once made and you are feeling nostalgic about - and I found sultana cake. Being short on sultanas and lacking in almond or lemon essence I half and halfed sultanas and raisins and added lemon zest.
Granddad was pleased.
I made him another one to take home on the plane. (It would appear that it's easier to transport sultana cake that something covered in 25cm of buttercream icing)
Love me, love my baking.
Joining in with Ange
Love you more than a school-fair cake stand xx
