Perfect weekends

It's been a busy couple of weeks here but we've had some perfect weekends. 

The sun was out last weekend so ensuring football was packed we headed off to Heaton Park to burn off some energy. Watching blue monkey climb the huge slide not a care in the world makes me realise how grown up he now is - he's certainly not the baby I like to think he is. Pink monkey was happy keeping her feet closer to the ground.

Then off to play football - in the summer the park can be so busy but luckily for us there was lots of space to kick about. All four of us ran around not sure who was the best player.

Then it was off to see the animals and an ice cream treat before dragging everyone up to the highest point of the park.

It was just one of those perfect unplanned afternoons to round off a lovely weekend.

This weekend M and I have been child free. Both nights out at friend's for meals - and I drove so no nasty hangovers. Clothes shopping - I don't want to look at my bank balance! Decorated blue monkeys bedroom - with some help, it's being a long process but nearly done now. Then last night when all jobs were done we had steak for tea and poured some red wine and watched 22 Jump Street - it was just a lovely end to another perfect weekend.

What did you get up to? 

Macmillan Coffee Morning

When my Dad was ill we were lucky enough to have a great Macmillan nurse who came to visit him regularly and who we could turn to when we had questions. When nothing more could be done he was the person who helped arrange my Dad's last few days in peace. So Macmillan Cancer is a charity I love to support as I know what a massive difference it can make to peoples lives - and sadly so many of us are impacted by the C word.

So today I arranged the annual coffee morning in work. Luckily I work with people who enjoy baking as much as I do. My contribution was the "ice cream" style cupcakes which I've been wanting to make for ages. I saw the strawberry syrup for sale in Aldi as part of their baking event which gave me the opportunity to finally make them.

There were Cookie Monster cupcakes that looked great - L was very clever making them - banana loaves, lemon drizzle, flapjacks and cookies, various flavours of cupcakes and some impressive eclairs.

Everyone found something they liked. 

 

Some of the plates were piled high!

In total we raised £200 a great amount for Macmillan it will help support another family through a difficult time.

If you are having a Macmillan coffee morning I hope it's a success - and I do know how many sprinkles are on the cake! 

Great Brandleshome Bake Off

This week has been the local Scarecrow event. 120 families and businesses built scarecrows ranging from Star Wars to Rapunzal and everything in between. There was a map so one night after work and school we drove round finding as many as possible the monkeys loved it especially the Spider-man with the button saying press here - E was the brave one who pressed it and the theme tune came on - cue mini dance in the street.

Today all the scarecrows were moved to the local church where the prizes were announced - Spider-Man rightly won one as did an amazing farm display.

There was also a cake competition being held so I thought I'd enter. I don't have lots of spare time I work full time and have 2 children so yesterday in a hurry I scoured my cake books and found a John Waites raspberry and white chocolate cake receipe I'd made once before and thought would look good. I baked it yesterday and made the white chocalate ganache this morning to hold it together luckily not too stressful and I thought it looked nice.

I had a feeling though that the other cakes would be decorated and I was right there were some brilliant creations - the scarecrow in the allotment was amazing.

We left before the results were announced - I certainly didn't expect to be in the top 3. An hour later we are all in the garden and I'm chatting to my neighbour "did you get your prize?" she asked. "Prize? What prize?". I'd won 2nd place I don't think there was a a prize but there're is a rosette floating around somewhere and I am happy with that. Apparently my cake tasted great - and that's what's important - looks aren't everything! 

So a successful weekend. Plenty of baking ahead as I'm organising the Macmillan coffee morning at work on Thursday. Are you taking part?

Comfort baking

When my weekend is hectic I like to squeeze in a quick simple bake - it's therapeutic knowing that in 10 minutes something will be in the oven and in the hour it bakes I can get through some more of my to do list with a lovely treat to look forward to at the end of it. I have a go to cook book and normally a go to page - Mary Berry's Banana Loaf - and dependent on what I have to hand I either bake it exactly as it says or add something extra. This weekend I decided to add some blueberries to it - I love the way they pop in a cake the juice so vivid when you cut into it.

Here's how it turned out - and a big thumbs up from the kids. 

The Mary Berry receipe is:

100g butter softened

175g caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 ripe banana

1 large handful of blueberries

225g self raising flour

1 level teaspoon of baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

Mix all the ingredients together - putting in the blueberries at the end and folding them in.

Oven 180 bake for 1 hour.

Next weekend is the Brandleshome Bake Off I'm wondering whether to enter and if so what to bake.

What's your comfort bake? 

A fresh start

So I've been MIA for a year and what a year it's been. I've missed this little space and want to start again - if I'm allowed. 

This sums up our life at the moment 

Lots of love and smiles and plenty of baking being squeezed in. 

So I'm going to restart where I left off a year ago. This time though I'm going to be writing more about what I love, baking, making, eating, drinking and adventuring with the monkeys.