Easter cake bake

I've always rather liked Easter, well what's not to like it's a festival that involves a lot of chocolate, similar to Christmas but more chocolatey and lets face it with much better weather.

My favourite memories of Easter are of trips to Wales with mum and dad. Escaping school and off down to our little holiday chalet in Wales. It was just a little wooden holiday chalet but it had the best view ever because perched on the hill it overlooked Llandulas bay and I'd sit there watching the waves and chomping on my chocolate eggs. Chocolate button eggs were always my favourite of course, (they still are) and I liked to break off a bit of egg and dunk it in my tea (I still do). It was even better eating eggs on the beach, especially if they were for pudding after chips with mushy peas and bread and butter and a bottle of fizzy Panda Pops. There's something wonderful about chips on the beach I think, even if its a bit cold and the wind is blowing or there's spots of rain nothing can ruin a lovely bag of chips with lots and lots of salt and vinegar. I can still remember sucking sticky chip fingers clean much to the horror of my mum, who had a constant supply of wet wipes on tap which she thought were far more appropriate for finger cleansing.

As ever I have wandered slightly off track so back to the present day and the purpose of this entry. As an Easter lover and a newly obsessed cake baker I decided to make an Easter cake. My initial thought were of course of chocolate, but having already recently cooked a chocolate birthday cake and the chilli chocolate cupcakes and the chocolate and banana loaf I was in danger of looking like a distinctly one trick pony. So I pondered and considered and pondered some more and decided to go with a lemon and raspberry Easter cake. As you can see from the picture, there had to be chocolate somewhere but I think the bunny looks quite happy there amongst a sprinkling of mini eggs.

This cake was baked to the tunes of the Arctic Monkeys followed by some Faithless followed by some Biffy Clyro. My favourite bit was juicing the lemons because suddenly I was in a happy haze of lemony loveliness transported to a Sicilian lemon grove smiling in the sun. I suppose you could use Cif if you absolutely have to but I doubt it would taste as nice, so go on, use the real lemons all six of them and maybe even a couple more just for the joy of juicing.

What does it taste like I hear you ask. Well, it's a lovely moist lemony sweetness with undertones of almond and creamy centre with a raspberry zing. The almondy taste reminds me of Battenburg cake, which was always my favourite and which I always liked to have with lemonade (yes I was a strange child) so again for me its a taste of childhood on a plate. Hopefully it will be enjoyed by all after Easter lunch tomorrow. Though will have to explain why there is a couple of slices missing (I think he may actually be on slice 4 now) but well guess he can't be blamed for tucking in.

I hope if you try it and like it you'll drop me a message to let me know, I'd like that. Happy Easter to everyone x

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
• 300g caster sugar
• 350g butter, softened
• 2 tsp almond essence
• 6 medium eggs, beaten
• 150g ground almonds
• 300g self-raising flour
• grated zest of 4 lemons
• 6 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Mini eggs to decorate
•
• For the drizzle
• 150g icing sugar
• 3-4 tbsp lemon juice
•
• For the filling
• 300ml double cream
• 150g lemon curd
• 200g raspberries
•
• For the icing
• 300g royal icing sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• yellow food colour
Method
1.Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/Gas 4. Grease and flour 2 x 20cm (8in) cake tins.

2.Beat the sugar, butter and almond extract together until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg, then fold in the ground almonds, flour, lemon zest and juice.

3.Spoon into the tins, smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

4.Make the drizzle by mixing the icing sugar and lemon juice together. When the cake comes out of the oven, turn out onto a cooling rack set over a plate. Prick all over with the skewer and drizzle with the syrup. Set aside to cool.

5.Whip the cream and fold in the lemon curd. Set one cake on a plate, level the top if necessary and spoon over the cream. Sprinkle with the raspberries and set the other cake half on top. Set aside. I liked doing this bit, but be careful not to add too much cream and raspberries as it can get very squelchy when you pop on the top

This would be too much raspberries and cream by the way!

6.To make the icing, mix the lemon juice and icing sugar until it’s a spoonable consistency, but still quite paste-like. Use a few drops of the yellow colour to make a pastel-yellow shade and spoon the icing evenly over the cake, allowing it to drip down and coat the sides. Run a spoon or pallet knife around the sides to neaten and evenly distribute the icing.

7. Decorate with anything lovely you want to. I went for a rather lovely chocolate bunny and some mini eggs.

The House that Al built

well Al & Nige & Si & Chris the Plumb & Little Chris & Barry & Gibbo & John & architect John & Daz the scaff. Oh yes and of course me, I was tea girl. Al was right of course, I should never have doubted, not even for a second because as he said it is indeed "reet". In fact I think it's really rather fabulous thanks very much.

When bought the cottage had damp (which literally seeped out of the walls and left interesting black mould patterns), rotten windows, some extremely interesting cracks (which let in even more interesting gusts of wind) and was powered by one little coal boiler which was rather childlike and required constant feeding with coal to omit any heat at all. I promptly lovingly christened it the hovel. It was not unknown in Winter for me to retire to bed with a woolly jumper over my pyjamas and a nice warm pair of woolly bed socks. I know, the glamour of it all, but what is a girl to do when she can see her own breath in the cold and has icicles on her window?

I embraced it of course as a "Design Project" as I'm a girl who likes to muck in and get involved. I'm the sort of girl who likes to get her hands dirty and doesn't really care if she has paint in her hair rather than the sort of girl who has to dress up like Tweetie Pie at Ascot and ponce about at the Opera. I'm quite capable of doing some plastering and tiling to and planned to actually. Al got lucky really, doctors orders not to do too much so I couldn't be quite as hands on as I had planned. Though that didn't stop me from doing all the painting and decorating even though I got a severe telling off about it all.

Hovel no more though. Oh no, now I have my house with my very, very funky kitchen which is the heart of any home.Here it is below complete with cosey corner for Scruffbag to cuddle down in and my chilli pepper lights which nestle in the corner. The back wall is still left white, ready to hang a selction of pictures, who says you can't have a gallery in your kitchen? I intend to anyway.



It's lovely with the sun streaming through the french doors, Scruffbag loves to sunbathe there, flat out on the floor as we have breakfast with the Sunday papers, head raised only to clear her bowl of any sausage thats offered. The plan is to complete a walled garden behind it with a collection of herb pots and maybe some fruit trees trained across the walls, but thats a work in progress.

And yes, I do cook, well bake mainly, a few of my recent efforts are on here of course, the chilli chocolate cake, the banana cupcakes with blueberry icing and of course Scruff's favourite brownies. I'm planning to make something for Easter of course, not quite decided yet between another chocolate extravaganza complete with chocolate bunnies or a raspberry and lemon cake with lemon icing and a sprinkling of mini eggs.

I also have a really rather lovely en suite bathroom complete with luxury double ended bath complete with bath pillows. Then there's the showerroom, with a very lovely walk in shower with the biggest shower hear we could find, just like my own little waterfall on tap. All very boutique hotel stylee even if I do say so myself. The picture below was taken before the finishing touches were complete buy hey gives you the general idea.



The bathroom is simply perfect for a big deep bubble bath, surrounded by candles, I'm still on the hunt for some suitable accessories for the ultimate bathing environment but love hunting for them in the most unexpected places. The old bath, which is a rather weighty cast iron one is another project, planned to be made into a pond possibly for fish, though Cooper is possibly untrustworthy in the fish department so that may need to be considered.

Finally the sanctuary of a new bedroom, with dual aspect its a very sunny room. Although I'm not a bimbo glamour girl type I quite like having my little dressing table, though I couldn't resist adding some blue fairly lights just to make it a little bit more funky.



At the moment it sort of feels like someone asked me to house sit a proper grown up house, silly but I do expect them to walk in and ask what I'm doing there, like some modern day Goldilocks.

Anyway, there we go. It isn't easy living on a build especially when you're a bit poorly like I have been but it's a job done great. For all the unfortunate mini digger incidents and mishaps along the way Al is the best builder ever as far as I'm concerned.

Well off now, really do need to decide what type of Easter cake to make, stop by sometime, there's always a kettle ready to boil, or a glass of wine ready to pour and cake to be eaten and laughs to be had. You can laugh at me dancing in the kitchen with the dog if you like or you might even find yourself wanting to join in.

TTFN
xx