Cake forty - three

Choco Tea Loaf

Things change in our life and there are moments when you have no time to dedicate to yourself. I’m sure it happens to all of us, especially when you have a family and your children are at a crossroads and need your support, whether invisible or factual. 

So here I am after many months taking control of my time again... I had no chance to write but I haven’t stopped baking, you simply can't when baking is a part of your 'self'!

This is a breakfast cake, delicious with tea and coffee any time of the day. 

Get inspired and try it yourself.

75g bran cereal

125g brown sugar

50g mixed dried fruit

50g chocolate bits

125ml strong tea

75g flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp mixed spice

1 egg

125g icing sugar

Place the cereal, sugar, fruit, chocolate bits and tea in a bowl. Stir well and allow to stand for 30 minutes. Mix in the flour, baking powder, spice and egg. 

Line a loaf tin with baking paper and transfer mixture there. Bake at 180° for about 40 minutes. Cool cake and make the icing in the meantime. Spread icing on top.

Quick icing

Put the icing sugar in a small bowl adding some cold water until the mixture is spreadable but not liquid.

The cake looks different with some sugar sprinkles on top.

Cake forty - two

Crispy Little Crowns

Does it ever happen to you you kind of forget o cake for long? There’s no actual reason why I make a cake or another one, it’s something irrational that makes you opt for one, you can call it inspiration if you like! In fact you cannot bake any cake any day: you must be in tune with the ingredients, shape and time you need to spend in the kitchen. One more thing I like is to try new recipes or simply add or change some ingredients like chocolate chips or fruit - I never alter the basic ones though. I find that shape is important too, it does make a difference, in fact, if you bake the cake in small baking cups. It all depends on the occasion of course, for breakfast I love smaller cakes, for example; I think you feel more inclined to eat a small one rather than a slice of a traditional round cake... I also like loaf cakes for breakfast, which is my favourite meal, I must say. It was a few days ago that I saw a packet of corn flakes in a supermarket and I had a flash: I hadn’t baked the corn flake cookies for too long, it was high time to make them again!  A good start of a day for a summer breakfast in my terrace.

Song: Good Day Sunshine

For good sunny days in Summer

Cake forty - one alias Bread Two

Bread Bunny & Sheep

There’s a long tradition of Easter breads in each country, wreaths and braids are certainly the most common shapes, with or without eggs on top. They range from the most sophisticated ones which look like bread sculptures to very simple ones which look like a doughnut with a hard-boiled egg in the centre. I remember my granny was so proud to give me one of these doughnut-like breads. She lived in a  small village in the South and only saw me twice a year; there was always one of them for me at Easter.

It definitely meant something special for her but I didn’t understand what! It was only a round piece of bread with an egg on top, neither soft or sweet in my child's eyes. I thanked her politely, but now after many years I’m sure she understood I didn’t appreciate it much! It had nothing to compare with the colourful and delicious chocolate egg I would receive from my parents. Now I see she was offering me a piece of her past, it was her way to give me her blessing, a kind of ritual to pass on to me. Her bread looked quite ordinary, I must admit, but it was her work of art, the best she could do. 

song: And I love her
to all grannies and, in particular, to mine

see recipe:  http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2014/06/cake-forty-one-alias-bread-two-bread.html

Easter Baking - Cake forty

Easter Basket and decorations

Festivities and birthdays are the right moments we can devote more time and care to table laying and table decorations. What may seem useless on first thought is on the contrary what gives that day a special connotation. It’s what makes it different from the other days and gives our celebration further importance. It comes natural to me to spend time organizing the smallest details for the table and invent something new every time: I’m speaking of the choice of the tablecloth which matches plates, glasses and cutlery and the flower centrepiece and decorations. I personally like to kind of play with dough and make edible decorations: hanging gingerbread cookies in the shape of trees, stars, reindeers or Father Christmas at Christmas, a basket to put eggs in at Easter and bunnies, of course! 

Song: Ask me why

If you ask me why.... I’ll say I love baking!

see recipe http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2014/06/cake-forty-easter-basket-and-decorations.html

Easter baking - Cake thirty-nine

Chocolate eggs and lollipops - 2014

Chocolate causes addiction, no doubt! When you start eating some you’d never stop, you kind of magically feel better, the cocoa molecules cast their spell and capture your senses, they melt your heart and appease your mouth, but this state of food ecstasy doesn’t last long! A few moments after you’ve swallowed the last bite a mixed feeling of pleasure and regret pervades you and shortly afterwards you are 100% aware of the consequences of your eating chocolate. So you get crossed and console yourself with another bite and..... there you are in the trap once more! The circle has started again! 

Working with chocolate gives you the same appeasing sensation without side effects and frustrating feelings though. I love melting chocolate, I like the fact you can use it for writings, frostings and what I find most fun for chocolates of any shapes, colour and taste. At Easter eggs and rabbits of any size are a must, but egg-shaped lollipops are definitely my favourites!

Song: Across the universe

Follow your thoughts while they're tumbling free across the universe!

see recipe: http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2014/06/easter-baking-cake-twenty-nine.html

Easter baking - Cake thirty-eight

Hot Cross Buns

"Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny hot cross buns. If you have no daughters give it to your sons, one a penny two a penny hot cross buns.." You know this refrain, don’t you? It’s a famous British lullaby and it’s ones of the many I sang with my children when they were little. I remember I used to play the tape recorder every morning and wake them up to the sound of a lullaby and sang together when getting ready. I also prepared some games to memorize the songs and once a week we spent an afternoon playing in English. It was a way to overcome the barrier of learning another language: through singing dancing and playing they connected sounds to gestures or pics automatically. 

And still now that they’re grown up one word is enough to recall a lullaby or a rhyme and there we all go...... we sing or say the rhyme and laugh a lot! We simply can’t help it! It’s like being one of those animals - I think they were monkeys - the behaviourists

used in their experiments to prove that we all react the same way after a repeated stimulus. 

Song: P.S. I Love you

I'm sure we all have some words to treasure  

See recipe: http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2014/05/easter-baking-cake-thirty-eight-hot.html

Easter baking - Cake thirty-seven

Smart Bunnies

Bunnies don’t belong to the Italian Easter tradition, we have sheep and doves instead which derive from Christian symbology. Our Easter national cake, ‘Colomba’, is, in fact, in the shape of a dove and it’s a cake, like ‘Panettone’, which we don’t bake at home, they’re mostly industrially produced. I did try to make a ‘Colomba’ a few years ago, but I can't say it was a success: the cake I made tasted very different... Was it the recipe which wasn’t good or was it me? I don’t know, maybe the two of them, but I was so disappointed that I've never tried again.

In Sicily they make marzipan sheep for Easter and there’s always been one on my table on Easter day, my aunt sends us one every year. Anyway since I like to borrow recipes

from other countries’ traditions you’ll find bunnies in all shapes on my Easter table. We don’t see hopping bunnies in Spring in Italy, they don’t live in the wild, but they’re usually bred in cages to be sold and eaten, a rather prosaic vision of this sweet and docile animal! I’d rather picture it through Beatrix Potter’s stories and drawings and love to identify them with Peter Rabbit and his little siblings. The colourful ribbon around these rabbits’ necks is my homage to Peter Rabbit in fact!

Song: Piggies

Have you seen the little.... rabbits hopping in the park?

See recipe: 

http://time-for-cakemaking.blogspot.it/2014/05/cake-thirty-seven-easter-baking-smart.html

Easter baking - Cake thirty-six

Easter Gingerbread Cookies 

Easter is a happy time for baking! It’s another period of the year, like Christmas, I’m really fond of as I am kind of officially authorized to devote myself full time to cake making. I can bake from morning to evening, completely forgetting there’s life going on outside my kitchen! I may look like a robot set on the ‘baking’ mode which cannot be turned off until the whole programme has been fully and satisfactorily carried out. And it’s partly true.... My mind goes crazy and works very fast at different levels organizing all the work: one side the recipes which are a must have in my family, - Sicilian Cassata, Chocolate Eggs, Lollipops and Bunnies of all sizes, a basket with chocolate eggs, hangings for the Easter Tree, Hot Cross Buns, cakes or cookies in the shape of bunnies and breads in typical Easter shapes - and on the other side the new entries since I like to experiment something new every year - this year it was the time of some Easter Gingerbread Cookies and Bunnies Shortbread Cookies. The Cheese Panettone has only recently become part of our Easter lunch. Am I not tired in the end? Of course I am! But .....  all in all it doesn’t matter that much..... 

Song: For no one

Close your eyes and listen to this song, don’t you feel a bit better now? 

see recipe: http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2014/05/cake-thirty-six-easter-gingerbread.html

Cake thirty-five

Harjeet Coffee Cake

I got this recipe from a friend I met in London when I was working as a shop assistant in Oxford St. I was in my early twenties and it was summertime. She was an Indian girl, with long, straight black hair, a Sikh who was born and living in England. We immediately became friends; it was not much because we were the same age, it was mainly we shared the same ideas and dreams, as I’d call them now, but at that time it was more like fighting against old prejudices and behaviour codes. It was a time when I was studying Japanese and was fascinated by Eastern cultures and philosophy. I had already got a Japanese friend, I had met a few years before in London, and we’re still good friends! It was my first hand experience of a multicultural society and I was thrilled at the idea of friends sharing same ideas although coming from different backgrounds. I’m not changed much though... I dare say... which I don’t know whether to consider it positive or not..... I learnt to see my problems under another perspective and realised I was quite lucky in my family! My parents, my father in particular, loved travelling; when he was a boy, he was dreaming to become a sailor to see the world, but then he saw the war, WW2 , and all his dreams were gone!  The war had destroyed his youth but made his love for family and friendship bondings even greater. He was ever so happy to have guests and happier if they were foreigners. So to cut it short, Harjeet, this Indian friend of mine, came to my place and met my family, my father and his little coffee pot. This is the cake she thought he’d love. 

Song: Sgt Pepper

It was twenty or more years ago....

see recipe: http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2014/05/cake-thirty-five-harjeet-coffee-cake.html

Cake thirty-four

Black Sand Castle

Ever made a sand castle on the beach? I’m sure we all have, both when we were little children and  later in our life when we had children. I find it simply intriguing the way you can combine water and sand and set your imagination free. I love it! It didn’t matter whether my castle wasn’t that big or if the castle next to mine looked perfect even after a few hours, while mine had been soon destroyed by a sudden wave....  it was my attempt to give shape to the so many castles I had imagined when listening to or reading fairy tales. Maybe ‘cause I live in a region full of Medieval castles, or maybe ‘cause I’m still a child myself inside. I’ve always been fascinated by castles, secret passages and high surrounding walls which hid huge parks although I’ve never seen a castle as a dark and macabre place as in the gothic tradition, but more like a happy place. I know this sounds quite anachronistic and it’s only what we read in fairy tales....! But I like to see it like that! 

Song: Yellow Submarine

Leave the real world behind you...

see recipe: http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2014/03/cake-thirty-four-black-sand-castle.html

Cake thirty-three

Night & Day

Night or day? Dark or light, black or white? If you close your eyes and set your mind free, do you have the same mind associations as me? Do night and day correspond to the same stereotypes? For many of us they may do, if we share the same background, live in the same geographical area, say Southern Europe, but what if you live in Northern Europe or by the Equator? What are your free associations? Me? I’d continue with dream and daydream, relaxing and working, sleeping and coffee, home and workplace, soft pillow and wooden chair, silence and chatting, stars and sunshine, freedom and duty....If you had to choose between day and night, which is your favourite time? Mine is night, it means home to me, a place where I feel safe, the meeting point of my family, a place where I can shut all worries outside the door and be sure I am myself. I simply feel alright and don’t need to do so special things, I only let go of everything.

song: A Hard Day's Night
Home is home!

see recipe: http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2014/02/cake-thirty-three-night-day.html

Cake thirty-two

Xmas Cookies

Every year I wait for Xmas time to come, yes, I do feel like a child in a way, maybe because I have nice memories from my childhood. My family was quite small, it was just my mum, my dad and I, but my mum’s sister and her husband were always with us. They had no children and they considered me their daughter. My mum used to decorate the house, my dad made the nativity and Xmas tree. The table for Xmas Eve dinner looked gorgeous and very elegant, like a table of a five- star hotel, since my mum looked after all the details. But it was never pompous. There was a kind of ritual I still cherish, before dinner we all gathered around the Nativity, which wasn’t in the same room as the Xmas tree and we sang a few songs waiting for Father Xmas, I called it Father Xmas and not Santa Claus, to arrive. Suddenly the bell rang and my father went to open the door. It was just a matter of minutes, but they seemed hours to me.. At last he shouted - it’s Father Xmas, he’s brought a lot of gifts, do come and see! So I rushed to the sitting room and ... there it was, the Xmas tree all surrounded by big and small packets! I stood open-mouthed in astonishment... I can still remember how excited I felt...

What was inside the packet wasn’t that relevant, it was the  atmosphere and the waiting that mattered! Once my mum’s brother and sister came from Sicily and for that occasion my dad had put up a huge Xmas tree that touched the ceiling. It was like an event for me, I wouldn’t have been alone waiting for the bell to ring, my little cousin was there too. You may not guess how mad he went when he saw all the gifts under the tree! We often like to recall that moment, nice memories to share. 

At that time I didn’t realize the time my parents took to make all the preparations. It was simply natural...

So when Xmas is approaching, it’s something I cannot help, I get into the same state of mind. I do my best to continue this tradition of joyful and almost timeless atmosphere.. It’s like a tribute to my parents and my aunt Lucia who've dedicated their lives to me. 

song: Any time at all

All I had to do was call and my father and aunt were there

also visit : http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2014/01/cake-thirty-two-xmas-cookies.html

Cake seventeen - 2013

Xmas Fruit Cake 

I’m definitely a Xmas lover, I love the days before Xmas when you make all the preparations - Xmas tree, Nativity, house decorations and last but not least cakes and cookies. I also like cooking for Xmas Eve and day but cakes are my favourite! I start mid-November baking the Xmas Fruitcake as it tastes better if yoy store it for some weeks. I like the smell of candied fruit and raisins which fills the house and makes me dream of small and cosy Tea Rooms in Devon or Cornwall. Yes! One of my dreams is to have a small Tea Room and bake a few cakes a day. 

I’m able to leave all the rest behind when it’s Xmas time. My kids say I get obsessed by Xmas baking which could be true, I must admit.. but they all love it in the end... and have their favourite recipes to be prepared. When you love something, you simply do it, without considering how tired you get and how long it takes!

song: Because 

There's no real reason for love

Cake nineteen - 2013 edition

Santa's House 

This is the house I've made with some help from my children for this Christmas. It takes about three days and we need a lot of patience and care in the details. But it's now part of our Christmas tradition. 

Every year we like to change it a little bit: this year we've experimented a new material for the house logs, different shutters, a bigger wreath on the facade and we've closed the front door. Don't forget to give a look at the sleigh and the reindeers... They're my favourite! There are the reins too...

Song: Happy Christmas 

A Merry Christmas to all of us

Cake thirty - one

The Duchess Cake

Like many girls of my generation, when I was a child, I loved to listen to stories set in a fairy tale world full of happy kings and princesses living in white castles surrounded by huge parks, or built on top of high mountain peaks. If I close my eyes I can still recall their life at court: the king was busy with his ministers; the queen and her daughters, there was always more than one, spent their time brushing their hair, choosing the best dress for the next ball and in some cases singing or doing some embroidery work; the prince was riding a white horse or crossing his future 

kingdom on a horse drawn coach. Life was timeless, a stroll in the park or a ball could last for days in my imagination. My mum’s voice sounded kind of remote and I got lost in the book pictures illustrating the ball room or the ride on a coach until a pitch of her voice announced an impeding tragedy. I startled and, holding my breath, I waited for the fairies to appear and magically restore serenity. Those were the years of the first Disney films on Tv and there were no monsters or robots in the stories! I had my happy imaginary hideaway far from the adults’ world... a secret place in my mind. 

Song: Do you want to know a secret

We all have a secret to tell, don't we?

see recipe: 

http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/12/thirty-one-duchess-cake.html

Cake thirty

Choco Dream

What colour are your dreams? Do you dream in full colour or in black and white? The answer's not easy, in fact we don’t always remember our dreams. Sometimes they seem to vanish when we open up our eyes, other times we feel like trapped in for hours, we might only remember a single scene, a sensation or a detail. It does happen to me to keep on living my dream for a few hours and of course nightmares are quite difficult to get rid of, they haunt me down and ruin my day. Sweet dreams don’t last long, unfortunately. 

I’ve never tried to investigate the deeper meaning of my dreams, maybe I simply don’t want to, but I often try and find out the link they have with my real life. At night my mind is set free and gives shape to the fears and anxiety I have to disguise during the day.. So in the morning I’m rather busy to kind of lock up 

all my ‘night memories’ in a drawer and colour my day with positive feelings. After all I’m a dreamer and do believe in happy endings!

Wouldn’t it be better to wake up from dreams which take place in a chocolate world? I’d love it! The memory of the smell of chocolate would be enough to vanish all my night ghosts!

Song: I'm only sleeping

Wouldn't it be nice to wake up in a chocolate world?

see recipe:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/10/cake-thirty-choco-dream.html

Cake twenty-nine

Symphony in red, black and white

An important day for my family: my daughter’s graduation ceremony. We’d all be there with some of her friends and close relatives. I was trying to disguise I was rather tense as I, like all mothers, wanted the best for her. I didn’t mean the best mark, I only wanted her to be fully satisfied: After all I don’t think that the final mark is what really matters, yes of course it does, but it’s more the atmosphere, the empathy, sympathy and interest in your work the professors show that really makes the difference for you. What you need is some kind of encouragement you’re afraid of the future. You know it’ll be tough then, but now it’s time to get some kind of reward for all the work done! I know pretty well what’s it like when nobody seems to care about you, 

in fact my graduation ceremony ended with these words: you’re now doctor in .... for what it’s worth. And this is all I remember of that day! 

I pretended I didn't care since, in a way, those studies were not what I really liked, but then when I got a job the following year, I must say, I'd have liked to call him, but what for? He wouldn't even have remembered my name... 

Luckily her story was different, she was very good and what most matters she was fully satisfied at the end. 

Song: Across the universe

Let's forget all our worries and enjoy this song.

see recipe:

http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/08/cake-twenty-nine-symphony-in-red-black.html

Cake twenty-eight

Lilac Chic

I share my passion for baking with my daughters and when it’s time to make a birthday cake for one of us we don’t miss out on the chance to make something special which for us means a three or four tier cake. This doesn’t imply that the rest of the family is happy about it! In fact they’re perfectly aware of the consequences of the three of us working together for a few days and the chance or maybe the certainty that there won’t be anything but cake ingredients in the kitchen until the cake’s ready! We, especially me I must say, kind of forget there’s an outer world and sound like tuned in to a one music station, so, in a way, I do understand their point of view... 

First we decide on decoration  and then choose the cake, usually a different type of cake for each tier. It’s not easy to find something we all like, I do have my favourite cake which I always propose.. I must admit.... but very often when it’s not my birthday cake I have to give in... and accept their ideas. The atmosphere gets tense from time to time especially when it comes to assembling and decorating the cake! 

This cake here's the one for my younger daughter’s 18th birthday and it was only me and her to make it since my older daughter had no time to help. It was a big job but in the end we made it and it was good! 

Song: Birthday

It doesn't matter whose birthday it is, let's celebrate together!

see recipe:

http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/08/cake-twenty-eight-lilac-chic.html

Cake twenty-seven alias Bread one

Multigrain Dove

If you’re a cake-baking fan I’m sure you’ll also like baking bread. There’s not the same variety of course but there are more types of bread than you expect: if you simply consider the different breads you have in your country you’ll realize how amazing it s that just mixing some flour and some water you can have some breads which look and taste differently. Besides bread dough can be easily given any shape you like and some bread is no doubt a work of art or some type of sculpture.. I’m not a ‘bread’ artist but I love making bread on special occasions and using bread dough for decoration. I love the smell of freshly baked bread in my kitchen, it really makes me feel positive. Among all shapes I’m fond of pleated bread.. don't know the reason why, maybe it's something which goes back to my childhood and my short curly hair....

Song: Don't pass me by

Follow the rhythm.. I'm sure it'll cheer you up! 

see recipe:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/07/cake-twenty-seven-alias-bread-one.html

Cake twenty-six

Sicilian Cassata

I’d call it the Queen of Cakes, regal and sumptuous in the decoration, a feast of colours and flavours! The perfect portrait of the island. I'm of Sicilian origins but don't often go back to Sicily as it's quite far away from whee I live. Anyway I love it! Everybody loves it, you can't help it! What I love most is the colour of the sea, a deep blue which is in sharp contrast with the bright yellow of the sun, the white of the houses and the intense colours of the flowers. Every time I leave the island, I close my eyes and try to store this magical symphony of colours hoping it'll help me to brighten up my Winter's gray routine. 

Once I was on a short holiday on the Adriatic Sea and my kids were all very young. I usually took them to Sicily but that time we were there with other friends. We got the beach and all the kids started to play, after some time my son came to me saying: "Mum, when are we going to the seaside?" I said we were in the right place and he went on "No, Mum I mean the blue sea, this can't be the sea it's brown". So I realized he was another unaware victim of the magic of the blue sea, just exactly like me. The spell was cast again and I can even give a name and a place to this spell: it's the deep blue of the water near Scopello or near the Tonnara del Secco in San Vito Lo Capo, two places which are now a must-see but were solitary paradises when I was a child. As you understand it’s a cake which is particularly dear to me, as it belongs to my family tradition. It's  always been on our table on special occasions: it was my aunt Lucia who made it or my mum’s brother, Stefano, who sent us one directly from the best pastry shop in Alcamo.

Then when I was old enough to make cakes I made it myself. It wasn’t easy to get to the same high standard both for quality and look, but after some time I made it! Every time it's a new experience when you get to the decoration, a different look but always rich and colourful: green for the marzipan, white for the icing and red and orange for the candied fruits.

Song: All together now!

Let the colours brighten up your day!

see recipe:
http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/07/cake-twenty-six-sicilian-cassata.html