Thank you so much for your comments, Tweets and FB messages on my last post. Considering how near I came to not publishing at all I’m eternally grateful.

And so just for you, pull up a chair, pour yourselves a cup of tea and have a strawberry vanilla thumbprint biscuit.

I love Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Despite his vast meat intake he is a delight to watch – apart from the time he ate a placenta, but we won’t think about that.

A few weeks ago he wrote an article for the Observer about the Great British Biscuit:

I don’t want to sound like some harrumphing colonel, but what is happening to the Great British Biscuit? [I don't want] to see the mighty, wheaty digestive [and] the fiesty gingernut supplanted by cookies the size of hubcaps. Are we meant to eat them, or drill a hole in them and hang them up?

And so this recipe is an adaptation of one of his. These are small, nibbly biscuits to have with your morning tea. Enjoy!

Ingredients (makes 12)
110g unsalted butter at room temperature
110g Caster sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 egg yolks
1 tablespoons mil
140g plain flour
Some jam for later

Heat the oven to 180*C/350*F/Gas Mark 4 and line a baking tray or two with baking parchment.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and add the vanilla extract and egg yolks, beating them in one at a time, followed by the milk.

Gently fold in half the flour, stir, and them fold in the other half.

Gather the soft dough together and make a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for half an hour.

Then make 12 small balls with the dough and flatten them down onto your lined baking trays – make sure they are well spaced as they spread whilst cooking! In each biscuit make a thumbprint in the dough which you fill with a little (quarter of a teaspoon) of jam.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until firm to the touch and allow to cool on wire racks.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the daffodils are almost out…

….and it’s Pancake Day!

As a kid Shrove Tuesday used to be one of my favourite days of the year.  We hardly ever ate pancakes other than on Pancake Day and I have to admit I’m a glutton for pancakes.  Being brought up a Catholic you know that after Shrove Tuesday there is nothing to look forward to until Easter, you are always forced to give something up for Lent (usually chocolate or cake…boo!) and the school tuck shop closes for the duration.  Therefore you have to make the most of the pancakes – once I ate so many I was sick in a cup… I was only six but still….

So in celebration here are three of my favourite pancake recipes.

1.  Vegan pancakes – add sweetcorn (and take out the cinnamon + vanilla) for savouries or blueberries for sweets.

2.  Apple Porridge Pancakes – perfect for breakfast

3.  The traditional British Pancake (ie, not a crepe) – best served with lemon and sugar.  Mix together 100g  of self raising flour with 20g of caster sugar.  Beat in one egg, 100ml of milk and 20g of melted butter.  Et voila! (Makes

Readers, how do you eat yours?

Can’t decide between chocolate or yellow cake?

Don’t want anything to creamy or covered in frosting, just a little bite to go with a cup of tea?

Then this Marble Cake is perfection.  Seriously! Again, neither vegan nor good for you particularly, but at least there is no icing this time right?

Ingredients
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
185g (6.5oz) chopped butter
3 eggs
230g (8oz) caster sugar
280g (10oz) self-raising flour
185ml (6 fl oz) milk
2 tablespoons of unsweetened coco powder

Preheat the over to 200*C/400*F/Gas Mark 6 and lightly grease and line a loaf tin.

Put the vanilla extract, butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating them in well.

Sift the flour and fold into the butter mixture along with the milk until combined.

Divide the mixture between two bowls. Add the coco powder to one bowl and mix in well.

Spoon the mixtures into the tin alternatively and then use a fork to swirl the different coloured cake batters together making sure you get down to the bottom of the tin.

Bake for 50 minutes – allow to cool and then turn out onto a wire rack.

Eat as soon as it’s cool enough!

~~~~

And as it’s Friday, some blanks, courtesy of Lauren.

1. The phrase or punctuation I overuse most is ….. awesome. I use it for everything. From something that is truly awesome to something that is just OK to things that are not OK at all with a sarcastic lilt. I need to find another word.

2. Today I am thankful for …..all my lovely clients. I moan about how tired I am but I love my work and am truly honoured to be able to do it.

3. My best friend is ….Himself.

4. A quirky thing about me is ….. I hate peas, I have to sleep on the side of the bed nearest the loo and if I sleep naked I have horrible nightmares about turning up to work naked.

5. This weekend I ….on a training course. It’s not very interesting for anyone but me. And there are a lot more in my future.

6. Something that worries me is ….money, anything happening to Himself or the cats, my health getting worse. I lie awake at night worrying about all kinds of ludicrous things that seem so trivial in the light of day.

7. On my night stand you would find ….a pile of books, my journal, a pack of coloured pens, a Lumi daylight alarm clock (because I am NOT a morning person!!!), my phone, water bottle, lip gloss, various other detritus (such as socks which I go to bed in but take off in the night).