Highlights October - November

               

Stir it up Sunday Christmas cake

Stir it up Sunday this 23rd of November and we are making Christmas cake together with my little head chef in the kitchen we are busy mixing up a storm of fruits and spices.  As is tradition we all got to stir and make wishes, and i think i might have a budding littlest chef coming up as she was thrilled to be giving the spoon and allowed a stir.

Our Christmas cake recipe 

heat the oven to 150c cooking time 3 hours and use a 18cm 7 inch tin

200g dark sugar
200g of butter
2tbsp black treacle
3tbsp course cut marmalade
1tsp of vanilla bean paste
225g of plain flour
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 nutmeg
1kg boozy fruit
100g chopped almonds
200g chopped pecans

mix the butter and sugar together until paler and fluffy this can take a good five to eight mins add the treacle, vanilla and marmalade, i used my home made course cut whisky marmalade and combine.

whisk the eggs separately and sieve the flour and add a spoonful of flour to the mix and a little egg and stir/ fold in by hand repeat the process of egg and flour so the mix does not curdle.

Add the spices, boozy fruit ,almonds and pecans and fold in

prepare your tin with grease proof paper making the sides high to protect the cake from drying and browning to much on top.  Add the mix to the tin and cook for 3 hours
cook in the oven for

The Shed

You cant have a garden patch without a shed, and trolling up and down the garden to get tools from the garage is becoming a bit of a work out. So we have built a shed in front of the patch we ploughed over ready for next year.  The shed we got needed a cement base which is good as it will hopefully last a good long time. A foundation was dug 13ft x 13ft and then a little cement carrier filled it with cement.  

 After the cement cured Sophie head of engineering got to it with her trusty drill.  It took 2 men 3 days and about 8 drill bits to put the shed up. First daddy and uncle got most of the walls up and later daddy and a friend got the roof on.

Sophie checking on the build 

Finally the shed is up next project will be guttering and water butts 

A walk around Thetford forest

Its no secret that Autumn has to be my favourite season, the temperature normally best over the year not to cool or warm and clear light from bright blue skies is beautiful.  This weekend we chose a walk around Thetford to enjoy the seasonal change of the forest, even though there is a lot of evergreen pine there still is a noticeable colour change.

 This time of the year there is an abundance of mushrooms so many different varieties and i have slightly fallen in love with how fascinating they are, from large bold mushrooms to the tiniest delicate rings not to mention the colours and textures

 The pines in Thetford are really striking with their tall trunks reaching ever taller before bursting into a piney canopy

 A great big space perfect for running about and exploring you never know whats around a corner, a tunnel a play thing or green arches to wide open spaces.

 I love how the trees are planted and how they lead your eye along paths and sky line, they invite you to follow the woodland paths.  Some trees are planted so densely they make thick woods and we couldnt help ourselves but to go into the deep dark forest, the sound changed to absolute peace and small details of woodland mushrooms came into focus.

 One mission was to come home with some pine cones and we had no problem completing that and the trees were festooned in cones

 Even with ever green trees rusty reds for autumn were prevalent and beautiful against the rich pines

 3 miles later i think mum and dad finally won the battle of tiring one energetic girl