A slice of cake.

Such lovely warm weather we had at the weekend, particularly on Sunday. I collected the garden chairs and cushions and took my crochet outside to sit in the warm breeze, it felt quite tropical. I was going to say grab a cuppa and slice of cake but I'm on the wine, cheers! Teen 1 wanted to cook his specialty tonight a very tasty Creamy Chicken Masala, which is just perfect with a glass of wine. 

Welcome to my blog if you've recently stopped by.

The last photographs of the Amaryllis, there is one more bud at the back that is yet to burst open and show it's loveliness. I've enjoyed the amazing growth, it's been a quick journey. The flowers themselves feel quite robust with thick petals. I'm thinking of buying another one later in the year just to be sure we can enjoy it all over again. Though it would seem the family may see this one bloom again. For what to do after flowering see here.

M and teen 2 have worked their green fingered magic with the hanging baskets at the weekend. The lighter basket with the white cyclamen - originally inside in the cat on a bike planter, was a gift from the primary school many years before. The other two baskets are probably on their last legs as the quality isn't as good. Still the displays are good and that's all that matters for this year. This poor basket is waiting for a new bracket to hang it on the wall.  

Today having dropped teen 1 in town to see his girlfriend, still buzzing after his first driving lesson with M last night, I quickly raced round the shops and then took teen 2 to another town for a sleepover and homework session with his mate. They're doing biology apparently, umm maybe, or probably lots of XBOX. So after running round as taxi using the Sat Nav, I'm never comfortable going to new places where I haven't a clue where I am, I went home leaving M to pick up teen 1 along with the guy who has just bought our car off us. We weren't able to do part exchange as our present car, though at a garage was a private sale. I think he got a bargain as we replaced both the car and key fob batteries and threw in the car mats and roof rack.  

Having what's left of the afternoon to myself I set about some baking time. I made a cuppa, turned up the radio and made an All-in-one sponge cake Delia Smith style, though my filling was raspberry jam and whipped double cream. I love all-in-one cakes, so easy. 

The guy buying the car was in luck and enjoyed a slice too! I felt a bit bad as when he arrived the kitchen was full of cake smells, delicious. 

On a roll now it was straight off to the next cake, another Delia Smith recipe. Banana and walnut loaf, but mine has chocolate chips instead of nuts. It still tastes divine sliced and spread with butter. This recipe has the grated rind of both lemon and orange which makes it taste out of this world. Looks a bit yucky with four mashed up bananas so if you make this cake don't let that put you off.

Voila! I was a bit disappointed that my glamorous assistant wasn't home to de-bomb the kitchen afterwards, I don't know what happened, when I got started it was lovely reasonably tidy in there.

There's not been a lot of crafting this week apart from some crochet in the sunshine.
Jobs for the week- it's going to have to be housework before craft.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog, if you've been inspired by anything please comment below, it's been lovely reading comments from new people recently. If you'd like to show what you've been making please do on my face book page. Just comment below a recent blog post, I love to see what you're working on.

All the best, have a good week.
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Note about the cake ingredients- both these cakes were made using this book. The fat the book used was soft margarine or very soft butter.