Bread Recipe - the UK edition

3 years ago I shared with you our bread recipe. To this day we still bake it almost daily. However, after landing in the UK we went through a period of trial and error as the yeast and flour was different. And so, I give you our UK version if anyone from around these parts is keen to give it a go!

In a bowl thoroughly mix together (just with a wooden spoon):
1.5 cups of water
2 tsps of Easy Bake Bread Yeast
3 cups of strong bread flour
1.5 tsps of salt

No kneading!  Cover with clearwrap and let it rise.   We usually mix the dough first thing in the morning and bake at night, or the night before bed to bake first thing in the morning.  You can easily let it rise for 12 - 18 hours if you wish.  Or if it's a hot day/warm room/you're in a hurry... it can be ready in as little as 2-3 hours or so.

Set the oven to 220'C.  Place an enamel covered cast iron pot (or anything with a lid that can take the heat) in the oven, to pre-heat at the same time as the oven is, until the oven is up to temperature.

Now turn the risen dough out onto a heavily floured surface.  This dough is super sticky so it pays to flour your hands too.  Shape it into a ball/oblong/whatever shape you like(!) and then pop it into the hot pot.  Be careful of that hot pot!

Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on.  After this time remove the lid and bake for a further 5 minutes or so without it, if it needs further browning.

It should come out smelling and looking delicious!  Place the bread on a wire rack to cool.

Points of note: 
- If you are using the same easy bake yeast as pictured below, I would not recommend adding it to the water first as it tends to clump up.  We stir all the dry ingredients together and then add the water before mixing the whole lot up.  Works a treat.
- We usually mix up the types of bread flour we use and use different combinations.  This is a very versatile recipe and you can add nuts, grains, make it a savoury loaf with bacon and cheese or sweet with cinnamon and chocolate!  Just experiment with what works.  We don't really measure any additions and haven't had a dodgy loaf yet!
-  Also, if you need a smaller loaf just reduce the ingredients by a third or half and bake for the same amount of time.  Everything still works just as well.  We have even used this mixture to make buns by splitting the dough and rolling flat round balls before baking them in the pot.
- Lastly.  Not all bread flour is equal.  Here we buy the Sainsbury's bread flour as we have found it delivers the best results and is no more expensive than other homebrands.

If you have any questions just send me a note. I'll try my best to answer/help! Enjoy :)
L xx

Show & Tell: Once, Twice, Three times a Zebra

Happy Thursday!

The birthday girl requested a Zebra cake for her birthday... for the 3rd year running.   New ideas were not exactly popping up quite as easily this time... I figured, maybe a whole Zebra? Of sorts?

This is how it turned out - a bit knackered looking but an awake zebra none-the-less ; )

The inside kept true to theme too. This is the recipe I used and I can confirm it was a scrum yum cake.

Decorating took longer than expected... as it always does for me, but lucky I had a good chunk of time to devote to the little guy.

Things I learned/recommend: Baking a dome cake takes almost twice as long than a normal cake. Once you pass the original suggested cooking time, test and check the cake every 5 to 10 minutes to see how it's progressing. Also, I did a test run a week prior - something I was very happy about, as it gave me a great idea of what to expect and reduced a lot of potential and unnecessary panicking.

I wonder what next year will bring? Might have to start thinking about it sooner rather than later ;)

Thanks for stopping by guys - you're always encouraging and always inspiring!
Looking forward to seeing what you've been up to!
L xx

You can see previous and also other cakes here.




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Show & Tell: Not a Neigh

Howdie!  First, a warning... you are likely to see a lot of Zebra and Orange themed things around these parts for a little while... The big bash has been and now... now we digest and reflect : )

You're probably aware we had a big 5-year old birthday recently.  The girls go to/went to a wonderful kindy - they celebrate the children and love them like their own.  It is a really warm, loving environment and when the kids leave you can feel and see the excitement mixed with a pang of sadness in the teacher's faces. They put on a bit of a leaving ceremony and read out the child's "diploma" of strengths, qualities and achievements on the last day... a special moment.

So last day of kindy arrived for Heidi. And of course we wanted to do something a little special, a little different for this big moment. Last year for her birthday we did some Zebra inspired cupcakes, the year before was orange popcorn... extreme brain-wracking ensued.

Ahha! Zebra biscuits! I have a recipe that I normally use but the bikkies are quite soft. For little kids I wanted them to be a bit more robust and crunchy so used this recipe.  They were delicious and very crisp cookies!

Finding a zebra/horse cookie cutter was a bit of a mission but we got there. not to mention then stacking the layers the wrong way and almost ending up with horizontally striped zebra's... We got there : ) The ones at the end looked a bit more like motley cows given all the rejigging of the scraps but they were tasty and still fun!

They went down a treat with young and old. I can see more of these in future - the end result is definitely worth the extra effort!

Ok lovelies - your turn! What have you been up to?
Cant wait to see your delightful goodies!
L xx

PS: Just so you know, there is no expectation to go as nuts as I do for occasions as Kindy. You know me and my tendencies to get a little carried away.... : )

An InLinkz Link-up

Show & Tell: In a while...Yellow Crocodile...

Happy 1st of May!

April is always a little bit on the mad side for us with birthdays coming out our ears, along with work deadlines, school holidays and what not...

One of the most important birthdays in our house is that of our youngest.  Who turned 3(!!) and whose favourite colour is yellow, and favourite animals are crocodiles and lambs. Oh yes.

So when asked what kind of things she would like for her birthday cake it came as no surprise that she wanted a crocodile cake.

And just as I was about to make green coloured fondant, up quipped a little voice... "Where's my yellow crocodile Mummy?" The green was promptly closed, hands washed and utensils washed before getting on with yellow instead :)

So, she got her yellow crocodile, with yellow flowers. I was allowed the liberty of adding some red mushrooms to Miss Croc sunning herself on a grassy knoll surrounded by water.

An Easter egg hunt, chocolate eggs, some yellow balloons and a few pressies later she finally got to put her hands on her cake. A happy girl who got all she could wish for on her day. :)

School holidays are nearly over here in NZ... what have you been getting up to? Much time for crafting of any kind? Some team/group efforts perhaps?
Hope you're all having a great time and looking forward to seeing your makes! Or works in progess! : )
L xx



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The Cookie Connection - Part 2

The Cookie Connection: To deliver a batch of baking once a week to a neighbour in your street and make some connections in your neighbourhood.

Armed with supplies, and 3 super keen helpers we took to our street...

The girls loved running along and picking out bags to deliver. Some were left on doorsteps, but many more were handed over in person.

The girls are super outgoing kids and loved talking to everyone they met. We had such a great time meeting many new friendly faces.

There were lots of hugs, chats, a few cups of tea and even a watergun fight!

If people didn't know who the loud family of girls were before...they sure did now! These were some of the most fun-filled hours of our summer : )

Part 3 concludes our adventures next week!
L xx

You can read about Part 1 here.
Linking up with Lisa @ The Cookie Connection 

The Cookie Connection - Part 1

Do you know... the muffin man cookie girl?

Lovely Lisa started something a number of weeks ago... The Cookie Connection.
Purpose/Aim: To deliver a batch of baking once a week to a neighbour in your street and make some connections in your neighbourhood.

Well the minute this crossed my radar, I was in! I loved everything about it, everything. We've lived in our street for the last 4.5 years and have gotten to know many of our neighbours one way or another. But the idea of blessing each house with a little treat just rung all my bells.

So we came up with a plan, did a bit of baking and sewing, and we were off...

Stay tuned for Part 2 :)
L xx

Linking up with Lisa @ The Cookie Connection 
You can also read about Part 2 and 3 here!

Show & Tell: A Cat called Rainbow

Hi!! How's your week been?

We had an utterly stunner so far - simply gorgeous and so summery!

You may know we've had a birthday round here lately. You may also know that I absolutely love creating birthday cakes!

My big girl turned six recently...and asked for a cat cake...like her black and white toy-cat...called Rainbow!

So you can see how the decorations came to be, and the inside was pink as requested. We didn't put on a party this year, but that doesn't mean you cant have a special cake!

She loved it, and it tasted good too!  Mission accomplished :)

So what have you been up to? Making/creating/progressing?
Would love to see!
Hope you have a great "long" weekend!
L xx



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Scrum Yum Muesli Bars

As a growing family we are always looking for quick and simple ways to reduce the grocery bills without compromising nutrition and volume of necessary food consumed... We've managed to achieve huge savings in general by baking our own bread, making our own muesli, getting clever about ways to make meals stretch further and so on...

The most recent "home-made" conversion has been muesli bars.  All 5 of us have at least one a day on average - tasty, filling and generally not too unhealthy.  It didn't seam a big stretch to make these ourselves.  I turned to my good friend Pinterest and found a recipe that I liked the sound of... not so dense that you feel like your jaw will drop from exhaustion from all that chewing, toasted and full of good bits.

Here's the recipe if you're keen to try it!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup caster sugar
125g butter
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup rice bubbles
1/2 cu raisins/sultanas
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cranberries/mixed dried berries
1/2 cup almonds/nuts
1/4 cup seeds (combinations of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, etc)

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 180'C.
2.  Grease/line a slice tray with baking paper - I use a cookie tray.
3.  Combine honey, sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
4.  Cook stirring, for 2-3 minutes until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
5.  Bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes or until the syrup thickens slightly.
6.  Remove from heat.
7.  Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.
8.  Pour hot syrup over dry ingredients and stir to combine.
9.  Spoon into prepared tray and press firmly to make sure the mixture will stick together (you can use baking baker to press down so it doesn't stick to your fingers).
10.  Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden.
11.  To help it stick together when it comes out of the oven, put some baking paper on top of the cooked slice, then stack another tray on top and load it up with some weight for a couple of hours.  I use some heavy dishes, cans, etc.
12.  Once cool, slice and refrigerate until well chilled.

-  Ours keep well in an airtight container and we get about 40 slices from a tray.  Hubby likes a bit of chocolate on his so we just spread some melted chocolate over a few :)
-  I also add a handful of shredded coconut to our slice.
-  The mixture has 1.5 cups of dried fruit so use whatever combination you like.
-  If you need to be nut free you can replace the nuts with coconut, seeds or fruit.
-  You could use half honey, half smooth peanut butter in the syrup.
-  You can make them gluten free by using 2 cups of crushed cornflakes and 2 cups of rice bubbles (gluten free of course) or use gluten free oats.
-  And apparently the sugar content is better than commercial bars too!

So there you go.  Would love to know if you try it and if you liked it!
Do you have any nifty ideas on how to make food go further in your house?
Joining in with lovely Ange.
Happy Tuesday!
L xx

For the love of Zebra's

I've probably mentioned once or twice my #2 loves Zebra's.  So again for her birthday this year she wanted a "bebe" cake, and for her kindy celebration zebra cupcakes...

She got her Zebra cake...

And Zebra cupcakes for kindy.

I wonder if I have to start thinking of another version of a Zebra cake for next year?

Happy Birthday my darling girl x
L xx

Linking up with Ange.

Recipe: "Honey-cake" Pudding

Hiya!
I'm back today with another dessert recipe.  This one is an old SA'can one that we had from time to time while growing up.  The name is a direct translation and probably came about because of the honeycomb-like texture of the pudding and also the fact that honey is an ingredient : )   Cake-like, tasty, and great served warm with some cold custard.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup honey/syrup
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup warm milk
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
pinch of salt

Method:
1.  Preheat the oven to 180'C.  Grease a baking pan/dish.

2.  Mix the sugar and flour.  Add the honey.

3.  Melt the butter, add the milk and baking soda.  Mix well with the flour mixture.
4.  Add the eggs, vanilla and salt.

5.  Bake for 35 mins.

6.  Serve warm with custard.  Enjoy!

Have a great Tuesday!
L xx

Joining in with lovely Ange.