Walnut and Dates Crusty Loaf

This rustic crusty bread is what I bake for myself once a week.
It is a beautiful bread with 25% wholemeal flour.  I throw in a handful of walnuts and a few dates before I roll up the dough for the final proofing.

The funny thing is, this bread stays moist and bouncy inside even when it is a few days old.  I think the secret is in the overnight proofing.  I knead the dough at night and leave it over night.  In the morning, I punch it down and let it proof for the second time.  Because it is so cold even in the kitchen at the moment, it takes a good two hours before the dough is ready for the oven.

Flour (strong 75% & wholemeal plain 25%) 500g
Salt 10g
Brown sugar 1 teaspoon
water 390ml
dry yeast 1 teaspoon


This bread is lovely on its own, with butter, and with cheese.

Potato Chocolate Cake

I found a new baking book and I'm in love with it.

I find that most cake books have similar recipes and I'm lucky if I can find one or two things I want to bake out of each book.

This one, however, is different.

I found so many recipes that I'm intrigued by, I have post it notes sticking out of all over the book.

Now I'm beginning to think that I would actually have to purchase this book as I can not bear the thought of returning it to the library.

The books is, Belinda Jeffery's Mix and Bake.

So many of her recipes are different to the standard cakes and slices.

This chocolate cake I baked today was inspired from this book.

 I am incapable of following a recipe, I did change it here and there.  For example, I used brown sugar rather than castor sugar.  I used more cocoa because I love really chocolaty chocolate cake.  I blitzed chocolate in the food processor instead of grating it.  The smallest potato I found in my pantry was heavier than specified in the recipe, but I wasn't going to waste 30g of potato.  

The result is a luscious chocolate cake.  

My daughter who said that she was not prepared to eat a cake that has a potato in it quickly changed her mind when I presented it to her and her friend who is spending a day with us today.  

Yes, we are blessed with a perpetual shrieking happy bubbly chatter in the background ALL DAY.  

easiest coffee cake

One day last week, I was expecting some people to come over and I wanted to bake a cake for them.  Usually, I have no trouble at all motivating myself to bake.  However, on this day, I was being extremely indecisive.  I kept putting it off all day till it came to the point that I had to start baking something immediately or it was going to be too late.

So I ended up baking this cake which is probably the easiest cake to make out of my collection.

It does not involve separating eggs or whipping.  You don't even have to melt butter, because you don't need butter for this recipe.  You just mix and pop it into the oven.  That's it.


Mix two eggs with 180ml of vegetable oil (I used light olive oil), 80ml of sour cream and 200ml of brown sugar.
Then add a shot of strong espresso or two teaspoons of instant coffee dissolved in 80ml of hot water.
Mix in 220g of self raising flour, pour it into a prepared cake tin (20cm) and baked in the medium hot oven for approximately 30 minutes.

It just needs some whipped cream and a drizzle of coffee essence to serve.