Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Time at home

The girls and I have spent a few productive days pottering about at home and in the garden.
We cleaned the greenhouse out yesterday, finally, and have washed all the seed trays and pots. We are now ready to sow. A little later than usual for some things but as it has been so cold i think that we'll be ok. We did manage to get our garlic in just after Christmas and it is doing well and our raspberry canes are looking promising. We will be growing a selection of all sorts like last year; cucumbers, rocket, tomatoes, sweetcorn, courgettes, french beans, lettuce, carrots, coriander, chillies and basil. We will also be trying brussel sprouts and cabbage and if it's not too late time, one of my fav veggies... leek.



Today i had a lie in. Whilst the girls were playing in their room and i was drinking my morning cup of tea, still lying in bed, i switched on the lap top. and started to 'bloghop'. I came across The Homely Year's blog. I have visited before but not for a while. I must bookmark them for as well as being an enjoyable read,the site is full of great recipes. I came across a few which i jotted down. I fancied trying this lemon cake and as both my girls have sweet tooths i thought they would be keen to help.

It was fairly straightforward and we all took turns, creaming, beating , juicing lemons and grating the zest. We popped it in the oven for 50mins and this is how it came out.



We fancied icing it so sieved the icing sugar into a bowl and mixed it in with more lemon juice. As you can see my icing is always too runny. We ended up coating the whole thing.




The girls also made some shortbread in butterfly, flower, star and heart shapes. They had a friend to play this afternoon and all three girls enjoyed polishing off most of the cake and a fair amount of biscuits. There is some cake left for us grown ups to gobble up tonight. It is very very tasty! Thank you Margaret and Noreen.

9 comments:

alice c said...

What pretty butterfly biscuits - I am tempted to search out my own biscuit cutters. The only problem is that the school holidays have come to an end and now that I have the time to make biscuits there is nobody to eat them!

Unknown said...

Thank goodness I am not the only one that is late this year in planting, i did actually get mine in the soil in good time, but we have one of these wonderful portable Greenhouses, so portable that the wind decided to carry it away along with all the freshly planted seeds!! So, we had to start all over again, although I have noticed some Parsnips starting to peek out over the soils edge!! By the way, I really want to grow Garlic as we eat loads of it....how do you do it? Dont worry, your secret is safe with me!!!
Andrea x

willow said...

Hi Ginny,
What a productive day - the lemon cake looks wonderful.
You mentioned planting leeks, I think you'll be fine starting now as everything seems to be a bit slow this year. I planted my leek seeds back in February but when I was at the allotment earlier in the week the seedlings were only about an inch high. If you plant some now in warmer soil yours should soon catch up!

Pipany said...

Hi Ginny. I love those butterflies; such a pretty idea though I now am feeling guilty as I should be embroidering butterflies onto an order and not visiting blogs! Ah well... xx

Anonymous said...

Hi Ginny, so glad you and the children enjoyed baking (and eating) the lemon cake, and thanks for the mention. Great blog!
Margaret and Noreen

Louise said...

The girls have made a grand job of those shortbreads, they are so pretty, and really too good to eat. Lemon cake, my favourite, and with all that icing, delicious. Nice to have a little time just to relax with the laptop, although doesn't time fly when you are blogging, before you know it, time has passed, and you haven't done any of those jobs you had planned to do? Although you all have been pretty productive, the garden plans sound great. My shed needs tidying, you don't fancy a short drive along the M27 to my place do you? x

Gigibird said...

All this and a lie in?

Cake looks gorgeous and the icing is lovely.
Child labour is alive and kicking:) can I borrow them to rustle me up some biscuits?

Twiggy said...

your baking looks lovely, in fact I've just drooled on my keyboard - urgh!!!
Twiggy :)

Tracy said...

Delicious cake and butterfly biscuits...mmm...Glad other creative endeavors have been cheering the days...((hugs))