Breakfast Banana Bread

The base of this banana bread has been my go to banana bread recipe for a few years now. It's changed depending on what's in my cupboard but it has always worked. It's incredibly moist and has the best flavour. I love it warm with a little butter spread on served with a strong coffee. It has saved many a rainy mid-morning. 

Baking this has gotten me back into cake in general. It was the first time for a good 6 weeks that I really enjoyed eating cake so i owe a bit favour to this banana bread. I wanted to bulk up the base recipe abit so I added in chopped dried apricots, oats and flaked almonds. They were all great additions but I loved the dried apricots. I know there are a hundred banana bread recipes out there but this has been the one I've stuck with. I've yet to find another that I love more...although I am always open to the idea that I will find a better one.

In other news, we are really excited because on Wednesday we find out whether Baby Cake Hunter is Team Pink or Team Blue. We agreed straight away that we wanted to find out what the sex is. I like to be prepared and I can't wait to start getting things ready. For the meantime though I can't let you guys know (sorry, it's pretty mean I know). My family would still like it to be a surprise for as long as possible so I'm refraining from making any big announcements on the blog/twitter/facebook. If you really want to know though feel free to send me a DM or e-mail and I'll happily share the news. We also think that next month will be the month we move to a proper house so the next few week are going to be filled with packing things away and getting everything ready. I can't wait to have a garden and proper kitchen. It's going to be brilliant.

Breakfast Banana Bread

(adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

270g light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 large extra ripe bananas, mashed
280g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
140g unsalted butter, melted
50g oats
70g dried apricots, cut into quarters
50g flaked almonds, plus extra for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C/325 F. Grease and line a loaf tin and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar and then add in the mashed banana. Mix until well incorporated.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and ginger to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour in the melted butter and mix until smooth.
4. Add in the oats, apricots and almonds and stir until evenly distributed. Tip the mixture into the loaf tin, making sure it's level and sprinkle extra flaked almonds on top.
5. Place on the middle tray of the oven and bake for 60-70 minutes, until a cocktail stick comes out clean. Leave to cool for a little bit in the tin before turning out on to a wire rack.

 

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Chatsworth

Wow yesterday was hot. I might have gotten a nice bit of sunburn on the bottom quarter of my arm (damn 3/4 sleeves) and an even more fetching v-shape on my chest. I'm not good in the sun. We drove over to Chatsworth at lunchtime to meet up with my family. It turned out to be the food and drink fair as well, and you know how much Nick and I love a food fair. Sadly though this did mean lots of stalls selling awesome looking stiltons, whereas we'd usually leave with a bag full of cheese we ended up leaving with a bag full of bread and pastries. 

It was so beautiful, the drive from Stoke to Chesterfield always is. We drive through the country and then through Bakewell village and it's just the most stunning part of Britain. When I was younger we used to visit Chatsworth a few times a year, it was always a great place to go to while away a sunny afternoon. I didn't take nearly as many photos as I intended to, I was enjoying the atmosphere too much and catching up with my family. 

For lunch we picked up sandwiches from the carvery stand, I had turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce (not weather appropriate but delicious) and Nick went for roast ham and mustard. Later in the afternoon we all sat round a table in the courtyard area with nice cold drinks and the sun beating down. I finally got round to trying Fentimans Rose Lemonade and I loved it, it was like drinking turkish delight.

If you ever fancy a day out I would really recommend you head to Chatsworth, you can visit the grounds for free or pay to go round the gardens and/or the house. There's even a petting zoo and playground. It's such a good day. We got back home in the early evening, caught up with some ER and watched The Returned on Channel 4. Did you see it? I thought it was brilliant.

You might have noticed my new header on the page. I'm gradually working on giving the blog a little spring clean and I made this header pretty quickly but was really happy with it.

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On Making it Through the First Trimester

Gratuitous shot of brie and bacon courtesy of Pinterest

I have emerged from the first trimester pretty much unscathed. Two more trimesters, or 180 days, to go until Baby Cake Hunter arrives and I feel slightly more me again. I feel brighter and the only nausea that remains is before my morning crumpets. I seriously struggle to function without 2 crumpets, a fruit juice and 15 minutes of Daybreak before work…is this a sign of getting old? My parents always had GMTV on in the morning and I never watched morning TV before I was pregnant, is it some symptom of pregnancy that you start to turn into your Mother?

There are some elements of pregnancy so far that I felt totally unprepared for. I did not expect sleep to become so uncomfortable before a bump even started to creep out or that my bladder would wake me every morning at 5:30am without a thought that there would still be another hour on the alarm. I did not expect to become such a wimp that I had to give up watching Game of Thrones halfway through Season 3 because the misery and torture was simply too much for my emotion addled brain. I know what happened on Monday night and Nick informed me I would not have liked watching it. 

I also did not realise how much I would miss brie and stilton. When baby arrives, I’m having a party with those two cheeses. On Monday we ate at Dough in Manchester (amazing pizza!) and Nick had the cheeseboard pizza (below). It was the meanest thing he has ever done to me. 

It’s been an eye opening two months since we found out Baby CH was on its way. Aside from Mexican food (and crumpets) being a revelation, I can now happily say that the best thing I’ve ever purchased in my life are these jeggings from Mothercare. Hello stretchy waistband! This was just a series of thoughts rather than a post with any real purpose but I hope it has entertained you a little. I’ve made an amazing banana bread yesterday so I’ll bring you the recipe over the weekend.

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Chocolate Anything Biscuit Bars

Thank you so much for all your lovely messages, tweets and comments on Wednesday about Baby Cake Hunter. It really meant the world to both Nick and I. Evie was quite appreciative too in her own cat-like way. The hangover cloud of the first trimester appears to be slowly lifting and after our scan on Wednesday I feel really excited. It’s so much easier now I can talk freely about pregnancy-related things on here and on Twitter.

I went to my first aquanatal class last night at the local pool, I was pretty nervous because I’m a wimp about going places on my own but I obviously couldn’t take Nick so I ventured forth and tried to be brave. Everyone was really nice and it felt reassuring knowing everyone in the class was in some stage of pregnancy…although I think all were further along than me. I think it will be a good way to help cross off the weeks heading towards December. I might take up another art class in September as well to get me out of the house whilst I can.

so good even the cat was after a slice

 

My recipe today is a pretty easy one but it’s based on ingredients I always keep in. My ‘kitchen heroes’! Sainsbury’s got in touch earlier this month with a challenge to create a recipe using my Kitchen Hero ingredients and this is what I rumbled together…and it’s pretty delicious.

I always keep a giant bar of milk chocolate and a packet of digestives in. You never know when you might want to make a cheesecake, rocky road or just have an emergency biscuit ready to dunk in your coffee. Milk, or dark, chocolate always comes in handy for cookies, brownies, cake covering or hormone related breakdowns in front of the chocolate cupboard. Chocolate and Digestives…my kitchen heroes!

I love having a tin of condensed milk in the cupboard incase emergency caramel is needed but also, because it takes chocolate fridge cake bars to a whole new level of deliciousness. These bars are brilliant because you can throw anything in...hence the name I've given them. I would have thrown more nuts into the mix but Nick is allergic to some so I kept it safe and stuck with marshmallows.

Chocolate Anything Biscuit Bars

Makes approx. 24

400g digestive biscuits
110g unsalted butter, melted
 

200g milk chocolate

100g dark chocolate

1x 397g tin condensed milk

75g unsalted butter

70g mini marshmallows, plus extra for sprinkling

anything else you fancy adding - nuts, sweets, caramel, fudge pieces

1. Line a tray with greaseproof paper and set aside. Crush the digestives in a food processor, or relieve stress by sticking them in a freezer bag and bashing them with a rolling pin.

1. Tip into a large bowl and mix in the melted butter until all the biscuit crumbs are coated. Press the mixture into the base of the tray and pop in the fridge whilst you get the topping ready.
2. In a medium sized pan, break up the chocolate into chunks and add the remaining 75g butter and condensed milk. Gently heat until everything has melted and the mixture is smooth.
3. Remove from the heat and mix in the marshmallows. Remove the tray from the fridge and tip the chocolate on top, making sure it's smooth and level.
4. Sprinkle a few extra marshmallows on top and pop back in the fridge for 2 hours.
5. Slice up and try to just eat one.

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