A Cherry Good Cake

I'm almost halfway through my baking challenge, which may seem quite odd to those who've been following my various endeavours and writings on this blog, it certainly doesn't seem like this long has passed already! Yet, as expected it is getting exhausting now, keeping up with the daily pace of baking is really taking its toll on me. It's not in the actual baking or even the eating the foods - that is becoming easier as I find more and more people willing to take cake home with them - but it is actually just my enthusiasm for it. 

Of course I love baking, I always have, but right now I have lost most of my desire to keep up with the challenge; I am falling behind. But that certainly doesn't mean I'm  going to stop, I'm not one to give up.I did a bit of maths earlier and discovered that I am almost a week behind on the challenge. It's not because I've not tried (the last few times I've baked it's been two items at least!) but because I have quite an active social life at the moment, home from university means seeing my old school friends I don't really see in term time. And I have a few groups of them! Also my lovely girlfriend is at home and she definitely doesn't want to be my scullery maid - no matter how many times I've asked her - which also reduces opportunities to bake. 

This weekend I went to Glasgow to see my cousins who I spent a great weekend with sampling scotch and seaweed flavoured beer... There wasn't really time to bake a batch of cookies! So I came back and immediately set to baking myself a cake. A Classic Cherry Cake, which has turned out rather well  (except for a few minor errors); it was a normal cake. A simple bit of sponge mixed with cherries, lemon and almonds. My girlfriend has remarked to me that the recipes in this book of mine are very nut heavy, something I'm not particularly bothered by, I love nuts (make the jokes you wish from that!) which made me think, actually she's right - "You sound so surprised!" I hear her shouting at her laptop - so I decided to look into the book and see how many actually do have nuts in.

It turns out that 40 out of the hundred recipes I am working through have nuts in, surprising I suppose because these days I get the impression that nuts aren't really in many baked goods I buy. I can't remember the last time I bought something with hazelnuts or something in, they're almost entirely absent from many people's diets. Maybe it's because nut allergies are quite coming these days or - stoners, prepare for your mind to be blown - it is the other way round and we are allergic to nuts because they're not as common in things any more... Woah, man.

Anyway, back to that cake after a rambling. The cake went very well, I must admit, but it fell down at the final hurdle because - yet again - I didn't fully commit to this challenge by buying the correct equipment ( or account for the fact I had the wrong equipment in the cooking time). I used a nine inch baking tin rather than an eight inch one, not a problem on its own but the spreading out of e mixture meant that I should have adjusted cooking time suitably, and I didn't. A rather more brown cake came out than I'd hoped, it also is a little less moist than you'd like but then again, with a nice brew it goes down perfectly! 

This evening gone I also decided to make pizzas with my own good hands to knock another number off the list without overloading on sugar. I was surprised at just how simple they were up until the cooking stage. You'd think the hard bit would be the dough right? Wrong. It is simple bread dough ( well, simple to someone who's given that a go before) simply rolled flat once you've finished proving it. But once loaded up with toppings (and by god do I love my toppings!) it is an absolute bogger to slide into the oven! It is recommended to use either a proper pizza stone or an upended baking tray - guess which I used! - but unfortunately you really have to scatter a vast amount of semolina on all surfaces before you put the toppings on. It may be easy to move when dough on its own but you soon start distorting your face and worrying when there is the potential for cheese, tomato sauce, pepperonis, veg and chillies to give your kitchen floor a makeover! Semolina underneath the baking tray you cook it on and the plastic board you use to roll it out and as a surface for putting toppings on simply must be well semolinad up!

Still, it came out looking absolutely brilliant! 

The Results:

Mmmmm a lovely "piece a" cake

A lovely Pizza great!