Therapeutic Baking

It's been a tricksy couple of weeks. However H is now happily settled in Cornwall having navigated Fresher's Week with barely a worry. Last night she was availing herself of the free pizza and ice cream at some event or other so she's already turning into a cliché.

I am finding being home alone quite strange. All my life I've had someone to look after - husband, children, mother etc. so now I feel like I'm bouncing around in the house without a proper purpose. I do at least have the dog and cats to put some order into the day and they all get a bit annoyed if they aren't fed/watered/walked on time.

So today I think I will do some therapeutic baking. Not baking for money or even to test out something which might make me money. Proper therapeutic baking. And that means bread.

If I had a sourdough starter I'd be away for slates but I haven't so good old reliable store cupboard yeast it is. I could do some soda bread but that's so quick to do it wouldn't count as therapeutic. I want to spend time pootling around, letting things get there in their own sweet time. This recipe from Dan Lepard looks perfect and the chocolate pecan twists will be making an appearance too I think.

And while the brioche is doing it's thing overnight I will make some of these and the spicy beef to eat in front of Dr Who.

There. That's Saturday sorted.

*dusts hands*

Photos to follow...

All Systems Go

It is very busy at Cookie Towers this week, we are in the final countdown to H going off to Uni so laundry and packing are the order of the day. One bonus about going to Falmouth is that I can pop in and see all my boys and the littlies on the way there and back. Lulu is 3 tomorrow and George is 21 today so there is likely to be some cake going in the car with me too...

The chocolate selection boxes are very very popular and another lot when out today. I've included the chocolate loaf again, which H has just pronounced 'Delicious!'

I'm beginning to think about that day in December (don't shoot me) and I wondered what people would like to see in the boxes. Is the traditional cake popular? How about gingerbread? Or stollen? If I get requests for a traditional cake then I need to get a wiggle on and start making some, please let me know if you would be interested.

And here's another photograph of that wonderful chocolate loaf just in case you could be tempted -

Little cakes and heartaches

I'm back from a lovely few days in Cornwall. The sun shone for most of the time, the village was as picturesque as ever and Tregassick looked really lovely. I took lots of photographs as usual (click on the links if you'd like to see them). We also went to Heligan which is such a fantastic place and proves that it is not just flowers that are beautiful, vegetables can be utterly ravishing too.

Back home again on Bank Holiday Monday just in time to say goodbye to my son who has decided to move back to Devon for a while. I am feeling a little heartbroken at his leaving but I'll get over myself eventually. Hopefully in time to see my daughter off to Uni in a fortnight… The fun never stops in this house.

I did manage to catch up with the lovely Becky while I was away. She is the lady behind Olly's Maids and sells her cakes at fairs and markets in and around the Roseland in Cornwall. I took some photos for her too (I know, I think it's an illness actually) because she really does make some delicious things. Trust me, it's worth seeking her out if you are in the vicinity :)

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It's business as usual now that I'm back at Cookie Towers. This week was a flurry of selection boxes and whole cakes. The Lucky Dip boxes are always popular and the Chocolate special box went down a storm again - so much so that I'm planning to repeat it this week. So should you wish to try some extreme chocolatey goodness drop me a private message on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/verysmartcookies and deliciousness will be yours before you know it.

I did some whole cakes too this week and made some diddy versions to go in the selection boxes. I think the individual sticky toffee puddings and dark chocolate blondies look great don't you?

And another one

Yes more cake, well it is a cake blog (of sorts) and it's Bake Off night so it seemed appropriate. Far too early to call the final three I think but Nancy made a good showing last week, I loved the chap blagging semaphore and I feel maternal angst for Jordan (with the glasses, hair and bad teeth) because he reminds me a lot of Ed (my eldest) and I fear he won't be in the contest for the duration.

This is lime and ginger and is really rather impressive. Ginger cakes often improve with a few days keeping so it will be entertaining to see how long I can keep George away from it. It's big old cake so wrangling the slices into the boxes could be interesting...

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I have an app on my phone called Timehop which pulls together any social media posts you have made on the same date in previous years. It's fun because you get to see old photos, status updates etc. but I hadn't realised it would also show me all my old posts from the blog I did when I was caring for my mother. She had vascular dementia and I cared for her for two and a half years. I am amazed at how much of that time I have forgotten so it's a bittersweet reminder but a welcome one and I'm really glad now that I did it. If you'd like to read some of it there's a link in the blog list on the right -> it's called Her Absent Mind. 

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I've posted a couple of polite requests on the Facebook page for customers to place any orders for next week as soon as possible because I'm away at the end of the week. If you were thinking of ordering some fabulous cake then doing it this week would be really helpful. Thanks :)

New cakes

The lucky dip selection boxes were created so that I could fill them with whatever I felt like baking on the day. Sometimes this goes a bit awry when customers don't understand the lucky dip element but I will always do my best to accommodate any particular favourites.

Every now and then I like to try out some new recipes to see if they will work (i.e. travel through the post) and today was one of those days.

So far I have two clear winners: a very chocolatey loaf cake which is damp and rich but has a different texture from a brownie and a Bakewell cake stuffed with almond and cherry flavours.

I'm not saying which one is my own personal favourite but two slices of it have gone already.

And…. relax….

Hooray, the weekend is here! Time to relax…. Or maybe not, I have some writing to do.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to be asked to write a cookery book** for a successful low carb diet plan. The book proved to be very popular and I've often said I would self publish another one at some point. As it happens I did write a little book about snacks and lunches with plans to write more but after that life got a bit tricky with one thing and another and I simply didn't get enough time or space to doing anything about either the little books or a follow up to the original diet book.

Fast forward to this summer and I've been creating and writing recipes at every possible moment and now I'm very close to getting something self-published. All the recipes fit into the low carb category but because I will not eat any of the weird Frankenfoods you can buy every recipe uses natural ingredients and is 'proper' food.  Perfect for family, friends and entertaining. They'll never know.

Of course, these days I'm a bit of a photographer so for the first time there will be photographs to accompany some of the recipes, something I know a lot of people will like. Here's a few to whet your appetite…

**Neris and India's Idiot Proof Diet Cook Book is available to buy here

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The SALTED CARAMEL CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIE BAR BAKE is flying off the shelves this week, if you would like to order one (or any other cake) please drop me a private message here at the Very Smart Cookie Co and lovely lovely cake will be on the way to you. It really is as simple as that :)

Where did that time go?!?

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted on here. In fact, it's been so long I'd forgotten I'd started this blog and came on here this morning to start one up. I had to restrain myself from getting out the pompoms and kazoo when I found this.

A lot has happened since my last post. We've moved house twice - from Ma's house to temporary accommodation and then to here, the baking book was published and is selling well, we lost our beautiful cat Roy to illness and gained two rescue boys called Phil and Shreddie, H has finished college and goes off to Uni next month and throughout all of this the Very Smart Cookie Company has soldiered on gaining some wonderful loyal customers along the way.

Yesterday was a Lucky Dip Selection Box day. As I had been out first thing and managed to buy some gorgeous Sorrento lemons it seemed rude not to include some lemon drizzle cake in there along with a big fat chocolate sponge, gloriously sticky marmalade flapjacks and the always favourite fudgy coconut brownies.

More Lucky Dips today too. Seeing as I still have some of those lemons left I suspect that a drizzle cake is on the horizon. Other than that well, that would be telling. Which is another way of saying I haven't got a clue.

I am still posting a photograph on Blipfoto every day - you can see a little thumbnail gallery of the latest of them on the right. I'm getting close to my 1000th entry which sounds and feels a bit insane but in truth that daily anchor has kept me on the straight and narrow over the last three years. None of my photographs is a technical wonder by any means but by plugging away every day I have learned how to take a reasonable photograph and am quite proud of one or two of them. It is also the first time in my life that I have kept a diary for longer than three days, a minor miracle in itself.

There's a new blogger on the block, my lovely friend Libby. For some reason I can't get a link to work in my blog list so I'm putting it in here instead. Please go and show her some blog love: This Price is Usually Right 

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And a little plug for me too. Here's a link to my latest book which has 80 really lovely recipes in it:

 Bake A Difference 

"Bake a difference" Traidcraft Recipe Book

The ideal kitchen companion for the keen fair trade cook, this full colour, 164 page cookbook contains over 80 recipes using ingredients from across the world. Compiled for Traidcraft by Bee Rawlinson, this beautifully illustrated compilation of delicious cakes, bakes and savouries, many donated by Traidcraft supporters, makes the perfect gift - so why not package it up with a few Traidcraft baking goodies too?