Something's cooking' in the kitchen...

Today I ventured no further than the kitchen, well apart from returning upstairs to get packed for a couple of nights away in Eyemouth.

LeeAnne has invited D and me, and Withers and Jim, to stay at her lovely garden flat in Eyemouth.  This is very kind of her as it means David and Jim can continue their golfing friendship and and Withers can continue her evil plan to kill me!!

But back to the kitchen.  Started off making Malteser Slice (I would NEVER hear the end of it if I turned up tomorrow without some of that!)  Then it was on to making a pumpkin cake. I saw that on Matty Edgell's (last year's great British Bakeoff's winner) Instagram last week and immediately wanted to try it. Cake's aren't really my thing (to bake I mean.  More than happy to eat them :-)) but he said it was easy so nothing ventured.

I decided I wanted to keep it simple and ditched the half orange half chocolate marbled sponge and decided to make it a plain vanilla orange sponge.  My favourite cake I baked as a child with my gran was a simple orange sponge that was then covered in orange flavoured icing.  Happy memories running through my head as I mixed today's cake.  

My gran always said that cakes can sense a baker's anxiety, and stressed how important it is to be relaxed when baking, and enjoy it.  I did my best to do that as worked my way through the recipe.  All was well till I put the cake batter into my Bundt tin and it came right to the top.  Hmmm....

As I put it in the oven I was concerned that the top of the cake would end up burnt but still uncooked in the middle.  Forty-five minutes later the kitchen smelled amazing and the cake was done.  Slightly brown but not raw in the middle.  Result!  Now all I had to do was get it out of the tin.  Thankfully I had greased and floured the tin well (thanks You tube :-) and a light tap saw the cake released from the tin onto the cooling rack.  Phew!

Popped upstairs to get my bag packed for Eyemouth.  Six outfits for three days.  Well I like choice and the weather can be unpredictable lame excuses 

Back downstairs to make the frosting for the cake.  I don't know how much colouring Matty used in his frosting but I used a whole gel tube and my frosting is no where near as orange as his!  Oh well, it will just have to be a slightly peely wally* pumpkin cake :-)

Matty also makes decorating the cake with the frosting to make it look like a pumpkin, easy.  It was not!  In fact it looks more like a deflated football than a pumpkin.  Maybe tomorrow when I put the flakes in the middle for the stalks (he uses cinnamon sticks but I prefer flakes :-) it will say pumpkin to me.  Here's hoping.

With the cake safely in the fridge it was time to make dinner.  Roast duck breast, David's creamy mash potato and my cauliflower cheese bake.  Dinners have definitely taken on an autumnal feel.  I can't believe the clocks go back next weekend!

Strictly and some crochet finished off a lovely, food focussed day :-)

*Scottish word for pale or sickly in appearance :-)