Honey Cake...thanks Jen!

For my birthday, my friend Jen adopted a beehive for me.  Another hobby of mine is gardening and although I'm pretty new to it I think I am doing OK.  As all gardeners will tell you "the honey bee is our friend" and I am hoping my new hive pack will teach me much more about them.  One of the things I am growing this year is lots of flowers to brighten the place up, attract the bees but mainly edible flowers I can decorate my cakes with!  This gift was in many ways very appropriate! 

So back to honey....In my adoption pack was some lovely honey from the Chain Bridge Honey Farm on the Scottish borders/Northumberland (my parents neck of the woods!).  It tastes divine and needed to be used well so I turned to my trusty River Cottage Cakes book and set about making Gills Honey Cake.  Easy to make and cooked in exactly the 45 minutes it said it would, RC has not failed my yet!  It tasted lovely...the honey forms a sugary crust on the top with the crunchy almonds and the whole things tastes very spring-like somehow.  Handy hint...its a big cake but I reckon it can easily be halved as it has equal amount of eggs and this smaller quantity will fit nicely into a loaf tin. 

PS The hive pack also came with some wild flower seeds that have be duly planted and as soon as I get blooms I will post some pictures!  Thanks Jen x

Happy Mothers Day!

For my lovely Mum and Mother in Law....Lemon Primroses and Daisies. 

I love spring!  New season, the sun comes out, the days a longer and most exciting of all spring flowers!  I am feeling particularly inspired by flowers at the moment, colours flavours, shapes....I shall keep you posted!