I lost the paddle for my bread-maker and then had to rely on bought bread and other baked products, after making just one cake in the machine. That was soggy, to say the least, due to my misreading the baking instructions – I weighed out 175g of dried fruit and then soaked the lot before adding it to the mix instead of soaking fruit and then adding 175g to the mix. It was still delicious, though, and got a big thumbs up from my five year old.
Six weeks on and I am now in possession of a new paddle, so baking can begin in earnest again. This time, I got the mixture right, or rather I got the amount of soaked dried fruit right, as I did in fact add chocolate powder instead of cinnamon and nutmeg. My daughter’s judgement is that this cake is too dry and I am inclined to agree, so we might need to tweak the recipe a little. Maybe that is why brandy is an optional extra in the book?
Growing out of chaos 
Very good !!!! Thanks.
I wanted to know what your very first blog post was, and now I do.
🙂
Thanks your your interest! Here is the link to my very first blog post: https://silverbells2012.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/from-seed-to-vegetable/
Oh, I thought I’d clicked on it, my mistake, now to read: From seed to veg.
It will show a very different view of my back garden!
Mine is now a forest garden, the trees I planted 20 years ago help stop the noise from the road across the field. Prior to that it was quite bare, rotavator bare!
Oh, that must have been stark!
Not totally all year, because annually my father-in-law planted it up in rows of things like runner beans, leeks, potatoes… and beautifully scented sweet peas. It was a productive space in it’s own way. Now there’s paths that meander under the shade and no dig spaces where flowers and veg shake hands with a few weeds (which with the scent of each, confusing the bad bugs a bit more, compared to rows of the same). It isn’t a tidy garden now, it’s crowded and wibbly wobby.
Sounds like mine! How big is your garden?
Not sure, but looking out the window at the polytunnel which is about 8ft long, there could perhaps be around 60 of them to cover all of the space around the house. They gave generous gardens to council houses back in the day.
That sounds like a big garden to me 😊
The side is completely wild, I don’t touch it, I cannot walk through it and it takes up a lot of space, with an apple tree in there that’s taller than the house.
That must be some apple tree! Shame you can’t get at the apples.
We have apple trees for us, but that one is for the bats, bugs and birds nesting in the top.
That’s great!
Glad you agree. After a discussion with another blogger, I’ve just been looking into Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life. It sounds a bit like what I’ve done with the miniscule part of the world I am responsible for. I might see if I can get the book second hand, as the libraries here in Wales aren’t opening anytime soon. Still, safety first!
I hadn’t heard of this book before now – sounds interesting.
I’m quite dismayed that libraries aren’t opening in England when places like Primark might be. I appreciate that children in particular could be in need of new clothes but I’d have thought social distancing would be a lot easier when borrowing a book – eg a book could be ordered over the phone/internet and then picked up.
Anyway, good luck with your search for Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life.