Birthday Party and Train Cake

This week I turned into a professional party organiser. My little boy was 3 today. 21 toddlers descended on a local soft play for an hour of craziness followed by some lunch.

I decided to make the birthday cake rather than buy, the bought ones always look so pristine but I have really fond memories of the cakes my Mum would make for my birthday parties and I wanted to continue the tradition. 

Quite chuffed (if you will excuse me for saying so) about how this turned out

A kinda cool train cake, and the little man loved it which is really all that matters

I used a train tin for the shape so will take no credit for that but I did the icing myself...after a quick lesson from my Mum I was off

The lucky little man got lots and lots of presents...think we will be spreading these out over the week, and this doesn't even include family gifts!

 

No crafting for me this week but certainly been busy, as I tuck myself up in bed super early tonight I will be dreaming of having a few minutes to craft in the coming week

mmmmm

Pistachio Cake Recipe

I think I am something of an anomaly; I enjoy my commute to work. When I was on maternity leave recently I remember talking to my husband and friends about the things I missed from pre-baby days, they were generally shocked when I put my commute above lie-ins and the ability to read the Sunday papers.

My commute is nothing special, and it is longer than most of my colleagues. Door-to-door its about 1hour 15 minutes and consists foot, train and tube, and it's one of my favourite parts of the day. Not many people really understand but I enjoy my commute so much because it is MY time to do with as I will, how many people have the luxury of 2hours a day to indulge ?? Sometimes I read, other times I choose to work, occasionally there is crochet and regularly there is music or podcasts. But my commute home on a Tuesday is reserved for reading Stylist.

Stylist is one of the free magazines given out in London each week. It covers the classic girly articles on fashion and makeup but mixes in some intelligent articles on topical issues which I can regularly relate to. If you aren't lucky enough to live in a city where it is distributed you can read online for free here.

Well one of the pages I'm always keen to read is "Gourmet on the Go" which regularly features scrummy looking food that doesn't require hours of preparation. A few weeks ago this is where I spotted the rather yummy pistachio cake. As promised here is the recipe

Ingredients

200g ground pistachios

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

150g unsalted butter

225g self-raising flour

185g caster sugar

3 eggs

125ml thick yoghurt

Method

- preheat oven to 180 degrees C / gas mark 6

- line 20cm cake tin with baking paper

1. Blend ground pistachios, cardamom, butter, flour and sugar in a food mixer

2. Combine above with the eggs and yoghurt in a mixing bowl

3. Pour mixture into a cake tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour. Cover the cake with foil halfway through cooking then allow to cool on a rack.

Let me know if you make this.

Enjoy

x

Pistachio Cake

I was looking for something to bake this weekend, no particular reason, just fancied some cake. I stumbled across a recipe for pistachio cake in a magazine, I've heard of walnut or almond cake but never pistachio so thought I'd give it a try.

The result was a rather vibrant green colour and a strangely gloopy mixture due to yoghurt being included in the ingredients. I don't bake a huge amount but I've never cooked a cake with yoghurt before.

I was a little dubious as to what would emerge from my oven, but when the timer pinged it looked good, in fact it had even split into a cute little smile.

Thoroughly enjoyed testing it for you....lovely.