Okay,  a confession, last year I was really disciplined and organised with Blogtober but this October life has taken over and I am writing this retrospectively.  I’m now 13 days behind, but with a few quiet days in my diary and short posts I’m hoping to catch up as I don’t like having incomplete projects.

I am a baker and have always loved to find solace in the kitchen.  There are a number of recipes which are my favourites.  As a little girl, my grandma taught me how to bake cherry scones and these always remain a special treat, it is the recipe I will pass to my children.  My mum wasn’t a baker and I would teach myself from her cookery books, I always remember a recipe from an early Good Housekeeping recipe book for a fruit cake with a surprising addition of melted chocolate, the best recipe for fruit cake I know. I’m gutted the book was thrown away before a house move as I would love to have the original recipe.  The only bake I remember my mum making regularly was a kiwi cheesecake from Family Circle magazine in the 1980s, kiwis were new and it was so exotic! In my blog I’ve written of the recipes and flavours I use in my bakes, I am a fan of fruit flavours often with chocolate.  When I discovered Nigella’s lemon and raspberry muffins in her Domestic Goddess cookbook , I was inspired to try more combinations and my baking became more seasonal.  This recipe book is one of my favourite reads, well thumbed, stained and loved.  This week, which is Halloween week due to my tardiness, I’ll be making a seasonal cake with our fresh pumpkin, a pumpkin and ginger bake, rich with treacle and warmed by spices, perfect for dark, cold nights.  To me a freshly baked cake is one of life’s little pleasures.