As usual, January was a quiet month in baking terms. Maybe my appetite to bake after all the Christmas baking was a bit dulled. I made a few types of scones including these Ginger Ale & Cream Scones that I made as a gift for our neighbours. We’re blessed to live with good neighbours all around us.

By February I was only just getting back into the baking rhythm. Two bakes I enjoyed most were a Potato, Garlic & Tomato Focaccia and a White Chocolate & Berry Bundt Cake that I made for after our Sunday morning at church. I really like focaccia, but my versions are thicker and deeper than the traditional ones I’ve eaten in Italy.

Two similar bakes really shone in March. Both were tarts and both were for after our Sunday meeting at Church in the Peak, Matlock. My Orange Chocolate Tart is an adaptation of a Mary Berry recipe. It’s a lovely, luscious tart. My White Chocolate & Raspberry Tart is equally lovely and elegant – a perfect way to end a dinner party.

April was a fairly quiet baking month, partly because I was travelling around Italy. I’ve selected two very different bakes. First is this dark and delicious Chocolate Coffee Cream Cake that I made for one of our church’s food bank clients. Secondly, I have to mention my Cheese and Chilli Sourdough loaf. There’s absolutely nothing wrong about beautiful artisan white sourdough bread, but occasionally something spicy is great too.

May gave me another opportunity to use alliteration for the title of a bake. This was quite fitting because I took my Boozy Biscuit Brownies into school to share with ex-colleagues in the English faculty. Unsurprisingly, I also made plenty of bread in May. My Buttermilk Baps get a special mention. They were wonderfully soft with just a hint of sweetness.

June had three bakes worthy of a special mention. First was my Malteser Bundt Cake – another “school bake”. And sticking with the chocolate theme was my Golden Chocolate Cake that I adapted for a friend whose wife had a “significant” birthday. I had to make a recipe choice as my Adaptable Chocolate Cake was also a contender.

Finally for this very cakey month was my Raspberry Sponge Cake. Even though standard Victoria Sandwich cakes are lovely, this shows that you can “jazz it up a bit” without losing that classic look and taste.

July was a quieter month, mainly because it’s mid-season for DofE expeditions and I either organise them or assess them for various schools and organisations. This means I get to walk around the Peak District (or other equally great areas), meet excellent youngsters and actually get paid for it. OK, back to baking. I made a  Plaited Ricotta Loaf, the first of several. As it’s an Italian bread I’ll give its full title: Treccia con Ricotta e Salvia. (Salvia is Italian for sage. However when I texted some friends to tell them I’d made it for them, I hadn’t disabled the autocorrect function on my phone. Unsurprisingly they didn’t really fancy a loaf made with Ricotta and Saliva.)

August was a very full month, mainly because I entered several local Garden Produce and Baking shows. The first was in Cromford, the small town where I live. My Artisan Sourdough won its category in the bread section and was best bread overall.  My Bakewell Bara Brith did OK, but only came second. The most surprising (and disappointing) result was for my lovely Coffee and Walnut Brownies that came nowhere. (Shock, horror ….. and damaged pride)

Further disappointment and damaged pride came at the Turnditch and Windely show, a much bigger affair near Derby. My so-far unbeaten Artisan Sourdough only came second. And, once again I struck out in the traybake section as my Biscuit-based Pecan Brownies failed to impress the judges. (I’m still crying into my coffee. Sad, I know.) At least my Boiled-fruit and Nut Cake took a first place and gained me a cup for best bake in the show. Phew, a little relief there.

Overall though, it was a good month, other mentionable bakes being my Crusty Tomato Cob, a Mushroom, Mozzarella and garlic Focaccia and two batches of Dinner rolls made for a friend’s two charity dinner parties.

In competition terms September helped restore my lost confidence (AKA Pride) a little. In the Wirksworth show I entered four loaves in different bread categories and came first in all of them. I made another Crusty Tomato Cob, my usual artisan sourdough, a walnut wholemeal loaf and Chocolate Orange & Cranberry Soda Bread. 

I put in several non-bread bakes too. My Orange Bara Brith, only came third, but I won both the sweet and savoury Scone categories. All in all, a good day, with six firsts and two third places. Honour restored.

In October I had to move fast when I heard that old friends were in the area coming our way for a brief visit as they headed South to London and we had no baked items to offer them. So, I speedily adapted a classic and produced my Parkin with Stem Ginger, which saved the day.

Our next door neighbour is a plumber, and a very nice chap. He even refused payment after servicing our boiler, so I had to make him something. My Cherry & Raisin loaves were ideal. I often bake sweet loaves like this in standard loaf tins. Most recipes make two loaves, so one to give away and one for home.

October was also a month to begin Christmas baking. I made a super rich and tasty Italian Chocolate & Nut Christmas Cake for my friends in our Italian conversation group. As I say in the recipe notes, this may not look wonderfully impressive, but wait until you taste it. Wow.

I rounded off the month with a very pleasant surprise. A neighbour told me that there was an apple pie & tart competition in our village in  a few days time, so I quickly “threw together” an Apple and Almond Tart, not really expecting any great success as I don’t make many fruit tarts. Anyway, it ended up winning and I was given a £10 book voucher.

After the hectic baking busyness of October, November was surprisingly quiet, although I did begin our Christmas Cake. Other than that the most significant bake was the first of my Festive Mince Tarts.  

December was, of course, a month packed with baking. First, my Italian group had a shared meal and I provided the bread, including my Cambozola Tear and Share Rolls. Shortly after this I was part of a group from church that visits a local care home. I always try to take in a cake for the residents. This time it was my Festive Chocolate Cake. It was so good that I made another a few days later to take into my old school to share with ex-colleagues.

Finally, for our church Alpha breakfast I did a few bakes, most notable being these Christmas Tree Chelsea buns. They definitely looked the part as well as tasting so so good.

Well I hope you’ve been inspired to bake a few of these.

If I’ve rambled on too much, please forgive me.

Happy baking once again

Ian