Old and New

I've been baking and making quite a lot lately. Some recipes have been old favourites like this lovely recipe for a lemon polenta cake that I got from Delicious Magazine when I was lucky enough to have an annual subscription.

I've made this cake many times. It has a lovely taste and texture and goes down as well as a dessert as it does a cake. With only 4 teaspoons of flour it has low gluten content too. I made it this week for the latest CCC event. The theme was 'Doing the Continental' This cake has an Italian theme so it fit in really well.
The standard of baking in our local cake club is astounding.

After tasting Helen's Black Forest (voted favourite by me & my children!) I decided to come up with Black Forest Cupcakes. Sadly my idea didn't really work out. They looked lovely when they came out of the oven, but rapidly collapsed! The taste was very nice but the texture was all wrong so I shall rethink those ones.

I also made a fruit cake with a difference. I decided I should try making a fruit cake, but no one in our house, apart from me, really likes it. So I made a light fruit cake but turned it into a chocolate cake. I really wasn't sure it would work, or what it would taste like, but actually it was really nice. All three children and Mr P liked it. It worked!

Lastly, an idea I'd had rattling around in my head for ages was a PB&J (Peanut Butter & Jelly) Cheese cake. The girls in this house (yes, I'm including myself in that!) love PB&J sandwiches and out of nowhere the idea of a PB&J cheese cake popped into my head. I worked, out in theory how I would make it happen and today I put it into practice. I'm delighted to say it turned out really well. Mr P, having never tried a PB&J sandwich (shocking I know!) reserved judgement as he really wasn't sure he'd like it.

I'm very pleased to say, he did indeed like it! It's a very light cheese cake, and it wasn't too sweet or sickly so it works really well.
So two out of three inventions worked this week. I can live with that.