Toffee Apple Cake

The blustery weather was making me feel very autumnal this weekend and what better way to enjoy this by getting out for a bike ride to a country pub and then coming home to bake a cake with a nod to Hallowe'en and toffee apples?

We cycled to the Five Mile House via some beautiful Cotswolds villages where we stopped for a drink in the October sunshine. The food smelled delicious though, so will have to visit when we don't have to cycle back afterwards and can enjoy a sunday roast!

Rustic sign en route:

Five Mile House:

We then made a toffee apple cake from the 'Baking' (Simple Cookery series) book- one of my favourites for quick and easy to follow recipes- with just a few tweaks (less cream and more apples!)

The cake is delicious and I am savouring every last bite as I am going to have to watch what I eat from now on- this desk job has resulted in noticeable weight gain since August, oops! Cue lots more healthy recipes (from Monday... honest).

Pumpkin and Winter Veg Soup

This evening I made some seasonal pumpkin and winter vegetable soup for the long dark evenings which seem to be upon us now.

Ingredients:

1/2 pumpkin with seeds, stringy bits and skin removed

1 onion

1 carrot

1 parsnip

5 medium sized potatoes

1.5l vegetable stock

Salt and pepper

Method

I fried the onion, then added the rest of the vegetables, the stock, coriander and some seasoning and let it simmer away for half an hour, before blending it into a hearty, fairly thick soup.

This made lots of portions (probably about 8), which I have frozen, as you can see the casserole dish was very full, almost cauldron like! This is much more economical (and just about as delicious) as my favourite New Covent Garden Soup, my calculations make this soup about 35p per portion, compared to around £1 RRP per portion for NCG soup.

I have pureed the rest of the pumpkin for a rainy day's baking project, watch this space for some Hallowe'en themed cakes...

Hot Air Balloon Flight

This weekend I finally (after several failed attempts due to bad weather) got to go on a hot air balloon flight to celebrate my lovely Dad's Birthday. This has very little to do with craft or thrifty living, but I think deserves some photos. I have always wanted to go on a hot air balloon, but it exceeded all of my expectations, it was an amazing experience; really tranquil and beautiful. We went with Go Ballooning who made the whole experience really enjoyable, I would throughly recommend them.

Cold inflating the balloon using fans

Inflated balloon 

The Kentish countryside from above

Inside the balloon as it deflated