Gorgeous Autumn day today: sunshine, blue skies, very windy. Good weather makes a good mood, and I needed it as I have a lot to do today.
First up was to make 2 of Delia's Creole Cakes. I was late starting this year. Normally it wouldhave been made by 25th September, giving it three months to mellow and mature before Christmas. The fruit has been soaking in alcohol in the fridge for the last two weeks. I had a minor mishap when heating the fruit and alcohol initially.... I managed to set fire to one lot, and effectively burned all the alcohol off. It was rather spectacular. I added extra alcohol, and I marked the jar in the fridge to make sure that we end up with that one.
Of course I didn't have any eggs. All these hens, and not enough eggs. I need 10 for the two cakes. On these occasions I normally make my way across town to a nursery where they keep free range hens and sell the eggs. It's easy to see that the Girls are well looked after and are genuinely free range (rather than kept in huge barns with the alleged opportunity to free range). I just couldn't face it, and I got my allegedly free range eggs from the local Co-Op in stead. Now I've typed that, I wish I had made the effort and had gone to the nursery.
Anyway, I schlepped to the Co-Op and back, and got started. It didn't take long to get the cakes in the oven, and they are filling the kitchen with a gorgeous warm scent. I had to stick a sticker on one of the tins so I know which one is for us. I hope the label comes off again.
Next, it was buttermaking time. I had had to go to Costco last week, so I decided to pick up cream for butter at the same time, saving me a journey in the next couple of weeks. It's been sitting in the fridge, and I really needed to get on with it.
I did try some in the Vitamix, as there was a recipe somewhere for it. Sorry Vitamix, on this occasion my KitchenAid beats you hands down. It took a couple of hours to clean everything, make the butter, salt and beat the drained butter, pot it, fridge it, and wash up. After my last session I had bought various silicon moulds from Lakeland, as I invariably have more butter than pots. They seem to have worked so far, I'll know how well (or not) once they've been frozen and turned out.
And then I needed to clean one of the ovens. I was going to use it for the cakes, but I've mostly used this for roasting vegetables and potatoes and it smelt horrible. I've covered everything with OvenMate and I'm waiting for it to Do It's Thing.
And in between I've been keeping a fretful eye on the chooks.....
