Frances Bakes

It’s almost the end of the school term here in Scotland so I thought I’d do a throw back to the cakes that I made for my two youngest leaving nursery. They were gifts to their wonderful teachers at the nursery that they attended and they were very involved in the design of each. My daughter drew the picture on the top of her cake with edible pens. I don’t make fondant cakes anymore but they can be a lot of fun, especially for kids.

My two youngest have a school trip tomorrow and I was well enough to bake today. I made them Chocolate Crackles to share with their friends. These are our favourite chocolate biscuits. The recipe is from the first Bake Off recipe book.

Just because. Lemon and elderflower.

Delicious sourdough made by my friend Theo at roasted (in Strathaven) for breakfast today. 👌🏻

Nice crumb.

I baked some bread! First loaf in almost three months since I first got sick but it’s great to have that smell in the house again.
I baked a pain de mie from Richard Bertinet’s latest book, Crumb.

Yes

Still one of my favourite cakes.

Oh how I’m missing *making* and *creating* with my hands. But if you are baking, making and creating, summer fruits are coming in and elderflower is all over the uk now to help decorate your cakes.

Finally the elderflower in my garden is flowering (not that I’m in a position to do much with it this year) so here is a throw back to my strawberry and elderflower cake:
https://francesautybakes.wordpress.com/‚Ä ¶/elderflower-and-s‚Ķ/

Following on with all the love for the Black Forest macarons, I thought I’d share a blog post from a couple of years ago about some macarons that I made for a wedding reception, including the recipe for these mojito ones.
https://francesautybakes.wordpress.com/20 16/07/23/macathon/

#tbt to these delicious Black Forest Macarons that I made a few years back. I can take or leave macarons but they are a good way of delivering different and exciting flavours and combinations in small bite sized morsels.

I really miss baking. I’ve been in bed on and off for nine weeks, and I’ve only prepared a handful of meals for my family in that time. One day I managed a tea loaf and another a cheesecake for my step daughter’s birthday. It’s driving me crazy and I miss it very much. Even simple bakes like this drizzle tray bake.
If you feel like baking something zesty then you could use my blueberry and lime recipe. Bake in a bundt tin, round tin, or tray bake.
https://francesautybakes.wordpress.com/‚Ä ¶/blueberry-and-lim‚Ķ/

So good to eat some real bread, made by my friend Theologos at roasted in Strathaven.

Not only are their products top quality and consistently delicious, Annika and Iain have worked their socks off to build up this business from pop ups between their regular jobs just a few years ago to now running a production kitchen and two shops of their own, employing lots of talented folk in Glasgow. I’m so pleased for them.