Baking Hot

Despite it being outrageously hot these last couple of weeks I've still been trying to keep up with baking - madnesss I know in this heat but for reasons best known to my inner idiot while others are mixing salads I'm easing baked goods out of the oven.  Not masses and not beautifully finished show cakes; but simple loaf cakes that Jean-Luc assures me are delicious.

A lovely home made loaf.  I do want to get into baking bread again, I used to and I don't know why I stopped.

 Courgette, mint and feta loaf - a delicious way of using up a glut of courgettes.  It's quite a wet, dense bake due to the cheese, eggs and milk but is a really tasty treat.

Free range scrambled eggs with chives and courgette loaf for lunch.  I love the vibrant yellow of free range eggs.  It was delicious. :-)

Lime drizzle cake - a fantastically fresh tasting alternative to lemon.  I left the sugar crust off the top as I wanted that fresh, zingy taste and boy did we get it.  

Ok this one was a bit special.  I'd made a ginger cake with chunks of syrup ginger in it but it obviously needed a bit of something to jazz it up.  A ginger syrup drizzle was the obvious choice but ginger and ginger seemed a bit too ...gingery.  So i decided to add a teaspoon of honey and then spied a secret ingredient sitting on the side and added a fair splash of that to the drizzle mixture.  The result was deeply yummy and had Jean-Luc in raptures; so much so that he was telling his mates about it down the pub! 

Oh the secret ingredient?  Jack Daniels honey whiskey.  It went unbelievably well with ginger and honey.  And we finished it all too quickly.  A good excuse to make some more and for buying more JD. :-)