A Saturday Afternoon of Baking and of Trees

Now, just because space is limited in my new kitchen compared with my old kitchen, that is no excuse not to have baking in for the Builder. In fact, no excuse is any excuse for not having baking in, isn't that right?

Yup, it is. And anyone who looks that good in a kilt can make any demands of me. 

Apologies. I digress. We were baking, weren't we?

Space is limited, and I had a bit of, erm, fun finding a place in which to put the bowl and the waiting cake tins. Having this kind of kitchen space takes me back to when we were first married and living in Glasgow. 

In Ness, I used to take all the ingredients for a recipe out and have them all to hand beside me. You all remember the island in my kitchen, right? Now, I take each ingredient out of the cupboard and jolly well get it back in there before taking the next ingredient out! 

Lemon loaves never go wrong, and the recipe I use is an old favourite from the Free Church cookbook. I blogged the recipe here.

I also made The Pioneer  Woman's Pumpkin Sheet cake. I love this sheet cake, topped with cream cheese icing. The recipes are found here, on PW's wonderful site.

If you make this sheet cake, please make sure you top it with the cream cheese icing. It's seriously, deliciously moreish.

In between loaves being in the oven and sheet cakes cooling down, I took my camera outside to snap a couple of shots of the beautiful trees in front of the cottage.

Did I already mention we have trees here in this neck of the woods?

Lots and lots of trees.

Right now, they are full of the variety that Autumn gives.

In fact, because they are so lovely and because they change almost every day, and because the lower Autumnal sunlight adds warmth to their beauty, I am almost inclined to forgive them for blocking so much of the spectacular countryside from my view.

I cropped this photo, just so you'd get a glimpse of what's hidden behind the trees. You see now why it's hard to love them being there ....

But now you see why they're so easy to forgive. They are a delight.

And now back in for a cuppa and some of the lemon loaf. As you can see, I need to be quick, given that the Builder and the Wee Guy were nibbling whilst I was snapping.

'If you snooze you lose', is their motto.