A Piece of Cake - Thyme and Lemon

My favourite of all the herbs in the garden and possibly the scent that I love the most is thyme. We use it a lot in cooking although I had never tried baking with it. But I was keen to give it a go. And I was delighted to stumble across a recipe by one of my food heroes, Nigel Slater, for Thyme and Lemon cake. It's pretty much a lemon drizzle cake but with a subtle thyme flavour running through the sponge. I baked it yesterday on my day off and it was great spending time pottering in the kitchen and the garden to create this little slice of cake heaven.

Ingredients 

For the sponge:

200g butter
200g caster sugar
100g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
4 large eggs
1 lemon
1 tsp thyme leaves

For the top:


4 tbsp sugar
2 large lemons
½ tsp thyme leaves
You will need a 19cm x 9cm loaf tin lined with baking parchment

Method

Set the oven to 160C.  Cream the butter with the sugar in a food mixer until pale and fluffy. Lightly beat the eggs, then fold them into the mixture in 2 or 3 sessions, beating them in thoroughly each time. Sift together the flour and the baking powder and mix with the ground almonds. 

Grate the zest from the lemon and mix it with the thyme leaves. Pound the two together with a pestle or some other heavy weight. Add to the cake mixture with the flour, baking powder and almonds. Spoon into the lined cake tin and bake for 45 minutes.

While the cake bakes, dissolve the sugar in the juice of the lemons over a medium heat and stir in the thyme leaves (a few flowers would be good here). As the cake comes from the oven, spike the surface with a skewer and spoon over the syrup. Leave to cool and serve in slices.

Enjoy with a cuppa in the sunshine (if there is any!) x

A Thank You and 52 Weeks of Happy (36/52)

Firstly, a huge, enormous thank you for all of your responses to Friday's post.  It's been lovely to read your comments and I see that it struck a chord with so many of you. Secondly, let me assure you I'm not giving up blogging! It's just sometimes good to have a bit of a rant, don't you think?  I also need to stress that I'm tired and a bit grumpy at the moment and am finding lack of time and energy is making me a bit fed up and lacking inspiration.

However, I've been thinking about the things that bother or annoy you, and I wondered if it would be helpful for me to address some of them here.  For example, technical/design issues or comments/followers? I think that blogging should be about uniting us and helping each other out, and I know that I'm often stuck with things and spend ages looking for the answers. If I can point out some things I've learned, would anyone find this useful? I am also trying to get round all your blogs and meet those of you I haven't before to say hi.

Anyhoo, here are this week's (very late) happy things!

^^^Seriously gorgeous post from Anna at Goldlion. A complete surprise so thank you so much. I love it! And also the Black Pomme print by Hello Marine which I decided to treat myself to. I just need to make the dreaded trip to the big I to buy some frames.

^^^The Boy and I playing with his £1 glider at the park. It's funny how such cheap plastic tat from the gift shop makes kids so unbelievably  happy. And so we spent a great time just running and throwing whilst fighting the wind to make his glider fly.

^^^A doorstep cuppa in the sunshine. An utterly simple pleasure. Dreaming about the summer holidays, the sea and the mountains. Bliss.

Have a happy week everyone. x

(Pictures are from my Instagram feed this week.)

Where's your head at?

Okay. Time for a little honesty today. Hand on heart I've felt somewhat disillusioned with blogging recently. Probably a lot of this is to do with working six days a week and just feeling shattered. Like I have no time to blog, no time to visit other blogs and sometimes absolutely no inspiration. You are probably thinking,'but she blogs fairly regularly, what the hell is her problem?' And truth be told - I don't really know. Some of it is blog envy - my blog isn't as good as so and so's, I never do anything interesting like so and so, I can't afford to buy all those things that so and so does, my photographs are rubbish in comparison with......and so on. I'm sure a lot of you feel the same.

However, today I ran into Gillian on the school run. And after having a chat about our blogs, I felt so much better. Both of us realised that having a chat with another blogger is a bit of a godsend. Someone to share the ups and downs and just totally 'gets it'. I came away feeling much better and I felt so lucky to have had this conversation.  It's also inspired me to put my thoughts on to this post today. It made me think that so many of us are out there and on our own, and have no one to share the things about blogging that get us down.

So I'm offering up this post as a way of trying to chat to one another. What bugs you about blogging? What gets you down? Does the technical side of things get you stressed? Do you have blog envy? Do you not have time to do it the way you want to?

Go pour yourself a big old glass of wine (or a cuppa!) and let me know what's on your mind. It's so important to be here for one another because sometimes blogging is a lonely life.

Jen x

(Image is from here)

Summer Living - Garden Furniture and Parasols

For me, summer properly begins when I sit down to that first cup of coffee at my garden table. With the scent of honeysuckle, azalea and broom permeating the air, the birds chirping, the feeling is one of utter bliss.

I think every garden deserves a table and some chairs - a place to socialize with friends and family - eat and drink or unwind at the end of a busy day. Alternatively it could be simply a place to be quiet, to read and contemplate.

I recently received an email from Homebase regarding their garden furniture sets  and parasols. As it happened I needed a new parasol and looking at their range I was drawn to the natural coloured one as it's so practical and modern.

But as my garden shed and our playhouse are both painted a french lavender colour and the oilcloth tablecloth is a purple pattern, I felt that this one was ideal for my garden and it fits in perfectly.

Now I open the french windows every morning, soak up some sunshine and go sit myself down with a  much needed coffee to start the day.

Whilst perusing for parasols in the store, I was pretty taken with some of their other lovely wooden garden furniture ranges, particularly the Peru collection. It's made of solid Eucalyptus wood and is perfect for outdoor dining. I also really like the Florence range that has a modern feel made from acacia wood and stainless steel.

You can see more of the garden furniture sets over on the Homebase website.


This is a sponsored post. 

Lovely Finds - Sagaform Tulip Range

Ooh I'm seriously in love with this new range by Sagaform. 

Hot pink retro style tulip print designed by Lotta Odelius. 

Available as storage tins, cake tins, an oven glove and an apron.

I think I'd like them all please! 

Buy them at Quince Living. x

Lovely Spaces

Well it's been a while since I showed a home on Little Birdie.
But I hope you'll agree it's been worth the wait!
I really am loving this space over at Bolig magasinet.

Blue is clearly a favourite colour for this family as it seems to feature prominently throughout their home and it highlights the other strong colours in the textiles, ceramics and lighting.
I'm very drawn to the bathroom with that unusual tiled wall behind the shower and that hot pink cabinet!
Gorgeous stuff. x

Can't get this out of my head

So utterly gorgeous.
It's in my head all day and all night.
Play it loud.
Have a great Monday. x