The day started off grey again with a noticeable drop in temperature. I'm glad I hadn't planned to do any outdoor work because all morning the air was filled with the sound of people blasting away at the pheasants. It did get brighter in the afternoon but by that time I was in the swing of yet more baking.
Patch spent his morning watching for fish.
The first bit of baking were these blue, minty cake balls. A while back I'd seen a picture of a chocolate cake with blue polka dots baked into it and I wanted to give it a try. I bought a little silicone mould to make the balls so they were easy to make. The next bit didn't go so well. I'd made a basic pound cake recipe and took out some to colour and flavour then added cocoa and chocolate to the rest. Maybe because I'd used butter but by the time I was ready to bake the cake the mixture was stiff. Thinking that the balls would sink to the bottom of the mixture once it warmed up in the oven I fist put a layer of chocolate mix in the tin then dotted in the balls and finally tried to spread the rest of the cake mixture on top. When I got the cake out of the oven the blue balls had been pushed up to the top of the cake making it look like some sort of alien planet. Nothing that the layer of chocolate buttercream I was planning to put on the cake won't fix.
I did follow the recipe for these lebukchen and wow they look like the picture in the book. The only thing I did change was to sprinkle them with some dusting cocoa instead of mixed spice. I think I've made enough biscuits for Christmas now. As I worked I had the TV on and appropriately Kirsties Handmade Christmas was on. Lots of lovely ideas in those programmes.
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