Paris visit

                                       We enjoyed our Silver Wedding Anniversary trip to Paris.

       Didn't want to go to museums this time and I wanted to visit the big department stores in the Boulevard  Hausseman. This is the Galeries Lafayette. A fantastic dome.

It's such a beautiful building.

We went to the basement Food Hall and wow - what a feast for the eyes. These are a few of the delicious cakes on offer.

 Some hams and sausages.

And of course, the famous Poilane bread.

We went on a tour of the area around our hotel with our friend's son, who lives in Paris. In one of the lovely glass topped arcades I found this shop selling biscuits - can't remember its name!

 This is the famous Fauchon shop in the Place de Madeleine. They sell macarons and I bought some to try - delicious!

For our Anniversary dinner we went back to a lovely restaurant we'd found on our honeymoon. It's called 'Julien' and now belongs to the famous 'Brasserie Flo'chain.

It's Art Deco style inside, amd is now a listed building.

Here we are enjoying our meal.

Altogether a very happy time.

Apple and blueberry cake

This is a recipe from my friend Annick.
I bought some frozen blueberries last week and made some muffins with them, but had half a bag left. What to do with them? This cake was the answer.
You can serve it warm, with creme fraiche or cream as a dessert, or cold with a cuppa.

Here's the recipe:

225g sr flour

1/2 spn salt

125g butter or margarine

175g granulated sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

2 large eating apples, cored and sliced

125g blueberries

icing sugar

Preheat oven 190C/170C fan/gas5

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

Put the flour in a bowl with the salt; add the butter or marg and rub it in.

Add 125g of the sugar and the eggs and mix together.

Spread half of this mixture into your tin - I found this very difficult until I used a flat spatula.

Layer the apples and blueberries on top and sprinkle with the rest of the sugar.

Spoon in the rest of the mixture.

Bake for about 45 mins [ my oven isn't very reliable and it took 40 mins]

Cool in the tin for 10 mins then put on a wire rack to cool.

Sieve some icing sugar over the top.

I have to say that this isn't the most attractive looking cake you'll ever make, but it's certainly delicious.

We ate ours with a cuppa.

Sultana and cranberry teabread

We love teabreads and have a slice with a cuppa in the afternoon. Very British!

This one is very moist and moreish. Try it!

225g dried cranberries
225g sultanas
350ml black tea [warm]

preheat oven 160C/gas 3/325F
soak the fruit in the tea for about an hour [I used earl grey tea and it was a lovely flavour]
then add
250g wholemeal flour with 1 tspn baking powder added to it
 2 tbspn brown or muscovado sugar
25g melted butter
1 beaten egg
mix it all together with a spoon
grease a 2lb cake tin and pour in the cake mixture and level the top
bake for about an hour; cover the cake with foil for the first half hour then take it off
test to see if it's cooked and if not, give it another 5-10 mins and then check again
let the cake rest in the tin for 15 mins, then cool on a wire rack
eat it with some nice butter!


you can use any dried fruit that you have; I didn't have enough cranberries, so chopped up a few dried apricots to make up the weight
you can also try experimenting with different teas to see which you like best