Choc Chip Loaf with lotsa love x x x

This is definately a cake with love in the ingredients. It is a recipe i first used when i was 17yrs old and the first EVER recipe i wrote down in my new RECIPE BOOK - i had a journal that i was given and decided to fill in with my favourite foods.
So MRS CHRISTY (crazy mum of a school friend) used to make this cake and we'd all sit round her kitchen table and drink tea whilst eating large slabs of this delicious loaf.... Now, i mainly eat it on my own as no-one else round me likes cake!! How could i give birth to a child who doesn't "do" cake?
4oz butter
60z caster sugar
1/2 t'spoon the best vanilla essence
2 eggs
6oz self-raising flour
1/4pt single cream
40z chocolate chips - plain or milk, up to you.

Loaf tin is buttered and floured - ready. Oven is on at 180c.
I didn't have any choc chips in the cupboard (i must have eaten them on some lonely, desperate evening) so i bashed up a bar of quality chocolate. Pop the chunks in a bag and bash them ON A BOARD! till they are small pieces.

Cream together the butter and sugar - as with most cakes. then add the vanilla essence. I think it is worth spending a little more on good quality ingredients... it just increases the taste of your cookery efforts x

Beat in eggs one at a time with spoonfuls of flour to stop any curdling... then add all the flour and mix gently.

Add the cream, gently.

Stir in the choc chips and mix well to distribute.

Pour into your prepared loaf tin.

Make sure there is enough left in the bowl for 'lickage' - and 3 spoons / spatulas.

1=you

1=child

1=dog... (you don't want to share that spoon once the dogs had a slobber on it)

Bake in CENTRE of well warmed oven for 45mins - or still it is risen and firm to touch.

Not teaching grandmothers to suck eggs, promise, but don't go opening oven doors half way through cooking a cake.... the cake drops and will be ruined (something to do with the release of Carbon Dioxide etc...)

It should slip easily out of the loaf tin if you buttered and floured it!?... then cool on a wire rack for a while. Why on a wire rack?... so the bottom doesn't go soggy x (not everybody knows these things)

Dust the top with icing sugar....

EAT.... drink tea...

The world is a better place x

When Life hands you Lemons...

I have 2 absolutely MUST have flavours in my life that make everything OK in the world:
Vanilla and Lemons. MMmmmm.
One is as soft and comforting as the other is sharp and ascerbic (Much like my personality me thinks!)
I alway have a huge bowl of lemons in the kitchen and they are the staple ingredient to so many things... Lemon Curd being one. I make this Lemon Jam / Lemon Cheese / Lemon Preserve for ME and my NANNA as we both love it. It really is quick and easy to make:
3 lemons
200g Caster Sugar
115g diced unsalted butter
2 large eggs
2 large egg YOLKS
2 standard jam jars - this list makes 2 jars!

Get a pan of water on the gentle boil. A taller pan works well and you don't need too much water. On 'top' of the pan you're now going to place a heatproof bowl in which to heat the ingredients so you don't want water bubbling up over the edges.

Grate the lemon RINDs into the bowl. Then add the juice of both lemons.

Add the sugar and stir and the butter... keep stirring it all till it dissolves nicely.

Beat together the 2 full eggs and 2 egg yolks. You're now going to add the eggs to this gently heating bowl through a sieve so you might need a metal spoon to help push the eggs through.

Stir the ingredients gently and slowly for maybe 8 mins? The mixture should be smooth and glossy and when you lift the wooden spoon from the pan the mixture should 'coat' the back of a spoon.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool ever so slightly.

You need your jars sterilized really. The Curd will preserve for longer and without risk of bacterial interference.

Cover with a wax disc and seal with a lid!

Keep in the fridge and use within 3 months.

Never eaten Lemon Curd? You're missing out!

Would you call me a greedy pig if i tell you i eat this spread on Lemon Drizzle Cake!? It is also divine on American Style Breakfast Pancakes..... or spread on toast... on a slice of bread and butter... as a cupcake topping?

LEMONS are the gift of the gods!
(and i score extra points for giving 1 jar to me Nanna)