Wednesday

Picnic in the park...


What a beautiful day we had today...
We had to have a picnic in the park! It was wonderful! 
The menu was, Cheese and Onion Sandwiches (literally - grated cheese, chopped onion,
lots of mayo) and Salmon and Cress Sandwiches, an Oxford Lunch cake and then strawberries and cream 
afters!



Lazing around on the grass for hours, with a clear sky above and an evening sun warming the bones is food for the soul...so we went home mind and body fed... tired from all the fresh air and fingers crossed for another day in the sun tomorrow!




Sigh..
Oxford Lunch Cake
This is a recipe I took from the side of a flour packet years ago and its the nicest Oxford Lunch I've tried! 

Ingredients
350g Cream Flour
225g Margarine
25g Ground Almonds
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
675g Sultanas
225g Caster Sugar
5 Eggs, beaten
Juice and zest of 1 Orange
125g Glace cherries, M&S do natural coloured ones!
Sliced Almonds if you have some!

Method
Cream margarine and sugar together. Then add the eggs bit by bit, beating well after each addition. Fold in the ground almonds, zest and juice.
Sieve in the flour and baking powder. Fold into the mixture.
Stir in the cherries and pour the mixture into a lined loaf tin. Scatter sliced almonds on top if you have any! 
Bake in a preheated oven at about 150°C, Gas 2 for 3 hours approx. Check at intervals after 2 hours until a knife comes out clean.  It takes ages baking but I just set my timer and forget about it. Its worth it! What you can also do is put it in the oven and head out for about two hours, if you take this out of the oven some time between 2 and 3 hours it'll be fine, so there is never that "AGH MY CAKE" moment that I'm famous for and usually involves breaking amber lights and falling out of the car!
Allow to cool completely before slicing!

5 comments:

Ciara Brehony said...

Looks like you had a lovely day! Nothing beats a slow day in the sun with nothing to do but do nothing... yes I agree...sigh...

Kim in the Kitchen said...

What a great day for a picnic! Check out my blog...I left something there for you:)

Emily said...

It was the first nice day here in Vancouver in was seems like forever today. I can't think of anything nicer than to have had a picnic. If the weather holds I think I will round up some friends and go on one. Thank you for the wonderful idea.

Emily said...

Haha. I am from Canada so what I call a scone is exactly the same thing as what you call a scone in Ireland. It is only americans who call them biscuits. Although that always makes me think of something savory. I thought i would just clear that up.

AMI said...

Apologies! Nothing more annoying than presumption! Canada is somewhere I will definately visit - we have so much family there and I've always wanted to go to Novia Scotia where they have Irish accents!!

Delighted canadian scones are scones! You should try the Nigella Lawsons one I did a few weeks ago, the bextartar/cream of tartar makes them lovely and big!