I'm Loving: 'Tanya Bakes' by Tanya Burr

This blog post was meant to go up during the week but as the weather was so lovely this week I ended up out with my family for a forest walk on Tuesday, had a picnic by the sea on Wednesday and on Thursday Clay and I went to see Motown the musical in the West End. So I'm finally getting this post done, a few days later than planned, but at least I got it done.

When this book came out at the end of June I was so excited to spend the month of July baking treats. Working in a school meant that the month of July is quite busy with transitions and moving around for children and staff, amongst other bits, so I didn't get to do the baking as soon as I would have liked, but it wasn't vital to my life or job so it got set back.

I then thought as soon as we break up for the summer I would get on it, but ended up being so busy with wedding planning (less than nine weeks to go now!) and other things, so again it got put off.

I've finally gotten around to having a go at a few of the recipes now and wanted to feedback on what I'd tried and how I got on with them. I like baking but I wouldn't say I was great at it, so it was nice to take this time to have a go.

A video posted by Janay Brazier (@janaybrazier) on Jun 30, 2016 at 9:20am PDT

The first thing I tried making from this book was the rocky road, mainly because it required no actually baking. I posted this recipe and my thoughts on it on my blog earlier back in July here, as I made it for my Tales and Teapots party that I hosted in July. It was really simple to make and it was really popular with my guests at the tea party and with my husband-to-be. The secret is using cookies instead of digestive biscuits, it's so much nicer.

I knew right away that I wanted to make the plum and almond cake, but rather than making it for myself I decided to make it for my nan and grandad. I had to buy a loose based cake tin as I didn't have one. I almost chanced it with a normal tin but I'm so glad I didn't as I couldn't have managed without it. I was happy with how it turned out but I think maybe the plums I used were too big as the cake was meant to cover them as it baked but it only covered the one in the middle, not the ones around the edge. I was still happy with how it turned out though.

I've also baked the chocolate loaf, which was definitely the most chocolatey cake I've ever made. It has milk, white and caramel chocolate pieces baked into the chocolate sponge and has white chocolate drizzled over the top. I gave this one to my parents and brother to try, although my brother told me right after I made it that he'd rather have the plum cake I made for my grandparents. Never mind! I'm so annoyed at myself that I didn't take a picture of it once it has the white chocolate over it, but here it is just before I did that, while it was still cooling.