Cinnamon Bun Wreath - Bakemas Day 8

Pecan Swirls - Bakemas Day 6

Quick recipes seem to be my go to at the moment and you can have these ready to eat in 30 minutes or less. I mean it is December, peoples to-do lists get significantly longer and the time literally disappears, don't we all need a few more quick recipes in our lives? 'Tis the season to rush around like a headless lunatic, but a headless lunatic with a pecan swirl in their hand that only took 30 minutes to makes is significantly happier!

Spiced Chocolate Chip Welsh Cakes

I got a cough, I know what you’re thinking, is that special news? Maybe not special but it’s definitely news. I never get coughs, and when I say never I mean never, blocked sinuses yes coughs not so much. I say cough, I’m pretty sure it was a chest infection because there was dizziness, a fever, everything ached and all kinds of funky coloured stuff being coughed up, there was also a little bit of throwing up but we won’t get into that. I spent the majority of my week moving from my room to the living room in a constant state of napping with random TV shows in the background I didn’t care to pay attention to, which if you know me is also really rare because I really despise naps. I also spent two days only whispering and another sounding like I’d been strangled so all around it wasn’t a pleasant time!

One of the other problems I had was I completely lost my appetite, I always find it takes a while to go back to eating normally after that but the first thing that made me want to eat more than a bowl of rice or soup was some Welsh cakes my mum bought, so after that I just had to make some.
It’s probably been about 4 years since I’ve made Welsh cakes, aside from the 3 batches I’ve cooked up in the past week but the day I made these just coincidentally happened to be St. David’s day. I did test out another flavour which is all of the yummy and will be posted at some point in the future but I couldn’t resist adding chocolate to a batch (well I had to make up for all the chocolate I missed out on while I was ill), I’m surprised it’s never crossed my mind before and I also couldn’t resist adding all of the spices.

Something that Welsh cakes are ideal for is snacks on the go, they travel extremely well and don’t take up a lot of room, not that we had any time to take them out for a snack as they didn’t last long enough but if you can resist them till the next day they keep well and you can’t really squish them as easy as a muffin.

Blackberry & Coconut Scones with Blackberry Compote

It’s blackberry season! I will admit these blackberries are from last year. I haven’t actually picked any yet this year, not that we really need any more we have a freezer in our garage that’s full of apples, blackberries and rhubarb although I’m sure we won’t be able to resist...it’s tradition! I foresee a lot of crumbles in our future. Am I the only person who likes to eat yogurt with their scone instead of cream? Aside from the fact that I can’t really eat cream I just think its way more refreshing. If we don’t have cream my mum would rather have butter bleugh! I can’t really get behind anything with butter on unless it involves garlic. I do need to make one thing clear; I’m a jam first then cream kind of person, or yogurt as the case may be.

Apple crumble scones

S'mores scones

It's the beginning of November and the smell of bonfires is in the air. Grab your coats, scarves and gloves, wrap up warm and go watch the nearest firework display then come back sit in front of the fire and enjoy this marshmallowy s'more goodness.

Spiced chocolate chip scones

It's one of those overcast, dull skies, leaves flying everywhere kind of days which make you want to curl up and watch a film with a cup of coffee and watch the leaves fly around the garden. These kind of days also make me want to watch christmas films and have me walking round the house constantly saying "feels like christmas is coming", I know it's way to early but the magic is a'brewin'. So I thought it was time to whip up another batch of these spiced scones, which I've finally decided to put on here because they're just too addictive to pass up.

About two weeks ago I woke up with a craving for scones, I know what you're thinking scones for breakfast? and all I can say is yes scones for breakfast, who wouldn't? So before I went out I whipped up some scones, feeling in a seasonal mood because all I can think about is spiced anything; I used a basic scone recipe, added in some spices and iced them. Unfortunately I didn't end up having time to eat these for breakfast, I had to drink my coffee first and take the scones with me but after walking to my friends house I sat down in her kitchen to eat and oh my was it worth the wait! In 4 days I made variations of 3 batches of these, so I would say in my hands these are a little dangerous; beware! Now not only do I try spice everything I also try to put everything into scone form.

Cinnamon bun scones

Last week I was doing something, completely unrelated, and it came to me: cinnamon bun cookies! all the taste and none of the waiting. After a little bit of googling I found out they were already a thing, which is always a little frustrating when you think you're being creative and innovative and you find out your idea already exists. I am almost positive the majority of english people are less adventurous with their baking, we seem to like classic homely style baking passed down from generations, but that's not to say this is a bad thing. So while I was walking around the house I saw a packet of Welsh cakes my parents had brought back from Wales which led me to cinnamon bun scones.

I did two different tests of cinnamon bun cookies and although they were nice, they were really sweet and I even reduced the amount of sugar. As they were so sugary it took away from the cinnamoniness, and I love me some cinnamon, so they weren't exactly what I was trying to create, they also take a while to make with refrigerating the dough etc. so it wasn't exactly cutting down on the time it took to make them. I definitely got what I wanted from the scones though, they're almost like a real cinnamon bun and mentally they feel healthier, whether that's true or not I have no idea.