Well, here it is...

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

The website was right to say "serve with a scoop of ice cream", it's definitely more of a dessert than a cake to eat with a cuppa.  Although I have just had a slice with a mug of coffee!  Yum! Very tasty!

Making a pineapple upside-down cake at the moment.  I had some leftover pineapple in the fridge so found this recipe on the bbcgoodfood.com website....

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

For the topping:
50g softened butter
50g light soft brown sugar
7 pineapple rings in syrup, drain & place syrup aside
glacé cherries

For the cake:
100g softened butter
100g golden caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.  For the topping, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Spread over the base and a quarter of the way up the sides of a 20-21cm round cake tin. Arrange pineapple rings on top, then place cherries in the centres of the rings.
Place the cake ingredients in a bowl along with 2 tbsp of the pineapple syrup and, using an electric whisk, beat to a soft consistency. Spoon into the tin on top of the pineapple and smooth it out so it's level. Bake for 35 mins. Leave to stand for 5 mins, then turn out onto a plate. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream.

Some of the website comments said "too sweet".  I’m using fresh pineapple so no added syrup.  I’ll try 2 tbsp fresh pineapple juice instead.  And I only used 80g caster sugar in the cake.  Looked spread a bit thin in the tin, should’ve checked first what 20-21 cms is!  (I'm an imperial girl).  Can’t measure the tin now - it’s in the oven….watch this space! 

Yes, another trip to Hyde Hall!  Well, might as well, I get free entry for me & a guest with my RHS membership!  It's makes a good day out, we take a packed lunch, lovely flowers, lots of photo opportunities...

gatekeeper butterfly

I'm reading "In the Dolphin's Wake" by Harry Bucknall at the moment but I'm not really getting it.  He's travelling from Venice through Greece by whatever means he can.  I've only read 70 pages so far.  He just doesn't seem to be enjoying it.  And neither am I. 

Trouble is, I recently reread Patrick Leigh Fermor's books on his travels in Roumeli and the Mani regions, so I've been spoilt! 

PLF's love for travelling and Greece just wafts off the pages, his writing is so soothing and mesmeric.  I think Harry's just doing it for the money.

However, I will persevere.  He's just arrived in Crete, how can one not enjoy Crete!

(4 photos of Crete by west-crete.com)

My beautiful begonia!

Well, here it is....baked strawberry & ricotta cheesecake.  It's a bit sweet, can't really taste the lemon zest, the biscuit base has gone soggy, but it's nice enough.  Maybe I'll try a non-cook one next time.

Mmmmm, sweetpeas!  I love 'em!  And look, whereas they were all a beautiful coral colour earlier, now I'm getting more variety: purple, lilac and white.  And the smell,  mmmmm!

I'm cooking a baked strawberry & ricotta cheesecake at the moment, first attempt.  If it turns out OK, I may put a photo on this blog!  With about 15 minutes to go, it certainly smells good!

I'm having a quick blog during a break in mowing the lawn....garden's looking nice & green with all the rain we've been having. 

Sunflowers are growing like mad things, so are my sweetpeas. 

Oh, I had bit of spending spree recently, bought a new top...Evans sent me a £5 voucher so I obediently trotted off to their shop and, lo, they had a sale!  This top was reduced to £10 and I got it for £5!  Bargain!

It's got a waistcoat sewn on at the shoulders and a patterned frill round the bottom. And it came accessorised with a white scarf.  Looks good with my denim skirt...

I couldn't resist this brooch either...it's about 5" across so very large and very pretty!  And only £2 in the sale!

Whoops!  Just spent 20 minutes faffing around on here & Picnik (resizing my photos), must get back out to my mower!

Spent a few days away in the camper van last week, stayed at a riverside campsite in Beccles.  The weather wasn't very good, overcast, windy and quite chilly on the Wednesday, poured with rain on the Thursday.  Of course, come Friday (the day we left) it was lovely & sunny.  Despite that, we had a good time, Beccles is a charming little town full of interesting architecture. And, being on the River Waveney, full of boats!

Just spent a happy half an hour picking out all my beachhut photos...chain of thought here?  I found a great website http://www.beach-huts.com/ which got me started...

...here they are!  All are local to me...



They're rather expensive round here, they cost £15,000 upwards.  A lot of money for a shed!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30888995.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-34089092.html



Had a trip to Two Tree Island recently - sounds posh, eh?  It's a bit of land off Leigh-on-sea, where I grew up.  It's popular with bird-watchers being in an estuary - I once saw an avocet there.  It has a couple of car parks and lots of boats and we often pop along there to sit & chill and have a packed lunch.  It was one of those bright, windy, cloudy days, with lots of lovely threatening rain clouds...very photogenic!




Here's the view looking back at Leigh-on-sea with St. Clement's church on the hill...



I do love living near the sea...

Finally finished my seashell planters today!  Yeay!  And filled them with lavender plants.  I'm rather pleased with them...

Picked my first home-grown courgette... 



...and the alpine strawberries are looking good!

Feeling rather wistful this evening, I caught a programme on telly, Francesco de Mosta's Mediterranean Voyage, where he travels from Venice to Istanbul on a beautiful schooner called The Black Swan (in about 8 episodes!).  This was the one where he arrived in Corfu.  I'd love to visit Greece again, my first ever trip abroad was to Corfu with my girlfriends when we were 19.  I just LOVED it and have been a bit of a grecophile ever since. 

Anyhoo, let's change the subject before this yearning feeling in the middle of my chest gets any worse (or maybe it's indigestion)....

....Look, I bought this cute little bag handmade by a friend of mine....

...isn't it adorable? 





Bought a couple of new shirts recently from Yours, thin cotton but not too thin, ideal for hot weather...

Very pretty flowery pattern with pleats and sequins down the front..

Here's the other one...

Had a friend to stay over the weekend, so Pimm's on the patio, a tour of the estate (back garden), and a walk along the seafront.  A lovely clear day, so clear we could see the wind turbines and WW2 forts in the estuary as well as the usual East Beach sea defence boom...

...click on it to view a larger size and you'll see them too!

All my seaside garden plants are flourishing...

A new acquisition has pride of place....

Cute, eh?

AND my sunflowers are starting to appear...

...so all is well with the world (ha, I wish it was that easy!).