Marie Cookpad

  I wanted to bake a special treat for my Sweetie Pie for Valentines Day.  This Maraschino Sweet Heart Cake is a cake that I have been baking for a very long time.  What goes more with Valentines Day than a delicately tinted pink cake which is studded with maraschino cherries and toasted pecans!     It can be baked as a layer cake, or as I have done today, baked in two separate tins to create a Heart Shaped Cake.      I used both an 8 inch square and an 8 inch round cake tin.  I had grandiose ideas in my mind.  I thought to hang a garland between two poles with some sweetheart lovie dovie messages on the garland,  using two (paper) straws for the poles and a bit of butcher's twine to stick the messages on. I don't think that I can ever be accused of being overly proud. I am fully capable of laughing at myself, and I do have to chuckle when I see this. A cake decorator  I am not!  But thankfully my husband always enjoy...

  I don't think anyone can ever call me an expert at presentation.  Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I get it wrong.  Somethings are just difficult to present attractively no matter what.   These delicious date squares are just such a thing. I don't think there is a really attractive way I could show them to you where I could  actually convey accurately just how very delicious they are!    They are wonderful delectable little bites of Christmas happiness that I only make once a year., and when I taste how good that they are, I am glad that I only make them once a year because I could surely inhale the whole lot were I not intending to give most of them away.    Yes, they are that dangerously delicious!   Sweet and buttery and crunchy  . . .  in short very moreish.   There is no baking required. You simply melt a few things together in a saucepan on top of the stove  . . .   Chopped dates, butter, brown suga...

  One thing which I have always loved about the UK is all of the food traditions and superstitions they have surrounding the holidays and holy-days of the year.  Halloween is also known as All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day.   Soul Cakes are old English traditional cakes that are usually baked on Halloween. On this day of the year, in years gone past, Children would go 'souling', on this day, singing from house to house for some of these tasty cakes. This was in all likelihood a precursor today's custom of children going  Trick-or-Treating.    In Christian countries, and in the Roman Catholic church, prayers for the souls of the departed are reflected in the 3 day celebration of the commemoration of the departed which begins on the 31st of October, or All Hallow's Eve.   November 1st is known as All Saint's day, a day on which the souls of those who have departed are venerated  . . .    And on the 2nd of November, we ha...