Today I made yummy things!

I have had a very productive day today!

First I made bread in my lovely breadmaker. Today I followed a softgrain loaf recipe and just used 1/2 white flour and 1/2 wholemeal flour instead of softgrain flour. This works and produces a soft and light loaf.

Then I made some more cupcakes!
I had some of the pudsey bear cupcake holders that Rachel gave me, left over from the cakes I made for Children in Need day on Friday. I will take them to my local church tomorrow and see if any of my friends wish to make a donation to Children in Need. For these cakes, I used a gluten free recipe from cupcake magic book.(apparently!)It was a cherry bakewell cupcake type recipe. I used ground almonds, egg whites and yolks separated and pushed a cherry into each one. I still have to ice them in the morning.Quickly.

Then I made jam.
I used an old recipe of my Mum's for apple and blackberry jam.
I used 3 lb apples, 1 and 1/2 lb blackberries, 3 lb sugar.

Tudur supervised, of course. He patiently watched the softening of the fruit, waited for the sugar to dissolve whilst I stirred it in and then seemed fascinated to see the steam rise as it boiled for 10 minutes.Test the jam is setting, by putting a small blob on a plate.(It will form almost a skin quite quickly.) Put the fruit jam quickly into sterilised jars. I use a jug to do this. Add waxed seals and seal the lids. Wipe jars and any spillages quickly with a clean cloth. This will save having a sticky kitchen. Wash the pan immediately in warm soapy water.It was enough to make 5 assorted sized jars!
I didn't have many jars and lids that matched!
I have just placed an order with this jam jar shop that sell jars! Thank you Abbie for telling me about them.

Some of these jars of jam will be some delicious Christmas gifts! Others might just be for me!