RECIPE: Almond, apricot and plum cake.

YAY CAKE! 

This baby is a simply stupendous teatime treat.

The flavours are perfect for this time of year – it’s the end of August so we’re clinging on to summer with those apricots, but looking forward to autumn with the plums. And it’s an undeniable fact that stone fruits and almond is a match made in heaven.

Weirdly, my sister doesn’t like almonds. Conveniently, she’s not here this weekend. HOLLA, ALMONDLICIOUS CAKE!

Madre and I adore almonds, and we adore having afternoon tea and cake together even more.

It was the day after I’d got home from my year abroad and I really wasn’t going to bake - too many boring adminny things to be done. But then the lure of the Aga, a well-stocked pantry and the available baking utensils (six months without an electric whisk nearly killed me) was too much to resist. Admin can wait till tomorrow, right?

As I’m sure many of you may have gathered, I’ve been really into my healthy baking of late. But when it comes to a nice sponge cake, there is no substitute for butter, sugar and white flour. That said, this cake is so full of ground almonds that you don’t actually use much flour.

It’s an almond-fest, I tell thee. We’ve got almond extract, ground almonds and flaked almonds going on, and it works a dream if you ask me.

Mama actually asked if I’d used marzipan and it really does taste like there’s marzipan lurking somewhere in that cakey goodness, but no.

The cake is beautifully moist throughout, but delightfully chewy at the edges and crunchy thanks to the almonds on top. The tart apricots add a wonderful zing and the subtle plums complement this beautifully. 

One thing I love about coming home is that there’s always an abundance of fruit. And currently, the Hosie household is overflowing with it. Our plum trees in the garden are dripping with juicy Victoria plums, so I thought I’d better put them to good use in a cake. What else is a gal to do, eh?

I also used eggs from our garden hens which gives my cake the rather bright yellow colour.

D’you know, you just can’t beat a good spongey cake, and I’ve really rather missed them on the year abroad. Over on the Continent they’re just not so into sponge cakes. Tragic, I know. 

Mama and I couldn’t wait to dig in so we cut the cake while it was still a little warm, and although it hadn’t fully firmed up in the middle, it was gorgeous. I’ll be honest, it probably could’ve done with a few more minutes in the oven, and my instructions in the recipe should make yours even better than mine. 

This cake is full of flavour, comforting and somehow makes me feel at home. 

Hope you love it as much as we do!

Recipe inspired by BBC Good Food's Raspberry Bakewell Cake.

Ingredients

140g unsalted butter, at room temperature

140g golden caster sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

100g self-raising flour

200g ground almonds

1 tsp almond extract

275g plums and apricots, cut into quarters (I used 4 apricots and 3 plums)

2 tbsp flaked almonds

Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm round loose-bottomed cake tin. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the flour, ground almonds and almond extract. Mix until all incorporated but don't overmix - it will be a thick batter.

2. Spoon 3/4 of the mix into your tin and spread evenly. Layer the chopped fruit evenly on top.

Now the fun bit - using your fingers, smooth the rest of the mix on top of the fruit as best as you can, and sprinkle the ground almonds on top (don't worry, the cake will rise up in the oven and create a more even top.)

3. Bake in the oven for 50 -60 minutes, covering with foil if the top starts to look too dark (I did so after 25 minutes). The cake is done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack.

After a few minutes, go round the sides of the tin with a knife, and after about 10 minutes carefully remove the cake from the tin to cool fully on the wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve in big slices with big cups of tea and big grins.

Finishing my internship in Brussels and looking back on my year abroad as a whole.

I'm home. I don't mean my Brussels home, I mean home  home. Family home. And not just for the weekend or Easter before going back to my year abroad life, but for good.

My year abroad, is finished. Over. Ended. Done. I've lived in Germany and Belgium for the past 50 weeks... And now I don't any more.

It's a strange feeling actually - anticlimactic somehow - and I'm full of mixed emotions.

Of course, it's so lovely to be back in the house in which I grew up, in the British countryside, with my parents and the dogs, the Aga and my childhood bedroom.

Yummy Mama-made dinner left for me on top of the Aga. "7 vegetable pasta with mozzarella and pesto"

And I'm immensely looking forward to all the British foods I've missed so much: scones, baked beans, crumble and custard, curry, chip shop chips, tea, roast dinners, both Cadburys and Galaxy chocolate, Weetabix, Heinz tomato soup, Marmite...

Care packages were very welcome all year...

But of course I brought my own tea supplies. In bulk.

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there.

It's not just food though. Living away from the UK has made me really pick up on and appreciate what makes Britain Britain. I mean things like cricket and country pubs, pomp and pageantry, the ability to create a nationwide furore over a Baked Alaska being thrown in the bin on national television (#bingate.)
No-one else gets it.

I love Great Britain, truly, I do.

It was sad to finish my internship though. I've had a frightfully fantastic six months working for the BBC alongside amazing colleagues who were all incredibly kind, welcoming and friendly too.

Excitement on my first day...

And a selfie on my last day, of course

I'll be replaced with a new intern on Monday, but hopefully not forgotten quite so quickly.

I genuinely can't believe I've not only met but worked with so many talented, smart and respected journalists, all of whom I really admire. They all took the time to talk to and advise me too.





Not only that but I've had the opportunity to go out filming for news stories, do interviews (they don't call me the voxpop queen for nothing!) and even find, research and write my own feature for BBC News online, which is undoubtedly the hugest achievement of my internship.



It's been a lot of fun. Hard work, but fun. And not only have I learnt so much about journalism and the EU, but also (and forgive me because it's a cliché) a lot about myself and what I really want to do.

I suppose there's only one aspect of my time in Brussels which could have been better... My French improvement. Or lack thereof.

Yeah, considering the point of the year abroad is to improve your language fluency, I haven't done massively well in Brussels. This is largely because a) Brussels is so international and I swear you hear more English-with-an-accent than French, and b) I've been working predominantly with Brits all day every day.

But I don't regret it in the slightest. When I said yes to my internship offer I knew it wasn't going to be the best for my French, but I weighed up what was most important to me and I firmly believe I made the right choice. The work experience I've had is totally worth it.

I worked here for a bit too.

Living in Brussels has been slightly peculiar. It's been interesting, for sure, but I don't think I love the city. Not like I love Bavaria. But that's because I've had very different experiences in Germany and Belgium.

In Germany I was travelling round, dressing up in my Dirndl and occasionally teaching some English.

In Belgium, I've been working. Working a lot. Yes, I've travelled too (holla travel tab), but not in the same way.

I feel like I've left a part of my heart in Bayreuth (my home for the first six months of my year abroad), but I don't really feel that way about Brussels. Maybe because it's bigger. Or maybe because I've only just left.

Maybe when I look back in a few months I'll feel warm and fuzzy towards it like I do with Germany. We'll see.

Don't get me wrong, Brussels has been fine and different and nice and interesting, but I slightly feel like I've missed out on the French experience.

Brussels' Grand Place

Belgium isn't France, people. But then again obviously everyone who went to France missed out on waffles and chocolate and frites so who's the real winner here? (My waistline.)

But again, skipping French-ness was a sacrifice I knew I was making in coming to Brussels for my internship. And it was still worth it.

(Seriously, not a day went by when I didn't think "OMG am I really working for BBC News?!" The amazement did not wear off.)

Before my year abroad, I la la laaaaaved French. I was all about the French. How could you not love French?

When it came to German I was a bit more, well, meh. I didn't dislike it as a language, but I didn't love it. I'd started German from scratch at uni, and it was bloody hard. Trust.

Upon hearing French, I would smile and swoon a little. With German, well, just meh.

Oh, what a difference a year makes!

Since leaving Germany, I may have become an even bigger Germanophile than I was when I was there! Any time I hear someone speaking German I (internally) go "OMG GERMAN OMG I LOVE GERMAN!" I even get excited upon seeing a German number plate on a car. And if it's one from Bavaria, well, I can barely stop myself falling over with excitement.

And with French? Well, I wouldn't say meh, but I'm less infatuated, put it that way. Maybe it's because I have actually been hearing it around me for the past six months, and maybe that inner swooning sensation will come back in a few weeks.

It's strange how the year abroad had changed me. It definitely has, but I'm not sure I realise quite how much yet.

Just like everyone said I would, I've definitely grown up.

When I think back to this time last year and the nervous girl I was, about to be plunged into the complete unknown... I realise that I'm now much stronger. I hope so, at least.

This was the first night of my year abroad. Keep calm and drink tea.

And that's why I think a year abroad is such a great thing to do. You're forced out of your comfort zone which is always hard but always good for you.

It's all cliché but it's all undeniably true: I've broadened my horizons, learnt about myself and grown up.

I feel weird. I don't feel overly happy or overly sad. What I do feel is tired. I think it's going to take some time for everything to sink in and for me to realise what I feel.

Similarly, I imagine going back to Bristol for final year is going to be a bit weird. The city will have changed, and so have all we returning year abroaders.

From a year of travel and working life, I'm going back to studying. It's going to be lectures and libraries, essays and exams, seminars and study groups. A far cry from how I've spent the past 50 weeks. (Well, year abroad essays aside.)

All that said, I really am looking forward to going back to Bristol and one final year of student life. I love that city, and even though I'll be one of the older students on campus, I think I'll appreciate the perks of uni life.

In classic me fashion I'm already stressed about how much I have on my plate and how I'm going to balance the jobs I've got with my degree AND attempting to have a social life, but let's not think about all that just yet, yeah? And I've also realised recently that I thrive on being busy.

Another outcome of this year is that I have totally and completely caught the travel bug. I never imagined I'd travel as much as I have done, and I am so thrilled that I did. In fact, how much I've travelled has really made my year abroad.

Heidelberg

Prague

Salzburg

Venice

I have so many fantastic memories to enjoy, tales to tell and snaps to savour, and all I want to do is go and see more of the world. I want to explore new places, experience different cultures and visit the wonders of the world.

As well as travelling round Europe, I've made some fantastic friends - I really think a lot of them will be friends for life too. I hope so anyway. It's been a year of people and places, both absolutely awesome.

Charlotte and me in Wuerzburg

Emily, me and Emma in Bayreuth

Me and Sofia at the end of our European Elections all-nighter in the European Parliament in Brussels

I've realised that what I absolutely love doing is travelling to different places and meeting interesting people, and the fact that some people (journos, whaddup) get PAID to do that as their JOB makes me feel even more certain on my chosen career path.

It would be a real challenge to pick my favourite place of everywhere I've been over my year abroad, and it'd take a lot of thinking.

One thing I can say with absolute certainty, however, is that this has been, undoubtedly, the BEST YEAR OF MY LIFE thus far. Just like everyone said it would be.

I've particularly loved writing my blog over this year abroad, I hope you've enjoyed following my adventures and I hope you stick with me as I enter a new phase of my life

Rachel, out. xoxo

Click here to vote Handbags and Cupcakes for "Best Lifestyle Blog" in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2014... Pretty pretty please!

30 reasons to absolutely love autumn

[pic from autumncozy.tumblr.com]

Geez I almost said 'fall' there. I’ve been spending too much time reading American blogs. No, not fall, autumn.

Autumn is without a doubt my favourite season of them all. I love it. So much so that I’ve made this glorious list of my fave things about the season.

[pic from Elite Daily]

Don’t get me wrong, I like summer too, and I reeeaaaally love heat. I hate being cold actually, but autumn shouldn’t really be freezing now, should it?

[See my joy?]

My autumn love may have something to do with the fact that September is my birthday month, and I’m a big birthday lover. Actually I’m just a celebration lover, hence: I love autumn.

September = my birthday. October = Halloween. November = Bonfire Night. And December? Well, let’s not get me started on Christmas. All in good time, my dears.

The combination of my birthday and back-to-school means September will always feel like a fresh start for me. It’s like a new year being born out of the sticky summer heat. OK maybe not in the UK or Belgium, but I am reliably told summer does get hot in some parts of the world.

Pic from Buzzfeed

Bright green leaves are nice, for sure, but the multi-coloured vibrancy of the trees in autumn is clearly superior in my opinion.

As the summer winds up and September approaches, I can’t help but feel tingly with excitement at the prospect of what’s about to come. So here are the things I love most about autumn, and why I think it’s the best season of them all:

[pic from Starbucks]

1. Pumpkin-spiced lattes

2. Cinnamon-spiced anything

3. Tweed blazers

4. Honey-roast parsnips and carrots

[pic from loveandzest.com]

5. Roast dinners in general, swimming in gravy

6. Board games when it’s raining

7. Apple and blackberry picking

8. Apple and blackberry crumble, with lashings of custard

[pic from taste.com.au]

9. Golden, brown, orange and auburn leaves

10. Playing “catch the leaves” as they fall

11. Stepping on a satisfyingly crunchy leaf

12. Swooshing through leaves as they cover the ground

13. Finding shiny conkers

14. The crispness of the air

15. Steaming mugs of hot chocolate and bowls of creamy porridge

16. Oversized, chunky cable-knit jumpers

[pic from New Look]

17. Ankle boots

18. Knee-high boots

19. Hedgehogs

20. Wrapping up in a scarf

[pic from Hannah Harkness' Pinterest]

21. Not having to exfoliate, shave and moisturise all.the.time.

22. Smooth, warming vegetable soups

23. Hearty stews

24. Hot apple cider

25. Countryside walks

26. Hot water bottles

27. Blankets

28. Toffee apples

[pic from Alexis Merritt-Harding's Pinterest]

29. Fireworks

30. The fact that Christmas is next!


Do you share my autumn love? What are your fave things about the season?

Click here to vote Handbags and Cupcakes for "Best Lifestyle Blog" in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2014... Pretty pretty please!