Tarn Howes

After the excitement of Cat Bells the previous day, we decided on a much more straight forward walk, a lot closer to where we were staying on Coniston Water.  Evie did do a fair amount of walking, but also spent time in the pushchair.

Difficulty: 1

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (7), Grace (5)

0.0km 0m, Start (212)

2.6km 32m, End (201)

I say time 'in' the pushchair, well, she was only trying to be helpful.

Isabelle and Grace, contemplating ducks, water, who know...

It wasn't much after this that one of these three delightful children 'accidentally' pushed one of their siblings off this hillock.  

Catbells and Castlerigg

We were staying for the week at Bank Ground, on the shores of Coniston.  It's famous for being Holly Howe in Swallows and Amazons, the summer home of the Swallows, although we didn't get to stay in the actual farmhouse...

We started the week with Catbells, a great kids favourite for being not too long or too high but yet really impressive views and some great scrambling to get to the top.

Difficulty: 2

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (7), Grace (5)

0.0km 0m, Start (121)

1.5km 317m, Catbells (451)

5.4km 421m, End (164)

No gps route, so the distance & height will be a bit off.  We took between 2 and 3 hours for the round trip.

Evie started off walking, but fairly quickly wanted to be carried to the top.

Isabelle and Grace were loving it, 

The view back down the ridge we had climbed. 

When you're this size, this counts as rock climbing! 

Stopping for a well deserved lunch break at the top.

Caroline posing with a less than impressed Evie in the carrier. 

We then drove across to Castlerigg, to have a look (and to get up close and personal) with the stones.  

Grace being very happy, back when she would be happy having her picture taken.

Crinkle Crags

Another route that I've reconstructed from the photos.  I originally thought we'd done Esk Pike on this walk, but given the timing in the photos I'm pretty sure we went down from Ore Gap,

Walking out along the valley floor with most of the walk in sight.

Looking back after an hour or so.

Looking along the crags towards Bowfell.

Quite a dapper fellow.

Looking back from just before the first crinkle, with Pike O' Blisco on the left and Cold Pike near right.

Climbing up the first Crinkle.

We avoided the bad step to the second crinkle, pausing for lunch at the back before making our way up the top.

After making my way down the boulder field, this was the enticing view towards Bowfell. 

However, I needed to wait for Caroline first.  Here she is, coming down the same boulder field. 

Most of the way up Bowfell, looking back the ridge we had come up.

Top of Bowfell.

The way back down to Angle Tarn.

 And finally down via Rossett Gill. 

Coniston Old Man, still no view

Another route reconstructed from a record of the peaks we climbed and careful looking at the photos, we returned to the Old Man, three years after coming here on honeymoon, but with little more success at getting a view.

We took a different route up, following the road to the left first, rather than heading straight up to the workings.

Not looking too promising,

At Low Water, around the same cloud level as last time. 

Caroline going up to the top, I'd offered to help carrying her rucksack since I hadn't taken one for this walk. 

Me at the top.  I think the combination of green waterproof and pink rucksack look pretty dashing.

Some view!  We could even see down to Levers Water and the Lake!

The view going up to Swirl How.

Caroline, with Seathwaite Tarn in the background.

At the top of Swirl How, a little more view. 

Looking along the ridge towards Wetherlam.

Obviously enjoying the rocks on the way.

At Wetherlam.  Not looking impressed with the lack of view from here, as the cloud hadn't continued to lift.

We could see the Old Man on the left though, and Swirl How on the right.

But not much down towards Coniston and the lake. 

Levers Water on the way down.

Caroline, looking unimpressed with the view and her boots.

Stormtrooper Birthday Cake

I cooked this cake for Grace's 4th birthday, I did another version soon after which I took into work.

First cook 3 cakes.  Use a 1litre bowl, a 6in square tin and an 8in square tin. Use a madeira cake recipe, with 3 eggs for the bowl, 3 eggs for the 6in and 5 eggs for the 8in.

When cool, trim all the crust off the cakes, to get a hemisphere from the bowl cake, and flat tops from both square cakes.  Then stack the cakes, putting the 8in at the bottom, 6in in the middle, then the bowl cake at the top - hey presto, something that doesn't really look like a stormtrooper helmet.

Now you have to do some sculpting with a sharp knife to get the shape about right. The middle cake you can cut into more of a wedge shape, so the back of the helmet is lower than the front, and cut off the corners so it matches the shape of the bottom of the top cake.  The top cake you can pretty much leave as it is.  The bottom cake needs the most work.  Put the middle cake nearer the back of the bottom cake, so there is only a small overlap at the back.  Then the corners at the back need rounding off, as well a all the edges curving (including the edge between the cake and the cake board).  At the front of the bottom cake, you need to shape it how it should look. Both sides come in a little, and shape to make the circle shapes at the front on both sides.  Cut a small hole out of the middle of each circle.  The middle at the front should curve down at either side of the middle cake. This cutting stage took me around an hour.

Now make up 500g of buttercream icing.  First put some inbetween each cake, and then cover the whole cake up.  Now from the big piece you cut off the 8in cake to make the top flat, cut a piece of cake that makes the nose section.  Stick that onto the cake (the buttercream should be enough) and cover that with buttercream as well.  About another hour to do all this.

Now get 1kg of white fondant icing.  Roll out so that it will cover the whole cake and just about touch the cake board on all sides.  Place over the cake.  This took me ages as the icing I had needed a lot of work to get plyable, about another hour or so.

Now start arranging it so that it tucks into all the corners that you cut in the original cake.  Near the bottom cut the excess away, then work the rest together so that it doesn't bunch up so much.  I find a proper icing smoother (a bit like a plasters float, but much smaller) really good for getting all the finger marks off the icing.  This took another hour to look really good.

Now get some black fondant, and roll out and cut to shape.  Mix together white and black to get the grey sections, and use some of the rest of the excess to add the ear sections.  Some edible glue from a proper cake shop is great here, together with a really small child's paintbrush to paint the side of the icing you want to stick on. About two hours for this part.