Elsa Birthday Cake

I made this cake for Poppy's 5th birthday.  I think we'd done a similar doll cake before, but no photos exist to convict the guilty.

First make the cakes and cut the tops and sides off.  Bottom two are 7" round, with 3 egg/190g, top was a 2l bowl, 4 egg/250g.

Cut down to size, lots of cake to keep the troops marching.

I was relying on the buttercream to get enough height, cutting each layer in half to be able to add more icing between each layer.

Made up 1kg buttercream, some left over.

Made a stand out of the roll out icing at the bottom of the hole, her feet stuck into that to get the height right, and more stability - the icing padding didn't quite add enough height to the cake. Rolled out 1kg pre-coloured icing, ended up discarding a third, but wouldn't really want to place it on with less. The 'ribbon belt' covered up the top which wasn't so neat.  This was made with an off-cut of the blue icing.

Grace did all the decorating, full credit to her for taking the time and creativity. All the skirt is decorated, with different designs on the sides and back.

Lesson 7: Pâte à Linzer / Mon Linzer

We had guests for this dinner, and like a fool I tried something new.  I can't now remember who it was, so apologies if it was you...

The pastry was fine, although I think I ran out before having excess to put a lattice over the top.

Now with the jam inside.  I thought I'd followed the guidelines, but I don't think the jams were boiled hot enough to be able to set properly.

As a result, it looked basically fine, but cutting into it made the jam just leak everywhere rather than actually going with the portion.  Tasted okay, if you could use a spoon...

Notes for next time

• Treat the jam like jam and use a jam thermometer to make sure it's cooked hot enough to set.  I've no idea whether this will be sufficient, but it stands a better chance...
• Make sure the pastry has enough left over for the topping.

Lesson 3: Pâte Brisée Fondante / Tarte aux Fruits Rouges-Pistache

Cooked for the Brookings who came round for dinner last night.  Very straight forward.

Pastry made and pricked

Filled almost to the brim

After cooking, around 45min @180

Cooled and served

Notes for next time

• Warming the milk before adding to the pastry is very useful
• Mixing the pastry in the kitchenaid worked well, all stuck to the beater when combined
• Chilled the pastry overnight in the fridge, took out of the fridge and left at room temperature an hour or two before using, and it was no problem to roll out
• Pistachios left whole, assumed this was correct and seemed to give the right effect - variety of taste, rather than just flavouring
• Added slightly more fruit than stated, but with the filling it was very full!
• The mixture rose, but settled when cooling to match the height of the pastry
• Fruit rose to the top when cooking, leaving a layer of filling below

Green Crag

We were leaving this day, and had a shorter walk planned which had the excuse of driving over Hardknott Pass.  However, on getting to the start of the pass we discovered that some bright spark had parked on one of the hairpin bends and left their car leaving around a foot too narrow a gap for cars to get past.  By the time we got there a police car was there as well, parked more considerately, but people were having to turn around.  Given that trying to get past would mean putting a wheel over the edge onto a narrow strip of mud, and that beyond this mud was a very steep drop, we agreed that this was the best course of action.

So we came back along the valley and turned south but I knew there was a possible, if slightly easy, walk that we could do.  I'd also scouted out potential parking places by the side of the road the week before - google streetview is great - so knew there was a place to stop.  So we parked, and set out sights on the distant pile of rocks.

Difficulty: 2

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (12), Grace (10), Evie (7), Poppy (4 1/2)

12:08, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (260)

13:33, 3.3km 1h24 259m, Green Crag (489)

15:14, 6.8km 3h06 312m, End (261)

What I hadn't foreseen was that between us and the rocks was around 2 miles of bog.  Yes there were parts that were actual streams, and there were some parts that were a bit drier, but the direct route we took got a little damp at times.  Nothing disastrous, but I look at the map now and wonder if the path marks to the south east would have been a better choice.

Still, nice weather, not much wind, and a complete absence of snow.  And a bit of potential rock climbing, depending on which route you chose to the top.  Here Grace and Evie are looking for their best options upwards.

Grace makes it to the top for a well earned lunch,

For most of this walk Caroline was on Poppy duty, so the rest of us got nice breaks while we waited for then to catch up.  After spending the previous day not letting anyone get more than a few meters away for fear we'd lose them, this was quite a welcome relief.  After all, we were going to close enough to each other on the drive back to Birmingham later on.

Lingmell (not Scafell)

So we set off with high hopes of a high walk - know that Scafell Pike was reachable from the house was too good an opportunity to miss.  We were even keen enough to walk from the house, this time knowing there was going to be enough uphill to actually quite looking forward to the flat start and end to mix it up.  In the end it wasn't to be, much to our disappointment. 

Difficulty: 5

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (12), Grace (10), Evie (7), Poppy (4 1/2)

11:14, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (110)

15:20, 7.1km 4h05 782m, Lingmell (807)

18:19, 13.9km 7h05 891m, End (117)

Despite some high cloud and the remains of the snow fall from yesterday, it was quite a pleasant day.  Quite a straightforward climb but fairly hard work up Lingmell Gill.

We stopped for lunch in Hollow Stones, really quite a weird place with huge boulders strewn about everywhere.

As we climbed up further the weather got predictably worse, and visibility of the path was pretty bad.  It was one of those walks where I was glad to have a satnav as well as paper maps.  Getting to Lingmell Col I made the call that we weren't going up to Scafell Pike that day, but we'd settle for Lingmell instead - saving 180m of climbing in pretty horrible conditions.  Perhaps we should have pushed on, but I guess I was trying to save the occasion of getting to the highest mountain to conditions where we could properly enjoy being at the top.

Still, making the top of Lingmell wasn't trivial, but we made it.

Not much view to speak of though, at the top or on the way down.

Kirk Fell

This was a walk that I wasn't at all sure that we could do, given it was significantly higher up for Poppy, not exactly short, and the weather still wasn't great.  Still, we could always chicken out of doing the high section.  Well, I say that, but know that it takes quite a lot to turn back when you're that close...

Difficulty: 5

Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (12), Grace (10), Evie (7), Poppy (4 1/2)

10:45, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (77)

16:17, 9.2km 5h32 910m, Kirk Fell (802)

18:37, 14.2km 7h52 927m, End (77)

Since we knew this was a long way, we opted for driving a couple of miles up the valley to the car park, feeling slightly lazy despite the sense.  We were now walking up the valley that Isabelle had been so entranced by, looking down on from the walk on Yewbarrow.  Here's Poppy doing her best 'Where's Wally?' moment. 

After the walking up Black Sail Pass, we tried to find some shelter from the wind to eat lunch, finding a little underneath a rocky outcrop on the direct path to the top of Kirk Fell.  It had already rained and snowed a few times by now, but held off for a quite bite to eat.  It definitely pays off to be flexible about when, where and how much lunch to eat...  Deciding that the direct route to the top wasn't going to be our preferred option, we instead decided to walk further around the base of Kirk Fell, knowing that there was the option of the path up the back.

The snow showers continued, leaving us and everything covered in snow.  Far preferably to rain, just dusting off afterwards.

We made it Beckhead Tarn, the saddle point between Kirk Fell and Great Gable, and for some reason all the kids thought this would be a great time to try and practice stone skimming.  Well, I suspect Isabelle was far too sensible for that...  We paused long enough for the snow to clear, and (I think cheered on by Caroline) we decided to climb up to Kirk Fell.

This shot just 5 minutes later shows the changeable weather, and by this point we were firmly striking up the path, Evie just stopping to relax and show off.

Evie just had time to relax and show off her balancing skills.  I think this this Beckhead Tarn where we were earlier in the middle of the picture, with (left to right) Brandreth, Green Gable and Great Gable in the background

Finally we made it to the top, after quite large bog negotiation, and were really glad of the shelter of the cairn right at the top.  It was the kind of wind where standing up was really quite hard work.   Grace made a snowman up there, left admiring the view of Wast Water in the distance.

We then walked back down the same path, since it was at least on the sheltered side of the fell side, and then continued around to complete our circumnavigation of Kirk Fell.  The weather had improved a little by then, and the whole way down was glorious grassy paths and beautiful views.

Hard Knott in the snow

The forecast promised more bad weather, and after the previous day journey around Wast Water in the cloud we weren't immediately keen on another long walk.  So we planned to visit Hardknott Fort and then, assuming the weather wasn't too horrible, to make a shorter trip from the pass up to Hard Knott itself.

Difficulty: 1
Walkers: Tim, Caroline, Isabelle (12), Grace (10), Evie (7), Poppy (4 1/2)
14:47, 0.0km 0h00 0m, Start (392)
15:25, 1.3km 0h37 155m, Hard Knott (549)
15:58, 2.5km 1h10 160m, End (392)

So the first objective was to visit the Roman Fort at the west end of the pass.  It was really quite impressive - thinking of the perseverance of building a large site in this location, although you did wonder just how creative or faithful the various rebuilding was.

Emboldened by the conditions and the thought of an short work we drove a little way further up the pass, found the right spot to leave the car, and headed up the slope.  It really was only a modest walk, but was made more interesting by the snow and wind.  Apart from trying minimise the depth of any bog walked through, sometimes incurring large diversions from the obvious route, I think the real fun of this walk came on the way down, where we got split up - I had most of the girls with me, and Caroline had taken an alternative path down with at least one of them.  We had quite a fun time (not) making sure that we didn't lose anyone else in the bad visibility, but did manage to find them a little further down the path.  Still, another peak knocked off, and a welcome shelter to get back to the car and finally back to the house after tackling the downhill section of the Hardknott Pass.