Banana and ginger tea bread and a trip to Camden Market.

Morning everyone,

Today we move on to the second section in the mammoth book, a Practical Encyclopedia of Baking; Buns and Tea Breads.  I love tea breads, cake like and bread like what's not to like and there was plenty to choose between. I wanted something a little different and not too laborious, so I chose Banana and Ginger Tea Bread. Primarily because you crumb the flour and margarine, and yes it does actually ask for marg not butter, so much easier. I love the feeling of crumbing flour and fat, pastries, crumbles so many lovely uses. I find it really relaxing and almost therapeutic, give it a go if you're feeling stressed.

And the second reason for this recipe, it used stem ginger rather than ginger powder, I thought that might be nice for a change.  Now I actually followed this recipe exactly, mainly as I actually had all the ingredients to hand so I didn't need to change anything, you see I'm not always a rebel only when it's needed.

I had treated myself to some rectangle shaped baking papers or loaf tin cake papers as they are properly called, and I was determined to use one too, so it wasn't going to be a bun day, although, maybe later, it's only 10 and already finished the tea bread. Anyway lining looks a little off maybe, well I bought 2 pound liners, it was the only size in the shop and I never even thought about size at the time.  Well the recipe was for a 1 pound loaf and consequently a smaller tin.  One thing I have learnt is that you can't just put it in the bigger tin and think it will be alright. It wont. It will be flat and burnt or it was in my case.  So still determined to use my liner I squashed it into a 1 lb tin, so it looks a little messy, it will still taste the same and come out of the tin easily.  By the way I couldn't just double the ingredients as I didn't have enough banana and it might have tasted horrid so we would have had too much of a bad thing.

As it turns out though a nice little loaf, quite tasty and good and moist. Yes thumbs up, I'll make this again.

Camden, 

what can I say memories from my teens and early twenties of an exciting, vibrant place, so much better than anything we had here in Birmingham.  Well it may still be all those things, but having spent three hours walking around the wonders of the V&A, I have to say I wasn't at my best for it.  I was a little disappointed. My ideas of find little vintage shops who might be interested in selling my hats didn't really last long.  The only few properly vintage and by that I mean 30s, 40s and 50s, were closed on Tuesdays, and the rest all seemed to be 80s and 90s with the resemblance of jumble sales.  That may be a tad harsh, I was really tired.  There were a number of interesting steampunk places (I have a little hankering for steampunk and love a good corset, but the music just isn't my cup of tea.), but I hadn't taken down anything suitable for that ilk.  But it was still fun, the horse statues were really impressive and the little nooks and crannies were so inviting.  The sun shone down on us and as a bonus, I found it very easy to resist buying anything, something that I thought I would want to do. In hindsight, don't go after the museum and don't go on a Tuesday, although less people, so that was better. 

But I now have a clearer idea of where to go with this hat making business, so it certainly wasn't a lost day on the millinery front either. I intend to concentrate on internet sales and wedding shops, with the odd vintage fair thrown in. There are so many people into vintage at the moment that there really must be a market for reproduction hats too. After all someone did stop me in the museum with a very complimentary comment on my hat.

Oh and we had a lovely lunch in such a quaint little place, can't remember the name though. All in all, next time Dr. J. goes on a work trip, think I'll tag along.

well that's all folk, next week ...... berrets, I just got a lovely vintage pattern I want to try out.

have a good weekend all.

ally x