We currently rent a very small two bedroom house but have purchased a three bedroom with so much more space - I cannot wait to start decorating. The only issue is that as we rent we have had to buy all our white goods in advance and find somewhere to store them. Initially we were going to buy online and have them delivered to the new house the day after we moved in but then Mr T is not one to let a bargain slip buy so two eBay and a Curry's purchase later and we have 2 undercounter fridges, a washing machine and a dishwasher stored in our kitchen. The chest freezer is getting delivered next week and I have no idea where it is going! Along with all of this we also have the carpet and underlay sat in our lounge for not one room but three bedrooms, the playroom and the staircase!! Then there is the wooden flooring to go down in the kitchen that is currently sat on top of the sideboard and the vinyl for the bathroom arrived this week too. Personally I would have waited to order new carpets and flooring but Mr T likes to get everything done yesterday while I would happily take my time over it.

So we have all this crammed into our little house with a baby that has just started crawling and pulling himself up to standing on every single thing (while trying to give me heart failure in the process) and we are trying to pack to so there are boxes everywhere! Thankfully we had already booked to go away this weekend with friends, it will be nice to escape it all before chaos descends next week!

Mr T is getting a tad stressed but oddly I'm being quite calm. I decided to escape the madness this evening and while Ethan is asleep I decided to write a blog post and share a delicious Lemon Drizzle traybake recipe with you all.

I actually made this at the back end of the summer holidays but with the weather so grey and dreary it's nice to look back at a sunshine bake to remind me of the warmer days.

I took this recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible (such a good book!) and tweaked it slightly to add the icing glaze. As the saying goes "if it ain't broke why fix it" and I find most of Mary Berry's recipes work great and rarely need changing.

Lemon Drizzle Traybake

225g Stork
225g caster sugar
275g SR flour
2tsp baking powder
4 eggs
4 tbsp milk
grated zest of 2 lemons

• Preheat the oven to 140C (fan)
• Grease and line a 30 x 23cm cake tin
• Using the all in one method pop all the ingredients in the bowl and mix until well combined
• Pour into the tin and bake for 35-40mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean
• Place on a wire rack to cool

100g icing sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 3 lemons

175g granulated sugar

• Mix the icing sugar with some lemon juice until you have a thick and pipeable consistency
• Transfer to a piping bag for later
• While the cake is still warm mix the remaining lemon juice with the sugar and pour over the cake
• Once cool drizzle over the lemon icing and scatter with the lemon zest

Enjoy!

I am in such an odd mood today. I don't know what's wrong with me but the house doesn't feel clean enough, I'm very unsettled and I can't seem to focus my attention to anything for more than 10 minutes. 

I'm wondering is it a sign that baby is on the way. I was getting a lot of cramps last night and a bath didn't give me much ease but they tailed off before bed and bar a few that woke me in the night I haven't really had any today yet.

We did get a minor fright at my 38 week Midwife check yesterday when she couldn't tell if baby was head down or not so we were sent off to Harrogate for a quick scan (and by quick I mean quick!). We were in and out of that room in under a minute as they just squeezed us in between appointments. Thankfully baby's head is fully engaged so now it's just a waiting game to see when he will arrive.

In the meantime I'm trying to distract my easily distracted mind by keeping myself busy. Yesterday I cleared out the big camera and realised I hadn't blogged about this Lemon Meringue Cake that I made for my baby shower two weeks ago.

I was sent some Mercers Lemon Cheese Curd and some Red Onion Marmalade from the folks at the BBC Good Food Show and decided my baby shower was a perfect excuse to try out the lemon curd in a cake.

***Lemon curd was send for review but all thoughts are my own.***

• Preheat the oven to 160C (fan)

• Grease and line a loaf tin.

• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

• Alternate adding the flour and eggs until well combined.

• Fold in the lemon zest.

• Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the oven for 45-50mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

• Tip onto a wire rack to cool.

• Stir the lemon juice into the icing sugar until smooth but with a thick pouring consistency.

• Pour into a piping bag and using a zig zag motion decorate the top of the cake.

• Scatter over the blueberries and dust with icing sugar and any remaining lemon zest.