Let them eat cake

Today was kitchen kind of day for me.  Faced with an overwhelming amount of housework, I decided to do what any sane person would do.  I retreated to the kitchen and baked.
I was tempted by these beautiful red plums in my local greengrocer's:

so scoured my (rather large) selection of recipe books for a plum-related recipe.  Jamie came up trumps with crumble-stuffed plums.  Anything that calls for these bad boys:

is good in my books!

Bashing up the seeds from these little cardamom pods filled the kitchen with the most amazing smell.  Yum.

That's pudding sorted, then.

I also badly felt the need for lemon cake.  I have discovered Mary Berry's crunchy-topped lemon cake from her Baking Bible (a lovely birthday present in January) and the whole family is now completely addicted.

Tragically, I broke the Number One Rule of baking, whilst I was cooking this cake.  Yes, dear reader, I o-p-e-n-e-d t-h-e o-v-e-n...  That one second mistake turned my beautifully risen, golden cakey delight into a slightly sad little concave baked item.  Sob sob. 

But hey, it didn't stop me eating it, no siree:

After today, the house may well disappear under a cloud of dust, but at least we won't starve.  x