Let's Eat Blog Hop

I came across a blog by Amy in Australia who was organising a blog hop for 24th October. This was for bloggers with a love of food to share a recipe internationally. I thought this suited me so well. I am always looking out for new recipes and am keen to try new ideas.

I love cooking. I have been cooking since I was a child. In particular I have always loved baking and making puddings. I have a sweet tooth and this is reflected in my cooking. I made the family's Christmas cake for the first time when I was seven. My after school hobby was baking. I would be most happy to get the oven on and get baking. My sister and I set up a cafe in a shed outside and pretended it was for paying customers. Only Mum and Dad came but we loved it.

In my adult life I continue to bake a lot. I am famous at work for baking. I often hold baking sales for charity. Last year for Children in Need I baked cupcake orders. People thought I was mad and at moments I did too but it was good fun and it worked out really well, making lots of money for the charity. In recent years I started making cupcakes. I have so many cupcakes books, sprinkles, colourings, piping sets and pretty paper cases. When I set up my blog just over a year ago it had to have cupcake mentioned in the title.

I also love making desserts. In summer I love making cheesecakes. Our traditional family cheesecake is creme de menthe. I am pregnant just now so can't have it. Now that in the UK the weather is turning colder I love to make a warm pudding. There is something comforting about the oven being on in the kitchen and the smell of the baking. To me that's how I best love my house. All of a sudden I am searching recipe books for seasonal pudding recipes. Last weekend I had bought some lovely plums and decided on a plum and maple syrup crumble. This is a recipe I would love to share with you. It's very easy to make, it contains fresh fruit and is really yummy.

Maple Plum Crumble

Serves 4

8 ripe plums, halved, stones removed

4 tbsp maple syrup
50g butter, cut into pieces
50 g plain flour
50g rolled oats
25g caster sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
25g flaked almonds

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Place the plum halves skin side down, in the base of a large heatproof dish. Drizzle over half the maple syrup and roast for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the butter, flour, oats, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and rub together until you have rough crumbs. Stir in the almonds. Sprinkle the crumble over the plums and drizzle with the remaining maple syrup.

Bake for 15 minutes more until the top is golden.

 Serve with custard or vanilla icecream.

This is a very simple pudding. It won't take you long to prepare or even bake but it is lovely on a colder evening.

Today I am making sticky toffee pudding so please hop back on here soon and you will see my recipe for it.

So as part of this blog hop, hop onto http://curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/. After looking at this blog I realised I went to Scrap a Mia with this lady earlier this year. It's amazing how small the scrapping world is and so may of us have cooking as a common interest too.

Thanks to Amy for arranging this fun foodie event.