Girl In The Pretty Dress

Christmas is possibly my favourite time of year. For me it all kicks off around mid-November with a visit to the Chatsworth Christmas Markets. We all pile into a car (including the dogs) and take the scenic route into the Peak District.  If you love period dramas as much as I do you'll probably recognise the house ...  It's perhaps most famous for playing 'Pemberley' in the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (starring Keira Knightley) We always start our day out either touring the house or exploring the estate. The house is themed differently each Christmas and this year's theme is Great Expectations .  However, on the day we visited the weather was too glorious to spend the morning indoors so we ventured out onto the estate... Where we attempted to tire this little rascal out... We climbed up the hill through the ever changing Autumn colours until we reached the folly... Where we stopped for a while to enjoy t...

Technically , Stir-Up Sunday was last weekend - the 24th November - but as my laptop has gone to the great scrapyard in the sky *sob* this is the first chance I've had to borrow one and start posting again… For those of you who haven't heard of 'Stir Up Sunday' before, it's an old English tradition (and one we follow religiously in our family.) It basically refers to the Sunday that falls a month before Christmas. The idea is that you put aside this day to complete all your pre-christmas baking - thereby allowing a month for your cake and puddings to 'mature'. On this day everyone who's present can 'stir' the mixture and make a wish… This year will be the first time the responsibility of the cake has fallen to me, and sticking with tradition, I'm following our family recipe… Tools of the trade: Mixing Bowl (x2)  Cake Tin (20.5cm Square - though anything about that size will do) Baking Parchment Wooden spoon/spatula Ingredients: 400g ...