With wet, grey days and chilly, dark evenings – autumn is now in full swing. These 4 Easy Autumnal Bakes will make your house smell wonderful and cheer you up when the weather outside is miserable! Plus find the linky for #CookBlogShare Week 44.
Productive Blogging LIVE!
Well, this last month has been a REALLY GOOD one with not ONE but TWO big events!
The first was Productive Blogging LIVE – my first foray into the world of blog conferences. I’ve been talking about and planning this event for months and at the beginning of this month it finally took place and it was amazing! It went even better than I had dared to hope.
It was well attended, by bloggers from all over the country and it was a lot of fun to catch up with old friends, meet bloggers I’d never actually met before in real life, as well as make new friends too.
I led three sessions on keyword research, email marketing and productivity, while Mandy Mazliah (of Sneaky Veg and Cook Veggielicious and a previous #CookBlogShare host) looked after all the food, cooking up an amazing mezze feast for lunch and a vast array of delicious baked goods for breakfast, pudding and mid-afternoon treats!
We were absolutely bowled over by all the lovely comments we received in the feedback afterwards and can’t wait to get started on planning the next one.
A big birthday
The other big event this month was my 40th birthday! To celebrate, hubby and I, plus our two kids, spent a long weekend in Bath – a place dear to our hearts as Mr G and I first met as students in Bath (over 20 years ago!). We had a wonderful time, mostly eating and visiting all the tourist sights, but we also went back to the university so we could show the kids where we lived and where we first met. It was a wonderful way to celebrate and, I must confess, I really didn’t want to go home!
On my blogs…
Amazingly, among all the event planning and birthday celebrations I have also managed to create a couple of new recipes for Easy Peasy Foodie. This month I have shared recipes for my Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese and my Easy One Pot Sausage Casserole.
Over on Productive Blogging I have also been busy, sharing articles on:
- How to write blog posts faster
- How to get a good readability score in Yoast (and why you really want to!)
- Daily, weekly and monthly blogging to do lists
- How to create an opt-in offer for your blog
4 Easy Autumnal Bakes
With wet, grey days and chilly, dark evenings – autumn is now in full swing. When the weather is miserable outside, I like to cheer myself up by getting in the kitchen and cooking up comforting food. So it’s no surprise that the recipes that caught my eye in last week’s CookBlogShare were autumnal bakes. Deliciously warming cakes and tarts all bursting with autumnal flavours such as spiced apples, rich gingerbread, ripe figs, crunchy walnuts and earthy beetroot…
Spiced Caramel Apple Bundt Cake
First up we have this gorgeous Spiced Caramel Apple Bundt Cake from Kat at The Baking Explorer, which is absolutely jam packed with the flavours of autumn – apples, cinnamon, mixed spice and nutmeg. The cake is then drizzled with lashings of caramel and decorated with slices of dried apple. As Kat says, this delicious cake is sure to warm you up on a cold night!
Gingerbread Loaf
Next is an autumn classic – gingerbread! This Gingerbread Loaf by Taste Botanical is dark, moist and sticky, with a treacly sweetness and a hint of spice. Apparently, it’s also very easy to make and results in very little washing up – now that’s my kind of cake! Better still, if you wrap the cooled cake in foil, it will keep for at least a week and actually improves if it is kept, as it will become stickier and the flavours will deepen. That’s if you can bear to wait that long!
Fig and Almond Traybake
Next up is another tasty but simple bake – this gorgeous Fig and Almond Traybake from Cat at Curly’s Cooking. This wonderful autumnal bake makes the most of delicious figs while they are in season. I love how easy this cake is to make – but so pretty! And figs and almonds are such a great combination. So, if you still have some figs and are wondering what to do with them… well now you know!
Beetroot, Walnut and Rosemary Tarte Tatin
And finally, we come to this week’s only savoury bake – this showstopping Beetroot, Walnut and Rosemary Tarte Tatin from Jacqui at Only Crumbs Remain. A tarte tatin is traditionally a sweet bake, make with apples, caramel and puff pastry. However, Jacqui has used earthy beetroots and crunchy walnuts to create a savoury twist on this dessert classic. I especially love how she has swapped the traditional puff pastry for a rich shortcrust made with walnuts and that she has added rosemary into the flavour mix. This can be served hot or cold and, as Jacqui says, it would make a great dinner party dish!
#CookBlogShare2019 Week 44
And so we come to this week’s linky. You can link up any foodie post that you have – both old and new posts are welcome. All you need to do is:
- Link up a recipe or foodie post by clicking the blue ‘add your link’ button below and following the instructions (maximum of 4, please).
- Add a link from your post back to this post (so everyone else can find it and link up too!) and / or add the #CookBlogShare badge to your post (you can find the code below).
- Comment on one of the host’s posts and a minimum of 2 other posts linked up here, and generally share the love with a bit of social media action!
If you wish, you can tweet a link to your recipe to me @easypeasyfoodie and also (if you have room on the tweet!) my co-hosts Jacqui @recipecrumbs and Monika @monikasecipes, using the #CookBlogShare hashtag and we will retweet them. You can also post your recipe on the Cook Blog Share Facebook Page.
Need some help on Instagram? You and me both…so let’s help each other! Whenever you post to Instagram, use the #CookBlogShare hashtag, then quickly hop over to the #CookBlogShare feed, liking as many as you can and commenting on any that particularly catch your eye. Not a big job at all, but if we all do it, it would make a BIG difference!!
I will comment on a selection of my favourite posts this week and pin them to the Cook Blog Share Pinterest Board. I can’t wait to see what you’ve all been making!
Just to remind you, by joining in, you are giving the #CookBlogShare hosts permission to use your pictures in a round up and on social media, if your recipe is selected as one of our favourites!
The next #CookBlogShare will be hosted by Jacqui at Recipes Made Easy 🙂
Pin 4 Easy Autumnal Bakes for later
Monika Dabrowski says
What a gorgeous collection, we have amazing bakers in our group. I’ve shared the link to the group, hope you don’t mind.
Eb Gargano says
Indeed we do! Yes that’s fine… I am away visiting family at the moment so have only just had a chance to sit down in front of my computer 😀 Eb x
Choclette says
Ooh, I could dive into any one of those Autumn bakes – they all have my name written on them. Really enjoyed the Productive Blogging event earlier this month, so it was good to be reminded with these photos. Glad to hear you had such a good Birthday getaway too. I have a few good friends who went to Bath uni, a couple of which got married there too.
Eb Gargano says
I know, me too – they are all very good! Aw, I am so pleased you had a good time at PBL. It was a lot of fun hosting it too! Eb x
Lou Gunstone says
Nice collection… keen to give them a go and make the teenagers happy 🙂
ps. Happy belated bday!
Eb Gargano says
Thanks, Lou! Eb x
Michelle Rolfe says
Its me on a photo! It was so great to get to meet everyone at the PB Live event! To be able to put faces to names and get to talk outwith the space of the internet was great, new friends made and others reinforced. Great round up of bakes, I think this has to be my favourite time of year for food and baking. Cheers, Michelle x
Eb Gargano says
Aw, thanks Michelle – so pleased you had such a good time at PBL – it’s so lovely to meet up with fellow bloggers IRL, isn’t it? Eb x
Cat | Curly's Cooking says
Hope you had a lovely birthday 🙂 Thank you for including my Fig & Almond Traybake alongside the other delicious looking bakes!
Eb Gargano says
Thank you – it was wonderful… although now if feels a long time ago! And a total pleasure to include your traybake – I love the flavour combo (and how easy it is!) Eb x
Jacqui Bellefontaine says
Thank you for including my beetroot bake in this lovely collection of autumn baking. Wow what a month you have had. The Productive blogging live was a great event. Apart from learning tons I also got to meet some of the great productive blogging comuunity which was Fab. Can’t wait for you to do another one I would thoroughly recommend it to any blogger new or not so new.
Eb Gargano says
Aw, thanks Jacqui. I’m so pleased you enjoyed it! Eb x