National Trust Baking Challenge

I remember spending hours complaining as my brother and I were dragged round National Trust properties by our parents when we were children and having spoken to my husband it seams we are not the only ones. Fast forward 20 years and we are now members of the National Trust and have started taking our little boy along to National Trust properties. Although we have not yet tried to take him inside as I don't think the beautiful old furniture and items could cope with our very inquisitive 3 year old climbing on them and picking things up!

About 2 years ago I picked up this book in a NT gift shop and thought that it was a book I would use on a weekly basis and HAD to buy it.

So far it has sat on my ever-growing cookbook book case (yes I have a book case just for cookbooks and yes it is almost full) and I can not remember making any recipes out of it.    

Yesterday I got one of my regular emails from the Food Network with a link entitled "21 Cakes That Should Be Illegal" so I had to click on it and found this amazing cake 

http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/recipes/gingerbread-layer-cake-raspberries-and-lemon-buttercream.html 

Having looked at the American recipe and not knowing where I could get hold of Molasses and Maple Syrup in the middle of nowhere in Somerset I decided to find another option as I have to make this cake this weekend. I found a recipe for a ginger cake on another website which had orange icing and an idea started forming in my mind. 

This morning in between making a packed lunch, getting a 3 year old dressed and ready for pre school I managed to find a couple of minutes to think about the cake and wondered if I had any recipes in any of my cookbooks. I found this one,

and will be adapting it to make the cake and will be adding orange buttercream icing. I then started flicking through the book and found lots more fantastic recipes I want to try. So I have decided to give myself the challenge of making one recipe from this book each week for the next 6 weeks. I will let you all know how I get on starting with the Gingerbread with orange icing.