Bad baking comes in threes/Holidays

So after the floppy flapjacks and the not-so-brilliant brownies, it was not surprising that my first attempt at making the wonderful Welsh tea bread 'bara brith' went badly too. I was inspired to make this bread when I read about blogging event, Sugar High Fridays, which is being hosted this month by Johanna from The Passionate Cook. This month the theme is 'going local'. Whilst I actually live in South-West London, I have spent a great deal of time in North Wales. Every summer, as a child, we would de-camp to our house up there and remain for the whole of August. As I have yet to come across any specialities peculiar to Battersea, I decided that North Wales would be a better bet. Plus I have lots of great food memories associated with the area - for me, eating bara brith is akin to Proust with his Madeleine.

Anyway, I shall say no more on this as I will post fully on my baking experience once complete. Attempt number one was going perfectly well until my dough totally failed to rise despite last night's warmth. Grrr. I threw it away, thinking that I had probably killed the yeast by adding it to liquid that was slightly to warm. Of course, when I looked in the bin this morning, it was beautifully puffed and risen. Typical! Bad things always come in threes (although, there is also the saying 'third time lucky'), so I have every confidence that my next bara brith attempt will work well (!)

This spate of baking bad luck is unusual - normally, baking is my strong point in the kitchen. Clearly I need a holiday. Ah - as luck would have it, I have a mini holiday coming up. I'm off to the Isle of Wight this evening, where my parents live, to take in the tail end of the world's most famous sailing regatta; Cowes Week. All the family will be there (brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces) plus lots of friends, so it should be a jolly weekend. I'll be quiet on the blogging front though until next week (when I'll be posting about the best bara brith ever eaten). Happy Weekend!