a mother's day market

Today was market day. It was also Mother's Day and I combined the two by spending the day selling cakes with my mum. Well, with my sister to be more precise, but my mum popped in for a cup of tea and some cake. Lots of cake, as gifts. In fact, she was my best customer, taking home six cupcakes in a box "to freeze for when I have guests". Biggest seller today was the carrot cake. No surprise there, it's always a winner and will definitely be featuring heavily at Secret Garden Party. Other big hits were a couple of new recipes I tried out, including muesli bars (not nearly as healthy as they sound) and millionaire's shortbread with salted caramel. The salt in these is very subtle but goes so well with the super sweet caramel. Mums will love it so I've included the recipe below.

I branched out from cakes this week and also made a few cards to sell. My sister has been busy sewing together some gorgeous little hearts too which made a great addition to the stall.

millionaires shortbread

225g plain flour

85g caster sugar

315g butter

397g tin of condensed milk

4 tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp Maldon sea salt

200g plain chocolate

Set the oven to 170C

1. Mix together 200g of the butter, the flour and the sugar until it is has a sandy consistency.

2. Press the mixture into a baking tray, using the back of a spoon to compress it. Prick with a fork and bake for 5 minutes at 170C. Turn the oven down to 150C and bake for a further 30 minutes or until the shortbread is golden brown.

3. Meanwhile, make the caramel by melting the rest of the butter, the golden syrup and the condensed milk in a large saucepan over a gentle heat. Once it reaches boiling point, simmer for 10 minutes, stirring continuously to prevent it from burning.

4. When the shortbread is completely cool, layer the caramel on top and sprinkle over the teaspoon of sea salt. Put in the fridge until cool.

5. Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and pour this over the caramel to create the third and final layer. Leave to cool completely and cut into bars. A long process but totally worth it!