Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of my lovely readers. I've really enjoyed blogging over the past year, and have especially enjoyed reading all your comments - all feedback and suggestions are welcome!

I hope 2011 is a good year for all of you.

Here are a few of the highlights of my baking in 2010, in no particular order really...

It seemed to be a slow start to the year, because the first really memorable cake I made was this rich, buttery apple and ginger cake back in April.

April was clearly a good month though (I'm sure T would agree with that - this was his birthday cake!) and I had fun playing with biscuit cutters to make and decorate some yummy custard cream biscuits after J made them from a friend's recipe.

This cranberry oat loaf recipe, from the ever-reliable and inventive Dan Lepard earns its place in this round up not only for its delicious taste and twist on a traditional raisin loaf, but because I've made it so often this year - with cranberries, raisins, plain and it has been a staple breakfast loaf in this house. Delicious, thanks Dan.

Next up is another bread recipe - these lovely owl rolls, inspired by two of my favourite bloggers, Joanna over at Zeb Bakes, and Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial - you both inspire me constantly. These little babies were delicious and great fun to make - hopefully 2011 will contain many more adventurous and different bread recipes.

As summer started I was inspired by all of the delicious berries available in the shops to make lots of fresh berry cakes. These went down well at work, but this banana blueberry cake was one of my favourites for it's delicious melting soft texture and beautiful blueberry flavour.

The next cake was one of my best inventions this year - a low fat fresh fruit cake, and changing the fat content didn't seem to impact the delicate texture of the cake, which had well balanced flavours.

For someone who adores chocolate there is remarkably little of it in this round up, in fact I think this cake has the honour of being one of only two to make it. I love ginger and chocolate in combo and I think that being able to bite into big chunks of both chocolate and ginger against a background of yummy chocolate cake was the winning factor for this cake.

I want to try baking more with wholemeal flours in 2011, this wholemeal honey cake, whilst admittedly not being the best looking cake in the world was a revelation to me - it was light and moist and not how I imagined wholemeal baking to be in the slightest.

This spelt loaf was another standby recipe over the past few months. I love making bread and spelt is a really delicious grain to work with, as far as I can tell - almost slightly sweet. I was really pleased with the way this bread consistently turns out well using a sort of 'cooked flour' technique, inspired by Dan Lepard (well, who else!).

Penultimate are these Earl Grey Cupcakes. I definitely had a love affair with the Primrose Bakery cookbook in the latter part of the year (and yes, most of what I baked is in the archives, patiently waiting to be published when I get round to it) because every recipe I made was delicious. That book rocks!

And finally, 2010 saw the start of I should Cocoa, hosted alternately by Chele of Chocolate Teapot and Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog. I was dubious when Choclette announced that dates were the ingredient of choice for December, but luckily Dan Lepard came up trumps with an amazing date bar recipe with a delicious chocolate crumble topping.

I can't believe how many delicious things I've had to miss out of this round up, and just looking through the archives to do this post has reminded me of how many truly amazing things I've baked over the past year. I hope 2011 holds as much baking fun as 2010 did!