The map above shows a bike ride I took last weekend, from home to a local coffee shop. Except the ride was at home in West Yorkshire and the map shows the route taking me through London from Wandsworth, up through Kensington and Holland Park to West Hampstead. I suspect there are significantly more coffee shops on that route. I always want to do this kind of thing when walking and cycling: “If I was in [X place] how far would I have been?”. Your sense of scale changes in different surroundings, it is interesting to be able to compare them directly and easily. Created with a new tool for “cartographic mixtures” called MapFrappe; I look forward to seeing more. (The ability to rotate your outline would be my first request.)

[via As Above]

This isn’t baking but the recipe is so good I need to shout about it!

In fact it’s barely a recipe: pour some stuff into a bottle and swish it about. (I used a liquidizer but I think it’s a bit excessive really.)

The problem with online supermarket shopping is you actually notice how much you are spending when you are stacking your trolley up with goodies, whereas in a bricks and mortar supermarket you don’t really find out until you’ve already committed to buy it. I kept putting a new litre bottle of £20 Baileys Irish Cream in my virtual trolley, and then taking it out to save for a week when the rest of the shopping was cheaper (this never happens). Baileys always seems expensive for something that is only 17% alcohol.

Then as part of an ongoing thing I have going on with trying to buy ingredients rather than ready-made items as much as possible, I thought “Can I make it myself?” and I found a recipe at the BBC and thought it was worth checking out. Of course you still need to buy the Irish Whiskey to go in it (my “make it yourself” kick hasn’t got as far as distilling whisky… hmmm). But you only add half a bottle of Jameson’s. So only £11.50 of whiskey, plus £1 of single cream and £1.44 for a tin of condensed milk. That makes a bargain £14 for a litre of homemade Irish Cream. I’m not going to try and cost the extra bits of flavouring you add as well!

So a 30% discount over the ready made price isn’t bad. But the bonus is that it tastes really, really, really good. It was in the back of my mind that it might taste like a cheap rip off version despite the good whiskey, but it actually gives you that fabulous homemade “Whoa! Why was I buying this rather than making it?!” kick that all the best home bakes, cakes and jams do. I will see how it keeps (the recipe says two months in the fridge) but I can’t see myself buying the Baileys again.

I’m also thinking of how nice it would be to experiment with different flavours. I didn’t have any Camp coffee to use this time so I’d like to try that. More chocolatey would be good obviously. Could you add vanilla pods to infuse? I’ve had ready-made rum cream liqueur before which was nice too. Lots of ideas.

A quick count up of the calories in it actually managed to give me a lower number than Baileys which surprised me, perhaps I need to double check on that. The homemade version works out to be slightly lower alcohol content and a bit thinner than Baileys though which may account for the difference.

Overall I am really very impressed and wish I’d thought of the idea of making my own years ago.

I expect you can, I hadn’t realised you could move around a bit – looking for road signs is helpful. Though actually I’ve only done worse since I discovered that you could move so maybe there is some truth in the idea that you are better going with your first impression. I was quite pleased to have guessed most of them to the right continent.

[found via kottke]

17. Quorn Bacon & Leek Quiche
    Another quiche. Not terribly exciting but I am getting quite good at making these without the aid of a recipe! Nearly forgot to take a photo.
18. Ginger Nuts
    These were slightly overdone but good. I overdid the syrup in these and had to add more flour, but preferred them to the ones I have made since so I will do that again.
19. Malt Loaf
    My first attempt at making a malt loaf. Soreen must put some kind of colouring in theirs as mine looks very anaemic next to the shop bought version. It was slightly underdone but it kind of didn’t matter as it had the right malt loaf chewiness. I will be making more of this.
20. Mushroom & Asparagus Quiche
    Just when I thought I was getting the hang of quiches I try to make a double recipe and my pastry wasn’t nearly as good as usual.
21. 
    Mini Asparagus Quiche
    Made at the same time as the mushroom & asparagus one for Miranda who doesn’t like mushrooms, with two extras to make some lunches out of.
22. 
    Pear & Meringue Trifle
    I realised that the rest of the month’s baking was pretty workaday and wanted to jazz it up with something a bit posher. But when my sponge came out of the oven it was too flat and paving slab like for the posh confectionary fingers it was supposed to turn into. So I invented this with some ingredients out of the cupboard instead.

That makes 22/52. Not the most exciting of baking months – I will try and get something more fancy into May…