Lemon and rosemary cupcakes

I've started growing a kitchen windowbox herb garden and today decided to test out adding some of my fresh herbs to cakes - starting with some lovely, fragrant rosemary. I can't describe how delicious these turned out to be - just that after the first one, I had to eat a second immediately (and am struggling not to go and polish off the rest instead of writing this!)

Rosemary, honey and sea salt bread

I was at home today as our new kitchen flooring was being delivered and the decorators have finally come to finish painting the house after our house flooded on Good Friday. I fancied baking as it has become a staple part of my days off, but the fridge still had a few of last night's delicious chilli hot chocolate muffins so I couldn't justify making something else sweet! Instead I decided to make a loaf of bread to have with our supper this evening. This only makes a small loaf as I'd only got 300g left in the bag of bread flour in the pantry, and decided to go with that since often fresh bread doesn't keep long enough for the two of us to finish a whole large loaf. This was the perfect size for two, and delicious too! Instead of using sugar I used a little honey, and added some gorgeous fresh rosemary that's growing wildly in the herb garden I've started growing on our kitchen window ledge, a lovely sunny spot. The resulting bread was eaten warm with dinner in the garden this evening. I so wish we had more warm sunny days like this in the summer, they feel like such treasures!

Sundried tomato and rosemary focaccia rolls

This is the first blog post I've done about making bread. It's not something I've done much of, and confess I've tended to be braver about using packets that contain all the ingredients and you just need to add hot water. Today I braved it, and made these sundried tomato and rosemary focaccia rolls from scratch - yeast and everything! I added garlic purée and tomato purée to the dough, and they came out a beautiful russet colour. Autumn has begun (although it's not felt much like we've had a summer) so I'm embracing it - let this be the first of many homemade bread making days, to go with lovely warming soup (this evening I've made  a roasted butternut squash one with chilli, roasted garlic and fresh ginger). Bring on long nights cwtched up by a roaring fire!