It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

Pollycat

I've just googled bundt tins and they are a work of art and a thing of beauty.
Confronted with one of these cakes, I might even be persuaded to have a slice. 🤔

linz

I've been eating quite a bit of my YS stuff out of the freezer over the last couple of days as I need to make room for Xmas dinner - we're going to get one of the frozen 5 bird roast things from Iceland or Aldi this year as we're going away this year. 

Sunday dinner was some pork belly slices which I picked up a few weeks ago for £2.95 from a Tesco Express. Think they were meant to be £4-odd. Also some YS green beans and some carrots from the community larder and some home made apple sauce I made with some bramleys off my friends mums tree.

Tonight was some chicken meatball wraps using a lot of stuff I got from the community larder. 

I got a YS pack of beef mince yesterday for £2.35. I will get this back out of the freezer later this week I think, and make a cottage pie. Will probably go to the community larder too and stock up on fresh veg. I can't remember the last time I went food shopping in a supermarket. Nowadays it's Co-op/Tesco Express/Sainsburys local for YS stuff in the evenings and the community larder once a fortnight or so. I will do a proper supermarket shop for Xmas though as I need to make sure I've got everything. I think the community larder has some sort of pay it forward scheme where you can pay for someone else's £4 shop so I will do that this week too.

Florenceem

We were gifted a turkey crown at SA today. We are not going to buy a turkey like last year when we were inundated with free ones but going to rely on Faith to supply needs.

Pollycat

I was hoping to defrost my freezer before Xmas but realised it was too full.
So we've been eating out of the freezer but I've also been using some of the raw meat to make meals to keep us ticking over to New Year.
I've put in:
2 x Bolognese (we ate one portion on the day I cooked it)
4 x sausage & bean casserole

2 x beef shepherd's pie bases (we ate one portion on the day I made it)
4 x pork mince pie bases - we call it oink pie
4 x double portions of chilli

1 x double portions of lamb, potatoes, tomato, flageolet beans (we are one portion on the day I made it)
4 double portions of mashed potato

I also have a 2.5 kg of beef for xmas dinner in.

Rosa_Damascena

Pollycat said:

I've just googled bundt tins and they are a work of art and a thing of beauty.
Confronted with one of these cakes, I might even be persuaded to have a slice. 🤔

I have many myself, but the simple ones work best. I find a lot of the detail of the geometric shapes is lost even when well-greased, perhaps that's just my baking though.

I bought some Waitrose brown butter mince pies on offer yesterday for sharing, at 12 for £4 I thought it was much more reasonable than 6 for £3.50, but they expire in less than 10 days time. Lidl's 12-packs are reduced by 10p to £1.99, which is very affordable. Its a standard product but still delicious.

freyasmum

I had to Google Tunis cake. On the surface of it - madeira and chocolate, it should be nice. But never with cooking chocolate, that is the stuff of the devil. 

I have the nordicware pine forest bundt tin that I'm looking forward to using for the first time this year! It's so pretty.

Brambling

freyasmum said:

I had to Google Tunis cake. On the surface of it - madeira and chocolate, it should be nice. But never with cooking chocolate, that is the stuff of the devil.

I remember them as being very dry as well but that could have been because they would have been the cheapest one my parents could find as we had no money growing up. They were popular in the 70s and reappeared in recent years

Slinky

What is the point of cooking chocolate? Is there anything that actually tastes good where it's been used?

tooldle

The Mcvities Tunis cakes in the 70’s were lovely. I don’t recall those ever having cooking chocolate on. The more recent versions were definitely not the same quality, or size. 

Pollycat

Rosa_Damascena said:

Pollycat said:

I've just googled bundt tins and they are a work of art and a thing of beauty.
Confronted with one of these cakes, I might even be persuaded to have a slice. 🤔

I have many myself, but the simple ones work best. I find a lot of the detail of the geometric shapes is lost even when well-greased, perhaps that's just my baking though.

I bought some Waitrose brown butter mince pies on offer yesterday for sharing, at 12 for £4 I thought it was much more reasonable than 6 for £3.50, but they expire in less than 10 days time. Lidl's 12-packs are reduced by 10p to £1.99, which is very affordable. Its a standard product but still delicious.

I looked at a brand called (I think) Nordic Wave. Ware.
Very intricate patterns and they showed the end result cake which was fabulously detailed.
But I'm not a baker so am not a qualified judge of bundt.