Fudge Making; It's Not THAT Difficult

I got a bee in a my bonnet a few weeks ago about fudge. Fudge isn't something that's ever been a big part of my diet. You try finding fudge that's made with organic dairy produce on the high street (Thornton's used to do some but the shop in my town stopped selling it suddenly). I've made what I'd call "cheat's fudge", or vegan fudge, with peanut butter, chocolate and icing sugar, but never real fudge. Proper fudge that's just sugar, butter, milk and a flavouring of choice.

I'm not even sure why I decided to give it a go, but I did and now I'm slightly obsessed.

I'd assumed that it was something hard to make. Something that required years of practice at mom's side in the kitchen, so I did a LOT of reading. All the marshmallow cream (whatever the hell that is... Americans), condensed milk or icing sugar using "cheat's fudge" recipe intros say it's difficult to make, and all of the expert blogs and articles I read implied the same thing. Fudge is hard science, it's chemistry and timing. There's no fudging with fudge!

Okay, so maybe to make the utterly perfect, show stopping fudges from professional small traders on the continent you need years of practice. But to make something that's consistently fudge-y and tasty, if not artisan grade? I've been doing this every other evening for about three weeks and, seriously, it's not that hard. Don't listen to the gate keepers!

Bad English Haiku 2

Crisp winter night.
Full moon winks behind sparse cloud.
Confused werewolf.

Courgette Cupcakes

This was... an adventure. As I'm attempting to save up for a deposit on a house, I'm making/baking birthday presents for my friends this year. This, as you might imagine, generally leads to some pretty calorific gifts. At this time of year, a lot of people are if not trying to lose the Christmas binge weight, at least trying not to put more on. A pile of cream, butter and sugar is not necessarily going to be highly appreciated.

I wanted to try to make my friend something a bit healthier for her birthday than the vegan truffles I made for someone else, or the little bags of death I put together for work Christmas gifts.

Hello, courgette cake. Or as you'll find most recipes online referring to it; zucchini cake. Americans might do a lot wrong with food (sorry, American friends, but your fast food has ruined most economically wealthy nations), but baking they do superbly. I'm not talking the fancy pants stuff France is fond of. No high end, decades to master techniques. No, just good old, what your grandmother would bake, with twists, baking. Hence the zucchini innovations.