Goose egg sponge....

There's something bewitching about baking. Spending an hour mixing four basic ingredients together and creating something wonderful. This morning I introduced my arms to the sunshine for the first time this year and picked up hundreds (that's no exaggeration) of rocks out of my allotment. I'm hoping my vegetable patch will be much like baking...a few ingredients; soil, seeds, water and sunshine with a delicious outcome.

On the way home I pulled into the layby at Perranaworthal and picked up some Olive and Thyme Bread from Vicky's Bread...




This is the first time I've had her bread. It's quite unlike most commercial bread. It's chewy and crunchy at the same time. Big, fat, juicy green and black olives spread throughout it which almost give a strong Italian savoury taste.





I spread a teaspoon of apple chutney across one piece and squash a fat mejool date across another slice. Delicious....




Now I'm at home and I wanted to bake. I'd been given a white, glossy goose egg from a neighbour....

Truthfully, I had no idea what to do with it. It's too big to boil, surely?

It was massive!

I weighed it in its shell and decided to see how it would taste in a sponge. So I weighed out equal measures of self raising flour, caster sugar and butter and whipped them up with the goose egg.

I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and spooned into a lined tin. I then popped it into a 180'c oven for 25 minutes until golden brown.....

The sponge was a deep yellow and in the same way the olives made the cake taste "savoury" the goose egg seemed to give the cake a richer more "cakey" taste.

Spread with a couple of tablespoons of strawberry jam. Emma Bridgewater says on her new tea towel "Total Happiness is a cup of tea and a new magazine and a bar of chocolate." Well stuff the chocolate.....