I’m now ten months in since the inception of this idea and we have launched a Facebook page just for my blog, so it’s starting to feel more serious. Plus, I’ve signed up for three fundraising events directly with The Royal Marsden. They have a fantastic fundraising team and the events they are involved with seem very well organised. I'll share more about the first one coming up nearer the time in December.

At the moment it does seem to be all about the cakes still, but my mind is busy with a few other challenges behind the scenes which aren’t ready for the blog yet. The main thing is that I’m being realistic about them and leading up to Christmas things get busy. Any money I raise will be a penny more than there was if I didn't start this challenge, so I am grateful for anything that comes through the door! If I don’t get to my target on time I will keep it going until I think I can’t do anymore. 

I can’t help but be a little sad that another summer has gone by. One minute we are in the garden painting fences, having the odd barbie and next the clocks have gone back, Halloween is done and dusted and its bonfire night - or shall we say bonfire week!

I used to loved going to firework displays, but having a dog really puts a new light on things. Our German Shepherd has had a terrible time with all the noise. This Halloween we didn’t really do usual thing of putting out the pumpkins 🎃 and handing out sweets either.

It sounds a bit grumpy now talking about it and of course we did it all when our boys where small. But the thought of the dog barking every time the door rang… it probably was best not to encourage it. I didn’t know who would be more frightened, the kiddies hearing such a loud continuous bark whilst waiting for us to open the door, or the size of him once he was in their vision! We know he’s good with little ones so the fear was one sided, however we also didn’t know what reaction we would get from our dog when he was faced with a lot of shadows in strange masks.

But despite all this, I wasn’t going completely cold turkey for Halloween, so to keep up my baking challenge I thought I’d keep it topical and do a pumpkin shaped cake!

No 15. Chocolate spiced pumpkin piñata cake

I bought an all-singing all-dancing bundt tin and followed a recipe from a supermarket magazine. It seemed liked a good idea at the time and looking at the photo now I’m pleased I gave it a go but it was very time consuming. Essentially you have to make two cakes to get the shape and there’s a lot of work making sure the tin is prepared correctly.

All done now, I’m glad it came together because I have already forgotten the time it took and I’ll probably do it again next year. Next time though with a cream cheese frosting rather than butter and perhaps a different bundt tin as the one I got was to fancy for this bake. It was quite difficult to decorate with all the swirls and as you can see from the picture, there is definitely room for improvement.

I decided to donate my cake to my friend and neighbour who is a child minder. After accepting my offer to my luck she was hosting a Halloween party for all the children. Big result for me, this is just the audience that would forgive a not-so-well-frosted cake and concentrate on the fact that it was after all, a very large chocolate cake full of sweets for them to enjoy! It’s was win win in my book and another cake towards the challenge. 

No 16. Pecan pie

Wow, I dread to think of the calories in this one!. As all you bakers know it’s mostly sugar and butter with some pecan nuts thrown in. I enjoyed making this but it’s definitely to be shared by lots of friends and family and not just for the immediate family to eat for pudding and go back for seconds. It would definitely not help with any weight loss I am trying to achieve. 

The pastry took two attempts, the first time I just didn’t kneed the dough enough. It wouldn’t roll to the size I wanted it to and it just kept breaking. I think I might have been a little over eager to get it made. With one batch in the food recycling and the next one looking more smooth I followed the next step which was to cover it with film and let it chill in the fridge.

Success! The pastry rolled out well and was big enough to fit the flan. Although it was a little too big and too thin, I wasn’t going for batch number three. Lessoned learnt I will remember for next time, and there will be a next time but for a bake sale. Otherwise we are all going to end up the size of a house!

The filling mix was pretty straightforward apart from the fact that all the time I was mixing this filling I knew my tin was a little bigger than the one required. Oh well I thought, it’s 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon… I’m not going to Asda now with a measuring tape to find the right one!

So I decided to just have to face the consequences and get on with it. The result was the mixture was only just covering the pecans. It did rise but not enough and I didn’t shake the tin so it wasn’t an even bake. This is how we learn right!?The photo was taken and a supportive comment was given by my family so I was forgiven and the pie was all eaten. Always a good sign.

No 17. Orange and honey glazed madeleines

I was looking forward to making these. A little nervous about them coming out from the tin in the right shape, but I remember these from my childhood in Switzerland. I don’t think the pattern was as fancy but I do remember the main shape.

Up until recently I thought they were something only experienced bakers made. Well here I am telling you it went ok and anyone who remotely likes to bake should give it a go. A brand new fancy tin helped and of course greasing it correctly but all in all not a bad first attempt.

A little brown but a glaze of honey and a dip of pistachio made it look at little better. We had friends over that evening and they went within an hour of being made. I was asked when the next batch were going to be made, so I think that will happen again very soon!