Baking Adventures (of the Gingerbread Variety) and Tea with the Duchess

Today was a day of cleaning and baking. Oh, and discovering the Duchess's little green hat and her favorite teacup. My poor mommy is sick and I thought that I would surprise her by cleaning the kitchen. And guess what? I feel great! Cleaning may not be fun while it's being done, but the rewarding feeling afterwards makes it all worth it :)

Actually, today I was feeling as though I needed to do some baking. I hadn't really done anything for a while (not counting the packaged sugar cookie mix) and so I was inspired to bake a gingerbread tea loaf, and the smells of that delightful scent wafting from the oven as it baked was so glorious! I reminded me so much of the holidays :)

I used a recipe from a cookbook that I had called Pink Princess Tea Parties (I know it seems that I am a little too old for this sort of thing, but I can always count on the recipes, as they have never let me down before, and that's all that matters.)

It came out looking delicious and smelling even better :)

And it tasted even better than that! I had three slices....I've been trying to be a good girl, but sometimes I slip and end up consuming way too much. Oops :)

After I cut my slice of bread...

I joined the Duchess :D

Silly Duchess :) 

And it seems that the bread was well liked. 

(Actually, more was eaten after this picture was taken within fifteen minutes of it being taken out of the oven. Trust me, this recipe is genius!)

It is well worth a trip to the book store to purchase Pink Princess Tea Parties, by Barbara Beery.

Well, the Duchess awaits me...

I must be off! 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

xx Jessica

P.S. If anyone is interested in joining the Christmas Tea Party, scheduled for December 10, you can just look on the last post for instructions. Copy the invitation to your blog or blog sidebar, leave a comment if you are interested, and I will add you to the guest list directly under the invitation. (You can visit any of the blogs participating by clicking on them.)

xoxo