Rainy weekend baking

We woke up to lots of rain on Saturday which meant our usual walk couldn't happen. Instead we stayed in bed reading. I chose famous five on the iPad kindle app. There was a recent article in the guardian about the famous five's eating habits (huge feasts eaten as a picnic) and it inspired me to build a den in the living room, and bake a picnic feast of our own. I made a treacle tart, some scones and husband made bread. I also made some cardamom and orange marmalade (recipe below) and my goodness it was tasty. We ate a whole jar in 3 days!

Marmalade recipe 
This recipe doesn't involve many specifics other than the amount of sugar to water and the fact that it has to set.

• So firstly grab some oranges, use a peeler to get a thin layer of the zest off and chop it up. Then peel the pithy bit and chop half of it finely.
• Next chop up the oranges and put them into a pan. Mash them up a bit and add the zest and the chopped pith.
• Now crush some cardamom pods and separate out the seeds. I used 10 and 4 oranges and it's very prominent! Add the seeds to the oranges in the pan.
• Put the rest of the pith in a Muslin bag (or a foot of a pair of tights) with the cardamom pods and some ginger. Tie it tightly and snuggle it among the oranges.
• Now use a measuring cup to pour water over the oranges. Keep track of how much water you need until the oranges are only just covered.
• Slowly simmer the oranges for an hour or so. Mash them up as you go along.
• After an hour remove the muslin bag.
• Now you are going to add the sugar, in the same quantity as the water. Add 1 cup of preserving sugar (it has pectin added), 1 cup of brown sugar (for a treacly taste) and then the rest of normal sugar.
• Bring the marmalade to the boil and keep boiling and stirring. I tested the set after 30 minutes but it took 45 to set. To test a set, you need to pour a tiny bit onto a cold saucer and take the marmalade off the heat. If after 2 minutes it has the right texture it's done, otherwise reboil for another minute.
• As soon as its done, pour it into clean jars and screw the lid on so that they seal as they cool.

Then enjoy!