Sometimes, when it's cold outside and won't stop raining, you need a pot of tea and a large bowl of scones.


They don't take very long to make, and they're oh-so-delicious when eaten straight out of the oven. And, surprisingly, you can add interesting things to them. These are date scones.

There's something quintessentially British about tea and scones. Or, Sc-oh!-nes, as they say here. I've always had a bit of an aversion to scones and cream with jam, but I love savoury scones. Especially when they're made with cheese.






















So, this weekend, the East End WI ladies served cream teas at the St Barnabas Community Fete. We baked, kneaded, rubbed butter, blended and perfectly cut 6cm scones to sell on the day.























But it was all worth it. The stall was lovely, the fete was lovely, and best of all: there were savoury scones and fruit scones, tall scones and little scones. And, some lovely EEWI ladies serving your choice of scone with cream and jam, or cream cheese and chutney. What's not to like?






















Here are my savoury contributions: pumpkin and parmesan scones. Yum! I really like this recipe (recipe in a previous blog post, here) and they seldom last a day in our house. They're especially good served hot out of the oven with a good helping of Lurpak.






















There were lots of delicious goodies arriving throughout the day - with biscuits for those who aren't scone people. All butter oat and fruit crunchies, anyone? Yum.

















We also sold some of the fabulous screen-printed EEWI bags. Some of them are really beautiful, and they're so cheery in their Indian Summer colours.

















After serving scones all day, the only thing I wanted when I got home was a fruit scone. So, against all the odds, I whipped up a batch of delicious fruit scones to take with to Granny's for the weekend.

When I first moved to the UK, on my second day here, I discovered British book stores. They're beautiful and big, and filled from top to bottom with glossy covers. There are hundreds of different book stores - from the amazing £2 store (The Last Bookshop) in Oxford to the big brands of the market like Foyles, Waterstone's and W.H.Smith. And lo - it was good. Moving here wasn't so bad, after all.

And I bought my first cook book, too. I began baking.

It was an Australian's Women's Weekly book. The recipes, at the time, were beyond my ability and packed from cover to cover with beautiful pictures that looked like they belong on the the shelves of a la-di-dah cake store. That was two years ago. Arriving home with a baking book was like uncovering the holy grail of kitchenry, and I started a blog (which has since migrated here after my original hosting closed down) to document my progress.

So, when I decided to find a good cake recipe for the wedding, I turned to the Women's Weekly again.






















Ooh, pretty. Now, for some reason, the recipes mentioned on that image aren't the same as the ones in my book. Think: scones, cakes, tarts and sandwiches. Proper British Afternoon Tea. I also couldn't resist adding Cakes, Biscuits and Slices and The Cake Stall to my shopping basket - more on that later.

I've never particularly like scones, and I've only very recently starting sampling whipped cream - occasionally - with strawberry jam on scones/crumpets/buns. But, when I saw the recipe for Pumpkin Parmesan Scones, I knew it was time to expand my baking repertoire.






















They're not exactly wedding cake, but they were oh-so easy to make, so it was a pleasant (and rather tasty) aside whilst I mixed up Marbled Chocolate Mud Cake (which I'll show you very soon, once I've managed to take a picture of a slice without gobbling it up first!).

















The dough is crumbly, but I remember from my mom's scones that this is normal. You knead together to make a flat disc which you then cut into rounds for baking. It is a little bit squishy in places - especially if you're a little lazy with your pumpkin-mashing.
















... and a little sprinkling of parmesan and pepper goes a long way! The scones bake into a golden yellow colour (thanks to the pumpkin) and the crumbling cheese on top is deliciously baked in. Served with butter and cheese for lunch - yum!

I've typed up the recipe for you from the book, and I'd definitely recommend buying your own copy too. I got mine from Amazon for £4.33. It has a lot of good recipes in it (and also in the two other books that got packed up with it!), and I foresee many baking weekends in the Bakercourt household.

Pumpkin Parmesan Scones

30g butter, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup cold cooked mashed pumpkin
2 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup of milk
2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan cheese
pinch of cracked black pepper
pinch sea salt flakes

1. Preheat oven to 220'C and grease a cake pan/tray.
2. Beat butter, sugar and egg in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in the pumpkin. Add the sifted dry ingredients and milk. Use a knife to cut the milk through the flour mixture to a soft, sticky dough. Turn dough onto floured surface, knead gently until smooth.
3. Press dough out to 2cm thickness and cut out 5cm rounds. Place rounds just touching on the cake pan/tray.
4. Brush scones with milk and sprinkle with the combined cheese, pepper and salt.
5. Bake scones for about 20 minutes and server with warm butter.
6. Scones can be frozen for up to 3 months, if you have any left. They should be thawed in the oven, wrapped in foil.