Cherryade for Cherry Aid

When I think of Cherryade, I can't help but remember the little bottles of pop we had as children. Startlingly red, sickly sweet with no more resemblance to cherries than I have to a marathon runner.

When I first made this recipe over the summer, M and I had been to Brighton for the day.  It's an annual outing for us as on one our first dates we went to the Food and Drink festival they host and learnt about coffee. Anyway, a stall by the station was selling huge bags of local cherries and I couldn't leave empty handed. 

A week of cherry based recipes and permanently stained lips followed,  and one of the recipes was for a cherry lemonade. The sweetness of the cherries balancing out the tart zestiness of the lemons. Of course you could add sugar, but in an ode to a long ago New York trip with Lauren,  I opted not to. 

Cherry lemonade

250g fresh cherries, halved and stoned
1 litre fizzy water/ lemonade
Juice of 4 lemons - zest too if you fancy it
Sugar, to taste

It's simple enough - prep your cheries and add to your jug
Juice your lemons and pour over the cherries
Add the fizzy water or lemonade and sweeten to taste
Chill and serve over ice

So there you have your Cherryade. Now for the Cherry aid part of the post. 

Cherry Green Trees is a campsite and holiday house owned jointly by Finchley and Friern Barnet & Southgate Guides. Thousands of children make use of its facilities each year as volunteers like me take them on holidays. The site houses bluebell woods, campsites, and the holiday house.

The holiday house as it stands now was opened in 1977, and recently we discovered that the roof needed some work doing to it. And then we discovered that there was asbestos in it. This has meant that it isn't possible to repair the roof. It needs replacing. Which is a huge undertaking for an unfunded organisation run by volunteers.  

This year we're trying to raise £25000 in pretty much any way possible.  So I thought I'd design a challenge badge. For those of you not in the know a challenge badge is a badge that anyone from any Guiding section can earn - by completing challenges. You then get a pretty cool  badge to adorn your uniform, sew on a blanket, or leave in a dish with some others that you plan to do something with. 

Here is the Cherry Challenge badge, it focuses on the main aspects of the site that we find special - Cherry - eating, and making. Green - recycling, upcycling and Trees - our Bluebell woods. You also have some suggestions of ways to fundraise for the badge. 

Please help us to raise some money to ensure that girls in years to come can get as much out of tour lovely little site as those who've gone before have.

There you have it - Cherryade for Cherry aid. What can you do to help?

4th Friern Barnet Guides do... Random Bakes of Kindness

Apologies for the quietness on the blog this last week, as usual I've been working away, but also have been cooking and baking quite busily - so much so I've run out of time and energy to blog. I've also been a bit lax on the piccy taking front (and almost entirely blame M as he's normally my prompter to take pics but bless him, he's been doing overtime too).

Tonight my aim is to catch up and schedule some posts for the coming week, but those are fatal last words so lets see how I go. Cross your fingers for me!

As you know I run a busy Guide unit, and this term is no exception, my planning co-incided with Vanessa Kimbell of Prepped launching her Random Bakes of Kindness project. This is such a Guide-like project that I immediately thought, fantastic! And a terms worth of inspiration was borne. Each girl has chosen her bake and identified who it's for. We've asked them to think about people they want to say thank you to, people who touch their lives in some way. Their choices have been extraordinary, from Jennifer, our Assistant Leader, to their Librarian, to friends and family. As always, they surprised me with their sensitivity, insight, sense of humour and ability to be utterly candid.

Being Guides however, organising them is a little like herding spaghetti so despite being a month into the term, last night was our first 'bake' (says she, ruthlessly stealing the term from the Great British Bake Off)

Lucy (below) had decided to make double chocolate cupcakes for Jennifer - a true baker in the making, she had adapted her recipe to alter the tricky ganache to a more straightforward buttercream - which I can certify as being very tasty.

125g softened butter (we used Stork as butter is just too expensive for use with 27 Guides!)
125g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
90g self raising flour
30g cocoa
100g white chocolate drops

175g butter softened (again we used Stork, and added vanilla essence)
60g milk chocolate melted
350g (ish) icing sugar (there was quite a lot in the kitchen!)

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C/ Gas mark 5
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
Add the eggs and then sift in the flour and cocoa
Beat the mixture until smooth
Stir in the chocolate drops
Divide the mixture between paper cases in a bun tin and bake for 15 minutes

Top with chocolate buttercream, and white chocolate buttons - and in our case - give to your lovely Assistant Leader who is definitely deserving of them!

*All Guides pictured have full photographic permissions