Happy Birthday! Our Dog is 3 Years old!

Barley, our rescue dog, celebrated his birthday a few days ago. I thought I'd already posted this blog post, but realised today I hadn't - must be all the birthday booze affecting my memory.
Well, I say a few days ago, but it was actually 10 days ago.
Well, I say he celebrated his birthday, but as he was a stray, we don't know his exact date of birth.

When we adopted Barley from the local pet rescue centre, on the 20th of September last year, they said he was about 2 years old.
So, now he's 3 years old - more or less.

I spent ages creating this photo - excellent isn't it? Hahaha!

We had intended to give Barley a yummy birthday cake, suitable for dogs obviously, but as he had been a little off-colour with a tummy bug the week before his birthday we couldn't risk anything upsetting his digestive system any further. And as you can see from the photo above, he wasn't in the partying mood. Hehe!
Do you celebrate the birthdays of your dog?

Rock Cake - Recipe

I don't know why, but yesterday evening 'Rock Cakes' came in to my mind.
I hadn't read about them, seen them on TV, or experienced any other associations, so I figured it must have been a sign. A sign telling me - I should eat rock cakes.

So, today after lunch, which I cooked (very unusual for me because I don't like being in the kitchen) I decided to make some rock cakes.
I haven't eaten a rock cake for ages, probably a couple of decades.
I refreshed my memory with a suitable recipe. But then as usual I ignored it.
Here's the basic recipe I didn't follow.

Ingredients

6oz self-raising flour
4oz butter
3oz caster sugar (I used demerara sugar, and just 1oz as I don't think they needed 3oz). 
1 splash milk (I used a couple of teaspoons of Greek yoghurt). 
1 egg
2oz raisins, or sultanas, or any fruit you fancy (I used sultanas, apricots, prunes, and cherries).
Cinnamon. This wasn't mentioned on the recipe, but I like it so I added a generous teaspoon. 

Method

Put oven on to 200c, Gas Mark 6, and grease a large baking tray (I used greaseproof paper).
Sieve flour into a bowl.
Add butter and rub with fingertips until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
Stir in the sugar, and the fruit if you're using any.
Then add 1 egg, and stir in.
Next add enough milk to make a stiff dough. A splash may be all you need.
Put 12 heaps of the mixture on to the  baking tray, and bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until the rock cakes are golden brown and cooked through.

As I said I don't like being in the kitchen, cooking is not something I particularly enjoy. But Mr.R had gone for a siesta, and my craving for rocks cakes couldn't wait. So I braved the kitchen, and surprisingly I really enjoyed myself.
Admittedly baking rock cakes is not difficult, they're one of the easiest and quickest things to cook, but usually even something so simple would feel like a chore to me.

I only took two photos of the rock cakes, before and after, and not my usual photos of every stage of the baking because I didn't want to waste time faffing about. I was eager to get them mixed and cooked, so strong was my craving.

The preparation of the rock cakes took about 15 minutes, which was the same as the cooking time.
So after half an hour, I had 12 rocks cakes baked and ready to eat.

I honestly intended to wait for Mr.R to get up from his afternoon nap before I tasted the rock cakes, but they looked so good I couldn't resist.
And they tasted even better than they looked. Perfect with a nice hot cuppa.
Delicious!

What's your favourite quick and easy sweet treat?