Baking With Spirit: The September Challenge [And An Anniversary!]

Where did August go? For me it whirled by in a flash of sunshine, slow commutes to work and exploration of my new surroundings in Cambridgeshire.

September means Autumn is starting to roll around the corner. To me (and a lot of people, I should think), Autumn means apples, blackberries and subsequent Apple & Blackberry Crumbles.

September is also pretty special in the world of Baking With Spirit because, if you can believe it, the challenge has been running for a year! I started this challenge for the fun of it and because there was nothing else boozy out there, and have indeed enjoyed everything so far. I want to thank those of you who loyally enter (or at least mean to) each month - without you it would just be me baking boozy things every month and posting a celebratory post about it at the end. I think this would be akin to drinking alone in a dark room in the real world - probably a bit sad and depressing - so your entries mean a lot to me.

I would have gone for celebratory Champagne, but I used this in January in order to celebrate my birthday and the new year. Instead, in keeping with the theme of Autumn and apples, this month's challenge is cider.  I know cider doesn't leap out as something that will marry well with baking, but if you think about all of the recipes involving apples out there, surely a little substitution for cider would enhance it quite nicely.

I'll let you have a think; I know you're a creative lot so I'm sure I'll be impressed with what you enter!

Here's a list of the basic rules (for a more comprehensive list click here):

• Bake something (you don't even have to put it in an oven if I'm honest) and write about it on your blog
• Mention my blog, Cake Of The Week, and link back to this page
• Email your post to me at cakeoftheweek@hotmail.co.uk and include a picture for me to use in the round-up post
• If you have twitter you can tweet the post to me @cakeoftheweek and I'll retweet it.
• The deadline is midnight GMT on 28th September

If you want inspiration from the past twelve months of Baking With Spirit (or just fancy a nose) there's a complete list of links to them round-ups here. You can also view a collection of pictures of all the entries on Pinterest.

Have fun, and I look forward to seeing your entries!