My birthday treat

 

After three days of eating healthily a birthday girl's gotta have Milionaire's Shortbread.

Super Mario Birthday Cake

 

No, I'm not a fantastic artist! 

It's a printed piece of rice paper purchased from ebay.

I've just covered a home made sponge with roll out icing and glued the picture on with glace icing.

the five year old in question is impressed, which is what matters!

Crochet progress

I was going to make lots of granny squares, but the thought of eventually stiching them all together was not very appealing, so I am making a giant granny blanket.

Well, it's not giant yet. It's just about big enough for a dolly!

I stitched two pink granny squares together (because a rectangular blanket is more useful than a square one) and now I'm going round and around and around.

My tension seems to be improving, and this looks to be a good way of using up lots of part balls of wool.

Fat Free Banana Muffins

Judging by the amount of baking on this blog you might think I care nothing for healthy food. It's true I'm not a big fan of salad, but I do try to eat pretty well; everything in moderation is my philosophy!

So here are wholemeal fat free banana muffins...

Mix together 1 cup wholemeal bread flour, 1/2 cup plain white flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda and 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

Mix 1 egg, 3/4 cup of skimmed milk and 2 or 3 mashed bananas (the riper the better.)

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together, try not to over blend or your muffins will be tough. Divide mixture into either 6 large or 12 small paper cases.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes at 200 degrees C, until firm to the touch.

Swirly biscuits

Don't these biscuits look cool?

You make two flavours of biscuit dough, roll both into a rectangle and place one on top of the other.

Then you roll it into a sausage shape and leave to cool in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Cut into slices with a sharp knife and bake.

Orange Sponge Cake

Cream 225g margarine with 225g caster sugar, then add 225g self raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 3 eggs and the grated rind and the juice of a large orange.
Mix until well blended and divide between two round tins.
Bake at 180 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes, until springy to touch and a skewer comes out clean.
Remove from tins and leave to cool on a wire rack.

When cool, sandwich together with buttercream icing. Decorate the top with glace icing - I made mine with 1 part orange juice and 1 part water for extra orangey taste.

Old fashioned seed cake

Place 225g self raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 150g soft butter, 150g caster sugar, 3 eggs and 2 tbsp milk in a large bowl and mix until well blended.

Fold in 50g mixed peel and 2 tsp caraway seeds. (Found in the herbs and spices section of the supermarket.)

Pour mixture into 18cm round deep cake tin. Sprinkle a few more caraway seeds on top.

Bake at 180 degrees for 50 - 60 minutes, until well risen and skewer comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out and finish cooling on a wire rack.

Snowy scrapbook page

I had this fab pink snowflake paper in a Christmas pack and forgot to use it on my Christmas cards (which is a frequent problem when you have a huge paper stash like mine!)

The pictures are Poppy having her first experience of snow and looking cute in her knitted hat. I've used quite a few ribbon scraps to decorate; I seem to be loving ribbon at the moment! I also used some brads and eyelets. I hate eyelets; far too fiddly.

This was supposed to be a handbag...

I bought some wool for a bargain price on ebay, and the plan was to make a bag.

So I started knitting a rectangle.

And the wool was so yummy and soft I thought it was a shame I wasn't knitting something to wear.

So I made the rectangle a bit longer, did a little bit of decreasing for the armholes, knitted a bit more and had the back of a waistcoat.

Then I knitted two fronts to make a wrapover, added 2 i-cords to the inside and sewed a button on the outside front. I actually had forgotten to knit a buttonhole, but the button just pushed through the knitting.

Considering I had no pattern and made it up as I went along I think it's turned out ok. I think I could have knitted it a little bit longer, but I only had three balls of wool.

Home made sledges

So you can't buy a sledge for love nor money?

No problem! It's amazing how well a piece of plywood (the kind you get in flat packs to make the backs of wardrobes) will whizz you down a hill!

So fast you wipeout!

We just made 2 small holes at one end and threaded some string through, and the boys had a fabulous time.

(I had a turn too, and they really worked well.)

Scrapbook page - three fidgetty children

I've made this scrapbook page because I accidentally printed out a load of reject photos!
I was trying to get a pic of all three children to print onto canvas for a Christmas present for the grandparents - the bottom picture was the one which made it.
Because there are so many photos on this layout I decided not to add a title, and kept the embellishment simple with a few bits of ribbon and some brads.

Adventures into crochet - granny squares!

I've been saying I'm going to do it for ages. Now I've finally started to learn to crochet!

These are my first two granny squares - the one on the right is my second attempt, and I seem to have kept better tension for that one.

Now the big plan is to make lots out of all those bits of leftover wool and make them into something... Watch this space!!

Chocolate fudge cake

My first cake of 2010!

I got a new book for Christmas and this is the first recipe I've taken from it.

Mary Berry's Baking Bible

As now is the time for resolutions I have decided in 2010 I will purchase no more processed shop bought cake. Only home made, delicious, fresh cake for us from now on.