Belgian Buns

 

First you need to make some dough.

As usual I used the breadmaker for this, using these ingredients.

1 cup warm water

1 egg

3 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp dried milk

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp soft butter

3 cups white bread flour

1 tsp dried yeast

When the dough was all mixed up I added a cup of raisins and let the bread machine mix it some more.

The resulting dough is pretty soft and squishy, and you need to spread it out into a rectangle shape. ( I did this on a silicone sheet to try not to get it everywhere!!)

Then spread a thin layer of lemon curd all over.

 

And roll it up like a swiss roll... (the silicone sheet also helps with this part)

 

... before cutting into slices and placing on a baking tray.

Bake them for 20 - 25 minutes at 180 degrees and they come out like this.

 

Let them cool a little before decorating with icing and a cherry.

Enjoy!

Looking Smart - another scrapbook page

 

This is a photo from last July when Mark was an usher and James and Anthony were pageboys at the wedding of two friends. They usually wear t shirts and baggy trousers so it was nice to see them in suits for a change.

James quite liked being dressed up but Anthony changed into his shorts before the reception had even started.

It's quite a simple layout for a change; I tried to hold back on lots of embellishments.

The lettering is stamped and the journalling is handwritten.

Mother's Day card (x2)

 

Two variations on the same theme!

One for my mum, and one for the mother in law.

The teddy is a Forever Friends stamp which I have coloured in, mounted on some pretty papers and embellished with ribbons.

The words are also stamped.

40th birthday card

 

This is for my friend. I'm not sure I'm very pleased with it actually.

I've made it in a rush, and not all the different elements are working for me.

No time to start again though, and I don't think it's too terrible an effort.

Battenburg

 

A little bit fiddly to be honest, but doesn't it look pretty?

Some messing around with paper and card

 

Two cards made super quick.

The cake one on the right features the photo from this post. 

These are made with a couple of new stamps I picked up in the sale basket.

The background paper was one I'd forgotten all about. Although I think that could be said about most of my craft stuff - I really should implement some sort of system in my craft cupboard...

I also made part of my season swap today - but that's top secret for the moment!

Jammy icing

 

These cupcakes are decorated with glace icing mixed with a generous teaspoon of raspberry jam.

And they complement my pink kitchen!

Quack quack!

 

Here is a little knitted ducky!

I used this pattern and 2 strands of wool - 1 a creamy coloured double knitting and 1 a hairy yellow yarn.

It's a fab easy pattern - the body is just a square of garter stitch, and the wings, beak and feet are triangles - so the only shaping is simply done by knitting 2 stitches together.

I don't really know why I knitted him, but he will probably reside on the Spring season table unless Poppy takes a liking to him.

Cakes and Scrapbooking - two of my favourite things!

 

I thought I'd try something different in my scrapbook, so here is a page featuring a few photos of my many cakes! If fact if you've looked at my blog before you'll probably recognise most of the photos.

The layout is pretty simple, some squares of paper with a stamped title.

The cupcakes are also stamped, then embellished with shiny glue, glitter and sequins.

Fougasse

 

1 cup warm water

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

2 3/4 cups white bread flour

1 tsp dried yeast

Shove all ingredients in breadmaker and mix into dough.

Remove dough and flatten, slice into the dough with a sharp knife to make pattern.

Leave to rise in a warm place.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary.

Bake in a hot oven for 20 - 25 minutes.

Tear and share!