Plain scones

Ok, so I did not follow the recipe exactly. But the only thing I did differently was double the mixture and roll out the mixture about two inch's think as opposed to the recommended thickness of 2cm. They were yummy and exactly what I expected of scones, I took these to work with freshly whipped cream and my mum's homemade jam. They did not last long!

Sultana scones

I made this recipe twice and was not happy with either batch. The first ones were mini and the second which the only difference was that I doubled the thickness so there was fewer scones. Even though they were thicker they were not big enough. When I think of a scone I think big not mini. I replaced the sultana's with raisins as I prefer raisins and they were nice but way to small.

Squidgy Chocolate Log

This is a Delia recipe, my Mum makes this at Christmas every year, this year she had to put up with me being around and wanting to but it to her Christmas baking routine. So I made this.

with a little help from my Mum. It was lovely, as it always is. We made this with raspberries in the middle.

I got a little obsessed with making shore the cream and raspberry layers were evenly distributed, even though you can't really tell in the finished product, but that is just the way I roll!

Orange and Cranberry Cupcakes

This year instead of sending Christmas cards at work I decided to make some cupcakes. This is a fairly new concept to me, as I am not a great lover of icing and so I tend not to make things covered in it. But cupcakes always look so pretty and yummy and its Christmas so things have to be sparkly and festive. So I made pretty sparkly cupcakes.

This recipe was taken from the Primrose Bakery Book, and I have to admit the white chocolate icing was lovely. I fancy trying to make more cupcakes.

However, there were two problems, one, I made so many of them and iced so many of them, which was fun, but I was still icing them at 22:30 and I have to admit that the last few were increasingly uneven in presentation. Two, the icing was so overpowering in flavour (yummy) but this distracted you away from the yummy cake and it was yummy cake, yummy enough that it did not need icing.

Christmas cards

I like to come up with different ideas every year for my Christmas cards. Last year I made felted Christmas shapes that doubled as Christmas tree decorations. I poped up to Nottingham a few weeks ago and we visited Aurora lights at Rufford Mill this lead to some great picture. I took most of the picture whilst walking this lead to some interesting images. This gave me an idea, I ventured out at night in to Portsmouth to get some more pictures of Christmas lights and these were the basis of my Christmas card's 2011.

I used cookie cutters to cut out the shapes in the card. Some of them have spray on glitter also to make them even more Christmasy.

Felt Christmas decorations

Felt is a great fabric to use to make Christmas decorations.

And can make cool gift ideas.

Christmas cake 2

This is my finished Christmas cake. What do you think?
My target for next year is to do my own decorations, these ones are plastic if you can't tell. I always find that I leave everything to late at Christmas, I start ordering gifts one or two days before I run out of time. Making cards frantically on the day I need to send them and wrapping before I head out to give gifts. Despite all this I love Christmas preparations because its a great reason to be creative and the dark nights are another great excuse to stay in and get creative. So target for next year is to also start Christmas preparations in November so then I can pack in more creative ideas.

By the way it was a tasty cake as far as Christmas cake goes. Next time I might leave out the Brandy.

 

Paper chain decorations

This is a very simple Christmas decoration but it is effective. I helped my sister and my two nephews to make this one.

Spiced Chocolate Cake

As it is now winter, the dark days and long nights seem to be bringing my work colleagues down, one in particular. So I asked what kind of cake would cheer her up, she said chocolate or vanilla. The Be-Ro cook book has a few chocolate cake recipes but no vanilla ones? This Be-Ro recipe is yummy. I left of the icing that the recipe suggested as it did not need anything else, it was delicious all on its on.

This would have been lovely warmed with custard or cream also, though there was none left to try this.

Christmas Cake

Ok, so I have not tasted this yet, and I am not a great fan of Christmas cake. But it looks delicious. I have no idea if anyone will eat it over Christmas as my family aren't fans either.

I haven't made Christmas cake since being at school, my mum used to make lovely decorations to go on top of the cake (we used to eat the marzipan decorations and leave the cake).

I altered the Be-Ro recipe slightly by adding fruit that I liked (there are no currents, sultans or glacie cherries in this cake) I added figs and dried berries.

I shell up-date my blog with pic's of my blinged up cake.

Keum-boo

Over the weekend I did a Keum-boo course, this is a technique of attaching gold to silver.

This is what I made, the technique was easy to follow though fiddly. I did kinda miss the torch aspect here, as you can't heat the silver up after the gold has fused, as the gold and silver would separate, so I only go to 'flame' the bail.

This is what I made with the left overs, not a very good picture I know (sorry). I am undecided what to make out of this piece. 

Emergency Bread

This is Emergency Bread! It kinda tasted like a scone loaf, I ate most of it with butter and jam. It was nice, slightly odd,..... but nice. It has no yeast in it and was so quick to make. In this day and age I fear that the need for a recipe like this one, is almost obsolete!. Especially when you can walk across the road to the Tesco Express and buy a loaf quiker than the hour it took to cook this one. But I suppose, there wouldn't be much fun in that would there.

Orange and Raisin Loaf

This cake smelt lovely. The whole kitchen smelt wonderfully of orange, and every time the tin was opened there was a fabulous aroma. This was another recipe from the Be-Ro cook book and my personal favorite in the loaf/bread section.

This loaf did not rise as much as the others though was so moist and a lot more cake like than the other two. One thing I have notice since I decided to work my way through the Be-Ro Cententary Edition cook book, is that I am making things that I would never have picked to make, or even brought from a shop, but I am discovering some wonderful delights and am looking forwards to continuing this journey.

Date and Walnut Bread

This is my next recipe from the Be-Ro cook book. I have to admit I have not been all that inspired by dates or walnuts and defiantly not with them being in a cake together. I normally go for things like chocolate or banana. But this was a lovely bread.

I have recently discovered the delights of dates through my graze boxes, for some reason dark brown bites of dried fruit never used to inspire me! I love the dark colour of this cake, it was interesting how much sweetness the dates add and that soaking them in water infused the cake with there flavour. This recipe produced a smaller denser cake than the banana one and I almost managed to fit the entire cake into my small cake tin to take to work. This one seemed to go quicker than the other one though this one ended up on two wards. A very good traditional recipy Be-Ro!

Dad

Happy Birthday Dad. Apparently I got the age wrong, he is actually 21 today. Though what better way to celebrate than with hand felted balloons.

Banana Tea Bread

The challenge is, if you choose to accept it is; to work my way through the Be-Ro Century Edition cookbook. Ok so I remember making lots of recipes from this cookbook growing up, and when my Mum, Grandad and myself started to discuss these fab memories and yummy food. I wanted to make them all again, so with my Grandad's Be-Ro cookbook (which is in immaculate condition and not like the one my Mum let me and my sister get our hands on), I have set to work.

Banana bread seemed a logical place to start, no not at the front. I will work my way through the bread section and then I will start at the beginning of the book (yes that is the logical way to work).

I am very impressed with this cake, I think I may even start using this recipe for Banana Bread over Delia's which has been my go to recipe for Banana bread for ever. It was lovely and light, and rose more.

My work friends have agreed to be my guinea pigs and eat my produce, I managed to fill my tin twice and was told after the first tin went in to refill and bring more tomorrow, which I am taking as a compliment. I only brought four pieces back on the second day and the cake got positive complements. I think the one that stood out was 'it's tidy cake cut into edible peices', this apparently is a good quality for a cake to have in a nursing environment.

Mug protection!

I carry around a mug in my work bag, I do this for a number of reasons 1/ I like my mug, 2/I can drink from it whilst walking and I can carry lots of things and fluid does not spill from it, 3/ I work at different locations and having my own mug mean you can have a drink without hunting around to much. I also do not trust that the cup I may be using has been cleaned to my standards, namely as they tend to look dirty. My friend brought me this mug as a birthday present so it has sentimental value also. So for all of these reasons it need protection in my bag, so I made a cover for it out of felt.

Now its nice and cosy and all set for winter. I call my mug Fred.

Almond croissants

I decided that I wanted a challenge! I haven't experimented much with pastry so I thought I would start with croissants. This recipe was from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess book. Croissant's take at least two day's to make though I liked that fact I could make a big batch and freeze half of it. I made six, and took them to work for breakfast. They were all gone by the end off the day, though in my profession that doesn't mean that they were tasty just that there was food around. They were nice but didn't taste as croissanty as I was hoping for and they wern't very flaky!.

Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies

These have been long awaited by my friend at work, I made these from my Cookies cook book. They went down well, I think they needed less sugar as they were very sweet cookies. They all went though!

Jo's birthday presents

For Jo's birthday I made her a felt bowl,




And a fabric landscape,

Which I made from this picture,

I enjoyed making these presents, both of these creative endeavors go against my grain and force me to be abstract which is why they were so enjoyable to make. I could not get to caught up in the specifics as there were none. Bliss!