Great British Bake Off: Week 4 - Desserts

It was tricky to decide what to make for this challenge, but in the end I settled on a classic: the bread and butter pudding.

For this one, I consulted the old family cook book, which is a cook book that was published in 1968 but I always remember my Mum using it at home (and I guess my Nan before her). That book is also responsible for my favourite macaroni cheese recipe!

Now, it's probably fair to say that my Bread and Butter pudding wasn't as good as my Dad used to make it (and you'll certainly never hear me say that again!) but it was still tasty, and my husband seemed to enjoy it. I remember it being slightly crunchier on the inside though...no food poisoning today though, so must have been ok!!

Golden Brown!

Week 5 was spice week, so of course, I'll be making gingerbread biscuits! The real question is, do I do the fancy piping like they do on the Great British Bake Off?? (Spoiler - I'm rubbish at piping!)

Great British Bake Off: Week 3 - Bread

Yes, I know it's late!! I actually made this weeks ago but we've had a lot of busy weekends lately so I've gotten behind with all of the other challenges!

So, the third week of the Great British Bake Off was bread. I have to be honest, I used my bread maker for this one. My bread maker is a fairly key part of my kitchen, because a lot of shop bread has vinegar in it (which I'm allergic to) but fresh bread from the bread maker doesn't need it.

So, bread week was a good chance to try a new bread making recipe. I went totally adventurous and tried a chocolate and almond pannetone. It was essentially like chocolate bread - not the marbelled stuff you get in the tin at Christmas. But it was still nice!

Any chance for Bren to use the "food" mode on his camera phone...

Week 4 of the Great British Bake Off was desserts, but I only actually got round to completing that challenge yesterday: stay tuned! (I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats haha)

Love Quilt Square 23

Despite saying that I would concentrate on other stitching projects for a while, I quickly backtracked and signed up to stitch a square for Tillieasha. It's a unicorn and fairy themed quilt, who am I to resist??

I found a gorgeous unicorn chart on Etsy which uses different shades of purple and blue to create a galaxy effect. I was so excited to start I got started almost straight away!

I soon discovered that the colour gradient effect is achieved with mixed threads. That is to say, out of the 2 strands of thread you're stitching with, both strands are from different colours which are very close together on the colour wheel. I might do a section of DMC 209 and then I'll need to do a section of  209/208 combined, then a section of 208. It does look really effective, even if I have to really concentrate on the chart!

All in all, this one didn't take me too long to stitch and I really enjoyed seeing it come to life. Even more so when I added the backstitch. I think it'll look brilliant on a quilt.

Galaxy Unicorn

The only issue is, I want to stitch this for myself now! Do you think my husband would be ok with a unicorn picture in our bedroom?? =D

As things stand, I haven't signed up to anymore Love Quilt squares...honestly!

Great British Bake Off Week 2: Cake week

My husband especially requested a carrot cake for his birthday this year. I usually make carrot cupcakes and - if I'm being honest - the last large carrot cake I made was a Betty Crocker ready mix one!

However, after rifling though my collection of recipe books I did find a suitable recipe - sultanas, grated carrots (Note to self: must figure out how to use grating attachment on the food processor. Grating carrots by hand is tough!), orange juice, wholemeal flour, self-raising flour, brown sugar, eggs and sunflower oil.











Mix it all together and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

Then, I had to be really patient and allow the cake to cool completely before I put the frosting on.

Decorated by the Birthday Boy himself

The frosting didn't turn out how I'd hoped, despite following the recipe. It was far too runny and just slipped off the cake, which was a shame. I still think I'd have been eliminated from the Bake Off tent! However, it tasted good and as the cake was quite small the ratio of frosting to cake was ok. Next time, I think I'll keep the same cake recipe but use a stiffer buttercream icing from my Primrose Bakery book.

A finished slice

Everyone seemed to enjoy the cake! In fact, the Birthday Boy had a slice for breakfast today and a slice after his afternoon cycle. There's only a small slice left now, which I doubt will last until tomorrow!

Great British Bake Off Week 1: Biscuit Week

Had to be done, guys! Who knows how far I'll get this year haha.

Disclaimer: There are NO spoilers for the TV show.

So, as you may know, the Great British Bake Off returned to our screens last night with biscuit week. Was anyone else expecting cakes?? Today, I decided to follow suit and make some biscuits of my own.

Gone with the original here...

Mary's "Melting Moments" recipe is pretty simple: butter, self-raising flour, egg yolks, golden caster sugar and vanilla extract. I mixed all of that to make a dough, then divided it into 36 lumps which I then coated in oats. I put half a glace cherry on top but that's optional.

Ready to Bake!

Batch 1 of 3 - ooops!

Batch 2 of 3 - Better!

Spot the difference!

Batch 3 of 3 - Better!

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with today's efforts. Took less than 2 hours, but I think if I'd done this in the Bake Off tent I'd definitely be going home! Good job my husband isn't as fussy as Paul Hollywood!

Next week, I'm guessing it's cake week. I was actually planning on making a cake for my husband's birthday this weekend, so I'll be ahead of myself!

Love Quilt Squares 17 - 22 (phew!)

It's been a while since I've uploaded my Love Quilt squares, but I've actually managed to do a lot! Somehow, I didn't manage to take photos of all of them, but you can see all of my squares on my Love Quilt Stitcher page by clicking here.

Square 17 for Jessica

Square 19 for Thomas

Square 20 for Lucy

Love Quilts Square 22

I enjoyed stitching these Disney princesses - they were my first ones and I'm happy with how they turned out. That said, there was an awful lot of back stitch on Cinderella so I may find a different chart for her next time.
I haven't signed up to any more quilts at the moment, there are some interesting quilt themes coming up soo that I might be tempted by!

Summer Sorbet

In case you missed it, the U.K. had a glorious and completely unprecedented heat wave this summer! (Which has now ended as quickly as it started..was good while it lasted!) So, I felt inspired to get my ice cream maker out...if nothing else as an attempt to save money on endless tubs of ice cream from the supermarket!

To help, I bought myself a copy of "I <3 my Ice Cream Maker" which has loads of easy recipes for ice cream, sorbet and frozen yoghurt. So far, I've tried the raspberry sorbet, strawberry sorbet and the pistachio ice cream - all good!








Basically, you start off by heating caster sugar and water until it boils and the sugar dissolves to make a syrup. Then, while that's cooling you blend the fruit together to make a puree. Once the syrup is cooled, mix in the fruit puree and let it cool a little more before putting it in your ice cream maker to churn and freeze.

300g raspberries

400g strawberries

Obviously, the quantities of the ingredients vary with each recipe, and you also have to put the finished mixture in the freezer before you eat it. Well actually, you don't, but you should...!

The raspberry sorbet is Bren's favourite, but I think I like the strawberry sorbet more. Not sure if it's actually cheaper than the stuff you can buy in the store once you factor in the cost of the fruit, but it does taste good! Some of the ice cream recipes I'd like to try in the future are Sunflower and Honey ice cream, Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream (for Bren, not me) and Rocky Road ice cream. I reckon I could attempt a Mango sorbet and Coconut sorbet, even though I don't have a specific recipe and I'd b guessing the quantities! There's even a recipe for Balsamic Strawberry ice cream in here, which I will not be making - I refuse to be allergic to ice cream!!

This is either Raspberry or Strawberry Sorbet...they look the same to be honest!

What can I say except "You're Welcome?"

Don't worry - this isn't actually a link to Moana. I've actually never seen it!

I'm currently working on a Love Quilts Square, but I ran out of thread so I had to order some more. So, while I was waiting for the threads to arrive, I started a mini-cross stitch project of a butterfly that I got as a Secret Santa gift.

I took a few photos as I finished each colour because I thought the way that the colours blend together is just really pretty and effective.

First dark blue....

...then turquoise...

...and aqua green...

...then red and yellow highlights...

...and black...

...and then the leaves.

Finally the back stitch on the leaves...

...and the back stitch around the butterfly and the words. Finished!

I'm really happy with the finished product! I've trimmed the excess fabric off and threaded a piece of white ribbon through the top of the hoop so I can hang it in our hallway. As for my next project; those replacement threads arrived this morning so I can go back to that Love Quilts square!

Scrapbooking: H is for Harry Potter

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good! 

This was an Alphabet Adventure that we had last year, but it came in two parts. First, we went to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the theatre. If you love Harry Potter and you haven't seen it and you get the chance to go you MUST because it's amazing! Even if you don't like Harry Potter and you get the chance to go you SHOULD because the special effects are just incredible! Neither of us have seen anything like it on stage. But... #KeepTheSecrets

The second part of the Alphabet Adventure was at the Harry Potter Studio Tour, which was a 30th birthday present from my friends =) This was my third trip, but there was still so much new content that I'd not seen before. We went around Halloween during the "Dark Arts" Event - I actually almost walked straight into a Death Eater in Diagon Alley. It was terrifying! I'd also never seen the Forbidden Forest or the Hogwarts Express before - we had a lot of fun on Platform 9 and 3/4!

Anyway! For this scrapbook page I picked a background paper that looked like the Marauder's Map and changed the background using the house crests of Hogwarts. To make these I used my die cutting machine. Yes...I have official Hogwarts dies...the Danger Channel has everything! (Danger Channel = Create and Craft. Website link on the right.) Then, I stuck them onto the background to make it look more like "Hogwarts Paper"

Intelligence and Wit

Hard Work and Loyalty

Ambition and Cunning

Brave and Daring

I was also thinking, these dies would be great for making Harry Potter themed stationary, like notebooks, paper or folders.

Finally, I stuck the photographs onto the background paper, made the tag and arranged the letters - I tried to make a lightning bolt; didn't work! I'm still pretty pleased with how the page turned out though. 

H is for Harry Potter: Parts 1 and 2

Unfortunately, I'll have to wait a while to do the page for "F is for Festival" because I haven't had the photos printed yet. That's our most recent Alphabet Adventure and we haven't planned the next one...anyone have any ideas for D, E, G, K, M, N, O, R, U or Y??

Mischief Managed! 

Scrapbooking: X Marks the Spot

It has been a REALLY long time since I updated my blog =( It's not that I haven't been crafting, but somehow I just haven't found the time to actually upload any of my creations. Maybe it's because I've been too busy crafting!!

Anyway, I'll gradually upload some of the things I've been doing and some of the new things I've been doing, but first: something I've literally just finished.

So, my husband and I have been doing this Alphabet Adventure (yes, we're still doing that!!) where we do an activity beginning with each letter of the alphabet. You can see some of the scrapbook pages of previous letters if you flick back through my blog, you know, if you're interested.

X was always going to be a hard letter, so we sort of cheated a little bit with the naming of it...! For this one, we went into London for a Hidden City treasure hunt called "The Hunt for the Cheshire Cat". First of all, I would totally recommend Hidden City - we had so much fun! I won't spoil it for you, but basically: we started at the National Portrait Gallery and we were then text a series of clues to our mobile phone, which we had to follow and text back the answer. If we had the right answer we'd be sent the next clue. We walked around a fair bit of London and saw some fabulous new places. Best of all, the route took us via some cafes and pubs so there were plenty of chances for a snack and a drink! =)
C

X Marks the Spot!

So when it came to scrapbooking this activity, I tried to include lots of "Alice in Wonderland" references. I chose the backing paper because it looked like the fur of the Cheshire Cat (the one that we were hunting for, not the Disney one. But as you can see, there's a Disney Cheshire Cat in the bottom corner too!). I arranged the letters in the style of "tumbling down the rabbit hole" and in the top right corner there's a plastic button of Alice sitting in some tea cups. I made the tag from black and red like the playing cards and threaded a charm on white ribbon. The charm replicates the White Rabbit's watch - which we were given at the start of the hunt, by the way! (Yes, I did want to keep it...!) I finished the tag off with a white rose button, which I picked because it reminded me of the part of the story when playing cards are painting the Queen of Heart's roses.

The White Rabbit tag charm

Viewing my artwork in the National Portrait Gallery!! 

I am seriously talented!! 

I think this one has been our most original Alphabet Adventure yet! You can check out the Hidden City website here: https://cheshirecat.inthehiddencity.com/ They also do other themed trails; we may try the Sherlock Holmes one in the future.
The next Alphabet Adventures I need to scrapbook are H is for Harry Potter and F is for Festival, so stay tuned for those!




In the next few blog posts, I want to make up for my shameful silence and show you some of my recent cross stitches, knitting and baking. Also, I plan on getting back to dress making this month (the luxury that is school holidays!)