Making Christmas Part 2 - Cakes

Christmas is definitely a time for a bit of over indulgence and what better way than a rich boozy Christmas Cake.

I started feeding the fruit at the end of September and baked all my full size cakes at the end of October. I still had some fruit left so I decided to use my new SilverWood Baking tray to make Mini Christmas Cakes.

Using my regular Christmas Cake recipe, these beauties just took 1 hour to bake and are being eaten as we speak. A perfect Thank You  for favors and help during the year gone by

Making Christmas Part 1 - Cards

Homemade Christmas Cards are easy peasy and a great way to keep the kids busy and get the christmas spirit flowing.

All you need is some card, scraps of material, ribbons and anything you fancy, a scissors to cut the material and some glue  to stick and ta da!  

We kept it simple for the first go but you can really go mad if you want to. (Are instructions really necessary?)

Vintage Style Retro Caravan - Who wouldn't Love one of these?

Presenting ‘Tilly’ the new uber cool, classic teardrop caravan. Inspired by original caravan designs from the 1930’s to 1950’s.  She is the first of three innovative retro caravan designs from The English Caravan Company, all of which are individually hand built in England to customer requirements, dovetailing traditional workmanship and skills with state of the art materials and contemporary design to create a caravan for today. 

The Caravans are hand made from start to finish, each one will incorporate ‘signature’ distinctive materials such as birds eye maple; ash; English oak and leather. Being hand made, they are truly bespoke, and all finishes can be determined by the client. If you love gold lamé fabric, you can have it.

 Spatially small and very cute at just 9’ x 4’ she is 2 berth, fully insulated and lightweight for towing (400kg-520kg) making her Ideal for a weekend getaway, festivals in style or maybe even posh picnicking with all mod cons….AND you have facilities should you decide to stay over!  Various options available including TV/DVD….Fridge, sink, solar panels to cocktail cabinets!
The Tilly Caravan cost from £6,995 dependent on specification.  You can contact lucy@rockettstgeorge.co.uk for further details… and see more photos here

Biscotti

Having eaten at the fantastic Coppinger Row last Friday and taken more than my share of the gorgeous dessert of Vanilla Panacotta, Baked Figs and Biscotti, I decided to try my hand at Biscotti this weekend - so here goes!









Cranberry & Lemon Biscotti

100g Plain Flour
75g  Caster Sugar
75g  Dried Cranberries
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
Grated rind of 1/2 unwaxed lemon (1 lemon if it's a small one)
1 egg (beaten)

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and Cranberries and Lemon Rind. Add the beaten egg and bring the dough together.

Turn out onto a floured board and roll into a 9" loaf. Place on a greased baking tray and put into the oven @ 170 C for 20 mins. After 20 minutes take it out of the oven and slice according to your taste. Place the slices back on the tray and bake for a further 6-8 minutes - flipping the biscotti half way through. Cool on a wire tray and place in an airtight container. Sprinkle icing sugar generously to coat. You might want a little more when serving. Enjoy!

Ire

As we prepare to head to Kerry on our holidays the time has come to start checking out our favourite spots to book, plan and enjoy. Much to our immense disappointment, one of our favourite eateries will not be open this year. The Lighthouse Cafe on Valentia island cannot open for it's ten week summer season this year. A fabulous little spot run by a family from Dublin, growing their own veg, buying local produce and catering for the many visitors and locals who partake of it's simple and delicious fare cannot open this year because of the costs associated and the bureaucracy that kills many businesses. Having read their post here , it seems a sad state of affairs when a literal cottage industry is swallowed by red tape. I could go on a mad political rant here and now, but I think I will let the pictures from last summer do the talking. Hope the cafe will be back next year.

View from the cafe









The Lunch

Mad WoMen

Love this dress in the new Carraig Donn collection
Would the Mad Women wear this?

Thinking about the weekend already

Its only Monday but I can't help myself. Next weekend Cape Clear here we come!