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!

Last Chance

Pedlars have announced that they are discontinuing their famous Keep Calm & Carry on range. They have discounted the whole range which you can view here

New Rug! How to

Just saw this How To from Apartment Therapy via Mabel& Violet

Garden Heaven & Hell

Having spent the last 3 years, since we moved in, we have worked hard. Battling slugs, greenfly, carrot fly, blight, weather too good, weather too bad, stony soil and dandelions, (I hate dandelions), and other weeds, it has turned into a place to sit and relax. Heres the before and after.

Before



After

(Ok, it's not exactly the same place but you get the idea)

Car Boot success

This weekend I went to 2 car boot sales and really had to restrain myself from buying lots of things! But I did buy these :)

All that Glitters

Wow this rock knocked my socks off! Can be bought from the Theo Theo site.

Chocolate Whoopies with Fluffy Marshmallow

This recipe is from Claire Ptaks beautiful Whoopie Pie Book. The chocolate whoopie with marshmallow is the original and is definitely one of the most delicious things I have tasted.
Chocolate Whoopie
175g plain flour
100g unsweetened cocoa powder
11/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 p salt
125g unsalted butter
1 large egg
225ml buttermilk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180oC & line 2 trays with baking paper.
In a bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda & baking powder. Stir in the salt and leave to one side.
In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. Add the buttermilk & vanilla and beat until well combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients in two batches mixing until just incorporated. Then chill for 30 minutes. ( I forgot to do this with this batch and they turned out ok but not as smooth as the whoopies illustrated in the book).
Drop 48 small scoops of batter about 5cm apart onto the baking trays and bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire tray.

While they are cooling make the yummy marshmallow filling.

For this you will need 3 egg whites
150g caster sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Weigh all the ingredients in a heat proof bowl and place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Whisk continuously by hand until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is frothy and slightly opaque ( 10 - 15 mins ).
Remove from the heat and whip on high speed until it is white, thick and holds it's shape.
Use straight away

And watch those Whoopies disappear.

This weeks projects

Make bake and transform is the plan for this week!
Starting with blueberry muffins and Whoopie pies (chocolate pies with marshmallow filling), then make some kids aprons for my fabby nieces and transform the long crappy table which everything gets dumped on in the bedroom. Busy week ahead then so resting up tonight :)

Cupcake Heaven

I received a dinky little book this Christmas with recipes for Cupcakes and Muffins from The Hummingbird Cafe (thanks Ronan!). My first attempt at making these yummy Vanilla Cupcakes was a disaster, they just flopped but were nevertheless eaten by my husband and son who proclaimed them delicious despite their poor looks. This attempt was far more successful as you can see from above. The recipe below is for 24 - making 12 is not on in my house as there are always 3 or 4 scoffed straight away for "testing" purposes. Husband and son are always on hand for this, 1 each just out of the oven and another each when iced and completed.

Below is the recipe for cupcakes and frosting.

Vanilla Cupcakes (makes 24)

240g Plain Flour
280g Caster Sugar
3 tsp Baking Powder
2 pinches of salt
80g Unsalted Butter at room temp
240ml Whole Milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp pure Vanilla extract

for the Vanilla Frosting
250g Icing Sugar sifted
80g Unsalted Butter at room temp
2 tablespoons of whole milk
a couple of drops of Vanilla Extract


Preheat the oven to 170oC (325oF/Gas 3)
Put the flour, sugar butter and baking powder into an electric mixer or use a hand held electric whisk and beat at a slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.

Whisk the eggs vanilla and remaining milk together and pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until incorporated. Continue beating until the mixture is smooth.

This is quite a liquid mix which I didn't expect.

Spoon the mixture into paper cases until 2/3rds full and bake for 20 minutes. The skewer should come out clean when inserted. Leave the cakes cool in the pan and then put on a wire tray to cool completely.

To make the Vanilla Frosting - sift the icing sugar and add the butter mix until they come together. turn the speed down to slow and add the milk & vanilla. Once the milk is incorporated turn the mixer to high speed and beat for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. I added a drop of red food colouring to make mine pink for these.

Spoon the frosting on the cooled cakes and add hundreds & thousands for decoration.

Then enjoy!

FABric Memo Board - Tutorial

So I started out this week wanting to make something for my god-daughters birthday and thought this would be a good idea.

It was easier than I expected it to be with just a few fiddley bits and I am really pleased with the result - hope she will like it too!

You will need

A Cork Board
A piece of fabric about 1" bigger all around
A piece of batting about 1/2" bigger all around
Ribbon ( I used about 4 metres for this one )
Buttons
A good scissors ( to cut the fabric )
A Staple Gun
Needle & Thread






Lay your fabric (wrong side up) and batting down with the cork board on top.
Centre the corkboard and insure there is enough fabric and batting to fold over the frame.

Starting at the top center roll the fabric and batting and using the staple gun attach to the frame. Then pull the fabric and batting tight and do the same in the centre of the bottom and at the sides. Make sure that you are pulling the fabric and batting tight for each staple. Staple the midlle of each side as well before continuing.

You should end up with the back looking like this




and the front like this



Then lay your ribbons criss-crossing corner to corner first pinning the top and bottom. You can staple these but with the excess material at the corners the staples may not hold. I had to stitch these on. Then add more ribbon criss- crossing from the top centre to the side centres and from the side centres to the bottom centre.

At the points were the ribbons cross sew buttons tightly to give the quilted effect. Gluing them does not do this and although it was a slower process to sew through cork board it was worth it.

and Ta Da!

While I'm Busy

While I am busy putting together my first make and do post I wanted to post up this desk which I has been in my folder for a while. Every time I open the folder I gaze longingly at it for a moment... and close it again. I have a feeling a lottery win would be required to purchase but I know I could do very good work at a desk like this?
Unfortuantely I have no idea where I saw this so cannot provide a source. But if I find it I will update!

Nothing Bog Standard about these!

Last year, I received one of these amazing candles as a gift - oooh the scents are just to die for - well the Rose is anyway!

It can fill not just a room but a house in an hour.

You can also purchase Linen, Soap and other smelly lovelies all made in Ireland here

Diary 2011

There are so many inspiring people out there with crafty ways, cooking cunning and shoptastic taste that I decided to create this space to record and show the fantastic things that can be made, bought and coveted. In someways this is a diary for me - I never remember where I saw something fab - and of course it's to share.

So enjoy!