Again - long time no blog posts.... this time it was because our home tech decided to go kaput big time. Firstly my much loved 9 year old olympus camera gave up, swiftly followed by the just as ancient (in tech terms) home pc. So we have spent our spare time (and my craft time) rescuing and reloading all our programmes and files on to a new family pc.
I did have to make time late on Easter saturday to make my two daughters an Easter present each, as we had forgotten to ask the Easter bunny to bring some appropriate gifts. So after drawing up a simple template and raiding my felt box, I sewed and glued two little bunny egg cosys - cute and sort of practical.
Glue used - PinFlair silicone glue
Flowers cut using Sizzix original flower die
For Easter Sunday sponge cupcakes were decorated by my daughter and nephew with chocolate butter icing nests and Cadbury mini eggs.
I also made little Cranberry Simnel cupcakes based on an old recipe from Mrs Beeton’s Everyday Cookery book, with a nugget of marzipan baked inside - these were then topped off with marizpan flowers.
4oz Stork margarine
4oz light brown sugar
1 1/2 oz golden syrup
2 large eggs
6oz plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon mixed spice
11oz mixed currants, sultanas, cranberries
2oz marmalade
2-3tbsp milk
This was mixed together like an all in one, starting off with the eggs, sugar, flour, salt, spice and margarine in a bowl. All the other ingredients were placed in a food processor until the bulk of the fruit had been chopped up small (but not pureed). This mixture was then added to the bowl and beaten (with electric whisk) until all ingredients had been incorporated (but not over worked). The mixture was then spooned into 12 muffin cases, and a large hazel nut sized nugget of marizpan was poked into the centre of each cake.
The cakes were then baked for about 25 minutes in a preheated fan oven at 170 oC.
After being left to cool on a wire rack the tops were brushed with warm apricot jam and a marzipan flower and fluffy chick were added.
So all in all not too much crafting to write about - may be I’ll get more time next month....
Scrappage put together using Serif Craft Artist and my own Easter Digikit...
As I had been warned, my second daughters first birthday came round very quickly – too quickly after Christmas…. We had invited some of Emily’s friends over to play, so as usual the day before a birthday was not spent making lovely decorations and adding a few final touches - it was spent blitzing the house to get it clean and tidy – oh and don’t forget getting a cake made.
So using my trusted recipe from Mary Berry (thank you Great British Bake Off) a Victoria sponge cake was made. Once assembled with homemade strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream a wedge was cut off the front – turned up-side-down and adhered (using jam and buttercream) to the back of the cake. A slab of ready made icing was rolled very thin on some cling film and then carefully placed over the cake and plate. Some of the large creases were cut out and the icing rejoined, but as the cake was a ice cliff, the icing didn’t have to be smooth. Excess icing was trimmed from the plate. The base of the cake was then coloured with a small amount of Glacier Blue Edible Lustre
Dust. The penguins off the Christmas Cake were joined with extra penguins to decorate the cake, and a couple of trees were added to the edge (with the help of dried spaghetti).
The cake was enjoyed at a family birthday tea later in the afternoon – but we couldn’t eat all of it – so it was taken into work by Dad:
"Very nice thank you, the cook should be congratulated as for the penguins - a masterpiece"
"Thank you for the cake, it looked and tasted fantastic. I bet the penguins are still there at the end of the day though, they're too cute to eat!"Where it was polished off – Penguins and all!
Left over icing was used to quickly decorate some cupcakes with little penguin faces.
The scrap page was put together on CraftArtist – using Portfolio digit kit and some of my own images.
Regards
Stompy x
After a mad rush up to Christmas (we had builders in insulating an old loft conversion) there was unfortunately little time to spend baking and making. I had started knitting some Alan Dart mice back in November, so these got finished to hang on the Christmas tree – one for each daughter.
I also decided that I would take cake pops to my sister-in-laws for our Christmas Eve family meal – the reindeer heads with orange Matchstick antlers went down a treat with the kids.
Having a 3 year old daughter – Hello Kitty is very apparent in our house and the day before putting the decorations up, she asked for a Hello Kitty door wreath and decorations for the Christmas tree. The wreath was a step to far - we ended up with a hand made willow, ivy and red berries, but unfortunately the hook kept falling off the door. For the tree we came up with the idea of making little Hello Kitty angels – we printed off some images, drew up the wings. Emily then cut out the heads (I helped around the whiskers), wings and the semi circle dress - the lot was stuck together with plenty of cellotape. A loop of silver thread was attached and a hoop of tinsel added for a sparkly touch. They looked great on the tree, and will be stored away for next year.
During advent, we had a Hello Kitty calendar, the sort where you got a little toy behind each window. By Christmas Day we had furniture for a bedroom, kitchen and lounge plus two little characters. On the back was a room scene to cut out but it wasn’t big enough for all the toys, so after Christmas we made a 3 storey house out of an old cereal packet. Unfortunately Emily decided they had to have stairs too – so an extension was added for the two flights of cardboard stairs. Each room was then decorated using the scrap wrapping paper from Christmas. So now Hello Kitty and Mimmy have a house to play in.
The scrap page was hurriedly put together on CraftArtist – using a number of Christmas themed digit kits
All the best for 2012
Regards
Stompy x
