Saturday 19 May 2012

A Productive Day

I made my first ever dress!


It took 2-3 hours. I'm quite pleased with it, although I can see all the bits that went wrong, of course. I just hope that she's cute enough that people won't think to scrutinise the stitching! I made it in age 7 but I had to take it up AND in quite a bit. Admittedly she is only an average sized 5.5 year old so I probably should have stuck with the 6, but I didn't thnk it would be quite as enormous on her. Still, it's going to last her until she goes to secondary school I think!

This week I made icecream cupcakes..



They're a basic 3 egg sponge mix from my Cake Decorating magazine, topped with piped buttercream (am still learning!), icecream sauce, sprinkles and a third of a flake. Yum!

My U pins still haven't arrived but I've managed to weigh down any loose netting with rocks, and *touch wood* they seem to be contained now! They enjoy being out so much.

Millie and I went to the allotment this evening and marvelled at all the impact of all the rain we've been having lately!

Broad bean blossom.. who'd have thought it would be so pretty?! My crimson broad beans have also come up, and the Autumn ones (above) are starting to grow tiny French bean sized pods.


Little gooseberries. I'm not a big gooseberry fan to be honest, but I can't wait to try these. I think they might be red ones in the end. They're doing so well.

Redcurrant buds!

Blackcurrants




"An Umbrella Of Rhubarb"

Saturday 12 May 2012

Rainbow Cake In A Jar!

I've been dying to try rainbow cake in a jar for.. ooh, at least a week. My 7 year old has decided that she wants a rainbow cake for her birthday, and Google led me to these little beauties. They seemed like a sensible way to test out the theory of dyed cake, and the effects of neon colours on the already-prone-to-hyperactivity children, and - let's face it - they're really really pretty!

So I started with a basic 3 egg sponge recipe:

175g self raising flour
175g baking margarine (or butter, if you're feeling less frugal)
175g caster sugar
1.5tsp baking powder
3 eggs

After whizzing it all up in the food processor I divided it between 6 appropriately coloured bowls and added the colouring. I used Sugarflair pastes in Baby Blue, Mint Green, Egg Yellow, Tangerine, Christmas Red, and a combination of the red & blue to make the purple. It didn't take much to achieve the desired effect. Maybe a quarter of a teaspoonful at most, per bowl.



Next came the task of getting the mixture into the jars! I used 5 jars altogether. It was easier than I'd expected to put a dollop of each colour into the jar and spread it evenly before adding the next one.


So pretty!










I placed the jars in a roasting tin, added about an inch or so of cold water to the tin, and put everything into a preheated oven at 180C. Helpfully, I can't actually tell you how long it took for the cakes to cook. After 15 minutes I turned them round, and after a further 12 minutes I checked again. They weren't done. I think they may have taken another 20 minutes in total, but keep checking - my oven is useless!


And finally..


CAKE!

I must admit, I was  bit disappointed when I saw them. The colours had run into each other quite a lot and they looked a little sludgy rather than lovely and vibrant. They shrank quite a bit after I took this photo, too. There's probably a scientific reason for that but I don't know what it is!




After cooling, I made up a batch of buttercream. I based it on the Hummingbird Bakery recipe, but in the end I winged it. So basically, start with 80g of unsalted butter and 250g of icing sugar, add a splash of milk, mix, and adjust as necessary.







Lots and lots of buttercream! And sprinkles!




In the interest of science, and despite the fact that it's dinnertime in ooh 30 minutes or so, I had to give the cake a try really, didn't I!?











                     



 IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!! And it's still lovely  and vibrant!!













Crazy rainbow crumbs












                    See the lovely colours?!

I could only manage half a jar. I guess that's about one cupcakes worth. But I am pleased to report that you can't taste the colouring at all, and 20 or so minutes in I am not suffering from hyperactivity ;)  I'll test it on the children tomorrow!







My imperfect little beauties

Saturday 5 May 2012

I'm a bad chicken mummy. They've done a lot of free ranging in the Autumn, Winter and early Spring months, and have had a fabulous time, but now it's growing season. And the children will want to play barefoot in the Summer without getting chicken poo between their toes. The chickens have been eating anything that's green, including potato plants and rhubarb leaves, which I'm sure can't be doing them any good at all. My strawberry plants have pretty much disappeared, and I caught one of them eating the lettuce seeds I planted. So I shut them in their run and ordered some netting and various fence pins, and on Wednesday I put it all up to extend the area they inhabit while still keeping them contained. Only they keep escaping! I've been out countless times to shift pins around and check for gaps, but I've not been well and Bellatrix and Hermione do NOT want to be caught when they escape, so I've had to admit defeat. They're confined to their run until I receive some more U pins to hopefully make the fence a bit more effective. They do NOT approve. I don't approve, really. I feel horrible about it. When they see me they start pacing and clucking at me. I really hope this fence does the job because I don't think any of us can face keeping them cooped up in their run until the Autumn. I do have the allotment, of course, but I want to be able to grow things in my own back garden too!