Thursday, 31 January 2013
February: New Notice Boards
I've come up with this enthusiastic idea of listing a new board on madeit and Etsy every week. Not sure if I can do it, but here are my offerings for February:
Friday, 25 January 2013
Weekly Recipe: Blue Train Cake
For Miss 2's birthday, Darren decided to make her a three-dimensional blue train cake (not Thomas, or Edward, just a generic blue train cake) with fondant icing, something that he has never done before. Don't start small!
He used the cake recipe from Debbie Brown Cakes. He sifted 400 g self-raising flour into a bowl.
Then he beat together 340 g softened butter and 340 g caster sugar. He added 6 eggs, one at a time with a spoonful of the flour. Then he added 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and 3 tablespoons of buttermilk.
Finally he folded in the rest of the flour and the whole lot went into a "tin".
And was baked at 150 degrees until done.
Five cakes later, he had enough to sculpt his vision, held together with Nutino.
Next he coated the cake in Nutino and sprayed it with berry jam.
And rolled out 2-odd kg of blue fondant and a bit of black fondant (store bought).
And covered the cake in it, using some sugar glue to help him out.
A pretty fantastic first attempt at a cake, if you ask me! And did Miss 2 love it? Yes she did!
He used the cake recipe from Debbie Brown Cakes. He sifted 400 g self-raising flour into a bowl.
Then he beat together 340 g softened butter and 340 g caster sugar. He added 6 eggs, one at a time with a spoonful of the flour. Then he added 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and 3 tablespoons of buttermilk.
Finally he folded in the rest of the flour and the whole lot went into a "tin".
And was baked at 150 degrees until done.
Five cakes later, he had enough to sculpt his vision, held together with Nutino.
Next he coated the cake in Nutino and sprayed it with berry jam.
And rolled out 2-odd kg of blue fondant and a bit of black fondant (store bought).
And covered the cake in it, using some sugar glue to help him out.
A pretty fantastic first attempt at a cake, if you ask me! And did Miss 2 love it? Yes she did!
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Toddler Art: Rainbow of Hearts
As a crafty mum looking for new ideas to keep the "twins" entertained, my favourite Blog is 'No Time For Flash Cards'. The other morning I got up and read this post about a rainbow wall and thought, "Let's do that!". So we did.
I stuck some contact paper, sticky side out, on the bathroom wall and drew a rainbow on it.
And I cut lots of hearts out of coloured paper.
Then I asked the girls to stick the hearts on the right coloured line. They thought it was fantastic!
I was suprised at how good Miss 2 and Miss 2.5 were at getting the colours all matched up.
Eventually we ran out of hearts and I was yelled at until I had cut up a lot more. And then they just went crazy sticking them everywhere.
What fun!
I stuck some contact paper, sticky side out, on the bathroom wall and drew a rainbow on it.
And I cut lots of hearts out of coloured paper.
Then I asked the girls to stick the hearts on the right coloured line. They thought it was fantastic!
I was suprised at how good Miss 2 and Miss 2.5 were at getting the colours all matched up.
Eventually we ran out of hearts and I was yelled at until I had cut up a lot more. And then they just went crazy sticking them everywhere.
What fun!
Saturday, 19 January 2013
Toddle Upgrade
Today my little girl is two years old. Happy birthday!
Now she is Miss 2, and Miss 2 becomes Miss 2.5 :-)
Friday, 18 January 2013
Weekly Recipe: Pea and Ham Soup
I got the Christmas ham bone, after my brother had finished cutting off the meat, for a pea and ham soup. I thought that I'd try a new recipe... this one not as thick and heavy as my usual recipe. You can use bacon bones or a smoked ham hock instead.
Put two cups of dried split peas (I used green and yellow) and a diced onion in a large pot.
Add two peeled, diced carrots and the ham bone.
And three cloves of garlic, a bay leaf and some thyme.
Cover it all in water and simmer for a couple of hours.
Cool a little, then fish out the bones and put the whole soup through the food processor. Make sure all the bones are out, otherwise the blender gets unhappy... Then reheat and eat with bread.
Put two cups of dried split peas (I used green and yellow) and a diced onion in a large pot.
Add two peeled, diced carrots and the ham bone.
And three cloves of garlic, a bay leaf and some thyme.
Cover it all in water and simmer for a couple of hours.
Cool a little, then fish out the bones and put the whole soup through the food processor. Make sure all the bones are out, otherwise the blender gets unhappy... Then reheat and eat with bread.
Thursday, 17 January 2013
Papercut Love
I do adore papercutting. I've dabbled in it, but here are some people on madeit and Etsy who do it well. Really well.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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| Papercut Initials Entwined in Heart Wedding Gift by Rochelle Toomey. |
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| The Little Wild Maiden by Sonia Tomasiello. |
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| "Tea for Two" Woodcut by This Papercut Life. |
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| London Skyline Papercut by nickolya. |
