Attic24

Moments

:: enjoying the sunlight after some heavy rain. Our weather here has been  very changeable with lots of short sharp rain and and hail showers interspersed with golden sunshine ::

:: trying to appreciate the rain as our landscape is looking incredibly lush and green as a result. But still. Rain mostly sucks in May ::

:: during a rare spell of blue sky this week, I went up the road to walk beneath the blossom trees. It was/is glorious. I'll share more pictures of it in a separate post I think, as pink blossom definitely deserves its own moment of glory ::

:: coming through a very tricksy spell of challenging behaviour with our Little B at the moment. Pushing the boundaries and asserting his own quite forceful personality, well I'm sure all you Mums out there remember this stage. Crikey, it's been tough ::

:: lots of coffee moments in my week. Coffee is always good ::

:: grabbing up my basket of Rico Essential merino to go off to the pub on Monday night ::

:: drinking strawberry beer and crocheting with friends at the pub, I love Monday nights. I'm working up some double crochet stripes which will eventually become part of a yarnbomb style covering for an old Ikea lamp ::

:: enjoying a quiet soak in a hot bubble bath ::

:: love love loving the origami phase that the Little People are into at the moment. Every morning before breakfast, the table becomes a hotbed of concentrated creasing and folding. Here you can see Little B doing his own version of origami which involves folding combined with copious amounts of sellotape, glue and creative scissor work ::

:: my flopsy tulips have made me smile this week. I do do that pin-through-the-stem thing, and I do keep the water topped right up, but tulips still have such a way of contorting themselves! In the bowl, lots of little balls of leftover Stylecraft which I'm using to make granny bunting for Yarndale. More on the bunting very soon ::

:: love gazing into these amazing blooms, I spend many delightful moments loving my flowers ::

:: iced buns made with Little B. They didn't rise very well for some strange reason (I usually pride myself on my light and fluffy well risen buns), but they still tasted delish ::

♥

Moments from my busy, rather stressy week. Moments of calm, love, happiness, beauty and peace which I have been searching for amongst the chaos of a busy life.

Lots going on here. Lots of strong parenting, seeing my Little People through a week of tests and trying hard to keep Little B on the straight and narrow.

Working at the studio (shelves are up!) as we have now set a date for our first Open Studio event, I'll chat to you about that a bit later in the week.

Working on Yarndale projects which has been really exciting. Starting to make bunting triangles and planning some thrilling yarnbombing for the event. I wrote a blog post for Yarndale with lots of inspiring yarnbomb pics, do go have a look.

And finally, I've been trying to drag number 24 into some sort of order as I have my Dad and Lady B staying in the Attic for a week.

Hoping you are all well and happy, wherever you are and whatever you're up to. I'll be back soon with 1. blossom celebrations (pretty pictures) 2. bunting triangles (a pattern and a request) 3. studio news (I've got shelves!)

See you soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Peasy Muffins

We are mid-winter nesting here in the Attic, and I confess it feels rather lovely. I've been wholeheartedly embracing these weekends spent at home loafing around in fluffy, cosy clothing doing fluffy, cosy things with my family. My particular fluffy-cosy activity consists of crochet and baking/eating the baking, with a smidge of meal making, fire lighting, laundry duties and floor tidying thrown in when absolutely necessary. Not a lot is being achieved, but our family is happy and content it seems.

My cosy fluffy baking (and eating) has been mainly muffin based of late, and I blame Alicia P entirely for this. Her words and pictures sent me into a spin of craving and I just had to go and create a warm, light, fluffy, fresh-from-the-oven muffin experience for myself. I was quite powerless to resist.

I have a basic recipe I use, which I would like to pass on to you. It's an Easy Peasy recipe which contains straight forward ingredients and is easily adaptable depending on the fruit content available at the time the muffin need hits.

I make small batches of only six muffins at a time. Two reasons :: 1) I love fresh from the oven muffins very much more than out of a tin muffins and 2) Little B adores baking and we bake many times a week together, so no need to make huge batches of anything.

The above muffins are Apple and Apricot and were lovely. I experimented with a bit of a streusel topping on these ones, but truthfully I think the effort of making the streusel bit was not actually worth it.

On Sunday I made raspberry muffins, and oh my, they were divine. The raspberries (from Spain) were quite sharp, but had a beautiful tangy flavour and made the muffins very moist and mmmm.

My method of making fresh berry muffins (raspberries or blueberries) is to first make the basic batter without adding the fruit. Dollop about 2/3 of it into the paper cases, then drop the fruit on top. This way, each muffin gets the same juicy amount of fruit sitting nicely right inside the muffin.

Add a little more batter on top of the fruit layer, then top with a little bit more fruit and a sprinkling of light brown sugar.

All being well, they should rise up beautifully and look all lush and plump and golden, with lovely bits of bright juicy fruit nestling on top.

And when you break into one, the texture is light and fluffy and moist. Fruity but not too sweet. Oh mmm mmm, really, they are completely yummy.

Easy Peasy Muffins (makes 6)

In a large mixing bowl, put 125g self raising flour, ½ tsp baking powder and 50g caster sugar. Mix well.

In a large jug, put 4 tbs (60ml) milk, 2 tbs (30ml) sunflower oil, 1 egg and ½ tsp vanilla flavouring. Mix well.

Tip the liquid into the dry mix and stir well to combine. You'll end up with a thick, lumpyish batter.

For apricot and apple muffins, stir in 1 grated apple and 50g chopped dried apricots (you could also use 50g any other dried fruit eg sultanas, raisins or cranberries).

For fresh raspberry or blueberry muffins, add the fruit to each individual muffin in a layer (as described above), with a few bits on top.

Divide between 6 muffin cases and sprinkle with brown sugar if you like (not essential, but nice)

Bake at 180C/Gas 4 for 25 mins.

I think technically speaking the muffins should be placed on a wire rack and allowed to cool, but that doesn't really happen around here. They kind of get pounced upon the minute they come out of the oven, ripped open and shoveled away whilst still steaming.

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Edit to add :: about the paper cases....you need large muffin cases to makes these beauties as they rise a lot whilst baking and ordinary bun/cup cake cases are a bit too shallow. I buy mine from a really lovely local baking shop, they are made by a US company called MeriMeri, see here.

 Another edit to say :: re the fresh berries....in the UK they can be very expensive to buy, but are sometimes on offer in the supermarkets which is when I buy them. Also I never seem to be able to use a whole punnet before they go a bit soggy and mouldy in the fridge, so what I do is buy them when they are on offer and freeze them straight away. Scissor-snip the raspberries into smaller bits first, then open freeze them (ie lay them out on a sheet of baking paper/greasproof paper on a tray to freeze them so they don't all clump together). When they are frozen you can bag them up and they can then be added to the muffin batter straight from the freezer.

One more edit! :: I had this very useful comment from Hannah in the US...it's a conversion from grammes to cups....

"For American bakers, here are the conversions I figured out, because none of my measuring cups have the metric unit. 1 c flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 c sugar 4 T milk 2 T sunflower oil 1 egg 1/2 tsp vanilla 25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit "

Please note that the flour needed is self raising flour (self rising flour in the US?)

Happy Baking!!

 xx

 

 

Droopy

I am so over the wet. So over it. I feel constantly disappointed that my favourite month of the year is simply not doing what it's supposed to do and keeps letting me down. Wahh, it's May and it's supposed to be all warm and and sunny and outdoorsy and it's not being that AT ALL! We get the odd promising day when it all looks and feels glorious (like Wednesday), then back we go to the cold temperatures, the heavy grey skies and the continuous rain. Winter coat and boots back on and a  rather droopy mood sets in.

This week I confess I've been feeling a little down. Everything has felt a bit flat somehow, I suspect very much influenced by the weather. Take Thursday for example. I had planned to keep Thursday free so that I could take Little B on an adventure. I had it all worked out. I was going to pack a picnic lunch and take him on a bus journey to Ilkley, play and have lunch in the park, then go yarn shopping so that I can get back to finishing my ripple. It was going to be such fun, we were going to ride on a bus! But alas I had to cancel it cos I refuse to adventure/picnic in the drizzle. Nope. It just isn't happening.

So an Adventure Day became a Home Day, and I tried hard not to let the droopy wet mood linger.

Even my sweet orange roses have had enough and have gone all droopy look. They've completely, magically echoed my mood these past few days, it's most odd.

When faced with enforced stay-home days and dire weather, I instinctively turn my oven on and prepare to bake. Yesterday I had a go at adapting a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe, with rather good results. I'm on a quest to gather together a handful of wholesome baking recipes which'll provide good snack material for my Littlies, and these are rather brilliant. The original recipe is for "Honey and Peanut Butter Booster Bars", but I did as Hugh suggested and substituted mashed banana for the peanut butter. After trying this out a little while ago and finding them overly sweet, I made a couple of other alterations by eliminating the sugar and honey and replacing with golden syrup and orange juice.

My variation is as follows ::

Put 125g butter, 75g golden syrup and 2 tbs orange juice in a bowl and microwave for 1 min. Stir until butter has melted and everything is combined thoroughly.

Mix in 200g oats, 2 tbs mixed seeds (I used a sunflower and sesame mix) and 150g mixed dried fruit (I used sultanas and chopped apricots). Then mix in 1 mashed up ripe banana.

Spoon into a lined tin so that mixture is about 1/2 inch deep, and sprinkle a few more seeds on top. Bake at 160/gas 3 for about 30mins until just golden. Mark into bars and leave to cool in tin.

I've named the resulting product "Banana Boost Bars" and they are really scrummy, sort of a cross between a chewy flapjack/cereal bar and a slice of moist banana bread. The Little People have given them the thumbs up, but sadly Little B has refused to even try them. He obviously has an idea that they look like flapjack which he doesn't much care for. Never mind eh.

Well it hasn't been a complete wash-out on the home front as we had two rather well timed Amazon deliveries this week. Gosh, I do so adore Internet shopping and home delivery on occasion, what a gift from heaven it can be. The first parcel to arrive was a treat I had ordered for Little B, and honestly it couldn't have come at a better time. I felt like hugging the delivery man, I was so happy when this arrived on my doorstep!

It's a small pop up play tent, and as you can see he immediately made himself very at home in it. We decked it out with cushions and blankets making it all snugly-cosy inside, and it has already been very well used. He is taking his afternoon snooze in the above picture, I love it when little ones stretch themselves out so completely when they are in deep sleep. I spent a good while just sat on the floor beside him, listening to his sweet breathing and  admiring his ultra-long dark eye lashes. Nothing sweeter that a soundly sleeping child.

These three books were in the second parcel that came this week. I think I've mentioned before that I don't own very many crochet books, and the ones that are on my shelf tend to be project based ones. So I thought it was high time I treated myself to some broad ranging reference type books, and these three look to be real  beauties. I've not had chance to give them a thorough going over, but a quick look through them has given me a huge rush of hooky-happiness. I'll be writing a proper review when I've actually had chance to work a few patterns from them, but for now here are the links ::

200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans, by Jan Eaton

Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs, by Edie Eckman

Around the Corner Crochet Borders, by Edie Eckman

If you follow the links through to Amazon you can take a look inside the pages (love that you can do that!). The tremendous amount of hooky knowledge and skill that sits inside these book covers is mind boggling, truly incredible. Makes me realise that what I do with my own hook and yarn is so very basic. Yes, I think you could call me a very Basic Hooker. Elementary. I admit I have no real lofty crochet ambitions, I actually love plodding along in my own simple little colourful world, working on my easy low-brainpower creations. Which reminds me........

....my May Rose Wreath should be finished this weekend. Yay for colourful simplicity!

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Apple and Sultana Muffins

When the Little People finish school for the day they are always without fail completely, ravenously hungry. Every single day, it's always the same. They come trudging out of the school doors straight on the scrounge for food. Heartfelt declarations of starvation. So I try and give them something to eat that's reasonably healthy, but not too filling before dinner. It's not always easy to get the right balance. Sometimes they'll be content with fruit, sometimes I'll give them cheese, a slice of buttered fruit bread, or a scotch pancake. Today I decided I would bake them something wholesome and yummy to fill the hungry gap between school and dinner.

As soon as I began to think about what to bake, I immediately thought about a muffin of some sorts. It ticks all the right boxes. It is filling, easy to transport and eat, and healthy ingredients can be incorporated by stealth. However, I don't have a good track record with muffin making. In fact, I don't think I've ever in my life made a successful muffin. My muffin making usually ends in disaster, with flattened, rock hard, inedible lumps sitting heavily in their pretty paper cases.

But I do posses an optimistic nature, and I felt ready to give it another go. I thought about what muffinish ingredients I had in the house and what sort of muffins I could attempt. Hmmm...no carrots, no lemons, no berries of any sort. Sultanas I had, plus a bowl of sweet apples. So I googled those ingredients and landed on this recipe. It looked straightforward. Simple even. I had all the ingredients (well almost, I did have to twiddle it a bit) and I began to feel quietly confident.

Muffin making basically involves assembling a bowl full of dry ingredients (in this case flour, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon) and a bowl full of wet ingredients (milk, oil and eggs) and mixing the two together to form a stiff batter. The wet ingredients go into the dry ingredients, it's always that way round. There is then some debate about how much mixing should be done. Some recipes tell you not to over mix, to merely stir-to-combine. This particular recipe instructs to "mix well", so that's what I did. Gave it all a good ol' stir around with my pink spoon.

The apples were grated and the sultanas thrown in, then more stirring. It was all pretty easy really, but still I began to feel a tad nervous. I had this sinking feeling that I might've over mixed the batter, that another disaster was in the making.

But nothing to be done other than give it a whirl. Twelve cupcake cases were put in a tin and liberally filled with the mixture. Into the oven for twenty five lengthy minutes.

I paced a bit with my timer. I suddenly felt that I would be unbelievably hacked off if this all went belly up. Plus, I would be without a snack for the after-school feeding frenzy which would be no good at all.

When the timer went off, I ran (literally) to the oven, crouched down and opened the door just a tiny smidge to get a glimpse of the muffin success/fail. I just needed to know if they had risen. I was so nervous!

This is what I saw.....beautifully risen, lightly golden muffin tops smiling out at me.

Yeeeeehhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made muffins! I made fluffy-puffy muffins with a good chance of being edible!!

A really, seriously happy moment. I whooped a little.

They were obviously hot coming straight out of the oven but I could not resist trying one. I really, really wanted to see if the inside was as light and fluffy as I hoped it would be.

Well my lovelies, I can tell you that these Apple and Sultana muffins were an outstanding success. They came out just right. And furthermore, the Little People really enjoyed them. I asked them what they thought and they were pronounced "well good", which in Yorkshire translates as Most Excellent.

Pheww. Who knew that baking for one's children could be so fraught with nervousness?

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Saturday Happy

:: coming downstairs early on Saturday morning and loving that I still feel completely bowled over by the happy sight of my Shelves. Also loving that I can now photograph the flowers on my table without being overwhelmed by horrendous backdrop of visual doom ::

:: these are Fridays Fresh Flowers, the most beautiful, highly scented narcissi. The smell of them fills the room and is indescribably beautiful. Not every member of my family shares the same thought, but I care not ::

:: pottering. Happy happy. Watering the growing things on my mantel and loving them so very much. Lost count of how many successive yellow pots have filled these hooky tins this year, I will keep buying them week after week until they are no longer available ::

:: same goes for the hyacinths, think this is possibly the 4th or 5th batch. Pink this time, I'm really looking forward to them ::

:: pottering some more. Happy happy. Notice with a lurch of my heart that my new book is still sitting looking gorgeous in my newly acquired funky red wire In-Tray. Must make it top priority to find a Window of Opportunity for it ::

:: the urge to bake strikes, I immediately think Lemon Drizzle cake. Start to assemble ingredients but realise I've not enough sugar. Send Little Man running down to the little shop at the bottom of the road to purchase required sugar, then spend happy time making it happen. The resulting smell that fills the air is quite divine ::

:: suddenly remember that on Friday I bought the Little People new things from the discount bookshop in town and get them out. Am unsure as to whether sticker books involving animals, fairies, princesses, dinosaurs and lego people will still cut the mustard with 7 and 9 year olds, but I am pleasantly surprised by their enthusiasm ::

:: ahhh just like old times. I lovelovelove watching them become so engrossed with these simple books, just as I often did when they were much smaller. Sticker books are ace. Children busy with sticker books are ace ::

:: busy busy now, jobs to do. Dash upstairs to strip bedding off two beds and one cot. Big smile when I go into Little B's bedroom to see that he's managed to build the train track all-by-himself. My heart expands as I imagine his happy play ::

:: beds are stripped, washing machine sets to work, then a little spot of happy Pegging Out. It's not especially sunny, but there is a breeze and I am sure they will pretty much dry outside. I look up and down my back street and see there are many back yard washing lines full of laundry flapping in the breeze. It reminds me of a book illustration, so I go search it out and read it to Little B ::

:: this is a really delightful childrens book with the most heart warming illustrations. My Mum bought it for Little B's first birthday. It's called Peepo! by Janet & Allan Ahlberg. Little B is not yet at the stage where he'll sit still and be read to, but he does like doing the "peepo" bit of this book very much. And instead of reading the verse (which is wonderful but lengthy for a 2yr old), we do a sort of spotting game with the illustrations ::

:: 1 o'clock, and miraculously I am All Alone in the house. Children are out with friends, J has taken Little B to visit grandparents, and so it's just me by myself. I ponder over what to do with this precious window of time, and decide on something a little unusual for the time of day....a bath. A deep, hot, luxurious bubble bath. It is absurdly lovely to sink into the hot foamy, scented water in broad daylight, feels very decadent and naughty ::

:: post bath time now, and I am on a roll. I am continuing the naughty/decadent theme and feeling jolly happy with myself. I bring up to the bedroom a steaming hot cup of tea, a slice of still-warm lemon drizzle cake, and the Urgent Item from the top of my in-tray to deal with. I am in my pyjamas fresh from the bath, and into bed I creep ::

:: getting back into bed in the middle of the day feels kind of guiltily wrong but beautifully right all at the same time. As did the middle of the day bubble bath. And my friends, I can very, very, very highly recommend it. My pleasure-o-meter soared off the scale ::

:: this book, oh this book is fan-TAS-tic. I've read it all, cover to cover, devoured it, lapped it up. I'll be chatting more about it very soon, but for now, let me just say it's one of the bestest books I've ever bought ::

:: out of bed now, tea and cake in tummy, precious book on bedside table, back downstairs to real life. Bath and bed in the middle of the day!! HA!!!! yeah, I did that, and it was oh so GOOD! Pootling about and I spy my basket of ripple. Think to myself that it's been a while since I got it out and gave it an appraisal ::

:: it's looking very bright and joyful. I notice that the last six or seven colours have run through quite a rainbowy phase, so I decide that my next set of colour combos will shake it up a little. A few sparks need to fly I think. Still having a ball with this blanket, I don't think I really want it to end. Which is why I'm working on it oh-so-very-slowly. Eeeking out the pleasure of it ::

♥ What a gloriously simple, Happy Saturday for yours truly. So happy. So blessed. ♥

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Domestic News

News item #1 :: Floral Goodness ::

Friday's Fresh Flowers from the market were these incredible orange and pink tulips, along with a couple bunches of daffs.

The tulips went all flopsy and bendy almost as soon as I put them in the jug, but I have a soft spot for bendy-stemmed tulips and enjoy seeing them change daily.

News item #2 :: Polka Dot Sprinkles ::

I was so excited when I found these Polka Dot sugar sprinkles in the supermarket, couldn't wait to use them. Aren't they fun? I made these buns at the weekend, managing to stain my hands bright red in the process (the lid on the red food colouring got stuck, and well, I made a right ol' mess o' meself). 

News item #3 :: Pegging Out ::

We've had some glorious sunshine here this past week, although it's still surprisingly cold. yesterday I dusted off my pegs and hung the laundry outside for the first time this year. It didn't dry completely, but almost. Spring is so close to arriving now and I am more than ready for it.

News item #4 :: Decluttering Mission Resumes ::

Perhaps the most momentous news of the week, I've finally begun my assault on the Shelves of Doom. Four shelves down, four to go.

Oh yeah, go me!!!!!!!!!! Shelves of Bliss, here we come (pictures to follow).

And there endeth the Domestic News, thank you for tuning in.

Oh, before I go, just a note to add that I'm feeling very much brighter in myself this week, so happy to be out from under the grey cloud that I've been under for a while. I've been a bit off kilter these past few weeks, low physical energy combined with a weirdly heavy heart, it's so unusual for me to get stuck in Misery-mode and I've not enjoyed it one bit. I just wanted to thank you for all your good wishes, I've been feeling lots of positive vibes coming through my Attic Window lately. ♥ Heartfelt thanks to you for that ♥

 

See you soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping Warm

A beautiful start to the weekend with pale, clear sky and streaming sunlight. But cold. Oh so very cold. Well below freezing.

After a super quick (and freeezing) hop into town to buy a magazine and drink coffee, I came home and settled myself in for the day. My main priority was to Keep Warm.

Today the tightly closed buds of my narcissus "Bridal Crown" began to unfurl in the warmth of the room. So beautiful.

My attempt to Keep Warm this morning found me in the kitchen. I practically wrapped myself around the oven to absorb the heat into my body. In fact I loved being in the warm kitchen so much that I double-baked. Oaty apricot cookies followed by buns. Warmth and good smells.

I took time out from my heat seeking activities to help Little Lady with a craft/sewing project. Totally her idea, she just needed me to provide the supplies and assist a little with the design.

There was some colouring fun too. Little Lady plus two visiting friends (our house is never dull or quiet at weekends), then later on Little B joining in.

I love that this table gets used for so much daily activity. Cutting, stitching, gluing, colouring, eating, crocheting, designing, working, playing, climbing (oh that naughty Little B!), reading, drinking.

Late morning and I found myself unexpectedly alone for a weeny while. J and Little B were out together, Little Man was at a friend's house, Little Lady (with her two friends) were playing upstairs.

I made coffee and settled myself into the Big Chair to lose myself in the pages of Country Living magazine. It promised Fresh Spring Style, how delicious!

Three blankets and three cushions made up my Chair Nest. Got to be warm and cosy and comfy when I read my favourite magazine.

I lit the fire at lunch time. I made a second nest of blankets and cushions for myself on the floor right next to the hearth.

My lunch was yummy. I made a bowl of tomato cous cous and tossed in some oven roasted garlic and rosemary veggies left over from last nights dinner. Carrot and pepper strips, chunks of red onion and courgette, whole cherry tomatoes. Mmmmmmmmmm.

After lunch I iced the buns. I made my usual glacé icing (icing sugar mixed with water) and added in a teaspoon of cocoa powder. Sweet little chocolate shapes, chocolate crispie balls and mini candy coated chocolate drops to decorate. Finished off with a light sprinkling of edible glitter.

The snow started at lunch time and continued steadily all afternoon. I watched it fall, gazing out of the windows upstairs and down. It looked incredibly cold out there.

But I was warm and toasty-snug next to the fire working on my ripple blanket. The weight of the blanket across my legs combined with the incredible warmth of the cashmere felt heavenly.

Some time after lunch Little B came home with J. He's starting with a cold and is all snotty and out of sorts. He came to sit next to me by the fire. Actually, he tried to pull my crochet away and sit right on top of me, but I gently persuaded him to get his own cushion and a book and sit beside me instead. I rippled away and made all sorts of Big Vehicle noises to keep him happy as he page turned.

3pm and I decided that it was a good time to partake in a tea and cake break.

Little B was happy to oblige. A chocolate iced bun is just the thing when one's feeling just a smidge under the weather.

Outside it continued to be snowy. I kept looking out of the window at our street and thinking how glad I was to be indoors. How glad I was to feel warm. Yes, warmth was Good.

The Little People don't seem to feel the cold like we do, do they? They were out in the street playing in the snow, rolling and sliding around in it, digging in it, scraping it up, throwing it around. Brrrrrr.

Early evening, dark outside. Little B is tucked up asleep and I can hear the excited shouts of half a dozen children still larking about in the snow outside. I peek out the window. They are rolling a huuuuuge snowball down the street, the beginnings of a Street Snowman. I potter around upstairs, folding clean laundry, straightening the covers on my bed. Already looking forward to bedtime.

Back downstairs, making a cup of tea. Open the back door and a stream of light falls into the back yard. I'm surprised to see just how much snow has already fallen.

I think tomorrow's post is going to be predictably full of white. The sledges are already waiting by the door. No getting out of it. I'm going to be feeling the cold tomorrow.

Night night x

 

 

 

 

 

Victoria Sponge

Yesterday morning I baked a cake. I gave in to a terrific urge to make a proper, grown-up Cakey type cake as opposed to the child-orientated buns/cookies/flapjack that I usually bake. I love it when this sort of baking desire strikes, cos it's usually a fairly easy desire to fulfill, and the satisfaction rate is beautifully High. 

The object of my desire yesterday was Victoria Sponge. Nothing else would do. It absolutely, completely, totally had to be this exact cake. Now I'm not sure, but I honestly don't think I've ever made a Victoria Sponge before, excepting maybe at school in cookery class. Although it's a very traditional, classic English cake, it has a reputation for being a little bit tricksy to get right. In fact I think it's entirely possible to make a very bad Victoria sponge (too heavy, too dry, burnt around the edges, uncooked and sunken in the middle etc etc), and not at all easy to achieve the light, airy, moist and golden Object of my Desire. But I took on the challenge and gave it a go anyways.

This is my recipe, adapted from my old never-fail bun recipe::

150g caster sugar, creamed with 150g margarine.

2 beaten eggs with a tsp vanilla essence and a splash of hot water. Whizz it all up furiously until light and fluffy.

150g self raising flour, folded in gently.

Divide mixture between 2 well greased or lined 8" tins, and bake at 180/350/gas 4 for 30mins until risen and lightly golden. The cakes should be slightly springy to the touch.

Turn out of the tins very carefully (my tins have a loose bottom which is very handy for this) and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the filling I made butter cream icing (50g unsalted butter creamed with 100g icing sugar) and added a good spreading of strawberry jam. Sandwich it all together and dust the top lightly with icing sugar.

The resulting cake was quite honestly incredible.

In-CRED-ible.

It was light, oh it was so-so-so light. It was moist and fluffy and sweet and just absolutely scrummy. It looked lovely on my cake stand, all sugar dusty on top with butter cream and jam oozing out from the middle. But truthfully the look of it was nothing compared to the experience of stuffing it sweetly into my mouth.

Incredible I tell you.

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Gingerbread

So lets talk Gingerbread. Not something I've ever really craved before, but at the weekend my goodness I suddenly craved it sooooooo badly I felt like my world might cave in if I didn't have it. If I didn't know better, I would've thought I was pregnant as the craving was so strong. Just like the time I HAD to eat a whole packet of Fruit Sherbets when I was in my first trimester carrying Little B. But no no no, definitely not preggers and no more Little People in the Attic thank you, three's quite enough.

These pages I'm showing you are from last months Country Homes and Interiors (December Issue), so you can see quite clearly how I've been subliminally brainwashed inspired into desiring the whole gingerbread thing.

Doesn't it all look completely beautiful? Festive and homely, gently spiced and delicious. So on Saturday morning, full of gingerbread excitement, I scribbled down a list of ingredients and practically ran to the shops to purchase them.

Saturday jigged along and the ingredients sat in a sweet pile in my kitchen. Golden syrup and black treacle, eggs, flour, sugar and spices. But there was no time! I could not manage to shimmy the gingerbread-making into Saturday no matter how much I wanted to.

Sunday morning though, and nothing was going to stop me. I love love love to bake on a Sunday morning, I put my apron on over my pyjamas and it makes me feel incredibly homely and content. I had Little Lady helping me do gingerbread on Sunday, she even put on her sweet little apron that I made her out of an old tea towel when she was three years old.

I settled for making the Iced Gingerbread recipe, described as a "festive tray bake". It involved putting all the runny ingredients in a pan and bubbling it up a bit, stirring in the dry ingredients, pouring the resulting gloopy mixture into a tray and baking it. The resulting tray bake then had to cool, be sliced in half horizontally (a harder-than-it-looks procedure), then sandwiched back together with a butter cream/orange filling and smothered in a melted chocolate/sugar/butter concoction.

Oh boy. The smell of all this happening in my kitchen was incredible. I could not stop sniffing it all in. Ginger and orange zest and chocolate, sniff-sniff-sniff....mmmmmm-mmmmm.

I loved every bit of the mixing, whisking, bubbling, pouring, baking, beating, sandwiching, melting, smothering and decorating. It was such fun! A bit lengthy, but definitely heaps of satisfying, beautifully scented fun.

And here is the finished article, well a little part of it. I chose to add some little milk and white chocolate shapes to the top of my ginger tray bake, just to provide a final flurry of pretty sweetness.

So how did this gingerbread actually turn out?? It certainly looks great, and oh it smells divine. Taste wise, yes, it hit the spot beautifully. Just enough spice, not too sweet. Truthfully, I think I over baked it slightly as the texture is a wee bit dry. I forget that my oven is a hot one, and that I maybe should've reduced the suggested baking time a little.

But overall, this makes for a yummy, scrummy, seasonal bit of Sweet Stuff to accompany morning coffee or afternoon tea. Definitely one to try again, next time the Gingerbread Craving hits.

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ps sorry I'm not able to provide the actual recipe as it was published in the magazine and I have to respect their copyright.

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend Pleasures

:: enjoying our first picnic of the year, we ate our evening meal on Saturday with this beautiful watery view ::

:: putting jugs of narcissi and daffies around the house, I'm currently enjoying them in four rooms and the scent is beeeeutiful ::

:: enjoying blue skies and some relaxing pegging out, with the promise of top notch laundry sniffing to follow ::

:: taking a lemon cake out of the oven on Sunday morning, Little Man made it and it was delish ::

:: completing the edging on my bunting triangles and enjoying a bit of colourful playing and stacking ::

♥ We've had a gorgeous start to our Easter holidays here, the weather has been glorious. We're enjoying our first real taste of Spring warmth and oh it does feel good! On Saturday afternoon we packed up a picnic tea and headed a couple miles out of town to throw down a blanket and set up camp beside the water. It was lovely, truly lovely. Good food (hard boiled eggs, creamy goats cheese, vine ripened tomatoes, prosciutto ham, crusty bread, crisp apples, a punnet of sweet strawberries and some chocolate eggs), a stunning view (the reservoir was oh-so-blue), happy children (building dens, throwing rocks in the water, discovering toads, toddling in the grass), and general all round Spring enjoyment.

♥ I managed to squeeze in a decent bit of hooky time over the weekend too and finished off the edgings to my granny bunting (remember it from this post?). I've made twenty triangles which now need to be coaxed into Good Shape and blocked out before I can join them together. It's looking good! I've been very industrious with the hooky lately, it's been very liberating working on lots of different smaller projects after the long haul of completing the Sweet Flower granny blanket early in the year. I've got the Spring flower to show you, plus another decorative Little Something I managed to finish off this morning...for once I'm making stuff faster than I can blog about it!! I'll try to bring it all up to date very soon I promise.

♥ I'm at home this week with my three Little Peeps, it feels good to be free of routine but it's also quite a challenge being home with the LP these days. The amount of energy needed for this job is not to be underestimated :: right now it's 9pm and I am completely shattered. Next week we are all looking forward to a change of pace and a change of scene as we head down to Dorset for a spell of sea breezes and delicious days, I really cannot wait.

♥ Thank you as always for bobbing by to see me, your comments and enthusiastic words really do buoy me up when days are long and demanding. Thankyouthankyouthankyou, I'm sending each and every one of you a warm, squishy hug of appreciation!

See you soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx