Time Flies............

It's been a while. Life doesn't stop for anyone, or any blogger. Miss 3 year old is now in pre-school and I have joined the 'school run' traffic. The old car died a death and we had to get a new 'family wagon', the kind that is not so angry on the petrol but still fits mum, dad, kiddies, dogs, shopping and sundries!

I continue to bake, sew, knit (currently on a star project for Christmas, more another time) and preserve stuff. The garden continues to get away from me but at least some veggies are in and the fruit trees are blossoming.

The Guinea Fowl have grown into beautiful adults and are laying lots of petite eggs that are a lovely size for wee hands to cradle.

I have more wrinkles, from the smiles and laughter of course! and the weather is looking up - hurray!

I have just chopped up the dried fruit and it's soaking in homemade Quince Ratafia, for our Antipodean Christmas Fruit Cake and the plum and apple mincemeat (from the River Cottage Handbook No.2 Preserves) made at the end of the summer is out of the cupboard ready for the mince pies. The Biscotti, Pavlova and Plum and Orange steamed pudding are all last minute jobs.

The bits have been bought to make the Christmas crackers (Bon Bons) and I have pretty much got the presents done. So it's down to making the list and checking it more than twice for things to be made nearer to the day.

Just enough free time this morning, between kiddie wrangling and household chores, to make a fresh batch of shortbread.................in the shape of gingerbread men - just to get us in the spirit for what is to come, I love the festive season!

 

 

Antipodean/Down Under Christmas Cake

adapted from Cuisine 119:95

Fills a 20cm square cake tin

Make 6 weeks before Christmas and feed with brandy or such like each week

250g Papaya in lime juice (dried)
250g Apricots/Pineapple (dried)
250g mango (dried)
100g Cranberries (dried)
100g Razz Cherries (lovely raspberry infused dried cherries)
75g mixed peel
75g coarse peel chopped marmalade
75ml whisky/brandy/rum/port (I did use a little homemade Quince ratafia in the initial soaking stage, prior to cooking)

Make sure all the dried ingredients are cut up into smallish pieces

Place all of these ingredients together in a large bowl and mix well. Leave for a couple of days. Stir regularly.

Line the tin with 2 layers of baking paper and butter well. Line the outside of the tin with 4 or so sheets of damp newspaper and tie with string. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

Add orange and lemon zest (half and orange and half a lemon) and juices and 50g halved blanched almonds to the mixture. Stir.

1/2 tsp baking powder
250g flour
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
250g softened butter
250g softened brown sugar
4 free range eggs

Sift flour and baking powder and spices together.
Set aside.
Beat butter and sugar until thick and creamy.
Add eggs one at a time, add a little flour as needed.
Gently fold through rest of flour mixture.
Add fruit mixture and combine together.

Tip mix into prepared tin.
If not icing push some extra almonds onto the surface in a pattern.

Bake for about 2 hours - test with a skewer - cover with baking paper if necessary to stop burning/over browning.
Drizzle rum/brandy over cooling cake. Leave to cool in the tin.
Store in an airtight container wrapped in muslin.
Drizzle whte muslin with rum/brandy each week.

When serving brush with a little sieved, warmed marmalade if you like.



Love what you do, do what you love.......

I was having one of those days.....you know, it's grey, raining, the dogs keep traipsing in and out bringing with them yet more samples of the sogginess that is the property, you just want five minutes to sit and read something of your own, have a cuppa, but the cherubs are having none of it, seem incapable of playing for a few minutes on their own without screams and tears emanating from the bedroom.....it's one of those times you question why you are a SAHM, 'Surely I should be making a wage and bringing more money into the household? Am I losing every intelligent brain cell I have?'

It's a tad early but, the crying is more than I can bear now, so I decide wee cherub is tired and needs to try to go for a snooze. Surprisingly after a feeble attempt at a refutation, wee cherub falls asleep to her beautiful Greta Bradman Forest of Dreams lullabies - this album has been wonderful for both cherubs, gorgeous to listen too, not stimulating but calming, I have to make sure I don't hang about too long or I would be out for the count too!

Toddler cherub has asked to watch a cartoon so I oblige....'gives me a few minutes to myself', I think. So I nip over to the computer with a cup of tea and check my emails. Now, I cannot for the life of me remember what got me there, but I ended up at a website that made me stop and take stock of what I was doing. Holstee, a design company run by young things that have a social and environmental conscience, have a manifesto that just makes you sit up and take notice......well done them!

click here to see their manifesto

So - I came away from the computer and asked toddler cherub to make that the last cartoon, she was reluctant until I said, 'Would you like to bake some cranberry cookies with momma?'

Well, she flew from the rug, switched the television off and squealed with delight, shot up onto a chair at the kitchen counter and was all smiles waiting for her apron to be put on.....

I looked at this bubbling bundle of excitement, my beautiful girl.

I kissed her forehead and put her apron on, it wasn't long before she had covered herself, the kitchen and the dogs in flour.......................perfect......................I just needed to make the change so that I was doing what I loved.

I know tiredness and frustration will get the better of me again, but I shall be getting a copy of these words to have in the kitchen to quickly shake me out of my self indulgence and remember just how lucky I am, life is short and I am living my dream..........................

I give up......

It's a wet, miserable Sunday and I have kiddies to read to, animals to feed and lunches to make for pre-school. I was going to try and get my cupcake vs muffin comparison on the go and make some cupacakes to rival the lemon muffins I made a while ago, but yet again time, priorities and energy have conspired against me.
I am not going to fight it any more - clearly for me, the cupcake is a less useful and more treat-like cousin to the easy to make, easy to bake and useful muffin that is fast becoming a staple in our house.
Today I made some cheese, cumin and pumpkin muffins so that toddler cherub has some variety to her cheese sandwich option this week.
SOOOOO easy and tasty. That's it, the jury rules in favour of muffins if not purely for practicalities for this SAHM momma.

Long live the muffin.

Sunday sewing......

It's Sunday, it's pouring with rain and the girls are busy playing in a pile of cushions. So I have a few minutes to play with.....

I decided to run myself up a sewing machine cover, as I really dislike the white plastic sleeve that came with the machine. It doesn't look nice and it hardly encourages me to cover the machine when not in use and so dust has been collecting (naughty me).

I pulled out some check material I had bought to recover my ironing board - a super quick, easy job. I simply pulled off the old one, cut around it as a template and then sewed the new cover onto the old one by folding the edge over and sewing along the inside of the pull cord so that the cord was still free and was able to still pull tight underneath.

Anyhow, I used that as a lining and pulled out two lovely fat quarters for the outer cover. Patterns that would somehow convert the sewing machine into an attractive object d'art.......well almost!

 

 I measured up the sides and length and width of the old plastic cover and used that as a template for the cutting of the new one, so the base length I cut about 16 inches with an extra 7 inches either side for the side panels. The height came out at 12 inches with another 5 inches for the top panel.

I sewed up the long sides first and then the top edges  - I did this from the inside and then I turned the material the right way around and ran over every edge to give it a little more form when it sits on the machine. It certainly makes me remember to cover the machine when not in use now and that corner of my room is a little more interesting than before.

        

So the wee ones are needing entertaining now - but my toddler has decided she needs mummy to sew her toy iron a cover now too - how cute is that!

Oh for Spring........

Let's get some Spring cheer into the house and with it a beautiful scent to fill the senses with a promise of what is to come.......

A Balloon ball to lift my spirits.....

My car is old and tired and is now in need of some major repair work to make it go again. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. It' going to cost heaps to get it fixed.....probably more than the car is worth; however, I don't have four times the amount to buy a better second-hand car.
So........ it gets fixed and I have to deal with the bill.

And it is in the middle of this reality of cars and financial woes that I found myself reaching for some comfort in my fabric stash.

I looked online for a simple project that would be useful to my wee ones and provide me with a little happiness in a job well done.

So whilst toddler cherub was at pre-school and wee cherub snoozed in her cot, I launched into Emma Jones' beautifully simple Cloth Balloon Ball pattern and made one with tags, just for the fun of it.

There were three rounds of pleasure felt. One, immediately upon completion, I just loved how it looked - Two, when wee cherub woke up and her eyes widened at the colours before batting it round the room - and Three, when toddler cherub got home and squealed with delight at booting it around the house with her sister.

Cars will come and go, bills will eventually get paid off, although there will, undoubtedly, be others to follow in the future; but the moments with my wee ones and that balloon ball....free......actually, priceless and will be with me forever.

Mug Rug.....

I saw a free template, from Sara at The Split Stitch, for how to make these Mug Rugs at Wild Olive and I just LOVE them.

How cute is that?!

I was so excited that I ran for my fabric scrap box and pulled together my own version last night. It's a bit rough round the edges but not bad for a novice sewer first try :)

I didn't have any trim this time round for the front:

And I kept the back simple as the design is so lovely:



I shall take some time to design some embroidery side panels and get some nice trim to go down the middle too and I can see these shaping up as presents for family and friends coupled with a new mug and their favourite hot beverage, maybe some belgian hot chocolate and marshmallows...mmmm.......



recyclable, reusable, beautiful wrapping......

I am getting into wrapping presents in fabrics. I have long hated the huge waste of paper at the end of Christmas and Birthday unwrapping sessions. Totally environmentally deranged! But wrapping papers are gorgeous, I wasn't going to just hand things over in the bags they came in or heaven forbid completely unwrapped with no sense of occasion or surprise.

Then I found Bev of Flyingbags in Christchurch. She is big into Japanese wrapping styles and reducing waste.......

"In the tradition of Japanese furoshiki, Korean Bojagi and Chinese Baofu fabric wrapping is a wonderful and surprisingly easy way to dress a simple gift."

" 'Mottainai' is a Japanese word based on the idea of recognising the intrinsic value of something. Another way of understanding 'Mottainai' is to think about using something without waste."

 I have bought wraps from her through Trade-Me, which got me started and now I am choosing gorgeous fabrics and cutting them to size for presents. I am like a kid in a candy store when visiting fabric on-line shops, my eyes become organ stops and I can feel myself salivating! Ridiculous I know....

These wraps were from Bev. The small parcel is a flat book and I have pretty much followed a technique provide by Bev on her help sheets. The large box is a momma special for her wee one who is quite taken with wrapped sweets....she doesn't get any to eat so I thought I would give her one as a birthday present, her toy inside is so much more healthy than any sweetie !

But the recipients of these wrapped presents are loving them - it becomes a second present as the fabrics can be re-worked into something else or simply kept for it's loveliness (some wrapping turns into a mini fabric bag and so is easily used for other things like a pack bag for smalls or storing dry items). For those that don't want to hang on to them I get them back and reuse them. The ones within our own house get reused time and time again, and I know that eventually they may start to wear but they can be cut up and used in sewing and quilting projects, fabric labels........

In my opinion, one of the nice things about this craft is that you can make it up as you go along - if you get in touch with Bev she will be able to provide you with a myriad of techniques for wrapping particular items and I have found these fantastic, however.............you can play a little too:)

Like the bags I have made for the chalk mats I have sewn up for my nephews. Rather than wrapping their birthday presents in paper I have made long bags with fabulous 'boys toys' pictures, which is great to keep the present a surprise but then also becomes a way of carrying the mat and chalk bag around

Add a 'handmade' tag and it becomes a personal present made with love.

Egg epode......

Some try to find

more outlandish ways

to put you on our dishes

But the secret here

is not so wild

But to listen to your wishes.

The best of you

came from green grass,

and woodland chooks who toiled

to find their food and freely laid....

Serve simply, some salt, just boiled.

Don't get me wrong I love all sorts of dishes involving eggs. I delight in a freshly made egg custard tart and scrambled eggs and lemon curd and eggs benedict and scotch eggs........I could go on......

However there is something very special about having just come back from egg hunting............

and yes hunting , as our chickens are their own mistresses, they go where they please and come calling for top up food as they feel inclined. I am constantly aiming to chicken proof my veggies and fruits and the cleaning up of chook poop from the house deck and pathway is now only augmented by the guinea fowl!

But they are happy chooks and healthy chooks - no drugs of any sort here. They get worms, like any normal animal, and they develop a load they can deal with, their extensive lifestyle contributing to their good health. If they do develop a fatally high worm load then............that's just what it is.....fatal.......but this is very rare because we have a low number of chickens for the land area.

..........as I was saying before I sidetracked............coming back from egg hunting, boiling up one or two eggs whilst I get a cup of English Breakfast tea on the go. Then sitting down to the simplest of pleasures which is a warm hard boiled egg dappled with sea salt.....the firm smooth white splitting to expose the creamy bright yellow treasure inside, our chickens' yolks will always be the tastiest and most vibrant yellow of all.....

They so deserve to be sat on this piece of Royal Crown Derby

I also adore soft boiled eggs, but as these MUST have toast soldiers with them to be dipped in until the yolk runs all over the cup and plate below....they aren't technically the most simple way of having the egg ;)

Gourmet Grapefruit ......

It's pretty chilly here, and this morning what I would consider a heavy frost but I know South Islanders would just laugh....
So I decided to take some advice from the daytime sunshine and get some 'glow-on' inside the house, so the toddler cherub and I went out and picked our few grapefruit from our wee tree.

 (You will have to excuse the long grass....I was unable to get to it before the deluge came and now the ground is as soggy as anything and will need some more drying out days before I can attempt to take the mower in there! But the trees are doing okay, and I'll get to it.......eventually :)  I am sure everyone with land, animals and small children knows the situation!)

Having eaten one with a little sprinkled sugar, and it was tasty, refreshing and summery, I thought there must be a delicious way of enjoying these fruits without it being all over in one sitting. So after some trawling through the recipe books I decided to make a grapefruit curd and a marmalade. (I also had a small fruit left over and it zinged up a lentil, lamb neck and kumara stew just nicely)

The grapefruit curd was super easy - I just followed my lemon curd method but with the following ingredients.

Grapefruit Curd
1/2 Cup grapefruit grated peel (padded down in cup)
1 Cup Grapefruit juice (full to top not scant)
1 1/3 Cups caster sugar
2/3 Cup butter

It is lipsmackingly tasty and we are loving it on toast, in yoghurt and simply as a sneaky spoonful :)

The chooks have decided to lay a few eggs this winter, which is nice....I am wondering whether the arrival of the guinea fowl has prompted them to up their game?
So there is also quiche on the menu today. The wonderful added feature of the cooking that is going on is that the house is getting lovely and toasty!

The Grapefruit marmalade recipe was done using Marguerite Patten's second Seville/Bitter Orange marmalade recipe (a sweeter variety). It requires soaking the sliced up fruit along with pips (in muslin), overnight in water. Then simmering for about 1 1/2 hours before removing the pip bag. Adding lemon juice and boiling rapidly till setting point reached.
This is just lovely, sweet with a tangy grapefruit undercurrent. Someone in the family is in for a treat at Christmas.

Away with the fairies......

I am forever researching things to do with my wee cherubs that encourage their creativity, their resourcefulness, awareness of their environment, things that will foster their love of life, their wonderment and their joy in doing things with their hands. Baking and crafts are great for that, although I am a little bit overprotective at times and should let them get stuck in a bit more often (without hurting themselves of course).

Well, recently I came across the concept of Fairy Gardens at a lovely blog , The Magic Onions, that explores the Waldorf Philosophy. It spurred me on to give it a go with toddler cherub.

We have started our garden, I say started as I see this as an ever evolving project as she becomes more dextrous and her ideas become bigger and more challenging.

Momma did have to make the chair and teepee, but cherub potted the plants, placed the rose and flag and shells where she wanted them and waters her garden every couple of days.

She does go to it every day and check it, sometimes she picks parts of it up and moves them, sometimes back to the same place, sometimes to another place.
We talk about how the fairies come and rest their weary selves on the chair at night; cherub decided this allows them to fly home again and that is why the chair is still empty in the morning.

Then the other morning she noticed there was something sitting in the chair.....it was a little doll.
The fairies had left her a doll to say thank you for the lovely garden and chair.
Cherub hopes the fairies leave a doll for her baby sister, her momma and her daddy too......maybe.....

For now though she was content that momma could make her a little cot for her doll to have somewhere to sleep. I got the idea for this from The Good Morning Mother. Although hers were made using the needle felting technique, I haven't tried that yet so I simply cut some felt fabric up and sewed them together to make a cot.

I think needle felting is next on my list after making some felt toadstools......;)

Before then, it appears some little people have moved in!

Mini-mallows and Muffins.............

I don't know what your view is, but I do my best to minimise the intake of artificial flavours, colours and preservatives in the family's diet, especially in the cherubs' diets.

They don't have lollies as a rule, but we do allow them mini-marshmallows, a couple as a little treat, maybe to jazz up a bowl of porridge oats.

I had been using Pams mini marshmallows, and then of course the price war starts and we changed to Ma-Mallow for a while, then some were sent as gifts from family.....

I remember checking Pams for colours and flavours and saw that they used natural flavours and a natural colour E162 - Beetroot Red. It was remiss of me but I didn't check again even though the brands changed for a while. I did again recently as a bag arrived from a friend and the pink mallows were almost radioactive in colour - indeed the colour used was E120 - Cochineal, and another batch had an azo dye colouring used.

Now I am not super paranoid momma (I know natural doesn't necessarily mean good, often quite the opposite, and some of the 'bad' chemicals we are warned about have been labelled so from quite abnormal animal loadings in laboratories and give a worst case scenario) however, you are what you eat, so I don't want to shovel lots of these things down my cherubs' throats at such an early age of development.

Anyhoo, long story short I have been separating white mallows from pink for the last few packets and now we have returned to Pams. I am not advertising for them but it has made me get back into checking alternate brands for the same item again when shopping.

And.....further to my muffin vs cupcake project. It was time to bake the lemon cupcakes.
Well after moving the cows from one paddock to another, picking yet more cherry guava with the toddler cherub, feeding the pigs and chooks, baking biscuits, cooking lunch and reading stories - to be perfectly honest, cake making was so low down on my list I turned straight to the muffin recipes and used up a couple of oranges on Orange and Honey Muffins (Alison Holst again). Sooooooo easy and they're made 20 minutes later and I can sit down and have a cup of tea and ............ a delicious muffin....mmmmm................

.......I can see where this project is headed already.....

Notes from the kitchen

I was just putting away some recipes I have jotted down from some of my favourite blogs and it occurred to me....am I becoming a dying breed?

I don't own an iPhone, or any sort of smart phone or tablet (I'm not a luddite). I LOVE writing recipes down, scrawling notes into recipe books, pulling out old recipes written down in the handwriting of an aged aunt or long lost loved one, especially if they are dog-eared and stained with the splashes of some delicious endeavour.

My notes vary in form from additions in the front or back of a book, headers and footers to existing recipes, cut out snippets from magazines, and slightly more orderly recipe cards.

Sadly, my most recent affection for recipes cards from the stable of Nut and Bee has been cut short, as they are no more (although Annette, the owner/artist, still blogs of her exploits). I shall, however, continue to use up my stock and search for a replacement as I just don't think I am the 'baking with recipe on the tablet' type.....for one thing I would worry about getting flour or egg or something on the electronics (and as I have said, I think this just adds to the paper copy's authenticity).

Long live paper I say (don't get me started on books vs ebooks!)......

Pita Patter

Having tried the oil included recipe for Pita bread yesterday I was hungry (pardon the pun) to try an oil free version, something I was more familiar with from my childhood days. Along with the rich smokey smell of rotisserie chickens on the side of the road and the sticky sweetness of mishmish leather, I remember hummus and arabic bread - khubz (pita)الخبز العربي.

So I went trawling the internet for recipes for pita - it's a bit like baklava and the arguments for it being arabic or turkish.......pita, is it middle eastern or mediterranean.....? (Is that where the olive oil difference is most visible?). To be honest, I don't think it really matters, a number of countries have their take on the flatbreads and we are all the more culinarily richer for it :)

So here I find myself, adapting the middle eastern recipe from Saad Fayed and producing some tasty reminders of my childhood in the form of Pita/Arabic Bread.

Oh.....this is it..............fresh bread in a basket...............just fantastic. I might make myself a little hummus to go with it tonight but right now, straight out of the oven, unadulterated and as they are is blissful :)

My Pita Recipe
1 1/2 Cups Plain flour or a mixture of plain and wholemeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp honey
1 tsp dried active yeast (such as Edmonds)
3/4 Cup warm water

Sieve the flour and salt into a mixing bowl
In another bowl pour in the warm water, sprinkle over the yeast and stir in the honey - put to one side and leave for approx. 10-15minutes until nice and frothy.
Make a well in the flour and pour in the yeast mixture.
Stir in to mix and then combine with your hands.
Move to a lightly floured surface and knead for approx. 7 minutes or until the dough feels more smooth and silky, not sticky and begins to bounce back or resist you poking it's surface.
Form a ball with the dough.
Put into a bowl sprayed with oil, make sure all of the dough is lightly covered in oil too.
Cover and leave to one side for about 2 hours or until it has doubled in size.
Press out the ball on a lightly floured surface(knock back).
Divide into golf ball size spheres and lay to one side, cover again and leave to rest for about 20 minutes.
When rested, take each piece and on a lightly floured surfaceroll out with a pin to approx 1/4 inch depth pieces.
I don't worry too much about shape as these are snack size for small hands and the variability in shapes makes for a more interesting presentation.
If the dough is not stretchy when rolling out, leave them to rest further.

In a preheated oven (highest temperature it will go say 200-250 degrees Celsius) - using a baking stone if you have one or a good baking sheet - place pieces ,well spaced out (you may have to do in batches) and cook in the oven for about 4 minutes before flipping over and doing for another approx. 2 minutes.

This bread can be frozen and stored but in my opinion should be fresh each time you eat it (so make every day you want some).......

Wet and windy.....

....means we need something comforting, warming, just a little bit naughty.....Pancakes!

So it was a morning for my American Style Breakfast Pancakes. The kind hubby and I remember from some of our holidays in the USA, and the kind that his mum used to bake with blueberries (fresh or warmed and thickened up with arrowroot) and whipped cream. However, my hubby is still partial to breakfast pancakes with crispy bacon and maple syrup....yum......

My wee ones love these two. For a change from blueberries we had them with fresh kiwifruit and a dash of maple syrup this morning. Tiny wee one shared some of hers with the dogs - they are ever so grateful and her very best friends at meal times.

There is just something about maple syrup dripping over the edge of the pancakes and the butter melting and sliding down the side onto your plate that gets those taste buds working overtime...........

And then there is the layer upon layer of spongey, creamy softness of the pancake that slides down with the sweet, oaky syrup.....the kiwifruit was a nod at being healthy!

Wet and windy also meant cuddling up cosy and tonight we had homemade pita bread thanks to Bubbalino's blog reference to BrownEyedBaker, and the scrumptious Pumpkin and Quinoa recipe from the guys at Organic Naturally:

Pumpkin and Quinoa Soup

1 onion roughly chopped
Ceres Organic Olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1kg pumpkin – roughly chopped into cubes
1 cup white quinoa (rinsed well in cold water)
2 litres of liquid/stock (Use whatever stock you have available - fresh chicken stock or water and bouillon powder or cubes)
Salt and pepper

Cook the chopped onion in a dash of olive oil till translucent.
Add the washed quinoa, chopped pumpkin, cumin.
Stir and cover with the liquid.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
Check pumpkin and quinoa is cooked, season to taste.
Mash with potato masher and enjoy, for a less chunky texture puree with a stick mixer.

I used our homegrown Butternut Pumpkins and black instead of white quinoa, and a dash more cumin - the wee cherubs LOVED it. Tiny cherub had her pita broken up into the soup and we let it soak up a little to make it easier for her to eat solo. I made the pita smaller again for the wee ones' hands and we had a very warming dinner time.

 

 

 

1Cup Plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 eggs - separated into yolks and whites
1/4 Cup melted, unsalted butter
1Cup milk

Put all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Sift or stir with a balloon whisk. Stir in the egg yolks, add the melted butter, the milk and mix to a batter.
Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl to form stiff peaks. Now fold these into the batter gently.
Place spoonfuls of batter onto an oiled griddle or frying pan at a medium heat. Cook on first side, when bubbles appear on the surface turn it over and cook for a few minutes more. Place on kitchen towel whilst making the batch so that excess cooking oil can be absorbed away.

Enough for 4 without over doing it!

Bootiful bread and luvly lemons

We LOVE homemade bread in this house. Although a real treat for momma is a gorgeous artisan loaf made by someone else, we do love our filling the house with warmth loaves at home.
Currently we are besotted with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Fizz Carr's A loaf of Fresh White Bread from their A River Cottage Family Cookbook. It's an almost creamy loaf with olive oil and honey, just bloomin' delicious.

The other baking interest at the moment is the difference between or perhaps it's my preference for muffins over cupcakes. I think, mostly, it's the fact I see muffins as quicker, easier, can be thrown together in 15 minutes from whatever you have to hand, kind of fare. Whereas, cupcakes I see as their high maintenance cousin.....
So I am going to attempt to have my own bake-off, muffin vs cupcake, potentially each week (but the wee ones may have something else to say about that, we'll see....)

So today I made Lemon muffins (using Alison Holst's Marvellous Muffins book), later in the week it will be Lemon cupcakes and I shall compare and contrast. These were lovely, light, moist and just enough bite of lemon. The other bonus was I was able to come in and have them done and dusted in about 25 minutes total, after feeding pigs, chickens, collecting cherry guava and cleaning a toddler of paddock mud and cow pat..... that was a huge draw card!
We don't go for too much in the way of extras (cream etc) with baking on a weekly basis (we leave that for special occasions).

developing my craftiness......

I was led, via another blog by Bubbalino, to a fantastic post from Amanda, at Fabric Fixation, that shows how to make a chalk cloth mat for your cherubs to use. Much more transportable than the large easel we have hiding behind the bookcase. This one stores in the girls 'drawing basket' and is much quicker to tidy up.

It's also easy to make. I had some issues with the presser foot on my sewing machine sticking on the laminated cotton in the first draft, but after some advice from Amanda and her friends on Facebook I moved to the walking foot and it worked a charm.

Once that was tried I used the walking foot on the scrap piece of Cath Kidston oil cloth I had lying about, and it worked a treat there too...

I found this tutorial to make a lunch bag/stuff sac by Cindy at Skip to my Lou - super easy and a very useful design. Once I get more confident, I am sure I can adapt it to produce a multitude of versions.

The other thing I dabbled with over the last few days was felt pin books, the type I remember from my Home Economics lessons at school in the 1980's. Well I was inspired to have a go at these very simple little projects whilst leafing through Cath Kidston's MAKE! book.

Super easy, quick and fun. Great for keeping me occupied when the wee ones are in bed and it's all sport on the box.....

The thing that had not occurred to me was their other use - story books! My toddler cherub (almost 3 yrs old) loves running around with them and pretending to read a story from them, although she has taken it a step further and momma has been instructed to 'finish' the books with more pictures for the inside pages :)

My toddler was so keen on what she saw we got her using a needle and embroidery thread for the first time, she managed to sew a tight ball of matted thread and fabric but, hey, she was using a needle and thread....from small beginnings......

On your marks.....

Well the wee one's First Birthday cake is made. I went for a Lemon Mascarpone Layer cake as I figured all that calcium would surely cancel out the effect of the sugar!!
There's no artificial colours and gubbins in it, it's just (like many cakes) got a heap of sugar and a fair bit of fat in it, so as with everything - moderation. After all, it is her birthday...

(p.s. - this isn't a single portion! Actually you could probably get 12-16 slices out of this puppy, I had to send friends away with cake and this was the section I kept for us to have a taster more....)

I must say....it was absolutely delicious, this is a definite make again cake. Not difficult, a little time consuming but I split the steps up over a couple of days so it wasn't a chore. Melt in the mouth divine - almost..........almost better than the Hokitika double layered baked cheesecake (but that, as they say, is another story....)

(p.p.s. - It was a big hit with the birthday girl who was able to use her baby led weaning skills to full effect. She had the cheese icing all over her, the table , the chair, the floor and the dogs....everyone was happy.)

Lemon Mascarpone Layer Cake
You will need to make Lemon Curd, Lemon juice and sugar syrup, True Sponge Cake and the Filling/Icing.

The Lemon Curd I used is the one I make at home and you can see that recipe on this blog.

The True Sponge Cake is one that has lightness (sponge) due to the air you have managed to incorporate and not through any raising agent.
I use the following ingredients to fill two 7 1/2 inch round cakes tins that have been lined with parchment paper (ungreased tin, ungreased paper).

5 eggs
1 Cup caster sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Cup plain flour (sifted)
1/4 tsp salt

Separate the eggs. Whisk up the whites into soft peaks then add 1/4 cup of sugar and whisk to stiff peaks. You can now use the whisks without cleaning to take the yolks in a bowl, whisk up. Add the lemon juice and whisk, gradually add 3/4 cup of sugar whisking as you go until you have a nice, thick, smooth, pale yellow mixture that flows in ribbons from the whisks and slowly melts back into the mixture in the bowl.
Now pour the yolk mixture into the whites bowl and gently fold the two together to combine evenly.
It should be an almost foamy consistency.

Divide mixture between the two cake tins and bake at 180 degrees celsius for about 35-40 minutes. Use a skewer to test (should come out clean). When you press the top of the cake it should also spring back when you release your finger.

Once baked, cool on a wire rack. To be used in this recipe you will be slicing each cake in half horizontally so you have 4 layers.

The Lemon Syrup is super easy and, as with the sponges, I have made that in advance of the construction day. It is just too difficult to get a few hours of quiet in the kitchen at once. The wee ones demand attention at regular intervals (quite rightly they chime in!) and so I try to split projects into steps that can come together at a later date in an attempt to reduce anxiety and increase the likelihood of success!

I used :

1/2 Cup caster sugar
1/4 Cup Boiling water from the kettle
1/4 Cup fresh lemon juice

I simply pour the water over the sugar in a bowl, whisk thoroughly to help dissolve the sugar, then add the lemon juice. If you find the sugar isn't dissolving you can always do this in a microwave proof dish and give it a zap to help it along but I have never needed to, kettle seems to be fine and dandy.
Needs to be cool before pouring over the sponges later on.

The Lemon Mascarpone Filling/Icing is pretty straightforward.

I used :

480 ml full cream
1/2 Cup caster sugar
600 g mascarpone cheese (cold from the fridge)

I whisked up the cream with the sugar to form peaks in one bowl. In a separate bowl I whisked up the mascarpone with about 2 cups of the lemon curd - just on the slowest setting so not to beat it up too much but to get the lemon curd well in - you will need to taste and check for tartness, I wanted to have a hint of tartness in the filling/icing to cut through the cream and the cheese rich 'fat' flavour.
Then I added the cheese to the cream and gently folded with a wide spatula until evenly combined.

Then it is the building phase - lay one sponge layer on your choice of platter, board or cake dish. Brush with the lemon syrup without completely drenching, then spread over a layer of lemon curd before spreading a layer of the cheese filling. Lay the next sponge layer down and repeat, do this again with the next layer, with the final sponge layer finish with the cheese icing and carry on to cover the whole cake. Add piped decoration if you wish.