Baking

So I finally got the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, which I've been after for ages, and at the same time I got Rachel Allen's Bake. They arrived this week and I wanted to test a couple of recipes, so I chose the Black Bottom Cupcakes from HBC and Oat and Vanilla Cookies from Bake.

The recipes in both books were really easy to follow and I started off with the cupcakes. They are really rich chocolate cupcakes with a dollop of cheesecake mixture on top.

Here's a picture of the page in the book, depicting what they are supposed to look like:

 

And here are my finished cupcakes:

 

As you can see, they do not remotely resemble the picture, however they are still pretty tasty. I'm hoping that a lot of photoshopping and food-teasing was involved to take the original picture.

First I mixed all the ingredients for the chocolate part in my old, Freecycled fod mixer. The colour was this delicious brown and it smelled great.

The mixture was really thick and gloopy, I think because no eggs were called for. It was hard to get it into the cupcake cups and I was very tempted to eat it raw out of the bowl!

After that I made the cheesecake mixture and I think this is maybe where things went wrong. The mixtue was really runny, even though I used the amount of liquid (eggs) called for in the recipe. I think in future I would use more cream cheese to thicken the mixture up a little.

They taste really rich and dense, especially the chocolate part, and I think I would make some modifications if I make these again. Since the cheesecake part was a bit runny it went crumbly in the oven.

While the cakes were baking I made the cookies. This was really easy but I added quite a bit of water to the mixture as it wasn't forming the dough well enough with the dry ingredients. After a while cooling in the fridge, I baked the (tiny) cookies, which grew a little in the oven to resemble this:

No photo comparison for this one but let me tell you that they do not look like the picture! Somehow Rachel Allen managed to make hers perfectly round which I found impossible! They taste good though and will be coming to work with me tomorrow.

I love these two books and can't wait to make more from them. Guy is making fondue in squash from Bake tonight, to have with smoked salmon and potato wedges, I can't wait!

Scarves and more scarves

It's been a while since my last post since we haven't had the Internet at home for a bit. To fill the time, I've been making a few scarves (it is August but the weather is awful here - 13 degrees this morning!). Excuse the photos, I don't seem to be able to take pictures of objects!

1. Queen Anne Scarf

I actually made this one back in April but only just got around to taking a picture of it.

2. Mirror Lake Scarf

This was a free pattern on Ravelry and I used two strands of Colourmart Extrafine Merino held together. I used two different colours for a tweedy effect.

3. Luna Lovegood Scarf

Another free Ravelry pattern! Although the most simple, I think this is actually my favourite scarf of the bunch. It was super-quick to crochet and the only thing I don't love is the yarn - it is Sirdar Wash n Wear which is a bit of an icky nylon!


In other news: my lovely sister-in-law to be has given me a subscription to Interweave Crochet for my birthday (which was last week). Yay! I can't wait to receive my first issue, I am sure it will be very inspiring!

Also, there are only just over three weeks until our wedding now and we're getting excited! Most of all I am looking forward to going on holiday to Amalfi, Italy. I hope we'll finally have some nice weather!

Harry Potter

Not a very original title, but we went to see HP and the Half-Blood Prince last night. I was a bit in the dark, because although I've read all the books and seen the films, I had forgotten what happened in the last one. Nevertheless it was really good, very well-done and much darker than the previous ones, while retaining the funny parts to make sure it was not too serious for a younger audience.

The film opened with Harry in a cafe attempting to chat up a waitress, a good nod to the fact that the cast and characters are growing up. Although the acting of the main characters has vastly improved since the first film, I still cringed at a few various points where responses seemed a bit stilted or overdone.

The cinematography was amazing as always, with swooping views of Hogwarts and nicely-done CGI (this made me laugh when I thought about the early days of CGI and how things have moved on since then!). I felt a bit cheated that more was not made of the story of the Half Blood Prince, as I think this could have been really interesting, but obviously some things had to be cut down to make the film a manageable length.

One thing I really loved in the film was the amazing array of handknitted items on show! I absolutely covet Hermione's grey knitted hat (and have queued this pattern on Ravelry ready for when my knitting skills improve), and there were also some great scarves and jumpers. I would also love to try to make Luna's lion hat which made everyone laugh out loud, but think that might be a bit of a stretch!

Other things happening this week:

- We are in negotiations to buy a new house (exciting and scary!)
- Going to Leamington Spa this weekend for a friend's birthday (exciting!)
- Found a blog by my favourite graphic artist - new compelling reading! Lucy Knisley

Finished shawl...at last

Just a quick post to say I finally finished the shawl I was crocheting for my stepmum's birthday. I can safely post about it now as my parents went to Italy today. I hope she likes it! Here are a couple of (bad) photos:

Pancakes likes the shawl (and anything made of wool)!

I also made a hat which only took a couple of days, as an antidote to the shawl.

First sewing venture and Etsy

I haven't written in a while as I've been very tired after Guy's sister's fantastic wedding last weekend. However, I have been quietly working away on my top-secret present for my stepmum's birthday and have made quite a bit of progress this week!

Yesterday I decided to venture into sewing (more than just a bag lining) by making a little purse for a friend's birthday. I got the pattern from this book - Sew Fabulous Fabrics - and it was really easy to make. I had some fabric from I-don't-know-when so I used it with some fusible interfacing and all in all it only took about an hour to make. The trickiest bit was sewing on the popper (I sewed it on the wrong way round) and the little button.

Here are some pictures of the finished object:




I love the little button which I found in my mum's old button box. There are some great buttons in there, including stars and lions!

To put in the purse, I bought some handmade earrings from this shop on Etsy.com. I absolutely love her jewellery and have also bought 3 pairs of earrings and a ring for me! The items are gorgeous, very reasonably-priced and the shipping rates are great too, even fto the UK. Hope my friend likes her present!

Reupholstering chairs

This weekend we went to John Lewis to do our wedding gift list, and I visited their haberdashery department for the first time. The shop near us has a great haberdashery with lots of different yarns, threads and great fabric. I have been meaning to reupholster our dining room chairs almost since we got them from a kind person through Freecycle, and this was the perfect excuse to get some great fabric.

I got two meters of purple cotton to cover 6 chairs, and actually it was only slightly too much. I also got a staple gun (getting the right staples was a nightmare involving visitng Hobbycraft and Paperchase just before closing time).

All I did to cover the chairs was unscrew the seat covers, take off one of the existing pieces of fabris, cut a square of new fabric the same size and staple it over the existing cover. It was really easy but quite time-consuming and tiring to do. Anyway, I think it ended up looking really good and fits great with our dining room decor.

BEFORE: stained, old-fashioned fabric that doesn't go with our decor!


AFTER: Lovely new purple fabric that fits in perfectly


I like this fabric so much that I'm thinking about making a tablecloth to go with the seat covers. Not sure how easy this will be so I'll have to investigate it!

The excitement of a new sewing machine AND a new blog

I decided to start this blog to document my ever-growing obsession with crafts, in particular crocheting, sewing, knitting and jewellery-making. My love affair with crochet started at Christmas 2008 when my fiance's sister showed me all the fantastic things she'd been making. After a bit of a halting start I managed to pick it up using Debbie Stoller's Stitch N Bitch Crochet which is a great book. So far I've made hats, scarves, bags, gloves, a purse and I am currently working on a large project for a present.

Knitting quickly followed crocheting, although I haven't picked that up as easily and it's been put aside for the time being. I also re-discovered sewing and pulled out my grandmother's old sewing machine to find it only does one stitch.

Which brings me to yesterday: after spending quite a while searching for a new sewing machine that wouldn't break my (very small) budget but that had all the features I would need for a good couple of years, I finally found the perfect one on eBay. It's a Brother XL220 (can't find the link) and it is an 'A Grade' which means it has either been opened and returned or has had a slight manufacturing fault that has been repaired. It arrived yesterday and I set it up as soon as I got home from work, and it is fantastic! So easy to use, even comes with a needle threader, and I managed to easily line my latest Fat Bottomed Bag with only a couple of mishaps (caused by me, not the machine). Can't wait to receive the two books I've ordered: Sew U and S.E.W. and begin sewing some clothes!