So much baking….

So little time.  Working full time is really putting a dent into my baking time. 

To Do:

• 3 pavlovas  for Christmas lunch at work on Thursday.

• Gingerbread trees and men.  Dough made, just need to roll out, bake and decorate.  Think I will bake them tonight, and decorate tomorrow night.
• Bake Cranberry & White Chocolate cookies.  I’ve made the dough for these, and might need to make another double batch, since I have the ingredients for them.

• Recipe (so I can find it easily next year) is:
• 500 grams of butter
• 1 and 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1 packet craisins (dried cranberries)
• 200 grams chopped white chocolate
• 4 cups plain flour

Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla essence.  Mix in flour until dough is formed, then stir in craisins and white chocolate.  Roll into small (biggish teaspoon full) size balls, and bake for 12-15 mins at 170c.

This is a double batch recipe, which is easier to do as it uses the whole packet of craisins and the whole block of white chocolate.  I usually freeze the cookies after I have rolled them into balls, so you can just bake a couple at a time.  They also benefit from a rest in the fridge before baking, if you are going to cook them straight away, as there is a lot of butter in them.

Potato salad for Christmas day.  I do not eat potato salad, so this one is new for me.  Also, can’t use mayonnaise (I don’t like it anyway, so no problem for me).  I found a recipe with prosciutto, capers and spring onions, with olive oil and vinegar dressing, so I think I’ll give this one a go.  Except for the capers.  Maybe. Haven’t decided yet.

In other Christmas happenings, I am participating in the Toy Society Christmas drop for 2010.  I am “paying forward” a random act of kindness from this lovely blogger, and have set myself a target of one toy drop every day this week.  I did my first one this morning on my way to work.  I might arrange for a bit of help from friends at work, just to spread the love a bit further.

Christmas crazy

Christmas stresses me out every year, despite my best efforts to stay clear of it.  This year it’s worse than normal, with house and car dramas being thrown into the mix.  Hopefully things will be resolved soon, and I am sure I will be much happier when they are. 

 

I like to give tea towels and baked goods as gifts for co-workers, and friends at my sewing group.  This year I was lucky enough to find plain white tea towels as Spotlight, so I have just added a band of printed fabric to each one.  I have 21 finished and ready to go! 

 

I’ve also made a couple of these:

It’s a hexagon sewing caddy (can’t find the link to the pattern).  I’ve made 3 as presents, and this one for myself.  I love those cherries.

And this:

My first gingerbread house!  I’ve wanted to make one of these for a couple of years now, and finally did it.  I saw the kits at K-Mart for $15, which would have been a much cheaper alternative.  I decided to make mine from scratch (plus another one for my friend) so it was a bit of a business to get the house baked and constructed.  Plus, I have so many lollies left over (and they’re mostly yucky tasting sour stuff).  I had to buy a whole box of ice cream cones so I could use 2, so I’ll have to give those away because I won’t use them.  The marshmallows didn’t go to waste, because I really like those.  The snowman is my favourite, even though he wouldn’t stay standing up, so I’ve decided that the snow is melting (it is in Qld after all) and he is slowly subsiding.  I’ll take it to work tomorrow so they can enjoy it. 

Surprise

 

I always check out the sewing machines in 2nd hand shops.  Mostly they are pretty ordinary, and I leave them where I found them. 

I had a look at this one because it has the same case as the Singer that my grandmother gave us many years ago.  A good solid machine from the 1960’s.  So despite the football stickers that have been applied to the case, I was expecting the same machine that I learnt to sew on. 

(Obligatory cat photo – all new items are thoroughly investigated and inspected for lounging possibilities).

I lifted the cover off to find this – a hand crank Singer in beautiful condition.  Obviously not in it’s original case.  It sews perfectly, and will give me a well toned right arm as well. 

Now when I see sewing cabinets that have had the machine removed, I will pay a bit more attention because I think I can lift this machine out of this case and put it in a cabinet.  Now that I want one, I’ll probably never find one again.

Cake = Fail

I’m going to be making a giant cupcake wedding cake in a few weeks.  I’m a big believer in making practice cakes, just to make sure that the recipe works and there are no problems.

I’m not off to a good start. 

The Giant Cupcake tin has it’s own issues – the top pointy bit of the cupcake tin is a lot smaller than the base part, which means they take different amounts of time to cook.  The base takes about an hour, the top only needs 45 minutes so if you cook them at the same time either the top is overcooked and dry or the base is not cooked properly.  I’ve dealt with this by cooking the 2 bits separately, which takes longer but is safer in the long run.

I made the base section on Sunday – not great, a bit dark looking, but looked OK and most likely edible.  So tonight I thought I would make the top section so I could take it to work tomorrow for afternoon tea.  It looked good until I tried to turn it out of the tin, and it didn’t fall out of the tin straight away like it is supposed to:

The uncooked bit is from the bottom of the tin.  The top was cooked properly, and the edges were pulling in from the sides of the tin.  It must be the white chocolate chips I added.  They seem to have fallen to the bottom of the mixture and then not cooked properly while the outside went very brown.  Argh!

 

This is why I make practice cakes.  Although I am annoyed now, imagine how stressed I would be if this happened the day before the wedding and I had to start again from scratch.  Luckily I still have a few more weeks to go.

progress…

More work on the cats and ponies quilt:

32 blocks, all different but from cream/brown/aqua/red combination.  These are foundation pieced on Ricky Tims Stable Stuff, which can be left in and kind of dissolves when it gets wet. (apparently, haven’t tested it out yet)

I’ve had a migraine/nausea most of the weekend for some reason, so I thought these blocks would take ages to do.  But once I set up a production line and precut all the pieces, it went surprisingly fast.  I did have to sew and iron in fits and starts

Still deciding how to applique the little cats on these – I hate doing hand blanket stitch applique, so I am leaning towards invisible machine applique and then add hand embroidered details like the tails and whiskers.  Same for all the ponies. 

Still need to do more little squares for the outside of these blocks, which I can manage too do in little bits of time before and after work.  I’ve been getting up earlier (on work days, not on the weekends) and spending 20-30 minutes sewing before I leave in the morning.  These little bits of sewing really add up and by the end of the week I have heaps finished.  Feels like I am achieving  something instead of just plodding along with this one.

all sorted

After a quilting marathon that lasted a week, it's done.   Binding on, cat hair (mostly) removed and handed over to it's new owner.   It's a group project made to celebrate a "zero" birthday. 

Next on the craft agenda is one of these:

 
A wedding bouquet made out of buttons for my friend Shanon.  This one is listed on Etsy, but there is a 36 week waiting period for orders.  As she is getting hitched in 6 weeks, we decided to have a go and make one ourselves.

We have been acquiring buttons, searching for shiny things and trying to work out to assemble it.  We've managed to locate the silk flowers and ribbon flowers and found some old jewellery at the op shop that can be included.

We had a craft day yesterday to shop for the last bits and pieces needed, and came home to assemble button flowers until our fingers start bleeding.  6 hours later we had this:

I just need to finish the ribbon handle and add a diamante buckle and it’s done.

Apparently sitting in my lounge room is like being in the middle of Wild Kingdom, with wild beasts just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on unsuspecting visitors.  I have 2 cats and a lorikeet.   One cat is friendly and likes to be petted by visitors.  The other will remain hidden behind the lounge chair for hours at a time.  The lorikeet is in a cage (I’ll admit he’s a bit noisy).  Hardly Wild Kingdom.

Shanon doesn’t care for cats, so every time Fifi glanced at her or walked past her she would jump up in a panic.  Eventually things settled down and Fifi  decided to roost in the shoebox that Shanon had been collecting her buttons in.  It was a tight squeeze, but she managed to get in there.  Shanon doesn’t want her box back anymore.

 

Clearing the decks

A little while ago I saw the Fabric of Society exhibit.  Some amazing quilts with their history documented by Annette Gero.  I bought the book, too.  The most expensive book (that is not a textbook) that I’ve ever bought.  I’ve implemented a no eating rule for looking at this book, and considered a white glove rule as well but I didn’t have a pair so that fell by the wayside.  But definitely no food near the book.  

Victorian Quilters are having a contest for quilts made based on quilts in the book – there are 30 or so patterns included.  I like a contest – apparently I have a competitive streak – so thought I might have a go at making a different (for me) sort of quilt.  The one that intrigued me most is this one – Mrs Keens’s Quilt.  The quilt wasn’t travelling with the exhibit, it’s kept at the Queenscliffe Historical Society.  It has cats and ponies on it – it’s completely bizarre.

 

This one didn’t have a pattern in the book, so I am trying to recreate it from the pictures and draft it myself in EQ5.  The original is hand pieced over papers, but I am going to use modern methods.  I think I’ll use foundation piecing for most of it, plus the little bits of applique.  After a couple of false starts I’ve managed to do these:

 

The block is supposed to be 10 inches, but it’s a fraction under that, probably because of the number of seams involved (14 X 14 squares that should be 3/4 inch each).  Just as well I measured the finished blocks, because I can adjust the  rest of the quilt easier that I can fix the sizing on these ones.

I just need to get a few other projects out of the way so I can get stuck into this.  I want to start embroidering the ponies.  And cats! lots  and lots of cats!