Izzie, cakes and owls!!

...............today I woke at the crack of dawn, well for someone who is unemployed 7.45 am is pretty early I suppose. My mum had said ''Pop over anytime'' so the other so I thought I'd go over and see the aged Ps as I call them, read Great Expectations for reason!!!!! Anyway off we traipse me and I zzie and my mother's not even dressed. She's wandering around in her nighty, mind u it is ggaunt's 90th bday today and she was naked!!!!!!!!!!!Lol.
Anyway, my mother has a fab hoover and I wanted to give Izzie a good clean out after her time at the garage. So I set to with the aid of mum to hoover her clean. Blimey she looks amazing now. Even more so after Mum treatred Izzie to new seat covers from Lidl's, they do fab stuff, and some new floor mats from the pound shop!!!! Izzie has been car Gokked and had all her xmases and birthdays together. Mum also lent me some circular needles for a knitting project.

I also did a LO I've wanted to do for a while about a day I made cupcakes/fairy cakes with Little E or Emma, my friend's 3 year old.

It's abit bent cos of the paint I splashed on the card stock.


I had promised to make cakes with her when they came down to stay last year and we spent ages in the kitchen mixing the cake mixture and then icing them. She loved flinging, literally, sprinkles etc at them and they tasted lush. It was something I loved doing with my mum when I was little then licking the bowl of course and Sarah isn't really a cake maker. However E and daddy now make cakes regularly which is sweet. I made the title fairy or cupcake? cos I'm just not sure there is a difference and they were always fairy cakes to me.


I added paper butterflies with added bling and hand drawn trails and feelers.......
and the little card has a basic recipe for fairy/cupcakes.



In other news my sister has landed in South Africa and is apparently having fun relearning the joys of washing with a twintub. I reminded that mum and I washed her nappies in one and then put them through a mangle when I was little, she is 4 years younger than me.
Anyway off to watch those CSIs solve the murder...........I will leave u with a professional owl fairy/cupcake which I found on an owl site, whose link I will find and put up for all owl lovers. It's literally anything owly!!!

Christmas cake lesson 2

So now for the final part of our lesson.

For this stage you will need these last ingredients:-
2 beaten eggs
125g/40z plain flour
125g/40z self-raising flour
Pinch of salt.

You will also need either a 7 inch square tin or 8 inch round baking tin, which you have greased and lined with baking paper and greased again. If you don't have this then use margarine to grease your tin and then flour line the tin by tipping a spoonful of flour into your greased tin and tapping the flour around until the whole inside is covered.



Now for the final stage. Sift the flour and pinch of salt into your cooled fruit mix and gradually add the beaten egg. Stir the mixture regularly, you don't have to beat it as this cake doesn't rise in the same way as a sponge does. Now because this is Christmas you have to make a wish while you stir. If you have your family with you then they take it turns to stir in a wish.



Once all the ingredients are merged well pour the mix into the prepared tin.

Now the yummy licking the bowl part. Now this has always been a famiyl tradition and I don't care about eating raw egg, but obviously if you do then don't do this part.

Finally place your cake into the oven for approximatewly 1 1/4 hours. Now if you have a fan assisted oven this will be much less so it is vital you don't g out and leave your cake all alone. It might burn! If the cake is getting browned then put some extra greased paper over the top. Some people traditionally wrap brown paper and string around the outside of the tin. I know my oven takes alot less than this time time to cook the cake so regualrly check yours. Once a clean knife or stake comes out clean from the middle of the cake it is cooked.



Take the cake out of the oven and allow to cool until you can handle it. Then remove the cake from the tin and remove the greasedproof paper. Place the cake on a wire cake stand to cool completely and put into a caketin to store.

If you don't have a cake stand use the grill pan insert instead. And voila one cake ready for decoration.

Christmas baking lesson 1

................so here as promised is phase 1 of my christmas cake cookery session. In the spirit of e-learning and as someone who thinks baking is an art everyone can partake in, I am doing this blog in the form of a lesson.
So get your notebooks ready, pens and pencils sharpened and filled and get ready for the bestest fruitcake recipe in the world.

So to begin you will need, big drum roll, the recipe:-

MRS ROBIN'S FRUIT CAKE

(from The Complete Farmhouse Kitchen Cookbook, Ed Mary Watts, 1988, Guild Publishing, London, UK).

125 grams/ 40z margarine ( or butter if u have no artery concerns)
175 g/6 oz of dark brow, light or white sugar ( I have used dark brown muscovado as it's for Xmas)
175 g/ 6oz currants
175g/6oz sultanas
50g/2oz chopped cherries/candied peel (if you like them, I substitute extra fruit normally)
225 ml/8 fluid oz water
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 heaped teaspoon of mixed spice.
To make this extra special I have also added in:-
the juice and cut halves of 1 lemon
1 cinnamon stick and
............half a bottle of rum/brandy mixed (only because my mum brought over a bottle oh I'll explain later).

So once you have ur ingredients for phase 1 together you will need to get yourself a large saucepan, a mixing spoon, and a hob/aga/electric cooker ring.

The next phase is the nice putting it together part:

Firstly measure out your water in a clean jug

pour this directly into your saucepan........

Next measure out all the dry ingredients in your scales......



The sugar and margarine/butter



The dried fruits including cherries chopped and candied peel


Next put all the dried fruit into the saucepan and add in your lemon juice and peel, spices and cinnaman stick and also your bicarbonate of soda.......


The next job as this is for Christmas is to add some merry and bright to the equation and add the alcohol.......


now alcohol is a personal choice and I asked all you friendly bloggers what you would choose. The winner by a margin was brandy. Now u are asking why is there a bottle of rum in this photo, well it's because I asked my mum to bring some over from their alcohol cabinet and she got a wee bit confused bless her and put the brandy in with a little left over rum. She assures me she hadn't tasted it beforehand!!!!!!!!! Anyway I put in the whole lot so the brew will be hiccuping nicely!


Next turn on the heat.......



Get your Whittards Easter bunny mixing spoon and put the pan on the heat and stir.......



Bring the mixture to the boil and simmer for 1 minute

Now it will froth up, that's the bicarbonate, but that's meant to happen. Keep stirring until the sugar and marg are melted down and the mixture is lushcious. It smells gorgeous and if there was blogging smellivision you'd agree. Once it's simmered for 1 minute, pop the lid on and leave the mixture to cool.

There endeth lesson 1 and you can now put your feet up until tomorrow when the fruit will have absorbed all the yummy goodness and swell up ready for phase 2 - the flour, eggs and bakey part.