I have no idea where this recipe originated or why it’s named so but this for me is a true taste of my childhood. My Mum was a sporadic baker at best but any time she did bake, this is what she made. I have a feeling the recipe came from my Auntie Anne and now I am blessing the greater internet with it. This stuff is amazing.

You will need:
150g butter
75g brown sugar
100g desiccated coconut
150g self-raising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder

100g chocolate (I used milk)

Preheat your oven to 350F/180C/Gas 4. Melt the butter and add the sugar, coconut, flour and cocoa powder. Mix well and place in a well greased & lined square tin. Bake for 15/20 minutes then leave to cool. When it’s cooled, melt the chocolate and spread evenly over the top. Leave until starting to set then quickly mark out the bars before leaving the set completely.

I also added a wee funsize smartie to the top of each bar because I think it looks cute and I’m daft like that

Let me know if you try it!

Posted under baking

As I may have mentioned, it was my lovely little sister’s birthday last week and I got her these fabulous earrings made by the fantastic Debbs Elliman

and after badgering Debbs for some of the birds, I’ve made this bracelet to match it:

(Click for embiggenisation)

Now – here are my dilemmas (dilemmae?)

1. It looks a bit sparse to me. What do you think?

2. The bracelet chain looks really chunky compared to the delicacy of the beads and charms. Do you think it would look better on a bracelet blank like this?

Any other handy hints and tips would be gratefully appreciated – my wee sister has been an absolute tower of strength to me over the years so I want this to be special for her

Posted under jewellery

Bob and I seem to have started a wee tradition of baking a cake for our nearest and dearest when they celebrate a birthday. Bob’s Mum turned 21 (allegedly!) yesterday and I made this:

It’s just a sponge with 4 tablespoons of homemade lemon curd added to the batter. Once baked, I whipped 150ml double cream with another few tablespoons of the lemon curd and sandwiched the cake with it before dredging the surface with icing sugar. It was really refreshing, not overpoweringly lemony but just nice on a hot summer afternoon

Posted under baking

Everyone who emailed me about the bake swap should have received an email detailing their swap partner. If you haven’t got yours, let me know

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that my children (Nairn in particular) are obsessed with starbucks and in particular with their ooey gooey marshmallow twizzlers? Now I’m not a skinflint by any stretch of the imagination but £1.50 for three marshmallows and a bit of chocolate is extortion in my book and definitely comes under the veil of, “Things wot I could do myself for cheaper”. I should mention as Apryl reminded me that you can do this with bananas too, I usually skewer the banana and stick it in the freezer for about an hour so that it’s easier and more solid to work with.

So! Stick a few marshmallows on a skewer like so. Melt your 100g bar of chocolate in the microwave or in a double broiler, and dip the skewer into the melted chocolate, lift and tap the skewer on the side of the bowl to let any big drips fall off.

Holding your skewer over a bowl, shake some hundreds and thousands over your skewer. Dip the end into the bowl to make sure it’s coated.

Place your skewer into a glass and put in the fridge to let the chocolate set

Hand to 8 year old child for a verdict.

Posted under for the kids, swaps, with the kids

After my prototype, I’ve been playing about with the design of my changing pad a little because it seems to be morphing into a large-ish bag rather than a small thing you can pop into your bag. Hmm.

I made another one last week with a snap closure this time so the mat can be folded in four and snapped closed. It’s a lot smaller than the prototype but still too bulky for my liking. The problem is that the bulk is caused by the padding in the mat which was the big selling point for me. I’ve been using mine everywhere, including putting it on a sofa in a cafe so Greer could lie on it comfortably and nap while I had a cuppa but I’m used to lugging a massive bag around with me and adding this hasn’t been a massive ordeal. For your average new parent I can imagine this being a cumbersome nuisance which wouldn’t get used and I need to change that before I start selling these bad boys.

I’ve got one tester lined up and I’m sending another version to a friend who is about to have a baby so hopefully I can iron out the niggles that are irritating me. This one is pretty lush if I do say so myself, but I will NEVER AGAIN attempt to sew fleece to a non-stretchy fabric. What a nightmare!

Posted under for the kids, sewing

So I’m getting a bit more confident with this making stuff without a pattern malarkey, and decided to make Greer a dress. Not just any dress, you understand – a reversible dress that could realistically be worn either way.

Everything was going great guns – I had sewn each side of the dress, pinned the two sides together and sewn around the arms, straps and chest leaving only the hem to be sewn. I pinned the hem together leaving a gap to turn my dress inside out, sewed the hems together, turned the dress and discovered I’d constructed some kind of moebius ring. I still have no idea what I did wrong but after an hour of tantrumming I cut my losses, pinned and sewed the hem from the right side. It’s left me with a hem that isn’t quite as perfect as I’d have liked but for a first effort I’m pretty happy!

What do you think? I reckon Greer likes it (although it is still a little big!)

Kaufman side:

Babycord side:

Greer:

Posted under for the kids, sewing

So, the third and final cake that was baked at the weekend for Fathers day! Loyal readers may remember the cream and jam-laden confection surprise that I made my Dad for his birthday. What you may not remember is that my Dad ate maybe half a slice before discreetly handing his plate over to one of my siblings because he’s really not a sweet tooth. And yet, I still made him a cake! My poor wee Dad is awfy awfy thin and I’m determined to fatten him up a little so he was given a Nigella Chocolate Guinness cake. Luckily he works on a building site so at the very least his workmen will have had a tasty treat with their tea!

Before icing:

After icing:

You will need:
250 ml Guinness
250 g unsalted butter
75 g cocoa
400 g caster sugar
142 ml sour cream
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
275 g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the icing, I used a third of this icing recipe and it was plenty enough to cover the cake.

1) Preheat the oven to gas 4/180C, butter and line a 23 cm springform or loose-bottomed tin
2) Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter gradually and heat until the butter has melted. At which time, whisk in the cocoa and sugar.
3) Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and pour into the pan before whisking in the bicarb and flour.
4) Pour the cake batter into the greased, lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour (actually, I had to leave it for nearer 1h 20m). Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack.
5) Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of a pint, or like me smooth the icing across the sides and top of the cake. Devour with a good cuppa.

Posted under baking, recipes

Yet another offering from Fathers day for me – this time, the carrot cake I made for Bob’s Dad. David kindly shared his cake with us and although it was really tasty, for me it was a little too nutty. I’d make it again purely because it turned out so well!

You will need:
150g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
150g caster sugar
250g carrots, grated
100g shelled walnuts, finely chopped
150ml vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Grease and line an 18cm diameter round cake tin.
2) Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cinnamon powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in the caster sugar, carrots and walnuts.
3) Pour in the corn oil, and add the eggs and vanilla essence. Stir to mix and keep stirring for a minute to let the egg mixture pull everything together.
4) Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of an oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until risen and firm to the touch. Remove the cake from the oven, leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.
5) To frost the cake, I used a third of the icing from this recipe. Using a spatula, smooth a thin layer of the frosting across the sides and top of your cake to catch any crumbs before icing the cake to your taste.

Posted under baking, recipes

I should guiltily admit that this cake was actually made for my very lovely brother-in-law, Gary, who celebrated his 27th birthday on the 15th. This was supposed to be his birthday cake but since I didn’t get to see him as I’d expected at the weekend, I generously told Bob it could be his Fathers day cake.

Before icing:

After icing:

You will need:
2 bananas (the riper the better)
170g caster sugar
170g self raising flour
170g butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease & line a 2lb loaf tin.
2. Slice up your bananas, place in a bowl and add the other ingredients.
3. Using a handheld whisk or blender, mix up the ingredients until completely blended and your bananas are mushed to bits.
4. Pour the mixture into your tin, place in the oven and bake for an hour until your loaf is done.

For this loaf and the two cakes which I’ll be blogging later in the week, I used the cream cheese icing from Nigella Lawson’s Guinness cake recipe. This made enough to generously cover all three cakes so bear that in mind!

You will need:
300g cream cheese (like philadelphia – I use the generic version)
150g icing sugar
125ml double cream

Whip the cream cheese until smooth, add the sieved icing sugar and whip after every few spoonfuls. Add the cream and mix until you have a spreadable consistency with no lumps of sugar. Using a spatula, put a very thin coating of this icing over your cake – this will seal in the crumbs. Once you’ve done this, load up your spatula and frost the cake. Slice and munch!

Posted under baking, knitting, recipes

I have such a backlog of things to blog that I think you’ll be inundated this week with posts!

Firstly, I wish all the Dads in your life a Happy Fathers day. I didn’t get to see my own Dad yesterday so I can’t blog what I made for him, hopefully I can remedy that tomorrow. Truth be told I don’t know what I’d do without my Dad, he’s an absolute superstar and a great Papa – I know that my kids and my niece absolutely adore him. I just wish he didn’t live almost an hour away!

Secondly I had to share this little photo of my niece. Bad Auntie Vonnie gave Bailey a marshmallow twizzler in Starbucks on Saturday while her Mummy was on the phone and therefore powerless to do anything about it. Isn’t she a cutie-pie?

Thirdly! I made these cookies a few weeks ago and the kids devoured them almost as soon as they were in the cookie jar so I figured I should pony up the recipe. This makes loads, although the recipe suggests it’ll make 14.

You will need:
100g/4oz butter, softened
100g/4oz light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
150g/6oz self-raising flour
85g/3oz (approx 3 tubes) smarties (I used the mini smarties)

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and creamy, then beat in the syrup.
2) Work in half the flour. Stir in the smarties with the remaining flour and work the dough together with your fingers. Divide into 14 balls and place them well apart on baking sheets. Do not flatten them.
3) Bake for 12 minutes until pale golden at the edges. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container for up to four days (if the little horrors in your life let them last that long!)

Posted under baking, knitting, sewing, with the kids