April showers of a baking kind.

For me, April hasn't showered rain so much as flour and icing sugar.  I've been a busy ol' bee with birthdays and things and when I look at my Instagram feed (I'm jammypudding on there by the way) there is an abundance of bakes.
Back at the beginning of April I turned 39 and had a lovely, lovely day which was made all the lovelier for having this...

 Lemon cake decorated with handmade daisies.  It tasted so so so good.  I'd take lemon cake over all others (maybe?...might have to think about that claim) and it was kind of nice making myself a cake for my birthday.  Eldest Biscuit was outraged by the idea!
My father-in-law's birthday quickly followed mine so I made him his favourite coffee and walnut cake but this time I used my cool tin from Lakeland.  It has straight sides for individual cakes so you can make small versions of large cakes.  I was very pleased with how they turned out and will have to make mini Victoria sponges soon.

 The lead up to the end of the Easter hols meant I had to re stock the freezer with some bakes for my boys' lunch boxes.

Banana bread and

marble cake cut up into ickle pieces.  Sponge freezes really well and even though baking ingredients can be expensive by the time they are cut up small and used up, they work out quite cheap and although not exactly health food, better than processed and I do think cake makes people happy.  In my head my Biscuits are able to get through an afternoon of school with the help of their little cakes of happiness made with love by me.
I also made chocolate cheesecake for a friend as part of his Christmas gift of bakes throughout 2012.  I couldn't encourage a heart bypass so he didn't get a whole cheesecake, a few pieces were leftover for us.

 Oh my this cheesecake from Nigella's 'Feast' book is simply heaven in every mouthful and whenever I have it I feel I am in one of those old Flake adverts, having a special moment in a field of wild flowers. So good!

Last week I made madeleines for the menfolk as an after school and work snack (and of course a few for me too).  If you have never made them or let alone eaten one, please do.  Apart from the specialised tin (Lakeland sell one for under a tenner) they are very very easy wee cakes to make and quick too.  You can pretend, if you have a need to, to be refined and delicate whilst nibbling on one. I find it essential to drink tea from a china cup and saucer whenever I have one. Look at them, *sigh*!

 And finally, Eldest biscuit turned eleven yesterday.  All you parents out there will understand when I say I do not know how that happened so soon after him arriving but eleven he is.  I managed to convince him not to have his usual novelty sugarpaste clad birthday cake ( a 3DS this year) in favour of a chocolate cake made with chocolate from Hotel Chocolat. It's surprisingly cheaper weight for weight than Green & Blacks.  The self sacrificing mother that I am had to go into their shop in Edinburgh, forcing myself to take their free samples whilst shopping for his cake.  The things we do.
I didn't want to use my everyday, all-in-one cake (again from 'Feast') so opted for a luxury buttermilk one from 'Tea with Bea'.  This book is really lovely with seriously decadent bakes. It isn't a book for beginners I think but if you are a confident baker it's worth a looksee.  Here's how it turned out...

 I layered it with vanilla buttercream (which to be fair didn't compliment the sponge I feel, you live and learn) and covered it with chocolate buttercream.  I sprinkled over fudge pieces, Minstrels, smarties and gemstone drops from Hotel Chocolat.  I also made the bunting to decorate and little flags for these...

...mini vanilla cupcakes.  Eldest Biscuit likes to share his cake with family and friends so these were for those not so keen on a rich chocolate cake.  Too cute!
And of course there were the obligatory and traditional number biscuits.

For Christmas 2000, whilst pregnant with EB, I got Nigella's Domestic Goddess book from Mr Biscuit (he wrote inside "who's to say you're not already" sweet or what?) and knew when I saw these biscuits that I wanted to make them [for our cooking baby + any more] every year for birthdays and so far I have.  We joke that as grown men, my boys will still expect them. I followed the 'Biscuiteers' way for the icing and am getting to grips with icing bags and plastic bottles.
Here's a photo of my boy making a wish.

Oh my what a calorific month!  Just as well it wasn't all for me.  Yet I am dreaming of more.  I got a new book yesterday to sigh over and consider "What to bake?".

Indeed "What to bake?" .

X

I've been a busy wee bee with birthday business!

For us, the last two weeks of October is abundant in birthdays which is fabulous really - love a birthday - but bugger it's exhausting!  I feel sorry for Mr Biscuit too as inevitably we spend his birthday preparing for Youngest Biscuit's the day after so we never go out or celebrate much.  I did make him Lamingtons which has scored me many many tens of points in the Good Wife department.  Just as well as I barely had a second to send him birthday wishes.

Traditions were kept, birthday age biscuits...

...made every year of both of my Biscuits lives and now, always decorated with a brother at hand.

And of course there was a cake...

...based on the PS3 game Driver: San Fransisco, Youngest Biscuit's favourite game.  I had to edit this photo in cinemascope to match the feel of the game's opening sequence, very dramatic!
My amazing friend from the States who lives near to SF got me the Golden Gate Bridge which we spray painted red and really makes the cake, don't you think?  She sent over oodles of chocolatey pretzels too, the star that she is!
The Dodge Challenger (hark at me with the car names) was made from Sculpey clay so it could be kept.  I have to say it's a lot of fun making cakes like this but the sugar paste was so soft it was a right pain! I was tired after I admit. It was a cake four days in the making and I think all that creativity and organizing is exhausting!  I get very sick of baking too which I really do hate to admit.
After all this effort I will be terrorized with a remote control tarantula and Nerf Guns, such is life, with boys!

 It was my friend's special day yesterday and I got to be girly...

...which I don't get to do very often!
 It had been a busy old time and I really did deserve this...

Two more birthdays this weekend and I have just had my two year blogging anniversary, which is just a bit mad.  I think my second post ever included Youngest Biscuits birthday.

I must be off, Biscuits are back at school today, beds are stripped and Stormy (my Dyson that 'looks like a Stormtrooper') wants to come out and play.

X

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The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 41-44!

The sun is out today and with a hint of shock I am ignoring all inside jobs and forcing myself to sit in the garden, it may only last a day and it's still a bit on the chilly side but I'm determined to act like it's summer. My Biscuits' finish up school on Friday so I will enjoy the quiet whilst I can and a wee bit of sun on my toes. 

I heard last night, to my dismay, there had been a heatwave, must have occurred elsewhere....

Anyways...

More marvellous madness folks, hope you like...

Week 41

 Mummy bear

Made with a pattern from this amazing book...

 (image from amazon.  Click here to take you for a looksee)

which I borrowed from the library and after renewing and renewing I realized I needed to have a copy of my own.  It contains many things I want to knit and is old fashioned in a very nice way.  I love this teddy and want one for me too.  It was knitted for a first birthday and hopefully will be loved for many many years.  I couldn't resist adding a wee something of my own to the design...

Too cute, if I do say so myself.  I also added a bell inside it's tummy in homage to my own 37 year old panda who has one in his.  He jingle jangles every time I pick him up and I wanted to share the joy of that.  Made with very luxurious (and expensive!?) baby alpaca and the reason I am making noises about the price is the pattern only calls for one ball so seven pound a ball seemed reasonable for a whole teddy but a whole teddy it did NOT make.  I had to buy another just to finish off the arms and was not happy as the pattern said tension didn't matter etc, very frustrating but made a beautifully tactile and soft ted.

Week 42

Eldest Biscuits 10th birthday cake.

I've used this giant cupcake tin a few times and have of yet to be satisfied with the end result.  Tis very tricky to get the inside done without the outside being overdone and being the perfectionist I am, this winds me up. I've tweaked and tweaked and will keep on tweaking until I get it perfect.  Also tricky to make this requested cake as non girly as I could and I think I pulled it off.  I have to add this image as the birthday boy's face fills my heart...

watching his daddy singing 'happy birthday' and his wee brothers face is so happy to be joining in.  Family joy!  I am usually on cake carrying duty and Mr Biscuit on the camera but on this occasion, with my clumsy ways, was not to be trusted.  Fair play!   Now this cake was no where near as complicated as other ones I have made but it can never be underestimated how long they can take to create and at what late hour you tend to have to be creative.  That, my friend, goes hand in hand with birthdays in our house.  Me being exhausted just comes with the territory but as the above photo shows, it's worth it.

Week 43

Birthday biscuits.

It is a real shame I forgot to take photos of these biscuits as they were the best I've ever made.  I really went for it with piped then filled in icing, polka dots, hand made sugar daisies and blossoms and lots of pink.  Very frustrating that I have no image to look on my handy work.  They were greatly appreciated (along with Mummy bear) though and scoffed and that is the most important thing.

Week 44

Poppy Treffry Egg Cosy.

I had a discount code for Poppy's shop and thought I'd get a kit for the above cosy and have to be honest the sewing instructions were far easier to follow than in her book.  I am flat out rubbish at following written instructions ( I may have said it before but I even struggle with Kinder eggs.  I am that bad!) but managed to sew one up.  I am thinking tea cosies will feature highly this Christmas so this was really a good way to have a go to see if I am up to it.  I am (even after many years) not as comfortable with a sewing machine as I am by hand.  I'd like to be, think in many ways I should be by now but alas, I am not.

I love the style of Poppy's work and by that I mean I love that it looks a wee bitty untidy and suits the fact that in machine sewing, I am not neat and therefore cannot be perfect. I can easily lift of my own wee hat of pressure for perfection and enjoy the flow of sewing.  Click here for Poppy's shop.  It's pricey as hell but nice to look at and be inspired to get her book and make your own versions.

Back to enjoying outside, if only I could block out the sound of my neighbour boaking with his morning smokers cough.  Is it a man thing to make that much noise?.  The previous tenants were the same, although they liked to go in the garden and spit, MINGING!!!!

X

A list of one thing (so not really a list) that I hate. Hate more than....

...being late, U2, mediocrity, bad cake and hangovers.


1.  When I went to put lemon cake mixture into my only working oven to find, in the time it had taken me to put together the mix, the element had overheated and gone kaput.

Let me just clarify, No EFFING OVEN SO NO EFFING CAKE!!!!!!

Please someone take this blade from my heart. 
I am not exaggerating.  I am beyond devastated and am not even going to discuss that homemade pizza was on the menu tonight....
Ignoring the fact that Mr Biscuit is and Electrician and elements are easy to get a hold of etc etc....my heart is broken, I feel I have lost a limb.  My birthday cake- my wee gift to myself - is still sitting on the worktop wondering it's fate.  Will it make it into an oven- am considering the risk of moving it to my parent-in-laws - or never furfil it's telos and become sponge because of it hanging around in it's unbaked state for hours?  I admit it will be hard for the baker in me to risk moving and/or baking at this stage in the game!

I wonder do you, my fellow bloggers, know me enough to understand the gravity of  my loss?

Yes of course you do!! 
 Don't you???

"you go home and you cry and you want to die!" and "heaven knows I'm miserable now!"

Morrissey knows what I mean!

Today I am putting the 'drama' in Drama Queen, well because I want to *stamps foot*!

X

A Random List of 38 things I love (that I can think of at the mo) for my birthday!

Which is today by the way!  You find me hungover (not enough sleep for the amount of wine I consumed. I should know better at my age!) and feeling very delicate...the sofa and my new Gene Kelly box set awaits.

A List

1.Cake -  I know it comes as a shock!

2.When you move a fairy bottle and an ickle bubble pops out of the top.  For some reason I have always called washing up liquid shopping up liquid.  Mind you I always call cotton buds pipe cleaners.  I get names muddled very easily.

3.When my eldest made the joke about an orthodontist being a dentist who writes books.

4. Getting absolutely soaked in the rain and having to strip off and get completely changed, even knickers.  I have a vivid memory of one occasion doing this at uni in Glasgow which left me so invigorated with being alive, I have never forgotten it.

5. A really good bowl of soup.  I could eat soup every other day easy peasy.

6. The smell of wild garlic on a woodland walk.

7. A robin puffing out its chest.  My most favourite bird to see in the garden.  Makes me think of the Jackson Five too which in turn leads me to think of 70’s music clubs of my youth in Edinburgh, MC5, very short dresses, hotpants and feather boas.

8. Roast chicken.  Easily the best Sunday dinner of all time and number one in our family Top Ten Meals.  We do like to do Top Tens whilst sitting at the table together.

9.Pantomimes.  I will boo and hiss at the baddies in my loudest voice every time. 

10. Feeling part of a crafting community - it’s all so very inspiring.

11. The alchemy of baking - it is truly amazing!!

12. Stroking a newly smoothed, sugar pasted cake.  It’s almost erotic how much I love doing it.  If you had a go you’d understand.

13. When my hubby makes fun of me mixing up the name of electric appliances.  I do every day.  He says because I don’t fully pay attention to what I am saying.  He has a point.

14. When a plan comes together!   Picture me with cigar in mouth.  Something I haven’t done for a long, long time but I do remember partaking in way back when a) I was a smoker and b) it was sometimes a great idea to end an evening at a pub.  Smelly though!

15. A box of embroidery thread – akin to Willy Wonka’s edible room, it’s so enticing and magical.

16. Harry Potter, Doctor Who and Percy Jackson.  I am a geek!!

17. When you’ve been slicing chilli and your fingers numb your tongue for hours afterwards.  Me and my Biscuits will take turns for a finger dab on the tongue at the dinner table, much to the annoyance of Mr Biscuit.

18. Brora cardigans.  I am lucky in saying I own one ( purchased for our wedding day, cost more than my dress) and would love to be able to afford many more in many colours.

19. Knitting – especially small animals with coloured needles.

20. Cats napping.  It is a sight that fills me with such contentment.  My Hamish ‘the mancat’ can snore for Scotland making me chuckle to myself when alone.  Laughing when you are by yourself, I think, always feels all the more funny.

21. Trampolines.  “Bouncy  Bouncy.  Ooh What a good time!  Bouncy Bouncy.  Shoes all in a line!”  They are just silly and I always end up hurting my back but I will insist on going back on them.

22. Dancing.  I LOVE dancing.  It makes me so happy. I will be on a dance floor all night.  I confess I barely spoke to a soul at our Wedding, I was too busy dancing, from the first dance to Runrig at the end.  I very rarely have a partner and care not a jot if anyone else is on the dance floor.

23. Flowers. Lillies, roses, tulips to name but a few.

24. Donkeys.  This is the animal I would have if I had land.  Of course not just one, never only one.

25. Buttons.  Luckily I have a Dealer for this addiction.  (Fishy, you know I mean you.)

26. Foxes.  I always feel just a little bit wrong in loving an animal that will kill and not necessarily eat its victims.  I love their pointy faces, I cannot help myself.

27. Watching trees blowing in the wind.  It’s hypnotic and like the next ‘love’, a reminder of my insignificance.  Except when I have been watching The Happening, then they FREAK me out something silly.

28.The sea, especially on dull grey Scottish days where it looks like concrete it’s so still. 

29. Breaking eggs.  Since the days of being a teeny toddler pretending to be Calimero [cartoon chicken who wore half an egg shell on his head] putting a tea cosy on my head, I have be taken with egg shell. 

30. Reading for large blocks of time.  I don’t do it much these days for lack of such indulgent time yet every now and again I give it a go and usually nod off.  I remember reading more than one book in a day and confess when a new Harry potter came out, once I got to the end I’d start over again.

31. A large glass of red.  I love red wine, particularly Austrailian.  When I eventually get over to visit my brother in law, I WILL be touring the vineyards!  NB.not so much today - blast this darn hangover!!

32. Tea in a china cup and saucer.  You all know why!

33. Jane Austen.  I love the language and the excruciating romance of her books.  The rules, the taking of tea and calling cards, visits, the dancing, the humour.  Wonderful!

34. Hedgehogs.  They can roll into a spikey ball!!!  What more can I say?

35. Christmas.  Simply Christmas.

36. Disaster films.  The more devastatingly ‘end of the world’ the better.  Special effects these days make for amazing films but I am still partial to a bit of Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure.

37. Me in a Narrowboat meandering along a canal (Guy Martin optional).  If it wasn’t so darn expensive I would do it every year.  A custom built one is first on the lottery wish list.

38.Classic Fm.  I don’t do radio.  I get very irritated by songs with singing, it may aswell be people screaming at me but classical music calms me and I had the best Christmas baking build up ever in 2010 listening to it EVER.  Except Lawrence LB, he kinda spoils it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

     Can  you imagine the length of this post if I was older? Deary me.  I think I may share the same trait as the wonderful Stephen Fry in using many words instead of a few to say what I want to say. I so wish I had lemon cake (hoping the sponge would help with the HO) but will suffice with the ickle white chocolate tarts I have in the fridge leftover from yesterdays Mother's Day family gathering.  I am in need of a sit down and a cup of tea.

X

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 17-24!

Hey Check me out!

Mrs Organized I ams......so here's me feeling smug that I did indeed make a list of sorts of what week was what and indeed I forgot to photograph some makes (I am so so bad a remembering to photograph gifts before I hand them over!) and had to exchange a couple for baking...lots of baking then, but what is Christmas without lots of joyous mixing in the kitchen?

Scream if you wanna go faster!

                                        

Here we go!

Week 17 - stockings    Ickle ones attached to and i-cord, knitted up from a free pattern available at Little Cotton Rabbits from the amazing Julie, famed for her delightful bunnies.  I'd like to be her when I grow up.  If I knit for the rest of my days I shall never be as neat as her but I shall endeavor to try.

Week 18 - hot water bottle cover    Made up, could be better, say no more about it. My friend was pleased though...

Week 19 - pear brooch    Should be with it's partner of a larger needlebook [both designed by me] but like I say RUBBISH at taking photos sometimes.  A birthday gift for my mother-in-law.

Week 20 - wrist warmers    Another pattern I got from Julies blog, a joy to knit! Christmas gifts for two lovely ladies.

And...

Week 21 - door curtains    One of two.  I am very proud of these as they are "What I call" proper sewing and I've never done anything like this before, lined and everything!  Gave it a go without instruction and am still in shock they a) look like curtains b) work like curtains and c) are not skew-wiffy!!!

Week 22 - christmas cake    I've never made this before either as I don't like fruit cake.  Obviously I baked it a while a go [the best smelling cake I've ever baked] as a huge ten inch square to be cut up and shared out with family and had to as I felt something was missing from my life as someone who bakes not to bake one of these each year.  I admit to picking some of the fruit out as I eat it but it's very yummy.  I suppose if I was ever going to enjoy a fruit cake it was going to have to be a home made one.

Week 23 -  mini apple pies    After confessing my loathing of dried fruit it's no surprise at Christmas time I don't make mince pies.  These, my friends, are no inferior alternative.  Delightful 'pop in your mouth' melting, citrusy, yumminess!  From Nigella's 'before she became a caricature' Feast.

Week 24 - christmas cupcakes    Man how I adore these.  May well be my favourite cupcake ever, dense, chocolatey and slightly spiced.  I've made them each year since Nigella's Domestic Goddess book came out and constrain myself by not making them at any other point of the year.  You know traditions and all that.

Take a deep breath......lots more crafty delights planned for the 28 weeks left to do!

*

 Here's to 2011 and I shall leave you with easily my favourite gift, given to me by a teenage boy.

A testament to what I am all about...

X

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge - Weeks 13 to 16!

I think I [finally] am feeling better now, my head seems to have cleared  a lot and am sleeping better so [again, finally] got my finger out with catching up posting about my t52mmmc challenge.

First up Week 13 - bumble bee scarf! 

 A Christmas gift for a friend to honour his much treasured sweater of the same stripes which was worn all the time, two decades ago.  Wear and age caused it's death as can happen with well loved clothes made of wool.  This was also the bugger that caused the wrist incident, I used acrylic wool on bamboo needles and it was hell.  Punishment for not using pure wool and the opposite of the scarf I knitted at the same time for myself with Rowan Big Wool made of 100% merino which was a dream to knit.  Last year I knitted one similar to this in black/white stripes and didn't have any trouble, different yarn brand, different experience.  Acrylic does have it's place and is great for crocheting blankets for my Biscuits to wrap themselves up in playing caterpillars and the like.

Week 14 - a week of birthdays!

Coffee and Walnut Cake* (which I've always detested until I tried this one!) for Mr Biscuit.  Birthday biscuits* which I have made every year of my Biscuits' lives (they say they expect them till I'm too old or too incapacitated to make them and I am NOT allowed to try anything fancy like filled in icing, it has to be messy and covered in sweets, glitter etc or else.  Suited me fine this year as my sprained wrist meant I struggled and this too is the reason for Youngest Biscuit's birthday cake* not being made in the shape of anything needing rolled icing but in the shape of a child's mud pie, worms and all.

I also baked pretty pink cupcakes for a dear friend but with organizing her birthday meal, I forgot to take photos before they were taken away or indeed scoffed for pudding.  

A very busy week indeed especially in a bandage and always during school holidays.

* from Cupcakes from a Primrose Bakery.

* from Nigella's Domestic Goddess.

* easy chocolate cake (x2) from Nigella's Feast.

Week 15 - granny square cushion front!

Making new cushions for the sofa.  This is the cover that I needed to fix the mistake in if you remember.  Wishing I had pressed it for the photo, ever the perfectionist!

Week 16 - empire biscuits! 

I think some would call these german biscuits but they've always been empire to us.  I always make plenty of dough when I am making birthday biscuits so I can freeze batches and these biscuits are the main reason why.  I got away with love hearts in a house of males as we all agreed they were the best shape out of the haribo box, almost went for the fried egg.  Scrummy!!

That's all for now.  Still loving this challenge!

I shall leave you with a couple of caterpillars I managed to photograph one day...

X

Looking for sympathy!

Here's me...

I am an awful patient so Hubby is having nothing to do with feeling sorry for me so I am looking for sympathy from my blogging friends who will, I am sure, let me milk my sore wrist for all its worth.  Who knew too much knitting could cause this?  Actually I suspect too much knitting caused a weakness that somehow enabled a sprain sometime on Saturday afternoon.  That's the version I am sticking to as I cannot accept knitting could cause me pain.  I never learn though hence why I am typing even though it hurts.  I have rubbish wrists due to numerous strains as a child roller skating, skate boarding and of course falling off my bike.  I am ridiculously clumsy and stupid, on one occasion going straight back out on my skates after arriving home from the nurse bandaged up, only to fall again on, you guessed it, my sprained wrist.

I am cross if I'm honest, offended I cannot do what I like ( I am that childish!).  Hubby Biscuit has banned me (for my own good) from knitting and picking up a crochet hook and it's way hard.  Much harder than I thought so I am moving on to sewing instead which probably isn't sensible but I cannot not make something. I may 'grow up' enough to rest it after over using it shopping earlier, but I figured if I have to be injured and I am (milky milky!!) I at least deserved this whilst out and about...

image from amazon

Don't you agree?
I'll try to be sensible as I  have mucho baking later in the week due to three birthdays, well starting tomorrow actually.  Better go and sit I suppose...

X

Busy B's!

Baking

Biscuits

Buttercream

Birthdays
Billabong the Mad

Balloons

Bowling

Bikes

Bewildering knitting patterns
Buttons
Booties

Boohoos over broken Swallow needles

Babies being born early

Bewitching by beautiful baby

 Bogged down by bountiful, busy life!

 So much to talk about, so much has been happening but don't you find, some days, shocking to those who know me, you have nothing to say?

X

Birthdays and hangovers!!!

Now do not be mistaken, it was not MY birthday!!

It was my youngest Son's sixth and after two cakes (one home, one party; it made sense at the time) biscuits and a party I was in need of refreshment.

Unfortunately I was distracted from the quantities of red wine consumed by my large glass, (this is my default excuse!) my knitting and Jason Bourne. Suffice to say, today I am a little hungover and I am too old for hangovers!!!!!

Aren't the colours beautiful?

My dearest friend has a birthday tomorrow and I still have lots of knitting to finish and a huge cupcake to bake courtesy of my new purchase from Lakeland and it's still the October break from school so my boys' are around distracting me.............so I went begging to my beloved Gaggia.....

.....and ate the obligatory slice of party cake.

Now I must not let myself get distracted by my favourite blogs or my favourite drug... sorry I meant site, Etsy! If only!!!!!!!

Ali