Flower choker- A beautiful bargain!

I saw this necklace on a friend of a friend and had the wants! It is beautiful and retails at £64 from a company  called Oliver Bonas, not affordable for me whatsoever!

I've been on the lookout for a silver flower pendant of similar size that I could attach to one of my leather thongs, I bought a reel of it last year along with clasps and findings, so that I could make my own necklaces, as often find pendants and earrings that I like at bootfayres or charity shops, and take them off the original chain, and make them into a necklace. I'm not a fan of long necklaces, I really like chokers.

 Today whilst browsing at a  bargain basement jewellery store in town I found this silver flower with 2 of the same smaller flowers either side on  a cheap silver chain for £3.50, and thought THAT's the one!  It's really pretty,and has little diamantes in the center that sparkle.I forgot to take pics of it in its original state as was to excited to make my necklace up.

I LOVE it, and saved myself £61!

30th birthday kitsch cake

I made this for my brothers girlfriend for her 30th birthday, It made her smile! This has to be my biggest challenge yet in the cake department. I really enjoyed making it, and was well pleased with the result, especially the  sugar roses!

Here's how I did it:

I made 2 square sponges, one smaller than the other, to make a tier and sandwiched them together with buttercream and jam, then covered them with more buttercream for the fondant icing to stick to.

Top tip- Spread some buttercream on the foil cake base, so the cake doesn't slide around.

I covered the  base cake first with white icing, then inserted 5 straws into the cake to act as a strengthener for the top cake to sit on. I then rolled out the black icing really thinly and cut out random strips with a pizza cutter for the zebra stripes, I  brushed the icing with a little water with a pastry brush so the strips adhere well.

I got the cake looking nice and smooth with a cake smoother, forgot to photograph it, it worked
 wonders!

I covered the top tier with pink fondant icing, then placed black ribbon round the edges to give a neat finish.

I made all the sugar roses by copying from a You Tube tutorial. They are very easy, but look  very complicated. ;)  I made these a few days in advance so they hardened up before decorating the cake.
I cut out the hearts and starts with little metal cutters, the leaves were cut by eye, and I used a sharp knife to draw the veins. I brushed with water again for the leaves and shapes to stick to, I used cocktail sticks to secure the roses into the cake.

 The heart and star shapes were made a week in advance so they were completely dry and hard.
I inserted 22 gauge craft wire into the shapes , which had first been twisted around a pencil to coil it. Insert a straw into the top cake then stick all the wire through that so it doesn't make contact with the sponge.

Finished with a light sprinkling of glitter.

It will be my 40th birthday this year think I will be making my own cake!

Cream tea anyone?

I have been baking recipes for years from this  book. I love and trust it.  It never lets me down.I can remember my dad buying it from Tescos when I was 10 years old, he bought is as a gift for my mum,but she  never looked at it much, baking has never really been a passion of my mums.We are a family of good cooks on the maternal side, but my mums talents lay in the savoury field. I'm passionate about all  types of cooking!

  It is from this book that my first offerings were created, I started by making scones, cakes, and biscuits from this, at the age of 10- just looked at the messy food splattered pages  from those old days!

I know my ratios for baking and biscuits by memory now, but I still reference from this book for certain things, I'm sentimentally attached you see, its very dog eared, all adds to its charm!

It's also great for basic meat dishes, pastry,preserves-another passion of mine.

I have lots of cook books but don't very often ref from them,I like to compare recipes online takes seconds. A lot of the things I cook regularly are committed to memory, but I like reading my cookbooks, when I'm relaxing,or  in bed. I use them a lot more at Xmas time, Nigella's Xmas being a fave,and you can always rely on Delia.

If you saw my previous post you will note that my son has just started eating solid food again, after a 6 week TFR  replacement programme, and asked me last week to make Scones, as  he missed out when I made them over Easter, so thought I would share this recipe,they are really good!

Here is -Marguerite pattern's recipe.

I stick to this 100% but add in a handful of sultanas as we prefer them with fruit.

Cheese scones are good too :)

I think to secret to wonderful fully light risen  scones is not handling the dough for very long, roll it out quickly as you can and quite thick, I roll it out to 3/4 inch thick, brush with beaten egg or milk and don't over cook them.
Sorry didn't plan on blogging these until they came out of the oven, or would have posted pics in stages.

These are lovely served as a cream tea, use good jam and whipped or clotted cream, the Cornish way is to add the jam, then the cream, Devonshire folk do the opposite,  think I'm a Cornish gal at heart then! Either way they are delicious!

               Shame I ran out of my strawberry jam, definitely be making some of that soon!


                                                    Happy weekend everyone!

6 week wait......Treat time!

My 15 year old son Henry has recently been diagnosed with Crohns disease. We noticed last year his health was declining,  he had lots 2-3 stones in weight in a relatively short time (6 months) and  was suffering form stomach cramps, mouth ulcers  and other nasty symptoms. After various tests and investigations he was referred to Great Ormond Street. It was a relief to get an accurate diagnosis and  know how to deal with it. It was an extremely worrying time for us. I must say his care has been fantastic.

The Consultant set out a  specific liquid food replacement plan for Henry to follow, and he was told he would have to stick to it  rigidly for 6-8 weeks, in order that his gut heal, and his symptoms diminish. In effect he would go into remission, then we were  to start introducing food groups back into into his diet gradually.

 Well, the 6 weeks was up yesterday, so a decent meal is in order! Henry wanted Lasagna as his first meal but he has to carry on with the drinks in smaller quantities for another 2 weeks and  build  the food up gradually ,every couple of days, with fairly plainish food  in small amounts, so his gut can start to tolerate food again. So Lasagna was out as it to rich, so we compromised on Shepard's pie, as he's supposed to just be having meat and potato's or rice this week.

I really  admire my son for sticking to the plan for 6 weeks with no cheating, having to watch the rest of the family eat has been tortuous! And smelling all the cooking smells, he had got to the point where having to down another glass of the vile liquid was making him feel sick. He had to drink 2 1/2 litres a day which is hard going as well as plenty of water. The prescribed Modulen drink tastes like babies formula milk. YUK. It is highly calorific, and is fortified with all daily nutrients.

 Henry mixed strawberry Crusha into it to make it more palatable-which was allowed, and now Say's he will never be able to face a strawberry milkshake ever again! On a positive note he has gained a whole stone in 6 weeks and now looks much healthier , and feels better. Crohns isn't curable but controllable.

I'm sure he will enjoy every last morsel of his dinner tonight.

 To follow he will have a small slice of banana and chocolate cake with a bit of custard. And I will be glad for him.:) It's amazing how much we show love through feeding-nurturing our loved ones, I feel like he's been neglected.

He has Easter eggs waiting too, but will have to wait another fortnight for those......


I make banana cake regularly as always have ripe bananas knocking around, but saw this recipe online a few weeks back and tried it, and is nicer than plain banana cake. If you fancy making it here is what I used:

200 g wholemeal SF flour
150g caster sugar
30 g cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
Tsp vanilla essence
120 g butter unsalted
2 large eggs beaten
280 grams very ripe bananas
150 ml milk

You could add some chocolate chips or nuts.


Pre heat oven to Gas 5-190 c

Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Mash the bananas,butter,vanilla essence, and eggs together, till you have smallish lumps and its fairly liquid. I used a potato masher-easier than a fork.

Fold above into the dry ingredients, with the milk until well combined and spoon into the loaf tin.

 Bake for 1 hour, test with a skewer, if it's clean its done.

Voila!! I couldn't resist a pick round the edges!!

My daughter making biscuits

My daughter loves to help with mixing, rolling and cutting when I bake, she's actually quite good!

Excuse my croaky voice, I had sore throat over Easter.

The Lark ascending

Just watched a programme recorded from BBC 4 about this piece of music. I will never forget the first time I heard it as a late teenager, it still moves me deeply, utterly beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2JlDnT2l8

❀ Wedding cupcakes ❀

I was commissioned to do these for a friend of a friend for her wedding today.

She requested a white and silver theme, they are swirled with buttercream and dusted  with a fine edible silver glitter, which doesn't really sparkle until the light drops. They look really pretty, and I am pleased with how they turned out. Hope the bride likes them!