Really easy (but seriously impressive) bakewell slices

This bakewell tart looks really impressive with its clear layers, but by using bought short crust pastry it is actually really simple to make

You will need

• Rectangular tin
• Ready rolled sweet shortcrust pastry
• 4 tbsp of cherry jam (or raspberry if you can't find cherry jam)
• 200g butter or marg (plus a little for greasing)
• 200g caster sugar
• 100g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking power
• 50g ground almond
• 1/2 tsp of almond extract
• 10 glace cherries
• 200g icing sugar

Getting started

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
• Grease your tin and cut the pastry to fit the base, press it gently into the corners and then prick it all over with a fork to prevent it rising too much

 



The use the paper the pastry came off to cover it, and then add baking beans (or pasta)

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until just cooked, and then remove the paper and beans/pasta and then return to the oven for another 2 minutes

Spread the jam over the pastry and set aside while you begin to make the filling

 

• In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, ground almond, flour and baking powder and mix.
• Break the eggs into another bowl, add the almond extract and beat

Slowly incorporate the eggs into the large bowl and mix well until you have a loose cake mix

• Pour this slowly/gently over the pastry (to prevent disturbing the jam layer) and then place in the oven
• After 35 minutes check how things are going and if the middle still wobbles but the edges are cooked, loosely cover with tin foil before returning to the oven for a further 10 minutes

• While the bake is cooling, slice your cherries in two and mix the icing sugar with a little water. Do this slowly, so that the icing has some movement and will slowly run off the back of the spoon but is not too wet.
• Spoon the icing onto the cake and spread to the corners
• Decorate by laying the cherries out in a grid pattern

• The cake can then be cut between the cherries to make slices (2 cherry halves per piece) or smaller squares (with a cherry in the centre)

Finally serve and allow people to admire the perfectly formed layers!

Quick baby update

Afraid there have been no posts for a few weeks (due to the birth of baby Oscar) but here are a couple of photo updates

Megan and Oscar wearing their introducing new baby t shirts

Oscar's finished Quick, cheap, simple personalised nursery décor

Introducing a new baby

We're expecting a new baby, which will be a total shock to our little daughter who has been the centre of the world for the last 2 and a half years!

 

With that said however, she appears to understand a lot more than we originally gave her credit for. Her current favourite expressions are "Mummy has a baby in her tummy" and "Megan's little brother".

 

So as well as the buying of gifts from baby to toddler, and toddler to baby, I thought it would be nice to make these T shirts, reinforcing the importance of Megan becoming a big sister and the baby being her new little brother.

 

 

They took me about 15 minutes to make and approx £5-8 including the blank T shirts.

 

 

You will need

• Fabric transfers - I purchased mine ready printed from e-bay for £2.50, however, the paper can be easily purchased online or even from Tesco (currently £3.50 for 7 sheets). If you go for this option, you'll also need a colour printer.
• 1 plain baby grow  - I purchased a 3 pack from Tesco for £3.25
• 1 plain child's T shirt - £2 from Primark
• A sharp pair of scissors
• Iron
• Hard surface - not an ironing board

Lay the design on the T shirts just to check it will fit!

 
Then carefully trim off as much of the blank paper as possible leaving a 2mm boarder.

The transfer paper is transparent, but will be slightly visible, so it's better not to have too much blank space in the design.

The next step is very very important!  

Make sure there is no dust, hair or any other kind of muck between the T shirt and the transfer, then turn the designs over, so that the checked side of the paper is visible and the print is face down on the t shirts.

Failure to do this will lead to the design transferring to your iron rather than to the T shirt.

Now iron the transfer onto the T shirts, holding the iron onto each transfer for at least 30 seconds. Make sure that you go right to the corners and that heat has been applied to the whole design.

Wait a couple of minutes for the transfer to cool down and then carefully peel the backing paper off.

Job done. Two super cute outfits. Can't wait to see my two in theirs!

 

Full patchwork blanket instructions

Please note this page is still in progress and instructions/links do not yet exist for all squares.

 

You will need

• 1 pair of 3.75 knitting needs
• 1 pair of circular needles of the same size (for edging)
• A darning needle
• 1 * 100g ball of double knit wool in each of the following colours

(From top left) - Purple, light pink, dark pink, light blue, dark yellow, dark green, lilac, light yellow, dark blue, light green.

Knitting squares

This blanket is made up of 49 simple to knit squares
Instructions are linked from each of the names below

Ref	Description/link	Number
1a	light blue and dark yellow stripe	6
1b	light pink and purple	6
1c	light yellow and lilac	6
1d	dark pink and pale green	6
2	light yellow parallel lines	3
3	purple diagonal lines	3
4	dark yellow horizonal lines	2
5	Light green ribbed stripes	3
6	Lilac plain	2
7	Dark green moss border	3
8	Light blue moss	4
9	Dark blue moss variation	5

Plenty more ideas for squares can be found on my knitting page

The layout

2	1a	4	1b	7	1c	5
1b	9	1c	8	1d	9	1a
7	1d	2	1a	3	1b	6
1a	8	1b	9	1c	8	1d
6	1c	5	1d	4	1a	3
1d	9	1a	8	1b	9	1c
5	1b	3	1c	2	1d	7

 
(Further advice on sewing laying out and sewing the squares together can be found on the How to make a simple but beautiful knitted blanket page)

 

Edging the blanket

My tip for edging the blanket is to use a circular knitting needle.

The length of the cable is unimportant, as you won't actually be knitting in the round, however having the extra length will make the large number of stitches you'll be working with on each side much more manageable.

• Using dark green or lilac (you'll have most of these colours left)
• Start at the bottom edge and with the right side facing pick up 259 stitches - that is 37 per square (one for each stitch you cast on/off for each square)
• Work one row in moss stitch (alternating k then p for each stitch)
• Increase one stitch each end at next and every right side row
• Continue in moss stitch for 8 rows (don't forget the right side increases)
• Cast off

Repeat on remaining 3 sides and then neatly sew the border together at each corner.

Congratulations - you'll have finished your amazing patchwork blanket.

Most basic squares

These are the simplest squares and a great starting point.  They also make quick "filler" squares, if you are making a large blanket, then a few simple striped or plain squares will help bulk out the blanket and are the quickest to knit.

Basic plain square

They don't come any simpler than this, however, with 2 or more different coloured wools you could still make a beautiful blanket without ever doing anything more complicated than knitting plain squares.

Cast on 37 stitches
Continue in stocking stitch (that is, normal knitting, a knit row followed by a purl row, followed by a knit row followed by a purl row etc etc) for 50 rows
Cast off!

Stripe square

Almost as simple as the plain square - simple stripes!

Choose two contrasting colours, and call them A and B

• Cast on 37 stitches in colour A
• Work 4 rows in stocking stitch (alternate between k and p rows)
• Change to B and continue for 4 more rows. (There is no need to cut the first colour off as you will always change colour on the same side, just make sure that it's not so tight that it's pulling the square out of shape when you next change colour)
• 4 rows in A
• 4 rows in B
• Continue until you have 48 rows (12 stripes)
• Cast off

Really cool ice cream cone cakes

Who knew ice cream cones can survive 20 minutes in the oven? Well they do, and look what that means you can do with them...

Really cool ice cream cone cakes - look like ice creams but are really cakes!

 

You will need

(Makes 12)

• 12 (flat bottomed) ice cream cones
• 60g cocoa powder
• 175g of butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 120g self raising flour
• Level a teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 large eggs

To decorate

• 80g of butter
• 200g icing sugar
• Splash of milk
• Hundreds and thousands
• Mini chocolate Flakes (or 4 large Flakes cut into 3)
• Icing bag and large star shaped nozzle (see below)

Getting started

• Pre heat oven to 160 degrees and put your cones onto a baking tray

• In a large bowl, add the sugar, flour, eggs, cocoa powder and baking powder.
• Mix well for around 5 minutes then spoon the mixture into the cones
• Each cone should be between half and 3/4 full to avoid them over rising or not reaching the top of the cone

• Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the cake has risen and is springy

Next to decorate

Make sure that your cakes are completely cool before decorating, or the buttercream will go grainy and may not hold its shape

• Making the buttercream is as simple as adding the butter, icing sugar and milk and beating until thick but smooth. If it doesn't hold a peak in the bowl, then it won't be thick enough to pipe out as "icecream". Add more icing sugar now.
• When piping, start from the outside of each cake and pipe in a spiral into the middle following the shape of the cake underneath. Try to keep the spiral tight so there are no gaps in the icing effect.
• Finally finish with a sprinkle of hundreds and thousands and a chocolate flake.

This is my new little brother - introducing baby scrapbook project

I'm expecting a new baby in less than 2 weeks (Eeek!!) and people keep telling me how I need to spoil my little girl, as she won't quite understand and will be confused, upset and/or jealous.

So here's my idea...

A "This is my new little brother" scrapbook project

At 2.5 years old Megan might not quite be old enough to create a master work of art, but I'm hoping she'll enjoy scribbling and sticking, and most importantly, spending a little time with Mummy.

To get her started, I went to a pound shop and for £5 bought a folder, some coloured paper and some stickers.

I'd originally thought about a scrapbook but decided that as my daughter is only 2 and a half, it would be better to give her individual sheets to work on and then put them into the folder later. (Any mistakes can then be discarded).

I then made a title page to explain my idea (and also because I wanted to play!)...

So there we have it - a lovely project that she'll be able to add to as Baby grows and develops. We'll write in dates and weights and milestones, draw pictures and stick in photos, maybe even try to do Mummy, Toddler, Baby hand prints.

As well as the scrap folder, I have also been informed that it's traditional/a nice idea for Baby to have bought the existing child/children a gift for when they come to visit.

Over Christmas we went to a wedding where disposable cameras were provided on every table. Megan absolutely loved this and ran around shouting "cheese" at everyone all night! What's more surprising is that some of her pictures actually turned out really well!

So I looked at buying Megan a disposable camera to go with the scrapbook project. However, they're over £10 for one with a flash, and I thought she'd get through the 27 pictures really quickly and then have to wait until someone could take it to be developed/printed.

Instead I did some research into children's digital cameras, and decided to buy her the Vtech Kidizoom Twist robust camera.

It 2 megapixels and has a 4 times zoom. It has a voice recorder, takes videos, allows animations to be made and pictures to be edited and manipulated (think adding wigs and text and frames etc!).

What's best is that it will plug straight into our TV so she can see the pictures immediately, and also plug into the photo machines at Tesco/Boots so we can easily print anything that comes out well.

I'm really pleased with it. I paid £30 for the camera and an extra £5 for a case.

Can't wait to give it to Megan, and let her have a central role as family photographer, taking pictures of her new little brother to stick in her book.

Hope you like :o)