Homemade Gifts, Knitting Club & GIANT Fondant Fancy Cake

One of my "27 Things To Do In The Year I Turn 27" is to partly home-make or bake some of the presents I give throughout the year. I think something home made, home baked or personalised has a much more special feel to it, and really helps to show the recipient of the gift how much you care. A little thought goes a long way.

With this in mind, I have been trying to plan in advance of birthdays - shopping ahead of time, planning bakes and makes to ensure I have time to complete the home made items for friends and loved ones.

May 23rd is my lovely Mum's birthday - and this year I thought she needed some extra spoiling (...just because!) so I planned an advance make, and bake, and did a little shopping for her too!

The Make

Every fortnight I attend the Monster Yarns Knitting Club at Pensieri, Bedford. Run by the lovely Judit, the group allows for yarn crafters to meet, share their passion for knitting/crochet and indulge in some (very necessary) tea & cake. Judit is always on hand with inspiration, advice, she can trouble shoot any projects we're working on, and she also brings along her gorgeous selection of yarns, needles, ribbons and knitting kits for purchase.

A few weeks ago at knitting club Judit showed me her knittable-ribbon, and I instantly loved it. She inspired me to use this new product for a lovely gift for mum.

The ribbon makes what's called a 'tutu scarf' - which is a light, spring time, frilly, dressy scarf - a perfect accessory to any spring/summer outfit. You can purchase the ribbon in a variety of patterns/prints here from Monster Yarns. When I saw a finished scarf I just had to make one myself, and knew that my mum would not only appreciate the skill involved in making one, but would also love its quirkiness. I chose a navy blue & white polka dot pattern for Mum's scarf as I thought it was a very 'classic' look.

It was so fun to make - and was very quick to pick up - Judit taught me in a few minutes and I was away (only stopping to munch on cake, of course!) ... in fact, the whole ribbon-knitting process was so addictive that I had finished the scarf in just a few days!

I'm so pleased with the results...and hope my Mum will be too.

So addicted to the process of ribbon-knitting I was doing it on my commute

close-up of  the tutu scarf

the wonderful cake that fuelled my tutu scarf knitting at Pensieri :-)

Ta'dah! 

The finished scarf! 

Hope you like it Mumsy! 

The Bake

The other element of my Mum's birthday gift was a cake. 

You can't have a birthday without a cake, after all. 

I really wanted to challenge myself with this bake, and make her something special, so out came all of my cook books and during my search I found the perfect cake to make her... a GIANT Fondant Fancy! 

The little Fondant Fancies (French Fancies) are my Mum's favourite cakes from her childhood, and when I saw this recipe in the Clandestine Cake Club cookbook I just HAD to make it. 

The sponge is lemon flavoured, with a lemony butter-cream dome, layer of lemon curd, then finally layers of marzipan and yellow fondant icing, followed by a drizzle of white glacee icing to decorate! 

You can find the full recipe here.

the lemon curd covered lemon sponge

buttercream dome and marzipan layer

icing layer on

the start of the decoration

the finished cake

the finished cake 

Ta'dah! 

GIANT Lemon Fondant Fancy

I'm so pleased with the final outcome, and can't wait to see my Mum's face when she see's it. It was well worth the effort to make it, as I think it looks pretty impressive (even if I do say so myself!) and I'm hoping it will taste scrummy! 

Have you baked a show-stopper recently?

Do you hand make/bake gifts? Or are you a serial-shopper? 

I think a mixture of hand made, home baked and purchased gifts makes for the perfect balance - it is drastically unrealistic to think you can make/bake every single part of every gift you give, but when you can fit it in it is totally worth the effort. 

Bye for now

Mrs B

xxx

Baby Bishop's Blanket

One of my goals for before Baby Bishop's arrival in August was to hand make some items for him/his nursery. I love to do many different crafts, and tend to be a jack of all crafts, master of none. This year I wanted to concentrate on key crafts I really enjoy and develop my skills in these areas. I also wanted to challenge myself by completing a sewing course (machine sewing), which took me far out of my comfort zone. 

Having completed the sewing course back in March making a set of lovely cushions for the nursery & a new bag for myself, my next task was to complete a knitted item for Baby Bishop. 

My set of cushions for the nursery 

I decided on a knitted striped pram blanket in colours that would match the pushchair/pram we've chosen. I used wool from the wonderful MonsterYarns . I chose a soft bulky yarn in shades of yellow, teal and forest green. Attending a fortnightly Monster-Yarns knitting club really helped me to stay focused and on-track with the project, and my wonderful friend & knitting coach Judit (from Monster Yarns) kindly finished off my blanket by crocheting the edge for me (I am yet to master crochet). 

I am really pleased with my final blanket and glad I have completed some hand made items for our little man when he comes along. There is something so satisfying about making rather than purchasing for a baby. I'm also pleased that I've gotten the cushions and blanket done in good time, so as I'm not rushing to finish them. 

 The finished blanket :-) 

I have also been working on hand making some birthday presents for friends and family this year, as one of my goals for the year is to hand make as many presents/gifts as possible. More on that in another blog post... 

Now it's back to Monday & the grim reality of work! Boooo! 

Mrs B 

Xxx

The Twin Comes to Stay.... :-)

What a lovely weekend! 

This weekend has been full of lots of wonderful things, and I've now got a major case of Sunday Blues... the horrible 'I don't want this weekend to end' feeling. I love it when I get to the end of the weekend and I know I've not only accomplished little jobs that needed to be done, but that I've also done some lovely things with friends and family. It definitely makes my working week more bearable when I know I have a fab weekend to look forward to. 

FRIDAY

The first majorly exciting part of the weekend was picking up our first ever car on Friday afternoon. My husband passed his driving test a few weeks ago (all ready for Baby Bishop's arrival in August), and we were so excited to pick up the car - it feels amazing to have the freedom of being able to drive wherever we need to go instead of relying on walking and public transport. 

our new baby - Suzuki Liana GTI :-)

Later on Friday night my lovely twin sister Jojo arrived for the weekend. I love having family and friends to stay, and was so excited to see her after having not seen her for about a month. She was excited to see growing bump, and feel him kick! 

SATURDAY

On Saturday we drove over to my favourite cake shop called 'Fancy' for lunch... both hubby and my sister had never been before, and I couldn't wait to show off my favourite cake spot to them. They of course enjoyed it just as much as I thought they would. 

Our cake selections.....chocolate brownie (hubby), lemon drizzle (Jojo) and lime & coconut cake (me) 

Twins!

Lovely hubby - with our very bright smoothies! 

a couple of savoury delights too - cheese scone, and bagel with cream cheese - yum!

although the cakes were amazing - both me and Jojo had eyes that were bigger than our bellies - it pained me to leave even just the smallest amount of cake, but I literally couldn't fit in another morsel. 

We then headed to Mothercare and Halfords for a mooch around - we picked up a few baby bargains in Mothercare, a new air freshener and car windscreen cloth in Halfords. Followed by a nice relaxed afternoon at home just chatting with my sis, drinking tea and sorting out more stuff in Baby Bishop's nursery. 

In the evening we took Jojo to our favourite local restaurant 'The Riverside Grill' which is just off the Embankment. We have been there lots over the years, and never been disappointed - we wanted to share the place with Jojo and it also took the pressure off me having to cook, as I'm feeling blooming knackered at the moment. 

Our Food....

the best starter to share in the world - the mezze platter...lamb kofta, grilled halloumi, flatbread, olives, falafel, stuffed vine leaves, pickled peppers, baba ganoush, aoli and hummus. YUM

Liam & Jojo

Jojo's dinner - chicken, camembert and cranberry burger with double-cooked chips and salad

my dinner - beef burger with pesto & mozzarella, double-cooked chips and salad

Liam's dinner - Thai Green Chicken Curry with rice.

We were so full up after all that scrummy food (and the cake at lunch time!) that we couldn't fit in a dessert or coffee, maybe next time.

SUNDAY

Today, we made use of the new car & drove over to the Cath Kidston Factory shop in St. Neots. Loads of friends had told me how great the shop is, and what bargains you can get and I've been desperate to visit - so now that we have the car this weekend seemed like a great time to go and take a peek. We took my lovely Mother-in-Law, and Jojo (who loves CK just as much as I do) and had a great rummage! We all managed to get some lovely bits and bobs - mostly presents for friends & family's upcoming birthdays, and my Mother-in-Law found some lovely red candle sticks/holders for her newly decorated kitchen/dining room. 

aww just the sign makes me happy! 

CK gloriousness! 

On the way back from shopping we completed another 'first' with our car - visited the McDonalds Drive-Thru for lunch! Hahaha! Had to be done. Not a very healthy weekend, but a very yummy one! 

My sister and I have spent the afternoon wrapping all the gifts we bought at Cath Kidston, chatting and doing some little jobs around the house while hubby watched the Formula 1 race (his favourite) and now we're all sat in the living room together watching Toy Story 3 together before my sister has to leave to get the train back to Surrey. 

A lovely pile of wrapped gifts for friends & family's birthdays..! 

Then, I guess it'll be time to get some tea, and do the lunches ready for work tomorrow. 

Lets hope the weather is nice this week, and the working week goes nice and smoothly. 

Did you all have lovely weekends? 

Do you try to balance your weekend with the right ratio of mundane chores to lovely treats? 

I hope whatever you've done with your down-time it's been good for you. 

:-)

Love 

Mrs B 

xxx

'Perfect' Blueberry Muffins...

Being back at work full time is sadly meaning not a lot of time (or energy) in the working week for baking. However, a half day today due to a maternity appointment means I'm home with a little more energy (despite having walked 4.5 miles) and so I have decided to get my bake on!

Those of you who are regular readers of the blog will know that I rave about Felicity Cloake's Guardian food blog. This weekly column finds Felicity choosing something to cook, she then collects a variety of versions of the recipe from the 'top chefs' i.e. Jamie, Gordon, Delia, Nigel S etc, and makes each of them; tasting and comparing all the time, until by the end of the week she comes up with her own 'perfect' recipe. The final 'perfect' recipe is usually a combination of the ones she's tried. 

So far I've tried her carrot cake, and crumpets - both with great success. So today I've tried her blueberry muffins. 

I've had blueberry muffin diaster in years gone by with muffins that just weren't at all sweet enough, and were therefore a big disappoint to me, a sweet blueberry-muffin-lover! So I was hoping that this recipe wouldn't disappoint. 

My final muffins were really scrummy - just the right amount of sweet to salt taste, a lovely texture and just amazing still slightly warm from the oven. :-)

You can find the recipe here. 

Here is a photo directly from Felicity's food-blog of her 'perfect' muffins...

And here are mine....

They have lovely golden-brown crunchy tops, and fluffy middles, they're full of fruit and sugary goodness...I fear these won't last too long in the Bishop household. ;-)

Another great 'perfect' recipe Felicity, thank you! 

Mrs B

xxx

Clandestine Cake Club - May Day theme

Today was my second Clandestine Cake Club meet - this month's theme was May Day cakes, and we met at the lovely Limes cafe in Bedford town centre on this lovely sunny April afternoon from 2pm-4pm. This month I took my husband Liam along with me as a guest - although he doesn't bake many cakes he very much enjoys eating them, and knows a lot about baking through the process of osmosis (living with me!) 

We baked our cake together last night - he's a great passer, fetcher, stirrer, wiper, taster assistant in the kitchen, and we danced around to the radio while we cooked. He also helped with the manly 'construction' side of the cake, so it wasn't too girlie a process. 

The idea for my cake came from my lovely friend Liz, who usually comes along to cake club with me. Unfortunately she couldn't make today's meeting - but suggested the idea of making a May pole cake with ribbons, and said I could steal it. (Thanks Liz!)

Hubby and I put our heads together, and I was really pleased with our final result. 

The cake itself is the wonderful Felicity Cloake's 'Perfect' Carrot Cake recipe from her food blog on the Guardian - I've used this recipe a few times and it is always a winner! Find the recipe here. We then coloured the cream cheese icing using some green food colouring, and decorated using some pre-made sugar flowers, and of course, the May pole (made from doweling, curling ribbon and Sellotape).

our May pole cake 

This was the cake last night, however, after popping it in the fridge over night we found the ribbon didn't want to stick to the glass stand this morning, so we left the ribbon hanging - and actually I preferred how it looked. 

our cake at Clandestine Cake Club today

There were, of course, loads of other scrummy and very impressive cakes at Clandestine Cake Club today, and this time we'd made sure we'd not eaten any lunch - so as to free up some tummy space for extra cake! 

The other cakes:

Amaretto sponge

Coffee and Walnut with a dash of Tia Maria!

Fudgey Pecan Cake

Double lemon drizzle cake with poppy seeds

Ginger sponge with lemon icing

Chocolate and vanilla sponge 2 layer Spring May Pole cake - what a show stopper!!!

What a fantastic array of cakes we got to tuck into! My husbands favourite cake (after mine of course!) was the Fudgey Pecan cake - which was absolutely delicious. And my favourite was the Double Lemon-Drizzle Poppyseed cake, it was so dense and sharp and lemony! :-)

During this months meet we were treated to a wonderful sugar-craft demonstration - we watched how to make the most exquisite roses, carnations and petunias from sugar-paste. They were actually far simpler than I ever imagined, and used only a few pieces of key equipment which is easily purchasable from eBay or Hobbycraft (I can feel a little shopping spree coming on -sorry Husband!)

the sugar-craft demonstration

stunning sugar carnation

such delicate sugar-roses

lovely little yellow petunias

hand made sugar paste flowers

The demonstration has most definitely inspired me to have another go at sugar-paste. I've had a play before, and have a few of the tools at home, but I really want to have a go at some of the flowers we saw at today's meeting....watch this space. 

As always, one of the greatest parts of cake club is coming home with a box full of assorted cake slices! 

:-) 

The staff at Limes cafe were so friendly and helpful, and they seemed to really enjoy seeing all of our cake creations. Limes is a great little cafe tucked away on Lime Street in the town centre offering a range of yummy fresh cafe foods, coffees, teas, soft drinks and sweet treats; well worth a visit if you get a chance! 

follow Limes on twitter @LimesofBedford 

Clandestine Cake Club @clandestinecake

Carmela Hayes, who runs the Bedford CCC @carmelahayes

Me @lucybishop2012

Has anyone else done any baking this week/weekend? 

I hope you've all been enjoying the sunshine!

Mrs B

xxx

A Healthy Week and "Tangle Pie"

In an attempt to make up for a naughty food-filled holiday to Cornwall, and also with not wanting to put on unnecessary baby-weight, this week hubby and I have tried some new low fat recipes from The Hairy Dieters cookbook, and attempted to have a 'healthier' week.

I have found that my hungriest time of day since becoming pregnant tends to be breakfast - so I've been doubling up with a toast and cereal concoction, or 3 pieces of toast with assorted toppings or extra fruit on the side. This seems to work in terms of keeping me going until break time (now I'm back at work), or until lunch at the weekends.

I'm trying to drink only water, and have the occasional cup of decaf tea or coffee, eat only brown bread, use skimmed milk, and Lurpak lightest spread to cut calories. My main aim is to have plenty of fruit and veg as well as my daily pregnancy vitamin, in the hope that I stay as healthy as possible, and don't undo all of the hard weight loss work I did last year. When going out for dinner I'm trying to make more-sensible choices now, rather than always order the very tempting red-meat & chips duo that I usually find so hard to resist.

This week has seen my return to work, which has been really challenging, and painful - I would say it is the first week where I've really 'suffered' from being pregnant & realised how tired its making me carrying this little kicking, squirming monkey around all day. I have gotten lots more exercise than I have in many weeks due to my long journeys to and from work - so I'm hoping, that although painful for my back, it'll help keep my weight gain to a minimum, keeping me nice and healthy.

So, for all you health-conscious, calorie-counting readers out there I thought I'd share a recipe with you...it was such an enjoyable make, is calorie controlled and FULL of flavour - I would highly recommend it as great family dinner, and is delicious cold the next day for a lunch or picnic.

The Hairy Dieters cookbook is currently only £7 on Amazon - you can buy it here.

TANGLE PIE

A delicious take on a chicken and ham pie, without the heavy shortcrust pastry base and top - using filo pastry to give the pie a crunchy tangled top, with minimal calories. 

You can find the recipe here

mixture all done, and starting to add the tangle of filo pastry

tangle pie before baking

before baking

golden brown and bubbling - ready to eat!

devoured! 

I would also recommend the Spanish-Style Chicken Bake, we tried this one-tray dinner on Friday night and thought it was delicious! 

The bake consists of chicken thighs, 2 onions, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, new potatoes, chorizo, paprika, oregano (and we added courgette too!) - it was warm, hot, sweet and savoury all at the same time - fresh without being heavy and full of flavour. 

You can find the recipe here. 

We will definitely make both of these recipes regularly, and we are looking forward to trying more from this great book. 

The Spanish Chicken from the book (I forgot to take a picture of ours!)

Is anyone else trying to be mindful with what they eat? 

Are you on a health-kick?

Or trying to achieve weight-loss with a calorie controlled diet and exercise?

It is bizarre for me to be in a place where I can't help gaining weight, and I need to eat my full calorie allowance each day... I know that once the baby is here I'll be determined to achieve another big weight loss, but for now I'm trying to enjoy the relative freedom, and just not go over-board. 

How much weight did you guys put on during pregnancy? 

Did you worry about extra weight gain?

Loads of love

Mrs B

xxx