Monday 27 October 2014

Purely in the Interest

.... of science I ate some cake.

The other week the lovely Susan at Canadian Abroad blogged about an awesome cake.  Now I'm no Mary Berry but I like to think I can pull off a decent cake when I try and I like to try different things.  I have never baked a cinnamon roll cake before so throwing diet caution to the wind I decided to have a go.  Now a couple of people have tried this before and apparently not been successful so I wasn't overly keen I'd be either.  But a quick trip to the supermarket to make sure I had the necessary ingredients and I was ready to go.


So a little weighing, measuring and mixing (by hand! I never mix by hand but couldn't be bothered plugging in my hand mixer) I ended up with this
It smells amazing!  I made it last Thursday night and it still smells fantastic every time you open the cake tin.  Everybody loves too, including Pedro and he doesn't really do cake so it must be good.  My only issue with it is that I feel it's a bit underdone in the middle but the cake tin I used wasn't quite 9x13 so it's not as shallow as it probably should be so that's why it's not as cooked as it should be.  It is still really, really good though, even being a bit squidgy.  Definitely one to be tried again, even though it plays havoc when your supposed to be dieting!!!!


Sunday 19 October 2014

Sunday Morning ...

... up with the larks!  Well sort of, it's 8am and I'm sitting in blissful quietness having a cup of tea before the rest of the household descends for breakfast.  The song does go on to say, 'think I'll take a walk in the park' but it's chucking it down outside so I'll give that part a miss.  But I am watching the birds on our feeder having their breakfast so I'm 'at one with nature' in a sense!!

Part of the reason I'm sitting here myself is to have a wee wander through the web without little people pestering me.  Recently I've come across a quilter called Cristy Fincher, initially on IG, but I'm checking out her blog, Sew Much Like Mom, where she talks about paperless paper piecing.  She also glue bastes and I'm intrigued about that.  So Sunday morning is about learning stuff :)

And learning new stuff is good.  It distracts me from the fact that life is hectic just now.  I've been stressed the last week, quite a bit, which I'm putting down to dealing with a lot this year - apply for the dude to get into primary, selling & moving house, dude starting primary school, working extra hours, general craziness at work, car hassles on top of starting the year being ill - it's kind of all come to a head this week and to be honest I've been a right moaning minnie, I've been doing my own head in, and I need to stop.  Everyone one has hard times, I'm no different.  Whining does change things, it just makes me irritating - to other people and myself. Pedro tells me I haven't really, but then I do suspect he's only saying that to stop me moaning lol!!!

Anyhoo, to attempt to stop myself from tipping right over the edge into complete crazy looney-ness I made stuff!  I've been playing with the halloween fabric I've got to try and decide what to do but at the moment indecisiveness and procrastination are my constant companions, so the other night I just sat down and started cutting and sewing.  Just to do SOMETHING and this is what I ended up with


I'm pretty pleased with them, although as ever I can see where they should be better, but they are a hit with the children so yay!  It's all good.