Coffee Sponge Cake

Morning to everyone, for once it isn't raining in Warrington (yet). Hope it doesn't I have just managed to put some washing out. Well I thought I would share another photo of my cakes making projects with you. This was a Victoria sponge coffee flavoured cake drizzled a little icing and added walnuts to the top. My husband took this into work with him for him and his friends.

It was my birthday last week and I made some more cakes but I forgot to take pictures of them for my notebook. I made another coffee flavour, chocolate with drizzled melted chocolate over the top and the good old favorite, just a plane one. I took these into work to share with my workmates, I think they enjoyed them. I am off now to try out some more recipes, my sister bought a cake decorating book which is very informative and really gets the imagination going, I am planning to make some small Christmas cakes and decorate them so I had better get a move on.

Baby Shawl

Here is another shawl I have been making in between all the other projects on the go. This is made from a double knitting wool which I got from our local Pound Stretcher, it came in 200g balls and it cost £2.50 per ball. I made this with just over two of three that I bought. It is in a lovely shade of pink and lilac's although it is not very clear from the photo. I also have another three balls in shades of blue and will be making something with this soon.

Babies

After the devastation caused by the bad winter, some of our plants are recovering and I also think the very wet weather we have been having has helped a lot. Here are some pictures of the Australis that was damaged quite badly, on my last post you will have seen that it had small shoots on it, well look at it now! Sorry a couple of the pictures are on the side, not figured out how to change that yet.

Water Lillies

After the wonderful weather we have had this weekend, it has encouraged the water Lillies on our pond to start to blossom, here is a picture of one that has come out today and on further investigation there are a lot more to follow. I am off now to do some baking, I need to stock up my freezer with goodies so that when I am ready to do any icing/cake decorating the cakes are all ready and I just have to defrost them beforehand. I have also found my recipes that I used last year for chutney and I have also found the one I kept for the mince pie filling. I am hoping I can sell one or two and boost up my craft fund as I want to own the new Cricut Cake that is already out in America, it will certainly help me with my quest to have a small business amongst friends.

See you all soon. x

Our Garden

Our garden is finally getting some colour, although it is still very wild and jungle looking, but we enjoy being out in it and it mostly looks after itself. Here are a few of the potted ones we have done. I also have a few bushes that blossom such as a white jasmine and an orange blossom bush which is nestling in amongst the other plants. They both give off the most beautiful scent in the early to late evening. It's lovely sitting out on a warm night. There is also a view of the bottom of our garden where we have a pond and small waterfall, the water lilies on this are just starting to bud so I hope to have some photos of that soon. The other side of the garden has a broad leaf bamboo and acer bush.

Finally a couple of pictures of our Australis, we thought we had lost this with the bad winter but look what's growing at the bottom of one of the trunks.

Teatime

Well another week has gone by, and last week I ran out of time after doing my last posts, i went of to do some more cooking, we were meant to be having a barbecue but it decided to rain on Sunday evening, so as I had already marinated the meat over night, I decided to cook it in the oven, they were ribs and chicken thighs which I fried off quickly first then slow roasted in the over. Kevin's tea was served with some garlic and rosemary roasted baby potatoes, these were done in foil first then opened up to crisp off and serviced with a small side salad and a opt of mayonnaise. Phillips tea was macaroni cheese from a recipe I found in one of my collection of cooking magazines, this had broccoli and sweetcorn added to it with a home made cheese sauce and I must admit it tasted rather good. Hope it makes you feel hungry

Crochet Shrug

Among all the other things I have been doing I have been making this shrug, its a pattern out of the new crochet magazine that's just come out. It was intended to be for myself but it isn't quite big enough for me. I didn't use the stipulated yarn as I had fallen in love with this lovely coloured double knitting one I bought recently from a place called Black Sheep Wools which has a small warehouse close to where I live (in fact is it just 10 minutes away from work), I also use different sized hook,. I loved making this the pattern is easy to do and it grew very quickly. I think I will be giving it as a gift or perhaps selling it not sure yet. No off to see what else I can get started on.