Perfect Pound Cake

At home my family love my cupcakes and cookies. My cakes on the other hand are not met with the same enthusiasm.

For years I've been blaming it on my oven . I'm sure that before we bought it my cakes were much nicer.

In attempt to prove this theory I've been trying some new cake recipes. The first attempt was the Bruce Bogtrotter cake from Jane Brockets lovely book "Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer."

This was a very successful attempt. Couldn't fault my oven, I'm begining to realise it may be all in the Recipe.

This week I found the perfect Pound Cake recipe. So easy and it even worked for me. I originally found the recipe on RecipeZaar, but tweeked it a little.

Here's my version if you want to give it a try.



Perfect Pound Cake ......


3 cups golden caster sugar

1 cup softened cream cheese

1 1/2 cups softened butter

6 medium free range eggs (room temperature)

1 tsp good vanilla essence

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

3 cups plain flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt



1, Cream sugar, butter and cream cheese, untill pale

2, Add eggs one at a time, beat well

3, sift dry ingredients together and add in stages to cream mixture

4, place in well greased 10" pan (I used two ring baking pans as mine were smaller)

5, Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 mins

6, Let cake cool in pan for 15 mins before removing, this ensures the cake stays

moist.

7, Better served the day after baking.

Property development for Fairies

Recently we took a day to drive to the Ards Peninsula in County Down.

We walked through the grounds of Mount Stewart, enjoying the ancient trees and the carpet of bluebells.

Then we came across this little jetty at the edge of the lake.

These Alpine water ferns totally caught our imagination.

M and I almost immediately thought of Fairies.

We had recently read Barry and Tracy Kane's book "Fairy houses Everywhere"

The rest of the day was spent collecting materials and building.

We enjoyed building this little house so much .

I can see a Summer filled with more Fairy Real Estate.

I've agreed to carry a ball of twine and pair of nail scissors with us on all our walks and park visits just incase.

You can find some beautiful fairy houses created by Roxie on Flickr here and here.

Sometimes its Sunny

Some afternoons its Sunny in my back garden and here is the proof.
And, there are daisies popping up everywhere !



Hope the sun lasts for a few days more.

Sew Songs

I know I've been away from my blog for a while. Lots of new stuff has been happening though.
There is a new Home for us in the next few weeks and I've been busy organizing all the grown up contract stuff for that.
I have lots of new ideas for this house as its pretty much a blank canvas. We will have lots more room and a beautiful garden and to top it all an Apple Tree!!
So as you can guess there has been limited crafting happening around here.
Just lots of cutting ideas from magazines and a little sewing, accompanied by the
Beautiful voice of Lisa Hannigan.....




This song "I don't know " is free on Itunes

Lovely album cover as well, don't you think ?

Pear and Almond

After an unplanned break from my blog I've eventually got my act together to post. It's not that I haven't been thinking of blogging, but with a nasty chest infection and a sprained ankle I just haven't had the energy to do very much.
However I'm glad that both have now resolved and I'm back to my old self.
Anyway the picture above is of my latest muffin flavor combination.
Even if I do say so myself they are scrummy.
Sweet, moist and delicious. Best eaten when still warm.
I've used my regular muffin recipe but substituted 1 oz of ground almonds for 1 oz of flour, added a few drops of almond essence and some freshly chopped ripe pears.
A dusting of icing sugar while they were cooling just finished them off nicely.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

I don't know about you but my hands have been Freezing over the past few weeks.

This has prompted me to search for nice patterns for hand warmers. Although I like the idea of a full glove, they prove to be unpractical and I hate the loss of dexterity that comes with having the ends of your fingers covered.
So for me the perfect solution is market gloves, hand warmers or fingerless gloves.
I found these crocheted beauties on Etsy, made by the lovely Salina.

You can find more lovely things made by Salina on her blog Salina's Home Journal. I just love the cotton lace trim so much.

Thank you Salina. They are so comfortable, warm and most importantly pretty.

There is a saying that goes "Cold hands , Warm Heart" so to prove this true I've decided to have my first Give Away.

While searching for pretty patterns I have been tinkering with my own and have come up with these.

Please excuse the dodgy nail painting, nail art is unfortunately not my forte. I must get M trained up in the art of manicure.
If you leave a comment to this post with a link or copy of your favourite soup recipe before the 1st of February, I will enter you into the draw to win a pair of these hand warmers. You can choose the colour.
Good Luck.