Introducing Doris (and a general round up of the year)

Apparently I was a very good girl this year as I received a lovely dressform for Christmas.

Dressform Doris is going to be very useful with future sewing projects. I can also try out outfit combinations on her without going through the hassle of trying things on myself. Double bonus!

The wooden sewing box on the table is also new. Dad bought it for my Christmas after we saw it in a charity shop at the beginning of this month. It's similar to one my Granny used to have and as far as I can see it's in perfect condition. I love that my best charity shop finds have been at opposite ends of the year: my Mrs Doyle tea trolley in January and this wooden sewing box in December.

 Completely irrelevant photograph. I just thought my bed looked cosy.

I tend to feel grouchy by the end of December because I never think I've accomplished much but I've actually had a pretty good year (by my low standards anyway.) Not only have I MET RICHARD ARMITAGE but I've also started sewing regularly again. This year I've produced 5 dresses, a skirt and a large quilt.

Although sewing has admittedly taken up a lot of my free time this year I have still been baking. 16 cakes, 4 lots of cupcakes, 3 trays of brownies/blondies, 4 batches of biscuits, 1 set of tarts, multiple batches of tablet, 1 tray of muffins, 1 batch of scones and a tub of ice-cream to be exact. My blueberry and lemon layer cake from June was apparently a massive hit as not only is it my most viewed bake of this year but also of all time. Wowee!

 Damn it I forgot about my mincemeat frangipane tarts and chocolate chip cookies from this month! Oh well, almost remembered everything.

Here's to another creative year folks! I wish you all good health and happiness for 2015. Just in case there are other New-Year-Grouches such as myself reading this, here's a photo of my cat Bob in the inflatable unicorn horn I bought for his Christmas. I defy you not to laugh!

festive bakes

Merry Christmas Eve folks! As usual all my festive baking seems to happen in a last minute rush so I thought I'd group them together in one post like I've done in previous years. (You'd think I'd learn to be more organised!)

First off we have the annual batches of Christmas tablet! My mum drinks so much Douwe Egberts coffee that we have a substantial number of their jars by the end of the year and they're the perfect size for storing tablet. Just add some pretty tape, twirly ribbon and a handmade label and you've got yourself a lovely Christmas present.

Next up is a sticky, spiced apple and syrup bundt which I baked using this recipe from Dollybakes. The only change I made was using golden syrup instead of maple syrup for the glaze. I was so happy that this turned out the tin perfectly, I squealed with delight! Cake release spray is a glorious invention.

These cranberry and white chocolate biscuit/cookies are fast becoming an annual Christmas bake for me. Not only is white chocolate and cranberry a winning combination but these biscuits are quick to throw together which is perfect if you're in a hurry.

Sadly I haven't managed to bake my annual perverted gingerbread santas and boobie angels however I have baked these festive gingerbread cupcakes using a recipe I came across on Sally's Baking Addiction. Mine turned out a lot darker as I used half golden syrup half treacle in place of molasses. I also decided to top mine off with a cinnamon and golden syrup cream cheese icing and edible wafer snowflakes. As with most gingerbreads the flavour improved with age. They certainly packed a spiced, treacle-y punch.

For the first time ever I've baked shortbread! It's one of those bakes which my Granny was so good at making that I never felt I needed to bother. However this year Mum and I were really missing her shortbread so we followed Granny's recipe and they taste exactly like hers. We both thought it felt like getting a big hug. It officially feels like Christmas now that we have some Granny shortbread in the tin.

And lastly I made these chocolate brownie trees which I've seen on both Ros and Kate's blogs recently and couldn't resist baking. I wish I had more time to decorate these nicely but they were a last minute festive treat to take to my friends' house.

So that's what I've managed to bake in the run up to Christmas this year - a mixture of old and new recipes. Are you a traditional Christmas baker or do you like to switch things up and try new recipes every year?

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Hope you have a lovely day tomorrow. x

my Christmas snowflake dress

Ta-dah! I finished my Christmas dress and it has mother-flippin' SLEEVES! Check out those bad boys.

So.... I have weird shoulders/shoulder blades and a straight back. I suppose I've always known that, but it has become increasingly obvious since I started delving into fitting issues. Dressmaking sure does make you super observant of your own body quirks.

As you've probably noticed it's another By Hand London Elisalex dress. I was determined to attach some well fitting sleeves to this bodice by the end of the year and I think I've cracked it. I've listed my fitting alterations as bullet points below, mostly so I can remember what I've done but also for anyone else who may have similar fitting problems.

I cut out a size 12 based on the pattern's finished waist measurement and adjusted the following:

• 1 1/2" (overall) full bust adjustment following BHL's tutorial

• lengthened the bodice by 5/8"

• removed 1/2" from the front shoulder and added 1/2" to the back shoulder - a forward shoulder adjustment to correct the problem I had with the shoulder seams slipping backwards.

• removed 1/2" from the back bodice, tapering out to 0 just above the armhole - an erect upper back adjustment. This solved the problem I had with my bodice tilting/dipping towards the back. I have a fairly straight back and a very curvy front (thanks chest!) so obviously my back bodice piece doesn't need as much length as the front. A bit of a "duuuuh" moment for me. This blog post helped loads as did Jo's posts on her own muslin fitting.

• altered the sleeve head to match the new shoulder seam placement following Heather B's tutorial. 

• lowered the armhole by 1/2" and added 1/4" to each side of the sleeve (to match the amount added to the armhole) to accommodate my larger "guns".

• attached a simple gathered skirt instead of the box pleat tulip skirt and added a skirt lining. Sadly I didn't have enough fabric to add pockets. A sleeved dress out of 2 metres of fabric is pretty good though!

The shoulder and sleeve alteration was a light bulb moment for me. I noticed that if I hunched my shoulders forward the seams sat correctly, so of course it made sense to remove fabric from the front of the shoulder and add it to the back where my (larger than average?) shoulder blades need more space. I have no idea whether my shoulders are just genetically designed this way (perhaps I might sprout wings like Angel in X-Men:The Last Stand...) or I just have very good posture.

But yay for the wonders of the internet and kick-ass sewing bloggers! There's no way I would have figured out any of these fitting problems by myself.

Mmmmm, nice and tidy insides. I did quite a lot of blindstitching as usual to finish things off neatly - skirt hem, sleeve hems (turned up with bias binding) and attaching the lining at the armholes, waistband and zip. I love an invisible finish and really enjoy handsewing. It's a nice little job to do whilst watching tv.

The turquoise bodice lining is a silk cotton mix which I thought I'd try out. It was a bit of a shit to work as it moved around a lot, but it feels lovely to wear. I like the fun colour contrast too.

Hey, look... my pattern matching at the back almost works. Just a couple of millimetres out vertically. Close enough for me! The scooped neckline at the back is my favourite feature of this dress pattern. There's something very elegant and 1950s about it.

Although little silver shoes look pretty my dress is far more likely to be worn like this on a day to day basis - with a chunky, wooly cardigan and big, cosy boots - appropriate for Scottish winter.

Throughout university people never believed I came from Scotland. Apparently I look like I come from Norway, Sweden, Germany or Iceland. A tutor even came up to me once and said rather loudly and slowly, "ARE.YOU.FROM.HERE?" thinking I was the Icelandic exchange student. Nope - just a tall, pale skinned, dark blonde with a love for big, wooly jumpers. My long, plaited hair at the time completed the look. I suppose this Scandinavian looking red and white snowflake dress has the potential to confuse people again. Yeah, I could be Norwegian....

So that's my Christmas dress. I'm going to try and get as much wear out of it as possible over the next couple of weeks before it's tucked away for 11 months. I don't have any other red dresses in my wardrobe so this is a fun addition. Has anyone else completed any festive sewing projects recently?

the almost doomed mini mincemeat frangipane tarts

a.k.a. why it's not a good idea to bake using an electric oven during a thunder and lightning storm.

There has been a lot of annoying power blips this week due to thunder and lightning. I *just* got a tray of these tarts out the oven before lightning suddenly struck again and knocked off the power for a minute. Thank goodness it didn't strike 5-10 minutes earlier.

I wrapped up the rest of my filling and pastry and put in the fridge to finish baking tonight. I'm assuming/hoping the frangipane will be fine to use once it's back at room temperature. Just in case the rest of my batch is doomed, I quickly photographed these this afternoon in a rare glimpse of sunlight.

I knew I had to try these tarts after seeing them on Sophie's blog, the Cake Hunter last week. The only change I made was using a regular sized bun tray instead of a muffin tray just to keep my tarts cute and dainty.

My Dad in particular loved these and said they were the best mincemeat pies he's ever eaten. He even went as far as saying he'd buy all the ingredients again for me to make a second batch. High praise indeed.

If you like Christmas flavours and bakewell tarts then you're in for a real treat when you make these. They're like festive cherry bakewells! I don't know if I can go back to making mince pies without frangipane as it works so well.  These will definitely be reappearing this Christmas.

chocolate chunk hazelnut biscuits

Does anybody else grumpy-bake? I certainly do. "I feel grumpy so I'm going to bake something."

This is the end product of said grumpy baking.

I initially thought these weren't anything exciting, but considering I ate four in quick succession with my cuppa I must turn around on myself and admit they're rather tasty. They remind me of McVities Boaster biscuits (do they still exist?) which I find oddly comforting as my Granny occasionally kept them in her biscuit tin.

For the chocolate chunks I used a mixture of Green and Blacks white and milk chocolate as that's what I had to hand. Surprisingly, for me, I prefer the stronger cocoa flavour of the milk chocolate against the hazelnuts and vanilla.

The original recipe says to divide the dough in half, roll into 15-18cm long rolls and freeze for 2 hours before cutting into 2-3cm discs. However I had no time or patience for such nonsense so I roughly dolloped slightly flattened knob shapes onto the trays and left in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes to firm up the butter before baking.

So the resulting biscuits are crunchy and crumbly and a bit rough and ready as opposed to the soft and chewy, regularly spherical ones pictured in the recipe book, but I'm fine with that. If anything, I prefer them this way. Their sweetness easied my grumpiness so they did their job.

Chocolate chunk hazelnut biscuits

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's white chocolate and pecan nut cookies recipe

250g unsalted butter, softened

100g caster sugar

200g soft light brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

400g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

50g white chocolate chopped

50g milk chocolate chopped  

100g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Beat together the butter and sugars in a large bowl for about a minute until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together in a separate bowl before adding to the egg mixture. Mix everything together until well combined and forms a smooth dough. Stir in the chocolate and nuts. 

Dollop small-ish knobs of the dough onto lined baking trays (perhaps about a tablespoon in size), well spaced apart. Leave to chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes. This will keep the butter firm so it doesn't melt quickly and make the biscuits spread too much in the oven. Whilst your dough is chilling preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the edges start turning golden in colour. Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. The original recipe produces 24 biscuits/cookies but I ended up with 30-40.

a ridiculous christmas skirt

It's less than a month till Christmas now so I feel entirely justified in talking about it and starting my festive makes. Ok, so I haven't really bought any Christmas presents yet and I haven't even started planning my festive baking but I have made a fun and very silly skirt covered in Santa heads. As my friend put it, "Yay! You've made another item of beard clothing."

The skirt's shape is roughly based on an old H&M skirt of mine. Between that and my old pattern drafting book I managed to draft a curved yoke waistband to sit on my lower waist/upper hip. I definitely find curved waistbands more flattering for my hourglass shape, but annoyingly they're not always easy to come by in shops. Take that retailers, I'll make my own!

My old H&M skirt has box pleats but I felt these santas were crying out for some fun and flirty gathers. I think they worked a treat. Just to ramp up the silliness further I added a red ric rac border. You have no idea how long I've been wanting to add ric rac to an item of clothing, but felt the opportunity hadn't really presented itself until now. It was definitely the finishing touch here. Now I have to stop myself from adding ric rac to everything.

I was really impressed that I managed to squeak this skirt out of 1.5m of fabric. Go me! Sadly not enough to (attempt to) pattern match at side seams but I wasn't too bothered as the gathers obscure it anyway. At least I managed to position the santa heads nicely on the waistband and the top of the gathers.

Like everything else I've sewn this year I added a lining as I cannot stand the thought of my skirts/dresses clinging to my tights; it would drive me completely bonkers. I also know that I can't be bothered with slips so I just suck it up and add linings. It adds time to projects and lining fabrics can be arsey to handle but it's definitely worth it for cotton garments. Look how pretty it makes the insides too!

Speaking of insides, this was the first project where I used my new overlocker. Look at those neat seam allowances, mmmm. I know it's entirely do-able to make clothes without ever owning an overlocker, but the perfectionist in me seriously loves the tidy, professional finish it adds. It appears to only have one speed setting though - FAST - so I view it in equal measures of awe and terror.

Sadly, half way through this project my sewing machine started making a very strange, crackling, buzzing noise. It continued to get louder to the point that I swapped to my mum's sewing machine. Good job she bought it when we got my overlocker! So poor Singer Sally (obviously my machine has a name) is at the sewing machine doctor. I know she's 10 years old but I really hope whatever is wrong is fixable. It's the first problem I've ever encountered with her.

I can't leave this post on a downer, so here's an outtake of me swooshing about in my skirt. Those Santas are ready to boogie at Edinburgh's Christmas markets this weekend.

Has anybody else got Christmas plans in the pipeline - dressmaking, baking or otherwise? Do tell!

pyrex and fabric purchases

I haven't been in the charity shops much recently but I have found a couple of pretty and useful pieces. I'm a sucker for pink rose patterned pyrex so these small casserole dishes came home with me.

They quickly became part of the pyrex dish family in the kitchen. I think every kitchen needs an exciting pyrex tower on display.

My other recent charity shop finds are these pillowcase sets. I've been keeping an eye out for pastel stripe pillowcases for a while so was delighted to get my hands on a pair and the floral orange ones were so cheery I couldn't leave them behind. I'm planning to use these for my underneath pillows - much more exciting than plain white.

Now onto my exciting fabric purchases! Aren't these florals fantastic? I used to be the floral dress queen at uni, wearing some form of floral at all times, but in the last couple of years I've been favouring stripes and polka dots and keeping my florals for homewares/interiors. Clearly the floral dress queen still lurks within as I could not resist these two printed cottons.

Mustard yellow, turquoisey blue, duck egg, sap green, dusky pink/purple, rusty orange, plum purple - basically all my favourite colours to wear, yay! I'll have loads of cardigan and tights combinations to choose from with these fabrics as dresses. (Is that a sad thing to get excited about?)

I also bought two Christmas-y fabrics, one of which has already been turned into a garment (blog post coming soon) and the other is currently being cut into.

Check out all that sellotape. I had an intense day of bodice fitting last Sunday. 10 hours to sort out my shoulder/sleeve/gapey upper back problem. 10 HOURS! All I can say is thank goodness for the internet. Fingers crossed this should become my best fitting Elisalex dress to date.

Also "hello!" to any new people who found me through Miss Crayola Creepy's cat lady sewing challenge. I hope you enjoy my jumbled ramblings about cakes, crockery and sewing.

black tea and blackberry cupcakes with honey cream cheese icing

I'm going to come out and say it... this is one of my favourite things I've baked in a long time.

To be honest I've felt dissatisfied with the majority of my bakes since the new cooker arrived back in May. It has taken a while to make friends with the new oven and I've ended up in a bit of a baking slump. Both my work and my hobbies are practical/creative so it's inevitable that something temporarily falls by the wayside and recently it has been my baking.

Therefore I was delighted when Whittard contacted me last month to ask if I'd like to play with some of their hot chocolates and teas. I felt it was the perfect opportunity to throw myself into some baking and get creative. These cupcakes certainly did the trick.

I really don't know how to describe the flavour of the sponge other than delicious. You wouldn't say "ooh that tastes of black tea" but the tea definitely adds a subtle depth of flavour, or richness perhaps, as well as turning the cupcakes an attractive golden colour.

I initially considered lemon and honey as flavours to compliment the tea, but decided against lemon as it has increasingly become my default baking flavour. As I still wanted a sharp element I chose blackberries instead. I love the contrast in flavour between the tart blackberry and the sweet, creamy honey icing. It's a really satisfying combination.

I also love the burst of colour from the blackberries in the centre of each cupcake - a cheerful surprise on a dreary November day.

I think the Whittard 1886 Blend was an excellent choice for this bake as it's a lovely strong, rich tea. I find it very comforting to drink, like a big tea hug. The other black tea I was sent, Whittard's Original, has a lighter, almost citrus-y flavour. It's very refreshing and I find I add less milk as I don't think it needs it. At the moment I'm favouring the 1886 more - I need a good, strong tea to keep me going in winter!

What's your favourite tea at the moment? Any other Whittard fans?

Black tea and blackberry cupcakes with honey cream cheese icing

Adapted from Earl Grey Cupcakes in the Hummingbird Bakery's "Cake Days" book.

cupcakes:

3 black tea bags. (Whittard's 1886 Blend or an equally strong flavoured black tea.)

80g (3oz) unsalted butter, softened

280g (10oz) caster sugar

240g (8.5oz) plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

240ml (7fl oz) semi skimmed milk

2 large eggs

a small tub of blackberries

icing:

250g icing sugar

125g cream cheese

50g unsalted butter, softened

1 tbsp honey

Almost bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan then remove from the heat. Add the 3 tea bags and leave to steep for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases.

Mix the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl (on a slow speed) until it resembles breadcrumbs in texture. Squeeze out the teabags and remove from the milk then pour the tea infused milk into a measuring jug. Top it up to 200ml if it has dipped below then add the eggs and whisk together with a fork. Pour 3/4 of the egg milk mixture into the flour mixture and mix until thick, smooth and combined. Add the rest of the milk and mix again for about a minute until smooth. Fill the cupcake cases until half full, pop a blackberry in the centre of each case, then cover over with more mixture until roughly two thirds full. This batter easily filled 16 cases.

Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until well risen and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. In a large bowl mix all the icing ingredients together. I recommend initially combining everything with a spoon to prevent massive icing sugar dust clouds with the mixer! Once smooth, spoon over the cooled cupcakes with a palette knife. Feel free to reduce the icing amounts as I had enough icing left over to cover perhaps 3 more cupcakes.

Disclaimer: I was sent products to bake with as Whittard recognise I'm a crazy cake lady with an uncontrollable hot chocolate and tea addiction. They're a brand I enjoy and have purchased from before. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

hot chocolate deluxe cake

When I first left university and started this blog I worked in a cafe/bar and one of my favourite drinks to make was the hot chocolate deluxe: a milky hot chocolate topped with a swirl of cream, marshmallows and a Cadbury flake. By this time of year I was making quite a lot of these daily. Cold weather hits and everybody craves hot chocolate.

To celebrate the arrival of hot chocolate weather I thought I'd recreate my favourite cafe drink as a layer cake: monster slabs of moist chocolate sponge sandwiched together with chocolate icing, marshmallows and topped with mini swirls of cream, even more marshmallows and a chocolate flake.

Although visually impressive I have to admit I was massively disappointed with my icing for this cake. It was entirely my own fault too as I stupidly didn't taste it before slapping it on the cake. (There's a reason why Masterchef contestants are always told off for not tasting their food.) Despite the fluffiness there was a slight grainy texture. I'm guessing I should have dissolved the cocoa powder properly in hot water/milk first before adding to the mixture as the graininess certainly wasn't from lack of mixing.

I think it should have tasted much more chocolatey as well, but at the time I was reserving the remaining chocolate to make a ganache topping. The plan was to use chocolate butter icing for filling and crumb coating, then make a ganache to coat the top and sides. By the time I stacked the sponges I realised crumb coating wasn't really an option as I didn't have enough icing left and it wasn't practical with my tiny palette knife. Ganache also seemed unnecessary by this point so I whipped some of the cream and piped it on as rosettes.

The cream rosettes worked brilliantly. Not only did they look cute they also offered a light contrast to the chocolate and sweet marshmallows. The cake itself was also lovely - light in texture, juicy and satisfyingly chocolatey in flavour - it has been my go-to, easy chocolate cake recipe for many years. If I recreated this hot chocolate themed cake, which is definitely worth doing as this cake is so close to being awesome, I'd use chocolate ganache instead of butter icing. I think it would have more of an indulgent hot chocolate quality.

The hot chocolate powder I used for this cake was kindly sent to me by Whittard along with a couple of other exciting prodcuts which I will blog about soon. I've actually had their parcel for a couple of weeks and it has been so tempting just to drink it all and not bake with it, haha! I hadn't tried their luxury hot chocolate before as I tend to favour their white hot chocolate but this is satisfyingly rich and indulgent, definitely a luxury. It's a real treat with a few marshmallows and the perfect way to spend an afternoon doing a bit of letter writing and crafting.

Hot chocolate deluxe cake
Recipe adapted from here, my favourite chocolate cake recipe. Use the recipe in the link if you'd prefer a normal sized sandwich cake! (7" round)

cake:
262g/ 9oz self raising flour
3 generous tbsp Whittard Luxury hot chocolate cocoa powder  (courtesy of Whittard)
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
225g/ 7.5oz soft light brown sugar
3 generous tbsp golden syrup
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
225ml/ 7.5fl oz sunflower oil
225ml/ 7.5fl oz milk (I used semi skimmed)

icing - this is what I used but I would recommend using your own favourite chocolate butter icing or chocolate ganache recipe instead:
250g icing sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened
100g milk chocolate, melted and cooled (I used Green and Blacks)
1 tbsp Whittard hot chocolate cocoa powder
a splash of milk
150ml double cream, whipped until stiff
1 Cadbury flake
a bag of mini marshmallows and heart shaped marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line three 6 inch round tins. In a large bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda. Stir in the sugar then make a well in the centre for the wet ingredients. Add the golden syrup, eggs, oil and milk then mix everything together for about a minute. 

Divide equally between the three tins and bake in the oven for approximately 30-35 minutes until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. I put a layer of greaseproof paper on top after 25-30 minutes as the tops were starting to catch/burn but the insides still weren't fully cooked. It may be worth cooking them in a slightly cooler oven next time or perhaps not fill the tins so high! Leave to cool in the tins for about 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Once completely cool, level all the tops of the sponges for stacking. Mine rose quite high so I had a lot of leftover crumbs to nibble on! 

For the icing, mix together the icing sugar, butter, chocolate, and cocoa for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Use to sandwich together the layers along with a few handfuls of mini marshmallows. Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks and pipe as rosettes on the top of the cake. Decorate with more marshmallows and a flake.

Disclaimer: I was sent products to bake with as Whittard recognise I'm a crazy cake lady with an uncontrollable hot chocolate and tea addiction. They're a brand I enjoy and have purchased from before. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.