dreamy pink gingham

I'm too late for Karen's Ginghamalong and too late for summer, but boy do I love my latest dress.

I've been stalking the latest Cotton and Steel Checkers range, swooning over all the colours, and pounced when it was finally in stock online at the Village Haberdashery last month. I've also been stalking the release of By Hand London's latest pdf pattern, the Charlie dress, so pounced on that too when it became available. I knew this fabric and pattern would be perfect together.

The Charlie dress has a cute bandeau style bodice with princess seams and a side zip. I think this is my favourite bodice shape I've made yet. The lack of armscye shaping and upper back coverage meant I had no fitting issues. Big thumbs up for those with big shoulders and shoulder blades! I was surprised I didn't even need to lengthen the bodice by my usual 1/2 inch. My only fitting alterations were adjusting the length of the straps and their position on the front bodice - moving them from the centre of the princess seams to the side for better braa coverage.

The straps are sandwiched between the bodice and the fold over band so any adjustments need to be done before the neckline is sewn down. I thought I had done this, but either I was wearing poor underwear the day I fitted my bodice toile or the weight of the skirt on my finished dress pulled the whole bodice too low. I couldn't face unpicking overlocking, understitching and the seam, so I folded the straps and tucked them down at the back on the inside, hiding my hand stitches underneath the band so nothing is visible from the front. I'll make sure the straps are the correct length next time. For reference I shortened the straps by 2.5 inches.

I also decided not to clip into the curves of the princess seams as I thought it would look scruffy on an unlined bodice. Instead I trimmed the seam allowance to just under 1/4inch and used an overlock function on my sewing machine to finish off the edges as I didn't trust myself to sew such a slim edge on the overlocker. Ideally I would prefer a lined bodice as it looks neater, but that might create too much bulk at the neckline with the band.

My only other changes were down to personal taste, such as swapping out the skirt on the pattern for a plain gathered one. I also added patch pockets with little folded corners and a button, inspired by Tassadit's adorable pomme dress last year. I love a good pocket and I'm a chronic button hoarder so these pockets make me very happy. They certainly add to the overall cuteness of the dress.

My only grumbles with this dress were the wrinkles, (man this cotton loves to wrinkle) inserting the invisible zip (THREE TIMES! No idea why it wasn't cooperating) and all the pattern matching. I think I did a pretty good job matching the gingham across the princess seams though, so it was worth the head scratching and cutting everything on the flat. The only dodgy line up is at the zip, I don't quite know what happened there.

Speaking of zips, what do people do with the flappy bits at the top of the zip tape - do you fold and stitch them down like me, trim them off or stitch them at the top of the seam then attach a hook and eye? They really bother me, especially on an unlined bodice when they're visible. I also found my zip wanted to flip out as there is no facing or lining fabric to hold it in place (if that makes sense?) so I discreetly hand stitched it to the bodice at the top of the zip, under the band.

I may have only managed to wear this dress once before the weather turned, but I honestly felt fantastic in it. I wore it to meet up with my best friend and her mum, who I haven't seen in a year, on a surprisingly warm September day. I delighted in matching the gingham tablecloths at the cafe we had lunch in, took photos of my skirt billowing in the wind, and later in the day a random lady came up to me to say "what a gorgeous dress." It took all my self restraint to graciously say "Awww, thank you!" and not follow it with a manic "HELL YEAH, I MADE IT MYSELF!"

"Did you make your dress?"

"DAMN RIGHT I DID."

My pretty, pink, gingham dress of summery joy will have to wait until next year to be worn again, but I might leave it on my dressform, Doris, for a few days before retiring it to the wardrobe. It's too pretty to put away just yet.

sticky toffee cake and cupcakes

Fancy cake decorating has never been my thing. If this was made in the Great British Bake Off tent Mary Berry would likely describe it as "informal", but that's ok, my presentation standards aren't high. As long as it tastes good and I get to eat a bit, I'm happy. Worst comes to worst, just stick it on a pretty plate or a cake stand.

I baked this sticky toffee cake for my uncle's 60th birthday this week, so obviously I couldn't cut into it for photographs, but I did sample a cupcake and they were utterly delicious. Sticky and sweet with squidgy pockets of dates in a brown sugar sponge. There's no point being diet conscious here. Sometimes you need to give the calories the middle finger and shove a whole damn cupcake in your mouth and delight in all the sugar.

Despite having used this recipe multiple times before (briefly mentioned here and here) it has never received its own blog post, so I thought it was high time I rectified the situation. The only change I made was to make my own toffee sauce for the topping and mixing into the icing instead of buying a tin of dulce de leche. It was incredibly thick and sticky to handle, bordering on unco-operative, but the flavour was definitely worth it.

 Look at that dripping toffee. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Sticky Toffee cake cupcakes

Cake recipe is basically doubled quantities of Hummingbird Bakery's sticky toffee cupcakes from their "Cake Days" book. The mixture yields two 8 inch round cakes and 9 cupcakes.

Toffee recipe is from Edd Kimber's "The Boy Who Bakes" book, listed under "salted caramel sauce", although I omitted the sea salt.

For the sponge:

360g (13oz) pitted and chopped dates

360ml (13 fl oz) boiling water

160g (6oz) slightly salted butter, softened

300g (11 oz) soft light brown sugar (I subbed in some brown muscovado sugar as I didn't have enough soft light brown sugar)

4 large eggs

360g (13oz) plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the toffee sauce:

150g granulated sugar

10g salted butter, softened

125ml double cream

For the icing:

160g (5 1/2oz) unsalted butter, softened

500g (1lb 2oz) icing sugar

50ml (1 3/4fl oz) whole milk

100g (3 1/2oz) toffee sauce

Place the chopped dates in a bowl, pour over the boiling water and leave to soak for about 1/2 hour. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Grease and line two 8" round cake tines and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases. 

Using a hand held electric whisk or a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing well on a medium speed after adding each egg. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Add these dry ingredients in 3 batches to the other mixture, then mix at a medium-high speed until everything is fully incorporated. Lastly, mix in the vanilla and date mixture by hand, making sure the dates are evenly dispersed throughout the batter.

Fill the cake tins with the batter until roughly two thirds full. The remaining batter should fill approx. 9 cupcake cases. Bake the cakes in the oven for 25-30 minutes until risen and springy to the touch. The cupcakes should be baked separately as they're smaller and only take 18-20 minutes to bake. Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tins and placing onto a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

For the toffee, melt the granulated sugar over a medium heat in a medium sized heavy based saucepan on the hob until fully dissolved.  Don't stir the mixture as it will crystallise, just give it a gentle swirl every so often. Once it has turned deep golden remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour in half the cream. Be careful as the sugar will bubble fiercely! Once the mixture has settled a bit, add the remaining cream and then the butter. If your mixture is lumpy (mine definitely was) then put the pan back on the heat and stir until smooth. (Mine took quite a lot of stirring and I added in a bit more cream.)

For the icing, mix together the butter and icing sugar on a low speed (or by hand) until sandy in texture. Gradually add the milk then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy. Finally add the toffee and beat it in thoroughly to ensure everything is well mixed. Use to generously fill and top the cakes and use the remaining icing to decorate the cupcakes. Swirl the toffee on top of the icing.

Baker's note: I felt the icing was quite slack, so it may be worth omitting the milk and only adding it at the end if you feel the icing needs it.