barfing sarah giraffe dress

One of my childhood best friends, Sarah, is a bitter (single) lady. Whenever she sees a loved up couple, whether it's in person or on tv, she rolls her eyes and remarks "BARF!" It's hilarious and I love her for it. She's also one of those tall, long limbed people so we often joke that if she ever becomes pregnant she's more likely to give birth to a lanky giraffe than a baby. Needless to say, when I saw this adorable fabric covered in loved up giraffes I knew I had to make a dress in Sarah's honour. 

After the storming success of my gingerbread man Christmas dress where I finally managed to frankenstein a bodice together to fit my upper back and shoulders, I felt confident in making a second one in non seasonal fabric. I even thought I'd add sleeves! However, I hadn't realised that would essentially mean drafting a sleeve as my armhole no longer resembled either pattern I started with.

I discovered that my armhole is weird. I know that the back armhole is meant to be slightly longer than the front to accommodate shoulder blades but mine is significantly longer, by at least an inch I think. I would be more specific but most of this dress was constructed back in February and I'm struggling to make sense of the notes I made at the time.

Needless to say, this stumped me. After at least 7 different toiles *groan* and eventually settling on a style with a slight gather at the top (more forgiving to draft than a smooth, set in sleeve) I discovered that the most successful version involved a massive forward shoulder adjustment. This involved vertically slashing my sleeve pattern at both front and back notches, removing 3/4 inch of width from the front and adding it to the back, keeping the overall sleeve width the same. My sleeve pattern looked very odd, but it seemed to work.

However when it came to the final sleeves with my beloved giraffe fabric it just was not comfortable. To say I was grumpy about it was an understatement. I HAD DONE SO MANY FLIPPING TOILES. My final fabric is slightly thicker than my toile fabric which made a difference, but ultimately I think underestimated just how differently armholes are drafted for sleeves. Mine hadn't been altered enough.

I had already clipped the curves of the armhole by this point so I didn't have enough wiggle room in the seam allowance to adjust fit either. The skirt and zip were also attached and finished so I couldn't just make the bodice sleeveless using my preferred construction method without removing both. Many swear words were uttered and the dress got shoved aside for a couple of months while I happily sewed stretchy jersey dresses which all fit beautifully (more on those in another blog post soon.)

 "Ugh, they're so in love and happy. Get a room, giraffes."

Eventually, after a couple of months, I got fed up with seeing the dress hanging on dressform Doris and made some bias binding to finish the armholes. I had to tweak the shape to make it sleeveless again which was annoying, but ultimately less annoying than having an unfinished dress lying around. The armholes still don't feel 100% comfortable, but they're wearable. I'm done with this dress and its armholes.

I feel embarrassed to admit that I've only worn this dress a couple of times since finishing it, mostly due to feelings of armhole rage. It's a shame really because it is a lovely, well fitting dress otherwise. Sometimes I need a bit of space after finishing a project if things have gone wrong. Now I can wear it happily.

I think enough time has even passed to allow me to return to this bodice block soon! I got my Aunty, who used to make wedding dresses, to have a look at the armhole and sleeve and I think I know what I need to do to make them fit better next time (famous last words, haha.) One day, I will conquer sleeves!

french fancies

Man do I love a french fancy. They're pretty and pink, dainty and sweet. Perfect afternoon tea food. What's not to love?!

I remember watching an episode of the Great British Bake Off where they made french fancies for a technical challenge. Holy moly what a mess they got in! Crumbling sponges, gloopy, irregular icing - both tragic and hysterically funny for viewers. 

When I had left over sponge and fondant icing from middle nephew's bad ass t-rex cake I knew exactly what I was wanted to create. Fondant fancies are indeed a bit fiddly and mine are slightly wonky, but they tasted delicious and I had a lot of fun making them. That could partly be because I had Gilmore Girls on tv in the background. :D

I definitely want to make these again. The only change I'd make would be to omit the butter icing from the middle of the sponges and just use jam. I don't think it's necessary considering the outside is covered in a layer of butter icing before adding the melted fondant layer. It's pretty sweet as it is!

I also need to learn to let the fancies fully dry on the cooling rack before transferring onto plates. So much stickiness. They looked relatively presentable until I tried to move them for photos, oops!

I would write down a recipe but I have no real recollection of quantities as I made these back in March. However, I'll write down a general set of instructions if anyone else fancies making their own french fancies.

Bake a basic sponge mix (I use Mary Berry's sponge traybake recipe) in an oblong tin. Once your sponge is fully cool, preferably the following day when the sponge is a bit more stable, cut it in half horizontally and sandwich together with a layer of jam. 

Cut the sponge into cubes then fully cover each cube, except the bottom, with a thin layer of butter icing (you can add food colouring if you like.) Heat your spatula/spreading knife in a cup of hot water to help your icing spread and smooth down edges. 

While your butter icing is setting, melt your block of fondant icing in a large heatproof bowl. I did this by gradually pouring enough boiling water over it  and mixing until it softened and achieved a good pouring consistency. Add some food colouring but keep some white spare for decoration at the end. 

Pour the melted fondant over each cube. You can use a spatula/knife to encourage the icing to reach edges or corners. Finally, fill an icing pen with the remaining white melted fondant (or use a teaspoon) to pipe/drizzle zig zags across each cube. 

Leave to dry then serve. You can store these in a container if you like but bear in mind the fondant icing will become very sticky. This will not affect the taste though :)

bad ass t-rex and an octonaut gup

Thank you for all the kind comments on my previous post; you're a lovely bunch! I genuinely wasn't fishing for compliments. Sometimes you just need to vent and admit that life has been a bit sh*t and you've been struggling before you can continue posting fun things. So, thank you for lending an ear and being supportive.

Moving onto cakes... Children's birthdays offer interesting baking challenges and my nephews rarely disappoint. Middle nephew specified a dinosaur and cola bottle sweeties themed cake for his birthday this year. An unconventional combination I must admit, but who am I to deny a 7 year old his birthday cake wishes.

After some internet research Mum, my birthday-cake-making sidekick, and I decided on a cola bottle-consuming t-rex. If I remember correctly (I made this back in March) the body, legs and tail were cut from an oblong, sponge traybake. The head was built from half of a second traybake and sandwiched together with a lot of butter icing. This was then set on end and supported in the centre with cocktail sticks. 

For the scaley skin we lightly pressed the wrong end of a piping nozzle into the fondant icing while it was still soft. It ended up looking pretty effective!

My favourite feature of this cake is definitely the mouth. The big, pointy teeth with all the cola bottles poking out make me laugh.

For youngest nephew's birthday in May Mum and I made an Octonaut themed cake. It turned out pretty snazzy, even if I do say so myself. I was well impressed with my attempt at the fiddly dashboard.

Poor eldest nephew's cake went undocumented. That's the peril of having a birthday just after New Year; it tends to pass in a blur!

white chocolate cake with passionfruit curd and chocolate dipped strawberries

Hey, long time no blog. 2017 has been utterly rubbish so far, hasn't it? I was so determined to start the year positively, despite a gut feeling of impending doom, but it's just been one crap thing after another. My gut was correct. I'm fed up with the year and basically want to hide in a dark hole. It's difficult to write when you have zero enthusiasm and the longer you leave it the less inclined you feel to return.

I'm not sure what to do with this space. It has been offline for the past week as I contemplated shutting down. I'm undecided as I do like having a creative journal and have always enjoyed all the like-minded blogger interaction, however I really struggle with putting myself "out there". I continued documenting my bakes earlier in the year, indicating that I did intend to catch up, I'm still sewing and knitting, and I still love reading blogs although I haven't been able to bring myself to comment or interact. So... yeah, that's where I am at the moment.

Anyway, today I'm sharing a white chocolate and passionfruit cake I baked for my Mum's birthday back in February. You're here for the cake, right?

The cake is a Peggy Porschen recipe from her "Cake Parlour" book I've had bookmarked for a few years, although I baked it as an 8" two layer cake instead of a 6" three layer. I also filled it with homemade passionfruit curd instead of jam and topped it with white chocolate dipped strawberries. Whenever a family birthday approaches my Mum inevitably says, "remember that cake you made with the chocolate dipped strawberries?" (this one!) so I felt it was about time I made something similar for her birthday.

My sponges didn't rise particularly well - I don't know whether this was down to my mixing of the batter, changing cake tin sizes or just the effect of adding melted chocolate to a sponge batter - but the flavour made up for the denser than expected texture. The sponges very much tasted of white chocolate and the white chocolate icing was gloriously silky and moussy. Then the freshness of the passionfruit curd and strawberries cut through the chocolatey sweetness. All in all, pretty tasty.

It's not the most immaculately decorated cake, certainly a far cry from the beautiful examples in Peggy Porschen's book, but it has its own charm. This is when I'm reminded that I'd make a terrible professional baker. I really don't have the patience for all the careful levelling, crumb coating and chilling.

Perhaps now that I've written this post it'll get the ball rolling for others.

How has everyone else's year been? Please say somebody has been having a good year?!

Banana, date, honey and walnut cake

Hands up if you love banana cake! If you do then you've come to the right place. I love putting borderline mouldy bananas to use.

I came across this banana, date, honey and walnut cake recipe at Jean's blog, Baking In Franglais towards the end of last year and immediately bookmarked it. The combination of banana and dates really appealed to me and I also loved the idea of pouring warm honey on top of the cake fresh from the oven, like a drizzle cake.

Although I think I slightly underbaked my cake I can safely say this is one of my favourite banana cakes I've baked in a long time. My mum, who loves dates but proclaims to dislike honey, also thought the cake was utterly delicious. It was particularly tasty warm from the oven as the dates were so soft that they melted in the mouth. I also liked that most of the cake's sweetness came from the honey rather than sugar. You could almost say it's a healthy cake. Maybe. I'm going with it.

This recipe also gave me an opportunity to use the digital scales I received for Christmas. Being able to measure out precisely 80g of sugar was rather exciting.

I'm also very pleased with my new (to me) cake plate. It appears I'm fussy about rectangular cake plates as I have been scouring second hand and charity shops for years and this is the first one I've liked enough to buy. It's plain but has enough detail to be interesting. I love the gentle, frilly edge and I'm always a sucker for yellow roses on china.  Finally I have something pretty to put my loaf cakes on instead of a chopping board!

2016 round up and plans for 2017

Happy new year, folks! My 2016 round up has slid into 2017 which is a bit annoying but I doubt the world will implode as a result.

First up, cakey creations! I have to admit to feeling disappointed with my baking output on the blog last year. The first part of the year was ok but by the latter half I found myself repeat baking so hardly anything got blogged. Nobody needs to read about me baking the same chocolate or carrot cake for the 10th time.

Although there's nothing wrong with having favourite recipes, I'd like to get back into the habit of trying new recipes or occasionally pushing myself out of my baking comfort zone. I received digital scales for Christmas (and utterly brilliant 3D dinosaur cake moulds!) so there's no excuse for avoiding more complicated recipes which require precise measurements.

For the first time in a couple of years I checked my blog stats (seriously, I never look at them) and my most popular baking post was the salted caramel cake. My personal favourite, however, was the deceptively named sour cream coffee cake which contains no coffee. I definitely need to bake that cake again; the texture and flavour was just so good.

Onto sewing! In 2016 I made 5 dresses, 3 tops, 1 skirt and 1 pair of dungaree shorts. I feel like I learned a lot last year: new construction methods, automatic buttonholes, covered buttons and generally making items fit better. As much as I hate the phrase "game changer" I think upgrading my sewing machine massively improved the quality of my sewing.

Although I'm really happy with all my handmade pieces from 2016 my absolute favourite, most worn and according to my blog stats most popular (out of all my blog posts!) is my pink dungaree shorts. These get worn almost weekly I love them that much. They were the first item I sewed on my new sewing machine and I put so much care into their construction that every little detail makes me happy when I wear them. I'm delighted blog-land thinks they're awesome too.

In 2016 I knitted a mixture of very wearable, practical pieces and utterly silly, useless things. And I love all of them! And like last year I have one token piece of crochet. I haven't been much of a crocheter since I've fully learned to knit.

I'm pleased that I have continued to progress my knitting skills such as venturing into cables and stranded knitting, both of which were much easier than I expected! My most popular knitting post in 2016 was my pink Sunshower cardigan which is lovely as I'm still stupidly proud that I can knit cute cardigans.

In terms of overall blogging reflections, 2016 has been a funny year. I haven't posted as frequently and I've been rubbish at keeping up to date with other blogs. I get the feeling blogging, baking blogging in particular, has had its day. Many of my favourite bloggers, mostly small baking blogs, have stopped blogging completely (which is fair enough if you're busy and/or feel the blog has run its course) or moved to newer platforms such as Instagram.

In other words, I've had a blogging identity crisis. Over the past year I've debated setting up a separate space for my knitting and sewing, but ultimately I know I can't be bothered with the hassle of running an extra blog. Also part of me enjoys having all my fun, creative things documented in one place. It represents me, even if it's a bit of a jumble. I'm probably over thinking all of this and people are happy to pick and choose which blog posts they want to read, but I'd be intrigued to hear other people's thoughts.

 Irrelevant photograph to break up all the text. How cool is my new tea strainer?

So what's in the pipeline for 2017? In a nutshell: more varied baking, more sewing with jersey and solid colours and more cardigans and colour work with my knitting.

I've started my gauge swatch for my first knitting project of the year: an Andi Satterlund Blaster cardigan. For sewing I've got a Kitschy Coo Lady Skater dress traced out and ready to make in a plain, navy jersey. Baking plans have to go on hold until all the Christmas/New Year food has been eaten and I've made my eldest nephew's birthday cake, but I'd like to bake something pastry based.

Congratulations if you made it to the end; that was a lot of naval gazing. What are your creative plans for the year ahead?

festive makes and bakes

I'm squeezing in one last blog post this year - my festive makes and bakes.

Personally, it isn't Christmas without pervy gingerbread Santas and boobie angel. And dinosaurs. It has been a tradition of mine for quite a few years now and they always go down a treat. I made these for a Christmas party and they caused an absolute sensation. I have never seen so many grown adults get so excited about a tray of biscuits. It was hilarious to witness.

I acquired two new biscuit cutters this year for a bit of variety - a Santa and reindeer. The Santas in particular looked really fancy once decorated but man were they labour intensive to do. I'm glad I only had a handful of them to decorate, otherwise I'd be sitting there icing for days!

In addition to gingerbread biscuits I made an industrial supply of shortbread and tablet to give as presents to family. (I have a lot of family!) The amount of sugar and butter I went through was positively obscene.

Sadly all my baking ground to a halt after the shortbread and tablet marathon as I caught a nasty cold. I just managed to make a trifle for Christmas day but didn't manage to bake anything new which was a shame.

Now onto the makes! I knitted a couple of small, silly presents and first up is this snazzy penguin. I found him a bit fiddly to put together but the end result was worth it as he looks so cute and cosy in his big jumper.

The pattern came from a book I received last Christmas called "Mini Knitted Christmas" by Sue Stratford. It has loads of funny, little festive projects which kept my Mum and me occupied through most of December. It's hard to beat a bit of knitting whilst watching terrible Christmas films about incomplete women who need a boyfriend for Christmas or vice versa. And everybody is either called Holly, Chris or Nick. It's Christmas film law.

I also knitted a gingerbread couple from the same book. They're so hilariously odd yet adorable. I photographed them against my gingerbread man dress as I couldn't resist being a matchy dork.

My last piece of random knitting was this ginger cat. The pattern is called "Beans" and is a free Ravelry download by Linda Dawkins. It only dawned on me afterwards that the cat looks more Baked Beans coloured than ginger which made me laugh. Either way, it's a cute cat and I learned how to knit an i-cord.

And last up is a sewn present. For the first time ever I was completely stumped on what to get my Mum for Christmas, so after a bit of discussion I agreed to sew her a new apron. She picked out the fabrics (spotty and gingham heavy cottons) and told me what kind of style she liked and I drafted something suitable.

I tried my absolute best to sew and finish to the best of my capabilities and I'm really pleased with how the apron turned out. My Mum is delighted with it too which is the main thing. She loves all the handy pockets, the broad straps and that the whole thing matches her kitchen perfectly.

And that's it from me this year. I intended to do a big round up of all my makes and bakes from this year but I'm afraid I've run out of steam. I'll probably do one in the new year though as I've enjoyed doing them in previous years. In the meantime, I wish you all a happy and creative 2017! x