baby blanket.

I’ve been so bad at updating my poor blog! Here’s some of the knitting that I’ve done recently..

This is a baby blanket that I knitted for a friend, the border pattern came from a Debbie Bliss book. It’s 24″ by 24″ & by far the biggest thing I’ve ever done! (& very warm & cosy too.)

In other news I’ve picked my onions, & am going to attempt onion marmalade in the next few days. The parsnips are still going strong & I think they’ll be part of Christmas dinner!

apple crumble cake.

The next door neighbour’s tree is still trying to drown him in apples & a bag of them appeared on the doorstep this morning – which meant only one thing, baking! I couldn’t decide between apple crumble & apple cake so this seemed like the perfect compromise:

Apple Crumble Cake

Ingredients for the cake:

- 4oz / 115g butter
- 4oz / 115g caster sugar
- pinch of cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- half teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 2 eggs
- 6oz / 170g self raising flour
- 2 large apples, peeled and sliced

Ingredients for the topping:

- 3oz / 85g butter
- 4oz / 115g self raising flour
- 3oz / 85g caster sugar
- pinch of cinnamon

i. Cream the butter and the sugar together, add a dash of vanilla essence and beat in the eggs. Fold in the flour, cinnamon (or spice of your choice) and the salt then transfer into a greased cake tin. (I used an 8inch one, which seemed to be a perfect size.)
ii. Lie the sliced apple over the top of the cake mix.
iii. Make the topping by rubbing the butter and flour together, then add the sugar & cinnamon & cover the cake and apple.
iv. Bake at 180c for 1hr 10 minutes or until done.

This is definitely going on my make again list!

beans beans beans.

Long time, no post! I’ve been busy knitting, working & sorting out my UCAS.. & this has left very little time to do anything else. Yesterday I finally managed to get out & pick some of the remaining broad beans before they got too mouldy & horrible.

I’m drying these in the airing cupboard over the winter & hopefully they should grow into proper bean plants again next year.. (Fingers crossed – I’ve never attempted this before!)

The sewing machine is still sitting quietly in the cupboard gathering dust, but I have just managed to get two lovely large bits of fabric from a local charity shop for the grand total of £5, so maybe it will get an outing soon! I just need to think of what to make with them:

Any suggestions?

lemon & poppy seed cake.

I am sure that a great many of you will hate me for this, & it’s probably been triggered by the sudden change in the weather – but I am starting to get a bit excited about Christmas! Today I bought some cinnamon & orange & clove incense sticks & I am looking forward to burning them.. Those smells always remind me of this time of year.

Saturday was my gorgeous niece’s first birthday party, so I had an excuse to get baking! The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook came out again & I made their lemon & poppy seed cake, & it was lovely! (Even if I did have to clean a bit of cake off the bottom of the oven!)

So good! It’s definitely something I shall make again.. I have nothing else new to report apart from a lot of knitting! I am in the middle of knitting baby blanket number two for some lovely twins who arrived last week. Photos when finished! ♥

apple crumble.

I made apple crumble last night.. The weather’s got a bit colder & I think our next door neighbour’s apple tree is trying to drown him in apples, so crumble seemed like the perfect way to go!

Ingredients:

For the crumble top:

35g Porridge Oats
35g Flour
35g Butter
20g Caster Sugar

For the filling:

1 to 2 good sized cooking apples peeled, cored & sliced.
Sultanas or rasins
Cinnamon
A sprinkle of caster sugar
Water

Rub the butter into the flour oats and sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs. I think I ended up using a little more than 35g because initally my topping was a bit stodgy! Put the sliced apples & sultanas in the bottom of an ovenproof dish & sprinkle with water, sugar and cinnamon. Add the topping, sprinkle with cinnamon again to taste & bake for 20 mins at 190c.

I suppose this is not a very fancy apple crumble, but good for a quick pudding! (& is this a good time to mention that I’m not that keen on apple crumble!? My parents enjoyed it anway!)

Also, I seem to be failing at national sewing month at the moment! I got some lovely material from a charity shop last week, so as soon as this knitting is out of the way I shall attempt to make something from it.

shortbread.

It’s been an overcast, miserable day here today, so I decided to bake shortbread! It’s another quick & simple biscuit.. (I’m currently too busy for anything more challenging!) & cheered me up perfectly.

Ingredients:

125g butter
55g caster sugar
180g plain flour

Cream together the butter & sugar. Stir in the flour & then roll the dough out to 1cm thick. Cut into desired shapes & leave to chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 190c until golden brown. Sprinkle with caster sugar & enjoy!

National Sewing Month

I’m a little bit late to the party with this, seeing as it is already the 17th.. (How has this happened!?) But September is National Sewing Month!

Sewing is something that I wish I was better at.. If it involves a straight line then I’m pretty much ok, but anything more complicated & it has a tendency to go wrong! Maybe I should use this as an incentive to get my mother’s sewing machine out of the cupboard & try to create something out of the odd scraps of fabric I have floating about.

.. I think I feel a project coming on!

chocolate chip cookies.

I’ve been really enjoying Economy Gastronomy on BBC2 recently.. (I love love love cooking programmes of any kind!) .. & they gave out a recipe for incredibly simple, quick biscuits which I made yesterday.

Ingredients:
250g plain flour
175g butter
100g icing sugar

.. To this you can then add pretty much anything you’d like! I added chocolate chips to mine, but this would also work with dried fruit, nuts & any other cookie flavours you can think of.

Firstly rub the butter & flour together, then add the icing sugar & chocolate chips & bind together into a dough with your hands. Form it into a rough roll shape, wrap it in cling film & leave it in the fridge for an hour. Then slice it into pieces approximately a centimetre thick & bake in an oven at 180c for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!