Christmas Cake - Feeding Time…

My alarm went off at 00:30am and I gingerly crept down the stairs to investigate how my cake was doing.
I used a metal kebab skewer and thrust it into the center of the cake a few times to check it was cooked.  Every time the skewer came out clean which meant it was done.

I placed the cake, still in it’s tin, on my wire rack to cool and crept back into bed.

In the morning I removed the cake from it’s tin and paper and placed it back in the rack to cool some more as it was still warm.  I placed a clean tea towel over the top and went off to work.

Tonight when I got in from work I wrapped the cake in layers of baking parchment and foil and placed it in a plastic cake box.  After spiking the cake with the metal skewer I fed the cake by sprinkling a few tea spoons of brandy over the top.  Carefully wrapped it back up and placed the lid back on the box.

I will keep feeding the cake until nearer to christmas when I will attemp the icing.

Delivery...

When I got in from work today I had received a delivery from Thompson & Morgan.
The package contained seeds that I had ordered a week or so ago ready for next year.
I am now going to mark them as received on my allotment spreadsheet for 2010.

Broad Beans - Bunyard Exhibition
Pea - Ambassador
Climbing Bean - Blauhilde
Aubergine - Florida High Bush
Marigold - Bonita Mixed
Cauliflower - Autumn Giant
Carrot - Resitafly
Beetroot - Boltardy
Onion - Lilia

We shall see how these do.

Play Room - Lighting

Finally decided on the retro pendant light from IKEA.  Looks great.  Only thing was, a few days later I went to a retro shop called Hobo's in one of the Cardiff arcades and saw they had a number of original retro lamp shades hanging from the ceiling.  One of these was the same shade that my parents had in the hallway back in the seventies.  Only difference was that the shop one was pink and my parents was orange.  There hung my original inspiration.  Ace!


Original pendant light



New retro look

Play Room - Carpet is down...

The carpet has now been cut to fit the play room.  It will be fitted properly as soon as we have time.
We did have a bit of a panic when we unrolled the carpet and found there was a hole in the carpet.  Luckily when measured it was just on the edge of what we needed.

Phew.

The carpet is down awaiting the final fitting.

Christmas Cake - It’s in the oven…

Completed the Christmas cake tonight.  But what a phaf.  Too many bowls and trying to mix multiple ingredients in all the bowls.  I did’t like that idea.  Next year I am going to mix the ingredients my way and see what happens.

Play Room Task 3 – Carpet

Task 3 was the carpet.

I purchased the carpet by chance a month ago when I decided to pop into Carpet Right to check out the carpet prices.  I wanted the same carpet I had in the other bedrooms, a light beige wool Berber.  Unfortunately Carpet Right had discontinued the carpet I had previously bought but lucky for me they had the last remnant which was exactly the size I required for the room.  Yeh!  Bargain at only £60.

I then placed carpet grips around the room 1” from the wall.  I then cut out the underlay to fit the space within the grippers.

I am already now for may master Carpenter Pug to do the business and lay the carpet.

Watch this space…

Play Room Task 2 – Skirting & Door Frame

Task 2 was to paint the skirting and around the door frame.  I used a small bush (1/2”) to do next to an edge and then a larger one (2”) to do the main part of the skirting.

MY TIP would be to use the ‘quick dry’ gloss as you can wash your brushes out with water.  Check the side of the can to see if you can use water to clean brushes.  This is so much easier than using white spirit or turps which is incredibly messy.  If I can’t get this type of paint I just buy cheap brushes and throw them away afterwards.  Obviously this second method is not good for the environment, although IKEA do some good brushes made of natural materials.

Play Room Task 1 – Ceiling & Walls

After being unable to decide on a colour scheme for the room I felt the safest option was to go for white.

Task 1 was to paint the ceiling and walls.  I used Dulux white silk emulsion as I wanted the light to bounce around the room.  I also used a thick wool roller with a long handle.  It is much easier to paint the ceiling and walls with this.

Next I finished painting around the edges of the ceiling and walls.  I used a large brush (3”-4”) as it didn’t matter if I went over any edges.

Job done.

Welcome to the Play Room Project

My latest creative venture is interior design of my spare room.  This sounds very pretentious but I can assure you it is not.  I am the laziest person around and will take short cuts where ever I can.  Also this is on a budget of £400.

So here goes what can I get for £400 let us see...

This room has always been used as a playroom as the children have been growing up but now as they are in their teens I am redecorating the room to make it into a more adult play room with a TV, x-box, Wii, etc.

Everything has been removed from the room so it is completely empty of toys, books, cupboards, shelves, bean bags and the second hand carpet.

Christmas Stuffing Roll

I found this recipe in a Good food magazine a few years ago and loved the result.


Since then I have tried various stuffing recipes every Christmas but none have been as good as this recipe.  Therefore I am doing this one again.







Prepare the following ingredients and put them all in a large mixing bowl.
140g bramley apple (1-2 apples) finely chopped (I made this chunky so will see how it turns out)
3 x 450g packs of good quality sausages meat squeezed out
400g vacuum-packed chestnuts roughly chopped
small bunches parsley, sage & thyme chopped
1 egg (I forgot this so will see what happens)
100g white bread crumbs (3 slices)

Christmas Cake (based on Delia recipe)

Today I started my preparation for Christmas.

Went shopping for ingredients for cakes, mincemeat and stuffing.
I went to the Delia website and printed out her recipe for Christmas cake.  I have tried a few recipes but none have been as good as my friends.  When I asked her she told me it was a Delia recipe.  Therefore I thought that I would give this a try this year.
All I had to do today was to mix the dried fruit with the brandy and leave overnight to soak. Easy.

450g currents
175g sultanas
175g raisins
50g glace cherries, rinsed
3 tablespoons brandy

Mix all these ingredients together and leave overnight.

Soaking day to day.
Baking day tomorrow.
(Sorry about image.  I don’t know how to get it the right way up.)

Pink Cup Cakes

150g sunflower spread

150g caster sugar

3 eggs

vanilla essence

150g self raising flour

1 tbsp raspberry jelly conserve (mashed into tiny bits)

75g butter

175g icing sugar

strawberry flavour

milk

Cream the sunflower spread and sugar together.  Add and whisk in the eggs.  Add a couple of drops of vanilla essence and mix in.   Mix in the four.  Finally carefully stir in the jam.

Spoon into 12 cases and bake in a pre-heated over for 12 – 15 minutes.

When cooked remove from the oven and leave on a rack to cool.

Once cool make the butter icing.  Mix all the ingredients together except for the milk.  Once mixed just a a couple of drops of milk until creamy and spreadable.

Spread onto the cupcakes and add a few sprinkles to decorate.

These turned out to be delicious and were all eaten within 24 hours.

Butternut Squash Risotto

butternut squash
2 small white onions
2 small red onions
2 cloves garlic
1 courgette
1 table spoon olive oil
salt & pepper

Chop the squash, courgette and onions into chunks and put into a roasting tin. Add the garlic, crushed. Poor the olive oil over the vegetables. Sprinkle on a large pinch of salt and pepper. Mix around in the tin so all the vegetables are coated with the oil and seasoning. Put into an oven pre-heated to 180C for about 30 minutes.