Comic Relief macarons and cupcakes

This year for Red Nose Day a group of people from my work decided to participate in the Comic Relief Bake Off.

It wasn't a competition or anything, we just arranged to each take a day and bring in some treats. We put out a donation box and raised some cash for a good cause.

I made these vanilla cupcakes with a cherry on top and bright red macarons with a white chocolate ganache filling.

I was concerned that folks might not fancy them being that RED but they disappeared very quickly, in fact only crumbs remained by 11am. You gotta move fast at my work when macarons are on offer!

Christmas Crafts

This year I am attempting to start my Christmas crafting earlier. I usually get dead into the idea in December when it's getting a bit late really. So this is my newest tree decoration. A tiny knitted sweater!

I've not done a lot of knitting before. I already knew how to 'cast on' and do a basic knitting stitch but I had to learn the how to 'purl', do a 'stocking stitch' and 'cast off', from you tube. I love the internet.

I found the pattern at Just Crafty Enough when I was looking for a pattern for tiny mittens (which they also have) but they were way too difficult for a beginner like me. They are done on circular needles. eep.

You'll see that Kathy from Just Crafty Enough has knitted a cute little pattern into her sweater. No idea how she did that. I'm thinking about sewing a snowflake into mine with white wool. I'm not sure if that will work.

Anyway, I'm really pleased with it. It didn't take too long either so I might manage another. Probably as close to knitting an actual jumper as I'm going to get any time soon.

Patriotic (red, white, and blue) Macarons

It's been a little while since there was any macaron action around here hasn't it? In fact last time was my Cherry Pie macarons over a year ago. That seems to be just enough time to forget how tricksy they are to make ...

Here is a little story. This last weekend was the Queen's Jubilee in the UK. My friends decided that the extra bank holiday would make it ideal for their housewarming party and gave it a Jubilee theme. Now, I'm not much of a royalist but the opportunities for crafting and baking around an event like this are awesome. I mentioned I might bring some iced biscuits which I vaguely remember being countered with, "Why would you make biscuits when you can make macarons?" I think I took that as a challenge. (I may or may not have been in the pub at the time.)

So, I decided to make red, white, and blue macarons for the occasion. I think Patriotic Macarons is a good title - they would work in the UK, USA, France, Norway, Russia, Iceland, Luxembourg, Australia ... you get the picture. I wasn't convinced I could make 'white' macarons. They are always a little bit yellow-y from the almonds, so I went with a white filling instead - white chocolate ganache. Plus ganache is super easy to make and very tasty.

This is how they turned out. I was worried no-one would eat the blue ones, since blue food is meant to be really unappetising, but they all disappeared no problem.

Here is the recipe for the ganache, you can use it to make truffles too.You need 5oz of white chocolate and 3oz of double cream. (I used a whole 150g bar of chocolate.) I think the ratio might be different for milk or dark chocolate, so this is just for white. All you do is warm up the cream in a pan until it just about simmering - then pour it over the chocolate and leave it for a minute or two. Mix it up well so there are no lumps left then leave it to cool. I popped mine in the fridge for half and hour. If you leave it longer it will get a bit more solid - which is not useful for filling macarons but you can roll it into balls and make delicious truffles. As a side note, making macarons tends to leave you with a lot of egg yolks. If you don't have anything to do with them right away, I read that it's best to cover them with a little water before you put them in the fridge to stop them from drying out. However, this time I used all the yolks and the left over cream from the ganache and made a pint of custard which I've put in the freezer. Next time we have apple pie or something, I think I will be mighty pleased that it's there waiting.

Project in progress: JSK pattern

The new pattern I got seems to be going okay. I extended the skirt flare (as per usual)and it was really quick to put together. I think if you had all the materials on hand, you could do a simple dress in a day.

It would probably be finished now if I had a zip the correct length.

When I make this pattern again I'm going to take an inch or two out of the bodice to make the waist a little higher. And maybe add an inch or two to the waist to make a bit more room when you wear it over a blouse.

Also I'd like to try some of the other variations on the envelope.








This one has the waist alterations and I am quite pleased with the pintucks - BUT it looks really bad on. Very frumpy. So I think I'm going to give up on this shape.