British Cream Tea : Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

I do like to be beside the seaside!!

 

After the excitement of the last couple of days I am taking life a little slower today...cuddling with Toby, playing endless games with a new 3 piece jigsaw and watching "The Shapes" on "Mister Maker" over and over again to see the look of joy creep over a little boy's face as he checks to see if Mama is laughing too ;)

And tonight I am starting to put together my first felt sculpture pattern for my little shops...not food related but something very British that I am sewing for Toby, though it is turning out almost too beautiful to be played with!

Patterns are a completely new area for me so I am guessing it will all take a while to come together...but I will let you all know when I am almost there with a sneaky peak...

Oh and the treasury above is one of the ones currently with my work in them and I love it!! So seasidey (I am currently a little addicted to the British seaside...)
  British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Red Pillar Post Box

 

The traditional, iconic British Red Pillar Post Box.

The UK boasts approximately 115,000 letter boxes dotted around villages, towns and cities and the British favourite is now recognised and protected as national treasures by English Heritage.

In Britain the first pillar post boxes were erected in Jersey in 1852. Originally painted green, the now famous red was introduced for better visibility in 1874. In 1879 came the cylindrical design of pillar box, which apart from a few recent experiments has changed very little since. During the Second World War the tops of some boxes were painted with gas detection paint, while their plinths were painted white to aid movement on unlit wartime streets.



This post box's next delivery is Monday (as shown on the little square plate above the slot) and it is from  Elizabeth II's reign. I like to think it is full of letters and postcards ;)

 

This is my first in a new range of British Icon Sculpture and so far I am loving it!!

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture 

Selvedge Feature!

A fellow Etsian messaged me yesterday to congratulate me on British Cream Tea being in Selvedge...so I had to investigate...

Selvedge is an influential textile photography and design magazine...and my strawberries and cream sculpture set is in their July Newsletter!



"Felt food has become quite a craze among crafters but British Cream Tea
 make some of the most delectable. Their strawberries and cream
 creation, for example, has all the charm of an afternoon at Wimbledon.
 We've been gazing longingly at their ice lollies and ice cream cones...
 cool treats for grown ups and children alike."

This is unbelievably exciting!! I think I may have fallen off my chair!

Thanks Barbara xxx
British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

WOW! What a day!!

 

Yesterday morning I awoke to discover that my set of sugar flower fairy cakes had been on the front page of etsy in a tea themed collection overnight and mentioned on twitter by Etsy itself as "some of the sweetest felt cupcakes yet" and described as "too dear".

My hearts went through the roof and yesterday alone I had over 2,500 visits to my little Etsy shop ;)

So exciting!!



Later on, when I checked my hearts and saw another huge leap in numbers I checked to see that my set of french fancies were on the front page in an admin chosen collection...



So all in all and exciting if slightly overwhelming day!
  British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Sunflowers

 

A few months ago my friend Jackie gave Toby two tiny sunflower seedlings that her two year old son had grown from seeds. We watered, nurtured and watched the two tiny green shoots as they grew daily until they eventually took over the kitchen windowsill and had to be moved to Billy's parent's back garden.

Where they continued to grow.

Now they are almost 7 feet tall with two enormous yellow flowers the size of dinner plates on stems as thick as my thumb.

And I am proud. Proud that my little boy's first seedlings have thrived, prospered and bloomed into such a magical display. Proud that they overshadow all of the sunflowers my sister and I used to grow under my Mother's expert eyes for the annual Blue Peter tallest sunflower challenge. Proud that today my son had his photo taken, completely dwarfed by two massive beautiful plants that we grew together.

And I am proud I didn't kill them...that the girl who was once told by her exasperated green finger mother that she was gardenally challenged managed to grow two fabulous flowers!!
  British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Strawberry and Cream Chocolate Fairy Cake

  

The smaller, British version of the American cupcake complete with strawberry and cream and perfect for summer parties and Wimbledon! The newest felt food sculpture to be listed in my little shops.

This is the second fairy cake sculpture in my collection of more decadent adult British Cream Tea fairy cakes.

I love chocolate fairy cakes, strawberries and cream...so these, for me, are perfect ;)

125g self raising flour

25g cocoa

125g golden caster sugar

125g butter

2 large eggs

3 tbsps of milk

2 tbsps fraise liquor

2 tsps unflavoured gelatin

4 tsps cold water

500ml cold whipping cream

60g icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

12 strawberries with stalks

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C degrees and line a fairy cake tin with 12 liners.

2. Cream the caster sugar and butter until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs and liquor.

3. Stir in the milk and sieve over the flour and cocoa and stir until combined.

4. Divide amoungst the liners and bake in the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes. Transfer the fairy cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Combine gelatin and cold water in a small saucepan and leave until thickened. Place over a  low heat and stir until the gelatin his dissolved. Remove from the heat and cold slightly.

6. Whip cream, sugar and vanilla until slightly thickened. Then, whilst whipping, add the gelatin/ water mixture slowly. Whip until almost stiffened.

7. Spoon the cream over the fairy cakes, smoothing with a warm palate knife. Then top each with a strawberry and spoon a little more cream over the top so it falls down the sides of the berry.

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

 

Window Exhibit next week!!

 

This week I have been sewing furiously to get a late notice collection made up for a window display in the Designer Forum in Nottingham entitled "Twisted Teashop"...I sewed for almost 48 hours straight but I finished the last piece of the 39 sculpture collection at 1pm today and it is now in the post.

yay!!

They are sending photographs when it opens on Monday...

The three seaside pieces on the left are part of a set of boules I am designing and making for Toby in my spare time that I may sell the pattern for...we'll see ;)
  British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Strawberries and Cream

The essential British Summer combination and a Wimbledon staple.

 Celebrate the great British summer with the newest felt food sculpture set to be listed in my little shops ;)

Strawberries and cream are synonymous with Wimbledon and every year about 27,000 kilos of strawberries are eaten during the Tennis Championships, together with 7,000 litres of cream. The popularity of serving strawberries with cream (and champagne) is possibly as old as the event itself.

Legend has it that Cardinal Wolsey was the first person to serve the two together, at his palace, Hampton Court and the 16th Century song "The Old Wives Tale" includes the line “Strawberries swimming in the cream”, so the dish seems to have become popular by the time of Shakespeare only half a century or so later.

I love strawberries and cream! I remember being taken to "Pick your own strawberry" farms as a child and let loose in the fields with a little basket, returning with it brimming with juicy berries, my mouth red with juice.

I will be making myself a few little sculptures to sit in a crystal dessert dish in my kitchen ;)

A pint jug full of fresh British strawberries

185 ml or 6.5 fl oz cream

50g or 2 oz caster sugar

1. Rinse and hull the strawberries by picking out the stalks of each berry.

2. Place the fruit in glass bowls, sprinkle over the sugar and lightly stir to coat the berries.

3. Pour the cream over the top and serve.

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture 

Red Poppies

 

For the last few days, every time I walk along a main road flanked with car showrooms and industrial buildings on my way to the train station, I have noticed this little poppy plant on the edge of the pavement in a tiny border of scrubby grasses...and it has never failed to make me smile!

So yesterday I took a picture on my way home to remind me that amoungst the cement, industry and greyness that sometimes fills my life there is always a hint of bright coloured loveliness hidden somewhere in a corner ;)
  British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

A fabulous commission and new ideas...

 

Last week I was asked to do a commission involving a single sculpture of a pink french fancy in a white case (a la Mr Kipling) and a set of sculptures, a mixture of liquorice allsorts (including the blue bobbly one) and dolly mixtures, in a fabric version of my trademark pink and white striped paper sweetie bags.



I love both the idea and how the bag turned out!

I bought fabulous, bright lipstick pink and white fabric, cut the pattern from a deconstructed paper bag from my stash, cut the top zigzag edges by hand (I need to invest in pinking shears for the future!) and sewed both the inner and outer seams by hand...

I will be adding the fabric "paper" bag to my shop for either completing your British Cream Tea pick n mix sweetie collection, as a cute little fabric bag or as fabulous gift wrapping for that special British Cream Tea sculpture purchase for someone special.



I will also be listing the pink french fancy and a set in white cases, as this is not the first commission I have had for a sculpture in the Mr Kipling colourway, and the blue bobbly liquorice allsort, though I am unsure about how to list that yet...as part of a larger liquorice allsort set or on its own as a stand alone sculpture...after all it is quite time consuming to embroider all those french knots!

  British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture