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

Cath Kidston spinning top for a small boy

Toby loves anything that spins. He spins his toys, dummy's, and bottles, laughing and jumping up and down as he does so. It seems to be his new thing (along with the scene in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" where Dick van Dyke runs out of the beachhut and splashes into the sea...that makes him laugh every time!)

So today, whilst out for a rare jaunt into town by myself I bought a traditional red spinning top from Cath Kidston, covered in little ducks.

And he loves it, as does Billy it seems, who cannot resist constantly spinng it ;)

When I bought it I was asked if I wanted it gift wrapped so, against my usual policy of putting everything in one of my pink jute bags, I said yes...and, for future reference, this is how Cath Kidston wraps your purchases...





Sublime!!
 
British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Happy Father's Day ;)

Happy Father's Day from British Cream Tea!!

Father's Day here was spent with Toby...playing, opening cards and going out for lunch with family...before life again intervened, Billy went out to play one of his monthly piano gigs and I settled down to finish off a fabulous new commission.

See you tomorrow after I have finished the sculpture (actually a set of sculptures)...hopefully with pictures...
 
British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

A Summer Wedding

Today our Friends Jo and Andy were married in a beautiful and moving ceremony that was personal in every way...Andy's brother is a Priest and presided over the church ceremony and everything from the 5 tiered chocolate wedding cake to the blue glass pebble filled table decorations reflected them perfectly.

Congratulations and I hope you have many happy years ahead of you xx

(excuse the blurry picture...I forgot my camera so it was the mobile phone or nothing!)
 
British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Parisian UK style at Téo Jasmin

I discovered Téo Jasmin, a french design company, last week with a great online store that sells the most wonderful graphic cushions, prints, chairs and sofas.

Their ranges include a fabulous London collection using images of the Union Jack, Black Cabs, Telephone Boxes and Minis.



I am also coveting their lush strawberry and raspberry printed cushions, Parisian scenes and Vespa prints.

I have a serious desire to shop for a fabulous new sofa...but I may have to settle for a few cushions to cheer up our existing one...maybe I need to start a collection!



Être toujours mon coeur battant  ;)

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

British Cream Tea on Art Fire

Last week I opened a British Cream Tea store on Art Fire, a relatively new homemade site.

It is daunting starting another British Cream Tea shop for my little sculpture pieces, after all I have been on Etsy since 2006 and also have a Folksy store, but I thought expanding into another rapidly growing site couldn't hurt!!

So click the picture above, follow the link or roll down to the logo in my sidebar...come on in and say hello ;)
  British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Chocolate Cherry Fairy Cakes

  

The smaller, British version of the American cupcake and the newest felt food sculpture to be listed in my little shops!

Often the stuff of childhood tea and birthday parties the fairy cake also has a place in adult British foods...oftentimes richer and darker and usually (at least in my family's case) containing chocolate and a hint of liquor...so I had to start a new sculpture collection of more decadent adult British Cream Tea fairy cakes!

This cherry chocolate fairy cake is reminiscent of the trays of fairy cakes I baked for my Aunt's 60th this year...rich chocolate cake filled with big plain chocolate chunks and a creme de cassis centre, covered with thick glossy brown icing dribbing over the cases and topped with fresh dark red cherries complete with their long, curving stalks. The stuff of dreams!!

180g self raising flour

150g cocoa

180g golden caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

10 tbsps of milk

5 tbsps oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

10 tablespoon of Creme de Cassis (or Chambourd or Amaretto or any other liquor)

50g plain chocolate

2 tbsp cold water

15g butter

2-3 tbsp icing sugar

12 cherries with stalks (or raspberries, blackberries or strawberries)

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

2. Mix the sugar, flour, cocoa and salt in a large bowl.

3. In a jug whisk the eggs, milk, oil, vanilla extract and creme de cassis until smooth then beat into the dry ingredients, a bit at a time, until all ingredients are combined.

4. Divide amoungst the liners and bake in the centre of the oven for 20-22 minutes. Transfer the fairy cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Put the chocolate, water and butter into a heat proof jug, place in a small saucepan, fill the saucepan with water until half the jug in submerged and heat gently until the chocolate is melted.

6. Put the icing sugar in a bowl and pour in the chocolate mixture, stirring until glossy and thick.

7. Drizzle the icing over the fairy cakes, smoothing with a warm palate knife and top each with a cherry (or a raspberry, blackberry or strawberry!)

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

 

A Dinosaur Egg Birthday Cake

My intention was to make a big fairy cake for the boy's birthday party but it wasn't to be...like the best laid plans it went awry at 2am this morning so I turned the 3 tiered fairy cake upside down, covered it in pale blue icing, added blue spots and called it a dinosaur egg cake...

as you do!

It fitted perfectly with a pack of tiny purple dinosaur candles I bought last week just because I loved them...so the dinosaur egg cake had a herd of tiny diplodocus wandering amoungst the three number candles spelling out the two boy's ages.



It was a beautiful day spent sitting, talking and playing in Mum's sunspot of a walled courtyard, eating birthday cake and lamb chops and summer fruit tart, watching the video of my late Grandpa's 80th birthday that I unearthed from a cupboard last week and all feeling nostalgic, sad and yet indescribably happy at seeing him talk and sing and move in front of us.

Lovely ;)

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture