British Cream Tea : Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Twinings tea

   I saw this new Twinings tea advert on the television last night and it is fabulous!!

Billy swears I even squealed a bit with excitement....

I deny everything...

;)

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Driver Dan's Story Train

I have fallen in love with the shabby chic look and animation on this new cBeebies programme...it is just divine!

The video will only be there for a week (BBC iPlayer) so hurry...

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Nanna's banana bread

Toby loves bananas, it is one of the words he says repeatedly (nanana) and he would give up anything for one!!

So yesterday, whilst waiting for the bread dough to rise I made a loaf of my Nanna's banana bread and it is as yummy as I remember (and Toby loves it too ;)

125g self raising flour

75g caster sugar

40g rolled oats plus a handful for sprinkling

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 large ripe banana (my nanna used to buy overripe ones and use those...)

75ml milk

25ml oil

1. Preheat the oven to 400F/200C. Grease a small 1lb loaf tin.

2. Put the flour, sugar and oats in a large mixing bowl and stir.

3. In another bowl mash the banana with a fork and stir in the egg, milk and oil.

4.Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir briefly until just combined but a little bit lumpy and spoon the mixture into the loaf tin. Sprinkle the top with the extra oats.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes until the top is golden.

This loaf will keep in a biscuit tin or wrapped in brown paper in the bread bin for a few days and is delicious just sliced. It should be slightly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside...mmmm....

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Merry Christmas

   I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a fabulous 2010!

Ouissi xxx

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Snowcat

My sister sent me this photograph of the best snow sculpture I have seen in a long, long time.

It makes me giggle and feel all happy and wintery. My only reservation is that I wasn't there to help and add claws on its feet. I am seriously in love with the whiskers ;)

*excuse the photo, it was taken on a mobile and texted to me!*

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Pink water

 

I bought double concentrated blackcurrant squash last week as an experiment...it was either going to be lovely and last ages or taste awful.

But it is yummy and even better, as it is so heavily concentrated, you need only a tiny drop so it leaves a beautiful pink water in your glass...sooo pretty!

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Felt baubles ;)

I had the idea for these felt baubles (I think in the USA they are called ornaments?) whilst watching Kirstie Allsop blow a glass bauble on last night's "Kirstie's Handmade Christmas"...I am loving that series!!

Anyway I sewed one this morning and thought you may want to make some for your tree or mantlepiece so here goes...

You will need:

 

sheets of felt in the colours you choose for the bauble body to match your scheme (at least 8" by 8")

beige felt for bauble top (a scrap will do)

Polyfil or other stuffing material

embroidery threads to match all felt colours

gold embroidery thread

craft glue

paintbrush or cotton wool bud

1 gold leaf sheet

1. Download the pdf template here, cut out the paper pieces and pin them to your felt. Cut around each.

2. Sew in a loose running stitch around the edge of the main bauble body, leaving the ends of the thread free.

3. Pull both ends of the thread until the felt is as tight as possible and tie the two ends in a knot. Cut the ends of the thread off.

4. Stuff the bauble as tightly as possible. This will take more stuffing than you think! I use my thumbs to do this whilst adjusting the bauble with my fingers and palms as I go to make a ball, but you can use a pencil or other device to stuff the filling in.

5. Roll the long edge piece into a circle and pin. At this stage check the size of your circle against the top piece and readjust if necessary. Sew along the edge to form a circle.

6. Pin the top piece to your circle and sew around the edge.

7. Thread a piece of gold thread up and back down through the top piece and knot the ends underneath so there is a loop you will later use to hang the bauble over your tree branch.

8. Stuff the top piece and pin it over the collected hole in the bauble body, sew the edge closed.

You can stop here as the bauble is complete, but if you want a little bit extra sparkle...

9. Brush the edge of the top with glue and press gold leaf round. After a few minutes carefully tear the extra leaf edges away so the gold covers the edge. Don't worry if there are some holes and the edge is not neat, it all adds to the effect ;)

Perfect ;)

You can embellish your baubles with other colours of felt, embroidery, beads and anything else that takes you fancy and fits your scheme...you can also use copper, bronze or silver leaf (if you want to use silver use light grey felt instead of beige for the bauble top)

Hang on your tree and enjoy! 

(Feel free to link to this tutorial and make as many as you like for yourself or family but please do not use my pattern to make any to sell)

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Indulgences

I love food. Not much is better than sitting in front of a favourite film, wrapped in a blanket, or staring into a real fire with something yummy, something that is a treat and that fills you with more than calories or sugar, something that makes you feel warm and cared for and happy.

These are my top 5 food indulgences. Some fabulous, one mundane, but all make me feel just a little bit indulgent and special. These are the things that in times of wealth I would have in piles hidden for when they are most needed and in times of poverty I save up for...the things that make me feel a little more me, albeit a more indulgent me ;)

1. Dark, bitter chocolate. Preferably more than 75% cocoa and from my favourite local chocolate shop, "The Chocolate Cellar", where they do bars studded with coffee beans and rose petals and lavender and little cellophane bags containing dinosaurs made out of a choice of 5 kinds of chocolate that make me smile. I love the place, the staff, the way you can see someone making your chocolate and the way that for a couple of pounds I can feel that I am treating myself (or someone else) to something truly wonderful...artisan chocolate. It will be here I go to when I finally decide Toby is to have his first taste of chocolate ;)

2. Diet Coke. Yes, I know it is bad for me, it is full of colourings, preservatives, artificial sweeteners and is generally pointless as it contains (according to the label) absolutely no nutrition at all. But I love it. A can of cold diet coke in the back of the fridge is a treat and something I look forward to. At the moment I tend to buy one can and save it but if I had money I would buy the old fashioned glass bottles in bulk ;)

3. Feta Cheese. Greek, salty goat's and sheep's milk cheese and one of the two most memorable tastes of my childhood summers spent on the Greek Islands (the other being squid...mmmm). Break it it big chunks over cucumber, vine tomatoes and red onions before liberally sprinkling with herbs and olive oil and I am a happy woman!

4. Fish. Battered, deep fried and served with thick chunky chips; steamed with garlic, spring onion and ginger and served with fragrant rice; grilled with butter and a baked potato with lashings of salt. Any way in fact. I just love it. I could give up meat at a push, but fish? I cannot see how I could.

5. Custard. Set in cakes, covered with fruit in tarts, poured over steamed puddings or simply on its own in a big steaming bowl in the comfort of my own company. Yum, simply divine!

So those are mine.

What are your top 5?

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Pink Hyacinth

I bought this bulb when it was barely sprouting last week to put on my table at a fair. I planted it in a vintage china cup and placed it on my display table on a mismatched saucer. It was cheerful and brightened up its corner and, whilst many people thought it was felt (does this say anything about what people think I can make out of sheets of fabric?), it was joyfully real.

So when I came home I placed the little shoot, in its cup, on a doily on the dining table where I could see it as I worked. Two days later a few buds emerged. Within 4 days it was a mass of flowers and another shoot covered in buds was pushing its way out of the tight green leaves.

I love it...and it does catch my eye and make me smile!

 

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Lemon crunch fairy cakes

I feel I must start this post with the strict understanding I am on a diet. I really am. I have lost a lot of weight and I will be in my old jeans by Christmas Day (stop sniggering at the back!!)

But I still get angsty when there is nothing sweet in the house...

So a couple of nights ago I mad heart shaped lemon crunch cakes. Yum!

100g butter

150g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

150g caster sugar

2 large eggs

4 tbsp milk

1 tbsp lemon juice

2tbsp lemon juice

100g granulated sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. line the holes of a fairy cake tin with paper cases (or use a silicone tray as I have in which case you do not need cases except for decorative effect ;)

2. Cream the sugar and butter and add the eggs, baking powder, flour, milk and lemon juice.

3. Mix the sugar and lemon juice for the icing and set aside.

4. spoon the cake mixture into the cases and bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

5. Whilst still hot spoon over the lemony sugar mixture and leave the cakes to cool.

These are one of the first recipes in the book I started keeping as a teenager (page 5 to be exact!)and I remember my Mum making big trays of this when I was a child and cutting it into squares once cooled. I make it in individual fairy cake cases or silicone molds as they look pretty but you can make them however you choose ;)

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture