My Great British Bake Off - Part 2

Last week I posted about my baking exploits and shared the recipes for the cakes I had baked.  Now for Part 2 and details of the cookies I made.

I don't know about you but there is something very relaxing (and probably very British!) about sitting down with a cup of tea and a biscuit to catch up on some reading, blogging or crafting.  Now with two growing teenagers in the house biscuits do not last long once made so I made sure that I made quite a lot of the different types of cookies and then split the batches between the biscuit tin and the freezer.

I am not the best at getting my cookies to look like they do in the professional photos but they always taste fab so I figure looks aren't everything,right?!

First up was Ginger Cookies

Ingredients	Method
6oz SR Flour 2oz butter 4oz brown sugar 1 tsp golden syrup 1 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 med egg	Mix all of the ingredients (not including the egg) in a bowl        Beat the egg separately and then add to the mixture        Take small spoonfuls of the mixture and plop on a greased or lined baking sheet        Bake in the middle of a pre-heated oven at 180°C for about 20-30 mins until golden.

The recipe said to take a handful of the mixture and roll into a ball and put on the baking sheet but it was so sticky (even after I had added extra flour) that rolling it wasn't really very practical. Strangely the recipe I was following ommitted to give details of the oven temperature and cooking time but I did it on the temperature above and for that time and they turned out fine.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies were next:

Ingredients	Method
150g SR Flour 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 125g butter 125g light soft brown sugar 2tbsp golden syrup 1 tbsp vanilla extract 150g chocolate chips	Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl.        Sift the flour and the bicarb of soda together in a separate bowl.        Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl together and then beat in the golden syrup and vanilla and stir in the flour and bicarb of soda.  Finally add the chocolate chips.        Take a teaspoon of the mixture and put on a greased or lined baking sheet (flattening it down slightly with the back of the spoon).        Bake for about 10 mins at 180°C/Gas 4

Finally, Almond Squares

This is a bit like bakewell tart but a whole lot easier!

Ingredients	Method
8oz flour 2oz ground almonds 2oz sugar 6oz butter 2 egg yolks Topping 4oz ground almonds 6oz sugar 1 egg 2 egg whites	Rub together the flour, almonds, sugar and butter to make fine breadcrumbs        Add the 2 egg yolks to the breadcrumb mixture and mix together        Roll out the pastry like mixture and put on a baking tray (similar to a swiss roll tin).        Cover in a jam of your choice (we used homemade strawberry jam - yum)        Whisk together the egg whites and single egg, together with the ground almonds and the sugar for the topping.        Spread over the top of the jam.        If you want at this stage you can sprinkle over some flaked almonds.        Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C/Gas 4 for 30 mins or until golden brown.        Leave in the tray to cool and then cut into squares and enjoy!

I really hope you enjoy having a go at these recipes and sitting down with a nice cup of tea with your feet up.

What are your favourite recipes I would love to hear your suggestions so that I can try them at home.

Enjoy!

Sharon x

My Great British Bake Off - Part 1

I don't know about you, but I always feel far more enthusiastic and energetic when the sun shines.  Maybe that is why I found myself being super motivated this weekend and channelled that motivation and enthusiasm into baking.

If you ever needed to rely on me to actually feed and nourish you, you would probably starve!  I have to confess that my husband is the one that does the cooking in our house.  He's very good at making his own sauces for curries and chilli etc and, unlike me, everything is ready at the same time (I do struggle with my timings!).

However, if you were happy to simply live on cakes and cookies then I'm your gal!

So it was that this weekend, enthused by the lovely weather that I decided to go on a bake-a-thon and stock the cupboards and freezer with supplies for the month.

My daughter seems to have inherited my dessert genes and is really the cake baker in the family.  I am not quite sure how she does it but her cakes are always so moist, and they come out of the tin in one piece!

Now I should add at this stage that we have frozen a lot of what is about to follow and haven't just "pigged out" this weekend!

First up was the tried and trusted Ginger Cake from the Dinner Lady Cookbook.  We amended the recipe from the one in the book slightly, but it always tastes absolutely great and never seems to last very long in our house.

Ginger Cake

Ginger Cake

Ingredients

Method

225g self-raising flour 2tsp ground ginger 2tsp mixed spice 115g brown sugar 115g golden syrup 115g butter 2 eggs 150ml milk

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl.        Melt the sugar, syrup and butter in a pan for 5 minutes.  Be careful not to boil.        Beat the eggs and milk together.        Add the beaten egg mixture, together with the melted butter mixture to the dry ingredients to make a soft batter.        Pour into a 1lb loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven (160°C/325°F/Gas 3) for 35 minutes until springy to the touch.

Next up was Golden Syrup Cake.  One of the blogs that I follow is A Spoonful of Sugar Designs and they recently posted a recipe for Golden Syrup Cake.  Now I LOVE golden syrup so just had to try this recipe.  You can find the details for the recipe on their website here.  We tried half of the cake and froze the rest and I have to say that it was delicious, lovely and moist, a little bit chewy and, for those of you who are perhaps not to sure about the idea of a golden syrup cake, didn't taste overwhelmingly of golden syrup.  Even my son (who has the fussiest tastebuds and doesn't like syrup) enjoyed it.

Golden Syrup Cake

Next up was a chocolate cake.  This was another one I tried from a blog that I follow over at Retromummy.  

Chocolate Cake

Again, we froze half and have indulged in the other half. This was one of the nicest chocolate cakes I have ever tried.  I can find that most other chocolate cakes have a tendancy to be a bit dry but this one was lovely and soft and moist.  We will definitely be making this one again.

Finally, the last cake in our Great British Bake Off was Fruit Cake.  Again, this is a tried and tested recipe in our house although I am not entirely sure where the original recipe came from.  I do know that the original recipe calls for seperate measurements of currants, sultanas and mixed peel.  As we invariably never seem to have these individually in our baking cupboard we usually cheat and use a total quantity of mixed fruit which has a bit of everything in it.

Fruit Cake

Ingredients	Method
4oz butter 6oz caster sugar 6oz currants 6oz sultanas 2oz mixed peel (or 14oz mixed fruit) 8fl oz water 1tsp bicarbonate of soda 1tsp mixed spice 4oz plain flour 4oz self raising flour 2 eggs	Put the butter, sugar and fruit into a pain and bring to the boil for 1 minute. Let the mixture cool for about 10-15 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the eggs to the mixture and beat in. Add the flours a little at a time and mix in. Pour the mixture into a 2lb greased tin and bake in a pre-heated oven (140°C) for 1 hour 15 mins.

This is the moistest (is that even a word?!) fruit cake ever.  Packed full of fruit but not dry and crumbly, perfect to have with an afternoon cuppa.

I also made (LOTS) of cookies at the weekend but I think I will save all your waistlines for now and let you have  the details for the cookies in Part 2 later.  For now, if you decide to try any of the recipes above I hope you enjoy them as much as my family do.  I would love to hear what you think of them and what your favourite cake recipes are.

Sharon x

Who Do You Think You Are?

My dad died when I was 10 years old and my brother and sister were only 7 (they're twins).  Unfortunately as a consquence I lost touch with that side of the family. I had only really had any contact with my nan anyway but that faded a few years after my dad died.  He had been estranged from his brother for many years so I had only had intermittent contact with cousins.

It was probably as a result of this lack of connection or knowledge about my dad's side of the family that prompted me to start to explore my family tree/history on that side.

I started with the knowledge that my dad had been bought in Portsmouth, had a younger brother and that my     nan had some "spanish" connection through her mum.  Not a lot to go on admittedly but enough to make a start.

I registered on the Ancestry website and started my search.  I began by checking the records for the information I knew, my dad's birth, marriage and death, and then from that my nan and my grandad.  As I found records which I thought matched my relatives I ordered the certificates to confirm my findings. Not all enquiries were successful and I did end up with copy certificates for completely unrelated people who just happened to share similar names!

My Great Grandmother (from Gibraltar)
 and one of my nan's sisters

My Great-Grandad, married in Gibraltar

Eventually I began to build a picture of family members and dates of birth, marriages, deaths and extended family members.  As a result I have learnt that my nan gave birth to a still born daughter, my uncle changed his name, my nan had two sisters (which no one else in my family seemed to know about) and her mum was from Gilbratar which is where my great grandad met her when he was posted there with the army; a trip to the National Archives at Kew helped me to locate the record of my great-grandparents marriage.

National Archives at Kew 

I have managed to trace my nan's side of the family back to the 1600's and have learnt that various generations were in service for the de rothschild family (we clearly have no fame or fortune ourselves but can be great by association!).  I was also able (through the Ancestry website) to make contact with one of my nan's sister's family (one of my nan's neices and her son).  For someone who has spent over 30 years with no  connection with that side of the family this was a HUGE deal.

It even led me to finding out that one of my nan's sisters was involved in a bigamy scandal!  Apparently she married her husband whilst under age and he then subsequently married again.  As she was underage when they married the marriage didn't count so her husband was let off!

My nan's younger sister (the bigamy scandal!)

Tracing my grandad's side of the family back has proven a little more complicated.  I appear to have the oldest living relative in history as I can find absolutely no record of my great-grandad's death!  I know that my great-grandmother died a widow just before WWII in August 1939, but try as I might I have been unable to find any record of my great-grandad's death before hers.  Given that I know he was born around 1882 that must make him the oldest person alive!

I am determined to try and locate my great-grandad's death details and plan to start working on my mum's side of the family soon.  My daughter has caught the research bug and has made a start on my husband's side of the family, which may prove just as problematic - so far it would seem all the men in the family had the same name!

Have you done any family research? What have you found, murderers, aristocrats, inventors?  I would love to hear your stories.

Sharon x

Blogging Etiquette

So being a newbie to the world of blogging I have been giving a lot of thought to "blogging etiquette".  

For me this means, how often to blog, what to blog about, how many pictures to include in a post, how to promote the blog/post, how to promote or link to other blogs (and many more questions I seem to think about when I go to bed at night - yes I know exciting night life I have!).

Now I know that I only started this blog a short while ago and that at that time I said that it was a crafty blog to share my love of crafting and making things.  I have already managed to "go of topic" with a couple of my posts and I know that I am likely to do so again.  I think it is probably safer to say that this blog is going to be an outlet for all my musings/observations/questions/thoughts on life in general, with a fair bit of crafting thrown in for good measure.

Now when it comes to the questions that I lie awake at night thinking about, what do you think?

I don't want to blog daily just for the sake of it about pointless topics or feel under pressure to blog to a regular timetable.  I want blogging to be fun (that's why I started it) and if it becomes too regimented then I'm afraid the fun will disappear and it will become a chore.

I think I have answered the question about what to blog about.  I will blog about anything and everything if it takes my fancy or is something I feel passionate about.

Now the thorny subject of pictures.  David Bailey I am not!  I own a "point and shoot" camera and hope for the best.  I don't think all blog posts necessarily lend themselves to pictures but I am always envious of those bloggers who manage to include an image or picture in every post, which always seems to "fit" with what they are writing about - how do you all do that?!

I do try to tweet when I post something new to the blog and my viewing stats do increase immediate afterwards (so I am comforted to know as I am typing this that someone, somewhere will at least read it and I am not just writing to myself!).  But, how do you work on promoting your blog and start to engage with those readers and open lines of communication and dialogue?  Maybe it is an art to be learnt?  I don't think most Brits are particularly good at "selling themselves" and blowing their own trumpets, so being confident that you have something to say and share that others will want to listen to and be part of can be a bit of a learning curve.  Any suggestions would be gratefully received :).

Finally that old chestnut of "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine".  I am not in the habit of promoting anything just for the sake of it.  The links on the right hand side to other blogs are ones that I genuinely read on a regular basis, which are full of varied and interesting content and which I think everyone would enjoy reading (whether or not you are and avid crafter or not - you will notice that they are not all crafty blogs).

Suffice it to say that I am at the bottom of a learning curve, which actually feels a bit more like a roller coaster - just as a feel I am making progress to the towards the top of the curve I find out that it was actually just the top of the loop and I have to go back down to the bottom again and start working my way up!

If anyone out there would like to share their thoughts or suggestions on the world of blogging, or indeed how they feel this blog could be improved, I would love to hear from you.  As I said I really would like this to become a two way conversation and want to make this a blog as much for your benefit as mine.

Hoping to hear from you.

Sharon x

The light at the end of the tunnel

The wonderful Claire of Claireabellemakes recently blogged about her daily battle with chronic migraines,  She wasn't looking for the sympathy vote and the post wasn't all doom and gloom.  Rather Claire sought to express the problems that she encounters on a daily basis in a positive light to give hope to other migraine sufferers out there.

This is also the reason for this post.

Just over twelve months ago I was in a very dark place.  Now I should explain at this point that I am very fortunate and lucky to have a wonderful husband (we will have been married 20 years this year) and two wonderful children.  I own my own house in a lovely village in the English country side.  Yet despite all this (and at the time having a very well paid job) I was contemplating suicide early last year.  I would lie in bed at night and sit at my desk at work during the day thinking of ways to kill myself that 1) wouldn't be too messy and 2) wouldn't involve my children finding my body.

Before I continue I should say at this point that my life now is completely different, thanks in large part to my love of crafting.

I was working in a highly pressured and stressful law job.  I would be in the office at 7:30, work until around 8pm, no lunch break and then log on again remotely from home and continue working once I got home in the evening and would then work from home at the weekend.  All this whilst trying to run a family home and deal with family matters involving a sick father in law and problems involving my son.  I wasn't eating (it wouldn't be unusual for me to go 24 hours without any food or proper meal) and I wouldn't get to bed before midnight every night and then be up at 5:30 every morning.

Unfortunately my boss was not particularly understanding and actually told me that if I wanted to progress in the company I would have to continue to devote the same amount, if not more, time to work and that I should leave my husband to sort out any family matters!

All this pressure eventually got too much and once I started to contemplate suicide I knew that for my own health and sanity I had to get out.  So, despite being in the middle of a recession I quit my job!

Now, I have to be honest and say that this did cause some financial difficulties that we had to juggle but we gained far more than we lost.

I was finally able to start participating in family life again as I was actually at home!  I started to do my crafting again, making cards and sewing.  I actually started having proper meals and found myself going to bed before midnight on a regular basis.

After a few months of "me time" and some counselling from my local GP I felt well enough to start to look for another job.  I am now working in a non legal environment in an admin job but actually couldn't be happier.
My crafting has continued, and in fact I found that I had such a renewed love for it that I just wanted to keep making things so opened my Etsy shop.

There is a part of me that is frustrated and disappointed about the amount of time I wasted in that other job (6 years).  It was only once out of that environment and with retrospect that I could see how all consuming it had been and how much of my life I had given up to it.  However I am more than making up for it now and after having ready Marianne Cantwell's book Free Range Humans I am even more determined than ever to develop my creative side and use this as my way out of the rat race.

As I said at the beginning of this post I haven't written this for sympathy but rather in the hope that by sharing this story it will give hope to anyone out there who reads this who perhaps is also suffering from depression, are at rock bottom and can't see the way out.  Persevere, you are not alone and there is help out there if you just ask (one of my biggest problems was admitting that I needed help, I didn't want to "bother" anyone!)  But once I asked for help it was there for me, with no judgmental comments, and not once did anyone tell me to "pull myself together"!

Perhaps there is something that you have always wanted to do but have felt that you can't, for whatever reason.  Give it a go, follow your passions.  If cost is an issue perhaps consider a cheaper alternative or start to take baby steps towards your ultimate goal which would perhaps make it more affordable.

Finally, give crafting a go.  Whether it is painting, knitting, sewing, crocheting, woodwork etc,  something which allows you to switch off from the world around you and totally focus on you and what you love; after all YOU DESERVE IT!

Sharon x

The Crafting Journey

How did I end up here?

I thought long and hard before embarking upon this blog, "would I have anything to blog about", "how do you actually write a blog", "will anyone read it if I do write a blog".  I had reached a point where I was re-evaluating my life and my work/life balance.  My stressful career was causing health problems and working in excess of 12 hours a day and evenings/weekends meant that I just didn't have the time (or the energy) to do what I really wanted to do - make things, spend time with the family and enjoy my garden.

As I mentioned in my post about the decoupage table (here) I first started crafting when I was little.  I started out with learning to knit when I was 3 or 4 years old.  I progressed to learning to embroider and took great pride in making gifts for the family at Christmas and for birthdays by making place mats or embroidering initials on handkerchiefs for grandparents.  Embroidery then progressed to cross stitching (which is a passion I have passed on to my daughter).

When I was at secondary school we did Home Economics which included cooking and dressmaking/home furnishings (I think they call it Textiles now).  Whilst others in my class were knitting scarves or sewing a pillow case, I knitted a jumper, some finger-less mittens, made a dress and a blouse and also stitched a quilted pouch; I had the benefit of a mum who had taught me how to use a sewing machine and cut out a pattern at a young age.

My mum used to make a lot of clothes for me and my brother and sister.  This was really out of necessity as we were a one parent family and there wasn't the money around to be buying new clothes all the time.  I carried on with making my own clothes into my early twenties, but as work started to take over I had less time and found that my crafting projects were taking longer to complete, but I still enjoyed doing them and found them to be an excellent way of "switching off".

When I got married I made the table decorations for the reception gifts for the bridesmaids.  We started a family soon after we got married and I knitted the obligatory cardigans for the baby once born I started making dresses quilts for the cot. I even made a lamp shade for the nursery as I couldn't find one which matched the theme of the decoration.

Over the years my love of crafting and making things has continued, whether it be purely for pleasure, such as cross stitching, or whether it includes practical makes such as cushion covers, clothes or curtains etc.  I take great delight in the fact that I have been able to pass on my love of crafting to my daughter.

I almost feel as though I have come full circle and I am now back to the stage of enjoying my crafts, still learning new crafts and improving all the time on the old ones, and finally starting to think that I could develop this further as a living.  When I am at work all I can think about is my evenings and weekends when I will be free to do crafts - I know that those of you who are reading this blog will be able to share those sentiments.

Baskets made for my daughter to take to university - she has no idea what she is going to keep in them but she wanted them anyway!

I have been thrilled by the popularity of the Great British Sewing Bee (find out more here) - it is once again "cool" to be making your own clothes and to be able to sew in general and this is once more a skill that people want to learn.

So you see this blog is the culmination of almost 40 years of crafting during which time I have tried a lot of different crafts (still so many that I want to try though) but there is still so much to learn and pass on to the next generation.  If anyone who is reading this blog is thinking "could I do that" or "I would love to have a go at that" then DO IT!  One of the biggest things I have learnt (or at least have come to accept and realise) over the last 12 months is that you just have to go for it and stop procrastinating, no matter what "it" might be.

I am excited by where this crafting journey will take me and to sharing it on this blog as I hopefully start to realise some of my dreams.

I would really love to hear about your own crafting journeys and how you have reached wherever you are now and how you hope to get wherever you are heading.

Sharon x

Decoupage Sewing Box

When my mum got married over 40 years ago her work colleagues bought her this sewing table as a wedding present.

When I was growing up I have vivid memories of the table always being nearby and in use in the living room.  I have a brother and sister who are 3 years younger than me (yes they are twins) and I can remember when they were small going down for their afternoon nap and my mum would take out knitting or sewing from the table and sit with me quietly and just slowly teach me how to knit, sew, crochet etc.  As soon as the twins woke up the crafting would go back into the table safely out of the way until the next day.  As a small child the box always seemed quite big to me but is actually just a bit bigger than your average occasional table.

A few years ago my mum was having a clear out and sort out at home and asked me if I wanted the table - I didn't need to think about the answer and immediately said yes.  It didn't matter that I didn't know where I would put it in my house I just had to have it, there are so many memories tied up in that table, not to mention the practicalities of having somewhere to store at least some of my stash of crafty stuff.

As you would expect after 40 something years of use (and some abuse) the table is showing its age (don't most 40 somethings?!), so I decided to give it a bit of a face lift and have decided that I am going to sand it down, paint it white and decoupage the lid with sewing/crafty themed images.

I have therefore been busy cutting up my crafty magazines (after reading them cover to cover of course) and finally, I now have enough pictures to cover the top of the table.  This is what I hope it is going to look like once I have finished.

I just need to get the paint and the modge plodge and I will be able to make a start.  I plan on taking photos along the way and will post a follow up with pictures of my progress.  Hopefully by the end it will mean that this table has many more years ahead of it.

Sharon x