Novella Baking

Trip to 2 & 4 Cafe

2011-12-03T15:50:00.001Z

How exciting! My first post from London!
Everything is going really fantastically here in the land of Love Actually (which I've been watching since it's officially THAT TIME OF YEAR) and I've been enjoying finding lovely places in this sprawling city to start to make my regular haunts.
I definitely found one earlier in the beautiful surroundings of the cafe 2 & 4 just across from Shoreditch Park in Hackney which I've been spying for the past couple of weeks on the way to work aloft the 141 bus. It's part cafe, part design studio where the owner has on display his refurbished furniture (such as couches and tables) and it's his wife that makes the cakes!

I've never had a cake so fresh or 'homemade' tasting in a cafe before- it was fabulous. I went for the Orange & Rosemary cake and it was just so full of flavour. I got an English Breakfast Tea to go with it and sat there on a wooden block and typed on Netty (my netbook) with a cosy heater at my back.
The girl at the cake counter is just so lovely, very helpful and she gave me a huge slice of cake just cos she felt like it. Gem.
So yes, I very much plan on skipping in there some days after work, needless to say.

Then on the way to buy the makings of carbonara for dinner, I popped into the charity shop at the end of our road and found this cool old 'Singer Sewing Book' from 1954 for £3. Pretty interesting and the previous owner left notes in it! Then also picked up Ian McEwan's 'Saturday' and Alice Sebold's 'Lucky', both £1 each.

Hopefully this carbonara tonight will turn out decent and I can post that too!:)
Big love,
L x

Crocheted Apple Cosy!

2011-09-18T00:29:00.000+01:00

I'm home in Cavan this weekend (well, until Tuesday since it'll be Mom's birthday) as a trip before we abscond to London. I landed into the kitchen and saw this cute crocheted owl type looking thing on the counter and asked Siobhan what it is.
"It's my apple cosy. I asked Mom to make me one for school."
So I popped an apple into it and took a snap.

Name is Joe.

I has an apple inside of me.

It is the CUTEST thing! I kind of want one for London!
...I think Mom should start a blog of her own at this stage!:)

L x

Brooklyn Blackout Cake for Conor!

2011-09-12T00:23:00.001+01:00

That cream was not for the cake. Rather, Conor's face...

Now that Conor's birthday has been and gone, I can post this!
Especially since it was a surprise and he actually, properly, had no idea at all. He even suggested to a friend (who was also in on it) to go for a drink in the pub we were setting up with balloons and cake. So he was even more surprised!
So yes, THE CAKE.

What a beast of a thing.

I made Conor the Hummingbird Bakery's Brooklyn Blackout cake. It is possibly the richest cake I have ever made and it's mostly due to the 'custard' like chocolate sauce. The cake made from this is the best chocolate one I have made yet, it was perfect.

Here is a quick breakdown of the recipe:

Ingredients for the cake:
100g butter
260g caster sugar
170g plain flour
160ml whole milk
2 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
45g cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Ingredients for the chocolate custard:

500g caster sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

125g cocoa powder

200g cornflour

85g butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

*Preheat the oven to 170C/ 325F/ Gas 3
*Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
*Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Scrape the sides of the bowl with your spatula so no mixture is lost.

*Slowly beat in the cocoa powder , vanilla, baking powder and salt until well mixed.

*Add half the flour, then all the milk and then the rest of the flour. Mix well until it is all combined.
*Pour into two round 20cm tins greased and lined with greaseproof paper.
*Pop in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Leave the cakes to cool completely before turning them out onto a wire rack (WAIT til they're cool or they'll break!)

*While they're cooling, get making the sauce...
*Put the sugar, syrup, cocoa powder and 600ml of water into a large pot (this makes a huge amount of sauce, so make sure it's big!) and bring to the boil over a medium heat, whisking occasionally.
*Mix the cornflour with 120-200ml of water and gradually add to the mix, whisking briskly! (Do this correctly cos I didn't and I ended up needing to blend the sauce to get rid of lumps! No one wants a mouth of cornflour!)
*The consistency should be that of thick glue. I mean, it gets quite thick, but don't worry about it ripping the cake. When the cakes are cool, pop them onto plates and into the fridge. This helps stop it.
*Cook the custard until it is thick and yummy looking. Stick your spoon in for a taste.
*Remove from the heat, add the butter and vanilla and stir in. Put into a (rather large) bowl, cover with cling film and chill until quite firm.

*Grab your cakes and using a long knife (it makes it much easier), slice a very thin layer off one.

*Using a food processor, or just a knife like me, chop into fine crumbs.
*Spread some custard onto that cake, then slice the other into two, making it three tiered. Layer up the cake with the custard, leaving enough to frost the top and sides of the cake.
*Cover with the crumbs and chill for 2 hours.

Since Conor is becoming quite the wizard lately, I popped some cards into the cake along with heaps of candles for a little magic effect.

Get your strong arm out to carry this one! It took a lot of effort carrying it to the dart! The cookbook says it makes 10-12 slices... I am very generous with my cake slices and I LOVE cake, but I honestly could not finish a small slice. However, there is enough sugar in this to make it last a while, especially if kept in the fridge.
I must ask Conor how much of it is left...

Enjoy over a long chat.
Or a surprise birthday party.

x

Hope it's a great year, bro!

Fair London

2011-09-08T00:37:00.000+01:00

I am currently perched on a clean corner of my bed, in the midst of the fifty-seventh clean out of my room in about two months. The Velvet Underground have provided the soundtrack.

Since London is RAPIDLY approaching, I am getting rid of EVERYTHING that I physically cannot take with me. I have two bags of clothes to hopefully get some money for with Siopaella in Temple Bar, a bag for a charity shop and a bag of work clothes that Luke's sister will be availing of. Scarves, jumpers, bags, shoes, dresses and accessories are all bundled up, ready to be given to new homes and I am left with those which I believe will give me street cred in one of the most stylish cities in the world.

If you haven't been to London, you are missing out. Everyone is SO interesting looking. Whether they are the happy, smiley cash clerks in Whole Foods Market (where Luke and I got delicious watermelon) or the person sitting beside you on the Tube, everyone is so different that I cannot but help slightly staring at them. One thing that I have been told by countless people who have learnt that I am moving to London is that it is a "very unfriendly place". I mean I can count nearly ten people who have told me this. But I have now set myself the task of making note of every lovely thing I have born witness to in London.

During our 4 day trip there last week, Luke and I met nothing but genuinely friendly people like the lovely ladies who asked us did we need directions after serving us in Harrods. I've never had that before; someone getting that, by the look of me, I was a tourist and only for Luke, I probably would have asked her for some directions!Then in the Metro on the Tube I found an article where people are compiling the compassionate things that they have witnessed on the Tube and making them into an art project "celebrating the 'value' of kindness". Some include strangers comforting a heartbroken woman and telling her that "every storm passes". Another is of a man's mobile phone being saved by a stranger who noticed he had left it behind him and so met him at the next station stop. You can see the collection here .

Another story from our trip was a man carrying a woman's suitcase up a flight of stairs in Gatwick airport when he noticed her struggling. At the top, he then ran off to get a train and she shouted after him "I owe you a pint!".So, unfriendly it most certainly is not. I cannot wait to discover this city and make my little mark on it along with the millions of others who live there. Having once been an empire, it is so beautiful in parts, the buildings dating back centuries. One of the most amazing monuments I have ever seen is the Albert Memorial directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall. It is awe inspiring. Albert

I simply LOVE Portobello Road for all of the stalls and quirky shops that line it and those that run them. I feel like I Angela Lansbury is beside me, hunting down the missing back of a magic book. I also get to pop into the Hummingbird Bakery for a brownie and tea.

Portobello Rd. snaps

I took some better pictures this time and on our way home, marvelled at the cameras in duty free. I plan on treating myself to a deadly camera once I get enough saved. And finally find a place to live. If anyone knows anyone else seeking housemates, I will forward you the ad Luke and I have on three sites. Le sigh.
Stressful, but I'm certain it will be worth it for the land of Love Actually, Harry Potter and soon, Luke and Laura.

A few firsts

2011-08-16T01:44:00.006+01:00

Hello kids, how are ya. More statement than question for some reason. Maybe because I'm on that delicate border of being sleepy and heading swiftly towards over-tiredness.
But anyway. The past two weeks or so have been quite wonderful for a few reasons.

I entered a photo or two into the Virginia Show and got a first place in the Candid Photo category, huzzah! Last year I got a 5th place, so I've jumped four respective ribbon colors. Fab. The photo was of my dears Denise, Laura and David in New York when we were down near the World Trade Centre. To be honest, I love this photo of them and am delirah that someone else thought it was deadly too.

And then to add to my excitement, I won the monthly Bake-Off at Milk & Cookies last Tuesday night with the most haphazard vanilla cupcakes I have ever made. I didn't even take a photo of them they were so dreadful looking, but obviously they tasted pretty good cos they beat off stiff competition (I imagine) from a lemon poppyseed cake, chocolate things etc. And now I have a certificate to add to my photography ribbon. Plus a box of chocolates.
Success.

Chuffed

I love that I've been seeing a lot of friends quite a bit these days before I'm amongst those who have fled this country. Another night of it tomorrow at Griffin and Ceri's which will be great! Oh the mixed feelings about leaving.
Then, finally, came my first anniversary with Luke which is amazing. Being taken out to dinner and getting a bouquet of white roses will always be wonderful.

Big love to you all:) x

A few recent happenings and findings

2011-07-16T00:28:00.006+01:00

I've been perched on my bed for absolute hours and am cursing the fact that I don't have all these deadly Sky channels that I can see have tons of cool movies and stuff on and not Tori Spelling discussing her baby weight.
I've been getting a few deadly things lately in these fab sales that are on, or in my frequent charity shop trips. I'm off tomorrow, so very well could be down in Bray going through them whilst continuing the cycle and giving them some of my stuff I want to get rid of.
These gorgeous shoes? €30 in a|wear with student discount. That's because IADT never put an expiry date on my card, so I plan to use it whenever possible...

Best bit- they didn't need to be broken in, so they were dolled straight away when Luke took me to Le Bon Crubeen! I'm a bit anxious about them getting dirty, but they're holding well!

Then Griffin and I went to Urban Outfitters and I got a wonderful purse for €11 to go with my new bag from Philadelphia.
Have you seen it yet?
No?!

Bam. What a duo.

Recently Luke and I paid yet another trip to Queen of Tarts, they of delectable cakes and crockery. I opted for the baked raspberry cheesecake and Luke, a nibble.
As always, it was a lovely trip had.

I found a deadly wine holder in the Virginia charity shop that I gave Ceri and Griffin as a little house warming gift with a bottle of red and a rose. Sadly, I forgot to take a pic of it, but I'll get one off Griff and add it in here.
Cos it's seriously cool.

What I'm mostly excited about these days is planning things to write for bananareel.ie, picking photos to enter into the Virginia Show again and looking up things for my adventure in Spetember with Luke. Gumtree is visited every evening.
Plenty to keep the mind going.
But now it's time for some tunes to lull me to sleep before a seaside trip tomorrow. Better clear up the camera's memory card!

Sweetest of dreams to you.
L x

One Mean Risotto!

2011-07-15T19:30:00.008+01:00

This meal is my soup to Sarah Maria Griffin. It is ridiculously yum and easy and I've made it two days in a row.
Again, I nipped to Tesco around 5 o'clock and got super cheap veg. You can pretty much throw anything into this dish, which is what Luke and I did.
So here it goes, it serves 3 hearty portions.
Prepare to be wowed.

Ingredients!
2 chicken breasts
4 rashers
punnet of mushrooms
1 onion
1 carrot
1/2 tin of kidney beans
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 a small bag of peas
2 cups/ 470ml veg stock
250g arborio risotto rice
handful of baby spinach
sprigs of basil
parmesan
salt & pepper

*Heat olive oil in a frying pan and grate in the carrot and garlic.
*Chop the onion and add it in. Fry these slowly and chop up the chicken and bacon.
*Add these to the pan and fry until just cooked.
*Add in the peas, beans and mushrooms and fry up gently again. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
*Throw in the rice and stir until it begins to absorb the oil in the pan. Once it starts to take a translucent shade, add the veg stock.
*Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring regularly to stop the rice sticking. Add a dash of hot water if needed.

*When the rice is cooked, take the pan off the heat. Tear up the basil and spinach and stir in.
*Serve up with a sprinkle of Parmesan and tuck in!

Luke and I absolutely loved this, so let me know what you think! The second time I made it, we didn't add any of the meat and it was still as delicious, so it can be a vegetarian dish too.

On a foodie note, my first recipe has been posted on bananareel.ie's website , check it out!:)
I'm going to be a food contributor, writing easy and healthy recipes for students! Woo! I'm so excited as it's come about from this blog and Louise Tierney knowing how much I'd love to do it.
So there is a batch of baked goodies on the way to her xx

L x

Improvised Lasagne!

2011-07-12T00:32:00.006+01:00

Mmm. You really can't go wrong with a yummy lasagne.
So, here's the meaty version! I like adding loads of veg to dishes, it helps bulk it up and it doesn't make the dish as heavy to eat if it calls for a lot of meat. I don't know about you, but I find a lot of beef hard to eat, anyway.
So, I made this with things that were already in the house. I had some ingredients left over from the vegetarian lasagne like the pasta sheets and asparagus, so that was handy!

300g fresh lasagne sheets
1 carrot
5 garlic cloves
1 onion
200g asparagus
1/2 tin of kidney beans
1/2 bag of peas
2 red chillies
tomato puree
tin of tomatoes
block of white cheddar cheese
parmesan cheese
oregano
fresh basil
small pack of mince beef

*Heat the oven to 200C.
*Slice up the asparagus, onions and chillies and add to the hot oiled pan. Grate in the carrot.
*Fry up for 2-3 minutes.

*Add in the mince and brown.
*Add in the kidney beans and peas and simmer for a couple of minutes.
*Toss in the tin of tomatoes and about 2 tablespoons of the puree.

*Tear in the basil leaves and take off the heat.
*Cover the bottom of the lasagne dish with the pasta sheets and scoop in some of the mix. Sprinkle on some parmesan and grate a good helping of the cheddar on top, then cover with lasagne sheets.
*Keep repeating this until you run out, leaving the top layer as the meat mix with cheddar cheese covering it.

*Hop in the oven to bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and looks delicious.

You can have this with whatever you fancy. A lot of people like coleslaw with lasagne, so maybe have some of that, or some oven chips, or a nice salad!
Again, this did 4 portions. And tasted nicer for lunch the next day with Luke with salad his Dad is growing.
Delish.

Enjoy, lovelies!:)
L xx

Le Bon Crubeen visit

2011-07-05T17:35:00.005+01:00

Last week Luke brought me out for dinner, and on recommendation of one Louise Tierney, we went to Le Bon Crubeen on Talbot Street.
To say we enjoyed ourselves is a gross understatement. When we arrived in, dripping wet with our jackets and umbrella, we were greeted by a very lovely waiter who offered to take our things to the cloakroom. This has never happened to me before (maybe this is indicative of how often we go out) so I happily handed over our stuff and we were shown our seat.
Maybe it's because I'm waitressing at the moment, but I can be super judgemental of how I'm served when I go to other places.
But these people were golden.
Absolutely. We had main courses with a glass of wine each, then tea & coffee at the end, with me deciding I had to go with dessert too...
Luke had the Confit Duck Leg with Lyonnaise Potatoes, Pesto Green Beans and Syrah Jus and I had the 8oz Irish Sirloin Steak (medium rare) with Green Peppercorn Jus, Fries and Rocket Salad. (I don't have amazing memory, I copy and pasted from their menu )
We were both silent for a couple of minutes while we tucked in and relished the parties in our mouths. Luke's duck fell off the bone it was that tender. My steak was beautifully juicy and the salad and chips topped it off wonderfully; nothing too fancy, but presentation was good.

Our waiters were delightful to say the absolute least. I adored them for leaving us until I finished my meal. Due to a lot of talking and just being a slow eater, it took me way longer than Luke, and they didn't touch our table until I was completely finished. They asked did we want to see the dessert menu... I said yes.
The bread and butter pudding was amaaaaazing. Holy smokes. Now, the waiter we had for dessert was fabulous. Even though Luke didn't want dessert, he brought us two spoons, incase Luke changed his mind. He did.

Overall, we had a great time there and were floored by the food and service. The cost is phenomenal considering the meals. We each had a main course, glass of wine, a pint, then tea, coffee & one dessert which all came to under €60.

You really can't go wrong there. Top marks.
Le Bon Crubeen's website

My Mom is amazing.

2011-07-05T16:51:00.005+01:00

Yes, she is.
Cos I went home to Cavan last week with Luke and she gave me THESE...

She crocheted me a bag and a cover for my netbook!!
Aren't they fab?!
The netbook cover fits perfectly and my bag is having its first day out when we go visit Griffin & Ceri tomorrow.

Bam.
My Mom's great.

L x

Stewed Fruit Dessert!

2011-06-29T00:34:00.007+01:00

A dessert that I've used twice in two days is this Jamie Oliver stewed plum and peach malarky that is delissssh. Serve it with vanilla ice cream with the fruit still warm and bam, party.
Again, this is a variation with Jamie's depending on the ripeness of the fruit I could get or what I discovered I thought tasted better.

Serves 5
Ingredients!
15 peaches
6 plums (I found them a bit bitter)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 orange
sprinkle of cinnamon (I found it hard to find a stick of cinnamon)
1 tub of fab vanilla ice cream

*Halve and stone the fruits and put them into a large roasting tray.

*Drizzle over the vanilla and caster sugar.
*Add the zest from half an orange and squeeze in all the juice.
*Add the cinnamon and place on the bottom shelf.
*Leave for 15 minutes or until the fruits are all soft and juicy.
*Serve with vanilla ice cream and tuck in.
Yesterday's version

Again, enjoy! This dish is dead handy as you can pop it in the oven during dinner and it'll be ready in time for dessert. Mmmm....

L x

Vegetable Lasagne for Cat & LJ!

2011-06-28T23:21:00.005+01:00

Today I had Cat and LJ over for a dinner and a hang out and I again took out Jamie's 30 Minute Meals. I'm ploughing through it at this stage and it's holding well!

Today it was the Summer Veg Lasagne, but after a late-afternoon trip to Tesco, I picked up nearly all of the veg I used- for actual pennies. My shopping for the meal for three (with another portion left over) came to about €25 which included all of the lasagne ingredients, salad, a baguette, fruit and ice cream for dessert. Amazing like.
If you're buying ingredients for the dinner you'll be making that night, buy the discounted stuff! You'll save loads of euros, obviously, and there's nothing wrong with them. Obviously scope them out before you buy them, but all of mine were perfect.
For the healthier option I went for a wholemeal baguette and to save some monies, bought a ready made salad bowl so I didn't have to get all the little ingredients. Plus all the chopping is done for you.
My recipe varied a bit from Jamie's cos I got the 'cheap veg buzz' and put in veg he didn't tell me to. And left some ones out cos I either couldn't find them or I found a cheaper alternative.
Also, Jamie's recipe is VERY generous with the ingredients, so this is my take on it. It feeds four.

Ingredients!
small bunch of spring onions
1/2 a 30g tin of anchovies
5 cloves of garlic
250g asparagus
about 15 cherry tomatoes
500g frozen peas
fresh string beans
300ml veg stock
2 x 250g tubs of cottage cheese
300g fresh lasagne sheets
Parmesan cheese
sprigs of fresh thyme

*Preheat the oven to 200C.
*Pour the oil from the anchovies into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. Finely slice the spring onions and half of the anchovies and then add them to the saucepan.
*Crush the six cloves of garlic into the pan and fry for a few minutes ensuring that the garlic doesn't burn.
*Trim the pointed tips off the asparagus and put aside, then trim the woody ends from the other side and discard. Finely slice the stems of the asparagus into 1.5cm pieces before adding to the pan with a splash of water.
*After five minutes, add the peas and beans along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well.
*Give everything a good stir and cook for a few more minutes.
*Take the vegetables off the heat and spoon around one quarter of the mixture into a deep dish. Top with a lasagne sheet and a generous grating of parmesan cheese. Keep repeating these whilst adding chopped cherry tomatoes, until you finish with a layer of lasagne.
*Mix the remaining 250g of cottage cheese with a splash of boiled water and then spread over the lasagne.
*Drizzle olive oil over the asparagus tips then place onto the lasagne. Sprinkle over the thyme along with another good grating of parmesan and a final drizzle of olive oil.
*Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes until the topping has browned.

Drizzle some balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil over the salad mix and tear up the baguette. Serve and enjoy!! We all tucked in and were feeling very full afterwards.

I'm going to write the dessert in another post, or this will be the longest one ever.

Big love!
L xx

Fusili & Chorizo Sausage Dish

2011-06-23T00:19:00.005+01:00

Hi there!:)

I'm sitting on my bed with literally a giant tub of the Glenilen Farm all natural yummy raspberry yoghurt with an episode of Criminal Minds. Great way to wind down the day! I'm also feeling quite tired anyway after a late BBQ last night with the Lukes and Caitlin with work this morning. It could very well be one of those nights where I'm asleep as soon as the fairy lights are out.

I'm on a bit of a health kick since I got back from a holiday in New York, so this next recipe was the first to get me back into the cooking buzz! I strongly debated ordering in against walking to Tesco with Luke in the misty rain, but I decided I'd had enough processed food and a bit of cooking would do me good. Plus, I missed cooking if I'm honest!

So, this is another one from Jamie's 30 Minute Meals, but is just the main course, and the ingredients are all very handy. It's called "Pregnant Jools' Pasta" but it's still just as AMAZING even if you're not having a baby...

So, this version serves 2 people and all you need is:
-2 spring onions
-1 carrot
-1 fresh chilli
-4 good quality sausages
-1/2 tsp dried oregano
-2 cloves of garlic
-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
-half a tin of chopped tomatoes
-some basil sprigs
-100g fusili pasta

*So all you need to do is roughly chop up the spring onions, carrot, chilli and sausage and blend them all in a food processor.
*When it's all blended well, tip it into a hot frying pan with some olive oil.
*Put on the pasta to boil for ten minutes.
*Keep stirring the sausage mix to make sure it all cooks. Add a tbsp of pasta water if you need to loosen it up a bit.
*Crush the garlic cloves into the sausage mix, the balsamic vinegar and chopped tinned tomatoes. Simmer for 2-3 minutes. Tear in the basil and stir it up.
*Drain the pasta and serve with the sausage mix on top with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Tesco had a two for €5 deal with their 'Finest' range of sausages when I made this the other day, so I used their chorizo ones and it was absolutely amazing.
Also, my food processor isn't great, so I chopped up the sausages separately as it really wasn't working out well. Jamie also calls for celery, but I don't think it was missed.
But DO make sure you have that most angelic of ingredients, the balsamic vinegar. It is so completely wonderful.
Anyhoodle kids, I'm going to bed, I'm absolutely shattered, but I hope you enjoy this one!
Night! L x

Lunchtime, Summer Style!

2011-06-02T20:06:00.009+01:00

It's summer!

Well hello there!
I am currently roasting in this heat which has been bestowed upon us and shall pay no heed to the neighbour outside my window who is complaining over the hedge "Ah sure it's far too warm." With a heat wave about to start, he better get used to it.

Anyway, FOOD TIME.
Yesterday's weather was equally as fabulous, so I whipped out my incredibly handy Urban Cookbook which has really cool and handy recipes from around the world. So, to make the most of this sunshine, and to continue collecting my freckles, I made a wonderful lunch of chicken tenders, baby potatoes and a mixed salad. It's really quick and easy to make and can be mostly made with stuff you already have at home. YUM.
To make your own summer salad...
-Pre-heat your oven to 220C.
-Parboil your chopped (only into halves) baby potatoes. When they're finished, pop them onto a roasting tray and drizzle them with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Mushrooms also go well here too.
-Get a medium sized pan and fill it with about 3cm of sunflower oil. Heat the oil until it is quite hot.
-Get your chicken strips (Tesco handily sells chicken breasts already sliced perfectly for €4) and dip them in some beaten egg.
-Roll them in the batter mixture of 140g of plain flour, with a sprinkling of salt, pepper and the seasoning of your choice. I used smoked paprika and sesame seeds.
-Place the chicken strip into the pan and repeat with all the strips. The chicken will only take about 10 minutes, so make sure the potatoes are in the oven before you start this.
-Rotate the chicken strips and when they're golden brown, place them on a plate, ready to serve.

-I just got a bag of mixed leaves, cucumber (pre- E-Coli outbreak...) and tomatoes for the salad and gave it a drizzle of balsamic dressing.
-The potatoes will be done by the time you're finished making the chicken and the salad.

-Serve out the back in the sunshine with some lovely dips for the chicken. Tesco does a nice piri piri mayo.

Now, I know the frying of the chicken isn't the healthiest of options, but alternatively you could fry them quickly in a small amount of oil for a minute or two, then bake them in the oven too. I hope you enjoy it!
Also, a huge hello to the new people who are following my blog! Thank youuu!:) Let me know what you think of a few things!
Another post will follow soon! x

Oh my...

2011-04-16T00:19:00.009+01:00

Don't even look at the date of my last post.
No!
Don't!
...darn.
But I'm back! Woo! I have a gorgeous new netbook who I can bang around with me it's that dinky and I'm gonna sort out proper internet for myself in the next week.
Bam.
Back on track.
Even though I have not been blogging, I have been baking. I'm going to put up some pics of the yummyness that has kept me going in the past few months. I've been getting some amazing new cookbooks, namely The Hummingbird baking books, The Urban Cookbook and one of the Avoca books, Tea Time.
Cupcakes, as always, have been really popular for gifts and recently I made the vanilla Hummingbird ones as well as the marshmallow ones, for Luke's Mom and sister. For his sister Rachael, I also made her one of those giant cupcake cakes. It was a tad stressful to make (I'm not sure if I'm a fan of this silicone baking equipment phase), but it tasted really good, so that's all that matters really, I guess!:D

The marshmallow cupcakes were mad to make, the absolute stickyness of the melted marshmallows was a little tricky at times, you had to add it to the cupcakes straight away, when the goo was still really hot and not a moment after, otherwise it just stuck to the spoon and your fingers.
Another yummy cake that I've made were Strawberry Jelly Squares. You just made the cake, added the fresh cream, cut it into squares and dipped into sort of solidified jello and then dipped/ rolled it in coconut. Mmm...

The delishishness of a lemon drizzle cake can never be beaten, so I made one way back when I was still living with Cat for her dad who may have a sweet tooth to rival mine. I don't think there was any left when Cat got home that evening...
Apologies for the grainy phone photo...

Then of course many cards have been made since I last posted, with birthdays and Christmas, so I'll stick them up now before I toddle off to bed. It's getting late and I've driving practice in the morning with Luke's mom Helen, so I must be chipper and aware!

Well, that's all for now folks! I'm definitely back on form now, I'm going to post loads, I have loads of new books to keep me going for aaaaaages, and many fun things coming up, so la dee dah, I should definitely be posting way more regularly now.
Night night!
L x

It has been far toooo long...

2010-10-27T23:56:00.013+01:00

Great Scott, it has been such an embarrassingly long time since I blogged.
I do apologise:( I've been so busy though, things just sort of all kicked off in the space of a week for me at the end of the summer, so I'm now living with my best pal and her family in their garden room til I move into my own place.
Life is absolutely wonderful.

Loads of things have been happening since I last posted and I really miss crafty nights/ baking days.
Must soon get back into the swing of things!
Also, my laptop has decided to no longer recognise my camera's memory card, so until I get that sorted, I'm afraid grainy photos from my phone will have to suffice!
I had a lovely little bake sale in my old (*sniff) college back in September which earned me some extra monies. I sort of took over the O'Mahony's kitchen (not randomly, I am living with them) and baked for a day with the help of Luke who ended up making Cat's birthday cake!:) I'll make a baker out of him yet!

Some of the cakes for iadt

I've been gathering loads of lovely things that I will soon document, like the teapot Grainne got me for my birthday, some fabulous charity shop bargains and the exciting fact that I am moving into my own place the day after our college graduation.
It's all go!
I can now use the wall stickers Griffin got me months back and I can't wait to put my stamp on my new room. The house is beautiful and I'm so excited to create a space for all my wonderful chums to come chill in.
Oh, and after a wonderful day of shopping with Cat, I finally got a travel mug I have been wanting for about 2 years since I first spotted them in Urban Outfitters. I can now go back to my eco tea ways when I'm on the move!:D
It's like this, only with red flowers:)

My new love

Also today I nabbed Jamie Oliver's new cookbook which I can't wait to dive into! Full meals in 30 minutes you say? I'll be testing that one!:)

And I'm currently reading Stephen Fry's wife's diary.
Very entertaining altogther! Nearly finished, so I can get stuck into the many luscious books I've been gathering from charity shops and the like. Oh it's wonderful (at times) to be finished college and to be able to read for fun!:)

I'm thinking I might start book reviews on this too...

I'm so very busy, but I shall try my utmost to update more frequently! I hope all is equally as lovely in your life!

...Cat just brought me in tea and an ice cream. Win.

Love love love to you all,
L xx

50th post with cake to celebrate!

2010-08-12T22:23:00.010+01:00

I'm really quite proud to be on my 50th post! Wowee! And to celebrate here is a most fabulous cake that is quickly becoming my new favorite.
I made it yesterday for tea with my Lovely Auntie Kathleen and quilting mad cousin Cathy! I made two loaf shaped ones today for my stupendous Caitlin who is back from Belarus with her lovely boyfriend Luke, so I'm bringing that down to them tomorrow! Yay!

It's called a Hummingbird Cake; 'interesting', I hear you say. It is! It's in that Women's Weekly 100 Classic Cakes book I got a few weeks back.
Now, it really doesn't look very nice in the tin:

but that's mostly due to using oil rather than butter I think.

The icing you make for it is like the icing for a carrot cake, and so is DELISH. Icing is a problem for me... I think my teeth are starting to tell me to go easy...

It turned out very well, I must say! I was a bit cautious making it cos the ingredients seemed a bit strange to me- pineapple, banana, ginger, cinnamon, coconut (which I didn't have, so it's not in this version) etc! But it's soooo good. A tad crumbly, but fabulous.

nom nom nom...

Another perk of it is that you only need like 2 bowls to make it- so minimal clean up! I've made a few little changes that I did while making it.
Give it a go- it's incredibly yummy and we'll say sorta healthy with all the fruit in it;)

Hummingbird Cake
serves 12

450g can crushed pineapple in syrup
150g plain flour
75g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
220g firmly packed brown sugar
40g desiccated coconut
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 large ones)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
180ml sunflower oil

cream cheese frosting
30g butter, softened
60g cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
240g icing sugar
(I also added about 2 tbsp of milk just to make it easier to spread)

- Preheat the oven to 180C fan assisted. Grease a deep 23cm square tin. Line the base.
- Cut up the pineapple rings and smush them for juice.
Or just make sure you save 60ml from the tin.
- Sift flours, soda, spices and sugar into a large bowl. Stir in the pineapple, reserved syrup, coconut, banana, egg and oil.
- Pour mixture into tin; bake for 40 minutes.
- Stand cake for 5 minutes in tin before turning, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool.
- While it's cooling, make the frosting: Beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla in a small bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually add in the sifted icing sugar.
- Smear the cake with frosting and tuck in.

When Mom and I returned home from our tea date, we were excitedly brainstorming a few ideas for a crafts/ baking charity fundraiser... I'll keep you posted!
I'm tres excited to say the very least!

In other news- my darling Sarah Griffin (last seen here making Rainbow Cakes) has joined the blogging world ahead of her Masters adventure! Catch her here: Write the Title Last
Milk and Cookies Round Nine is also on tomorrow night! Goooooo to it!

I have a few more things to put up, but I am rather tired and have buses ahead of me tomorrow, so I'll post them after my exciting weekend!

Mwah!x

Peanut Butter and Fudge Cookies. Nom.

2010-08-01T20:06:00.007+01:00

The other day Siob came home from our cousin's and with her she had 3 boxes with fudge white chocolate and milk chocolate. Yum! These came in handy as I wanted to bake cookies and found a recipe for the above mentioned!

We always have peanut butter here in the house, and just so happened to have the fudge, so all systems were go!

They were quite yummy and not as heavy or sweet as you might expect. Mom was a bit wary when she heard what was in them, but she agreed that they're pretty good!

It's an American recipe, but the quantities aren't very big, so you should be okay! Let me know if you need a hand!

milk and cookies, always a win!

Peanut Butter and Fudge Cookies

makes about 16 nice size ones

4 tbsp butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth is best)

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 large egg

3/4 plain flour

a handful of diced fudge

Oven to 180C/ 350F

-Cream the butter and sugar.

-Add the peanut butter and vanilla. I recommend you have a sneaky taste right about now...

-Add the baking soda and salt, and then whip in the egg.

-Add the flour and then the fudge pieces.

-Drop the mixture onto a piece of baking parchment on a tray. They don't spread too much, so you should be able to fit at least 12 on a tray.

balls of cookie dough!

-Bake for 15 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!x

Competition Coffee Cake

2010-07-30T18:30:00.007+01:00

Today is the judging for the Virginia Show, so Mom, Siob and I are going down to drop our things in. I made the coffee cake earlier and realised I never put up the recipe for it!

It's really nice (well, the last time I made it it was, I can't cut this one and taste it!), and pretty simple, so you should give it a go!

They want it undecorated sadly, so that's why mine is lacking some nice coffee cream, but I'll add the recipe here:)

Mocha Cake

(serves 10-12)

175g self-raising flour

50g cocoa powder

225g soft light brown sugar

175g butter, melted

4 medium eggs, separated

60ml very strong coffee, cooled

3 tbsp water

Coffee Butter Icing

100g butter, softened

200g icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp milk/water

3-4 tbsp cooled very strong coffee

- Preheat the oven to 190C/ 375F/ Gas Mark 5. Oil and line a 13 x 23cm loaf tin with parchment paper so that it comes over the sides of the tin.

- Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a large bowl, add the sugar and stir to combine.

- Using a wooden spoon or whisk, beat in the melted butter, egg yolks, coffee and water until smooth.

- Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until fairly stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the cake mixture in 3 batches. Make sure there are no white lumps left!

- Turn the mixture into the loaf tin and smooth the surface. Make a small well in the center so that the cake bakes level and doesn't crack! (You'll see from my photo I forgot to do this!)

- Bake in the oven for 35 mins, then reduce the temperature to 160C/ 325F/ Gas mark 3 for the last 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

- Allow the cake to cool for 10mins then lift out by the parchment paper and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

- Make the icing. Beat the butter until very soft and paling. Add the sugar, then milk/water, and then add the coffee.

- When the cake is cold, remove the paper and cut the cake horizontally and spread about a third of the icing on the lower half with a palette knife. Place the other half of the cake on top and put the remainder of the icing on it. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings or chocolate sprinkles, which I like to use!

- Leave it to stand for about 30mins before cutting. If you can wait that long.

(This also makes 12 cupcakes at 190C/ 375F/ Gas Mark 5 for 15mins.)

Yum! x

Cross Stitched Apron Cupcakes!

2010-07-30T00:01:00.006+01:00

I wanted to put this in a separate post, though while I said goodnight in the last one, I'm seriously going after this one!
My Mom is quite the wizard at cross stitching and is even entering her cross stitched Zac Efron cushion she made Siob for, as you might guess, best cross stitched item at the Virginia Show. Seeing as I am incredibly slow on the crochet/ knitting uptake, I have decided that the next few presents I have lined up to make are going to be cross stitched.
Cos I can do that. I just need Mom to help me start it (all that finding the midpoint etc).
Recently she cross stitched cupcakes onto a plain white apron for her friend's daughter Maeve who would always be baking something in preparation for her Junior Cert Home Ec practical when Mom was over. I think it's really pretty, so took a photo of it to post here! I just made her a little card too to go with it.

Next stop: a cross stitched bookmark for a darling dear.

Sidenote: I am more than delighted that my laptop is now completely fixed and I can work so much faster on it!

Thank you Mr. Doug Computer Man for fixing it, you lovely man you.

I hope your day was nothing short of lovely, my dears.
And now I must sleep. x

LJ's bag- at long last!

2010-07-29T23:09:00.014+01:00

This birthday present for Lovely LJ took me far too long- again with the fear of cutting the material and then ruining the whole project before it has even begun! I had never made a bag before in any shape or size, so to be honest, it was a guessing game the whole way!
I had an idea of the shape and style I wanted it to be, so started there. I also had the problem of deciding on a fastener for the bag... I was perplexed as to how I would put a zip on it properly, so I thought I'd cheat a little...
I put velcro on the inside and a big button on the front.

Okay, so you can clearly tell the button is just for decoration, but it was the best I could do!
I lined the bag with a black shirt I don't wear (don't worry LJ, it was freshly laundered!) and made a pretty sizable attempt at a gusset for the bag to give it some dimension.

making the strap for the bag

To me it was still too plain and needed something else, so I got some black felt for it and embroidered a rather stumpy looking bird.

By the way- embroidering on felt is very sore on the fingers. Beware!
But it looks cool. I added some buttons for 'food' for the bird, but also cos buttons look groovy.
I sewed three sides of the felt, so it serves as a phone pocket.
Or whatever LJ wants to put in it.

a headless Siob modelling the finished product

When I eventually got down to it and made the bag, it was relatively quick and easy to make!
Watch out you lot- it could be bags for everyone this Christmas.

Oh- and before I go, you may know my love of polar bears, so here is my new (still nameless) friend. He's been keeping me company:

And now I must retreat to my bed and read the Gary Lightbody interview in HotPress.
Sweet dreams!x

Little snippets of various things!

2010-07-23T17:07:00.008+01:00

Hey there! The 69th annual Virginia Show is coming up, and with prizes for some of my favorite things to do, I'm entering some photos and a coffee cake! I'm really hoping I win with at least one photo, I'm entering five, though I've to wittle them down cos I'm finding it difficult to choose the entry ones!
I went up to the attic to get my very first camera to show you- I got it when I was about 5 years old and it has a two eyes visor which is strange! I could always use it properly, but it confused my Mom. Maybe it has something to do with how kids use their brain...I have no idea.

My how my cameras have advanced!:P

Also up in the attic is my first computer/laptop!
I must ask my parents what age I was when I got it, I really am not sure, possibly 7. If I stuck batteries in it it would probably work better than my one now...really should send that into the computer doc...It's so funny looking, but brilliant to still have I think, so I thought I'd stick it up here too!

But until July 31st which is when the Virginia Show is on, I thought I'd post this up! Hopefully with happy results:)

Tomorrow night I will be at Sarah Griffin and Lisa Keegan's round two of Scarleh Fer Yer Mah Fer Havin' Ya in Ormond Studios for a night of mortification a la teenage diary entries! The first night was a fantastic success and tomorrow should be even better! I think I'm going to be reading, so we'll see how that goes! I recently rounded up all my diaries from their various spots around the house and they're quite the stack!

Ignore The Book Thief, that's clearly not one of my diaries...

And also a taster of the birthday present I've been working on for LJ...please ignore the stumpy-ness of the bird...

Love!x

Devil's Food Cake! Ooooh!

2010-07-22T19:57:00.017+01:00

A few posts ago I made Angel Food Cake for my Mom, and today I whipped out the cookbook again to make its counterpart for me! It really is just a chocolate cake with a few extra additions, such as my new friend food dye! It has a little bit of red dye in it which I know is in a red velvet cake that I really want to make soon!

It called for whipped cream, but my little country shop only had fresh cream, so I had to make do with that! I also added a little bit of strawberry jam between the layers and some chopped nuts to the top. Yum! Mary G called over to have some with tea and she enjoyed a big wedge and brought some home too:)

The birthday present I've been working on can finally be posted after the weekend as I'll have given it to a lovely friend at long last!
I've been scouring crafty blogs for ideas for my sewing box bits and listening to Tired Pony. It's quite a wonderful way to spend your time.
I've spotted a pair of beautiful key earrings on Etsy that I want, so I might purchase them tomorrow! I believe you should always get yourself little treats;)

Devil's Food Cake!
180g butter
385g caster sugar
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour
75g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
70g cocoa powder
3 teaspoons instant coffee granules
125ml water
125ml milk
1/2 tsp red food coloring
300ml whipping cream, whipped

rich chocolate frosting
60g dark eating chocolate. chopped
60g butter, chopped

-Pre-heat the oven to 170C. Grease and line bases of two 20cm round cake tins.
-Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs, one at a time.
-Fold in sifted flours, soda and cocoa powder with combined ocffee, the water, milk and coloring, in two batches.
-Pour mixture into tins; bake for 40 minutes. Stand for 5 minutes before turning cakes onto wire racks to cool.
-Make the frosting!
-Sandwich the cold cakes with whipped cream, then top with frosting:)

For the frosting:
Combine the chocolate and butter in a small heatproof bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water, stir until smooth, then remove from the heat.
Cool at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until frosting is spreadable.

Enjoy!x

2am Rainbow Cakes!

2010-07-21T18:34:00.013+01:00

This, my friends, is a rainbow cake.
I highly recommend you bake them at 2am with an incredible friend such as Griffin and eat them at a silly hour of the night with a decaf tea. You don't want to be kept up past your bedtime or anything like that...
It was Griffin's idea to make them rainbow and I can honestly say I will never make a plain bun again.
All you do is whizz up the normal cupcake/fairy cake recipe (I have a stupendous new one I'll add in at the end), divide it between as many bowls as you have food colors, and add a few drops of the color to each. Into each paper casing you place a little bit of each colored mixture.
Don't blend them!
Looks a bit like Playdoh here...
Then pop them in the oven to bake, allow to cool, then top with some vanilla buttercream.

Oh my oh my.
The inside of them resemble those gobstoppers you would suck on for weeks as a child, though these won't cut your tongue, simply give you the same sugar rush at the end of it.

New Cupcake Recipe!
(Makes 48 mini cupcakes, 24 bun sizes, or 12 muffins/cupcakes).

90g butter
175ml milk
tsp of vanilla essence
3 eggs
200g caster sugar
210g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

-Cream the butter (which I always warm gently in the microwave first) and sugar and vanilla.
-Then add the eggs, one at a time, and beat after each.
-Add the milk, then sieve in the dry ingredients.
-Bake in the oven at 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for 13 minutes and allow to cool before icing. Use the vanilla buttercream from an earlier post and bam, rainbow cakes.

You will never look back.

The fun with food dye didn't end there!
Nope, at breakfast we made blue blueberry pancakes! Just add a few drops, swirl it gently and fry it up.

It doesn't add any taste, merely looks pretty. However, the new cupcake recipe is fantastic!
So go add some food dye to your food! Yay!

New life for an old skirt!

2010-07-19T00:53:00.007+01:00

Hey there! Some late night sewing going on here! Just finished this, and now I'm off to make a birthday present!
I got this skirt from one of my cousins about five years ago and because I never throw away things for fear that I may one day need it, I decided I'd give it a facelift!

The skirt initially had a thin, hidden elasticated waistband with a teeny black bow and was below-knee in length. It was a bit frumpy and quite plain to be honest, so first of all, I took my scissors to it and made it to just above-knee.

my new skirt!

I found the elastic in my sewing box that I'd forgotten Laura K gave me for my 21st (where would my crafting endeavours be without her?!) and decided I'd stick it on to the top after I chopped off the waistband.

old waistband

It looked a bit 'blah' with just this, so I took out the olive green ribbon I had intended for another project (which I royally ruined tonight, so I'm currently trying to think of a crafty way to salvage it) and sewed it onto the bottom hem. While I was finishing things off, Siob was messing with the rest of it and made a lovely bow out of it, and so to bring in the green a bit more (there's only hints of it in the pattern) and more dimensions to the skirt, I stitched it onto the waistband with one stitch also on each loop to stop it from drooping forward.

b ows win

I'm thinking about wearing it out Saturday with a black vest top for my birthday, but it's not what I had in mind (it was the currently stalled project), so I'll see how the mood takes me and if I get a source of divine craft inspiration by Friday night!

Angel Food Cake

2010-07-15T20:28:00.004+01:00

Oh I'm seriously starting to neglect things these days! I made this cake about 2 weeks ago now and I'm only posting it now! Eep.
I was in the wonderful bookshop By The Book in Virginia with the Fam one day and got the Australian Women's Weekly 100 Classic Cakes cookbook which was a steal at €8 and is full of cakes I didn't even know about, such as this one. Mom had a flick through in the car and when she saw it said "You're making this when we get home".
Which I did.
She had it years ago in NY and has dreamt about it since, apparently. It's a funny kind of cake- it has 12 egg whites (no joke) with pretty much a sprinkling of flour, cornflour, a good bit of sugar and some vanilla.
It's a bit sweet and sticky. It recommends having fresh berries with it, so i chopped some strawberries and blueberries to have with it. Some of the Fam found it too sweet which meant Mom had a cake for herself that lasted days in the house of locusts.

Guest Slot- my sis Siob!

2010-06-29T21:22:00.005+01:00

My sis Siob has become quite the wizard in the world of baking and often easily whips up a batch of buns when the notion takes her. Last week she made delicious muffins, so I asked her would she like to write a post for me! So here's Siob!
I like baking cos it's fun. Laura had some apple pieces left from her apple streusel and I put them into some muffins and I still had some left after that so I made an apple sauce to go with them. I put lemon, sugar and apples into the blender then I whizzed them up and served it in egg cups with the muffins and voila!
They were perfectly moist and the apples were mushy. We ate them warm with some tea and the sauce was really nice with them, even if it was a bit lemony.
The end.
Siobhan.

Cardmaking!

2010-06-29T21:05:00.007+01:00

Whenever I give a present, I always make a card for the person! I just love personalising things like that:) I've been meaning to put these up for ages, so there are quite a few! They're for various friends and family. However, I'm running low in supplies which means one thing- a craft shopping trip must happen soon! It puts shopping for new stationary for school firmly in second position in the Best Kind Of Shopping Expedition!

Apple Streusel

2010-06-29T20:35:00.008+01:00

Last Sunday we had extra family over for dinner, so of course I took this as an opportunity to go all out and make a fabulous Sunday dinner spread! For the starter I decided I'd make a fruit mix, so I had raspberries, strawberries, grapes and blueberries. Dad got a roast beef (not my favorite of meats, so I make an extra effort to make it really tender and yummy) for the main course, then I stocked up on loads of fresh veg for it also. I love loads of colors in a dinner, so I had about five different veg for the dinner! Baby corn, sauted mushrooms and onions, carrots and string beans. Mmm.

The night before I made the dessert- we had cooking apples in the house and I found an Apple Struesel recipe, so I whipped that up! It was delicious! I served it with a little bit of wonderful vanilla ice cream and it went down an absolute treat! I added raisins to the mix to jazz it up a bit and just a sprinkling of chopped nuts on the crumble. I take it as a good sign when there are no leftovers and safe to say Magnum didn't get any that day:)

Cakes for a Memorial Night

2010-06-29T17:58:00.008+01:00

About two weeks ago (I'm so behind...) I went to the St. Clare's Orphanage Fire Memorial in Cavan. I'm on the committee and at one of the meetings whilst trying to organise the event, told the others I'd bake for it as some other women were making sandwiches and we'd have tea and coffee, so of course one would need some cake. I baked a bunch of cupcakes and made 2 cakes also. Needless to say they didn't last very long with near 400 people there on the night, but they went down very well! A lady asked me do I do wedding cakes... I said I don't and she said I should! Madness. They might taste nice, but I have an awful long way to go before I'm anywhere near that standard!:D

Here are some pics of the goodies! I made a plain buttercream sponge cake with Mini Smarties on top and in the bundt cake I added defrosted berries. You can get a great bag of them in Aldi and you just need to defrost them a few hours before you need them! Incredibly handy!:)

I also used a different buttercream recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook that I got one day in the library! Oh it's so incredible! It's American in style, such as recommending that you use what would be muffin cases over here for cupcakes, not the bun ones. They're much better that big as I see cupcakes as a dessert style food anyway, if they're decorated well and provide at least 4 mouthfuls:)

Vanilla Buttercream:
250g icing sugar, sifted
80g unsalted butter at room temperature
25ml whole milk
a couple of drops of vanilla essence

-Cream it all together. I dare you to try and not eat this from the bowl with your fingers...

Presents for Jo!

2010-06-28T20:07:00.018+01:00

Okay, so a few weeks back I said I had recently made a new present, but I couldn't post it until I gave it, and now I can! Over the weekend I went to my darling Jo's and gave it to her- an apron:) Jo has recently been baking a bit (see her on Jen's baking blog over there-> )and I thought it would be cool to make her one. I measured my brother Conor (he's a little taller than Jo and closer to her height than me) for the apron and set about making it! I thought it would also be cool to put Jo's name on it and personalise it that little bit more, so I put a little bit of wadding behind a piece of cream material to puff it out a little and stitched Jo's name, then I also made her a little card cos I like making those too!:)

Here are some snaps of the apron and the cookies- the chocolate on top of the cookies isn't supposed to be there, I threw in the extra squares after baking and they melted...though it could work out well if I intend to add it the next time!
Sorry it's late Jo- you know what Cavan does to your life! <3

Flat Lake Festival!

2010-06-14T21:25:00.007+01:00

Our little cake stand
So...this is over a week late! Es tut mir leid!
Last Sunday Slacke and I were at the Flat Lake Festival in Monaghan, selling cakes at the Cafe Sessions! However, before I get cracking on that, we must first pay homage to the late night spent in the Slacke kitchen the night before!. Bed was sometime around 3am and Denise had been baking all day. I baked the cakes of my batch (sans decorations) Friday night and sealed them up, packed up with the decorations I was bringing for the cake area of the tent as well as more baking stuff. I then made some funny looking cupcakes at work and brought them with me too...
The night before

Coco the amazing dog kept us company during the hours spent baking and decorating and general kitcheny activities and even stole a krispie cake for herself along the way. Hilarity ensued when Denise ran out to give out to her:D Come bedtime, Denise and I were so tired, we didn't even get to say goodnight to one another...
The wonderful Tom drove us the relatively short distance to Clones the following morning, boot filled with goodies, tea & coffee dispensers and laps carefully navigating the bendy roads and moving trays of cupcakes accordingly. At the festival, I got a lift with most of our stuff (poor Denise & Tom carried cupcake trays and a few other things!) via a quad and little trailer...my heart sank when I saw that that was how our cakes and delicate coffee equipment were being transported to the site! The drive was steep and bumpy, but thanks to my crafty driver, all was delivered intact! The day saw us entertained by Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies, Henrietta Game, The Amazing Few and Riona Sally Hartman (links below!) who were my favorite acts! We had fun chatting to and feeding the Wellies and Harry and we even got the song Beard Snood dedicated to us later that night (it's about baking!) and I got to play the cymbal for the wonderful Wellies as well! Wooooo! It was also the first time I got to actually make money on what I've baked and Slacke & moi are very happy about that:)

All in all, it was a great day and Griffin and Ceri even came back to Slacke's with us that night! We stayed up much too late considering we were all shattered (especially poor Ceri!), but it was such a fun time.
I'm just going to post links here for you so you can have a little listen to the amazing musicians our ears were graced with for hours on end:)
A super big thank you to Mr Tom who drove us there and back! Stupendous man altogether.
Riona Sally Hartman
Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies
Henrietta Game
If they were a three legged dog, I'd like to be their third wellie <3
Playing the cymbal and wearing my new skirt!

Lori Skirt for the Flat Lake Festival

2010-06-04T20:53:00.014+01:00

It's been a while! Oops. But I've been keeping busy, so I guess that's a good thing!:)
Last night I made a skirt! Wooo! A proper one! With lining and a zip!
(But no pattern as such. Don't tell Nana.)
I've had this material since my 21st and have been too scared to cut it incase I ruined it, so at long last I did. I knew I wanted to make a flared skirt with it, waist high. So I laid out a skirt I already had similar in style and drew it out on an old sheet so I could have a practice run. The practice run went accordingly, so I finally used the lovely material Laura K got me. It was quite the Lori evening as I had on the mixed cd she made me, was using the material she got me and was contemplating the buttons she gave me...

Anyhoodle, I happened to have a zip I bought last summer, so I added it to the side and sewed all up! It's quite cute and I've named it the Lori Skirt after the lovely Kavanagh gal in my life. I had a little bit left over, so I made a sash tie put of it that I tie at the top of it and it doubles as a hair tie.
Here are some snaps of it! I'm going to the Flat Lake Festival on Sunday, so I'll wear it then with a white blouse:)
Last week I sewed something new too, but it's a present, so I can't put it up until I give it!:)

Rachel's Rustic Bacon & Cheddar Bread

2010-05-25T00:33:00.005+01:00

This evening I was at my brother's Leaving Cert Graduation Mass and in the car home, reflecting on the lovely encouraging words of his principal, I got The Fear. For many, that Fear might be when you think you're at death's door from a hangover, but it also works for that sense of complete dread and bewilderment you might get regarding what the hell you're going to do with your life. As well as the immediate future. So when I got in the door, I decided I'd bake. Obviously.
I took out Rachel Allen's Bake book (at this rate I imitate that movie Julie & Julia and see if I can make all of Rachel's recipes) and decided I'd try some bread. Since I don't have yeast or buttermilk in the house, I was quite limited, so I tried the bacon and cheddar bread. Oh my wow it's yummy. And stupidly easy to make. It sounds strange, having bacon and cheese in bread, rather than on it, but it's soooo good. It says it's a good served with soup or just with butter, so I dished it out with a bit of butter to my parents with some tea and coffee when it was ready and joined them in sitting back and watching some girl try and make her dream of creating a B&B a reality on More4. The Fear had subsided. But only slightly.

Burgers for this amazing summer weather!

2010-05-24T02:47:00.005+01:00

Technically this isn't like the rest of my posts, but there is a bit of baking involved! Plus they were so yummy it'd be silly not to put them up! This weekend the weather was just beautiful- everyone had their pasty white skin out on show, hoping to take the glare off it with some color. Well I know that was my intention today anyway! I made burgers yesterday for the family, my uncle and my little cousins who were up for the weekend. I used our loved Jamie Oliver recipe for the burgers from his book The Return of the Naked Chef. Then Mom made her potato salad and we all tucked in. Jamie says to bake the burgers, but I find if you quickly fry them for a few minutes, until they're about half cooked, then cover them in foil on a baking tray, it stops them crumbling. Put the oven to 200 degrees C and bake for about 15 minutes to finish them off. Here's a link to the recipe someone else posted online. Maybe I'm just lazy, but I don't add the cumin or coriander seeds, though I do add a sprinkling of mixed herbs. I highly recommend these! They're incredibly simple and sooo tasty:)
Jamie's Botham Burgers

Trying out my new baking equipment!

2010-05-24T02:08:00.005+01:00

I also baked butter cookies the other day for a tea day we were having with Marion (before she left for France) in Cat's which has become my second home! I used the new cookie cutters the girls got me in my bag of goodies last week, so we had cookies shaped like cars, hands, snails, camels and stars! I also made jam sandwich ones with some chocolate which always go down well:) These cookies are just so yummy I'm going to put up the recipe; it's from a cookbook I got from my old school in NY and it's the one I always use for butter cookies- it's foolproof:)

1/4 lb. margarine
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C. Cream the marg and sugar together, then add the egg. Add in the dry ingredients and blend. Then add about 2 tablespoons of water and scrunch all together with your hands. Turn onto a well floured surface, roll out and cut. Place on a baking tray with grease proof paper and bake for 10 minutes.
Result: soft, fabulous cookies:)

Another (but slightly different) coffee cake

2010-05-24T01:49:00.005+01:00

Early last week I was going to a BBQ birthday party with Conor, hosted by the dears Natalie & Brid who are the darlings behind the Two Knit Wits blog (link over there-> ) and I thought I'd bake for them, of course. However, I tried a new coffee cake recipe and while it looks okay, I'm not sure about the coffee topping! I don't recommend trying a new cake the night before you give it to someone...the nerves if you aren't really happy with it!:S The topping is a chocolate/coffee thing? I think I added too much coffee and maybe that's why I'm not fond of the taste, but I hope the girls liked it! The cake is quite nice with raisins and chopped walnuts in it which the other coffee cake didn't have, though I think I'll add them in future and use the Rachel Allen coffee cream. They both told me they like coffee cake and Brid hugged me when she saw the walnuts on top, so I'm hoping it went down well!:)
BTW- the BBQ party was spectacular <3

I have no words.

2010-05-15T22:25:00.005+01:00

I actually don't. Language is ineffective a lot of the time, I find.

On Tuesday we had summer farewell drinks in Bakers as a class with some of our super cool lecturers. The girls had been acting suspiciously for a few days and were telling me they knew something I didn't... I found out in Bakers that this little thing was that for weeks Griffin had been orchestrating a round up to get me presents for being rep for the past four years! They presented me with a bag of what can only be described as amazingness. There was baking stuff, wall stickers, a beautiful notebook, a super cool clip that's a little hat, a fabulous scarf, earrings, a purse, then a voucher for MAC in Brown Thomas. Like, woah. And yes, I cried just like they thought I would. Lisa drew a card for me too which is beyond fantastic and the class wrote lovely little notes for me and it's now on my mantlepiece here at home. They also got Dave gifts for being my partner in crime. See- sheer amazingness.

Then on Friday I met Laura for tea who gave me even more presents, this time from my 3rd year palaroos. This included tea, chocolate, a notebook, a cupcake apron, and then the most beautiful scrapbook started by Laura and with many pages left for me to fill. I adore it.
I just had to post this because I'm just gobsmacked by it all. I really do have the most wonderful people in my life.
And THEN, last night I got an email from the Snow Patrol mailing list that Gary Lightbody's side project has an album coming out July 12th.
Oh yes.
Here's a taster for Tired Pony. I'm stupidly excited. The happiness just keeps growing!
Tired Pony- I Finally Love This Town

Yum for the O'Mahonys

2010-05-15T21:36:00.005+01:00

Due to all the funness that happened this week, I was staying a few nights at the wonderful O'Mahony residence with my darling Cat:) I thought I'd bake for them, but having used nearly all the sugar in the house, I was severely limited late on Monday night. I decided I'd make scones as I haven't made them since school I think it is, and got the recipe (scones are so basic though, the recipe is pretty much the same everywhere) in a cookbook Mom got on the cheap called Grandma's Best Recipes. It was a plain recipe, so I added raisins (it suggested 50g of dried fruit, but that equals about three raisins per scone, so I gave a good shake of the bag into the mix) and cinnamon for extra yumminess. They turned out quite lovely, but I need to get a pastry brush so I can brush the tops of them pre-baking and also add more cinnamon. But all in all, they were a hit:) Next time though, it's a coffee cake for them. They deserve it.

Cawfee Cake

2010-05-15T21:00:00.004+01:00

Oops, it's been a while! I'll blame it on the fun I've been having since wrapping up college! Ooooh! Scary times. But thrilling at the same time. Madame Zwerner was over here last Saturday for a little Cavan trip before she heads back to France. She wanted to bake which I of course agreed to, so being the little French gal that she is with her coffee and smokes, I thought a coffee cake would be fitting! I spell it 'cawfee' above because of my Mom's pronunciation...
Anyway, so we made a delicious coffee cake from Rachel Allen's Bake book which has been providing me with loads to do lately! The cake was just fabulous and really moist, which is what I think is due to the egg being separated and added at different times in the cake mixing... I didn't make it too strong with the coffee cos I don't really like it, but by golly did this cake taste wonderful. We topped it off with some coffee buttercream, chocolate sprinkles and a sprinkling of icing sugar. Mmm:)

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

2010-05-04T01:21:00.008+01:00

Today I had a tea party with the Donegal lassies, Molly, Aoife and Anne as well as Siobhan and Sarah K and so last night I baked some oatmeal and raisin cookies for them from Rachel Allen's Bake. They looked all scrumptious on the tray, and following her instructions, I didn't line the tray. If you're doing similar, please line your tray. I always do since the Birthday Cake Tragedy of '09 (see earlier post) but Rachel told me not to, so I listened. They crumbled and broke when I tried to take them off, but luckily I hadn't put all the cookies on the one tray, so I was okay. They went down a treat as did Siobhan's mommy Joan's Swiss Roll sans cream as Siobhan doesn't like it...so it was a jam sponge roll:) I've still to try a roll, so maybe I'll get onto that soon! Here are some snaps from the day. And as you know, I love tea parties, and I love the girls, so it was definitely a lovely few hours well spent:)

Recipe for a superbly splendid Saturday morning!

2010-05-03T22:51:00.005+01:00

Last weekend I took Saturday off work and was left with my first free Saturday morning in years. So I thought I'd make an event of it and make a yummy breakfast. The family were going to Galway and so Conor, Magnum and I were in the house all by our lonesome. I made some pancakes and bacon after a wonderous sleep-in and since our sleep-ins saw us get up quite late, we'd missed early morning cartoons and decided instead we'd watch a movie with a fancy breakfast scene. Since Matilda wouldn't work (she makes pancakes at the start) we decided on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (they have a cool breakfast making machine) which reminded me of the greatness that is Dick van Dyke. What a man. So all in all, it was a great Saturday morning!

All you need to replicate this is:
1 dessert spoon of a sleep-in
2 lazy heads
1 characterful dog (preferably named after a moustached detective)
A minimum of 3 toppings (such as Nutella, lemon & sugar, maple syrup)
1 large, comfy couch
1 well worn and loved armchair
1 tea pot
A sprinkling of belly crunching laughs
-Throw them all in together and bon appetite!

Now if only I could find a Mon-Fri job, I could do these much more often... This Saturday however (yah for two in a row!), I'll be making them at Cat's in Bray if you would like to join us:)

Guessing Game of Brownie Baking

2010-05-02T23:22:00.004+01:00

Conor B said to me one day that he'd like to learn how to bake...I happen to lurve it, and he loves brownies, so we decided we'd bake them.
Win win.
I brought Jamie Oliver's recipe for them and arrived at his house, ready to bake up a storm. However, I discovered that his Mom has things like flour and baking powder in clear containers with no labels (she knows what's in them, but not I!) so we decided we'd have a guessing game of baking! I wasn't sure what flour we were using which was quite vital, but we guessed correctly! I also didn't put the temperature high enough, so they cooked slowly and turned out quite gooey, but everyone has enjoyed them! Builders and family alike! And we did. Had some tea and gooey brownies and it was super:)

They make me happy!

2010-04-27T00:28:00.014+01:00

After a thoroughly lovely evening and with another on the way tomorrow, I just wanted to put up things that make me happy/ things I would like (because they would increase my happiness to a ridiculous magnitude).
Some of these I have, others not just yet.

1) A ceiling bubble chair. Not sure why. Maybe because it's part swing (but indoors!), part comfy coolness. I'm in talks with Pops to get one put in the attic ("you need a beam to stick it into") so here's hoping my pestering works!

2) Coloring books and crayons. I find it quite relaxing and who doesn't love a brand new jumbo pack of crayons with that little built in sharpener at the side and a crisp, black and white coloring book, just waiting for the color to be spilled onto? Mmm.

3) Labs. Maybe cos I've had two I'm a bit biased. However, I don't really like pure breds cos they get a bit fat. My guys (big up to Shadow and Magnum) have been nice mixed breeds. Sooo cute.

4) Tea parties. Because at a tea party you have great company, tea pots, many cakes, floral dresses and chats. They can go on for hours. I'll just blame Mr. Lewis for getting me hooked on the idea from a young age before I even drank the stuff, merely pretended to with my kitchen set and delph tea set.

5)Pretty fabric. Oh the possibilities! Skirts, dresses, drawstring bags for a present you've made a friend, a soft cover for a notebook, etc. But not for patchwork quilting like my Mom and cousins. That is far too headachy for my liking.

6) A VW van. No, I definitely don't have one of these yet, but in time I will. Deliveries from my bakery will be brought to your door in one of these fellows. Plus they cry out to be brought on a trip. I will have stepped up a gear in terms of tenting when I get one of these! This photo is incredibly similar to the clock I have from Siobhan T.

7) Notebooks. I have many of these, filled with events which have happened since I was 8 years old and I love getting a new one and collaging it.
Note to all: If I die before you, please burn them and don't do what Virginia Woolf's pals did and publish them. I will act vengeance from beyond the grave.

8) James McAvoy. Definitely one I do not have as he belongs to the lovely Anne Marie Duff and they're having a baby soon. But I can still dream and swoon.

9) Themed days/ evenings. Like tonight I had one of the long standing traditions of a Dominos Night with Jo. Our usual half and half pizza was ordered and we watched with anticipation as people walked by the gate, hoping it was a man in a motorcycle helmet laden with boxes and a brown bag containing our drinks.
Also, I like to assign pretty days when I feel in need of a pick me up. This will usually involve a floral skirt with colorful tights, a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I don't have a snap of any of these really, so I'll just be cheeky and put a photo of a girl from lookbook who I quite like.

10) Love. Cos it's wonderful and love, actually, is all around <3

Feathery Fudge Cake

2010-04-26T14:29:00.009+01:00

Did some baking there at the weekend!
Why I am stating that like it's an unusual event, I don't know. Go with it.
I didn't follow the recipe (more like I just didn't read it properly than me free styling it) accordingly, so it's not quite 'fudge'. I only added about half of the melted chocolate to the cake mix than I was suppossed to. I did add mixed nuts to the mix though which was pretty nice and went down well with the family. I tried to make that vanilla buttercream that I put on last week's bundt cake, but that was a failure to say the least. So I resorted to the tried and tested plain buttercream (no fanciness there, tempting failure) so I sandwiched it all together with it and placed some on top with chocolate sprinkles.
The recipe is quite simple and straight forward (when I read it properly) so I'll post it up here when I get back home as it's in one of Mom's old cookbooks. The cake was really soft and light, so it's quite easy to eat a sizeable wedge of it and not realise until it's too late... Love to you all! :)

Love Cake- A Baking Song

2010-04-23T13:13:00.008+01:00

Laura K posted this gem on my facebook page at the weekend, saying she feels it has been written for me...Needless to say, Siob and I sang it for the rest of the day while I baked for the class! These two girls are fab!
Look at them with their little ukulele and kazoos.
Loves it.
Click here: Love Cake-A Baking Song

Cake party pics from Lisa!

2010-04-23T13:00:00.006+01:00

The beautiful Lisa Keegan took photos the other day at the cake party in college, so I'm going to post them up! It was her birthday recently, the same for Sophie, so I made them larger chocolate chip cupcakes that you can see here. I am in love with Lisa's camera! Swoon.

Cake party a la EMCS

2010-04-20T20:27:00.019+01:00

Since we're in our last week of classes in IADT, I decided I'd bake for my superb class to express my love of them. So Sunday I spent hours just baking. Baking away, having a ball and watching Monster House for my Gothic and Horror essay. I multi-task. So I made a new cake in a bundt tin my Mom has (again with the great supply of baking equipment...), cookies and cupcakes. For the cakes I used the recipe for the best cupcakes in the world- some were plain, others chocolate with chocolate chips. There were about 40 cupcakes, the cake and a batch of cookies. (I'm wondering can I buy cake boxes online, because all I can usually find that fit the cakes are shoeboxes!)
Needless to say, we had our fill of cake by the end of the day!

For the cake I tried a new vanilla buttercream and if Griffin's face is anything to go by, it was pretty good:) I added raspberries to the middle and top and sprinkled melted chocolate over it. It made a change from my usual 'there must be a high level of chocolate'. Okay, there was chocolate drizzled over it, but that doesn't count... Siobhan brought in buns her lovely mother Joan made which were rather divine and had a surprise jam centre. We had a lovely time tea-ing it up with many cakes to munch on.
By golly, I'm going to miss you guys x
(I wish the photos would upload in the order I want them in...but no.)

Oh the loveliness. There's so much of it!

2010-04-14T17:28:00.009+01:00

Last night I went along to the utterly delightful night of storytelling and cake/cookie eating in Temple Bar, Milk & Cookie Stories with a bunch of pal-aroos. At each event, people who attend enter their own baked goods into a little competition of sorts and the one chosen to be the yummiest gets a little prize. I didn't get to bake this month for it, however I was allowed to be one of the judges! My ticket didn't get chosen, but Conor's did and he let me have it:) After what can only be described as the most intense cookie tasting I have ever witnessed, the baker of the fabulous chocolate chip cookie was eventually picked (well done, elusive Jamie!).
If you haven't attended M&C yet- and many seem to have heard of it- go along next month. It is such an amazing way to spend your evening. A huge congrats to last night's MCs Sarah and Ceri who were both charming and endearing. Lucky for me, I get to see and indulge in Sarah much more often than once a month. Also to the storytellers who were incredible.
You can find out more info about Milk and Cookie Stories at
Milk and Cookies Website

This weekend is going to be filled with baking! Yay! For Monday I decided I'd have a little cake event for my amazing EMCS class, a last hurrah of sorts before we dive into our books once more for the final leg of our IADT journey. And for finishing our dissertations and the last of our college work:)
Also, with a bit of luck my brother will be out of the hospital once and for all and he has requested I make him an apple cake ("nice and moist please"), so I will be making that for him as well as hopefully recreating this shot.
Bancing (baking +dancing for you not in the know) for the win.

Procrastination Attempt #26457 (and that's just today)

2010-04-07T19:56:00.009+01:00

Rather than knuckle down and finally finish this bad boy of a dissertation once and for all, I thought I'd make some muffins. Just cos I suddenly had a craving for some. You know, cos I'm so near the end of the diss that surely it'll take only an hour when I sit down to actually do it...
Anyhoodle, so I decided I'd make apple and cinnamon ones. A recipe I found also called for raisins, so I threw them in too. Why not. They were scrumptious along with a cup of tea and the finishing off of Browning's Dracula. Nom.
Basic Muffin Recipe
(it's an American recipe, so is in cups! Sorry!)
Makes 10-12 muffins.
1 3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup cooking oil

-Oven to 200C.
-Combine the dry ingredients and make a well in the centre.
-Combine the egg, milk and oil, then add to the well.
-Stir together; it will be a little lumpy and that's fine!
-Fill the muffin cases 2/3 full, then bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Mini-Cakes. Oh the yummyness...

2010-03-28T15:27:00.007+01:00

One day in digs, Fiona gave me a cupcake her girls had baked and said that I had to taste them, that they were divine. I was wondering exactly how good a cupcake could really be, but then I tasted and knew! So last night I used the recipe for the best cupcakes in the world and made mini-cakes with it. My mom has a strangely large collection of baking equipment for someone who doesn't do an awful lot of it past New York Cheesecakes. Maybe she foresaw the craic Siob and I would get up to.
So anyway, I took out these teeny round tins and one shaped like a teddy bear that I remember featuring on my brother's 2nd birthday cake (which Mom did make) and made cakes! Oh so many mini-cakes! I initially planned to put buttercream on them and decorate them elaborately, but because Siob made cupcakes during the week, there was no icing sugar left in the house...So instead I filled the centres of them with jam, them poured chocolate over them and then some had sprinkles or nuts. You can't see them jam in them, so Conor got a nice surprise when he bit into one. Others we then decorated in the style of Victorian sponges.
They. Taste. Beautiful.

5 Minute Chocolate Cake attempt

2010-03-28T15:06:00.010+01:00

One day last week, Griffin found a recipe on the internet-with accompanying photos of success- claiming to give you chocolate cake in a mug after 3 minutes in the microwave. I decided I had to try this because I was curious if 1) it would even work and 2) I could have chocolate cake pretty much on demand if it did.
So last night Siob and I rolled up our sleeves and gave it a go. We did all the recipe told us to and popped the mixture in the microwave.
Result: epic fail.
You have to let it sit for a few minutes until the cake is finished setting, but even after 5 minutes, it was still cooking. I popped it out and we tasted the top of it which, as my dad pointed out, tasted like rubber. It was far too tough for cake and then in the centre it had hardened like a rock.
So I think I'll be making chocolate cake the ol' fashioned way from now on... That girl and her charming piggy mug sooooo lied...
(I don't know why the photos are saving backwards in sequence...)

Choc Chip coooookies

2010-03-22T01:41:00.005Z

Oh it's been a while...plus I'm meant to be doing dissertation work which obviously means I'm procrastinating. Today saw me do noooo work, but instead bake chocolate chip and nut cookies. I made some for my fabulously wonderful digs lady Fiona for her birthday and put them in a bell jar I had with a little birthday tag. Little idea there for when I, one day, have my tea room.
Some more were for the family then as they complained that I was once again not baking for them, and more for a little movie night happening tomorrow:)
Cookies for all! Cos cookies are amazing. Especially warmed up and eaten with tea and chats. Mmm.

Chocolate Supreme Birthday Cupcakes for Sarah!

2010-03-09T16:25:00.005Z

It was super Sarah Kirk's birthday there at the weekend and so on Monday I brought in chocolate cupcakes for her. I know I said I'd do something Lady Gaga-esque, but due to a serious lack of writing icing in Cavan to enable me in my bows and lightning bolt decorating, I phoned Lady Gaga and she said her fave cupcakes are chocolate with loadsa icing, so I tried my best, so I guess that makes them somewhat linked to her Majesty Gaga.
I made incredibly chocolatey cupcakes for Sarah- chocolate cakes, a healthy dollop of chocolate butter cream, a dab of sprinkles and then melted chocolate sprinkled over the top for good measure.
Mouthfuls of sweet, glorious chocolate.
They went down very well in the canteen with copious amounts of tea and giggles. I made a birthday card then featuring Gaga herself, so there's that bit of Gaga incorporation... Love! <3

Jumper Cake for Oisin!

2010-02-26T01:47:00.005Z

I meant to post this on Monday, but time has flown and I've been manically trying to keep on top of things! But anyhoodle!
You read right, I made a jumper cake a la Mrs. Doyle. To an extent. Cos you can't really bake a jumper in a cake, but you can add a jumper to a cake which is what I did for lovely Oisin. I'm not going to take all the credit for it- I told him I would bake him something for his birthday, a cake perhaps, and Cat leaned over to me with a mischievious grin and said "Put a jumper in it."
So this saw me plan how I would fit a jumper in cake. Off I toddled to Tesco and bought a baby jumper which would fold nicely into the cake. I made up the chocolate cake (same recipe as that monster chocolate cake from the summer), put buttercream on one layer, folded the jumper onto the other and sandwiched it all together. My family were bemused by this. Not only did it look odd, but rather gross.
A dodgily (I do English, we're allowed to make up words...sort of) covered cardboard box and a cupcake card later and I was off to college with texts of threats telling Oisin he better be in or the cake was gonna get it.
Monday after class he opened it and to his surprise, there was a jumper in his cake.

I don't know how many people would love a jumper cake, but it was a safe bet with Oisin. Then we all ate pieces of the cake in the canteen, being mindful of possible fleecy flecks. Well, I hope you get a kick out of this! Kirk's birthday is next and she wants something Lady Gaga-esque incorporated. Stay tuned!:D

Marble cake for Valentine's!

2010-02-15T00:35:00.001Z

Being Valentine's and having no one to spend it with romantically, I thought I'd do something nice for my wonderful family and since I usually bake for other people, much to their dismay, I decided I'd bake them a cake I hadn't made before. So I tried to make a marble cake from Rachel Allen's Bake book and while it tastes quite amazing if I do say so myself, it's not quite marble-effect enough. Must work on the swirliness. It just sort of looks like a chocolate cake with pale bits here and there...I then decided I'd cut the cake in half and put butter cream (which had to be near rescued from Conor eating it out of the bowl) in between the two cakes. I found pink icing in the cabinet, so I made an attempt at a heart on the top of it with a sprinkling of icing sugar. Must say, it went down a treat. Win!:)

One day I'll fly away...

2010-02-09T23:13:00.000Z

I'm supposed to be doing my dissertation, but instead I am nomming a bag of marshmallows and I thought I'd make a little list (sort of inspired by Jen's list of loveliness) of the places I want to go and see to urge me on! There are quite a few. Since money has been tight during these past four years in college and I haven't travelled anywhere near as much as I've wanted to, I dream of a day when I have a proper, full waged job that will aid me on my trips around the world. Some of these places are not so far away, others I have looked up and curl up at the flight prices. Nevertheless, I will one day tick them all off! Some are just countries I want to go to and experience their culture, have a look around, others are specific cities, but also for the same reasons.
Anyhoodle-I'll probably think of more later on, but here's some, in no particular order, to start me off:

1. Egypt- ever since my Mom got me the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego game when I was about 8, Egypt has been a place that is top of my list. So for 8 year old me, I will one day get there. I am also fascinated by their tombs and pyramids.

2. Iceland- Sigur Ros is certainly influencing me here. The language barrier may be troublesome, so I might start learning a phrase or two now. Also, the nothern lights. Bringing ma camera.

3. Australia- Everyone seems to be there right now (okay, a bunch of my cousins) or have been, and being the H&A fan that I am, Bondi Beach needs a visit. Not too sure how I'm going to hack the heat there and in Egypt. Factor 50+ will be packed.

4. The Arctic- Polar bears polar bears polar bears. I love them. I ache to see the frozen landscape also before it all melts away.

5. Amsterdam- A shocking amount of my friends have been there, so I have to see what I'm missing. Plus it looks really cute and Cat says I'd like it. Must scope it out.

6. Bulgaria- To find the Child Catcher and see if children really have been set free...o_O

7. Paris- It looks so pretty and Amelie and Marion will be my tour guides:D

8. Rome- It looks amazing in Siobhan's photos. I think I just have to go there. Its history is fascinating too.

9. Luxembourg- Cos it's so ickle!

10. New Zealand- I've been told to go to the south island and it's meant to rival Australia in awesomeness.

11. Forks, Washington- So I can kill one Bella Swann.

12. Wherever, exactly, The Secret Garden was filmed in England. I know parts were filmed in Eton College, but I want to see the building that is 'Miselthwaite Manor' in the flesh. It has been in my life for far too long without me exploring it.

13. Newgrange- On the winter solstice. After learning so much about it in Art History, I also want to see this in the flesh. Here, I will employ Grainne as I think she's been there:)

14. Capeside, Massachusetts- Again, like some of these on the list, I must see cos of a tv show... I'll be staying at Potter's B&B if anyone is looking for me.

Yet another cake...

2010-02-06T21:11:00.001Z

Soon I'm going to make something much more exciting, I promise! But for now here is another cake I made today!:) It's an orange sponge which, like many of my cakes are doing recently, caved in on the top, so when I was drizzling chocolate over it, I flipped it over...:D I placed a few mandarin segments on top too. Again, I was a little short in supplies, so it is by no means fancy, but it was pretty nice, just sweet enough, so I'm happy enough with it. Nom!:)

Bake Sale update!

2010-02-03T20:34:00.001Z

Hey everyone, just wanted to let everyone know, especially if you bought a cake on Tuesday that we raised an amazing €106.85 for Epilepsy Ireland/Brainwave! It's absolutely amazing considering our most expensive treat was €1! Everything else was 20c or 50c and a big thank you to the other bakers who donated goodies and Molly & Aoife who were great company and fellow bakers! Just going to include a few photos now. Thanks everyone and I hope you enjoyed the treats!:) x

Butter free sponge cake attempt

2010-01-31T20:57:00.001Z

So my sister's birthday has come and gone, so a cake was obviously made! Sadly we were very low on decorating equipment (a new piping bag would be the most revered of presents if anyone feels so inclined...) so it is not my finest of cakes by any means. But I tried, for the first time, a butter free sponge cake from Rachel Allen's Bake. (Note to all- do not get rid of the egg whites when adding the egg yolks to the mixture as you'll need them later on...) It actually turned out okay! I was a bit apprehensive as the egg whites took absolute ages to come to 'stiff peaks' and my arm was a tad sore from beating. But I got there in the end and it looked pretty well. Sad part of this baking excursion- Siob had gone out with the neighbours and didn't return until after I had left to head back to college, so I ended up getting none of the cake :-( But by all accounts the cake was rather lovely. The siblings loved the excessive chocolate in the decorating (I think everything I bake has chocolate in it somewhere) but the parents thought it was too sweet. However, I was more concerned about the sponge in this particular cake and they all enjoyed it, so I'm happy with that! One of the brothers kindly took the photo of the cut cake there.

Don't judge me on the decorating...I was low in supplies...

Goodies for Epilepsy Ireland

2010-01-31T20:23:00.000Z

This week is RAG week in college and to accompany my friend's poetry/spoken word jam in the marquee, I've just baked a few goodies to sell at it to raise money for this year's charity Epilepsy Ireland. Some regular butter cookies, cupcakes (chocolate and plain- though pretty much all decorated with chocolate...) and apple cake are all ready to go now! I wanted to do some fancy butter cream icing for the cupcakes, but that wouldn't end very well on the bus journey down to Dublin...O_O Also I thought basic goodies would be easiest in general to transport down with me whilst also being lovely to munch on whilst listening to some stories/ poems:) If only I could somehow provide tea...

As you can see- I got a gift of fabulous butterfly cookie cutters from a dear friend when I was stressed. Much love to Laura K! And a cookie on the way for you;)

I've been falling behind in my baking due to a few weekends spent away from home- Jen is very intimidating with her constant updates! But I promise I shall keep on top of things. My dissertation is not far off now, which means I will need an outlet for my procrastination...:)

Breakfast at Tiffany's birthday present

2010-01-10T02:40:00.001Z

Here's a craft post for the blog- over the summer, my lovely and fabulous friend Mary turned 21. I introduced her to the equally fabulous Breakfast at Tiffany's quite a while ago during a tea and movie day and, having just finished college with a first class honours and it being her 21st, I wanted to get her something special. Putting the two together, I thought of something from Tiffany's. It's expensive, so I ventured online and managed to get her a fabulous necklace there:) The plan was a-go go!

A week before her party, I started giving her clues as to what the gift was. Needless to say clues like 'take away coffee cup', 'crocodile shoes' shed no light for her. But I guess that was a good thing! If you know the movie, you will know of the Cracker Jack box within the story. Soooo- I decided to put the gift within a Cracker Jack box, which I would make. I Googled the box and made some poor

attempt at it anyway and made an Audrey birthday card to accompany it. Just thought I'd add it here cos I was quite proud of putting it all together:)

Birthday cake fail!

2010-01-10T01:41:00.001Z

Some cakes don't always go to plan and last January (which means another is due soon...*gulp*) I made my sister's birthday cake. To try and prevent heartache, I greased and floured the tins beforehand, but no, it was not meant to be. When I popped out the cakes (while still warm. Do not do this!), one broke in to 3 pieces. Knowing my super baker aunts were coming over and my Nana, I was putting myself under pressure to make a cool cake, so when it broke, I broke! However, after I calmed down a bit, I decorated it to the max and made sure my mom cut it so that the guests didn't get the broken side and were unaware:) Even if it is desperately wonky looking...

Note to all: use baking parchment for cakes. Best invention ever and guarantees a no tears baking experience!

Lemon Easter Nest Cake

2010-01-10T01:12:00.001Z

Last Easter we were going to my aunt's for dinner (really means: a day of none stop eating her amazing food) and Mom said I'd bake something, so I made an Easter-style lemon sponge cake. I didn't want to make a big 2 tier cake incase it went to waste, so I just left it as a single tier with lemon butter cream icing, Flake bits around the edges and Cadbury Easter Eggs on top, making it look somewhat like a nest I think:) I hope you like it!:)

Chocolate cake for you, chocolate cake for me

2010-01-10T00:18:00.002Z

We all love chocolate. I am slightly shocked (and appalled) when someone says they're not a fan of it. Weirdos. So before a trip to my friend Jo's during the summer, I tried out Jamie Oliver's chocolate party cake from his cookbook The Return of The Naked Chef and it is bang on. I found Rachel Allen's one turned out a bit dry for my liking and I think the noticable difference is how the cocoa for Jamie's is mixed in with 4 tablespoons of boiling water and so is a paste when added to the flour mixture and not just a powder.

Strawberries just had to go in to the cake, and I went a bit wild with them, slicing them and placing them between the 2 sponges with the chocolate butter cream icing and a drizzling of melted chocolate (note- the cake is not for the faint hearted!) as well as on top of the cake.

I then melted chocolate and poured it over the top; viola- a dreamy chocolate cake that will take about 4 people the guts of 2 lazy days to eat. It's far from perfect looking, but I didn't mind once I tasted it. All it would then fit in cos it was so tall was a big shoe box. I eventually got it to Jo's after delicately moving it accordingly with road turns on the bus for three hours:)

Must be served with pots and pots of loose tea:)

'Tis the season to bake non-stop!

2010-01-09T23:07:00.000Z

Christmas is as good a time as any to spend days elbow deep in flour and parading your floweriest apron (amazingly suitable 21st birthday present!) around the kitchen. I was going to my roomie's house (well, roomies last year. We will always be each other's roomie!) in Navan for a day of tea and fun and decided to bake her 'Love Actually', cookie style. Seeing as we watched it countless times last year, I found it to be more than fitting:)

They were just easy butter cookies dipped in icing sugar and red food dye (2 coats) and then sprinkled with melted chocolate. My mom has a pretty handy collection of baking equipment, so I dug out the letter cookie cutters and you might be able to tell that the only letter missing was 'E'. So I had to delicately press the 'F' and add a leg...

Another seasonal baking day saw me making cookies for neighbors and friends with more lovely cookie cutters. I spread strawberry conserve (mushed up in a mug. I find it spreads easier than normal jam. Available in Aldi) on some of the cookies and then dipped them in melted chocolate for a little surprise come munching time:) Some are sprinkled with coconut though for a little snow effect and a coconut loving friend:)

This Christmas season, my family had a surprise party for one of my aunts. The lady is a reknowned baker and cook and I always semi-regret (practice makes perfect) offering to bake something (or my mom saying I'll bake something) when I know she's going to be tasting it! So I thought I'd go safe for the party and made a platter of plain cupcakes decorated with chocolate butter cream icing topped with a Jelly Tot and sprinkled with icing sugar and bits of Flake. Mmm.