BigMiss was invited to a surprise birthday party and was asked to make the birthday cake as her present.
After looking through the birthday cake books and not really choosing anything, I suggested making a number cake (the birthday girl was turning 10, which I figured was an easy number-shape to work with).
We made a chocolate cake, which she mixed up by herself - the recipe I always use is a 'put it all in the bowl and turn the mixer on' type which is really easy for kids!
The '1' got lollies put on randomly, but I suggested more of a pattern for the '0'
I let her choose a bag full of lollies from the 'pick-n-mix' at the supermarket to decorate it with and she wanted five different icing colours. She mixed the food colouring into the icing while I iced the cakes (she found it a little tricky to not mix the colours when putting it on).
She had great fun, and the birthday girl was impressed she had made it herself!
If you look close enough at the photos of
LittleMiss' jersey, you might be able to see the picture stitched on the pocket.
It's a unicorn done in duplicate and chain stitch.
The talented Tanja from
Watermellish designed this chart specially for the Red Riding Hood Yarn's Winter Yarn Club that I took part in. It was the first time I'd done a duplicate design like this and I'm really pleased with it (so was LittleMiss).
Make sure you check out her
website for more designs (including
free ones!) and lots of
tutorials to help you out. If you're a knitter and never tried duplicate stitch before - it's a lot easier than you think!
I noticed that I hadn't posted any photos on here of my nephew wearing
the vest I mentioned
yesterday.
And he's too cute not to.
Saturdays I usually do baking. Today it was biscuits (cookies).
This is one of my favourite recipes.
Kiwi Crisps
Ingredients:
1/2 of a 400g tin sweetened condensed milk
225g butter (softened)
1/2c sugar
2c flour
2tsp baking powder
200g chocolate
Preheat oven to 180deg C.
Cream condensed milk, butter and sugar together.
Mix in sifted flour and baking powder and then mix in chocolate.
Shape spoonfuls, place onto baking tray and cook until lightly browned (about 10-15mins).
Cool on a rack and enjoy!
If you're like me and prefer soft biscuits, take them out just as they start colouring. When cooked to golden brown they're crisp and crunchy when cooled.
You can use any form of chocolate in these biscuits - chocolate chips, buttons, a chocolate block broken in chunks, mixed white and dark, mini M&M's (as pictured above), and you can even add 1/2c of nuts to the mix also (roasted cashews are yum!)
And because it uses half a tin of condensed milk, I usually make a double batch so I don't have the other half a tin sitting in the fridge waiting to be used! (They freeze well.)
I still have to work even in the school holidays, but that means the girls get to go to Nana's!
Yesterday I picked them up looking like this:
Their fantastic Aunty T had done their hair in fancy curls and butterfly clips.
And even Nana had a turn with LittleMiss getting a head full of little plaits!
I'm very lucky that my MIL can look after the girls for me when I still have to work in the holidays.
If you're a regular reader, you might have noticed that I've been working on a cardigan version of the
Sweet As... t-shirt. MiddleMiss was wearing it for our
photoshoot in the park.
It has the same heart motif down the side and puff sleeves, but also features a shaped body, pockets and sleeves done to full length.
The pattern's in the testing* phase at the moment so should be ready for release mid-November. Just in time to whip one up for those heading into Winter in the Northern Hemisphere!
For more craftiness look over
here.
*I'm still in need of testers for sizes 9yrs and 10yrs. Let me know if you're interested through the thread on Ravelry.
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