guinness and chocolate cakes

as it is st.patricks day tomorrow, i am taking cakes to work and what is more irish than the black stuff?

so buy a bottle but only use 5floz (and drink the rest whilst watching 'those who kill' on the sofa)

topped with buttercream so they resemble a pint and a hidden lucky 4 leaf shamrock under green glitter

5floz guinness, 5oz butter...melt slowly in a pan, take off heat and add 4oz white sugar, 3oz dark brown sugar, 2oz cocoa powder, 1 egg, plop vanilla extract...mix well, add 9oz sr flour...bake 20mins 170c

“May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you and all your heart might desire”

brainy

charity shop purchase

option chosen

with instructions

mix water and plaster

pour into brain mould

make hearts too with the leftover plaster

once dried, label your brain with felt tips and learn what each part controls

a lovely spring day

what to do?

spend the day in rottingdean village!

lottie did some chalk art on the rocks

(having just discovered that the reason mummy could produce an instant piece of chalk is because the cliffs are made of the stuff)

rock climbing

beach in a bottle!

we then toodled off to the flea markets in the high street who had a 50p basket!

i got this...perfect for saturday and st.paddy's day

another brooch for me for halloween

a miniature fabric hand-bound notebook for lottie to keep her secrets in

a vanilla cupcake candle with glitter

pretty cake cases for the next batch

(which lottie has decided will be raspberry and white chocolate)

toss in lunch from the smugglers (chicken chunks for lottie, scampi for ellie) and a honeycomb hash ice-cream and you have a lovely, lovely day

joy of cardboard part 2

lottie got a new bed (33 pounds sterling from tesco direct sale...was 150!)

anyway...giant cardboard box...what to do?

burn half on fire because the bin is full

use other half to make an open-casket coffin with lid for your lounge

what else?

Waiter, there is too much pepper on my paprikash.
But I would be proud to partake of your pecan pie.

30g butter melted to which you add 1 tbsp golden syrup, 150g brown sugar, 1 egg, teasp cinnamon, 200g pecans...plop into a pastry case...bake 180c for 30mins

mmmm...it made a woman meow



“Children, as persons, are entitled to the greatest respect. Children are given to us as free-flying souls, but then we clip their wings like we domesticate the wild mallard. Children should become the role-models for us, their parents, for they are coated with the spirit from which they came- out of the ether, clean, innocent, brimming with the delight of life, aware of the beauty of the simplest thing; a snail, a bud, a shadow in the garden. Children are the closest thing to angels.”

~ Gerry Spence, “Give me Liberty”



cola cupcakes

3oz butter, 3oz sugar,1 egg, 1tbsp sodastream cola syrup, 5oz sr flour, splosh of milk, bake 180c for 20mins, buttercream icing with cola syrup and vanilla, cola bottles to decorate

surprisingly good