In the kitchen with bruises

Ah a post not dedicated to snow. What an oddity. The snow has pretty much gone now. There are a few piles, the remains of dead snowmen, lying around but that is it. So there was no snowman competition on my Birthday. However I had a great day. I went pattern and fabric shopping in the morning and got the most amazing pattern ever!

Then in the afternoon my friends came over and brought cakes and scones and we had tea and chatted. It's been ages since we all got together and it was lovely! On the evening 2 of them came with us to the local alternative night. I got to wear my corset for the first time. Man they are hard to dance in. You don't notice how hard you breathe when dancing till you can't. I woke up this morning with bruises from it. I guess when corsets where around the most strenuous thing most folk did was play the harpsichord. At least as tight laced as I was anyhoo.

Today I am making cake. It's tradition at my workplace that you bring cakes in on your birthday for everyone. Now I don't buy cakes so I must make them. I'm planning pumpkin muffins, rainbow sponge cakes and maybe some biscuits. I also want to get some sewing done today as I don't think I've done any in a while.

4:33
Ah as always when I try to do a lot of baking at once it's all gone a bit wrong. The sponge cakes I decided to make as a loaf so it's easier to transport. This is in the oven now but it is not cooking in the middle. My bread needs to go in the oven in 10 mins and there isn't enough room for it all if the sponge doesn't cook. Eep. Ah well. I'm feeling quite relaxed about it still.

I have been experimenting. Now as I'm sure I've mentioned before I am a recipe type of gal. However of late I have been learning to experiment. Today I cooked 3/4 of a pound of shredded pumpkin. Once I'd drained all the water out of it this became only 3 and 1/4 ounces!!!! My recipe called for half a pound. SO I scrapped that recipe and adapted another. I have a batch waiting to go in the oven (when I find room!). They should be banana, cherry, pecan muffins. instead thy are pumpkin, sultana and pumpkin seed muffins. Don't tell anyone, but I'm quite excited to see how they turn out. Once I've got all the above either in or out of the oven depending where it is at I think I'll make some plain chocolate biscuits and then that should do.

8:07
Rainbow sponge cake, check. Pumpkin muffins, check. (well only 7 came out of the tins without breaking. So gone wrong cake for us) Chocolate chip cookies, check. Bread buns for the week, check. So after all that I decided I wanted to make the butter this week. I will never volunteer for this again!!!! My arms are blood read and I am knackered. However I made butter and that does give me a sense of accomplishment. When I make the scones later I will feel really proud of myself. I think Spadger can do it until he makes me a churn though. I'm too tired to do any sewing now. So I'm going to wait for my tea (yeah we're a bit late tonight), maybe watch the latest episode of QI on the iPlayer and then make the scones. All in all it's been quite a nice weekend. I will share pics of all I bought on Saturday with you this week some time.