Saturday 21 January 2017

Baking and Embroidery

Baking

Baking for Cancer Cakeathon

A busy week! We had our monthly informal get-together at the cancer support centre at the hospital on Friday so I thought I’d better get my skates on and do some baking! Earlier in the week I made some more mince pies as we’d run out, and I do enjoy them at any time of the year, but I didn’t want to take those because they are better warmed up, and there’s nowhere to do that at the Lodge except for a microwave, which makes the pastry soggy.

So I decided it was time to make some more coconut macaroons. Last time the actual macaroons didn’t come out so well, but the chocolate ganache was perfect, but this time it was the other way round! I really need to get a thermometer as I have no way of measuring the temperature of the cream, and this may be why the ganache decided to separate, and when cold, the liquid became white, so they didn’t look perfect, although they tasted jolly good!

I was given a tall jar of dry ingredients for Christmas – arranged in decorative layers like those glass tubes full of different coloured sand. There was no recipe as such, but just some instructions to add melted butter, black treacle and syrup and stir it all together, and make gingerbread biscuits – they came out absolutely delicious and I wish I had the recipe!

Today we went to a bring and share lunch at St. Luke’s Church in Torquay, and I said I’d bring a pudding. I made my “signature” dish – sticky toffee pavlova – the best pudding this side of heaven in my opinion!

Sticky Toffee Pavlova for St. Luke's Lunch

After making this, and the macaroons, I ended up with 8 egg yolks… What on earth to do with 8 egg yolks? I decided to try my hand at making custard tarts, something I’ve never made before, and I googled them and found a wonderful online recipe from Paul Hollywood from the Great British Bake-Off, and they came out absolutely delicious! Why is it, though, that Paul’s look so perfect, and mine have sunk massively in the middle, and look half-empty?!!

Embroidery

Continuing to work on my UFOs (UnFinished Objects!) this year, over the past couple of days I’ve made two more embroidered pieces to decorate my bed half-tester. I recently discovered whipped spiderweb stitch online, which is so pretty, so I’ve started using this on recent pieces.

05 Yellow and Blue Pieces with Whipped Spiderweb Stitch

Some detail shots.

06 Yellow Piece with Whipped Spiderweb Stitch Detail

07 Blue Paisley Piece with Whipped Spiderweb Stitch Detail

08 Blue Paisley Piece with Whipped Spiderweb Stitch Close Detail

1 comment:

  1. Oooh, macaroons and custard tarts are two of my favourites. Yumm! Wonderful that you can make such a variety of goodies in one go. On the rare occasion that I bake, I've only ever made one thing at a time. Gorgeous embroidery - last time I did anything like that was back in primary school! Thanks for visiting earlier.xx

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