Jungle Themed 1st Birthday Cake

Hi Everyone! So it's been a really long time since I last blogged but don't worry - I haven't stopped baking and making during that time! I am going to try and catch up a bit on some of the things that I have made recently, most of which are baking things.


First up I volunteered to make a cake for our friends babies first birthday party. They agreed and said I could do what ever design I liked - Yippeee!! I decided on a jungle theme as that is the style of his bedroom.


Once I had decided upon the theme I got the cake tin (borrowed from a cake shop) and ordered all the icing...lots of it!!!

I don't know if you noticed, but I was a little concerned when I got the cake tin and saw it had no bottom!! Ideal for getting the cake out when it's cooked, but how on earth do you hold the mixture in it?? Luck for me my chef fiance solved my problems and he lined it carefully with tin foil. It worked fantastically. 

Once out the oven and completely cooled I then did the initial lining of icing. You probably can't tell but underneath the icing is a layer of jam!! I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, but as I didn't feel confident cutting the cake in half and they wanted jam and icing I layered it on top underneath the icing and it was brilliant!

So now its time to introduce you to the cast of the cake:

Ella Elephant

Gia Giraffe

Mike Monkey

 Louis Lion

And the final piece, with it all put together: 

This cake probably took me about 8 hours to make from start to finish. I was very pleased with the final result and so were the people who I made it for -  and that's the main thing!!

Chocolate & Marshmallow Cupcakes

Here is another flavour experiment I decided to do for some new tastes. Chocolate and Marshmallow cupcakes.

I used the same recipe as my blueberry cupcakes (see below) but added a tablespoon of coco powder to replace a tablespoon of flour and added chopped up marshmallows to the mixture.

I decorated the cupcake with a vanilla icing and, as you can see, a marshmallow on top and red edible glitter (my favourite decorating item of all time).

I was told they were very very yummy (as I couldn't eat them with the marshmallows in).

It is so easy to experiment with flavour, what will you try next???

Knitted Lavender Bag

Hi Everyone!


I hope you are all enjoying yourself on your time off. I'm sure you will be all busy visiting family and friends, but you may have a few hours free time in the afternoon to get your knit on!! Heehee.


Here is a little something I made to send to a friend. After searching for a while, I finally found dried lavender in a little health shop in my local town. Lavender bags make such great presents and knitted ones look lovely too!

 It was really easy to make the outside of the bag. I got the pattern from the Usborne Art Ideas book called 'How to Knit'. I think the book is aimed at children but the instructions are so clear and the projects are so lovely that it is one of my favourite knitting books. Here's a link to amazon so you can have a look at it:

'How to Knit'

Once you have put the bag together (by basically folding you knitting in half and sewing up the sides) you can then thread some ribbon through it, to secure the bag. I chose pink as it went well with the purple colour of the bag.

 I then decided to decorate it with the pretty pink flower button on it and put my 'Love Lorna' tag on it of course!

The lavender bag inside was really easy to do. I just sewed up a small bag with fabric and then filled it with lavender. I soaked the lavender in lavender oil for a bit to increase the smell before putting it in its bag.


I really hope my friend enjoys receiving this as a gift, especially when its just after christmas. I am considering making some more of these and putting them on sale on my folksy shop. I need to get some more items up for sale on there in the new year, so I will keep you posted.


Lots of love xx

Birdy Bag

Now I'm on my holidays for two lovely weeks I get some time to do what I really enjoy - making!!

With the fabric bundle I got from the Country Living Christmas Fair I decided to make a bag using the beautiful bird fabric.

It started off as a simple tote bag, but then I decided to make a lining for it, and add a zip on the inside...

I then made some long handle for the bag and lined them with some spare wadding that I had...

 Once I had finished I could add the finishing touches in the way of buttons, a bow and a label...

 And the final finished product looks like this....

I'm quite pleased with it as it is my first ever bag? What do you think??

The Very Hungry Caterpillar!!

Yesterday it was my friends baby's first birthday so I wanted to make him something really special. She was at my other friends baby shower who I made my first ever quilt for, and she loved it so much, I decided to make one for her baby. Here it is:

As you can see, I purchased The Very Hungry Caterpillar (TVHC) Panel which has a butterfly at the top...

...and a caterpillar at the bottom. It also has a grassy effect around the edge of the two creatures.

I also purchased the back fabric which is part of TVHC set. Surprisingly the back fabric was almost twice as expensive as the front!

You might also be able to spot in the corner of the back fabric my 'Love Lorna' label :o) 


I filled the middle with the thickest wadding that I could find as I wanted him to be nice and cosy in these cold winter months. 


From personal experience, the quilt might seem thin, but it is so warm! If I'm feeling a bit chilly at night, I put my patchwork quilt over me and I'm soon toasty. 


I hope you like my quilt, I may make one to think about selling soon....:o)

Love Lorna xx

Blueberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Hi Everyone! A mid-week post - how exciting!!!

I have not done some baking for a while as I have been a busy crafty bee, so decided it was time to have a go at the cupcakes again. I decided to be a little more adventurous with my cupcakes today, as I wanted something a bit different besides vanilla.

One flavour took me a while to think up, but after thinking of lots of combinations to put together, I came up with:

Blueberry Shortcake Cupcakes

I really love blueberries and they are an excellent antioxidant for the winter time. I kept thinking about different flavours that might go well and I decided on shortcake. A quick look on the internet found no ready-made recipes for Blueberry Shortcake cupcakes, so I made my own up that I can share with you as I followed no one else's recipe.

1.Wash and cut the blueberries into quarters.

2. Crush some shortbread biscuits using a rolling pin.

Using your favourite vanilla cupcake recipe, make a normal batter mix:

3. 125g butter and 125g sugar - whisk together.

4. Whisk 2 large eggs then add to the butter and sugar mix adding a tablespoon of the 125g of flour to stop the mixture separating. 

5. At this point I added my blueberries and gave them a little whizz around the mixture. 

6. Fold in the crushed shortbread biscuit and the remaining  flour.

7. Add a 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla paste or a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

8. Add 2 tablespoons of semi-skimmed milk.

9. Put the mixture into cupcake cases.

 LORNA'S TIP: I put paper cases into silicone cupcake cases and the silicone cases support the paper cases, so the batter doesn't push the sides of the cases. You can then take them out the silicone cases once they have cooked and they are in the paper cases so you can give them to people! 

ICING AND DECORATING

I like to get my decoration bits and icing made during the cooking and cooling time of the cupcakes.

1. Roll out some Regal / Sugar paste icing. 

LORNA'S TIP: Make sure you put lots of icing sugar under the sugar paste, but also put some clingfilm over the top of the icing so you rolling pin doesn't stick to the icing. Also, roll out in one direction, rather than going backwards and forwards. 

2. Using a small flower cutter, cut out a enough flowers for all your cupcakes. 

3. Put a blueberry in the centre of the flower. 

4. Next, making a butter icing by mixing 75g of butter with 225g of icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk and 1/4 teaspoon or vanilla paste.

5. Add a little a bit blue food colouring and even less red food colouring and mix into the icing to create a nice purple colour icing.

FINISHING TOUCHES

Once your cupcakes have completely cooled, using a piping bag and nozzle, pipe the purple icing onto the cupcake and put the flower on top.

I then decorated my cupcakes with sugar pearls to finish them off.

Have fun and enjoy making these, something that looks a bit different or something completely different!! What fun styles can you come up with?

My first ever Patchwork Quilt

FINALLY, I FINISHED IT!!!!

I started this project early January and have finally finished it now in November. I had a long break from it while I did other crafts, but a couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to finally finish the patchwork quilt.


I am so pleased with it, especially as I am a complete patchwork beginner and did it completely unaided (except with the help of Kirstie's Homemade Home book).






I started by cutting all the fabric into squares the same size (you can buy bundles of fabric which have already been cut for you). I then sewed these altogether - which took the longest time.


I then purchased some wadding and the backing fabric, which you can see below.

After this, I used a fixing spray that I brought from Homebase to secure it all together while I pinned and then sewed across the patches.

I then added a border around the edge of the quilt, before adding my 'Love Lorna' label.

I am very pleased with the final result, and even though I plan on making more quilt, this one is just for me :o) 

Here it is in pride of place, where it will live from now on!