The cake of many guises

With Easter upon us once more and many expecting family to descend upon you I thought I would share with you one of my favourite cakes to make as it is so versatile.

 I love making this cake. 

 Its adapted from the I can't believe you made that cake, cake by Lorraine Pascal, but I like to call it the cake of many guises.  

Its been a Christmas cake

 It's been an anniversary cake

and it's been an Easter cake

What you will need

Equipment

2 x 8cm sandwich tins or if like me you are useless at slicing cakes in half then you could purchase a set of layer tins usually used for rainbow cakes. A palette knife and a cake board and a nice ribbon to finish it off.

Ingredients

280g Butter or margarine

220g Self raising flour

60g Cocoa powder

280g Caster Sugar

5 large eggs

2tsp Baking powder

35mls milk

1dsp of hazel nut spread

2 packets of chocolate fingers

For the buttercream

250g butter, softened

500g icing sugar

100g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), melted and slightly cooled.

Method

• Pre heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
• Cut circles of baking parchment and line the base of the tins. 
• Sieve the flour twice this helps to keep the cake light.
• Put the sieved flour, butter, caster sugar, eggs, baking powfer, cocoa powder, hazel nut spread in a bowl or food processor and mix until combined. 
• Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and make a slight dip in the middle as this will help to achieve an even rise. 
• Bake two at time on the middle shelf for approximately 18 minutes, until the sponge is risen and cooked  and springy to the touch.
• Allow the cakes to cool and then turn out onto a cooling tray.
• Once completely cooled if using two sandwich tins you will need to slice the cakes in half horizontally to give you your four layers. 
• Allow the cakes to cool completely before adding the buttercream.. 
• To make the buttercream icing put the butter and icing sugar into a bowl and whisk together until the mixture begins to go fluffy. Add the cooled melted chocolate and whisk for a further 2 minutes.
• Sandwich the layer together with a 1cm layer of buttercream. Spread half the remaining buttercream all over the top and sides of the cake, making it as smooth as possible.
• Gently push the chocolate fingers vertically onto the sides of the cake, positioning them as straight as possible and making sure they touch the bottom.
• At this point you can finish off by putting fruit such as raspberries on top or if like my family you have more of a sweet tooth then the possibilities are endless.  I have used maltesers, grated chocolate and of course mini eggs but you could also use smarties, chocolate buttons or if feeling rather extravagant you could even use Ferrero Rocher.

I hope you have as much fun making this cake as I do and its great if you're wanting to impress.
 I am no Mary Berry when it comes to making cakes but you can hide an awful lot with a packet of chocolate fingers and some buttercream icing.

Happy Easter to all

Take care & stay safe

Mx

A Hazy Shade of Winter Afghan Ta-dah moment

Ta-Dah moment

I thought you might like to see one of the projects I have recently completed during my sabbatical from blogland.

This is our first winter here in the Wolds the colours within the surrounding countryside are really pretty stunning although the amount of snow we've had in the last two months have really tested my resolve, even if it is quite beautiful when its first on the ground all crisp and white

I planned to make another blanket for my daughter's birthday. The last one I made for her was for her 21st birthday and she has now just turned 24.  I don't know where the years have gone it still feels just like yesterday when I bought her home from the hospital, and there was snow on the ground that day too.

These days I have adopted the use of  yarn pegs, the brain child of Lucy of Attic 24,  when planning any big projects. It keeps my mind focused and stops me from adding more and more colours ad infinitum, which can spoil the overall effect you initially intended.  I usually have a theme in mind, in this instance I was looking for colours that remind me of winter.  I can then be found quite happily whiling away the hours playing with colour until I feel I have the right palette.

The yarn I have used is Stylecraft Special DK using the following colours.

Graphite 1063

Grey 1099

Silver 1203

Burgundy 1035

Claret 1123

Lipstick 1246

Pale Rose 1080

Dark Brown 1004

Walnut 1054

Mocha 1064

Parchment 1218

White 1001

There are a total of 120 blocks which took 200g of each colour with an extra 200g in graphite to join the blocks and make the border. The cost of the wool is approximately £52 or $65.  It  measures 58 x 70 inches which fits across a double bed. My intention was to make it  a little bigger  but I was a little up against it time wise.

All my blankets are given names whether it be after a book, a place or a song and for anyone of a certain age you may remember the song 'A Hazy Shade of Winter' written by Paul Simon. Originally recorded in 1968 when part of a duo Simon & Garfunkel before they split up and went solo and then  later released by The Bangles in 1987. Anyone below the age of 30  you can listen to it here and I'll just sit here feeling very old. 

I usually have a good idea of what stitch or block I want to use to make my projects even before I have thought of a theme or chosen the colours.  In this instance it was Jan Eaton's Willow block pattern from her book 200 Crochet Blocks which you can find here in the UK or here in the USA I had seen so many beautiful blankets made using this block and wanted to try it for myself for a long time.  

I am really quite in love with  my 'A Hazy Shade of Winter'Afghan, in fact I have already made a second one as a birthday gift for my colleague at work, who has not had the best of years last year and I wanted to make her something that was just for her and as she had so admired my daughters  whilst in process it seemed to be just the thing to do.

  I get the feeling I will be making another one of these before too long but this time it will be all for me.

That's me for now

Take care & stay safe

Mx

Here we go again

Just last week I thought we had finally seen the back of the snow and Spring was finally about to be sprung. 

Then yesterday and overnight this happened

and these days I have to be able to negotiate the track to be able to get any chance of reaching the main road.

Personally I didn't think it looked too bad this morning. 

I was due to go to the NEC Birmingham today to the crafting show. After consultation with my friend who was coming with me we decided in our madness we would still give it ago.

That my friends was the first mistake.

The second was that having managed to get off the driveway with a little difficulty I was quite proud of myself when I managed to negotiate the track without any bother. I turned onto our little road which had obviously had a few vehicles going along it at some point in the last 24 hours I could definitely see track marks. 

So it would be ok right?  

WRONG

I set off up the road with some gusto (keep your foot on the accelerator Mitzi all will be fine) I almost got to the main road when we came to an abrupt halt. Several attempts at going forwards and backwards was to no avail and eventually I had slid back down and come to a stop at what should be the grass verge only it's currently a snowy bank. 

Trip abandoned I was then left to walk the half a mile back home.

It's been absolutely barmy one minute throwing white stuff out of the sky 

and the next minute the sun is out but it is by no means tropical I can tell you

 I think these guys had the right idea

Stay somewhere warm where there is plenty of food available.

So that's been my day I hope yours is going better than mine

I'm off for a cuppa and a bit of online retail therapy to make up for what I missing today.

If you have the white stuff with you stay safe and warm and if you have any sense do not venture out of your front door unless it's a medical emergency.

Take care one & all

Mx

UPDATE....  car retrieved with the help of my knight in shining armour in the guise of a very nice man from Severn Trent Water who stopped to help this damsel in distress (aka me). In this current culture of not stopping to help anyone in case its a rouse to rob you blind its nice to see that chivalry is not dead and I can tell you I was very grateful for his help as I would not have got her back on the road with out his help.  He even followed me to petrol station to make sure I got there ok.  

Strip it back & start again

I originally started this blog a few years ago. It was lovely to be able to swap/share stories, hints and tips with like minded folk. 

Around 18 months ago I lost the impetus for blogging there was a lot going on in our lives and subsequently I dropped off the radar for a while. I wanted to start blogging again but couldn't quite decide how I wanted to take this forward. In the end I decided that the best thing to do was to strip it right back and start again.

So here we are a fresh start.

Almost 12 months ago we moved house. At the time I was spending a ridiculous amount of time  travelling to work and started to feel a little like a mole leaving in the dark and coming home in the dark.  At the same time our youngest had recently moved schools. He has a diagnosis of ASD and is in specialist provision, which are few and far between especially in rural areas. He was travelling (courtesy of his dad the chauffeur) 28 miles each way to school. We decided in January 2017 that it was the right time to leave our beloved cottage, there were many tears spilt I can tell you, but it was definitely the right decision to make.

During the summer months I had quite often driven up through the Vale of Belvoir as an alternative to the congested main routes.  It is such a beautiful area with it's castle up on the hill, and conveniently not too far from our sons school.

From here you can see right across to Nottingham and Lincolnshire

 Now I think these are Common Buzzards. I could sit and watch these all day long, but I do get these mixed up with the Red Kites, I am no ornithologist.
D bought me a book for Christmas to help me identify the birds I see.

I know what these  are

  this particular bit of woodland  has been renamed as Pheasant Wood by our son

As you can see even at this time of year its a gorgeous

We were lucky enough to find a house right on the doorstep of the Vale of Belvoir and now get to enjoy the stunning views, beautiful countryside and eclectic mix of wild life

and the sunrises and sunsets are just stunning
This is the view from my house at 6.30am this morning

So that's it I've bitten the bullet written my first blog post and may it be the first of many

Thank you for stopping by.

Back soon

M x