Boiled Fruit Cake

What I really love about this is that it is relatively simple to make, it doesn't create much washing up, and the cake itself is so moist, it lasts for nearly a week (unless you scoff it before the week is up). Here is how I do it......

 

12 Oz Mixed Fruit

4 Oz Butter/ Baking Block

1 1/2 Tsp Bicarb

1 Mug Caster Sugar

1 Mug Water

1 Mug Self Raising Flour (Sieved)

1 Mug Plain Flour (Sieved)

2 Beaten Eggs

 

1. Place the fruit in a large saucepan, along with the water, butter, sugar and bicarb, yes it looks gross for the first few minutes, but it soon starts to smell really lovely and the fruit plumps up a bit as it takes on some of the liquid.

2. Bring this to the boil, and then simmer gently for 2 minutes.

3. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

4. Add the flour and beaten eggs.
5. Mix thoroughly and pour into a greased/ grease proof papered tin.
6. Bake at a temperature of 150 for an hour to an hour and a half. I use the stab it with a knife method to see whether it is done, if the knife comes out clean it is done.
 

The yummy fruit taking on the liquid. 

Serving Suggestion..

Polar Bear

 

Hi, me again, talking to myself, but nevermind eh.

 

So Friday, woke at 4am, like an excited child and looked out of the window, as it was forecast to dump a load of snow overnight, there was nothing :(.

 

Got up around 7am as usual to get ready to work, we had about 4 inches of snow, I was annoyed at first because im temping, so wouldn't get paid, even if I couldnt get into work through no fault of my own, but as I am at a facility attached to a school, which was closed, I had to stay home.

 

On watching the TV (eventually, after Sky came back on), I was reminded of the coca-cola polar bears, and was suddenly inspired to go out and play in the snow, so to my cat's dismay, I wrapped up warm, put my husbands coat on (didnt want to get mine wet you see...), and got to work on my polar bear.

 

I am pleased at how it turned out, it was a bit of a risky challenge, as the aforementioned cat above, has left various calling cards in the garden, but I managed to dodge them and end up with white snow.

 

It was made in the afternoon, when a lot of the snow had already melted away, but three days later it is still there, solid. Only he dropped the bottle on saturday night ;)

 

I posted this picture on the coca-cola facebook page, not had much response though, oh well, at least I am proud, and it made me happy to make it :)

 

 

 

Stay safe and warm out there.

 

Mrs P x

 

Fudge, a pup in Bear's clothing

Hi,

 

So I have been playing again, it was a bit of a snowy one this weekend, and I was inspired by the cold to actually get on and make the idea in my head for Fudge, a onesie.

 

I had settled on the idea of making him into a black bear, so I bought a cheapo black fleece scarf for £1, and used that, minimum cost, however, I did sew it all by hand, so it did take about 4 hours to complete, but it was fun, and I am delighted by end result :) I am thinking about adding a pocket to put a mini teddy bear in :), Im sure I have one somewhere from a cracker or something.

 

 

Fudge does indeed look happy with his outfit, I esepcially Like his little paw pads :)

 

Much love

 

Mrs P x

 

 

Candles

Hi,

I have dabbled with candle making before, but it is a bit hit and miss to start with, I do think that I have cracked it :)

These were made with recycled wax, from candles that wouldn't burn, the striped star was made with a mould from a kit, I achieved the stripes by building it up layer by layer.

The different colours are made with dye from a candle kit, I also discovered that using wax crayons also has the same effect.

The little stars and dolphin are made with ice cube trays, pierced a hole through for the wick to sit, and sealed the hole with blue tack. The larger star was a proper wax mould.

The final candle, is a baby food jar, and while the wax was cooling, i dropped in some wax chunks, they look like marshmallows :)

I was pleased with how they turned out ;) They even smell pretty, thanks to the undead candles that I smashed up to melt down ;)

Much love

Mrs P xx

A year in the life.....

This is a mini scrapbook I made for my sister for christmas, I like how it turned out, we have bluetooth printers, which you use to print photos from your phone, I included a pack of photo paper to get her started :)

Mrs P xx

Yule

I made our yule log from scratch this year, much much easier than I thought it would be, and it turned out absolutely perfectly :)

Mrs P x

Gingerbread house

Hi,

This project was really hard, considering I had no instructions, maybe that is half the fun, the hardest bit was getting the walls to stick together, the trick is using really thick icing as the cement. It was very yummy :)