Do I have to be able to sew to be crafty? – Day 29 Project 366

  By Helen | January 30, 2012 - 6:39 am | Crafts, Project 366 1 Comment
Craft room before

I’ve been asking myself this question forever. I’ve always loved having a go at ‘stuff’ – I started making cards years ago long before I discovered cakes and everyone knows where my dabble at making cakes took me. But yet, I’ve never really considered myself to be ‘crafty’ because I can’t sew. I come from a family where our Mum knows everything there is to know about a sewing machine – I’ve never needed to know how to make clothes or fix garments because Mum has always been there to do it … and so much better than I could. Last year though I made a decision to become familiar with materials other than paper and cake – I learnt to knit and discovered I LOVED it. My mission this year is to tackle crochet but I know being so short of time means that I’m not going to be able to learn everything I want to in a year. Eventually, I do want to learn how to use a sewing machine and produce lovely handmade items but in the meantime, can I consider myself to be ‘crafting’? I’ve got tons of projects planned and hope to learn how to more »

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Edible Valentines Gift – Cadbury’s Creme Egg

  By Helen | January 23, 2012 - 8:58 am | Aardvark Cakes, Gifts 4 Comments
Edible Valentines Gift

I’ve been at it again with those Cadbury’s Creme Eggs – This time making edible gifts for Valentine’s Day (or indeed for birthdays/Mother’s Day/Any old day that deserves a treat) The creme egg is firstly covered in sugar paste and then given a chocolate base. The roses are all rolled sugarpaste and the ‘leaves’ are royal icing. They come gift wrapped and tied with a satin ribbon for that bit of wow. I’m really pleased with them and hope to sell a few this spring.

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Princess Castle Cake – Cake of the Week

  By Helen | January 22, 2012 - 5:44 pm | Aardvark Cakes, Birthday Cake, Cake, Cake of the Week, Cakes, Children's Cakes 8 Comments
Princess Castle Cake

Ooh I love a girly cake. My brief was to fit in with a Princess Party. I wanted to put my own stamp on it and not just make a princess but somewhere for her to live obviously! It was REALLY windy around here yesterday so I only added the glitter and sparkle at the venue (which was really princessey btw!) My Millie went around pretending it was for her so I think it got a thumbs up from our Princess! Have you been baking any creations this week and blogging about them? Don’t be shy – Join in!

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Silent Sunday

  By Helen | January 22, 2012 - 6:56 am | Casa Costello, Family, Silent Sunday 8 Comments
Cat in a highchair

No words. Just pictures.

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Tangy St Clements Drizzle Cupcakes

  By Helen | January 18, 2012 - 1:16 pm | Aardvark Cakes, Baking, Cake, Cake Recipes, Cupcakes, Recipes 2 Comments
Lemon and Orange Drizzle Cupcakes

My mum has recently discovered Lemon Drizzle cake so whenever we go round there’s always one there. Not to be beaten, I wanted to discover a drizzle cake of my own and so was born my version of a Lemon/Orange/St Clements cake. The cake is perfectly lovely and extremely tangy without icing but being me, I wanted to tart it up a bit. I used ready to mix fondant icing which I’ve wanted to try for a while and it was just perfect. I would think the ready to roll fondant icing might just be a bit too heavy for this cake and take away too much of the tang. The recipe below makes 12 cupcakes (I used a square cupcake tin) and an 8″ square cake. 8oz butter 8oz caster sugar 10oz self-raising flour 3 eggs 2 egg whites 2fl oz milk juice of 1 lemon and 1 satsuma/tangerine finely grated rind of 2 lemons and 2 tangerines St Clements Drizzle Mixture (Optional but really good) 8oz Caster Sugar Juice of 2 lemons and 1 satsuma/tangerine/small orange How to: 1. Preheat the oven to 170C 2. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale 3. Gradually add eggs one more »

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What is in your fridge?

  By Helen | January 16, 2012 - 11:58 pm | Casa Costello, Children, Family, Miscellaneous 12 Comments
Contents of a family's fridge

If anyone told me before I started my blog that I would be taking a picture of the contents of my fridge at 11.30PM, I would have thought they’d gone crazy. But here I am tonight after hopping around a few blogs and in particular, the lovely Charlotte’s from Charlotte’s Kitchen Diary. Charlotte has asked us to share what is in our fridge – what staples we cannot cope without. My fridge tends always to look quite full but still we can never find anything for tea. We currently have 5 open bottles of ketchup and 3 bottles of HP brown sauce in there which drives me potty. You cannot fail to notice the huge amounts of smoothies for the kids – perfect to accompany their breakfast and as a drink on the way to our many swimming lessons per week. The tin foil monster at the bottom is the remnants of our Gammon with honey and maple syrup which will be even nicer on butties tomorrow! There is even a bit of baby food in there, ready for battle tomorrow. Our staple items that we cannot function without are: * Butter for cakes * Eggs for cakes * Trex more »

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In My Kitchen – January 2012

  By Helen | January 15, 2012 - 9:55 pm | Casa Costello, Family, Meme, Recipes 7 Comments
Crispy duck wraps with pomegranate and hoisin

Cake of the week is taking a week off due to basically not having any time to make any cakes this week. I thought I’d use the opportunity to join in with the In My Kitchen Link Up run by Fig Jam and Lime Cordial which is a lovely blog that I’ve recently discovered. On the first of each month Celia shows us what she has going on and plans to do for the next month and invites us to do the same. Our New Year’s Resolution of getting the children to eat new food and us all to eat more homecooked food is going really well. Tonight we had duck wraps in Chinese leaves with pomegranate and hoisin sauce. After the initial discussion about eating dead ducks (Violet) and not liking lettuce (Millie) we dove in – and very successful it was too. The duck was a whole duck, ready seasoned with sea salt and pepper – I think next time we will try to experiment a bit more with some spices to try for that authentic crispy duck flavour. We are drinking Yorkshire Tea at the moment. Long long ago when I was a checkout operator at Morrisons more »

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Five Go Caravanning – 2012

  By Helen | January 11, 2012 - 7:14 am | Caravan, Casa Costello, Children, Family, Five Go Caravanning, Touring 2 Comments
Family camping in 2012

Well all the Christmas festivities are now over and so our attention turns to the caravan season. It may only be 2 months since we last went on our travels but we miss it already. Our plans for the 2012 season are slightly different this year. We have decided not to go with a seasonal pitch but instead to explore quite a few caravan parks. We have loved being in Abersoch for the past 2 years but there are sites in the Lake District, Yorkshire and Cumbria that are really easy to get to for us. Mr Costello is still loving his surfing (and no, I haven’t joined him in the water yet) so I feel a trip to The Gower is on the cards this year too – as well as our yearly trip to the South of France. The world is our oyster as they say! We are still undecided about whether to go with a new van or hold on a bit longer. Our van is still in good shape but with only basic bathroom facilities. We have discussed perhaps joining in with some caravan rallies but would need a proper shower in the van first. Rallies more »

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Pink and Lilac 50th Birthday Cake: Cake of the Week Day 8 Project 366

  By Helen | January 9, 2012 - 12:11 am | Aardvark Cakes, Birthday Cake, Cake, Cake of the Week, Cakes, Project 366 6 Comments
Lady's 50th birthday cake pink lilac

The first Cake of the week for 2012 and what a lovely relaxed cake to start with. For a friend of a friend, the only request was for sponge and pink, white and lilac. I haven’t done any icing loops for ages and wanted a go at different coloured loops. Previous ‘loopy’ cake have always been in black and white. (Not sure if that’s the technical term) I definitely went for the less is more option on this cake – no point hiding an nice even covering if you have one. I’m going to try to attract a few more members of the Cake of the Week gang this year so please feel free to take part and spread the word. If you fancy it you can even download the badge. I get the feeling this won’t be the last cake that features as part of the Project 366 this year.

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