Memory

You might have guessed that I'm not one of those people who refuses to share recipes. I quite like to pass on recipes that I love- it's a compliment if someone asks how to make something (not that I make them up myself!).

Anyway, other than the cake I gave you the recipe for on Saturday, my favourite bake is 'Raspberry and White Chocolate Brownies'. Being honest I can't remember where the recipe came from originally- I have a feeling it was the wonderful Good Food website but if you happen to know otherwise please do let me know. 

So the blog post title is 'Memory'....why? Well, I haven't made these brownies for about 3 years (despite their amazingness) and I can remember just about every time I made them. I once made so many that I ended up delivering them to friends on campus at uni, I traded some for a loaf of Veda Bread (BEST. TRADE. EVER.), an ex made some and posted them to me in Oxford (they weren't as good as mine though), I taught my Mum to make them, I gave everyone I knew the recipe...need I go on? There are a lot of happy (and unhappy I guess) memories attached to these. So, here is the recipe for the Brownies from an unknown source which I have renamed 'Memory Brownies'. Yum.

Ingredients

150g butter (Stork will do but butter is better) (try saying that after a few drinks)

220g dark choc (if you're buying 100g bars then 200g is totally fine, that's what I use. Oh, and this tastes AMAZING even if you use Tesco value 29p chocolate.)
220g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs (be ethical and buy free range, go on)
75g plain flour
75g self-raising flour
100g white chocolate (I tend to buy a bag of chocolate drops from the baking section)

100g fresh raspberries (frozen ones could work but I'm not sure...the recipe tastes good even without these)

Preheat fan oven to 180 degrees

1. Melt the butter together with the dark chocolate in the biggest pot you own. (ok, maybe not if you own a pressure cooker style pot, but use a big one)

2. Remove the pot from the heat.

3. Add everything else except from the white chocolate and the raspberries. Feel free to sieve things, but I don't bother.

4. Throw anyone who likes to eat raw cake batter out of the kitchen (you will not get them to stop eating this, if I could get over my fear of eggs I would totally eat this all in one sitting before it was baked)

5. Mix everything with a wooden spoon until it looks er mixed. (DO. NOT. EAT.)

6.Grease a baking tray or line it with greaseproof paper. Or don't, but don't blame me if it gets stuck in the pan (although that would be a great excuse to eat it all straight from the oven)

7. If you didn't grease your tin then leave it a second so it isn't still really hot- otherwise your white chocolate will melt and that will not be cool

8. Mix in the chocolate drops and the raspberries. I try not to  mash the raspberries up too much, but it totally doesn't matter.

9. Pour into that greased baking tray.

10. Throw into the oven. I put them in for about 2o - 30 mins. But then I like my brownies to be totally gooey- if I wanted to make fully cooked brownies I would have followed a cake recipe. Basically take them out when you think they look cooked enough for you. If the top wobbles they're not cooked enough even for me.

 11. Place on a cooling rack. STEP AWAY FROM THE BROWNIES. Seriously.

12. Serve hot with ice cream. Or cold with ice cream. Or cream. Or on their own. Or straight out the tin with a spoon. Can you guess which one of these serving suggestions I followed...?!

I had to miss out the left hand side because I ate it all

Congratulations, your life is now complete.

Pin's Purchases: Buttons

Today I dragged my poor Father into the Barras. This time I wanted a forage in the actual market. For those of you (Tori) who are not familiar with the infamous market, it's in the east end of Glasgow. In its heyday it was packed and a great place for a bargain. I remember visiting as a child and being in awe of the stallholder's Glasgae patter. Sadly, it is no longer what it was, bits of it are now more akin to the late Paddy's Market than anything else.

Anyway, there were a few good stalls to be found, (after my dad dragged me away from the 'Mulberry' handbags, I didn't know they did a PU range...) one of which sold some rather awesome buttons. 

I'm a bit of a button fiend. I was reading a post the other day over at Tilly and the Buttons about 'satisficers' and 'maximisers' and I was convinced that I'm a 'maximiser'. This may be true, but I think I'm also a third option...a 'hoarder'. If I see a button which I think is pretty then I will buy it(and can never bring myself to use it). It doesn't matter if I have nothing to go with it, I will buy it (ok a set of them...) anyway. My obsession even extends as far as buying random buttons from Ebay- as in a lot of 100 which again go with nothing I'm sewing...

My love for buttons stems back to the days of my Mum knitting me beautiful mohair cardigans with shiny heart buttons on. I LOVED those buttons, so much in fact that I still have one 20 years on. I also have kept a gorgeous button I found in my Gran's button tin after she died; its a really nice pink with silver detailing that I can't bring myself to use because its so pretty.

ANYWAY, today I bought some really nice buttons...just because I liked them. In the Barras. See, I knew this post would make sense eventually! So without any further ado...the buttons from the Barras...                                                  

 I think I might use these beauties (left) for the front of my dress.

Or maybe these lovelies (right). I'm a little bit of a Magpie...

 These are my favourites (£1 for ten, amazing!) but I haven't got a clue what I'll use them for (left)

 Oooh, or I could use these ones for my dress? Or perhaps the skirt I'm making?(right) 

 We chose these ones for my Mum because she knits lots of Aran cardigans. (left) 

Any advice on places to find buttons (or button donations!) would be much appreciated!

One and only

A break from the dressmaking is in order I think, so instead I'm going to share one of my favourite recipes with you. It's my friend's birthday this weekend, so I've been baking.

This is from the BBC Good Food Website and they've named it 'Romantic Rose Cupcakes'. I go to this every time I need a plain sponge for cupcakes or a round cake. It's so so so so easy, impossible to get wrong and tastes amazing. Until I gave this a go I liked trying varying recipes- but I'm yet to find anything as moist and impressive as this one. Don't be put off by the nuts, you can't taste them, they just keep it nice and soft. It is impossible to make this cake dry, it is just so good! I've made this as a round cake this time because icing so many cupcakes is time consuming, but it looks lovely either way and tastes amazing.

You can access the original recipe here

Ingredients

 150ml natural yogurt (I use Onken's small pot which is 178g or own brand supermarket yogurt. However I never use the excess so I prefer to pay slightly more to buy the smaller pot!)

3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
175g golden caster sugar
140g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
175g unsalted butter (salted is fine too)

                                                                 Method

Turn oven on- fan 170 degrees

1.Add all dry ingredients to a bowl

2. Melt the butter in a pot

3. Mix the vanilla essence, yogurt and eggs in a measuring jug or similar

4. Slowly add the melted butter to the egg mix. This bit is a bit odd, it looks horrible. Don't worry, I've made this many times and the eggs are yet to scramble!

5.Start the mixer, add the buttery eggs over several batches to the mix. 

6. Don't mix it too much, just make sure it isn't lumpy :)

7. Now add this to a 7.5ish inch springform tin or cupcake cases in a muffin tin (you'll get 12 muffin sized or roughly 20 fairy cakes depending on the tin)

8. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15 - 20 mins. You will know when they're ready- check the colour (golden) and that they're springy to the touch. If you're really worried shove a cocktail stick into one- as long as anything stuck to it is cooked then you're good (the cake mix does tend to stick so it's not the easiest way to tell).

9. Allow to cool

Ice with butter icing made from 140g of both butter and icing sugar and 100g of melted white chocolate. Don't be tempted to miss out the chocolate- I promise they will not be too sweet- the icing compliments the cake batter beautifully. Just make the icing as you would normally then add the melted chocolate at the end. Lovely.

I have a bit of a fondness for subtle shimmer and glitter on my cakes (as you may have guessed). I know there have been a few articles in the news recently about the 'dangers' of what is now called non-toxic glitter. As you can see I have disregarded this and carried on using it. I used a Dr Oetker shimmer spray on both of the pictured cakes, on the label it clearly says it is edible- a Doctor wouldn't lie surely....?! The spray gives icing a really lovely lustre. I opted for the silver spray. At over £3.50 it is a little pricey, but the effect is so pretty that I don't mind :)

I'm also a little too fond of filters over my photos- I take a perfectly good photo and wreck it with some effects...oh well. Pictured is the shimmer spray and the 'non-toxic' glitter I used. I love the white or pale glitters (Disco Orange is a particular favourite) because they don't look totally out of place if they fall unevenly. 

By the by, I also got this awesome 'cake carrier' the other day in the Poundshop of all places. It has a hook on top meaning it makes carrying the cake around a lot easier. I'm well impressed!

Puzzle

Tuesday night's evening class went well, Cardonald isn't the handiest to get to but it's a lovely new college.

I've got everything pinned to my fabric, ready to cut out to make my toile. It took me the full 2.5 hours to get through cutting the pattern out and pinning it- although I did chat a little too much! This dressmaking business is rather time consuming. It is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, you have to fit the pieces on to the fabric so they all face the correct way. Of course certain pieces must be on the fold so it's a bit of a faff!

I nipped into my favourite fabric store last week and picked up some rather lovely lining for my dress at a pound a metre. It's navy blue and spotty so looks perfect with my navy fabric.

I also bought myself a new sewing tin (I've been needing one for a while). Ok, so it's an M & S shortbread tin, but it's the perfect size for all the bits and pieces I need to take to my class. I'm a little bit in love with the Royal Family so this will go nicely with my Royal Wedding tins!


The toile should start to take shape this week so hopefully I'll have something a little more interesting to report soon!

Machines

It's almost time for my next night class and I still haven't written about last week's! Well, not much to report other than...I learned to use an industrial sewing machine which was trés exciting. Threading machines up poses little difficulty now (I've been shown how to thread at least 6 different machines, I'm now quite happy to just sit down and have a go) and the fact that it was proper heavy duty made it very novel. I won't babble too much about the machine, but using one of these bad boys could be likened to driving a car you have lusted after for many years. It had all sorts of little added niceties, you can cut the thread with the pedal as well as lift the foot, which made it a dream to sew with. I'm looking forward to using it for the next few weeks.

I've chosen my fabric (see previous post) and my pattern so I'm ready to go. I had another wee wander to the Fabric Bazaar to pick up a little more material to have a go at making a skirt too. I'm nothing if not ambious!

Pin's Purchases: I'm so excited

So I was going to write a blog post about Wednesday's class, which I will later, but I'm FAR TOO EXCITED to do that yet. You see, yesterday I went to a new fabric shop for the first time.

I've heard a lot about the Fabric Bazaar on London Road but I've never had a chance to go seek it out. Every night class I've been to has recommended it as the cheapest fabric shop in Glasgow and I concur that it is most definitely worth a visit. I've chosen my pattern for my dressmaking class (Simplicity 1913, it has appeared in quite a few blogs recently and I must say, every different version looks beautiful) so I desperately needed some fabric to use.

As you can see I got a bit over enthusiastic- all I went in for was dress fabric.  I went a little wander round a few of Fabric Bazaar's competitors (who for now will remain nameless since I'll assume they were having a bad day) but was left uninspired. I had an idea in my head of what I was looking for, but I didn't know what it was called or what colour I wanted. Anyway, on perusal of FB's shelves I happened across a nice, plain, navy cotton. I thought it was the one for me so I went to get some cut. But then, suddenly, a beautiful, navy, polyester wool mix practically leapt off the shelf at me. It was love at first sight. At £1.99 a metre. FB, I'm in love with you. (On another note, I have no idea if this will actually work out...but if it is no good for this dress then I'll get a lovely pencil skirt out of it)

As you can see I also have a bit of a love affair with zips, particularly the big teethy ones. Lovely. Oh, and buttons, shiny, shiny buttons. And thread. I bought the pink on a whim, I think I might topstitch with it. But then again...

Anyway, this lovely pile cost me a massive £11.96(I ended up with 3.5 metres of fabric). So in conclusion, Fabric Bazaar is a little out of the way (it's down by the Barras) but it is well worth a trip. I get the impression it's the kind of place you'll never know what you're going to find. 

I'll post a wee blog post about what I class as being a sewer's best friends, but for now I'm going to upload  a photo of my latest Cath Kidston purchase. I'm a big Cath Kidston fan and can regularly be found perusing the aisles of the lovely new (ish) Glasgow shop on Gordon Street. I've had another case in the past with mini spools of thread in it, I much prefer this new version with a thread pleat (love love love these things). 

The scissors were from a craft fair in the SECC a few months ago- an impulse buy but I rather like them.

Material girl

So...I signed up for another night class.

I have a rather fraught history with taking craft (and photography) classes. I've done a few- from the amazing to the awful. My favourite by far was the 'Vintage Accessories' class I took last year- I learnt a lot and really enjoyed it. The tutor was brilliant and really took the time to make sure everyone at the class gained new skills. My least favourite was purchased through Itison- it was meant to involve afternoon cake and tea and lots of crafty goodness. Instead we sat in a freezing shop, listening to 'Hark the Herald' on loop and drank cold tea (with Tunnock's biscuits) while a disinterested 'tutor' served customers. Let's just say I won't be returning there for any of my craft supplies.

My latest class is in dressmaking. I'll be honest, I have absolutely no dressmaking experience whatsoever. I can't actually sew on buttons (that's my mum's job- they're too fiddly for me) so this should be a 'challenge'. I'm starting to worry a bit about what I've let myself in for.

Anyway, here's the plan. Each week I intend to photograph my progress and document how I'm getting on with my project. I'm thinking I want to make a pencil skirt, preferably for my graduation. I doubt I'll come up with anything wearable, but it's worth a try. 

I wandered lonely as a cloud

About a year ago I had a murder mystery night set in 1930′s America, at the height of prohibition. To create a 1930′s vibe we drank gin and tonic from teacups, and mojitos from a soup tureen (ok, not sure about the mojitos or the tureen!). I had scoured charity shops far and wide until I had enough- incidentally the best place for vintage cookware seems to be Stornoway. Each teacup only cost me 25p or 35p with a matching saucer- I could hardly fit them in the car to get them home because of all of the tweed I’d already bought! Anyway, I ended up with quite a lot of china.

Which left me with a dilemma.

What do you do with 24 mismatched vintage teacups and saucers?

Well, my solution has been to try to grow things in them, with limited success. However, for Easter gifts I hit upon the idea of replanting small daffodil bulbs which I purchased in Ikea.

I had intended on photographing each step, but it became quite clear, quite quickly, that frankly, there was no need. I enlisted my dad to hold the compost bag for me because it was so big and heavy- but you’re unlikely to need any such assistance!

I’ve written a quick tutorial below in case you need a little guidance:

To make three you will need:

daffodils (attached to a bulb of course! Tesco are selling these for £1 for three just now)

3 teacups (or any other container you fancy!)

half a cup of compost

How it’s done

1. Select and wash your cup (and saucer if using)

2. Add a little compost to the bottom of your teacup.

now for the tricky bit

3. Gently loosen the bulbs from their pot- to do this hold on to the stems and sort of twist the pot around.

4. You will now have a terrifying, wormlike nest of roots which will be intertwined. Take a hold of one of the daffodils near the root and again gently twist until it loosens and breaks free.

5. Break off any larger roots- I’m not talking trimming it down till there are none- you just want the plant to fit in the teacup!

6. Place the bulb into your teacup

7. Add a little more compost to the top and pat it down gently- the bulb will stick up a bit above the compost

8. Mist with some water (do this regularly, but be careful, remember there is not drainage in a teacup!)

9. Done!

Any other ideas for me?

Come away with me

There is possibly nothing, nothing, as wonderful as a charity shop find. For me this find came in the form of two beautiful old suitcases. 

Now, if there is one thing I know nothing about...then it is suitcases. I have no idea how old, or how young, these babies are. I don't even have a clue what they're made of (plastic? But not hard plastic- is that a real thing?) and I have no clue what I'm going to do with them.

There's a bit of a story behind them. I saw them on Thursday morning, lying in the charity shop with their ridiculous price tags on them (the wee one was £3 and the bigger one was £2). I had a look around them, picked them up, put the overnight case over my shoulder to see how it looked. Then I made the fundamental error.  

Reader, I walked away.

My thought process being that I had no room for them and no use for them. 

Anyway, I got home and realised how silly it was not to buy them, I could use them for all kinds of stuff, I take the train down to England quite a bit and one of these would be the perfect size for a weekend visit. Or I could keep my craft supplies in it. Or I could decopatch it and use it to store my cushions in. Or I could photograph my cushions in it. Or or or. 

I went back the next day. It was Good Friday. And it was shut....

I was more preoccupied with my suitcases than my Easter Eggs over the weekend, but thankfully my Dad drove me down on Tuesday and they were still there!

So that's my sad little story of how they came to be mine. I'm still not sure what to do with them, I'm leaning towards painting the little one and using it for trips. Or maybe I should use the big one for trips. Or maybe I'll cover them in some sort of fabric (not sure how I'll do this...) or maybe I'll decopatch them both using the Complete Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson. (Bad English student)

Any ideas for me?