Happy New Year

I wish you a wonderful 2014.

Gertie xx

Seasons greetings

Here's wishing you a very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Gertie xx

December's bake of the month

OK, this technically isn't a bake but it does contain something that has been baked.

This recipe requires no cooking, only two ingredient and just 10 minutes preparation - how easy is that !!!!!!

It's Christmas pudding ice cream. Trust me, you have got to try it, it's fabulous.

I don't have any photos to show you at the moment (because I haven't made this years yet) but come Boxing Day I'll try and put some up.

Christmas pudding ice cream

Ingredients:

• 1 litre tub of vanilla ice cream
• 7oz/200g left over Christmas pudding, crumbled

Method:

• Put the tub of ice cream into a microwave (or leave it out of the freezer for half an hour) to soften slightly so you can get it out of the tub.
• Transfer the ice cream to a food processor and whiz until smooth. 
• Gently fold the crumbled Christmas pudding into the melted ice cream then pour into a freezer-proof container. Freeze for several hours (or it you can't wait, at least two.....).
• Bring the ice cream out of the freezer about twenty minutes before serving to allow it to soften slightly, otherwise you'll never get it out of the container!!!  If your container is microwaveable you can always pop it into the microwave for a few seconds to soften. 

Gertie xx

Deck the halls

Last week I showed you 'Rudolph'. This week I thought I'd show you a couple of other Christmas decorations in the Gertie household.

This is the fireplace in the living room. There used to be a gas fire in the centre. We inherited it when we bought the house but it got condemned several years ago !!!! Normally the large vase, which you can just make out on the right of the picture, sits in the centre, but during the festive season it gets replaces with a cross stitch wall hanger.

I bought the kit from a sewing shop in a beautiful place called Solvang in California. At the time (1991) it was the largest cross stitch project I'd ever done.

  

We go from the largest to the smallest project I've ever made. These are 'the 12 days of Christmas' cross stitched on 27 count fabric - that's 27 holes to the inch. Ouch !!!! I seem to remember setting myself a challenge to make one 'day' per month. I think I did it with one month to spare.

These cute little fella's are Waverly the snowman and Iggy and Mo the snowballs. They're all hand knitted and Waverly's sack contains twelve little knitted bags, each with a knitted present inside.... 

On either side of the mantelpiece are two cross stitch Christmas cards and above that is the 'jingle bells' bunting I made a couple of weeks ago. We had some baubles spare from the Christmas tree so I just put them in a glass vase, which is at the bottom of the main picture.

I decorated the dresser in the kitchen with paper snowflakes (so easy to make and surprisingly very therapeutic too). The 'falling' snowflakes are simply made by attaching them to a length of white sewing cotton.

Have a great week.

Love

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

How to make a Rudolph

Take one newel post (otherwise known as a handrail post).

Attach to the post the following.

You now have your very own Rudolph.....

Have a great week.

Love

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

Christmas buntings

Here at last are my Christmas buntings. Last weekend was one of those where time just disappeared so we weren’t able to take some photos.  I was determined to get them done this weekend so there would be no lunch on Saturday until they were photographed....

I wanted to put a Christmas motif on the flags but not something that wasn’t too intricate, given that the maximum width of the flag is six inches, and it had to be instantly recognisable. I never make things easy for myself !!!

Having looked at all things Christmassy I decided on a snowman.  Why, I have no idea, but I somehow convinced myself that drawing the snowman using ‘Word’ would be better than using ‘Corel Draw’. The result was Mr Snowman ended up being a little misshapen....

There were lots of beautiful Christmas fabrics to choose from, however I wanted something that was festive, but not too shouty so the applique images would be drowned out. I eventually went for red and green fabric which had tiny stars printed on it.

 

I knew what kind of lettering I wanted for the flags - sort of rounded, bubble, kind of thing - so thought 'Word' or 'Open Office' would have a font suitable. Sadly they didn't so I did a search on the internet and found just what I was looking for.

As each letter was A4 size (they were meant for children's school posters) I printed the letters I needed, scanned each one, then using Coral Draw, I re-sized them to make the templates.

Both the letters and snowmen were cut from felt and attached using a machine blanket stitch. Normally I would have just stitched them by hand but as there were so many to do I thought it would be quicker to do it by machine.

For the top ribbon I simply used some red spotty dressmaking fabric.
 

Have a great week.

Love

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.

November's bake of the month

No Christmas bunting to show you this week. They're finished but we didn't have time over the weekend to take any photos. They're be up next week - promise !!!!

So rather than not put a blog up I thought I'd share with you my recipe for Christmas cake. I know there are thousands of fruit cake recipes but trust me, you won't be disappointed when you try it.

This cake is perfect for making now or several months in advance. Simply 'feed' it with alcohol every three/four weeks until the end of November, then every week until you're ready to decorate it.

As this is an ancient family recipe all the weights and sizes are in 'old' money. If you want them in metric there'll be lots of sites on-line that will be able to convert it for you.

There's no photo this time. Lets be honest, one fruit cake looks very much like another.. 

Boozy Christmas cake

Ingredients of 7 inch round tin/ 6 inch square tin:

• 7oz currants
• 4oz sultanas
• 2oz raisins
• 2oz glace Cherries – chopped 
• 2oz mixed peel
• 2oz mixed chopped nuts
• 2 tablespoon brandy/rum or any spirit
• 5oz plain flour – sieved 
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1oz ground almonds
• 4oz soft brown sugar
• 4oz butter (softened)
• 1 tablespoon black treacle
• 3 eggs 

Ingredients for a 9 inch round tin/ 8 inch square tin:

• 13oz currants
• 7oz sultanas
• 3 ½oz raisins
• 3 ½oz glace Cherries – chopped
• 3 ½oz mixed peel
• 3 ½oz mixed chopped nuts
• 3 tablespoon brandy/rum or any spirit
• 9oz plain flour – sieved
• 1 ¾ teaspoon mixed spice
• 2oz ground almonds
• 8oz soft brown sugar
• 8oz butter (softened)
• 1 ½ tablespoon black treacle
• 5 eggs

Method:

• Put all fruit in a bowl then add the alcohol. Give the fruit a good stir then leave overnight.
• The following day preheat oven to 140º c/Gas Mk 1. Fan oven 130ºc.Line the cake tin with two sheets of baking parchment. You could use greaseproof paper but you must grease it with butter/margarine.
• Add all the ingredients except for the fruit into a large bowl. Mix well, either with a wooden spoon or a food mixer. Add half of the fruit to the bowl, mix, then add the rest of the fruit and mix again.
• Scrape the mixture into the tin, making a slight well in the centre of the cake - this will stop the centre from rising. Take hold of the tin and tap it a couple of times onto a hard surface. This gets rid of any air bubbles.
• Cover the top and sides of the tin with a double layer of greaseproof paper or brown paper.  Bake in the centre of the oven for two ½ hours for cake tin sizes 6 and 7 inch and three hours for cake tin sizes 8 and 9 inch.
• To check whether the cake is done place a skewer (a knitting needle or piece of spaghetti are ideal) in the centre of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean the cake is cooked. If it’s not, return to the oven for another 30 minutes and check again.
• Leave to cool completely in the tin. When cool pierce the top of the cake all over with a cocktail stick. Drizzle two or three tablespoons of the alcohol you used in the mixture over the cake. Wrap the cake in a double layer of greaseproof paper then a double layer of tinfoil.
• Leave the cake for one week. Unwrap it, turn it over, then skewer and ‘feed’ the cake again. Repeat the ‘feeding’ process until one week before Christmas. Decorate it in the normal way with marzipan and the icing of your choice.

Gertie xx