Sunshine Awards!

I love it when bloggers all share our fabulous craft blogs with each other. Thank you so much to wonderful bloggers Flutterby Rainbow &  A mess to be made  for nominating Make Bake & Sew for the sunshine award!

The science bit…..

On to the award acceptance process: according to the rules, nominees must (i) include a link in your blog to the blog that nominated you; (ii) answer some questions about yourself; (iii) nominate 10 fellow bloggers, linking to their blogs; and (iv) inform them that they have been nominated.

Q&A:

1. Who is your favorite philosopher? Can’t decide yet

2. What is your favorite number? 5

3. What is your favorite animal? my cats

 4. What are your Facebook and Twitter? @makebakeandsew http://www.facebook.com/pages/Make-Bake-Sew/132332563534031

5. What is your favorite time of day? 2:30pm – nap time on a day off!

6. What is your favorite holiday? a small apartment in St Ives, Cornwall

7. What is your favorite physical activity? walking or dancing

8. What is your favorite non-alcoholic drink?  Diet Coke – I know it’s rotting my insides but I don’t care

9. What is your passion?  craft and my family

10. What is your favorite flower? Hydrangea

And now our own nominations to pass the Sunshine Award on, in no particular order:

The Gingerbread Mum

English Girl at Home

Popsicles and Piñatas

Easy crafts for Children

The thimble room

Little Poppits

Time Pass Hobbies

Folk Haven

Glitter Mama

Chocoholic Knits

Happy crafting!

A Big Thank You

Just wanted to issue you all with huge great big thank you. I noticed that other day I had reached over 10,000 hits on my beloved little blog and over 1000 followers across Facebook, twitter and wordpress. I am utterly astounded that so many of you have dropped by and hope I can continue to bring you some fun and interesting posts and projects to grow my blog even further.

i love writing here and adore the gargantuous community blogging can connect you to.

I am always amazed that I have been able to create something like this I can be so proud of and hope you come back soon

 

Thank you!

 

Like me…..I’m needy

In a world where we all need a blog, twitter feed, pinterest, Facebook account, tumblr blah blah blah –  to stand a chance of surviving in the digital universe, it all leaves me feeling a little needy tbh. We are all screaming ‘Like me, like me’ in the race to get more likes/friends/followers. I don’t like begging.

However, I have made some amendments to my Facebook page to morph it into the offical page of Make Bake & Sew. So if you do like what I do then please ‘Like’ me on Facebook. I will like you too and we can all be virtual friends forever – VFF. Thank you.

Make Bake and Sew Facbook Page

Melted Snowman in a Jar

I bloody love Christmas. Anything I can add to my decorations each year that it is interesting and unusual I’ll be all over it

Check out this melted snowman in a jar which can be bought out year after year and will always be a talking point.

My jar is from Ikea and is filled with general household salt for the melted snow, felt  or card carrot nose and currants for the snowman’s eye’s and buttons. If you have a small jar you can use black peppercorns which are great as the don’t sink in the salt. If you do use currants, take them out before storing your snowman for the summer and replace them when you bring him out each holiday season to prevent them going a tad mouldy. Add a ribbon bow to your jar, striped ribbon would be great and double as the snowman’s scarf.

I made some bauble versions of these too for a Christmas fayre recently. The same principle but just fill clear glass baubles with salt and add the peppercorns and felt nose. Festive ribbon is great for hanging them from your tree.

#holidays are coming……..holidays are coming……

The Felt Gingerbread House update…..

Well I started making the gingerbread house from Jeanette Lim’s Big little felt universe a couple of weeks ago and here is the finished article. I did some adjustments as I just didn’t have the time to sew on all the individual felt sweets to the roof – I would have been there til next Christmas!

I love that the roof comes off the store your gingerbread people and any other christmas bits you fancy.

 

 

Read my review of Big little felt Universe here

The new addition….

My sister calls my family the waltons. She says every time I see her there is another one of us. She’s not totally wrong, we are now a seven – my husband and I, 3 children between us, the cat Jean and now the kitten I found wondering around in our street on a Sunday morning. Molly.

Seven mouths to feed, I must be mad.  My wonderful friend Jane is convinced I had planted Molly outside the house so we could ‘find’ her. I wish I was that clever.

Here’s Molly this morning helping me Blog…kind of.

School Style Chocolate Concrete

It’s the ultimate comfort pudding. We all had it at school (usually with pink custard) – Chocolate concrete is having a revival! Every sandwich shop I go in lately has it in the cake display but in my household it’s never really gone away.

My mother used to be a dinner lady when I was a girl and when she left, one of the cooks gave her the recipe as a leaving present. It feels a little naughty to share it actually. As if I’m breaking some kind of ‘dinner lady code’. But here it is. And its amazing! Perfect hearty pudding for after a weekend roast. Sundays will never be the same again.

Pre heat oven to Gas Mark 4 or 180c

80z Self Raising Flour

1oz Cocoa powder

6oz caster sugar

6oz butter

1 egg

Melt the butter in a pan. Place flour, sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl and mix together. Add the melted butter and the egg to the dry ingredients and combine. Grease a tray bake or swiss roll tin (approx 1inch deep). Put the mixture in the tin and pat it down until level and even. Bake for 15 mins if you like it soft. If you prefer it like real chocolate concrete bake for 15 mins, then turn the oven right down and leave it on the bottom shelf for another 15-30 mins depending on how crunchy you want it! Sprinkle with a little caster sugar while still warm.

Slather with custard and curl up on the sofa.

Freezes well.

Bake meets Make

Followers of my tweets on @bakingcupboard will know I sometimes can be distracted from baking to partake in a little craft and needle work. I’ve decided to combine this blog to incorporate my craft and sewing projects. I think three separate blogs for this is a little over the top! This mainly came from most of my time in the last couple of weeks being spent preparing for the 3 Christmas Fayre’s (is it fair or fayre???? always confuses me) I am going to be selling at this holiday season. I’m planning on doing a combo table of cupcakes, christmas cookies & homemade gifts and decorations. My thinking being, I may stand a better chance of success with a variety of wares to offer! We shall see.

So, I introduce ‘Make Bake & Sew’ ….. a work in progress.

Tweet me @makebakeandsew or email me at makebakeandsew@gmail.com

Hope to see you here soon!

Welcome to The Baking Cupboard…..

Greetings cake lovers.  Through this blog I hope to share with you my affection for baking and show you how to achieve stunning results with minimum effort! Of course there will be the odd showstopper piece which may take a little more time and skill but is well worth the effort. I love baking and cake decorating so there will be a good mix of baked goods and tips and ideas on how to decorate your cakes and treats.

Feel free to comment and like my Facebook page.  Even sign up for email notifications if you’d like to know when I post new recipes and decorating ideas. Or email me on thebakingcupboard@gmail.com

Thanks for visiting!