Crafting and Baking

I have been making a card for my sister's birthday and went full on mixed media for it - hope she liked it! It has a die cut leaf which I coloured with acrylic ink and then clear embossed, so it looks as though it is wet.  The background is a mixture of book pages and collage papers and the envelope has leaf stamps on it.

I have been inspired by some Youtubers - I think this one was Ceri Griffiths.  I made three postcard sized collages using lots of bits and pieces of papers and stamps and the odd digikit thrown in..

The inspiration for these was Crafty by Toni here - inking and then stamping onto self adhesive labels.  I used Tim Holtz stamps 'Field Notes' here.

This stamp set was another Tim Holtz set called 'Eccentric'.  I really enjoyed this and now have some lovely bits and pieces for art journals or cards.

I tried a recipe for Devon Apple Cake which was on Corners of my Mind blog here  It was really easy to make, smelled beautifully of cinnamon and mixed spice and tasted even better!  It is great as a pudding with custard, or with cream or yogurt or just on its own.  As it has apple in it, it won't keep for that long, but that wasn't a problem in our house!

Apple and Banana Loaf

 I found this recipe on a blog that I follow - here - and as I just happened to have several manky, spotty bananas hanging about, (with the (sort of) warm weather, they go spotty very quickly), I decided to try the recipe and use up the bananas.  I told myself that a cake with bananas and an apple in it was almost healthy.  The problem is, I don't need any persuading to eat cake!

The recipe is very easy and quick to make.  In my conventional 'no bells and whistles' gas oven, it took longer to cook than the recipe said, but I kept checking the cake with a skewer and when the skewer came out clean, I knew it was done.  I managed to stop myself from eating it until it had cooled sufficiently to cut it without it crumbling.  It has quite a solid texture, but is very moist and not too sweet, which is a bonus.  Thank you to Gillian for posting the recipe.

Oat Biscuit Recipe

Since putting a photo of these oat biscuits on my blog, I have been asked to add the recipe, so here it is. (It is in imperial measurements, so apologies if you work in metric).

4oz butter
4oz brown sugar
60z rolled oats (I use ordinary porridge oats which seem to be fine)
6oz plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 tablespoons milk

Makes approx 36 biscuits.
Oven temperature: Gas 2/300 degrees F

Method: Grease baking trays/sheets. Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in oats, sifted flour and bicarb of soda - mix thoroughly. Add milk to make a stiff-ish dough. Turn out onto a floured surface (I use half the dough at a time to make it more manageable when rolling out) and roll out thinly. Cut out with a 2 inch cutter. Place onto greased baking trays and bake for approx 20 mins until golden brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
Enjoy eating them!