Colour Burst

 Hi :) 

late last year I was asked to design another quilt for Prima Homespun solids range

to be showcased in the "Project Patchwork 2" book by Spotlight Australia.

I had to quickly pop into Spotlight today for press studs and lining and voila! there it was the new Spotlight book on the cutting counter catching my eye.

For now the pattern is only available from Spotlight - in the Project Patchwork 2 book

Here are some pretty pictures I took before I shipped it off to Melbourne

I do love this quilt, I'd love to make another when I get a bit of time.......

I hope you like it !?

and I'd love you to show me if you make it!

Xx Siobhan R

The Carrot Cake experiment........

I've been home working in the shed and on the computer - the usual I cant show you what I'm working on business...............

Not showing people what I'm up to is a bit tricky for me - I'm not great at keeping quiet.

Anyway I can show you what I baked today!

The cool autumn weather has gotten me very bake-y (I know thats not a word)

The other day I discovered much to my horror that my children didn't know what a carrot cake was!? I'm talking about teenagers..... not toddlers.

Today I was on a mission to show them what they had missed - moist yummy sweet carrot cake with cream cheese icing - My favourite as a kid. My Nana baked it all the time.

Its one of those nice and easy throw everything together and bake cakes. 

 Serves 12
530 Calories/ 2217KJ per serve (including icing)

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of bicarb of soda
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 & 1/2 cups raw sugar (any sugars fine)
4 eggs
200ml vegetable oil
400g crushed canned pineapple drained
3 cups grated carrot (I used 7 small carrots)
1/2 cup almond meal

23cm or 9 inch round springform cake tin greased and lined.

Oven set at 170C (not fan forced)
or 330F on an electric oven

Using two bowls
put all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl (inc carrot). Mixing the wet ingredients.
Place the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl and with a wooden spoon stir to combine.

Pour the stiff mixture into your greased and lined cake tin, tap it on the bench a few times to get the mixture flat.

Bake for 50/ 60 minutes - test with a wooden skewer, its ready when the skewer comes out clean.


leave to cool in tin

Lime Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients 

250grams Cream Cheese

1 cup icing sugar mixture

1 Lime rind finely grated and juice

Beat the cream cheese until soft. Add the rind/ juice of the one lime and 1 cup of icing sugar mixture. Beat until smooth.

When the cake has cooled completely spread the icing on top of the cake.

The verdict

My husband and I loved it - It was beautiful moist and the cream cheese zesty icing.... Heaven 

BUT

The kids weren't convinced .....

Looks like I should have introduced it at an earlier age. 

Well I am off 

Let me know what you think of carrot cake?!

Xx Siobhan 

JAM

Hi All 

Anyone following me on Instagram will know full well that I have been on a Jam making binge over the last few months.....

I started with strawberries which seemed to be in abundance during our summer and then I moved onto raspberries and more recently in our cooler weather rhubarb and cherries

I love rhubarb

Just saying

The Raspberry, Strawberry & Cherry jams were equal parts fruit to sugar (about a kilo of each) and then a lemon cut in half with a vanilla pod.

I haven't had to use any jam setter in any of my batches yet, I'm presuming my laziness in adding a whole lemon cut in half instead of juicing it has been working.

I've even tried using frozen raspberries and cherries and it works really well.

Saying that though I do intend on using fruits in season from now on making larger quantities and storing it in the pantry.

Currently its Autumn going into Winter here so on my seasonal radar is more Rhubarb (YUM), figs, blood orange and I'm plotting some pears in syrup.....

The beginnings of Rhubarb Raspberry & Vanilla jam.

I had three large bunches of rhubarb that weighed 2.329kg cut into small pieces - 522g raspberries - equal amount of caster sugar (2.851g) - two vanilla pods sliced in half and two whole lemons sliced in half. I left it covered overnight to let the Rhubarb release its liquid.

as you can see the rhubarb releases a lot of liquid overnight.

After about one hour on a slow boil it was ready to jar.

I used old jars and new jars, washed them in soapy water and then boiled them in a large pot on the stove for at least 10 minutes. I also added the ladle and tongs to the pot.

I then put the jars in the oven on a tray upright for at least another 10 minutes to dry them.

I know technically only one of the above mentioned methods are required for sterilisation but..... I don't want mouldy jam.

Once the jars are full and lid on tight - tip it upside-down for 5 or so minutes and then tip it back up again. This will help it seal and stay sterile 

Soooo I wont be running out of jam anytime soon!

Xx Siobhan