FO Friday & Jubilee

Ok, I admit I'm slightly cheating with FO Friday. Technically this isn't finished as it needs a hoop to display it in and I haven't got one yet. The sewing is finished though and Evelyn was right about it being a cross stitch owl on a branch.

The pattern for this is from Sewingseed and Tina has some gorgeous designs. If you check out her blog there's also a discount code for the shop. You might notice that my owl is in more traditional colours and so doesn't look as modern as Tina's version. Well, that's because I just couldn't wait to start making it so I used the colours I already owned.

The other thing I finished this week (late last night) was cakes for Erin's jubilee party day at school. Today she has gone dressed in red, white and blue. I was hoping to make her something to wear but the school said on their letter that there would be lots of art/craft activities going on and not to send them in anything that you'd mind them getting ruined so I ended up getting a cheap top from Sainsburys instead. She already had leggings but, because the weather has turned wet, I had to send her with her school cardigan too.

When I saw the sign-up sheet for food to bring in, I immediately signed up for buns/cakes as I have a nice easy recipe for cupcakes. I made sure to order caster sugar with my weekly shop and last night at 8pm I started making a batch. All was fine until they had cooled down and I was ready to make the icing. I was out of icing sugar :-o . This was when Orla decided she did not want to sleep. So I ended up icing cakes at 11.30 last night!

Like the cases? They were 95p for 75 at Sainsburys, which I jumped at because the other Jubilee cases I'd seen were £5 for 30-odd.

Mmmm Cake!

It's my birthday tomorrow and, unusually for me, I'm going out! It's not really a birthday night out but my friend was going out with her friend and has invited me and a joint friend out too.

It also means winning a prize from the Lucy 'In The Sky' blog was great timing! In the spirit of passing on the good fortune I'll start a giveaway tomorrow to celebrate. I think I can find some hand-dyed yarn that needs a home ;-)

Of course, it can't be a proper birthday without cake. I was hoping Orla would want to bake with me but despite saying yes she refused to come into the kitchen :-/ so if it tastes awful I've no littlies to blame it on!!!

The recipe I used is from this book, which was a Christmas present from my sister.

Every time I use this recipe I have a slight panic that it's gone horribly wrong. It never seems to have the usual cake mixture consistency, it's more like pastry when it goes into the cases/tin. I've never had a problem with the taste of it though ;-)

I also got to try out my butterfly cake silicon mould. I've had this one and a train one for ages now. they came from a clearance sale at Lakeland some time ago and I've just not used them. One thing that has put me off is I threw away the cardboard that was around them that told me how much mixture to make. Anyway I was brave and it seems the recipe I followed (Vanilla Cupcakes) makes pretty much the right amount!

See what I mean about the consistency????

But it seemed to turn out ok...

I'm hoping Erin might help me ice it when she gets home from school. I might use this mould and recipe for her birthday cake as the plates & party bags are butterfly themed.