Men... who'd have 'em??

Been very busy since my last post. Thursday I was stitching away, Friday I was baking some cupcakes for the lady I spoke about in an earlier post, Saturday was a friends wedding and Sunday I was making dinner. I have also been stitching today too.

So here is 'The Wedding' from Thursday.

Here are the Cupcakes I made on Friday. 

As you can see, 3 different colours. There is lilac, white and yellow. They were for a baby shower where the sex of the baby was not known.

The kids have loved it as I made extra for them too.

Saturday was rather eventful, as I mentioned we went to a friends wedding. We had a great time and I got very drunk, which I am suffering for now!!

I was dancing away, and used muscles that I had forgotten I had and today they have been aching like mad.

When we got home my OH decided that he no longer wanted to be involved in any of my internet sites and so I have had to remove all mention of him from my blog and my Facebook etc. He did make me very mad with it. So now as far as the internet is concerned, my family only consists of myself and the girls Kerry, Emily and Jessica, as Jade has also asked to be removed. I can tell you this has upset me quite a lot.

Moving on, I made Sunday dinner again this week, we had it rather late as I was too hungover earlier on to get it made so it became a Sunday tea lol. But I wanted to show you my Yorkshire Puddings as once again they were pretty great.

This one as you can see is bigger than my hand and it wasn't even the biggest!>>>

And finally, my Sunday update of 'The Wedding'

Time for me to go to bed, speak soon x.

Being lazy

I have done very little these last few days.

Well I say that , but I have sorted through all the girls school uniform to see what still fits and what is needed new. That was fun I can tell you. The only one willing to do it was Jessica but then she is super excited to go back to school and stay there all day and have a packed lunch.

I am not one of those mothers that throws out last years school uniform and starts again from fresh each year. I just think what a waste, especially as Jessica is now wearing some of Kerry's old stuff. I am pretty old school in that respect, I would use something until it has gone beyond what any reasonable person would and then would try to think of a new use for it lol.

Even with me saving as much uniform as poss from last year it will still cost a further £130 to completely kit them all out. How do people afford to start from scratch each year??

I have had a bolt from the blue as well, I made some cupcakes for the Queens Diamond Jubilee earlier on this year. Well, I had completely forgotten about it until my MIL came and said someone came into the shop where she works and asked if I made cupcakes to order. So MIL took her number and now I have a job to make 24 cupcakes for this ladies daughters pregnancy shower. How cool is that??

I have also gotten myself the Kindle app on my phone, which means I have been reading up a storm too. So far this week I have read, 
Rules of Lying by Stephie Smith which was good I would give it 4 out of five,
Confessions of an Entrepreneur by Alana Sugar it was ok, short, well written but nothing of substance I give it 2 out of 5,
My Boyfriend's Back by Chrissy Olinger, This was also a short story but this was great, gripping, funny, and generally a good feel good. If you have seen drop dead gorgeous on t.v you will get what this book is on about I give this one 41/2 out of 5, 
I am part way through another 2 stories and will tell you about them as I get there.

Just a quick update on 'The Wedding' as I have been lazy and not done much but here is where I am up to.

The whole of the top right corner is now complete, also the first three pages on the chart are now done woohoo, 3 down 6 to go lol.

Speak soon x

Birthday Party

I am going purple with my writing today in honour of my little girl whose favourite colour is purple.

Well yesterday and today have been fun, 16 screaming kids and a ton of baking to do. It wouldn't have been so bad if my electric mixer hadn't died on me half way through baking my buns but hey ho I got there on the end lol.

So today is Emily's 6th birthday, and she had a party on the Sunday. Thirteen of her friends turned up which was lovely and she got some great pressies. Almost had a panic attack when the room wasn't open when we got there but got it sorted out quite quickly so that was good.

My niece had her 6th birthday party on Saturday. This is my three ready to go. Emily loves to have her hair curly though it takes me ages to do and lasts for about 15 mins before it all drops out despite copious amounts of hairspray.

Emily and Millie were born 3 days apart it was a race to give birth to them to see who would be first both went over our due dates Millie by one day and Emily by five. She still procrastinates lol.

This is Emily's birthday cake. How lovely does that look!!

Anyway back to Emily's birthday preparations I have done a step by step guide to all my recipes if you want to try them out.

Firstly I made the buns/cupcakes.

To make 35 cupcakes

You will need

400g Self raising flour

400g Caster sugar

400g margarine

8 medium eggs

2 teaspoons baking powder

Step One 

cream the margarine and sugar together. do this as long as you can the whiter and creamier you get this bit the better.

Step Two

Add half eggs and mix until combined, then add half flour and baking powder.

Step Three

repeat step two and then mix until creamy and smooth

Step Four

Divide mix into paper cases and bake for 20 mins at 200c

Step Five

Once cooked and golden brown on top remove and allow to cool

This is my recipe for butter cream icing to go on the top which you can do while the cakes are cooling.

You will need

250g Unsalted butter

500g icing sugar

1teaspoon vanilla extract

beat the butter until soft, add icing sugar a little at a time and mix in thoroughly add vanilla and keep on mixing until all combined, soft and smooth.

If like me you don't have a piping bag (because your friend borrowed it and never returned it) then spoon the mix into a polythene food bag

Secure the top with a twixit clip and cut of a small corner and there you have it a bag ready for piping. Store in fridge until you are ready to pipe.

you will end up with something that looks like this

I also made some other little things here are step by step guides to do them too.

Bacon and cheese bites

You will need

a 24 cup mini muffin pan (mine is from Pampered Chef available from me at www.pamperedchef.biz/traceyw )here

A mini tart shaper (again from Pampered Chef here)

260g shortcrust pasty

3 rashers smoked bacon

100g grated cheddar cheese

3 eggs

cut up  your bacon into small pieces and fry off. (I used my Pampered Chef pan as there is no need for oil)

combine your bacon cheese and eggs in a bowl.

shape your tarts by putting a ball of around 10-11g of pastry into each well and pressing your shaper into each one.

divide the mix between the wells and bake for 15-20 mins at 200c. remove and allow to cool.

Mini cheese and onion tartlets

You will need

24 cup mini muffin pan (see above)

260g shortcrust pastry

100g grated cheddar cheese

half an onion

3 eggs

finely chop your onion I used my Manual Food Processor  (available from here) 

add your cheese and egg and mix until combined

shape tarts as before and divide mix between wells

bake for 15-20 mins at 200c

I then made some mini lemon tarts which is just shaping your pastry as above and adding a teaspoon of lemon curd into each well

I also made some toffee apple tartlets which again you shape your pastry as above, combine luxury toffee sauce (about 2 tablespoons) with 2 apples cut into small chunks.

Divide mix between the wells and bake for 15-20 mins at 200c

Here is Emily blowing out the candles on her cake

Happy Birthday Honey!!!