Victoria Sponge

Hi everyone,

I treated myself the other week to a new cookery book and bought this one from Sainsburys...

Not on;y was Jo a winner of The Great British Bake Off, she also only lives about 5 miles from me!

I don't know about you but I love a good old plain Victoria Spong. I made mine using the recipe from this book, which you can read in a moment. I happily followed the recipe and this was the result ...

I used jam and buttercream to fill and top the cake and it was absolutely delicious!
You can visit Jo's blog here

So here is the recipe:

Serves 8

200g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
200g caster sugar
200g margarine, at room temperature
4 large eggs, beaten
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Filling:
4tbsp strawberry jam
2tbsp caster sugar

You will need 2 x 20cm sandwich tins

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Butter and line the base of each cake tin with a disc of buttered baking parchment.

Tip all of the cake ingredients into the bowl of a free-standing mixer and beat for 2 minutes until smooth. If you don't have a free-standing machine you can use an electric hand held mixer.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared tineand spread level using a palette knife. Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes or until golden, well risen and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and carefully turn the cakes out of the tins, peel off the parchment and leave to cool on wire racks.

Place one of the cold cakes on a serving plate, right side up, and spread with jam (and buttercream if using). Top with the second cake and sprinkle caster sugar to serve.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Ally
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It's the holidays, so I'm back!

Helloooooo,

It's the school holidays so I have time to blog. I do try during term time but I'm either busy or too tired. I must try harder!

I made this super cute handy tissue holder the other day. I put mine beside my bed, but they can easily go in your handbag. I think I'm going to make lots and sell them (amongst other things) at a summer craft fair. 

Hopefully I'll be blogging a fair bit more during the next 2 weeks. See you soon.

Ally
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Shaped card

Good morning everyone. The sun is shining, the wind has dropped and the snow has gone. Doesn't it make everything seem so much better?

I bought a Hunkydory kit a while ago. I really like them. The quality is fantastic and their card is fantastic. I made this lovely shaped card from it, which has some decoupage on the front.

Quite sweet I think.

I was wondering if you use any kits. If so, which ones and why?

Hope you like the card
Speak soon
Ally
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It's been a while!

Oh my goodness. I've really neglected my blog lately. To be honest, work has been full on and I lost my mojo for a while. Half term is looming so I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things then.

So today I've got a card to show you. 

 Here is the inside

The image is by Pink Gem and is called Josh with Puppy. I've coloured it with promarkers.

Hopefully I'll be back soon!

Ally
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First bake of the new year

Hi everyone and welcome to my new followers. I'm so glad you're here!

I decided that Saturday is going to be my regular baking day. So I kicked off yesterday making vanilla thins. I am going to write out the recipe for you below, but I got the recipe here from the Good Food site.

I have a brand new oven which is uber efficient so at the moment I am still getting used to it and trying to get used to it, hence they are a little too brown.

Here is the recipe:


325g plain flour
200g chilled salted butter
125g/4½oz golden caster sugar
2 tsp good-quality vanilla extract
2 large free range egg yolks

(I love my mixing bowl. It was given to me by a friend last year)

1.Tip the flour into a food processor. Cut the butter into small pieces and drop them into the bowl, then whizz until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
2.Add the sugar, vanilla and egg yolks and whizz to a small dough.

Rubbing in
If you haven't got a processor, rub the butter into the flour in a large bowl, then add the remaining ingredients and mix to a dough with your hands.

1.With your hands, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface into a sausage shape about 25cm/9in long and 5cm/2½in in diameter. Wrap the roll and chill for at least 1 hour. (The roll can be frozen for up to 6 weeks. To use, remove from the freezer and allow to thaw for one hour at room temperature so that the dough is soft enough to be sliced into biscuits.)

2.Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/fan 160C and lightly grease 2 large baking sheets. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into slices, each a generous 5mm/¼in thick, then arrange them on the greased baking sheets, spacing the biscuits slightly apart so they have a bit of room to spread as they cook.

3.Bake for 20 minutes until the biscuits are just turning pale golden around the edges, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Dust generously with icing sugar. The biscuits will keep fresh for up to one week stored in an airtight tin.

These are my finished biscuits.

Now, I didn't get around to dusting them with icing sugar before they were wolfed down and mine weren't particularly neat either, but by goodness they were yummy. Give them a go. Really easy to make. Plain yet tasty.

See you soon
Ally
xx

It's a boy!

Hi again. 2 posts in 2 days. I'd like to say that this is the way it is going to be this year, but I think I'm setting my expectations a bit high. I'm starting a new teaching job on Monday and know that whilst I have really good crafting and cooking intentions, in reality I will be mega tired and I'll get round to it at the weekend if I feel up to it!!

Anyway, making the most of it, here is today's card:

This is the front of the card. I've used a digital stamp by Pink Gem called Baby Boy Bundle.

and here is the inside.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp - New something (new baby)

Cute Card Thursday - Something new (new baby)

Milkcoffee - New beginnings

Sarah Hurley - Celebrate (celebrate the arrival of a new baby)

Totally Papercrafts - Something new (new baby)

Crafts4eternity - Something new (new baby)

Crafty Catz - Anything goes

Hope you like it.

Ally

xx

Birthday card for a girl

Well hello and happy new year to you all!

So, this is the first card I've made this year. I hope it's one of many!!

For this card I have used an image by Pink Gem called Faye on a Toadstool. I've decorated the card with papers from Dovecraft (Back to basics III) and flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts. 

 This is a close up of the image and flowers.

Because of the flowers, I had to make a box to post the card in.

I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:

Through the craftroom door - anything goes

Cards galore - anything goes

Papertake weekly - anything goes

My mums craft shop - anything goes

Crafty creations - anything goes

Inky impressions - anything goes

Hope you like it. Speak soon!

Ally

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