What a fantastic gloomy picture! Mr & Mrs Robin are the second of this years Christmas cakes. They’re not giant robins, it’s a small cake. Speaking of the cake I used the usual rich fruit cake recipe, which takes a full 4 hrs to bake. Luxury fruit including cranberries, blueberries and apricots. And I use fresh peel rather than candied peel.
My plan for this year’s Christmas cake involved layers of shimmering frosty leaves, and silver organza ribbons… unfortunately I began to run out of time very quickly, and managed to loose the leaf cutters I’d bought especially for this project. So I had to rush & think of some other designs off the cuff. I’ve decorated two smaller Christmas cakes with much haste instead, and this is the first of them, a gingerbread dala moose, apparently called Noel. It’s pretty simple, coloured paste cut to shape with cutters, and piped royal icing detail.
I decided I’d give a go at applying to write a cake making colomn for the Domestic Sluttery site. A friend sent it to me and spurred on by how tragically things are going at work at the moment, I thought what have I got to lose? So these are the three cake ideas I am presenting them with. I think they’re great, as are all my ideas.
Mint Choc Chip Cake
Rich chocolate sponge cake with a peppermint butter icing and choc chips – like the ice cream!
Sugar Plum Fairy Cakes
Perfect for Christmas, and inspired by the Nutcracker ballet, these are sweet fairy cakes made with dried fruits (cranberries and cherries are great for Christmas, and blueberries too), decorated with pastel plum purple icing and sugared almonds.
Rosemary and Sea Salt Cake
Who says you need a sweet tooth to enjoy cake? This is a savoury cake with a moist sponge with a perfume from the fresh rosemary and made with olive oil. Would be great with a cheese or meat platter, or on it’s own with a cup of tea.
So I wrote a Christmas song…. Warning – contains fruity language.
I was given a little cooking kit for my birthday a little while ago, which was aimed at people of my mental age and therefore including a child’s gingham apron. So I offered it to my friend Nina as she’s got two handsome boys, but seeing as you can’t just give one apron to a pair of brothers I’ve turned an old shirt into another apron in an effort to create household bliss amongst the boys.
Guess what, the one I made was more popular. Yay for me! Household bliss not achieved??
Really excited to say that I’ve finished making a ballet skirt today. This is the first I’ve made, in this purple poly chiffon fabric. The skirt is actually made from a pair of chiffon trousers which I bought for a couple of pounds on sale, and the waste tie is thick ribbon.
I used a template which I found online from The Selfish Seamstress‘ blog, but even though I added length to the template I think I should have gone longer with my long legs!
The ribbon isn’t especially comfortably to dance in; if I make one again I would use an elasticated fabric for the waistband, but I think I would make another if I can find some great fabric.
This year my ballet class performed a couple of dances at a show to raise money for Newington Dance Space in Stoke Newington, where we have our dance classes. I was performing in the big swans variation from Swan Lake, and the garland dance from The Sleeping Beauty. The show didn’t go without hitches though, the stage turned out to have carpet, which for me was ok to dance on though I was worried at first (and as I was running late, I missed the stage rehearsal, oops) but a couple of the girls had trouble with the friction. On top of that they stopped our music & then had to skip forward from the beginning to try & find our cue! whilst we were standing on stage ready to start I might add! That was pretty ridiculous, but it made me laugh at least.
Tuesday & Wednesday we’ve been doing tech rehearsals. Gina, who is in charge of charting and mass movement for the TIM cast wanted to make it very clear that tech rehearsals are boring. BORING. In actual fact, these haven’t been the most boring so far of our rehearsals… New things have been happening throughout the stadium. I’m sure I saw a giant Voldemort near the massive asparagus? Or perhaps it’s like that episode of Community and they’re just trying to make our inside knowledge seem implausible?
So we got to meet the Star men on Tuesday which was great. These are four aerialists with jetpacks who take off during David Bowie & sprinkle glitter everywhere, fun!
On wednesday we were introduced to the FIRE for the Prodigy dancey bit… now, at the point the flames went off the punks were at the opposite side of the arena learning choreography (more choreography!) and the heat was immense. We’re going to be a lot closer for the show so goodbye eyebrows. I’m worried about the use of hairspray to be perfectly honest, imagine if we all go up in a ball of fire. Embarrassing!!
The other fun (sort of) thing that happened is we rehearsed our entrance, which meant for me I got to go under the stage for the first time. I was very excited about this! In reality it is a plyboard underground town where you wait around for quite a while for your cue to climb up to the stage. Walking up those stairs on the night is actually going to be BLOODY EXCITING!
PLAYLIST: The Jam – Going Underground
It’s our first day at the Stadium! By the looks of it there’s still a lot of work to be done, and it’s just over a month left until the London 2012 Olympic Games begin. This is also the first time that we’ve not escaped the rain! In fact there’s very little shelter in the stadium, as we’re sat down in the stalls seats rather than in a circus tent where we can keep ourselves & our belongings dry in the event of an English summer. We were each given a pretty good packed lunch in a semi-permanent tent to the side of the stadium – choice of sandwich, honey & oat bar (those are the Olympic sponsor Nature Valley ones, and they are delicious!!), tub of pringles, & a rather nice orange. I felt a lot like I was on a school trip. So it was cold & damp, & towards the end of the night it was bucketing down. The stage was very slippery (what happened to that non slippery stage we were told about?!) and there’s a few teething problems to sort out (including a big ol’ waterwheel right where I’m supposed to be dancing). It’s great getting a sneak peak at the shiny new stadium though, with all it’s lights & …farmyard smell?!
The garden Looks nice but new, and the river Lee has giant crayons poking out from it’s murky depths. But what’s that giant McDonalds doing there?
PLAYLIST: Mudd – Tiger Feet
