The Long Road to Ruin

Christmas is, amongst other things, a time for eating. Whether it's an accepted period of gluttony, a time to enjoy guilty pleasures, or a week of dread, this fact cannot be escaped.

To set us off on the journey, I've been baking again. There are a few recipes I'm trying to perfect, but they're not the kinds of things you make every week, so the opportunities are spaced out and I have to remember what I did the time before. Anyway, I've got them to a point where I'm mostly happy with them, and since it's Christmas, I thought I'd share them.

First up, I made again Martha Stewart's tiramisu cupcakes. They are totally delicious. My tweaks so far have been to use coffee liqueur instead of the coffee-marsala mix, to use more of this than the recipe calls for (!), and to sprinkle grated coffee-flavoured chocolate on top instead of cocoa. The topping is to die for, but the sponge still needs softening and lightening a bit (I'm working on it).

 

Next, I made - of course - some mince pies. I didn't know where to find mincemeat here in Belgium, so I made my own. After spending too long searching for a recipe that suited me (suet? - I don't think so; mixed peel? - not in my cupboard, not going to the shops in the snow; etc), I decided just to make it up, as I tend to do in the kitchen (not always with brilliant results). Anyway, here is my recipe for the filling (I've tried to judge the quantities as best I can, as when I was putting it together it was literally a handful here and a tip-the-jar-in there):

1 1/2 cups of sultanas
1/3 cup of chopped almonds
1/4 cup of brown/white sugar mix
1/4 cup of water
2 tbsp whisky
grated rind of 2 clementines
juice of 1 clementine
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 cloves, ground

I let it all mix together for a few days and then used it. And it was tasty.

Then I made some apple sauce. I'm quite a fussy apple eater, and my granny smiths were past what my high standards deem to be their best, so I put 7 of them, chopped, in a saucepan with a cup of water and 3 tablespoons of white sugar and let simmer for half an hour. It was intended for pork, but as it made quite a lot I made apple pies too.

 

Finally, I made some Christmas cookies to take to a friend who invited us for dinner. I made ginger ones, but in the end was glad to give them away because I have decided I don't like ginger biscuits.

And that's it. No scrappy stuff today. Just food, and the first step on the long road to ruin.

Halloween 2010: A Brief Encounter

Shocking. I LOVE Halloween. And how much time have I had to craftily spend on it? Not much. Not much at all. Certainly not enough.

I'm so grateful, then, that one of my friends, whose surprise birthday party it was last night, is a punky-metally kinda girl. I used my new skull stamp to make her a card, and a bit of halloweeny inspiration to make her a photo frame. And then I liked the frame so much that I made one for us too. And put the skull in it. So OK, maybe I had a teeny bit of time to make one small Halloween decoration. Ahhhh - that's better.

For the card, I added a small blue heart gem to one of the eyes. I love that. Looks a bit piratey, a bit evil, and a bit lovely too. I also used a very noisy embossing technique - which I'll show you on Tuesday.

I did the same for the skull I put in the frame. 

For the frame, I sprayed some Cosmic Shimmer Mist over some star masks and then stamped a couple of images on in grey ink. And I stamped a couple of other images in glue and covered them with flock.

And of course, I made cookies. I couldn't resist. They went into the spidery bowl for the trick or treaters who have just left - and left me with nothing but crumbs.

And finally, I found a first use for the birdcage...

 I hope everyone had a very happy halloween!

 

Been Bakin'

Christmas cookies for friends and family:



Christmas cupcakes for FC Irlande's Christmas party:



And some cupcakes for my fiancé's birthday (oh, and I made the cupcake stand as well):