a merry may

It's been a few weeks again, but the weather was so good over our Easter break that the last thing I wanted to do was sit in a very hot attic with my computer!

I hope you all enjoyed the Easter festivities and the fabulous Royal Wedding.  Didn't Kate look amazing in her McQueen dress?  As my Brownies were having a Royal Wedding Party the night before, K came round over Easter with her sewing machine and we made some rather splendid bunting!  We were both surprised with how well it turned out considering we'd had a lovely bottle of red wine just before we started making it...

I hung it out on the washing line the next day just to see how it looked.

Whilst I had my sewing machine downstairs I decided to make a peg bag with some gorgeous Amy Butler fabric I've had sitting in my stash for a year.  I was fed up with pegs all over one of my cupboards in the kitchen and now this makes me smile when I'm doing the washing:

We had friends over after the wedding, which was an excuse to make some chocolate cupcakes - it's so hard to justify baking for two, so it was lovely to potter about in the kitchen making a chocolatey mess!

K and I went on a felt bag making course yesterday and I think I can safely say that felt-making isn't my craft!  After an afternoon of soapy massage my "bag" is still hanging on the washing line dripping away into a bucket!  We did a few minutes of needle felting, which is much more my cup of tea.  I'm determined to finish the poor forlorn thing off this week, but at the moment it's a bit of a sorry mess, which might just give you a giggle...

 

I've also been busy with the Crochet Club project.  I'm up to date with the April patterns and am just going to remake a couple of pieces I'm unhappy with before the May patterns are released next weekend.  The last set of patterns come out in June so I'm glad I'm up to date for the big finale!  I've been desperate for something new to put up in the dining room for a while and this should be just the thing.

I hope you're all enjoying a lazy Sunday - I know I am!
- Rachel x

mmm... banana cake

With three very sorrowful looking bananas languishing on my desk at work since last week it definitely seemed the right time for a banana cake!  Speedy and fool-proof in my trusty Kitchen Aid, here’s the recipe:

3 ripe and squishy bananas

150g unsalted butter

185g light muscovado sugar

2 large free-range eggs

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

A pinch of salt

150ml milk

50g chocolate of your choice

50g chopped walnuts or pecans (for nut-free people like my Mum, just up your chocolate!)

-       Preheat the oven to 180° and grease a loaf tin. 

-       Cream the butter and sugar until it’s fluffy and slightly paler than the mix you started with.

-       Gently beat your eggs together and add them gradually with your mixer on the “stir” setting (much easier to do this in a measuring jug so it doesn’t make a mess as you pour the eggs in!). 

-       Sift in your flour, bicarb. and a pinch of salt, then mix again and gradually add the milk.

-       Mash your bananas with a fork and fold them in along with your chocolate and nuts.

-       Pour into your greased tin and make a shallow well in the centre as this cake will really rise in the middle.

-       Put your tin in the oven and wait for all those yummy smells to start wafting round the house…  Check after an hour with a cake tester – it should come out clean, but this is a very moist cake so I check it in a couple of places to be sure it’s done.

-       Cool in the tin as long as you can bear it.  This cake is amazing whilst it’s still warm (Mr B likes his with a little bit of good vanilla ice cream!), but it’s lovely and firm when it cools, perfect to parcel up for lunchboxes.

Thinking about it today, I may try this with peanuts/crunchy peanut butter next time, as they’re such a great match with bananas and chocolate – I’ll be sure to report on the results!