Trees and fog

I don't know what it is but I am loving the trees round us at the moment, from the beautiful autumn sunrise shining through the yellow leaves by the river (see here) to the way the street light shone through the fog and trees last night.

It was foggy all day and as darkness fell the fog became more intense. The street lamps glowed like UFOs (according to Sophie) as you couldn't see the posts, only the lights glowing in the sky. Looking at the tree in our neighbour's garden, it was almost hypnotic swaying my head from side-to-side watching the play of beams from the street light shining behind from the tree in bright streamers of light (like a child's drawing of the sun rays). The photos don't capture the full beauty of it but I hope they give you an idea.

© 2011 Nicola Noble

Christmas cards

I recently made my first Christmas card for this year (for a friend who lives in Malaysia so it had to go in the post early!) and it reminded me how much I like making Christmas cards but also how much work it is to make enough for everyone!

The first Christmas I was a stay-at-home Mummy I set to and made cards for all 60+ people on our list and I also made a large number for my husband to send to work contacts. The next year I made for the the good friends on the list and the year after that I made for the very good friends on the list ... 

I still have aspirations to make all my cards but the reality of two children under six has put that idea on hold again for this year at least. So for those of you who get a hand-made card this year - consider yourself the very, very good friends!

The cute puffy reindeers came from Paperchase last year and I painted them with silver glitter to add the obligatory sparkle. The snowflake stamps were a (self-bought) Christmas gift last year from Muji. I stamped them in dark blue (which came with the stamps) and silver for a bit more sparkle.

Previous years' designs have all been created using my Sizzix die-cutter and include snowflakes and various designs of Christmas tree.

So if you are making your own Christmas cards this year, have fun and I will try to do better next year :o)

 © 2011 Nicola Noble

Autumn

I love the colour of the trees in Autumn and we are really lucky to have a field maple behind our house that changes to the most brilliant yellow every year.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I noticed the sun shining through the early morning mist from the river and lighting up the tree so I grabbed the camera and took some photos. I think they came out quite well for a complete amateur ...

© 2011 Nicola Noble

Monkeying around

It's a friend's little boy's first birthday today and in keeping with the cake she has made, I decided to make him a monkey birthday card. I have a set of jungle die-cutters with a very cute monkey which I have made several time before. It looks very complicated, but I am always pleasantly surprised by how quick and simple it is to make.

I made it on a green card initially before deciding I didn't like it, so cut the decoration out of the card, keeping a wider green border which I then fixed onto a white card, and then added 1 today in green. I don't have any number cutters so I used an upside down lowercase L for the number 1! I finished with a touch of glitter paint.

The other animals in the jungle collection are a lion, giraffe and elephant. I have used these on other cards and embellished them with a "funky" square surround and some foliage. So cute ...

© 2011 Nicola Noble

Cookie dough truffles

I have recently become addicted to Pinterest. For those of you who haven't yet discovered it, it is a virtual pinboard where you pin links to things you like/love/aspire to create. There are so many talented people out there with such fantastic ideas and I find myself frequently lost in a daydream of creativity. But I am learning that it is very easy to pin things but not so easy to find the time to actually have a go at creating some of them.

So when I came across a recipe for cookie dough truffles (here), I knew I was on to a winner. Sophie has been bugging me for absolutely ages to make cookie dough "not to cook but to eat". These truffles fitted the bill perfectly.

The cookie dough doesn't include egg so is fine if you are worried about eating raw egg. I made the balls a little too big and they would have been nicer slightly smaller. I also didn't let them chill enough so that when I came to coat them in chocolate they kept falling off my skewer which meant they got a bit messy. I might think about investing in a dipping tool which would help if I come to dip truffles etc again.

I used chocolate coating rather than "real" chocolate as it is easier to melt and also makes very little difference to the taste as the coating is very thin.

Overall the truffles were yummy - albeit a little (!) sickly and Sophie was very pleased that she got to make the cookie dough to eat raw!

Chocolate chip cookie dough truffles

Makes: 30+

Ingredients:

375g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
220g butter or margarine, room temperature
170g granulated sugar
150g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
75ml milk or soy milk
100g mini chocolate chips
300g chocolate/ chocolate flavour cake covering (for coating)

Method:

Beat the butter and sugars with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy then add the milk and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking soda and salt and mix on a low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.

When the dough is firm enough to handle (it may help to lightly flour your hands), form the dough into 1" balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Place the sheets in the freezer and let chill for 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate coating in a bain-marie (place a bowl over hot water but make sure it's not touching the water) or in microwave according to package directions. Dip the cookie dough balls into the chocolate to cover, remove any excess coating by lightly tapping, and return to the waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Chill until set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Minnie Mouse birthday cake

Suffering from cake making withdrawal symptoms, I recently volunteered to make a Minnie Mouse themed cake for my friend's daughter's third birthday. Having searched the web for inspiration, I e-mailed her a selection of ideas and was very pleased when she came back wanting the same cake as I wanted to make!

Rather than making a Minnie Mouse face, I opted for a round cake with a Minnie Mouse black hat with ears (see here for original inspiration cake). 

I covered the cake board with white fondant icing and cut out small circles of pink icing (using the bottom of a small icing nozzle) which I randomly placed on the board and flattened with a rolling pin and added a pink ribbon around the board.

I baked a 9.5" round cake and dome cake (in a small pyrex bowl). I trimmed the top off the dome cake to level it and covered the large cake in pink and the dome cake in black. For some reason, both cakes developed air bubbles under the icing (I have never experienced this before) but I "popped" these using a needle inserted at an angle (this makes the hole less noticeable). I then added circles of white fondant to the pink cake for Minnie's spots. I added a pink fondant ribbon edge to the black hat to tidy the join with the main cake.

The ears were tricky. I rolled even balls of black fondant, mixed with some gum tragacanth (this makes the fondant stronger and more pliable) and flattened them with my icing smoother into circles. I then flattened one edge and curved the whole ear. Keeping the curve while the fondant dried was the hardest part but I ended up creating domes in tin foil and lining with greaseproof paper to dry the ears in. If I was to do this again, I would try to allow more time for the ears to dry (I was limited this time to two days) and I would smooth the foil cup, as some of the creases from the foil transferred to the back of the ear! I then fixed these ears to the hat using bamboo skewers (I always try to remember to tell people that I have used these and that they are inedible!).

This was also the first time I had a go at making a fondant bow; I did a little research on the web and was really pleased with the end result. I cut out two even rectangles, placed a piece of tissue paper in the middle of each and folded the rectangles in half over the tissue. I then "gathered" the straight flat edges and placed the two loops of the ribbon together and stood the bow up. Another smaller rectangle was wrapped around the join. The tissue is used to help keep the fullness of the bow until the fondant dries and then gets taken out (cotton wool balls or a roll of kitchen paper can also be used). I added white fondant circles and stitch marks to the middle wrap around.

Finally, I cut out a fondant 3 in pink for the hat and the little girl's name in black. I struggled so much with the letter cutters and still need lots more practice with them. I think I need to add lots more gum tragacanth to the fondant when using for letters and allow it to improve for a few days before using it where time permits. Plenty of lustre dust and the cake was finished. 

Overall I was pleased with the cake and I have learned various new skills and techniques that I can use on this or similar cake again.

© 2011 Nicola Noble

Lavender wands

For some reason recently I remembered a craft I did a very long time ago when I was a Girl Guide leader,  making woven lavender pomanders (which I have since discovered are called wands). The lavender in my garden is past it's best although there are some new flowers coming, but I managed to find a handful of useable stems (somewhere in between about to bloom and gone to seed) and had a go at making some wands. They turned out quite well for a craft I last made about ten years ago.

I now need to work out what I can do with these. It would be nice to turn them into gifts for people, perhaps combining them with a pack of greetings cards I created some time ago with photos of lavender and bubbles.

Satisfying simple craft for a Bank Holiday Monday. Thinking I might take it up a level and have a go at making lavender baskets as these look so pretty ...

Lavender baskets from a post by Tongue in Cheek

© 2011 Nicola Noble