Whoopie!! I made Whoopie Pies

 I am officially obsessed with baking and just want to make things all the time now! I really do have the baking bug.

Today's baked delights are Chocolate Whoopie Pies, which are very, very, very Chocolatey and filled with vanilla buttercream and iced with fondant and chocolate curls, so needless to say one of these is enough to send you on a major sugar high for at least a week!! (slight exageration perhaps!?)

Although the end result looks pretty good I have to admit that I had a few clumsy moments along the way and learnt a few things for next time. My clumsiness started at the beginning when I knocked over my vanilla essence and I lost half the jar (I was NOT amused after this and was very annoyed at myself), my second clumsy moment was when I started to fill the sink with water without realising that my oven gloves were hanging in the water resulting in very soggy oven gloves!! and finally I began to whisk my buttercream mix and plumes and plumes of icing sugar filled the air and went all over the kitchen sides and made a huge mess everywhere! and this is why I know that I love baking because despite these kitchen mishaps I want to get back in the kitchen and make more.

So once the kitchen was all tidied up and the icing dust had settled I boxed these up and took them over to my mum and mother-in-laws as a mothers day treat, but I think the Dads were pretty happy too :o)

Thanks for visiting and I hope all the Mums out there have had a lovely day

Best Wishes

Kit x

Happy St Patricks Day

I really enjoyed making these today and even tried a new method of making the cupcake mix and the icing. Both were great ideas, but the method making the cake mix was not that great and I don't feel that it worked as well as some of my previous attempts at cupcakes.

My usual method would be to combine the flour, sugar and butter by whisking and then to add the lightly beaten eggs a little at a time to avoid curdling the mixture, but the recipe I used today instructed me to mix the flour, butter and sugar together with my fingers to create a fine breadcrumb like consistency, similar to what you would have if you were to start making shortbread and then it tells you to mix your eggs, milk and vanilla extract together and then to add this to the breadcrumb mixture slowly whisking all the time and a result of this is that I don't feel that the cupcakes were as fluffy and light as they have been and the mixture looked different as if it hadn't combined completely!? Despite this they rose in the oven and tasted pretty good...next time I will use the original method, but I might add milk as this makes the mixture a little runnier enabling you to pour in to the cupcake cases which makes life a little easier.

I loved decorating the cupcakes with the little clovers to celebrate St Patrick's Day, tomorrow I will be making Whoopie Pies :o) I really love baking at the moment, it is definitely my new passion in life and I cant wait for my Easter holiday to get here because I will be spending most of these days in the kitchen baking and stretching my skills.

I hope you like the photograph, I usually take all the photos of my work, but today my husband was feeling creative and took the one above of my cupcakes and used a new app on his iphone to tweak a few things and I think it is a fantastic photograph :o)

Thanks for visiting 

Best Wishes 

Kit x

A New Nephew!

This week I received some wonderful news! I have another nephew! but he is unexpected because he wasn't due for another 4 weeks so just a little early, but not quite as early as his eldest brother who was 3 months early!! Still all is well and Mum, Dad and family are all home and enjoying their new family member.

I have crocheted a few things for the baby, but just so the other 2 little ones don't get any sibling rivalry I decided to make some cake pops for everyone to share and they are in blue of course and I used my alphabet cutters to spell out 'Baby Boy' and iced the others with spots and stripes and without even noticing I had done it they match the card that I made as well :o)

I am going to take these round to them later this evening and hopefully it wont give them too much of a sugar rush right before bed otherwise I will be in trouble with my sister!!

For my card I decided to use my Pink Cat Studio set because it is such a cute stamp set with loads of baby related images to stamp and colour in.

I haven't made a card for a while and today I realised that I miss it more than I thought. Just sitting in my craft room stamping, colouring and sticking bits together was just so relaxing which is just what I needed after a loooong week at work!!

Well as you all know Mothers Day is on the 17th March so I will be putting on my apron again next week and will probably make some cupcakes or cake pops for each of the Mums :o) I can't wait!!! 

Thanks for visiting

Best Wishes

Kit x

Liebster Blog Award

I have been awarded the Liebster Blog Award, how exciting!

This was awarded to me by Sue Webb and so I would like to say a huge thank you to her for the award and for describing my blog as brilliant, creative and full of warmth, this is a lovely compliment.

I would like to pass this award on to the following blogs which I find extremely interesting, colourful and full of inspiration.

KTB Designs - fantastic crochet patterns

Half-Baked - yummy baked goods & interesting to read

The Craft Junky - fabulous sewing techniques 

Here is a little description about what a Liebster Award is and some instructions about what you can do next:

This week I received the Liebster Blog award, which is Given to blogs with less than 200 followers in order to foster new connections. Liebster means 'dearest', 'beloved' or 'favorite' in German. 

If you receive the award: 
- you thank the one who gave you the award by posting a link 
- you give the award on to five other blogs (and you let them know by a comment on Their blog) 
- you Hope that the award will be passed by with love to other ones.

Thank you for stopping by 

Best Wishes

Kit x

Cakes & Crochet

Phew! It has been a busy week in my family as my sisters have had their 18th Birthday and so in true twin form there has been double of everything, including the drama! and believe me they are top of the class when it comes to drama.

I decided a while a go that I would task myself with making a tiered cake for their party and it was a mammoth of a task with a whole day spent in the kitchen, 12 eggs used, mountains of flower, caster sugar and butter and a whole load of fondant icing and butter cream all of which equals a bazillion calories!!

...and here is the finished article! It was definitely worth all of the hard work I put in to making it and I think it reflects their personalities exactly. As my first attempt at a tiered cake I have to say that I am very proud of myself for completing the task that I set for this.

I really enjoyed making this and perhaps one day after a few baking and sugar crafting courses I may be able to set up a little part time at home business and give up my day job (a girl can dream).

Now that I have made my first one of these, the next one shouldn't take me quite so long because half an hour of my time was spent staring at the cake trying to find the courage to roll the fondant over it (this was a very precarious moment for me), but all went well and it looks pretty good if I must say so myself.

In addition to the cake I also finished off another of my crocheted baby cardigans and in pink this time (it has been a very pink sort of weekend) so maybe next week it will have my blue phase :o) 

This is the same pattern I used before by Mon Petit Violon (see her blog link in my side bar). 

If you love to crochet then I would definitely recommend her patterns. They are so precise and easy to follow and they are all quite quick to make and for me this is a huge plus because I like to see end results form almost instantly, especially in crochet as some projects can take weeks and sometime months to complete so its quite nice to have something that you can complete in a week or even better a weekend.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Best Wishes 

Kit x

Becoming a Bookworm

I have never been much of a reader, just picking up the odd book now and again and sometimes not finishing them because I lost my page or I was too busy crafting to make time for it, however my Kindle has changed my life and I am now becoming a bit of a bookworm.

I received my Kindle for the Christmas that has just passed and have read my way through a couple of classics including Wuthering Heights, A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre and have just finished reading The Help.

I thought The Help was a great read and loved that it was told from the perspective of Minny, Aibeleen and Miss Skeeter and I think my favourite character would have to be Minny because she has a bit of a feisty side to her and I love the story that she tells about working with Celia and what happens with Miss Hilly (I won't say anymore as I might give the ending away). 

Next on my to read list is The Woman in White which was recommended by my father-in-law and I decided not to read the synopsis so I have no idea what to expect from this!

I have to admit I was a little dubious about whether I would like the Kindle and whether I would crave the feel of turning actual pages opposed to the click of a button, but I have read five books on my Kindle and have never looked back.

The Kindle is just so handy, and here's a few reasons why I love it so much:

• you can hold a cup of tea and with careful handling you can change the page without having to put your cup down.
• literature is cheaper and readily available with a few clicks of a button and no postage costs.
• I never lose my place because my bookmark has somehow slipped out from the pages (big plus)
• I can store all my books in one place and carry them with me wherever I go
• I find it easier to read than the paper in a book as it doesn't make my eyes tired when reading it.
• If I fall asleep whilst reading the pages do not get ruffled and it saves my place
• I am saving trees (huge plus in today's eco-friendly society)

Oops! I said a few things and I can still think of so many reasons why I love it so much!

The only thing that I do not read on my Kindle is resource books (crochet patterns, how to books, etc) I find that these are much better to have in book form as I can make notes on the pages and refer to them a lot quicker and they are very image heavy which I don't think would work quite so well on the Kindle.

So if you are umming and ahhing about making the change from paper to screen believe me you won't be disappointed.

Sorry there are no crafting updates today, but I am working on a few things so I will hopefully be able to share these later in the week.
One of my projects next weekend is to make a 3 tier cake for my sisters who will be turning 18. This is going to be a real challenge for me so stay tuned for what may be a complete catastrophe or a miraculous miracle that I somehow manage to achieve this.

Thanks for visiting

Best Wishes

Kit x

I (Heart) Baking

Last night I decided to grab all of my baking utensils and ingredients and I went to work creating some heart shaped biscuits for all my work friends.
It took me a little longer than I expected and as Mr P was cooking dinner at the same time the kitchen was a floury mess by the end of it.

I added the raspberry jam this morning, boxed them up and left them in the kitchen with a note saying "Happy Valentines Day, please help yourself" but left no name, so no one has any idea who made them tee hee

I might tell them later.

I was quite productive last night as I also managed to finish off my cushion which is okay, not what I first imagined it would like at all, however as a first attempt it's not too bad and fits nicely with the time of year.

I was so pleased to find that my wonderful husband had bought me some gorgeous flowers and a lovely card for Valentines, so sweet in fact that it made me cry (in a good way, of course) although I felt terrible because we had agreed that we wouldn't buy each other anything for today, but he snuck out after I went to bed!! and then told me that he has tickets to see Titanic in 3D tonight!! so i do feel alittle guilty for not getting anything for him.....Perhaps he can have the cushion!? Bit girly though...never mind I will spoil him for his birthday.

Many thanks for visiting today and hope you have a lovely Valentines

Best Wishes

Kit x