Busy Baking!

It was my Mum's birthday yesterday...so now it's safe to show you the card I made for her:

I used a couple of Lili of the Valley stamps...'Busy Baking' and 'I Baked a Cake'...which I coloured using watercolour pencils. The papers are from a bargain pad that I picked up recently in TKMaxx called 'Vintage Charms' by My Minds Eye...I distressed the edges, then added faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and black and white gel pens. I cut the numbers using my Cuttlebug 'Olivia Alphabet' dies, and Nesties for all of the circles. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Critter Party' set by Penny Black, and the pearls came from Hobbycraft.

I just had to use these stamps on the card, as I also made my Mum's birthday cake:

Challenges for this card:

• 2 Sisters - Teddy Bears
• 4 Crafty Chicks - Polkdots
• As You Like It - Favourite Style of Stitching (definitely faux...I'm useless at sewing!)
• Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Stripes
• Clear It Out - Stitching (Everything except the papers have been in my stash for ages)
• Emergency Crafters - Polkadots
• Inky Impressions - Dots & Stripes
• Paper Creator's Crafts - Spots & Dots
• Papercrafting Journey - For that Special Lady (This card was for my Mum)
• Seize the Birthday - Anything Birthday
• Stamping Boutique - Distress It

Pavlova!

No card from me today...I made the most of the glorious Bank Holiday weather we had here in London and escaped the confines of my flat, so consequently not a lot of crafting occurred...but I did make a special little something for dessert last night...

A summer berry pavlova with greek yoghurt...yummy!

I shall be back tomorrow with another project for our current ABC Christmas Challenge :0)

Yum!

No card to show you today...but I haven't been slacking...I've busy making some DT stuff, that I can't show you just yet...and have had a bit of a marathon baking session these last couple of days.

I made an Apple & Blackberry pie yesterday:

And some cakes today for a party tonight...first a vegan coffee & walnut cake:

And some bite-size Victoria Sandwich Cakes:

That's it for now...I'm off to enjoy some music-making...and cake eating! See you in the morning for my Christmas Stampin' All Year Long DT post :0)

Vegan Cake Recipes?

Hello everyone...I don't have a card to share today...I've been busy working on music arrangements for the term ahead...and baking:

Vegan Chocolate and Coffee & Walnut Cupcakes

The evening class I teach is rather partial to a party...we have one after each end of term concert, and a few 'musical soirees' over the summer holiday, where we meet at various class members' houses...play some of our favourite pieces of music, then feast on delicious food...what could be better? We all contribute to the feast, and it's become a tradition that I bake cakes...the cupcakes above are what I took to our gathering last night (obviously there were lots more...lol...but you get the idea). Ok...so on to the purpose of this post...one of the members has recently become vegan...which obviously poses a problem when it comes to baking cakes! I have discovered a few good recipes so far...the chocolate cupcakes pictured above are particularly good...but I had a disaster with my first batch of the coffee cupcakes...they rose magnificently for the first 20 mins of cooking time, but when I opened the oven door 5 mins later...they were mere craters! Thankfully, after some more searching, I found another recipe which worked much better! So, I was wondering if any of you had any recommendations for good vegan baking recipe books, or websites so that I can expand my repertiore???

Let them eat cake...

Well, I didn't have time yesterday to show you the cakes...so I've just popped on to share this:

Well, not literally 'share'...as there's nothing left! Anyway, the one on the left is a 'Giggle' cake (it's a lovely moist fruit cake with pineapple) and on the right is a lemon & poppy seed cake (if you're wondering about the holes in the top...I pierced it before pouring lemon juice over the hot cake).

That's it from me for now...lots of commenting to do, but I'll be back in the morning with my DT posts for the Penny Black Saturday & Secret Crafter Saturday challenges.

Mmmmm....cupcakes!

No card from me today...but I haven't been slacking, I've spent the day baking cupcakes for a party tonight:

There are three flavours: Lemon (with lemon curd in the centre); Blueberry (with blueberry jam in the middle); and Chocolate...yummy! I made a dozen of each...and this was my first attempt at piping the frosting on with a piping bag...so please don't look too closely! lol

The party is for the evening class I teach called The Broken Consort...it's their end of term concert tonight...and judging by the programme (which had me almost tearing my hair out yesterday, trying to figure out how to print it in a booklet form!) it's going to be a bit of a marathon, so we'll be in desperate need of refreshment by the time we're finished!