Celebratory crafting and cooking

We had some friends visiting at the weekend, and so it was a good excuse for a great deal of baking!

I also did a bit of crafting, but not knitting, this time I was freezer paper stencilling, having been taught by Ellen when we were stencilling baby clothes. I was making a t-shirt for Chris for him to wear while playing with his 'tiny people' as I refer to them, to the wider world they're referred to as Skorne - one of the armies in Hordes, a tabletop wargame.

Here's a picture of the original from which I was working (Beautifully painted by Chris):-

Here is a picture of my stencil ironed onto the t-shirt and painted:-

And here is a picture of the finished object (after peeling the freezer paper off and giving it an iron to fix the paints):-

I use the SetaColour fabric paints, which give nice coverage. I have been told that a sponge is best before, but personally have found a flat nylon paintbrush to be more effective, and then you're less likely to go over the lines if you have a multi-colour intricate design. Chris was very very happy with his new t-shirt, it can now be worn when he is playing with Skorne, and his Crusader t-shirt that he got for Christmas, he can wear when he plays with Protectorate (another Faction). So he's a happy bunny, which makes me a happy bunny, as my crafting was appreciated.


So on the cooking front I made the following over the weekend:-

"Fake and kidding pudding" (a vegetarian version of steak and kidney pudding - my recipe to follow)

This went down very well, and seemed to be thoroughly enjoyed.

Lemon sponge (Victoria sponge with lemon essence instead of vanilla, filled with St. Clements curd and lemon whipped cream)

One layer of the sponge:-

Sponge with St. Clements (Orange and Lemon) Curd, and Lemon whipped cream:-

The St. Clements curd is an adaptation of the Lime Curd recipe from Nigella's 'How to be a domestic goddess', using 1 orange (zest and juice), 1 lemon (zest and juice) and sugar to taste (less than needed for the lime curd).

The lemon whipped cream is the juice of one lemon with ~200 ml of whipping cream and 1 tablespoon of sugar whipped until thick.

The assembled cake (with and without icing sugar decoration):-

Again, this proved extremely popular! The sponge was nice and light and everything was lovely and citrussy.

Scones (recipe is for Lily's scones from Nigella's 'How to be a domestic goddess')

Eaten with clotted cream, raspberry jam, and leftover St. Clements curd. Yum Yum.

All in all a very successful weekend!