Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Pizza Cookie
Pizza Cookie
for the cookie
115g (4 oz) unsalted butter
200g (7 oz) caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
225g (8oz) plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
for the topping
115g (4 oz) unsalted butter
250g (9 oz) icing sugar
115g (41/2 oz) cream cheese
150g (5 oz) sweets (m&ms, chocolate bits etc)
2 tbsp sugar strands (sprinkles)
Pre-heat the oven to 175oC (350oF) and line a 30cm (12 in) pizza tray or baking sheet with parchment.
Beat the butter and caster sugar together. Then add the egg and vanilla essence. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda and stir into the mixture. Spread the dough onto the pizza tray or baking sheet. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before transferring to a wire rack.
Beat the butter and icing sugar together and then beat in the cream cheese. Spread over the cooled cookie and decorate with sweets and sugar strands.
Makes 1 large cookie
The kids had a ball making it and predictably sweets entered the mouth at the same rate as being put on the cookie! I thought it might be a great party activity with smaller individual 'pizzas'.
You can see the two different eating styles - one preferred to eat it whole, the other picked all the sweets off first!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Happy Birthday Little Miss
Anyone for tea?
The dress is fashioned from sheer cotton voile lavishly hand embroidered with raised flowers of padded satin stitch and French knots. The lace panels on the sleeves, skirt, and bodice are machine embroidered mesh. All the elements combine to produce an harmonious whole, a superb monochromatic design—a treasure of early handwork!
When she made her debut, she did not wear the pink-and-white dress standard for debutantes of the time but rather an off shade, like our oatmeal hue, that made Diana’s opalescent complexion seem even more glowing.
Generous size. It measures: 40" bust, 32" waist 48" hip, 15 1/2" from the shoulder to the waist, and 51" from the shoulder to the hem.
Pop on over to Vintage Textile and check out the other lastest listings.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Gumboots
Vale Jane McGrath
I was saddened by the news that Jane McGrath had passed away. Jane was the wife of Australian cricketer Glen McGrath. She fought an 11 year battle with breast cancer that gave her secondary cancer in the hip and a brain tumor. She turned her illness into a campaign, establishing the McGrath Foundation which ensures that young women are encouraged to be breast aware and also raises the very valuable funds to support the placement of breast care nurses throughout rural and regional Australia to help women diagnosed with breast cancer.
I don't follow cricket but watched an episode of Andrew Denton's 'Enough Rope' and she was an inspiring interviewee. The following photo comes from that interview.
Don't you love the way he is looking at her? My thoughts and sympathy go out to Glenn, and their children James and Holly.Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Tagged!
Image: Paul Duncan
3. My favourite person in history is Elizabeth I.
4. I collect vintage girls school novels
5. I would love to own/run a wedding reception venue in Australia that looks like this!
Image: Syon Park
Image: Vintage Textile
I am passing on to:
Di @ The Cut Cloth
Gina @ Gingerbread
Katy @ Sycamore Stirrings
Anna @ Villa Anna
A-M @ The House that A-M Built
Megan @ Plum Pudding
Ladies, I do hope you play too but please don't feel any pressure to do so. I look forward to reading more about each of you.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Persephone Books
This is the end paper for "Miss PettigrewLives for a Day". Gorgeous isn't it?
The endpaper is a 1938 furnishing fabric by Marion Dorn; it is an elegant and light-hearted repeat patttern on a background of pale linen.
The complete list of books (and their end papers is found here. This is a little detail about the company.
Persephone prints mainly neglected fiction and non-fiction by women, for women and about women. The titles are chosen to appeal to busy women who rarely have time to spend in ever-larger bookshops and who would like to have access to a list of books designed to be neither too literary nor too commercial. The books are guaranteed to be readable, thought-provoking and impossible to forget.
The best thing is they are available on line through their site or can be ordered through your local bookstore. Also available through Book Depository in the UK who ship internationally for free!
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Carrot and Banana Cake
Carrot and Banana Cake
from The Women's Weekly - "Bake"
Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 1 hr 15 mins (+ cooling time)
Serves: 10
1 1/4 cups (185g) plain flour
1/2 cup (75g) self-raising flour
1 teaspon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (220g) firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (80g) coarsely chopped roasted walnuts
3 eggs
2 cups (480g) coarsely grated carrot
1 cup (460g) mashed banana
1 cup (250ml) vegetable oil
Cream Cheese Frosting
90g cream cheese
90g butter, softened
1 cup (160g) icing sugar
Preheat oven to 170oC/150oC fan-forced. Grease base and side of 24cm round springform tin, line base with baking paper.
Sift flours, soda, spices and sugar into large bowl. Stir in nuts, eggs, carrot, banana and oil. Pour into tin.
Bake cake about 1 1/4 hours. Cool cake in tin.
Meanwhile, make cream cheese frosting. Top cake with frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Beat cream cheese and butter in small bowl with electric mixer until as white as possible, gradually beat in sifted icing sugar.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Drive Bys: Around the World (The Inspired Room)
This one is trained on the side of the garage, the middle bush needs to get a move on! The pattern is repeated on the side wall of the house, see below.
This one is using a Star Jasmine plant to create it. I think it is, I'm no horticulturalist! It does look effective though.
It is actually growing on both sides of the window.My favourite is this one training around the feature on the wall.
As I was putting this together, I noticed that all of them were being grown on garage walls. Perhaps that is where the biggest expanse of wall is on a house.
Doing this drive by has certainly opened my eyes to the houses and gardens in my area. I hope to participate in any others Melissa organises. She mentioned she would nominate certain elements we would have to capture. I look forward to it. Now all I have to do is work out how to have my post participate!