A house warming softie!

What do you get a friend who's just moved into a new house? Need you ask? A soft toy tree of course. My lovely friend Keely has recently bought her first, very grown up house and to keep her company I made this tree completely out of felt. The best thing about him is that his leaves never fall off, he never needs watering and he's always happy. He's quite literally the perfect housemate.
To see the pattern for him click here

The Chelsea Flower Show's take on cupcakes

Here's are a few cakes that are definitely fat-free. This beautiful display was part of this years Chelsea Flower Show. Displayed on a giant cupcake stand these pretty plants emulate the sweetest of treats but without the calories. Can't imagine they taste great though....

Luckily hungry visitors to Chelsea weren't left to nibble on grass, real cakes were available. Just like these ones......
I love the idea of decorating cakes with chillis, tomatoes and asparagus it gives sugary cakes a savory twist and a real rustic garden party feel!

Jo's wedding cake

Finally I've got this posted up. Believe it or not but this was one of the first cakes I made! I must confess I didn't do it all alone. With the help of a very talented and lovely lady called Diane at Yours magazine (where I work) we made this wedding cake for a credit crunch busting £90!
Last August my friend Jo was getting married on a tight budget so I offered to make her cake and was very pleased with the outcome. To buy in the shops this would have cost upwards of £400. Basically we soaked loads of dried fruit in alcohol for about a week, baked three cakes, almond pasted and iced them. Then with her sugar crafting talents Diane showed me how to make all the flowers and leaves out of icing then we decorated it all with pink ribbon.
Not only was everyone very impressed with the way it looked on the day, but it also tasted amazingly moist. The booze soaked fruit was the secret.
If you want to know how to ice a cake click here

A simple but sweet iphone cosy

After recently getting an iphone and being petrified of breaking it I thought it would be a good idea to make myself an iphone cosy. This literally took less than half an hour to make and costs next to nothing.
I used thick Aran wool bought from Hobbeycraft see here and casted on 10 stitches then did about 15 rows (measure the wool against your iphone) you want it to wrap around both sides of the phone. It's best to make it a bit smaller than you think as this wool is really stretchy. Leave about 6 inches of wool hanging once you've casted off. Then put the two wrong sides together and sew up the sides and bottom using the 6 inch strand of wool, then turn inside out.
You can then decorate it anyway you like. I sewed on this ribbon and added a telphone shaped button. And there you have it, your phone is now as snug as bug in a rug! x

My banana and white choc chip cupcakes

I made these at the weekend and if I do say so myself they were delicious! I made the recipe from taking bits of other recipes and forming my own. Sounds a bit Frankenstein-esq I know, but as you can see they went down well with these girls.

Here's the recipe...... It makes 24 yummy cupcakes
Cream 300gs soft butter and 300gs caster sugar together till pale and fluffy. Add 2 very ripe mashed bananas to mixture then add in
4 large eggs- but add one at a time. Sieve 250gs plain flour, 50gs cornflour and 2tsp baking powder into the mixture and finally fold in
100gs white chocolate chips. Fill muffin cases 2 thirds full then cook at 180 for 20 mins.
For the topping cream together 300gs of icing sugar with 19ogs butter when smooth pipe onto cooled cakes. Finally add a dried banana chip to each cake and sprinkle on top chunks of white chocolate.

Sheena's birthday soft- tea!

To mark the birth day of my tea loving friend Sheena I made her this little tea bag softie! It's a really cute design from this softies book........
It was pretty easy to make but whilst wrapping it up I accidentally cut the string that connects that bag to the ornately decorated tea bag tag. After much cursing, huffing and moaning I manged to tie it in a fairly neat knot but am still annoyed at my self and my slightly imperfect softie! Luckily Sheena loved it all the same and here she is proudly showing it off in the office.

What I made this weekend....

I made this little fella over the weekend. He was going to be a bag but I'm still a little nervous when it comes to my sewing machine so when I saw that this pup in my Kath Kidson 'Sew' book only needed to be made by hand I'd thought I'd give him a go. After finding some very cute fabric and getting my artistic boyfriend to enlarge the pattern I was away!

Now I just need to think of a fitting name for him. Any suggestions are most welcome! Xxxx