CHRISTMAS WREATHS

1. DSCF0052, 2. my purple bunny, 3. Omedetou (Add Your Own Message) Paper Wreath, 4. button wreath!, 5. New wreath, 6. Girl's Fabric Wreath, 7. Peggy & Toms First Party, 8. holiday rag wreath (14), 9. Grinalda (Guirlanda) - wreath, 10. Valentine Ribbon Wreath by Heartfelt Handmade, 11. ribbon wreath, 12. Grinalda de menina - Little girl wreath, 13. Christmas fabric wreath 2009, 14. Felt Wreath With Vintage Embellishments, 15. Linen Christmas Wreath, 16. Another vintage ornament wreath #1

As it is the first Advent Sunday today I thought some Christmas inspiration would be appropriate. So here are some fabulous creations from the wonderful people at Flickr.

I am tempted to have a go at a ribbon wreath myself, but I know I will be pushed to find the time.  Every year I vow to start some Christmas projects early so I don't pile too much pressure on myself last minute, but I never do.  Two days ago I started an Advent calender for my kidlets, some chance of that being finished for the 1st!  In fact I should really be finishing that instead of posting blogs!

 I hope you find these beautiful wreaths as inspiring as I do.

SOMETHING FOR THE BOYS!

I did a fair last week and wanted to create some Autumny cakes for boys.  So of course I had to go with chocolate!  I covered the cakes with chocolate buttercream and then sprinkled the tops with crushed Orio cookies.  I had made some sugar paste worms, stones and Autumn leaves which I used as decoration.

Typically my first sale of these cakes was to a girl!  I maybe need to go even more gruesome for the boys.

I have just discovered the joys of picnik which is a great way to retouch and create fun images with your pictures. I actually did my degree in Graphic Design but in my first year we had to do everything by hand as Macs were only just starting to be used.  Then in my second year I specialised in illustration and then I worked for twelve years as a textile designer spending all day painting so I really feel I lost my way a bit with computors.  But there are so many great (and free) apps out there that even I find easy to use.  Let me know any of the good ones you have found.

A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE COTTAGE

Finally! I have finished my bird house.

This is gingerbread covered in fondant, it is my third, and each time I make a new one I discover new tricks to make it better.   I seem to have become obsessed with sugar and gingerbread birds, and they have become one of my recurring motives in my work.

Bumbling around flickr and other blogs looking for inspiration is so enjoyable and I can sometimes spend so much time being inspired that I don't get down to actual being creative myself!  But I hope that you will be inspired by this post to do something gingerbready.  Please leave a link if you have made a gingerbread house, I'd love to see it!

If you live in or near Hertforshire and would like to order a Christmas gingerbread house please e-mail for prices and more details.

This is a once in a lifetime offer. If you come to our Bumps, Babes and Beyond Fayre, Friday 20th November 9 -12 at Berkhamsted Town Hall you can purchase this cake and a special reduced price. 

DUSKY ROSE CUPCAKES

These were Autumn cupcakes I was inspired to make after purchasing these lovely brown spotty cases.

I love pink and brown together!

A friends' mum very kindly gave me a cupcake stand so I made these as a thankyou, it was also her birthday.

To be honest though I don't need much of an excuse to make cupcakes!

 

My true love gave to me...

I love this Christmas picture by PlanetCoco. It is so simple and easy on the eye but when you see the thought that has gone into it, it is so clever.
Each font relates in someway to the word, for example the first font is called partridge. Ten Lords a leaping is represented by 'Little Lord Fonteroy' . Have alook at her blog for a full list of fonts and more gorgeous Christmassy ideas.

MTAM GIVEAWAY!

Yes our first official giveaway!  Many thanks to the talented Marie of Heartfelthandmade for parting with one of her wonderful tooth monsters.

To be in with a chance of winning one of these cutie-pies visit the More Than a Mama blogspot.  Good Luck!

PUMPKIN CUPCAKES

This is the recipe for pumkin cupcakes that I made with my kids to get rid of our pumpkin scrappings.  They rejected the pumpkin soup as did Mr Mr Lemon Drizzle, and I didn't even dare mention a stew so I thought better go for the sweet option!
We made spiced pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

INGREDIENTS

125g butter

125g sugar

2 large eggs

grated orange peel and juice

125g self raising flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

200g pumpkin flesh

milk

Preheat oven to 200 or 175 for fan oven.

Line cupcake tray with inserts.

Beat together butter and sugar for about two minutes until pale and creamy.  Add eggs one at a time, add the grated orange peel.  Sift together the flour and spices and add to the mixture.  Fold gently together.  Then fold in the pumkin and orange juice.  The cake mixture should have a soft consistency and drop easily off a spoon.

Using a dessert spoon distribute the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until pale golden

 

We used the scrapings from our pumpkin heads so I used my fabulous Pampered Chef chopper to chop up the flesh.  If you are not creating a spooky masterpiece and just fancy some pumpkin cupcakes you could just grate it.

Ready to go into the oven!

And just out, filling the house with the smell of pumpkiny goodness.

FROSTING

 250g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

100g cream cheese

1 teaspoon of lemon juice.

Beat all the ingredients together until light and fluffly.

Put a heaped teaspoon of the frosting on the top of each cake and with an

offset spatula (or back of a knife) level it off.

I decorated ours with gingerbread leaves and gold fondant leaves to make them really autumnal.

As I mentioned earlier I did make these with the kidlets.  However I have attempted to spare you the horror of all this entails in my pictures, ( half an hours making for two hours clearing up!) but I couldn't resist showing off my three year olds effort.  Not bad hey?