Hello gentle reader, I do hope you are well! Despite my predictions of gloom and disaster in my last post, Ireland did the business and we are now the grand slam champions. Sadly the days since then have NOT been spent in a cider soaked stupor, but you can't have it all! By way of distraction in the run up to the game (I don't do well during sporting events) I made these honey buns from Rachel Allen's 'Bake'. I wasn't completely thrilled, though I don't really like honey so it was a slightly stupid choice! iIreally made them for one of the guys at work and he seemed happy enough!
It's a fairly standard bun recipe - with honey replacing most of the caster sugar. The honey is warmed with butter, then added to the sugar and egg mixture, then flour and baking powder added to that. The icing again uses mostly honey and it took forever to set - it was still gooey 24hrs later! I found the buns pretty stodgy too. This is a common problem for me - I do ok with cakes as a rule but buns just aren't as light as I would like! I wonder if over mixing is the problem? Or am I under mixing?
Anyway, enough of such baking related concerns - I have been a busy bee recently and getting into jewellery making - specifically beading. This all came about when I found a bead store in Aberdeen and signed up for a beginnners course. I really enjoyed myself, so bought the basics and then looked at them on the other side of the living room for about a week. However, I finally got my act together and made something. No pictures just now as it's a gift and I don't want to spoil the surprise. Very nervous about it though - I do hope it goes down well! However I can show you the necklace I made for my mum during the class.
The pic isn't the best I'm afraid - the joy of the camera phone! It's a pretty simple design, with nice chunky blue beads that I know she'll like. For personal preference I like my necklaces a bit longer than this but it's right for mum. Here's a close up of the fastening. I had a small disaster with this when I managed to pull apart the jump rings I used initially but these have now been fixed.
I had thought about giving this as a Mothers' day gift but I wasn't organised enough. I shall give it to her the next time I'm home.
In the meantime I need to press on with Pennie's swap for Vonnie's 'time for tea' swap. Bit nervous about this too - hopefully I've put together a nice package.
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