Old fashioned cherry cake

Here is what is left of a cake I made last night. Yep, it's nearly gone! I used this recipe, though I followed the recipe from one of Delia's recipe books that Dom's mum very kindly got me for xmas :) Its just safer than having my Eee PC anywhere near where I'm baking! lol It turned out delicious, though a little over done. Next time I'll remember to reduce the cooking time for our cooker. Oh yes, there will definitely be a next time! Dom was very impressed and insists that there will be a next time!
Also a warm welcome to my new followers! :) I should have giveaways more often, as I've gained more followers in the last 4 days than I did in the first 4 months of blogging!
Thankfully the antibiotics are working wonderfully and I'm feeling much better. So much better in fact, that Dom and I have started doing yoga everyday! I'm also following the XBX programme, which was developed for women by the Royal Canadian Air Force. Dom is following the 5BX programme which is the men's version. We're both enjoying it a lot, and although we're only on the fourth day of it we're noticing we can preform some of the yoga stretches better! Lets hope I start noticing an improvement in my fitness soon!
Ashley x
ps. don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already! :)

Russian dolls!

These babies aren't just Russian dolls. Oh no. They're also cup measuring thingies. Dom bought them for me because he is always sending me emails with links to recipes in them that he thinks look yummy. But he never checks the ingredients so usually the ingredients have to be measured in cups! So I moaned at him about it. And he bought me these cute little things! I tried them out using this recipe and wow! It was perfect, there was the perfect amount of everything! And the end result!!! There are no words for how delicious they were. I didn't get a picture as we ate them too quick but they turned out exactly like the picture on the recipe page!! I certainly recommend trying the recipe if you have some cups.
Also, on a more serious note, please send lots of love and cuddles to my little brothers kitten/cat (when are they old enough to be called cat?) because the poor thing is at the vets! Apparently he had to have a blockage removed and they're keeping him in for a couple of days to make sure he doesn't have any kidney damage :( The poor thing! And just because I had to share these funny photos my mum took of him, here he is:

Doesn't he look like he's laughing?

Rooaaarrr!!

Ashley x

Homemade calzone

Now, I'd like to say that this photo doesn't show how delicious this is. So don't judge by the photo! Let your taste buds do the judging!

Ok, so for the dough:

Ingredients

250ml of warm water

half a tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon fast action dried yeast

Approximately 400g plain flour

1) put warm water and yeast in a large bowl. Add sugar and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, until the yeast activates and foams. Add the salt and oil.

2)Gradually add in flour as stirring the mixture. (The original recipe said 240g of flour, but I found this to be way to little. Hence why I said approximately 400g. I keep adding flour until I feel like I want to touch it, until its not possible to stir it anymore).

3)Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Keep sieving flour over it whenever it feels sticky. It should be super soft when you knead it, very elastic, and shouldn't rip when you stretch it.

4) Put it into a floured bowl, and let it rise for about an hour at room temperature, or 5 hours in the fridge.

5) place on a floured surface and knead it gently to knock the air out of it.

6) half the dough. Its plenty for two pizzas, or in this case two calzones :)

Now for the filling. I did this while the dough was rising.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of olive oil (and oil for frying)

2 small red onions, chopped

1 aubergine,cubed

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped

50g (drained weight) sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped

1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme

125g mozzarella cheese, cubed

splash of red wine if you have it

salt and pepper to season

1) heat some oil in a pan. Add the red onions and fry until soft.

2) add the aubergine, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme, and seasoning.

3) cook for 4-5 minutes, until the aubergine is beginning to soften, stirring frequently.

4) I felt it was a bit dry, it needed a bit more moisture. I added a generous splash of red wine, and put it back on the heat until there wasn't any liquid at the bottom of the pan.

Ok, now back to the  pizza dough!

1) Once its halved, roll each half out to about 9-10 inches.

2)Divide the filling mixture between the two, spreading over one half of each pizza base. Add the mozzarella on top of the filling.

3)Dampen the edges of the pizza bases with water, and fold over the dough to cover the filling. Press around the edges to seal it. Like a pastie :)

4)Place the calzones onto a greased baking sheet.

5)Brush the calzones with half a tablespoon of olive oil each. Make a small hole in each calzone to let steam out.

6)Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden in an oven preheated to 220'C.

7)Remove from the oven, and brush with olive oil again. Serve!

Delicious! Though we each had to leave half as we were so full! Oh well, left overs for tea tomorrow night! :D Calzone is such a great idea as there are so many things you could try as a filling!

If you try it, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did :)

Jellybean x

Short bread biscuits

I made shortbread biscuits last night, and they were so good we've already eaten them all!

Ingredients
125g/4oz butter
55g/2oz caster sugar
180g/6oz plain flour

1) Beat the sugar and butter together until pale.
2) Stir in the flour to get a smooth paste (I had to add a little water to get it to stick together well)
3)Turn onto a floured surface and gently roll out until 1cm thick.
4) Cut into rounds using a biscuit cutter. Put on the baking tray and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
5) Bake for 15-20 minutes (I found that 10 minutes was ok) in an oven preheated to 190'C/375'F/Gas mark 5 until golden brown. Leave to cool.

We ended up with about 24 biscuits. The dough was really nice to work with :) and the biscuits had a lovely crumbly texture. Here's how they turned out:

 Jellybean x

Five minute eggless mug cake

Last night I had a craving for something sweet (as usual! lol). Unfortunately we didn't have any eggs :( Dom suggested the five minute mug cake, but I said no, as I remembered it having an egg in it. However a quick search on google brought up this. I used the first recipe. However, the abbreviations for tablespoons and teaspoons are a wrong on a couple of the ingredients, so it was a bit hit and miss. So here's my slightly altered version, with no abbreviations :)

Ingredients
5 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 rounded tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 rounded tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (the original says 1/4 baking soda, but we didn't have any)
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence

Put all dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl (or straight into your mug, but I find it easier to mix in a bowl). Give it a good mix. Add wet ingredients, and give it another good mix. Put the mixture into your mug. Then microwave it on full power for 2 minutes. Easey peasey!  :)
I also put a nice big dollop of Fluff on top and it was delicious! Also, I forgot baking powder in the first one, it went more like a brownie than cake, so feel free to leave out baking powder too if you don't have any, as it's still yummy without it :)
Hope you enjoy it!
Jellybean x

My duct tape dummy : How to

I made a duct tape dummy! I used about 3 rolls each with 50m on it, and I'm about a UK size 14. I used a bin bag to stick the tape to, as I've read in a few places that t-shirts can ride up because they're stretchy. I used cling film/wrap to do the top of my arms, and a little bit higher up my neck. I also made a cover from a large men's shirt. I got Dom to wrap me. Make sure you stand nice and straight! If you slouch, your dummy will slouch too. Open the windows, and if you have air-con, use it! You WILL get very hot. Why do you think I cropped my head off the photo's? I look awful because I'm so hot and sweaty! Make sure you wrap nice and tight, or your dummy will be too big.
Here's the pictures with a step-by-step explanation (go easy on me, this is my first attempt at a tutorial! If you have any questions, leave me a comment).

How to make your duct tape dummy
1) Shape the bust. To do this you need to start with a piece around your body just under the bust. Then with another piece, go between your breasts and over diagonally and over the shoulder. This piece should meet the piece that's around your body. A picture is probably the best way to explain:

 2) Next you need to shape your shoulder blades! Do this with a piece of tape going from  your shoulder diagonally across your back to meet the piece around your body.

3) Depending on how long you want your dummy to be, now would be the time to add some length if you want it. I cut up another bin bag and taped it around the bottom edge of the one I was already wearing. Sorry forgot to take a picture of this!

4) Next comes the bust. To do this you need to use smaller pieces of tape, depending on how big your bust is. I used about 5-6" pieces. Put one end of the tape over the middle of your breast and smooth it down outwards. You want to be making a star shape with the middle of the star in the middle of your breast. Repeat for the other side. When you've done both, add a piece down the centre of your breasts :) I hope you can see clearly on the picture (click it to make it bigger!)

 5) Now you need to do your tummy! For this bit I recommend using pieces about 9-12" long. Overlap the tape by about half an inch. See the above picture for the front view :)

6) Next up is the top of your torso. For this bit, I put the tape on horizontally, Then added pieces that went over my shoulder like straps. See the next picture for this.

7) If you want to add length to the arms and up your neck, you'd better do it now! Use cling film to do this. Wrap it around the top of your arms pretty tight, but not so tight that your arm bulges out the end. Try to get it to overlap the tape on your shoulders, as this will make taping it onto the rest easier. Tape around the edges, then wrap all the way around your arm till you reach the desired length.
There is no easy way to do the neck. Use the same method as you did for your arms. Take your time, don't rush or you'll mess up. It won't be pretty, but the layers will sort this :)

And the back view:

8) Now that you've got the basic shape, you need to reinforce it so it'll keep its shape when stuffed. To do this add a layer of duct tape that goes vertically. Use pieces about 6-9" long.

And the back view:

9) You're almost done! To make it even stronger, add another layer of duct tape, this time horizontally. Now you need to mark your dummy. Any permanent marker will do. Mark you waist, bust, centre back, centre front etc.

And the back view:

10) Get out! I (Dom) cut in a zig-zag up the back. This made it easier to match up when taping back together. I also had to cut up the arms and shoulder to get my arms out without distorting it too much.

11) Tape up the back, reinforce it lots so it'll be able to stand stuffing. And of course if you had to cut the arms to get out, tape those up too.

12) Before going any further, measure your dummy. Check the measurements match your own. I forgot to this until I had stuffed up to the armpits! I had to unstuff to make it right!
So, if the measurements are significantly bigger than your own, you'll need to perform surgery on your dummy.

13)However, if you've done an excellent job and the dummy's measurements match your own, you can go ahead and stuff it. But first you need to give it a base. I used cardboard. Draw round the bottom of your dummy onto the cardboard, cut it out, insert into the bottom of your dummy and tape in place. Tape up the armholes. You can use practically anything to stuff it with. I used newspaper, leaflets, magazines, one of Dom's old shirts, all sorts. Be careful not to distort the shape, mine ended up with a funny pointy outy tummy, so I had to squeeze it back into shape.When your done stuffing, tape up the neck hole.

How to perform lipo-suction on your dummy


2) OK, now you need to draw a cutting line down the side of your dummy. Once you've done this, measure your specified amount away from this. In my example: at the waist I measured 1.5" away from my cutting line because this is how much I wanted to reduce it by. Do this for the hips and bust, and draw a line to connect them.

3) Cut up your cutting line. On the picture below, you can see where I've cut up my cutting line, and also where I've measured away from this at the waist and hips. (Remember you can click on a picture to make it bigger).

4) Here comes the lipo-suction! Take a small piece of duct tape, an inch or so long. Attach it to the flap that's on the left on the picture above, with half of the tape overhanging. With your hand on the inside supporting your dummy, pull it across until it matches your other line, where you measured. Press the tape down firmly. On the picture below you can see where I've taped the flap down matching the line I measured.

5) Do the same all up the sides until its completely taped up. Repeat on the other side. Reinforce the join thoroughly, or it'll pop open when stuffing. It'll look a little wrinkled and battered from being pulled and tugged, but don't worry it'll disappear when stuffed.

And the back view:

6) Re-measure just to make sure :) I also cut the arms shorter, as I found it difficult to get garments onto the dummy when they were longer.

7)Stuff! See above for how :)

Next I made a cover for my dummy. I decided to do this because I wanted a nicer finish, and also something to pin to so my pins didn't get sticky.

How to make a cover for your duct tape dummy
1) Get a men's shirt that is too big for you. Men's shirts are better than women's for this because they have relatively no shaping or darts. I got mine from a charity shop for a couple of pounds.

2) Cut the collar off. Cut the sleeves off. Cut up the side seams. Leave the shoulders intact.

3) Put the shirt on your dummy and button it up. I put it on right side out, so that when it was done, the buttons would be on the inside.

4) Pin the side seams back together, following your shape. Try to do it equally, so that the buttons follow the centre front line you drew.

5) Now you'll need to pin in some darts. To do this see where the fabric wants to naturally make a fold, where the excess naturally sits. Pin this to make a dart. Try to do this equally on both sides, repeat until you have no excess fabric.

And the back view:

6) You'll need to sew the darts first. To do this unpin the sides. Don't worry, once the darts are sewn, they'll be easy to pin again. Follow the pins until all the darts you pinned are sewn.

7) Put the shirt back onto your dummy again. re-pin the side seams. Sew them.

8) To put the sleeves in you'll need to cut up the seam on the sleeve. Pin into place. The sleeve will probably be too big for your armhole, don't worry, just let the edges overlap. Sew in place.

9) Once you've sewn both sleeves back in place, trim them to about 3 or 4". Put the shirt back on your dummy. Fold the sleeve neatly to hide all raw edges and to leave a nice neat arm. Pin in place as you go. Hand stitch in place. I was too impatient to slip stitch it, but it looks OK :)

10) Next you'll want to do the neck. To do this, I used what was left of one of the sleeves. Pin it on around the edges of the collar bit. Fold under raw edges as you go. Again, it'll probably be to big for the hole, but let it overlap.

11) Use the same technique as you did for the armholes. Fold and pin until its neatly in place, with no raw edges showing. Sew in place in the same as the armholes.

12) You're done! Congratulations on making your very own duct tape dummy, complete with cover!

 

And the back view:

I hope you found this helpful and enjoyable! And please link me to pictures of your own dummies, I'd love to see them!
Jellybean x