Mothering Sunday Bake

This year, as it came to Mothering Sunday, I was in a panic. My purse was feeling quite light, and I had no ideas of what gift I should buy for my Mum. Then I had a brainwave!

I decided to have a go at making one of my first ever Victoria Sponge cakes. I'm normally one for making Vanilla Butterfly cakes or Gingerbread biscuits, but this was a challenge I was happy to accept.

I used the following recipe for my Victoria Sponge:

• 4oz/125g Caster Sugar
• 4oz/125g Self-Raising Flour
• 4oz/125g Softened Butter
• 2 Medium-sized Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract/Flavouring
• Cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes, Gas Mark 4 or 180°C
• For the Buttercream layer: 3oz/75g Softened Butter, 6oz/175g Icing Sugar, 1 tsp Vanilla Extract/Flavouring
• A generous layer of seedless Raspberry Jam
• A dusting of Icing Sugar on the top
• Cake decorations

Personally, I feel that my cake turned out okay for a first-attempt. It definitely went down a treat!

I'm hoping to be adding a few new recipes in the future, so definitely look out for those. See you soon!

Hobbycrafts Spring Show 2014

On the 22nd of March I was lucky enough to visit the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC in Birmingham. The event contained a large array of stalls, if you are interested in anything from Pyrography to Quilting then there's something for you! There was even a good amount of workshops to take part in, I took part in a Décopatch workshop and made a lovely coaster.

One of my most favourite stalls by far was TOFT Luxury British Knitting.  

TOFT have an Alpaca farm and shop in Warwickshire, meaning that all their wool is soft and naturally coloured. They sell some really nice Alpaca pom-poms, as well as crochet/knitting patterns (their animal ones being some of my favourites), and all of their wool is great quality too. I came away with a really sweet Orang-utan crochet pattern and a ball of their Steel-coloured wool to make him with, the bag that they give you is a really nice fabric drawstring bag as well.

A few of my other favourite stalls were Décopatch, MosaiCraft, Cathie Shuttleworth Papercrafts and Multipom. I came away with some really nice products, including a Décopatch beginner's set with a fox, a hedgehog cross-stitch set, and an owl mosaic set. I will be having lots of fun this summer! I'll update my blog once these projects have been completed so you can see how they turned out.

Overall, the event was fantastic. This was the first time I've been to anything like this, and I'd happily go again. It was interesting to see how certain crafts were done, or to discover things I'd never seen or done before. The freebies were obviously a bonus! I'd definitely recommend going if you're a craft-lover of any kind, and are hoping to get some more materials or try something new.