Carnival cake

Carnival cake has all the best things piled into one heap and provides some cheap thrills.  True, it isn't quality food, but you can throw it together quickly, put whatever you want into it, pop it in the freezer and you're set.  Or better still, get the kids to do it all. 

Whenever you're at the supermarket, keep an eye out for cakes that have been marked down for quick sale, take them home and pop them in your freezer.  Pick up your favourite chocolate bars or cookies when they're on special and squirrel them away.  When the mood takes you, buy some ice-cream (we buy the sort that's divided into three flavours in the tub, so we can have differently coloured ice-cream layers) and stack away!

The one above was made in an 8 x 8 inch cake pan, but you can use any size or shape pan depending on how much cake and icecream you want to get rid of.   Spritz your pan with cooking spray and line it criss-crossedly with two or three layers of plastic wrap (you'll need to leave quite a bit of overhang to enclose your cake with once it's all together).  Then the fun starts!

The cake above starts out with sponge-cake on the bottom, followed by a layer of softened chocolate and vanilla ice-cream topped with chocolate cream biscuits.  (After the first layer of ice-cream, I like to wrap the cake up and put it in the freezer for half an hour to harden it up a bit.)   Next are rounds of chocolate swiss roll, top by some strawberry ripple ice-cream and then topped with slices of jam rollettes.  Wrap it all up in the plastic that you've left overhanging the edges of your pan, and leave it for a couple of hours to harden.   Once sliced, all those yummy layers look really pretty!

This is a really easy dessert to make for childrens' birthdays and lazy summer barbecue parties, and something the kids can have fun planning and putting together.  And when you're in one of those moods and you can't decide whether it's cake, cookies or ice-cream that will make things all better, this cake covers every option.  It's like a super-cake.  And, with so many possibilities, no two will ever be alike.  I'm liking the idea of Bounty bars and maraschino cherries for my next, after I've ploughed my way through the rest of this one.  Because an eight by eight inch slab of this cake takes some eating.  And so, therefore, like a carnival ride, make sure you share the experience amongst your friends and family, so you can all have fun feeling a bit peaky together.

Making headway

I'm back at work this week, which is not a happy fact.  I enjoy being at home with the kids, cooking and making things, even if one child is constantly underfoot pulling my kitchen apart while the other is chatting incessantly about Iron Man.  Even on a bad day, it's just so much more tolerable than attempting  to keep warm in a freezing store, carrying 16 kilogram boxes down a ladder whilst trying hard not to topple to your death, and then hoping you don't get mugged in the car park by some high-on-whack loser when it's time to go home.

Even though my week off was marred by some wild weather, a couple of lengthy power outages and a weakened heart caused by Sophie performing some death-defying tricks on the dining room table, I'm happy to report that I did get things done.  Firstly, I finished Sophie's coat.

 

   

This was mostly completed about a week ago.  The main delay was getting the buttons for it, because I was too terrified to drive to Spotlight in the cyclonic weather.  When I did finally get there, I found the *perfect* buttons.   I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  When Paul saw it, he said we should rename Sophie Madeline and teach her to speak French.  Righto, good luck with that.  I'm having enough trouble teaching her how to speak English - her vocabulary consisting predominantly of the word "Ta", along with the occasional "Wheeeeee!" and "Boink".   Oh, and "Daddy".  No, no mention of me :( 

Here it is with the shooting star pin I made a little while ago.

I made more t-shirt tights for Sophie.  Geez, I think she's getting a little bit spoilt.  No wonder she acts as if she rules the entire world.  It's time for some boy-things, I think.

And, in other exciting news, I cleaned out my room.  Whoopee.  But, really, this is a HUGE deal for me.  I discovered that there is in fact a floor under all my junk, and I picked over the entire carpet, so the kids can now walk freely about without impaling their toes on stray pins.  And, I found my overlocker!  Yippeeee!  You know you've got real problems when you lose an appliance which is as big as a small child. 

Make a shooting star pin - tutorial

I've  just about finished sewing Sophie's coat, and although I must say I am extremely pleased with how it's coming along, the dark grey fabric makes it look a little austere for an especially sparkly (and naughty!) toddler.  I decided to make a star-shaped pin to wear with it, but wasn't sure whether to sew or bead or find a star blank to paint.  Then, I remembered this crochet star tutorial.  After doing a few test stars and deciding they were just what I wanted (and dead easy!), I made this pin in about an hour (not including drying time after felting the star).  Here's how!

What you need - 

-100% pure wool yarn (8ply, suited to knitting on 4mm needles)

-3.00mm crochet hook

-Some flat, flexible plastic (I cut mine from the side of a plastic milk jug)

-A long-ish needle to sew your front and back stars together

-Ribbon of your choice (something a bit stiffer than satin, like organdie or stiff nylon

-Brooch finding or safety pin

-Sequins, seed beads, etc. to decorate (optional)

For felting -

-Two bowls, one with water from kettle that's just boiled and a little squeeze of dishwashing liquid, and one with cold water, and a couple of ice-cubes, if you have them.

-Rubber gloves (so you don't burn yourself!)

-A towel

 
What you do - 

With your yarn and crochet hook, make two stars using the crochet star pattern  found at the (wonderful!) Foothill Home Companion.  I admit that when I first eyeballed this pattern, I thought it looked tricky, but it's not at all.  The stars work up really quickly, and I can think of a tonne of projects I want to use them in.  I'm not too cluey with all the different trebles and I had to google some of them, and the instructions I needed were found easily. 

After your stars are made, weave in any loose yarns or tails.  You can pop a couple of stitches through the hole in the centre too, if you like, just to close it off.

Take your plastic and trace one of the star shapes roughly onto it. 

Now, cut out the shape with some tough scissors, but cut a few millimetres inside the line you drew because it has to be smaller than your woolly stars.  Just trim away a bit at a time until it looks something like this. 

Take a length of yarn and strip a couple of ply from it to use as thread to sew your stars together.   Now, the plastic star will be sandwich between the two stars and will help to keep it  rigid.  Curly arms and legs on a star look a bit lame.  The best way to get it all together is to place your yarn stars wrong sides together, sew one or two points together using an overcast stitch (see my amazing technical diagram below)...

... then slide the star shape in, and then continue sewing the remaining points around the rest of the star. 

All done.

Oooo, now it's time to felt.  I love this bit!  Get your bowls of hot and cold water set up and don your gloves.  Plop your star into the hot water, and rub it to mat up the fibres.  My gloves have this friction-y type surface on the palms, so I rubbed it between my two gloved hands.  Or just rub it between your fingers.  Do this for about a minute.  Then dunk it in the cold water to the shrink the fibres you just mushed up, and mush it up a bit more.  Do this for about a minute, too.

Keep repeating this process until you can't see the crochet stitches anymore, and it looks more like felt than crochet.

Rinse in some cold water to get rid of the soap, and then press between two layers of towel to squeeze out as much water as you can.    Shape it with your fingers a bit to get the star shape as you want it, and leave to dry on the towel.

While your star is drying, cut some lengths of ribbon.  It's best to cut them a bit longer than you want the end result to be because you will trim them later.  Shape them into a tail formation, and when your happy with them, stitch them to hold their shape.  

Once your star is dry, stitch the ribbon tail to the back...

 ...then stitch your brooch finding on.   Clip the ribbon to a length that it's not floppy and trim the tail of your ribbons diagonally.  I like to spray mine with a bit of hairspray to keep the ribbons nice and stiff, and stop the ends from fraying.  And there you go...

Ooo, and add some sparkly bling if you like!

And don't forget that when you're wearing your shooting star pin, you are allowed to make wishes all day long.  It's the law.

Batten down the hatches....

...a major storm is crossing the coast at the moment, one that we've been warned about since mid yesterday.  This one has come hot on the heels of damaging winds and storms we were subjected to on Sunday, which left tens of thousands of homes without power for a considerable time.  We were lucky enough to have ours restored after 21 hours.  But many are still without power and will have to withstand this awfulness in the dark.  Cameron's teacher has sent him home with a letter, informing us of a likely school closure due to the severity of the forecast storm, and possible damage it may cause.  It is all a little bit scary.

As I type, the wind is howling past my window, and causing things to clank and shudder and bend and creak.   But we've been told the real fun will start at about ten o'clock and endure for several hours.  We have our emergency kit, and really-important-phone-numbers at the ready and we are prepared for what will probably be a sleepless night of peeking out the window, watching debris flying down the road, and consoling freaked-out children.   The joy of winter!

As we may well lose our power again tonight, I thought it might be a good idea to fill our tummies with something warm and comforting.  Paul and I are somewhat carbohydrate-conscious during the week, saving the starchy stuff, for the weekend.  But I thought what the heck!  Potatoes and dumplings tonight!   

 

With all those carbs loose in my system, I am ready for anything!   But hopefully, not something like running around the neighbourhood picking up pieces of my house.

Ooooo, it's starting to get really wild now.  Good luck and best wishes to everyone.  All that's left to do now is to sit and wait.  And knit!

My children...

...are driving me stark-raving bonkers today.  They are generally great kids and I love them dearly and with all my heart, but this is one of those days that I could easily trade the pair of them for a glass of red and a bag of chips.  Seriously.

Sleeveless coat

I'm on a break from work next week, and Paul has organised a massive skip-bin so I can clean out my room.  So in the next few days, I will be folding all my fabrics into tight little bundles so it doesn't look like I have as much as I really do, boxing them up, and then putting them back in my cupboard.  I really don't know why I agreed to the whole skip -bin business because I have no intention of throwing any of it out.  Instead, I will become a master of illusion. Ta-daaaa.

I am also making this little coat for Sophie May.  I've had this wool remnant sitting in my stash for donkey years, and managed to only just squeeeeeze a Sophie-size pattern onto it.  This design is from from the Ottobre 1/2010 issue, and is really a pinafore dress.  But I've lengthened it a little and will be lining it, after deciding the wool will be a little bit scratchy if I don't.  Well, duh.

 

And to make it even more difficult for myself, as is my way, I decided to line it after I had already cut the woollen pattern pieces, thus not including the correct seam allowances on the front facings, and not cutting a neck facing for the back.  Hooray!!  Because I just love working with scant seam allowances and lining coats almost completely by hand!  O, happy days.