DNA Scarf

I knitted my Mum (a retired A-level biology teacher) this DNA scarf using the "Rosalind" pattern  by @alicebell. It was part of her Christmas present last year.

My Urban Allotment

I enjoy growing a small amount of food each summer. I've done tomatoes, spring onions, lettuce and herbs for several years, but this year also have corgettes, potatoes, beet root, and did have som peas (thanks to a Riverford Buy to grow box). I don't have much space though, just a small border, and some pots in an area just bigger than a driveway (really not enough for the Riverford box), so this site Urban Allotment looks like it might be great for me. Thinking about buying a cherry tree to grow in a pot.

Custard Tarts

Tried to make Cantonese Egg Custard tarts from this recipe. I used pre-rolled puff pastry, and regular milk not evaporated. Wasn't a complete success, although tasted good. Think the filling needed to be deeper. Will try again sometime.

Jupiter Cake

I have to try to make this Jupiter Cake. It is so awesome.

Castle Cake (Take 2)

Here's version 2 of the castle cake (this time in purple by request).

And some intermediate steps. Here's all the bits ready for construction. I broke my own rule and did my own cake mix (instead of a box mix, which is more reliable for structural cakes). The squares indeed came out a bit flat and heavy. 

Lots of buttercream frosting with lots of red and blue food colouring in it. 

Add the chocolate coated icecream cones. I used a ganache recipe to make the chocolate coating (chocolate and cream melted together). 

And once more - the finished result. My daughter helped with the final decorations. 

Easter Bunnies

I made these Easter bunnies for my kids.

I used this pattern found via Ravelry, but I didn't like the eyes, so I decided to copy the face from these bunnies (thanks Google). Also I made the head and body in one piece, which mean doing the pattern for the body upside down.

I like how they turned out, and my son liked them so much he wanted one for each hand (they're just about toddler hand sized), so I ended up making a third one for my daughter. Each takes me about two nights of making (which TV watching).

Castle Cake (Take 1)

This is a castle cake I made 2 years ago for my daughter's 4th birthday.

It's a square chocolate cake, with swiss roll towers, and icecream cone roofs. The door is chocolate fingers, the windows are chocolate buttons and it's sprinkled with chocolate stars.

I based the design on pictures of cakes shared here: http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/castle-cake.html

Also today I found this pinterest page of castle cakes with some idea (but very professional looking): http://pinterest.com/lovingly/castle-cakes/

My task for today is to repeat this cake - only in purple. I'm going to try to do better with the icing (OK by cheating and buying ready made frosting - I just can't get homemade icing to stay on cakes!).

Penguin Cake

Yesterday I made a penguin cake for my son's birthday party. I am really happy with how it came out.

I copied the idea from this blog: "Fowl Single File: There's a Penguin in my Fridge" which I found after doing a google image search for "penguin cake".

I used a box of (Betty Crocker's) Devil's Food Cake mix and baked a bit less than half of it in an 8" small round cake, and the rest in a pyrex bowl which roughly the same diameter (this will took about twice as long as the baking time for the round cake). I put these in the fridge overnight. In the morning I trimmed them to match, and stuck them together with some (Betty Crocker) chocolate frosting. I then put an entire tube of black food colouring in the rest of the chocolate frosting (which made it dark brown) and iced the cake. The eyes, tummy, nose, feet and hat are fondant icing. I bough white ready to roll icing. The pupils were dabs of the chocolate frosting, and a lot of orange and green food colouring when into making the orange and green bits! If I did this again I might buy ready coloured fondant icing.

Panda Hat

I just finished this panda hat. I modified this pattern for a bear hat (link) by adding a panda face from this design (link) and doing in the ears in black. The only problem is it's too small for my son (intended recipient) who is 3. It's probably suited for a 6-9 month old, so I will have to decide which friend's baby is to get this soon. :) 

Added: my Mum suggested if I had a border at the bottom it might be modified still to fit my son... Going to have a think about that.

Chocolate Covered Cheerio Biscuits

With the leftover chocolate from decorating the star biscuits I made chocolate covered cheerios. I added a bit of honey and some raisins in case the chocolate wasn't sweet enough. They're pretty good actually.

"G" and Star Shaped Biscuits.

I made "G" and star biscuits to send into nursery for my son's 3rd birthday.

They are simple American sugar biscuits from my copy of the 1001 Tempting Treats book.

I decided to try decorating with chocolate. The G's didn't come out that great. 

But I like the effect on the stars. 

Hello World

I don't really need another blog! I currently have two personal blogs (a private one for pictures of the kids, and a public one about science/astronomy). I also contribute to/run an additional 3 blogs about science topics (Galaxy Zoo, LOFAR-UK and the University of Portsmouth Athena SWAN blog).

But still.... this is going to be a place where I post about cooking, baking and knitting projects. Mostly for myself to remember what I did but I'll leave it publicly viewable in case anyone finds it helpful.

So hello world.