My gift

This blog entry serves no purpose other than to show of my cute new vases that I received from mum for Christmas.

Merry New Year. x

Yummy Chocolate & Orange Tart

This recipe is relevant if you love Jaffas and you love pastry. That's me. This recipe comes from the Australian Women's Weekly recipe book called Bake; a ginormous book jammed with recipes and dedicated to appreciating the tradition of home-style baking. This one's a winner:

Chocolate Jaffa Tart

Pastry

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup icing sugar

125g cold butter, chopped coarsely

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons (approximately) iced water

Filling

3 eggs

1 tablespoon finely grated orange rind

2/3 cup thickened cream

3/4 cup caster sugar

60g dark eating chocolate, melted

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 tablespoons orange flavoured liqueur

Topping

140g dark eating chocolate

1/4 cup thickened cream

How to

One: Grease a 24cm round loose-based flan tin.

Two: Process flour, icing sugar and butter until crumbly. Add egg yolks and enough of the water to process until all ingredients come together. Enclose in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Three: Roll pastry between sheets of baking paper until large enough to line tin. Lift the rolled pastry into the tin carefully and press gently into the sides and base of the tin. I don't have a flan tin, so I just used a rectangular slice tin, then sliced it into little squares when it’s all done, and it worked out nicely. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes.

Four: Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius or 180 if it’s a fan-forced oven.

Five: Line pastry case with baking paper and fill with rice or those little baking beads. Place the tin on an oven tray and pop it in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove tin out of the oven, then remove the baking paper and rice/beans. Bake for another 10 minutes. Let it cooooool.
Six: Make the filling by whisking all the ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Seven: Reduce oven to 180 degrees / 160 degrees fan-forced.

Eight: Step eight! Nearly there! Pour filling into pastry case and bake for about 30 minutes. Let it coooool.

Nine: Stir chocolate and cream in a small saucepan over low heat until smooth, then spread the warm mixture over the cold tart. Refrigerate until set.

Ten: Eat it! And maybe share it. Only if you want to.

Christmas Gift Wrapping

Rather than using the standard rolls of Christmas wrapping paper, I've done some crafty wrapping. I used plain brown packing paper with a strip of frayed fabric and some twine in the first photo below. In the next photo I used some gift paper which I got last year from Frankie magazine. I also made my own tags, just using white cardboard and some Sharpies, finished off with a hole punch and some twine. With the other gifts, I used paper doilies which I picked up from a newsagency, held down with some twine.



Framed Vintage Postcards

 I bought some vintage postcards from an antique store and I think they're cute enough for a frame. They look lovely in a cluster on the wall with a bit of crafty loving. I bought some cheap photo frames made from wood from a cheap shop, then painted them to look pretty. So first I sanded them back to remove the laquer already on them. Next I painted them white (just in acrylic paint, because that's just what I had at home). Once they were dry, I painted on another layer of white paint. Let them dry again, then sand them back roughly to give them a vintage/rustic look. Rub them back until the original wood peeks through. I pimped mine by adding doilies and ornaments to the frames, just using a craft glue. And here's the result:

Festive

So I've made my own Christmas tree this year, and its made completely from recycled materials. I've cut out an old calendar and second hand doilies and used a couple of branches from a park. I also made those uber cute felt-face-puddings. And I think its a pretty darn cute tree.

Fabric Covered Button Earrings.

Drawing

I have little time of late for crafting since I enrolled in a drawing class at uni. It is fun but very challenging. Below is my first attempt at using charcoal.

And my giant cupcake drawing.