Making Fimo Beads

How to make this bad boy:

Get yourself some Fimo clay. I bought mine online. Preheat your oven to 110 degrees Celsius. Break off a piece of clay, the size depends on what size beads you're after. Knead it with your fingers to make it more malleable, then form into balls by rolling between your hands. Use a skewer to carefully and slowly insert a hole through the ball. Place them on a piece of foil on an oven tray. Give them some oven lovin' for no longer than 30 minutes. 20 minutes should do the trick. 

Let them cool for a bit, then admire them for a bit.

Thread the beads on to a piece of leather, string, chain.. whatever you fancy. And Tadaaahhhhh, you made a spunky necklace:

Orange and Almond Cakes with Cardamom Syrup

Make them. Do it.

Ingredients:

80 g softened butter
2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
1/2 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups almond meal
1/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup flaked almonds, chopped

Cardamom syrup:
1 orange
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water
6 cardamom pods, bruised


Directions:

Step one: Preheat oven to 180 degrees or 160 degrees fan forced. Grease 6 1/2 cup muffin or friand tins
Step two: Beat butter, rind and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat eggs in one at a time.
Step three: Stir in almond meal, flour and nuts.
Step four: Bake cakes for 20 minutes. Stand for 5 minutes, then turn upside down onto a wire rack.

To make the syrup:
Remove the rind from the orange and slice in finely. Juice the orange (you need about a third of a cup of juice). Place the juice, rind, sugar and water in a saucepan and dissolve the sugar. Boil for 10 minutes until it thickens. Get rid of the cardamom and serve the hot syrup over the cakes while they're hot.