Cupcakes, a craft project, and a rather delicious pasta sauce!

I'm currently enjoying one of those rather delicious moments, when both children are happily asleep.  These don't always come along every day, so I am making the most of it- as soon as I finish this post I shall busy myself with one of a few craft projects I have up my sleeve (more on those another day...!)

Yesterday I had a friend round for tea and cake, and in the morning I sat down and realised that I didn't actually have any home made cake to offer, so, nothing like a spot of baking to ease one into the day!  I thought it might be nice to do some with my son, but he wasn't terribly interested, though he did keep me company by drawing trains at the kitchen table.

I am trying to make my way through lots of new recipes at the moment (any good ones, please send my way!) and this one, for Carrot and Raisin Cupcakes is from Annabel Karmel's book on Finger food (which has other, very tasty recipes).  It is pretty easy, and the icing is a delicious maple syrup one.  However, as far as I'm concerned, a good carrot cake has to have a cream cheese filling, so I made half of both!  Some were decorated with pecan nuts, but others (for the non nut-eaters!) had some little wafer flowers that I happened upon in our local shop.

I did say that E wasn't particularly interested in helping with the cakes. That is, until it came to eating them....

Next up. I've been quieter on the blog on the crafting front, but do have a few ongoing projects. I'll not say much about it now, as I will give it a post of its own when I am finished, but here's what's going on in my knitting world...

And recently I made a delicious pasta dish (again a Jamie O!).  This time it was Spaghetti alla Trapanese.  It's amazing.  You use lots of fresh ingredients, and it's essentially a bit of a home made pesto and some. You can find the recipe here, and it's a fabulous summer meal.  I don't like raw tomatoes, so I cook the whole thing for a few minutes on the stove, just to take the edge off the acidity, but you obviously don't have to.  It's a great way to use up lots of fresh basil, and is lovely if you don't whizz it up too much, so the nuts are still quite crunchy!  It's well worth a try!

Yum!

Right. They are still both sleeping, so on with some crafts!

Have a lovely weekend, friends.

Cx

I finished!

I have finally finished the Lucille cardigan. Not that it took insanely long- perhaps about a month. But it feels like it took quite a while...  However, I'm so pleased with the result, and it's my first proper item of clothing I've done for the bump!

I chose some pink buttons to complement the purple of the wool, and there are technically meant to be six buttons, but there was actually an error on the pattern (the only mistake that wasn't my fault) which led to the sixth button hole being out of line with the rest.  So, rather than try and muddle something together, I decided it was easily fine with five!

After all of the faff with the sleeves, I am pleased to have a) finally mastered (in the least masterful sense of the word!) working in the round and b) have made some pretty sleeves with no seams!

Excellent. I'd recommend this as a project if you are looking for something fiddly to get your teeth into- but bear in mind it is fairly labour intensive.

Right. Off to cook dinner. We are having an amazing (yet ridiculously simple) Jamie O pasta dish with bacon, savoy cabbage, mozzarella and pine nuts- A recipe we have loved in our family for years! Mmmm! What are your favourite recipes?!

Have a lovely weekend.