Lemon Cupcakes #FoodPicFriday

I was craving some sort of lemon treat and decided to make another batch of lemon poppy seed cupcakes. The last time I made them, I piped on yellow lemon frosting, which was great, but I wanted something a little more subtle this time around. I made a half batch of icing that I left white, and just spread a thin layer on each cupcake. A lovely treat to go with afternoon tea.

Knitted Fish Toy - Finished Object

I finished my first knit toy from the Knitted Toy Tales pattern book. I knit this adorable little fish and love having him swimming around the house. This pattern allowed me to learn new skills (intarsia and fair isle) and have a cute finished project in a short period of time.

Once the main body knitting was complete, I did duplicate stitch over the colour mistake in the tail fin (which ended up looking pretty great). Next I stuffed and seamed the body, bringing him to life. I knit and sewed on some fins, and embroidered on his little eyes. I love the way he looks.

Homemade Tortillas

We've been making homemade tortillas for a while now, and we absolutely love them. They are cheaper than store bought (about $0.44 for 12 vs. $3.00+ for 10), and they taste amazing. Every time. Sometimes we've made them and I've rolled them too thin, and then they cooked too long, making them crispy instead of soft...and they were still amazing. Hard to roll stuff up in them, but they were great for dipping and snacking.

The recipe I use for my tortillas comes from this blog, which has a really great tutorial. I only have slight changes in my method, but otherwise pretty much the same. So happy I found it, as we make these all the time.

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup hot tap water

Add flour, salt, and baking powder to large bowl and combine with a whisk. I love using a whisk to combine dry ingredients as it's so efficient. For this recipe, I use a giant silver bowl my Mom gave me and it works great.

Add 1/3 cup canola oil to flour mixture.

Mix with your fingers until it becomes fine crumbs.

Add 1 cup hot tap water.

Mix with your hands and form into a ball. Knead the ball 40 times (I just knead it right in the bowl).

Cover with a tea towel, and let rest for 30 minutes. Divide the ball into 12 discs. I do this by weighing the large ball and then making each disc a 12th of the weight. I like to measure because I'm not always great at eyeballing them to be the same size.

Let the 12 discs rest for 30 minutes.

Roll each disc into a tortilla around 8 inches wide. I don't flour my surface because they don't seem to need it. Sometimes they roll out into not quite circles, but they still work as tortillas.

Cook on a hot, ungreased pan for about one minute on each side. The tortillas will have a lot of bubbles when it is time to flip them. We use an electric griddle I got from Mom that works great for cooking two at a time. We turn it up to high and it is perfect.

Serve with a variety of different meals and enjoy. These are served with spicy chick peas and tomatoes on rice, wrapped up with Sriracha, cucumber dressing, fresh spinach, and diced purple onion. Yum!

40th Birthday Cake #FoodPicFriday

This cake was totally improvised, which made the final result even better. There is a kind of joy in throwing things together and having them work out. It feels really good.

This rectangle (or bar) cake was the result of only wanting half a batch of cupcakes. I made my twelve cupcakes, and decided to make two small square cakes with the rest of the batter. From there I cut each sqaure in half, layered them, and frosted them with peanut butter buttercream. I drizzled melted dark chocolate chips over the top and sides of the cake to add some flare. I topped the cake with some chocolate numbers to signify the big 4-0.

Overall, a pretty fantastic cake!

Knitting Colourwork - Fair Isle

I'm knitting a toy fish from my Knitted Toy Tales pattern book, and last week I showed you the intarsia colourwork I did for the tail fin. The body of the fish uses the Fair Isle technique, which I was excited to try as well.

My grandma recently gave me some yarn bobbins, and because this pattern only needed a small amount of yarn, I decided to use them for this project.

This was my first try at knitting a pattern with fair isle and it was really quite simple to do. In this technique, the different colours of yarn are carried across the back of your work, even when you aren't knitting with them. For this pattern, I used green and pink yarn to make the fair isle pattern.

Because the yarn is being carried, strands of colour are created at the back of the work. I Googled what the back side of fair isle is supposed to look like, and I think I nailed it.

Working on this toy has been perfect for learning some new knitting skills. Getting acquainted with intarsia and fair isle colourwork has been both challenging and fun. There are lots of possibilities for colourful projects in my future.

My little fish toy is almost complete. Next week I'll show you him all put together!