Monday Munchies

Something I like to do when I am not busy making things is to bake yummy treats (and occasionally 'proper' food, like meals!), and so I have decided to include recipes for some of these on here to share with you all, hopefully each week as Monday Munchies.  I will try and include some savoury things, but I most like baking desserts and cakes & biscuits, and there may be a large proportion of recipes featuring chocolate....

So, to begin with I will start with something I cooked just this weekend.  One of my friends organised a Round Robin Dine at Mine, which was basically a dinner party with three courses, but at three different houses, as there are a few of us who live close to each other in the town.  We all had a fantastic time, and spent all of Saturday afternoon and well into the small hours eating, drinking, playing games and catching up!  As I have mentioned my penchant for baking sweet things - including usually bringing some sort of yummy treats with me to parties etc. - it was decided that dessert should be my responsibility, and this is what I baked, and they went down pretty well I think!

Double Chocolate Puddings

These puddings have a dark chocolate sauce surrounding a loose chocolate pudding mixture, which when baked gives you a light pudding with the chocolate sauce bubbling around it, yum!  The advantage of these for me on Saturday was that both parts can be made in advance, then combined just before you bake them.  However, I would suggest that you get the mixtures out of the fridge a little while before you want to bake them, and you might want to give the pudding mixture a quick whisk before you add it to the sauce if you are doing this.  The other advantage is that the sauce is very easy, and the pudding can all be made in a food processor.

Serves 6, so you will need 6 individual ramekins/pots (about 150ml)

Sauce
100g dark chocolate
1 tablespoon light muscovado sugar
125ml water - I made part of this up with liqueur, Frangelico, to make them a little bit grown-up!

Pudding
50g butter
75g light muscovado sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
50g ground almonds - I used half this amount, and made up the other half with ground hazelnuts, to give a nuttier flavour and to go with the Frangelico
20g cocoa powder, sifted
40g plain flour
130ml milk

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• To make the sauce, break up the chocolate into a small saucepan and melt together with the water and the sugar, whisking it to a smooth sauce.
• Divide the sauce among the 6 ramekins.
• To make the pudding, cream together the butter and sugar in a food processor.
• Add the egg and yolk to the butter and sugar, then add the almonds, cocoa powder and flour, and then the milk.
• Divide the pudding mixture between the ramekins on top of the chocolate sauce, which will surround it.
• Bake the puddings for 25 minutes, until the puddings have risen and the chocolate sauce is molten and bubbling through the crust.
• You can serve the puddings with a little cream poured around the rim.

Trust me, they are well worth giving a try!

Folksy Friday: Summer at the Beach

I know that I missed last week's Folksy Friday, because last week I went to Sheringham and had a lovely day at the beach!  Because of that, and also because my family are all going on holiday next week, I have decided to make this week's feature all about summer sun and being at the seaside!  As always, click on the images below to take you to the listings in peoples' Folksy shops to find out more about them.

Fantasy Folksy Friday feature

Hello!  Afraid I have been rushing around like a mad thing today and haven't had time to do my Folksy Friday this week sorry!  However, I have been informed that my Leaf Dragon Necklace has been featured on this lovely blog.  It look great, and there is a lovely selection of fantasy items on there, so please take a look! 

Folksy Friday: Butterflies

You may have noticed I am feeling rather summery (I'm optimistic the weather will improve very shortly....), and certainly all the buzzy, creepy-crawly creatures seem to agree with me as they have been out in abundance whilst I have been dog-walking! I am particularly fond of butterflies, and so they have inspired this weeks Folksy Friday. There were plenty of beautiful items to choose from! As usual, please click on the images below to take you to the sellers' Folksy shops to find out more about each item.

Summer Jewellery

OK, so the last few days may not have seemed much like it, but summer is finally here!  In view of this, I have been working on a range of new pieces, featuring fine silver shells and freshwater pearls; very light and delicate, and perfect to wear in the sunshine!  The shells are made using Art Clay Silver, and are cast from real shells collected by me and my family over the years from the beach!  Freshwater pearls are used to accentuate the shells and add to the sea/beach idea, so far just in white but I have some gorgeous olive green and peacock blue pearls I may use in the future (and of course any of the pieces listed so far can be made up using different coloured pearls).  Below are some images of the pieces I have so far, and if you click on them they will take you to my Folksy listings which will give you more information about each of the pieces, or you can have a browse through my shop and see what else I have on offer.

I'd love to know what people think, so please feel free to leave a comment below, and include links to any of your own summer pieces!

Gorgeous Gertie

Hello again!  I have been away for a few days, and I would love to say working hard.... but in reality I was visiting my aunt and spent most of my time playing with her gorgeous new puppy!!  The puppy is called Gertie, and she is a Border Terrier and Lakeland Terrier cross.  She is six weeks old, but she is very bold for someone so tiny, and she has rather sharp little teeth!  It was quite a shock coming home to Archie, he looked even more huge in comparison!  Below is a video of Gertie with her ball, which she has great fun with chasing around!!