So Much for Loving the Making Up Bit

I was so cocky last week, so confident that making up my jumper would be a breeze, a zen-like way to spend a sunny weekend. Well I should have known better. It all started off OK, the weaving-in took some time but I got into a rhythm and I had finished it all by the end of Saturday. Then, of course, there is the neck. Now most of the time this is fairly straightforward, you pick up and knit the required number of stitches on each piece of the neck and then follow the pattern, after joining the right hand shoulder, of course. It was the right hand shoulder that undid me. Maybe its because I'm left handed, I don't know, but I often find myself picking up the stitches the opposite way that the pattern says. It said "join the right shoulder seam". I held the pieces in front of me and chose the right shoulder as if I was wearing it, you with me? So if you are looking at it it would be the left shoulder. I joined the seam (very neatly too if I may say) and then looked to the pattern to guide me. This is when I realised that I have done the wrong shoulder and I have to reverse my picking up of the stitches. That's fine though, not a problem, it's still the same amount of stitches whichever way you pick 'em up. I merrily did this in reverse and then followed the pattern to knit a rib neck, excellent. Now this neck had decreasings in it to help shape it and of course they are set so that they fit in with where the bends should be. I finished the five rows and had then cast off before I realised that as well as reversing the picking up of the stitches I should have reversed the decreasings too! I ended up with bends in the middle of the front and back of the neck. I have to say that I did contemplate leaving it as it was (not for very long but the thought of ripping back, well you know how I feel about that!!) but I then saw the error of my ways, ripped it back and started from scratch reversing everything. I usually never have problems with the left handed thing, more often than not I do things the "right" way. But I guess my left handed brain likes to have some fun with me sometimes, mess with my mind, if you will, and the result is me having to take a deep breath and just do it all over again.

What's Happened to the Cardies?

I hear you cry. It's been a long time since I mentioned wool, needles, knit, purl, bobble, bobble so I thought I should apprise you of progress in the wool department. The main reason for the wool silence is because I was crocheting a couple of presents for friends babies and wanted to keep it on the qt until I had passed them on. One has been delivered and the other is wrapped and awaiting a delivery slot (the crochet that is not the baby). So once the second one has been handed over I will post some pictures of the finished articles. So now that I have finished these I am back to my wavy sweater (you remember, the one where I couldn't work out the pattern?) and have almost finished all the pieces, I just have to complete the last bit of shoulder shaping on the front and then it's all downhill. Then I get to the bit I really enjoy and others (members of my knitting group, you know who you are) detest and that is the making up of the garment. I find myself getting inot a very zen place when it comes to finishing my garment. First you have the tidying up, weaving all the loose strands. Although because this jumper is stripped there are a lot of loose strands to waeve in, it may take me some time, but satisfying nonetheless. Next is the blocking out, this is where you can hide mistakes and get the pieces all into good shape and ensure that they are the correct measurements. This involves pinning each piece to the size you want it and then ironing it with a wet cloth. This not only fixes the size it also makes it easier to sew up because all the edges are flattened and you can see all the rows ans stitches more clearly. Once all the pieces have been blocked out you then have to do the neck (picking up stitches along the neck and shoulders). Finally, the sewing up and this is the best part. I use mattress stitch to sew up garments because it is the neatest way. The seams, if done well, are almost invisible. Here's a video explaining it and it shows how neat it can be.
So that's my weekend sorted out (bar a communion mass or two), sewing in the sun.

Chocolate Squirrel Cake

When I was growing up my mother baked every Saturday, without fail, so that all week we had baked goods to nibble on. She always made fairy cakes (what cupcakes used to be called before they grew up and became sophisticated), apple tarts and then some other cake. One of my favourite of the cakes was her chocolate swirl cake and being children my brothers and I called it chocolate squirrel cake. So just to allay your fears about squirrels being hurt in the making of this cake, it's OK, no squirrels are involved. I decided I would make this for a friend at work whose birthday I missed. While checking out Rachel Allen's Bake I found what she called a "Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake". But she couldn't fool me with her posh name, this was chocolate squirrel cake! So decision made. I had most things in already but had to replenish my eggs and butter. I am still persevering with my stand mixer, I think that if I keep using it that it will all come good. I think one of the issues is getting the butter soft enough, then that will help with the mixing. I don't have a microwave so I put the oven on at about 50 degrees and put the butter in for about 10 minutes, which worked. I left it in the mixer for a good ten minutes to soften the butter before adding the sugar. But then when I added the eggs (one at a time) the mixture had that split look to it, you know when it looks like scrambled eggs? Not very encouraging. But I have found that if you push on when this happens it all seems to work out in the end. I took it off the mixer and continued by hand adding the dry ingredients and it came together OK. The mixture is just a Madeira mixture and once all the ingredients have been added you then divide it in two and add cocoa powder to one and you have your chocolate and vanilla mixtures. You then layer the chocolate and vanilla into the cake tin and, using a skewer (or in my case a chopstick, necessity being the mother of invention and all!) mix it together in a swirling movement to create the marbling (or in my mothers case the squirreling). The key is not to over mix, you want to make sure that you can see the swirls of chocolate and vanilla. I thought I did a good job but you never know until you cut it. Then it's into the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or if you have my old oven then probably 35 will do. It looked great when it came out, that lovely cracked top and you could see the swirls of chocolate too. I brought it in the next day and we consumed it in the afternoon, all to good comments. I took a photo when it was cut to see the marbling, I think I over mixed, but you can judge for yourselves. Although it was good I do think that my mother's tasted better, that may be just my memory playing tricks or maybe she really did put squirrels in and that's what made the difference!!
I'm off to France today so will be silent for the rest of the week but you will be regaled with all things French when I get back (remember Milan?!!).

The Mythical Choclate Fondant

At last, I have made a chocolate fondant. The holy grail of desserts, or at least according to Greg Wallace. Every time someone does this on Master Chef Greg pulls his "I'm not sure he/she's going to pull this off" face. The main thing about this dessert is that you can't prepare anything in advance (bar buying the ingredients), it has to be done while your guests are sitting in the other room have intellectual, stimulating conversations about politics etc. So after a successful main course I repaired to the kitchen to start the fondant. I chose a recipe I had seen made on Glamour Puds (a mid-afternoon Channel 4 program that I caught earlier in the year) that looked relatively straightforward. It was presented by Eric Lanlard, a French Master pâtissier, who makes some incredible cake creations for weddings and all sort of occasions. So I chose his recipe but not the orange sauce, I decided to serve it with a Pomegranate ice cream that I have made before and is very easy and delicious (Nigella strikes again). The recipe was easy to follow, melt the chocolate and butter together, whisk the eggs and sugar until fluffy and then add the melted chocolate and flour. This then goes into the prepared mini pudding bowls. There was a bit of a panic when I realised that I didn't have any cocoa powder to line the basins but my boyfriend came to the rescue suggesting I use drinking chocolate instead (worked a treat). Then these little puds go in the oven for 12 minutes, not a second more. It was a bit nerve wracking taking them out of the oven and then out of the basins, hoping that they didn't collapse. The first one collapsed a bit but then all the others came out perfectly. And now the moment of truth, would they be a gooey mess of chocolaty loveliness when we delved in? Oh yes they would. They were yum, a really rich chocolate flavour, spongy on the outside and molten on the inside. Probably a bit too big but I managed to do mine justice. And so I have made my first chocolate fondant (hopefully the first of many) and I think the Greg would have been happy.