Sunday, 18 August 2013

Sweet Pea Plant At The Pollock House,Glasgow


Sweet peas are classic plant and one of my favourite plants too. I first came across it in Scotland when we visited the Pollok House in Pollock Shaw. In the garden they planted these sweet pea plants and in the spring it flowered abundantly with beautiful colours and attractive scent. I have since then tried to plant it in a pot but never have had any luck with it. I even bought some package seeds when I revisited the UK. Anyway I have fond memories of it.
Bought This Package Seed From Yates, Beautiful bloom On Cover
 
Sweet Pea Garden At The Pollok House Glasgow, Scotland


 
 

Friday, 16 August 2013

Dainty Cream Cheese Tart


I like to bake this dainty cheese tarts for any special occasions and it has never failed me. I had simplified the recipes and it is very easy to bake this.

For the Pastry shells you either make it yourself or store bought it.

 

Cream Cheese Tarts

 
Cheese tarts  and Lemon Tarts inside The Oven Baking

Pastry Ingredients:

250g butter

100g castor sugar

2 egg yolks

Approx. 500g all purpose flour

2 Tablespoons Water

 

Method:

Sift the flour into a big bowl. Add the sugar and butter. Cut in with a pastry blender or use hand to mix it until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the egg yolk and 2 tablespoons of water, mix until it forms dough. Rest it in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 130deg.C.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough and cut into round shapes. Fill the tart moulds with the cut pastries and use a fork to make a few holes on it. Bake blind for about 10 minutes and let it cool before putting in the filling.

 

Filling:

Dainty Cheese Tarts
250g Cream Cheese

50g Icing Sugar

25g Butter

1 Egg

Tablespoons Whipping Cream

 

250g Blueberry Paste

 

Method:

In a bowl, Cream the cheese, Icing Sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

Add the beaten egg and whipping cream, blend it well.

 

To Bake:

Spoon 1/2 Teaspoon blueberry paste onto baked tart shells and fill the rest with cream cheese filling.

Pipe a dot of blueberry paste onto each filled tarts and using a toothpick swirl it to make an attractive pattern.

Bake in a preheated oven at 130deg.C. or 10 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and cool it on a wire rack, it can be eaten cold or warm.

You can replace the cream cheese filling with lemon paste filling, it tastes just as good. Omit blueberry filling if using lemon paste filling.

 
This One With Sweet Coconut Flakes

 

 

A Birdie Came To Visit


I came home one day and as I opened my front door and walked into the hallway, I heard a flapping sound at the back of my kitchen. Having checked it out I found that a beautiful birdie has managed to fly in through the opened window. I and Jonathan were thrilled because of this unexpected visit, we went on to take several shots of it and it has been so tame as to just change its position as if wanting us to take its pictures. We did manage to take a few nice and striking pose. Jonathan said I should put it in a cage but I said let it go free and it is welcome to stay as long as it wants but it only wanted to stay for a few minutes before it hopped onto the window grill and allowed us to take a final picture of it and it fly away. I do hope it will come back to visit!
 
It Hopped onto my Kitchen Cooker Hood


Then It Posed a Striking Pose Showing off Its Long Beautiful Tail

One Final Pose On The Window Grill and It Flew Away!





 

Thursday, 8 August 2013

Fondant Icing Flowers


When my husband’s niece got married, my sister in law requested me to bake a wedding cake for her. I was delighted to do it because I love baking and it gives me the opportunity to undertake this task of selecting what type of cake I wanted to bake and how to decorate it. Anyway in the future I will write and upload some pictures of the cake I have made for her. The point I wanted to write here was that these were the simple fondant icing flowers I made for the cake. These pinkish little flowers were easy enough to make, you just need to make your own fondant icing or just purchase it from the cake store and you will be ready to make it.

If you feel that it is no easy feat then I would suggest that the store bought marzipan will be quicker and easier.

Pretty Little Pinkish Flowers


Cutter That I Use


Here I decorated My Cup Cakes With It, Simple But Eye Catching





Saturday, 3 August 2013

June Poems


Happiness is…..

When you learn to be competent without

Having to rely on others

When you have nothing to fear

About the things you thought you must have

But not able to have

No occurring thoughts of negativity

No fear of being inferior to others

No wholly unmanageable life’s task

Able to lead a blameless life

 
 

Will


The saying goes…
Where there is a will
There is a way
 
If you want to accomplish something
You must be focused enough
To want to do it
That’s where your will and determination need
To surface itself and do the impossible task
 
And with sheer will and determination
What may seem impossible?
Will turn out to be easy to accomplish
 
So he who has a firm will
Definitely will be able to
Moulds the world to him or herself